When a hand suddenly shook me, I jolted awake.

A terrible headache hit me along with a shock in the wake of the shake.

"Georgie," a soft voice murmured, sleepy and gentle. "Wake up."

I opened my eyes to look at Abby. It was literally the best view to wake up to. Jesus Christ. This brief moment of felicity was short-lived, for she smacked my head next. "Wake up, you jerk. I told you to be ready at six—it's 6:15."

"Can't we sleep a bit more?" I said, yawning and pulling her so that she fell on the bed beside me. I wrapped my arms around her, pretending to be tired but actually dying of adrenaline in the meantime. She smelled of roses, taking me right into heaven.

When she chuckled beside me and pushed me a little, our faces stood too close. Inevitably my gaze drove lower, upon her lips. When she was this close, it was so easy to make a mistake. I looked up to see her looking at me, too, but there was no trace of what I'd been just feeling in her eyes—just a pinch of amusement. She didn't seem to mind our proximity, damn, was I the only one getting too overwhelmed by her presence? "I bought us tickets to O'Hare," she said, at last, studying my face.

"O'Hare?"

"Yep," she said, propping her head with her arm. "Chicago is the traditional beginning of Route 66 and I want it to be as it should be." I wanted to ask her what she actually dreamed of on a road trip with me. With Abby and me, the lines weren't so sharp. She was my best friend, yes, but maybe because of my feelings, we were never friend-zoned. Or it was my delusional imagination.

"When is our flight?"

"At nine. I figured you would sleep your ass off."

Getting up, she walked up to my wardrobe. Since I didn't bother to organize my wardrobe, my clothes were a pile of mess and her sigh confirmed that she wasn't so pleased with the sight. However, she wordlessly took out my backpack and started to look through my stuff. She first picked up my orange t-shirt, folding it neatly and placing it into the bag. A crème, a navy blue, and a dark green followed. Then, she put on some pants as well as shorts. "What else do you need?"

"I'll handle the rest," I said, finally forcing myself up and kneeling beside her to put on some clean underwear. I looked to my side to see her crimson red as I tuck my boxers into the bag. "You can also select your favorites if you wish." Though that gained me a slap on my back, it was worth it to see her even redder. I picked up my toothbrush, a map, sunglasses, two towels, a pen, and a notebook. As she was looking around, I also tucked the mixtape into the front of my bag just in case I found an appropriate place and situation to play it. George, this is your chance — take it or leave it.

I also grabbed my Calvin Klein One and put it inside. When I was finished packing, I saw Abby texting on her phone with a silly grin. That dropped my mood instantly, putting a jealousy flame within my heart. Who was she talking to with that dorky grin — fuck. What did I miss? "I'm ready." My voice sounded more annoyed than I intended to but she didn't seem to notice as she typed down with the same delightful attitude.

"Okay," she replied absentmindedly, her gaze was still glued on the screen.

Tossing the bag to my back, I sighed and slung an arm around her neck. To my advantage, our height gap was perfect to look over her shoulder to read the messages. The first shock came from the name on the header: Roy. "Roy, huh?"

"Yes," she said, locking her screen next instant and looking over her shoulder at me securely. "He's cool."

"Didn't know you have each other's numbers."

"Got it last night."

"You're my friend," I said warningly. "Roy is not...cool. Like yeah, he looks cool at first sight but he's an asshole — you said it yourself, remember? He's trying to hook you now and will break your heart next." She raised her eyebrows. "He's a nice friend but he can't be more. Talking out of the experience."

"Didn't know you guys dated before."

I snorted at her lame comeback. "I'm dead serious, Abby. He's no good."

"Why did you send him to look after me then?"

That was a smart question. Honestly, I chickened out. If I chose Abby over Rachel, people would spread rumors about us and then our friendship with Abby would be damaged. Sending Roy to check on her sounded a safer option. Fuck, she was texting with Roy now. I accidentally shoot myself in the feet. But none of these was an answer I could offer. "How could I know this would happen?"

