road trip 𖦹 sam kiszka

day one, michigan

it was another long day at work and all jolyne wanted to do was go back to her apartment and sleep, but as she was locking up her little yellow car, a phone call appeared from none other than sam kiszka, her childhood best friend. her and sam had been inseparable from the moment that they had met that day in preschool, almost seventeen years ago.

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"jolyne," her mother tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear, "you will be fine in preschool. the day will be over before you know it and again you'd be back at home with me." her mother always had known how to calm jolyne down in moments like these. jolyne wiped her tears from her eyes and put on a strong face.

"i will be strong for you, mommy!" and with that she marched her little, four year old body into the brightly painted classroom, catching the eye of a young teacher. her hair was some sort of a strawberry blonde and short, not above her shoulders. her green eyes had a welcoming softness to them that brought jolyne to walk over to her.

"hi, whats your name?" jolyne asked in a shy tone. she really didn't know how to feel about this whole situation, she started to miss her mother.

"i'm ms. georgia! nice to meet you, are you jolyne?" the little girl started to nod, starting to feel more comfortable as she knew the teacher's name.

"well, jolyne, would you like to go color? sam is looking a bit lonely over there and i think you both would make such good friends." jolyne's head turned toward the boy who was sitting alone at the coloring station, his crayon slowly moving back and forth, as if he was deeply concentrated on what he was doing. she nodded, handing over her backpack to ms. georgia, and happily strutting over to the boy, who she now knew was named sam.

"hello, i'm going to be your new friend. i'm jolyne!" jolyne reached her hand out to shake his little hand. he turned to look at her, his brown eyes meeting her own.

"i'm sam! i like your name it reminds me of dolly parton." he smiled his crooked smile, making her smile.

"my mommy said she named after her song!" now the girl pulled out the chair next to him and was getting ready to sit in it, before she noticed what sam had been coloring this whole time.

"you like guitars?" she asked him, his head began nodding. a glimmer of happiness shown in her eyes.

"a lot! my older brother, jake, plays some around the house. he's really good and i wanna be just like him one day. why? do you like guitars, too?"  he asked back to her.

"yes! my dad owns a few and i wanna play just like him one day!" and from then on, they were inseparable.

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"samuel, please, what is it? i just worked a double and i'm so ti-" she had been cut off by his sudden words.

"we should travel the united states." confusion covered her face. that was sudden, and she definitely couldn't get the time off to do such a thing with sam. she worked at a little diner in town, ran by the nicest old lady she knew, who, by the way, loved sam to death. since the moment she had met sam, she couldn't stop talking about him. sam had that effect on people.

"what? you know i can't do that sam, i have a job!" the tired, slowly consuming her now that she's putting up with sam over the phone and she's was walking up the three flights of stairs to her apartment since there was no elevator. she cursed the old building for not having one, especially on days like these.

"you can't fight me on this one, i already asked mrs.willow and she happily agreed to let you have two months off." stopping in the middle of the staircase, her jaw dropped.

"sam, as much as you know i'd absolutely love that. i'm really struggling with money and i can't move life elsewhere right now not being financially stable." she was right. she was twenty-one, living in her own, and currently going into her junior year of college for an art major. she had no money to really spend on something extra.

"i paid your rent for the next three months, now you really can't tell me no." again, she stopped in the stairwell and her jaw dropped.

"no, you did not." not moving, she waited for a response, which she didn't receive. she only was met by her floor's door opening and sam's eyes meeting her own, his smile grew large at her shocked expression.

"it was the only way i knew that i could get you to go! don't yell at me, jolyne!" sam chuckled, pulling jolyne up onto her floor. the tiredness seemed to go away now. she didn't know if she was to cry or not, but she didn't feel anything right now. she was just shocked that he would do something like that for her.

"are you crazy? why did you spend so much money on me?" she asked sam as soon as she could collect her thoughts, a few tears streaming down her face.

"oh come on, you know you deserve some time away from this life!" sam said to her as he wiped the tears away, then opening her apartment door.  it looked like most stuff was packed up.

"i packed everything, but your unders. i didn't wanna touch your sticky underwear or bras" sam made a foul face before jolyne raised her hand to give him a playful hit.

"sam! you know it was only that one time!" jolyne referred back to the one time back in first grade where she peed her pants at school and had to go home, but from then on, she had a pretty clean record...literally.

he laughed, "only joking. i packed them up in the big suitcase." she rolled her eyes, walking into her bedroom and laying down onto the bed.

"i don't know about you, but i'm tired." she yawned out. sam walked into the room and laid himself down into the bed next to her. she didn't move. it wasn't uncommon for the pair to sleep in the same bed, they had been best friends for the last almost two decades and would always have friendly sleepovers as kids that consisted of them sleeping in the same bed before, so this wasn't an odd situation for the pair.

"goodnight, jolyne." sam buried his face into the pillow his head was laying on. jolyne mumbled it back as she was already basically asleep next to him. her soft snores being the only sound consuming the whole room.