American Vacanza

welcome to the motel nevada • siena

Madison had an announcement. A strange one, at that. An announcement with a positive, unMadisonlike aura surrounding it. "We're officially three quarters of the way through Nevada!" announced Madison, pumping a fist in the air as she stared at her phone GPS. I hadn't taken driver's ed yet, but I still figured that wasn't quite safe.

"Yay," I grumbled, cranking up the volume to my headphones and getting lost in guitar riffs. I didn't care that we were a fraction of the way through a state that was famous for dry deserts and gambling drunks. I would only start caring when we got to New York. No, scratch that, I wouldn't care until we got to Italy.

"You're not excited?" Madison was trying to get on my last nerve- one of her favorite tactics for when I wasn't in a talkative mood. She couldn't get me to mimic her feelings if she tried- especially since she wasn't all that excited about this trip either. I could see it on her face when we left, when we had to drop Naomi off, when Linda was going off on her. In fact, now that I thought about it, this fake smile was the first smile I'd seen Madison crack all day.

Plus, I'd been sitting in the backseat for eight whole hours. No one could blame me for being a little cranky.

"Of course I'm not. I'm stuck in the car with you two. Plus, we've gone about a total of thirty miles total on this trip." I went back to my music, closing my eyes and slumping over into the empty seats

I saw Madison whisper something to Ethan, and, judging by the dirty looks I got, it was about me.

If 2-against-1 was how we were going to play this road trip, then fine. So be it. I hit play on my phone and resumed watching. I was too tired to antagonize my stepsister.

"Siena," Madison shouted, startling me out of my music-induced euphoria. I wasn't used to her directly addressing me, using my NAME instead of something like "twerp" or "princess," so I wondered what the matter could be. "We're stopping at a motel for the night."

"A motel?" I groaned, not liking the prissy tone my voice was taking. "Why even bother having a rich dad if you're going to make us stop at motels?"

"Is this the same Siena that gets angry about our 'huge' house? You know, your gold-digger mom didn't have to marry my dad. You guys could get out of my life for good, if you want," Madison said coolly, pulling her sunglasses onto her face. It used to hurt when she said something like this. Now, I was so used to these words, I knew they were empty.

It was just that, well, the circumstances had changed. We were out on the road. We literally had infinite credit cards. I did the math, and it equaled the fact that we should use our resources. Fight me.

"No, I'm just saying. I'd be okay with a Holiday Inn." I put my hands up to let her know I wasn't in the mood to get into a screaming match. "Besides, it's only six. We have at least two more hours of daylight."

"Listen, Si,-" She'd never called me Si before, and I instantly thought it a stupid nickname- "I don't know about you, but I'm hella tired. We've been driving around all day."

I couldn't argue with that. Overheating in the car all day did take a lot out of a girl. "Well, okay. But at least separate rooms for all of us?" I protested, not wanting to have to share a room with Madison and Ethan. I threw up just thinking about that.

"Fine."

The car coughed to a stop, and we gazed upon the off-highway beauty that was the Paradise Motel. The place was big, no doubt, but the doors were close together and it was easy to tell that the rooms were tiny. A tall but faded neon sign stood in the center of the parking lot, announcing the hotel's name, but the E, D, and half of the P were faded, so it looked a little like the Darais Motel. Hardly a paradise.