Cross Country Hearts by Suzanne August

Sixteen

“He didn’t say anything.”

When I wake the following day, I spend an unreasonable amount of time trying to figure out how to get the mud out of the carpet.

I hear no one in the living room or kitchen, and I don’t want to go out alone and wait for everyone to wake up. But after ten minutes, I’ve cleaned the stain and sent a text message to Melanie, which I know she won’t answer.

Then I call April because I want to check-in, but I suppose she’s too busy to answer her phone, and I only send a text message to my mother to let her know I’m still alive. After all that, I’ve only managed to kill thirty minutes, so I face the music and push myself to my feet and brace myself for the world.

It’s only Thomas in the living area, and he’s at the stove again.

“Morning,” I say.

Thomas looks up briefly. I know I look ridiculous, stumbling out from the hallway in all my hungover glory. I didn’t bother changing into pajamas last night, and I always have bed hair. This morning, I may look like a true redhead who has no soul. Not that I’m never accused of that when I look presentable.

“How’s the headache?” Thomas asks.

I shrug. “Not too bad. Definitely has to be a lot better than Lila’s or Ren’s.”

He smiles and nods at the table. “Bring the chair up.”

His head dips, and his attention returns to the stove. I peer over his shoulder before heading for the chair and see that he’s making omelets. They smell amazing. The egg, butter, and herbs he adds to the mix waft together in a delicious smell. I pull the chair up and sit in silence, watching Thomas do his magic. He doesn’t say anything else, and I’m too tired to try. It’s a struggle to keep my eyes open.

Then the apartment’s door slams open, and unsurprisingly, it’s Lila who emerges. When the door hits the wall, I flinch at the sound. I wonder if Jasper and the others are used to Lila’s obnoxious noises.

“I’m up!” she declares. “I’m up! No need to wake me.” She strides over and slaps the apartment’s key on the kitchen counter. Thomas barely even acknowledges her. “Under a textbook. No wonder I never found it. I never read my textbooks.”

I stare at her. “What, the key?”

“Yes,” she whooshes out in a long breath, and then she shakes her head. “It’s been gone for months!”

“Lila,” Thomas says dryly. His eyes stare at the cooking pan, though. “Don’t you have a headache?”

“Nope. Never.” She wanders over to the table and drags a chair back to the stove, settling down next to me. “So, June, what’s the plan for today?”

“I’m not sure,” I say. “Jasper and I haven’t made any concrete plans.”

There’s also the fact that we haven’t made it halfway down the East Coast yet, either. I know I’d like to go to Atlanta per Georgia’s request, but I have no other ideas, and if Jasper has any, he hasn’t voiced them to me. Today is Wednesday. We have two more days before we have to be in Jacksonville. All I know is we need to put some serious distance between us and Maryland today.

“You should ask Ren,” Lila suggests. “He’s tagged along with his parents a couple of times. He might know some cool places on the East Coast.”

“You should go wake them up. It’s almost eleven,” Thomas says. He reaches over to pull a large plate out from a cupboard and then flips the omelet onto it. Then he opens the carton of eggs next to the stove, cracking a couple into the pan.

Lila waves her hand. “It’s too early for them.”

“I thought you didn’t care,” I say. “You woke them up at nine yesterday.”

“Contrary to popular belief, I do have a heart.” She stands, kicking back the chair and grinning down at me. “But I’ll go wake them up anyway.”

I turn back to Thomas and point to the omelet. “Can I try?”

Thomas glares. I guess it’s off-limits until they’re all ready.

Ten minutes later, I’ve set the table, Thomas has five plates of omelets ready, and there are five chairs crammed into the limited space. While there’s a background noise of yelling voices from a bedroom not far away, accompanied by the clash of dishes Thomas washes in the sink, I place milk, silverware, and orange juice on the table’s center. Thomas and I have sat and already started on breakfast by the time the other three emerge from the hallway. Lila walks briskly over, pulling out a chair and plopping down.

“Jump right in, guys!” she calls over her shoulder. She doesn’t wait. She immediately dumps a load of ketchup onto the omelet before her. “Thomas has graced us with his awesome food once more!”

Jasper, rubbing his eyes, clumsily slumps into a chair beside mine, while Ren crashes into the one on my other side, grumbling, “Not too loud.” I find amusement in the cowlick his short black hair is currently sporting.

“Ren,” Lila says, but he doesn’t answer. “Ren!”

He glares at her.

“June and Jasper need recommendations for places to go,” she tells him.

Ren grunts. Jasper reaches for the orange juice at the center of the table, but Lila grabs it from his hands and fills her glass. Jasper doesn’t even react. He just reaches for the milk instead.

