Setting
Colton was mote then a little excited to be going on a road trip with his friends. Mostly he was excited to get away from his father. His whole life had been what his dad wanted him to do. When heād told his dad that he was moving to LA with Hunter instead of going to college, his dad had nearly had a heart attack. He didnāt care though, music had always been a huge part of his life. The one thing that worried him most was losing Tallie and Astrid. He loved them to death. However Tallie was a mess no matter how many times any of them tried to save her and as much as he didnāt want to lose Astird, he wanted her to make a name for herself.
Heād been up since four am, mostly because he was anxious to get going. None of them were really sure where they were going all they knew was that they were going to drive and make memories. Heād gone on a run in hopes of calming down his excitement but it hadnāt helped much. Heād showered, got dressed, and then checked his suitcase for the millionth time to make sure he had everything. They were all planning to meet at Hunterās, considering they were taking his pride and join Lena on the road trip and Colt just assumed heād volunteered it because he didnāt want to be without it.
Finally heād settled down a bit with his guitar on his lap and his notebook at his side. He was working on a new song. Heād been working on it for quite some time. It was a song heād written for Astrid, not that heād ever admit that to anyone, heād take it to his grave. He just couldnāt seem to get the words right. He knew it was stupid, because as far as he knew, Astrid had always had a thing for Hunter and heād never try and take her from Hunter if they both liked each other. He wished that he was brave enough to tell her hell he felt, but he knew he couldnāt.
āYour eyes shine bright, like the stars in the sky.ā He sang perfectly, strumming a few cords on his acoustic guitar, it was obvious he had a natural talent and a passion for singing. āBut baby weāre too young and itās never gonna work love. Thatās what youāre tellinā me, you donāt have to run, stick around for a minute.ā He continued glancing up when his door opened. His little sister cam in closing the door and leaning on it, but he didnāt stop. āYouāre just scared and Iām little wasted. But girl I can promise you, will work it out, just give this chance, let us shine for a little while and youāll see, itās meant to beā¦you and me.ā He glanced up to his sister with a smirk
āStill working on that song?ā she asked and he nodded. āYou know one day Iām going to find out who your writing that for, my moneyās on Tallie.ā She teased.
āNo, itās not Nattie.ā He shrugged as he stood up, glancing to the clock. āShit I gotta go.ā He said collecting his things.
āColey are you really going to leave me with them?ā she sighed, he walked over to her, pressing his lips to the top of her head.
āI promise if you stay busy Iāll be back before you know it.ā He smirked and she nodded as he head down stairs he packed his stuff into the back of his shiny sports car and tossed his acoustic guitar in the back seat, before he pulled out onto the road in the direction of Tallieās trailer park. Heād called her last night and she was having second thoughts about even going and he knew if he didnāt go physically pick her up sheād flake and theyād end up leaving without her.
No one knew where Tallie lived, simply because she kept it a secret and she was too embarrassed to tell anyone that she lived in trailer park, the four of them had been friends for a good couple of years and still the only reason he knew where she lived was because heād driven her home one night after a party and she was too drunk to walk, only he was pretty sure sheād long since forgotten about that night.
Natalie spent the entire night out at a party. Sheād already convinced her that she wasnāt going to go on the road trip. She just wouldnāt answer the phone and eventually theyād just leave. They were better off without her anyway, sheād either get them in trouble or need them to stop every other town so she could by liquor to sustain her drinking problem. Plus, she wasnāt exactly stoked about being around Astrid and Hunter, not that she didnāt love both of them, but just recently sheād started to get jealous and she knew she had feeling for him, so it was just better for all of them if she didnāt go. Besides she had responsibilities, her siblings needed her. Sheād already let one down, there was no way she was letting something happen to her other two siblings.
She walked throw her trailer park, her six inch heels hanging from her finger tips, her eyeliner smudged, and her head pounding from the drug/alcohol hang over. She was miserable, but it was nothing new. She was exhausted, but she knew once she got home she wouldnāt get much sleep. She paused in front of her house, she could already her father yelling from inside and she debated even going in.
She made her way inside an her father turned his attention from her step-mother to her. āWhere the hell have you been Natalie, this isnāt some fucking bed and breakfast, you donāt just get to come and go as you please.ā He spat looking her over, like she was a prostitute and she rolled her eyes.
āShut the hell up dad, honestly I can do whatever I want. Like father like daughter right.ā She spat back smirked.
There was a second of silence, before her father slapped her across her face, so hard her face whipped to her side and she quickly whipped away the tears, refusing to let him see them. She clenched her jaw and didnāt bother to look at him as he grabbed his jacket and slipped out of the house. Which meant he wouldnāt be back for a while.
āMake yourself useful Nate and make the kids something to eat, Iām going with your father.ā She said slipping out the door after Nattieās dad. She sighed as she lend up against the kitchen counter, her face stinging and burning from where sheād just been slapped.
