Just a trip

"Aubrey," Aiden exclaims from my bedroom door. I quickly glance at my clock in the darkness of the room and silently curse as I notice the time.

I'm late. Again.

I love Aiden, he's amazing, but just like my mother. She's expectant of everyone and everything to be perfect all of the time.

And let me tell you something, I'm nowhere near perfect.

"Shoot, I'm sorry." I mumble incoherently at my brother.

"You should be" He snaps and walks out of the room, forcing me into the silence behind him.

I get up and dressed for the day, not bothering with breakfast.

I follow the routine to the garage and jumping into my car as Aiden has already left.

Wonderful, another crappy day.

I make it to school after the late bell has rung, which is nice. No human interaction.

I step into my class and everyone looks at me as if I committed a serious crime. I silently take my seat and listen to the boring AP calculus lecture.

Up until lunch, I listen to lectures, take notes, and play on my phone. A day like every other.

Lunch rolls around and I go through the line and grab my pizza (the only good lunch item at this school). I sit down next to Aiden, per usual.

I've liked his friend Johnny for a while now, but he thinks of me as a little sister. You see it in the brown voids people call eyes.

Although today, things seemed different. He constantly looked at me, I noticed out of the corner of my eye whilst laughing at jokes I didn't hear.

Johnny stands up quickly, "Aubrey, can I talk to you for a minute?" He blurts. "Um sure I guess," I take a look at Aiden and shrug, following Johnny outside.

"Want to get out of here?" Johnny says quickly, not letting me say anything first.

"Johnny I-" He doesn't let me continue.

"I see it every day, you hate life here. I just needed someone to leave with me. And I found you." He desperately tells me, and I know I shouldn't go.

But for some reason I say "yes."

Johnny grabs my hand and pulls me through the school gates, I grab my emergency bag from my car and we jump in his SUV and start driving...

A year later...

I pull up to the familiar entry way of the McDiller mansion, prepared to face my family for the first time in a year.

Everything seems the same, it's as if time stopped during the year me and Johnny disappeared.

I knock against the door, hearing a faint "Yo Aiden, the pizza came." And a walking down the stairs, I hear the twisting of the knob and the rough sound of my heart pounding.

I look at the figure in front of me, taking in every detail of Aiden McDill. "Aiden." My voice cracks, and suddenly I'm in the arms of the one person who kept me steady for a long time.

But suddenly he pushes me away, "Why did you leave me? FOR A WHOLE YEAR!" He snaps. "I'm so sorr-" "NO! You're not! Stop saying you are. I was TERRIFIED FOR YOU. Leave now, and this time. Don't come back." Aiden yells, slamming the door in my face and I give up the fight.

I give up.

I return in the car to the hotel room in which me and Johnny are staying temporarily. We both attend college at BYU Hawaii, but are visiting for the time.

"Are you ready to go?" Johnny asks, and I fake a smile "Yeah, I am"

As I lay in the blow up mattress, In the back of the truck we rented. Staring up at the stars, I'm finally happy. Even though my brother slammed the door on me, even though my life fell apart. It got better thanks to this escape, but what started as 'just a trip' managed to turn into the greatest adventure of my life.

As I lay on my side of the air mattress, I hear the sound of jumping. I look to where Johnny is-well was. He lands on the blow up mattress and I go flying into the air, landing on the cold ground of the field below me.

And I can only thank this life, this adventure, this story, to the trash that led to 'Just a trip.'