Ren grumbles to Lila, “Pour me some juice.” Jasper dumps milk into Ren’s glass.

Interesting. I think. “We need to make a lot of distance today. We only have a couple of days left before we have to be in Jacksonville.”

Ren turns blurry eyes on me. “Any ideas on what you wanna do?”

“Coca-Cola museum in Atlanta.”

“What?” Jasper sets down his glass of milk. “Why do you want to go there?”

I cut another piece of omelet, questioning myself whether or not I had forgotten to tell Jasper that. “Georgia wants us to go there. She’s always wanted to go.”

“Can’t she go herself?”

“Who’s Georgia?” Thomas asks.

“She’s my friend,” I say. “Why not go? It’s in Atlanta, and it could be interesting.”

“I didn’t know Coca-Cola had a museum,” Lila muses.

“It’s a tourist trap.” Done with his half-eaten breakfast, Jasper pushes his plate to the side and looks at me. “What is there even to do at a museum for soda?”

“Remember the thing we had where we didn’t say anything if there’s nothing nice to say?” I say sharply. Jasper doesn’t respond, though we both know that crashed and burned before ten minutes passed outside Boston.

Thomas glances between the two of us. “Why’d you have that rule?”

I ignore him and focus on Jasper. “I didn’t want to go to the Met, and it turned out to be pretty cool. Plus, you can’t deny Hersheypark was cool after you went on a roller coaster.”

“Hold on.” Ren sets down his fork and slams his hands palm down on the table. “Jasper went on a roller coaster?”

Lila stares at me, eyes wide. “How’d you get him to go on a roller coaster? We’ve never been able to do that!”

Thomas reaches over to hold Jasper’s hand. “How did you survive to tell the tale?”

Jasper scowls, snatching his hand away. “It wasn’t that hard!”

I burst into a laugh, and when Jasper sends his steely eyes on me, I smother my mouth with my hands and look away.

“I like this girl,” Lila announces. “It’s about time there was another girl in this group!”

Thomas grabs Jasper’s leftover omelet and slides it onto my plate. “Here is half an omelet as a congratulatory gift for being accepted as our friend.”

Ren nods sagely. “Anyone who can get Jasper on a roller coaster is welcomed.”

“Back to topic!” Jasper shouts. “Fine. Fine, we’ll go to the Coca-Cola museum. Will everyone just shut up?”

“Great!” I start cutting into the omelet, looking to Ren. “So, any ideas what Jasper and I should do today?”

“Atlanta is pretty far,” Ren says. “You’re going to have to do a lot of driving today.”

“We don’t have a lot of money, either,” Jasper adds.

“Actually, we don’t have any money. I’m using my mom’s cash.”

Jasper sighs and bobs his head. “My uncle is giving me some.”

“So, you need a place to stay that won’t cost a lot?” Ren asks.

Lila points her fork to each of us in turn. “You could just stay here another night.”

Jasper and I voice our disagreement with that, though Jasper seems very reluctant to do so.

“KOA,” Ren says.

I blink. “Koh-ah?”

He nods. “Kampers of America. That’s Kampers with a K but means the same thing.”

“And,” Thomas begins, “you said it yourself, June; you’re an outdoors person. You proved that yesterday.”

“It’ll be cheap,” Ren adds. “It’ll be something different, and it’s a cheater’s way to camp. Plus, there are hundreds of them all over the country. All you have to do is look up one between here and Atlanta and—” he snaps his fingers. “—you have a place to stay the night.”

“You’re not going to suggest something to do today?” Jasper asks,

“No,” he deadpans. At our blank stares, he elaborates. “Look, you guys have spent the last, what, four days driving down the East Coast? You haven’t even made it halfway yet! You’ve got to make some sacrifices, guys. Spend all day driving, spend the night at KOA, and then spend all day tomorrow in Atlanta. The next day, on Friday, you’ll be in Jacksonville. Sounds like a good plan to me.”

It is a good plan. I won’t deny that, but beyond the fact that I’m tired of driving already, I don’t know if Jasper and I can last a whole day in the same enclosed space. This uneasy truce we’ve made while being in Maryland has been admittedly nice. We’ve had some space from each other, and now we can brace the world on ourselves again.

But how long would we have to drive on the highway for, bored out of our minds?

“I don’t know…” Jasper says slowly.

“We have to do it,” I lament. “We only have two days to get there.”

“All right, fine.” He shrugs. “But if we’re going to the Coca-Cola museum, I get to choose what we’re doing after.”

“Good with me.”