{4 hour prior to leaving | Outfit for the day | Hunter's van and Astrid's house | 1669 words }
All of them knew what the nightmare was about, it never changed. Astrid pulled her knees to her chest as she looked towards her guardians and clearing her throat. "I--I think I'm just going to go over Hunter's." She told them as the small girl slid out of her bed to see if the adults were okay with that. Both of them, we're really close to the Lane family. Hell, Drake was best friends with Hunter's father. Drake just nodded before walking out of the room. Astrid looked towards her mother figure to see if she was okay with it. The woman was always reluctant to like Hunter, always trying to find something wrong with him. But, other than his strange obsession to his car, she couldn't really find anything to make her question if he was a good kid or not. "Fine, but before you leave for the trip. Remember your medicine." Astrid sighed with an irritated look on her face as she watched Elsa go in the nightstand right next to her and pull out the large plastic bag filled with different cases for different medicine. "C'mon. The horse pills? I don't need them, I'll be fine." She assured her only to have her caretaker's eyes rolled before getting up from the bed and putting the medicine one of Astrid's suitcases. "I know you don't like them, but you have to take them. Okay? Weather you like it or not."
The younger girl just rolled her eyes as she slipped a pair of shorts on before slipping on a pair of her Converses. Fighting with the two adults was pointless. Because at the end of the day, she would be forced to do what they said. "Fine. But, I'm not promising to take it." Elsa just scoffed before taking out one of each of the six medicines and handing them to the girl right before grabbing the plastic bottle of water on the girl's dresser. "Sure, you won't." The woman said as she held the bottle in the girl's direction. Irritated and just ready to go, Astrid snatched the water and swallowed her pills before opening her mouth to show that she actually took them. "Satisfied?"
Very." At that moment Drake came back into the room, wheeling something behind him. Astrid already knew what it was and she cursed under her voice, thinking she hid it well enough that they wouldn't find it. Astrid just shook her head plainly as she flung her carry on over her right shoulder with it hit a slight ping in pain before grabbing her suitcase as she attempted to exit the room before her 'parents' could say anything. But, Drake just stepped in front of the door, with a smirk and raised eyebrow. "No, no way. I'm not taking that thing. I'm already taking this goddamn pharmacy with me, I'm taking the helium tank too." Astrid said as she grabbed her messager bag which had her headphones, phone, and anything else she couldn't forget. "Astrid, I know you don't want to take it but, look. They said that you..--"
"I don't care what they said, I'm not taking that thing." She slid her way through the door while wheeling her bag behind her as she tried to ignore both Drake and Elsa before they started to lecture her. As she was about to walk out the door, she looked in her bag to make sure she had her camera but, when she looked and shuffled through to bag. She couldn't find it. She started to panic before hearing Elsa clear her throat. Astrid rolled her eyes before turning around to see her camera in the woman's hand. "C'mon, that's not funny. Can I have it back now?" Elsa didn't say a word, all she did was shake her head and look towards her husband. "We'll give it to you if you take the oxygen tank,"
Astrid scoffed before having the man continue. "I know you don't want to take it with you, alright? I get it. But, if you want this camera, better take this too. Or..--"
"Or what?" She said as she slightly bobbed her head. "Or you can say good bye to the movies on here." Her eyes widened in disbelief, but her uncle was no bluffer. If he said he was going to do something, he was going to do it. No compromise. She looked at the oxygen tank bag and then at her prized possession before, finally giving in. She groaned before walking over, grabbing her camera, and putting it in her bag. She looked at her uncle once more before snatching the oxygen tank. "Anything else you want to give me before I leave like a lethal injection?" The couple just chuckled before Drake walked over to her with his hand in her back right pocket trying to grab something. She raised an eyebrow towards him before watching him hold a card in front of her. "What's this?"
"This is called a credit card, last thing you need to do is run out of money on this little adventure of yours." Was this a joke? Was he really giving her a card? With no catch... There had to be a catch. "What's the catch?" Drake chuckled nervously a bit before rubbing his neck with his hand. "Catch is, you have to tell Hunter, Colton, and Tallie." This definitely a joke. He wasn't really trying to persuade her into going up to her best friends, one of which she has been crazy about for years and just say 'Hey, I'm dying.' "You're crazy. That's not happening, its none of their business." She crossed her arms around her chest, refusing the card. "Sweetie, I know you're afraid what they're going to say but, look, this might be the last healthy summer you'll have in awhile. The last summer you see your friends before heading to England to start filming. They deserve to know just in case something happens, it won't be a complete and utter shock to them." Drake was right, and Astrid knew it. Which is why she hated it. She let her hands fall to her sides before grabbing the card and slipping it in her back pocket. She looked down at the wooden floor before admitting. "...I haven't really told them about England just yet." The couple looked surprised with their eyebrows raised as they let the girl continue. "I want to tell them, I do but, how do you go to the only friends you have and tell them that you're moving to another part world?" There was a lot she hid from her friends, a lot. Sure, Hunter knew about her past and her stepfather but, he didn't have a clue about anything else in her life that she kept hidden and Colton and Tallie were even more in the dark than Hunter.
