The Redemption Stage (Book 2: The Second Chance)

On the Road (3) Mel

We left New Hampshire and headed for New York, which was going to take double the time it took for New Hampshire. Grayson and I were trading five hour shifts since Jax drove last time. Letting Joy drive was out of the question, we don't want to die before our first day at college.

Neither Grayson nor me were morning people, so waking up at 5 AM to drive for five hours was not good news for either of us. But being the good person I am, I took the first shift to get it over with. This was going to be a long five hours...

We all got into the car and took our respective seats after we dissembled camp. Grayson was next to me in the passenger, Jax behind me, and Joy in the very back. She was already falling asleep by the time I pulled out of the parking lot.

The boys and I just talked about the most random things, first it was football, then it was golf since Jax is keen on that topic, but thankfully Grayson turned the topic back to football, something I'm semi good at talking about.

The boys fell asleep and I was left to drive for another three hours. The GPS and the radio was the only thing to keep me company at this point. Turn right on the next exit.

"You don't tell me what to do." I said to the GPS, even though I turned right on the next exit anyway. "You're so weird..." I said to myself. "Normal people talk to themselves... Mhm, totally normal."

After another two hours of interminable driving later, we landed at a gas station to, oh I don't know, get gas I suppose? And to get munchies... Guiltless.

"Yes! They have it here!" Joy exclaimed as she thrust a package or Chips Ahoy into the air.

"You're so weird.. I swear." I said as I laughed at her, luckily there weren't too many people in the store to witness her weird behavior. "I guess this is the part where I say 'but that's why I love you', but I'm different and won't say it."

"I'll say it so you don't have too... I love you Joy." Grayson said in between the gap in the shelf. Two awkwardly romantic nerds trying to be cheesy... But Joy hates cheese, to a point at least. She still laughs at my jokes so she doesn't hate cheesiness all the way.

The three of us went to pay to find Jax already there, talking to a very flirtatious cashier who looked about our age. She... Had a lot going on over there... To say  the least. I think she was trying to emphasize it... But she was being very interesting.

A random blonde batting her eyelashes and trying to get Jax's number. I'm actually really wanting to see how this goes down. I didn't step in and prevented the other two from doing so either.

You could tell Jax was really uncomfortable, despite his past, he gets really uncomfortable in situations like this. He was never really fond of any girl that projected her body out to other people.

"So, what do you say, you give me that number of yours and I'll call you when you wrap back around to go back to that Maine home of yours." She was... It was hard to think of adjectives that weren't offensive but were true.

This girl was very out there, she was... Well, I'm pretty sure you can pick up what I'm putting down.

"Um, I have a girlfriend..." He said and looked around the store to find me, but I did something better.

"If you're going so low as to saying I'm your girlfriend then you must really not like her, Jax." I said and tried to sling an arm around his shoulder. Key word tried. He was taller than me by a couple inches as you know so it didn't work out all that great.

Grayson and Joy were in the background trying their hardest to not make a sound and not fall into anything from laughing so hard.

"I'm his cousin." I said, trying to say it as nonchalantly as possible.