Page 18 of All Roads Lead to You

“Well, you’re just smarter than I am. I couldn’t get into that school to save my life. I’m stuck with Old Dominion. Plus, I have to stay in state if I want my parents to pay for college.”

I opened my dresser drawer, pulled out several folded T-shirts, and put them on my bed, needing to sort through which ones I needed to pack for college and which ones to take on the trip. “If you focused more on school rather than fucking the entire cheerleading team, you could’ve gone places.”

He scoffed. “There are just some things more important than grades.” Caleb stood and patted my back. “Seriously, man, I’m going to miss you, too. Stay in touch, okay?”

“I will. I still have another week, so we should do something fun before I head out.”

“Maybe we should throw you a going away party.”

“That sounds cool.”

There was a sudden knock on my door, and Caleb went to answer it.

“Ah, it’s your grumpy stepbrother.”

“Fuck off, Caleb,” Logan said, walking in without asking, carrying a small box of folded state maps. “Don’t you have a girl to fuck?”

“Knock it off, Logan,” I snapped. “What do you want?”

“We need to go over the plans for the trip.”

“Later, I’m still packing.”

“Now. I need to make sure we’re both on board with the directions and where we’re going to stay along the way.”

Caleb raised his hands and headed toward my doorway. “I’m gonna split and get ready for my date with Carla tonight. Call you later, Nick.”

“See ya, Cale.”

My best friend stopped and turned to face Logan with a smirk on his face. “Oh, and Logan? Fuck you, too.” With that, he left, closing my door behind him.

“Your friend is a sex-addicted asshole.”

“Shut up, Logan. Caleb may be an ass, but he’s my ass. I don’t say shit about your best friend.”

“He’s not a good friend.”

“I said, fuck off.” I cleared off my bed of clothes, tossing them onto the floor. “Now sit, and let’s get this over with.”

Logan put the box on my bed, pulling out several maps and a composition notebook stuffed with notes, drawings, and cut-out pictures glued to the pages. I knew very well how precious the book was to him since he started working on it back in middle school before his dad married Mom.

He opened up one map and spread it out on the bed. “The plan is to take Route 66 until we reach Staunton, Virginia, where we’ll take Route 81. By the time we pass Knoxville, Tennessee, we’ll connect to Route 40 until we reach Nevada. There, we will then head north to Lake Tahoe, but we’ll also take some side trips, one being the Ozarks in northern Arkansas and down to Austin, Texas. But Lake Tahoe will be our last stop before heading to Stanford, where I’ll drop you off, and then I’ll head to Berkeley. We’ll be making a lot of stops and camping often to save money.”

“Whatever. I mean, you’ve been planning this, not me. I’ll just do what you’ve planned.”

He sighed and pinned me with his hazel-green eyes. I had to admit they were pretty and looked like gemstones or something. I hated my brown eyes. They were boring. “Yeah, and you’ve got to be my co-pilot. I can’t read a map and drive at the same time.”

“What if I’m driving?”

He gave me a blank look that said I couldn’t be that stupid. “Seriously?”

“Fine, so what are your planned stops? We’re camping often, but are we also staying at any motels?”

“Yes,” he said, spreading out the Tennessee map and pointing at the center. “We’re going to drive through to Nashville. Well, we’ll stop at Long Hunter State Park, right outside of Nashville, where we’ll pitch the tent. We can stay there for two bucks a night. There’s a lake we can swim in, hiking trails, and we can fish, but we’ll need a fishing license and have to rent fishing poles, so not sure if that’s something we want to do. I plan to stay there for three days because I want to check out Nashville, too, along with visiting the Grand Ole Opry.”

I hated the idea of traveling with Logan for three damn weeks, but I had to admit the trip sounded fun, and he was really organized. “What about Graceland?”

“Yes, that’s the plan. Once we head out of Nashville, we’ll drive for a few hours until we reach Memphis. We can stop for lunch and tour Graceland. We’ll stay overnight there at a motel before moving on the following morning.”

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