"Can you not pull a brother card on me?" She replied, shrugging my arm off and approaching to the door to open. "I know what I'm doing." And that was the end of the argument for now. I was going to talk to Roy instead; keeping him away would be much easier. I got the money I'd collected from my piggy bank and followed Abby down the stairs.

Mom emerged from the kitchen at that time, two packed sandwiches in her hands. "George, Abby told me about your road trip plan." I knew she was super mad to learn it last minute but she still kept her calm in front of Abby.

"Yeah, I'll be gone for fifteen days."

"Oh, then you asked your father about it?"

"No," I replied, knowing that I was getting on her nerves. "I thought it wasn't a big deal."

"Abby," she said next with a wide grin that sent me shivers inside. "Could you wait outside? George will join you soon." Abby threw me a you-are-screwed look before she walked out on the porch and shut the door gently. As she was waiting for it, Mom turned at me, no trace of that wide grin on her face, and said, "How come we don't know about your super plan?"

"It escaped my mind," I lied. "I was gonna tell you."

Mom sighed, probably still feeling mad but she buried her anger inside and offered me a fainted smile. "Do you need my credit card?"

"Nope," I replied, holding the knob. "Got it all covered." She shrugged with a light chuckle and hugged me tightly before I twisted the knob and stepped outside. She yelled at me to call her when I flew to Chicago. Once I was out, I saw Abby waiting for me. She was texting on her phone, biting her bottom lip with a shy expression.

Though I was dying inside, I tried to think positively: I was with her at every step of her life and now, she's going on a trip with me, not Roy. She would be right beside me while all Roy got was her texts. This thought made me feel fresh and I found myself smiling from ear to ear as I walked toward her. As she raised her gaze at me, she was puzzled at my expression but soon granted me her dazzling grin.

"Who will drop us there?"

"Sandra," she said with a dull tone. Sandra was Abby's stepmother. Well, she was fifteen years younger than her father and she was hot. Like really hot. That could be the only feature of her, indeed. The most important thing was, though, Abby hated her passionately. She thought her father spent his wealth on his little wife instead of her daughter. I personally thought she was exaggerating a little but didn't know the inner side. Things had been tough for Abby after she'd lost her mother to cancer five years ago. Her father married only a year later and she thought he didn't respect her mother's memory.

Abby wasn't good at sharing her thoughts. I could never ask her about her feelings since she lost her mother; she pretended to be alright for a long while but I could feel that she broke down when she was alone. She became more closed off after her loss but I couldn't do anything to change that. She didn't let me in, and maybe I didn't try too hard. I didn't want to violate her boundaries—maybe I should have. As I said, we were never one of those classic best friends.

As she grabbed my bag and tucked it into their truck along with hers, I opened the back door and settled in the backseat. Sandra was listening to a pop song, high pitched that it clawed my ears. Sandra looked at me through the rearview mirror with her dazzling smile. "Hi, George."

"Hey."

She opened her mouth to say something but the loud entrance of Abby cut our conversation like a knife as she sat in the passenger seat and immediately turned the radio off. She threw a sideways glance at Sandra first and turned back at me next. "You ready to go?" I nodded with a grin. She knew I hated pop music. She was my lifesaver. My lifeline— "Let's go," she added, directed at Sandra.

It wasn't too hard to understand they weren't fond of each other. At least the whole ride to the airport remained silent because of that. I scooted left so that I could see Abby from a perfect angle. I watched her as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and scrolled down through her Instagram feed. Oblivious to my gaze, she looked at people's profiles and paused when she clicked on mine. I held my breath as she scroll down my photos and clicked an old one. It sort of surprised me that she lingered on a photo of four years ago. I hated my pre-high school self. It was before I was introduced to my friends and the gym. I was a lame kid.

I couldn't see Abby's face while she was still looking at that photo but I was dying to know what was she thinking.