Drake sighed half in disappointment and half out of being tried since it was close to five in the morning. "You tell them that you're follow what you want to do. You're following where your dream is taking you, if they're not okay with that then, you know what? That's on them exactly the same thing when you tell them about you being sick. They are you're best friends, nothing's gonna change that, got it?" Astrid smiled softly before nodding up towards her uncle. "Got it. I--I'm going to get going. I'll call you guys when we get on the road." She told the pair before making sure she had everything she needed. She nodded slightly to herself before getting a hug from the two and a kiss on the forehead from Drake before they let go and made sure she made it to her car safely. When she started walking in the direction of Hunter's house, she waved towards them telling them they could finally go back to sleep.
It didn't take long to get to Hunter's house seeing that they lived in the same neighborhood and only ten minutes away if she decided to take the small little scenic route through the large neighborhood. As she walked she slid in one of her headphones to fill the silence of the still quiet streets. She walked up to his house and was about to knock on the garage side door, seeing that the garage and attic were both part of Hunter's room. But, when she looked at Hunter's pride and joy, she raised an eyebrow when she saw a light on in the car and smoke coming from the side door. She walked to the side facing away from her to see the door open and Hunter sitting down, smoking a cigarette like it wasn't five in the morning. He nodded towards her, not saying a word as she spoke. "Can we go to sleep, please?"
{1 hour prior to leaving | Outfit for the day | Hunter's van and house | 1069 words }
"Have you ever just wished you could be someone else, be somewhere else other than where you are? Astrid asked him as the two laid in her bed looking up at the skylight in the attic where Hunter's room was located. Hunter just looked down at her a bit before looking back up at the almost blue sky with the stars still shinning as the two looked up at them. She shrugged and sighed a bit before answering. "Of course, sometimes, I wish I could. Everyone wished that once in their life, but you know what I've realized?" Astrid shook her head as she listened to her big brother figure. "I've realized that, that while sometimes life sucks. And we want to be somewhere else, to just... disappear. There are other times, that we finally find out why we are who we are, why we have the life and story that we were given in life. And, sure, we wish we could change it but, we all know that we can't no matter how much wish to be someone else, it's not gonna happen. So, we deal with it and grow from it." He didn't look down at her as he spoke and it wasn't long until the two nodded off with Hunter having one protective hand on her side and Astrid holding on to him tightly to make sure he couldn't leave in the middle of the night to go back to his van.
For the next two hours, Astrid and him pretty much talked about what was going on. How Hunter was terrified to tell his father about him moving to L.A with Colton and not going to college like they always talked about, how scared out of his mind he was about seeing the man's reaction. But, that was petty compared to why Astrid came over, in those two hours, he sort of hinted to him that something wasn't right. She never told him what but, it must be something big. The younger girl talked about how she was still having nightmares, which made sense why she had came over and he never said no to her. He looked down at the girl a couple of times to see if she finally fell asleep but every time she would wake herself up in fear that she would have the nightmare again. "Astrid, you know you can sleep. Nothing's going to happen." Astrid sighed before nodding and nodding off which finally caused her to sleep peacefully.
The pair woke up to the sound of Coldplay coming from Hunter's phone. This jolted them up from their slumber. He cleared his throat as he reached for his phone to turn off his alarm. He rubbed his eyes and yawned while Astrid got up and stretched a bit herself. "Can I use your shower?" She pointed towards his bathroom as he nodded. "Go ahead, I took one last night. I'm going to go get the car ready and wait for Colton and Tallie."
"Do you think she actually going to come? And what if she stays, will Colton stay with her? I mean, you're his best friend, throw me a bone here." Hunter smirked before shaking his head. He wasn't an idiot, sure he wasn't that book smart, but he knew his friends. Seeing, that he was the most observant of the four, he knew Astrid had a thing for Colton and sure he had his thoughts that Colton liked her. But, with how much time he spent with Tallie, he sent mixed messages. And whenever Hunt asks who the mystery girl of Colton's songs are, he always sort of distracted the question but Hunter finally decided to drop the subject. "He'll come Trust me, and so will she if I have anything to do about it. Take your time but, remember I want to leave before noon." Astrid just nodded before grabbed the clothes she had gotten from her bag earlier that morning before they headed up to his room. Hunter was already wear his jeans, so he slipped on his white shirt and new sneakers from earlier that morning. Astrid had gotten them for him once he finished read The Fault in Our Stars and seeing that they were both obsessed with the book, it wasn't a surprise that she had gotten him the Converses. When he tied them, he grabbed his bag and walked down the steps and out the door of his room to his car. His parents weren't home, working. But, they gave him the ground rules and warnings, and a bunch of other things he really didn't listen to. He unlocked his car and started the vehicle before heading to the door face towards the street.
He grabbed on of his cigarettes and lit it as he waited for his friends to come by. Astrid came out about ten minutes later with a fresh bruises on her neck Hunter chuckled. "Nice hickey. How'd you get that? The shampoo bottle?" Astrid hit his shoulder before rolling her eyes and taking a seat next to him. "No, the shower head fell and it hit my neck. Does it look bad?" Hunter shook his head as he looked it over. "Nah, just looks like someone gave you a huge hickey. Which people already think I do to you, so don't worry 'bout it." The girl nodded as she looked at her phone to see what time it was as the two continued to wait for the others.
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