Hmm...expected more comments, but oh well! Here's the first chapter!
“Mom! Come on! Please, let me do this!” Rebecca complained the day after graduation.
“No, Rebecca. You are not borrowing my car to go on a road trip across the country this summer. Take your car. What’s wrong with your car?”
“Everything! Mom, my car doesn’t have AC. There are a lot of states that get extremely hot during the summer. Plus, it doesn’t get very good gas mileage. I’ll be spending more of my money on gas and not souvenirs and food and other things like that.”
Rebecca’s mom looked at her in silence for a few moments, pondering her daughter’s argument. Finally, after what seemed like forever to Rebecca, she opened her mouth. “Promise to call me every day? And not wreck my car?”
Rebecca squealed, jumped up and down, and hugged her mother. “Thank you, Mommy! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!”
“You’re lucky I like the summer here, baby girl. Or else I wouldn’t let you have my AC,” she said, still in Rebecca’s grasp.
Rebecca pulled away, smiling a wide grin. “I love you, Mom,” she said. “Even if you didn’t let me use your car.”
“I’m sure that that small detail helped the ‘love’ along,” her mom said, walking into the kitchen.
Rebecca walked down the hall to her small, yet suitable, room. Her and her mom have been living in the same small house since Rebecca started junior high, right after her dad left her mom for some woman he met online. She still got birthday cards, tucked with a $20 bill, and Christmas presents, usually a $50 gift card to Target or Wal-Mart, from her him, but there was no true love in the cards or gift cards. They were all signed with “Yours Sincerely, Dad”. Pft, like he was ever a “dad” to her. Even when her parents were together, he never acted like a dad. He was always missing her school events and sports games because of “working late at the office”. Which, in the 4th grade, found out to be a lie, when he came home “from the office”, drunk and smelling like cigarettes and cheap perfume. Her mom and she were better off without him anyway. He lived up in Maine somewhere and that was one stop that Rebecca was going to avoid on her road trip.
Rebecca and her mom lived in a small neighborhood, just outside the city limits of Los Angeles. The neighborhood is pretty safe and friendly. No gangs, or break-ins, or fires. Just the occasional rowdiness of the house a few doors down, which held a party almost every Friday and Saturday night. But, they usually kept it down so it was no big deal. She knew all of the kids and teenagers in the neighborhood, since they befriended her the moment the moving van pulled up to their house. It was like a family in that neighborhood, their own little town.
Rebecca finished packing the last bit of clothes and zipped up her third suitcase. She placed it next to the other two and looked around her room. Her bed was spotted with denied clothes that she didn’t want to pack. Her small closet door was open and filled with empty hangers and a couple empty shoeboxes. Some of her dresser drawers were open, revealing hollow emptiness. She sat down on her bed and faced her group of suitcases.
“You’re really gonna do it,” she said aloud to herself.
There was a soft knock on her door, and then it cracked open. Her mom peeked her head through. “You ready for your going away dinner, sweetie?”
Rebecca nodded and stood up. “As ready as I’ll ever be,” and followed her mom out to the car. She climbed in and buckled up. “Where are we going, Mom?”
Her mom started the car, pulled out of the driveway, and started driving down the road. “Just sit back, honey. This is your night.”
Rebecca got worried. “Promise me it’s nothing too expensive,” Rebecca pleaded.
“Nothing is too expensive for my little girl,” her mom replied with a smile. She looked over and saw a worried look plastered on Rebecca’s face. “Relax, sweetie, it’s just Olive Garden.” Rebecca relaxed and sank back into her seat. Her mom laughed. “Would it really be that terrible if it was a bit expensive?”
“Not terrible. I would just feel kind of…guilty. That’s all,” Rebecca replied.
Her mom stopped at a red light. “Never feel guilty for whenever I want to splurge a little on you, okay? Never.” The light turned green and she continued down the street.
Rebecca reached forward and turned up the volume on the radio. The beginning notes to an upbeat song floated through the car, and the two women started dancing in their seats. They were receiving numerous looks from cars to the left and right of them, which caused a fit of giggles, laughs, and snorts to cover up the sound of the music. They pulled into the parking lot of Olive Garden moments later and went inside.
“Johansson, party of six,” her mom said to the hostess just quiet enough to not be heard by Rebecca.
The hostess checked her paper, and then looked up with a smile. “Follow me please.” She grabbed a few menus, more than Rebecca thought necessary since it was just the two of them, and walked to the back of the restaurant. She stopped at a large table seated for six. “Is this okay?” she asked.
Rebecca opened her mouth to object, but her mom quickly replied, “It’s perfect.”
Rebecca and her mom sat down and were handed menus, while the other places were given menus as well. Rebecca watched the hostess curiously, as if the hostess thought that there were imaginary people sitting there. When she placed the last menu down, she turned to Rebecca’s mom. “Your server will be here shortly,” she said and then walked away.
Rebecca then turned to her mom and opened her mouth the ask what was up, but then the server came up. A young, tall, olive-toned man walked up to the table. “Hello,” he said smoothly. “I’m Antonio, and I will be your server this evening. How are we ladies doing this evening?”
