Page 19 of All Roads Lead to You

For the next hour, Logan and I actually got along. We looked at the maps, determining where we were going to stop and camp or what we planned to explore, and how long it would take to get to each destination.

“Can we stop at the Grand Canyon? That’s kind of been a dream of mine.”

Logan smiled for the first time since he came into my room. It lit up his entire face, softening the usual hardness and frustration. “Yeah, that’s the plan. I really want to go there, too. There’s so much more to see as we drive. We can’t see it all, but like I said, we’ll hit the key spots in each state and some out-of-the-way adventures.”

He folded the maps perfectly, which was always a pain in the ass, and put them in the storage box with his notebook. “That’s it. We can talk more later, but I just wanted you to have a good idea of what the plan is.”

“Sounds good.”

He held out his hand. “Give me your driver’s license.”

“Why?”

What was he up to?

“If you want to get into some bars while traveling, we need to change your birthdate from 1968 to 1966. Not all states are like Virginia. Some states have a drinking age of twenty-one.”

“You changed the year on your I.D.?”

“Yeah, I mean, it’s not hard to do. Our IDs are only paper. Only a slight change and no one’s ever noticed mine.”

I folded my arms, reluctant to trust him. “You’re not trying to fuck me over, are you?”

He mirrored my stance and rolled his eyes. “And blow my chance of going on this trip? Not likely.”

“Fuck it. Fine.” I pulled out my wallet from the back pocket of my jeans and handed him my I.D. “Don’t ruin it.”

Logan pulled out his driver’s license and showed it to me. The date on the pale green paper looked fucking real. “I can do this. I’ll bring your license back to you tomorrow.”

“And what if we get pulled over?” I asked, handing back his license. “Our birth dates won’t match with what’s on record.”

He shrugged. “This is not the original I.D. It’s a copy, and we’ll only use it for bars and clubbing.”

“If you say so.”

Logan grabbed his box from my bed and held it at his side, shifting awkwardly on his feet, refusing to look at me. “Nick, I need us to get along as much as we can. I want to enjoy this trip. This is the chance of a lifetime for me, and I don’t want it ruined with us fighting all the time. I… know a lot of our problems are my fault, and I’m going to try to do better.”

My jaw fell to the floor, not expecting those words from Logan, of all people. He never apologized for shit or admitted that he was an asshole half the time… most of the time. “Uh, yeah, I’d like that.” I was too stumped to say anything else.

I stood and headed toward my closet. “Wait, before you leave…” Tucked away on a shelf was a brand-new copy of Rubber Soul. I pulled it down off the shelf and handed it to him. “This doesn’t replace sentimentality and memories, but I still wanted to replace this for you.”

He took the record and looked at it, frowning, his long bangs falling in his face.

“I shouldn’t have borrowed it. Again, I’m sorry. I figured you still wanted to hear the music, even if I did ruin your record.”

His brows furrowed, and his hazel eyes turned red, but he took a deep breath, shoving the emotions back. “Thanks.”

That was all he said before walking out of my room, leaving me wondering if we would ever really get along.

I bounced Hannah on my knee as I dug into my mashed potatoes with her spoon and brought it to her mouth. She grabbed my wrist with two chunky hands and took a bite, getting more food on her face than in her mouth.

We all tried to help with Hannah, especially since Mom had to go back to work. When we couldn’t watch her, she spent the day with our elderly neighbor, who babysat her for some extra income.

Before I could take a bite of some roasted chicken, my fork hovering over my mouth, Hannah yelled out, “Mah! Mah!”

I brought the chicken to her. She plucked it from the fork and picked the meat apart with her fingers, staring at it cross-eyed, before shoving greasy bits into her mouth.

“Are you going to let me eat, Hannah Banana?”

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