A Guide To The Opposite Sex (Discontinued)

500 Miles Too Many

Riley POV 

“OK now he was close, tried to domesticate you. But you’re an animal, baby it’s in your nature, just let me liberate you,” Stacy sang, channeling Robin Thicke’s R&B swag.

“Hey, hey, hey,” Anna and Abby pipped in, throwing their hands up in the air to the beat.

“You don’t need no papers, that man is not your maker!”

“Hey, hey--!” 

“Hey!” the dark haired girl sulking in the back of the RV shouted over the loud music. “Wanna shut the fuck up already?”

Stacy and the girls scoffed but shut up anyway. And I--naturally--burst out laughing. “Thank God someone stopped that torture.”

Grant and Josh heard me and laughed loudly while we tried to ignore the girls’ glares.

After my obnoxious laughter died down, Seth pumped up the volume again just as the T.I. part came on. Oh hell yeah, I thought to myself as I got down with the totally repulsive lyrics. 

The guys in the RV shot me amused looks before cheering me on. “Everybody get up!” Grant joined in next to me. I turned to him with raised eyebrows and when our gazes met, we both smiled wide and laughed out loud.  

Clutching my stomach as I tried to get some oxygen into my lungs, I fell over when the RV made a sharp turn and landed on top of Grant. 

He caught me easily and shot me a genuine smile, not the cocky smirks I’ve seen on his lips lately. I think he noticed it too because we both looked away at the same time and I leaned back into my seat. “Thanks,” I said just loud enough for him to hear before clearing my throat. 

When Macklemore’s “Can’t Hold Us” came on, the RV full of crazy teens broke out in song, putting The X Factor to shame. Actually no, we sounded pretty awful, but half of us were already half tipsy so it didn’t really matter. 

I was stone-hard sober, as was Seth because he was driving, but I just didn’t want to drink. The last time I’d drunk hadn’t been such a pretty sight, so I was staying as far away from tequila tonight as possible. 

 “Oh! Throwback!” Natalie shouted when an old Chamillionaire song came on the radio.

What happened next surprised the hell out of me, as well as everyone in the RV. Seth, quiet, studious, valedictorian Seth, started rapping as he drove our rented RV down the highway. “They see me rollin'. They hatin'. Patrollin' and tryin’ to catch me ridin’ dirty. Tryin' to catch me ridin' dirty!”

Everyone, even grumpy Mikayla, started laughing at how utterly absurd that was. Oh, well. A guy only graduates once. Might as well live it up, right?

This actually did work out alright, I thought referring to our little arrangement. I had been skeptical about Grant coming with us to Josh’s graduation party, let alone bringing Mikayla and Jeremy along, but no problems have arisen. Yet, anyway.  

If someone would have told me 24 hours ago that I would be in a rented RV driving for nearly five-hundred miles with Grant and a couple of Townies, I would have strapped a straitjacket on that individual and escorted him or her to the nearest mental institution.  

But after that agonizing lunch with Grant’s family, arrangements were made for them to join us on our trip to Cape Blanco in Oregon, one state up from California. 

Oh, gosh. Just thinking about my strange encounter with Grant’s family made a blush spread like wildfire over my cheeks.

At first it was okay. They were all sweet, maybe a bit smother-like, but sweet nonetheless. But when the awkward pause fell around the table as we waited for our food to arrive, things got ugly.