My phone vibrated in my pocket and before I could put it on silent, Abby's gaze turned at me and she caught me watching her. It was a very awkward moment, as she looked between me and her screen, then blushed into a crimson rose. However, it only made my heart beat faster: Abby Whittaker was shy because of me.

When we arrived at the airport, we still had two hours to spend. After bidding our goodbyes to Sandra—Abby's goodbye came in the form of a snort—we entered inside and did our check-in. I told Abby to find a table as I got us two cups of coffee. She tore her gaze from her phone as I handed her the cup and smiled at me before she turned back. Meanwhile, I decided to check my messages and opened Roy's first.

I wrote several texts and deleted them all. He was seriously getting on my nerves. I shoved my cell into my pocket and looked at Abby. She looked focused on her phone but I could sense that she was avoiding me, too. "Hey," I said, nudging her. "Talk to me."

"A sec."

One second turned into a couple of minutes, and I finally grabbed her cell and shoved it inside my empty pocket. "What the hell, George!" She said, trying to lean forward and take it back but it was long gone into the depths of my pocket before she could complain. "I was in the middle of an important conversation!"

"How important? Were you saving the world?" She rolled her eyes, folding her arms together, and shot me an angry glance. "Come on, Abby. Nothing is more important than now—and I own your now. Believe it or not, you're stuck with me for fifteen days."

"Should I reconsider my decision?"

"You could but I know you want it." She huffed again but her anger was melted into amusement, clear from her expression. "Let's have a deal." That sparked her attention. "For fifteen days, during our trip, you will check your phone fifteen minutes max."

"Two hours."

"Half an hour."

"One hour."

"Fine," I agreed. "One hour. If you can, you are free to make me one thing for you."

"If I can't?"

"You will do one thing for me. Whatever I want."

She calculated my gaze, thinking, and finally smiled. "Deal."

I took a long sip from my coffee, holding her gaze. Damn, why did I already want her to lose? A lot of things were running in my head about things I could make her do—could she just love me if I asked her to?

"Now, onto our trip. We still don't have a plan."

"We have," she replied, taking me off guard. "I made a plan last night and as I said, I also rented a car. The plan is pretty solid so it will work. I checked several traveling tips to make this to-do list."

"You know we're gonna half split the money, right?"

"No worries, I paid with my dad's credit card. No need to pay me back. We are fine until he realizes because well, I may have forgotten to tell him about our trip and that I stole his credit card."

"You stole it?" She nodded like a naughty kid. "Jesus Christ! Why would you do that?"

"Well, his daughter deserves to spend his wealth more than that chick, huh. She consumes everything, George. I can do as I please because that's what he did. He didn't ask me when he chose to marry her." This sudden outcome was surprising but she was talking breathlessly I didn't want to cut her off. "He can't expect me to sit aside and let them live in peace when I'm studying my ass off and trying to be the daughter he wants. If he's gonna be like this, he can watch me do my thing."

"Abby—"

"I don't wanna talk about this."

"I was gonna say...the boarding ends in five minutes." We both lost the track of time so we didn't even realize the time had come before the announcement. With her, time was passing like water flowing down in a lake. That was the thing of time—if you caught it on the action, it stopped or crawled at a snail's pace but if you lost the track, it flew.

However, with her, every moment, even running toward the line of our flight in hurry was my favorite thing to do. She was my favorite thing. Ever. As we ran toward the gate, she held my hand firmly and our arms bumped along the way. This proximity was normal but it still made me fuzzy inside. Abby didn't know her effect on me but she was my ecstasy.

She could make me feel in heaven with a single laugh or she could lift my feet off the ground as she leaned her head against my shoulder and shut her eyes, soon I could feel her breath rhythms through my body.

I took a deep breath and rested my head on the top of hers. My lungs filled with the fresh excitement of a new journey. And this time, I could feel that the luck was nearby if I could be brave enough to reach.

***

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