Page 136 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol 4
"Honestly, I don't really know. Nothing in life is certain." I kept my head turned toward the window. Tears were started to pool in my eyes. I blinked hard. I wasn't going to cry in front of a stranger. Part of me wanted to tell him to turn around. If I really only had four months to spend with my dad, I didn't want to spend a week traveling to California. I bit my lip. But if I didn't try to save him, I'd regret it for the rest of my life. I'd be home soon. Hopefully with enough money for some experimental treatments.
"You can say that again."
I turned back to him. "Why'd you need a change from New York?"
"Why'd you hop in my car and demand to be taken to California?"
Missing Pieces - Chapter 6
Tyler
Friday
She stared at me in silence for a second. "Touché. How long is it going to take to get there?"
"I have no idea."
"Can we start following a GPS?"
"I'd rather not."
"Why?"
"Because the voice is annoying and I don't exactly feel like being told what to do right now. Besides, I'm not in any rush."
"I know I'm good company and everything, but I am kind of in a rush. I thought that maybe when you get tired I could drive? That way we don't have to stop at all except for food and bathroom breaks."
"Yeah...not happening."
"Why?"
"Because I'm not letting a stranger drive my car."
"Then ask me a few questions so that I'm not a stranger anymore."
He laughed. "Look, you seem normal enough. But I was kind of doing my own thing and you hijacked that. I'm not changing what I'm doing just because you decided to come along."
"Fine." She kicked off her flip flops and pulled her legs up onto the seat, sitting cross-legged. "We'll do it your way then. Just don't stop at every tourist location on the way or anything."
"I wasn't planning on it." I could feel her eyes on me, but she wasn't saying anything.
"How long have you been driving?" she eventually said.
"A week."
"Okay. And where have you been so far?"
"Umm. Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana."
"It's taken you a week to drive through four states? It's going to take a month to get to California at this rate."
"I wasn't driving the whole time. I stopped at a motel in rural Pennsylvania for a few days."
"Why?"
"Because I didn't feel like doing anything." That was a lie. I had probably made one of the biggest decisions of my life earlier this week. When I was little, I always had a blast visiting my grandfather in Shippensburg. I hadn't been back since he had died when I was in college. So I drove aimlessly until I found the right church and then walked to his grave. It felt strange beingback without him there. I just stared at his grave for hours. I had looked up to him. And it wasn't just because he was my grandfather. It was because he had made an actual difference, fighting for our country. He was proud of his time in the Marine Corps, and I was proud of him. The longer I had stood there, the more it seemed like I should be doing that too. Something I could be proud of. Something he would have been proud of me for. In my head it seemed like some monumental decision, but it wasn't. It was the only choice, really. What the hell else was I going to do? Go back to New York?No fucking way.I wanted to eventually look back and know that I had done something meaningful with my life. So I enlisted. I passed the physical and I requested to be as far away from the east coast as possible.
I was happy with my decision. The only thing that prevented me from being all in was the fact that my mom was so upset with me. I called her right after I signed the papers and she wouldn't stop crying. But I refused to feel guilty about enlisting. I needed to do this for me. It just sucked that an act that seemed selfless was maybe actually selfish on my part. If anything did happen to me, my mom would be alone. And I hated the thought of leaving her. I tried to focus on the road.