Rebecca’s voice got caught in her throat. All she could do was smile. Her mom noticed her speechlessness and replied for her. “We’re just fine, thank you.”
“Can I start you off with something to drink?” Antonio asked, looking at Rebecca.
“I’ll, uh, I’ll have a D-Dr. Pepper…please…” Rebecca replied in a soft voice.
“And I’ll take a lemonade,” her mom said, before he could ask her.
“A Dr. Pepper for the beautiful young woman, and a lemonade for her sister,” he said with a smile. “I’ll bring those out to you shortly.” He turned and walked off.
Rebecca let out an enormous sigh as her heart rate returned to normal. She looked at her mom, who had an amused expression on her face.
“What?” Rebecca asked innocently, picking up her menu.
“Nothing, nothing at all,” her mom replied, totally non-convincingly. “Would you like me to leave? That way you are free to flirt with our waiter freely?”
“Mom!” Rebecca exclaimed, a smile on her lips, face slightly red. “I do not find our waiter interesting, okay?”
She nodded. “Right, of course. Because you’re always speechless when someone isn’t completely gorgeous and flirting with you. Or as you put it, ‘interesting’. Of course, how could I forget?”
Rebecca rolled her eyes and hid her blushing face and goofy smile behind the menu. A few moments later, Antonio came back with their drinks. He winked at Rebecca as he set down her beverage, and, for the corner of her eye, saw her mom with that same amused expression.
“Are we ready to order?” he asked.
“We’re actually going to wait for the rest of our party to show up,” Rebecca’s mom replied.
“No need to wait any longer,” said a voice from behind Antonio.
He moved aside and there were four people weaving through the tables. A smile burst onto Rebecca’s face as she saw the faces of her two best friends and their moms, who were like second and third moms to her. Madison and Hayleigh each carried what looked to be a present. Rebecca stood up and ran over to her friends, wrapping an arm around each of them. As she pulled away, smiles were on all three of the girls’ faces.
“What are you guys doing here?” Rebecca asked excitedly.
“Your mom wanted to give you a “going away” party, and you can’t have a going away party without your two best friends!” Madison explained.
“So she called us up, and we obviously agreed. So here we are! You don‘t think Maddy and I would miss the last night that our best friend Re-Re was in town, do you?” added Hayleigh.
Rebecca turned back to her mom and smiled. They all sat down at the table, and Antonio took the drink orders of the newly arrived people. Rebecca, Madison, and Hayleigh both goggled over Antonio while he was gone to get the drinks, and smiled at him excessively when he was around. They all placed their orders and dug into conversation. The moms talked amongst themselves and Madison, Hayleigh, and Rebecca chatted.
“Seriously, Re-Re, why do you want to go all by yourself? You KNOW that Hay and I would be more than happy to join you,” complained Madison.
“I know you would, Maddy. But this is something I need to do on my own,” replied Rebecca. The three of them have had this conversation ever since Rebecca told them that she was going on a road trip by herself for the summer.
“But why? You’ve never told us why,” asked Hayleigh.
Rebecca thought about it. She never really knew the answer to that question. Sure, a road trip with her best friends would be amazing and fun…but something about being on the open road, no one telling her what to do, letting her instincts takeover, and letting herself guide her seemed incredible and adventurous. “And for the twenty-second time, I really don’t know why, Hay. I just feel like this is some thing I have to do by myself.”
Hayleigh and Madison left it alone, for now. Rebecca knew otherwise that they would bring it up again at least once before the dinner was over. Antonio came back with their food fifteen minutes later and they ate while still continuing their conversations.
After everyone was stuffed to the rim with delicious Italian food, Madison called attention to the table.
“As all of you know, Re-Re is leaving on a road trip, all by her lonesome, tomorrow morning. And, Re-Re, I speak for all of us when I say we’ll miss you.” She started to tear up. “You have been my best friend since you moved into the neighborhood, and have been there for me every time I needed someone or something. Those midnight cry sessions, the chick flick sleepovers, formals, proms…they’ll never be forgotten.”
Rebecca felt tears welling in her eyes. Even though she’ll only be gone for two-and-a-half months, it suddenly felt like forever. Hayleigh made her little speech, which was just continuing what Madison started, and the moms shared their speeches as well. Rebecca was handed the two presents from Madison and Hayleigh and opened Hayleigh’s first.
“Hay! This is awesome!” she exclaimed as she pulled out a new bright blue and purple bathing suit.
“I figured that you would find a pool or lake somewhere. And thought you might want to woo all those guys that you’ll come across,” Hayleigh said.
Next, Rebecca opened Madison’s. It was an picture frame that had “family” all around the frame and a picture of the three girls in the middle.
“Figured you want us to always be with you, even though you won’t let the real us come with you,” Madison said.
Rebecca hugged each Madison and Hayleigh. “Thank you girls. This means a lot to me.”
The check came and went without Rebecca noticing the price by her slick mother. They continued talking for another forty-five minutes or so, but then decided to leave. They said their goodbye’s, multiple times, and finally got into their separate cars and drove home. Rebecca was suddenly nervous for the summer, and what all it would bring.