~.*.~

After breakfast, Jasper and I are packed and ready to go in a matter of minutes. The five of us stand in Ren’s cramped kitchen and say our goodbyes. Surprisingly, I find that I’m going to miss them after only one day since meeting them, and if I ever get the chance, I want to come back.

Lila, teary-eyed and sniffling, pulls Jasper into a hug so fierce I’m surprised he doesn’t suffocate. Thomas is leaning against the counter with his arms crossed, frowning. After Lila gives me a hug that proves she’s a lot stronger than her petite frame suggests, Ren grasps my hand in a firm grip. When I pull my hand away, there’s a folded paper in it with his phone number.

He winks at me. “In case things with Jasper don’t work out.”

I roll my eyes. Jasper says, “Feel free to give him your number, June.”

Thomas launches from the counter he leans against and hands me a container with a slice of pie. “It’s my special recipe.”

“Wow. Not even out of high school, and you already have specialties?” I tease, but after eating his creations the past twenty-four hours, I don’t find it hard to believe. I hold the container in my hands delicately. Thomas shows his teeth in a wide smile that reaches his eyes, and I can’t help but grin widely back, though the knowledge of what he told me yesterday nags at the back of my mind. My grin doesn’t quite reach my eyes like his does.

The three follow us out to my car. Trailing down the stairs behind them, I grasp Thomas’s arm and pull him back, behind everyone else. He turns around, looking up at me, standing two steps higher than he is. His eyebrows raise.

“That girl…” I start.

Thomas’s head tips to the side, a look of confusion contorting his features.

Nervously, I switch the container of pie from one hand to another. The rest of the crew has descended another entire flight of stairs, leaving Thomas and me far behind before I find my voice. “In the picture you showed me of Jasper, with that girl. I know her.”

Remembrance lights his eyes, but his lips turn down. “That doesn’t sound good.”

I take a deep breath. “Her name is Melanie, and she’s my friend. My best friend.”

I expect Thomas to pass down judgment immediately, but surprisingly his expression turns earnest and open like he’s waiting for me to elaborate and is giving me the benefit of the doubt. I have to look away. “She never told me about Jasper, but I think I know how they met. She does bully him. She says awful things.”

“Do you?”

My face reddens, and my hands start shaking. I hide them behind my back. “It’s so much more complicated than it sounds.” Even as I say those words, though, I’m beginning to doubt them.

This time, Thomas steps up to a higher step, and his hand lands on one of my shoulders, his eyes finding mine and holding onto them with a fierceness—protection for his friend? Yards ahead of us, I hear Jasper and the other two laughing, and it makes me feel worse.

“You seem like a nice girl, June,” Thomas says. “He doesn’t talk about Mel a lot or her friends, but I have heard things. Bullying isn’t complicated. It is what it is, and there’s nothing that makes it okay.”

I suck in a breath, knowing deep down that he’s right. I open my mouth to try to justify my actions but hold back whatever it is I’m about to say. He’s right. I know he is. You can’t justify bringing another person down.

“I regret it,” I finally manage to say, and my throat closes. Telling it to Georgia last night wasn’t as hard. Admitting it again to one of Jasper’s closest friends is even harder, and the shame in my chest only burrows deeper, wrapping around my heart and squeezing.

“So, you did bully him.”

It’s not a question. I nod.

Thomas draws in a slow, deep breath. “If you think he hates you, he doesn’t.” As I start to reply, he holds up a hand to stop me. “Maybe four days ago, he did. Jasper can be quick to make judgments about people, but once he spends time with them, he’s also quick to change his opinions. He has a soft heart. If you gave him any reason to not hate you, then he changed his mind. It’s part of the reason why Lila calls him the compassionate one.”

Slowly, I nod again, but my hands still shake.

“I like you,” Thomas admits. “If Jasper didn’t want me or Lila or Ren—his closest friends, his childhood friends—to like you, then he would have said you’re Mel’s friend.”

“I’m his cousin’s fiancé’s sister,” I say. “We’re trying not to strangle each other or sic other people on each other.”

Thomas shrugs and repeats, “He didn’t say anything.”

With that, he starts down the stairs again, and without any idea about how to respond or what to think, I follow. Jasper is throwing his bag in the backseat when we arrive, and I quickly follow suit. Then Lila is hugging us again, and Ren is giving us detailed instructions on KOA. Thomas sends one last smile my way before I get into the driver’s seat, but I notice that this time it doesn’t reach his eyes. I close the door and stare at the steering wheel.

Jasper slides into shotgun. “Ready?”

I glance at the clock on the dashboard. Twelve thirty-two. Without any other options, I put the car in drive.