College is the fresh start Mackenna Baker is hoping for, but her past follows her from the small town she left behind like a ghost. She does her best to ignore them and no matter how hard she tries, she can never seem to actually let them go. Shovin...
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"So after you turn right onto 18th and then that direct right onto Oceanfront, it's the third house on your side," I speak to Wesley two-and-a-half weeks later.
We're finishing up our nineteen hour long road trip, only a couple minutes away from the Airbnb my mom booked for us. We left last night after dinner and a quick night check to get to the place by our check-in time of 4 p,m. In Newport Beach, California. The two of us took turns driving, switching places when we hit Salt Lake City where I took over for Wesley, letting him get some sleep after driving through the night. We swapped again about six hours after that, once we got to Las Vegas and he's driven the last almost four-and-a-half hours.
We could have split the drive into two days and slept in Salt Lake overnight, but I just wanted to get here and be done. Keep the trip as short as possible.
We plan to meet up tomorrow afternoon while my half-siblings are in some day camp they're enrolled in, to ease the pressure of us talking.
She invited Wesley and I to her house so we could talk. I'd originally wanted somewhere more neutral, but we don't have that luxury here because I want to be able to leave on my own if I need to and I can't do that if we're here.
Not that she won't know where we are since she booked the place for us, but that's beside the point.
Even though it was my idea about coming out here, my anxiety has been increasing the closer we got to leaving Black Creek and I feel like I'm about to fly out of my seat.
"You okay?" Wesley asks for maybe the hundredth time since we left the house, maybe even since we entered California almost four hours ago.
I let out a heavy breath. "As good as I can be."
"We could always turn around. Just say the word."
It's a tempting offer, really tempting.
"No," I shake my head. "No. We've come all this way. Besides, my mom and I have been talking more as this trip has gotten closer."
Sure, the conversations might have gotten shorter, but I think that's the nerves kicking in, but it's better than nothing, so I'll take it.
"Okay," he squeezes my hand that's intertwined with his across the center console.
I lean over and kiss his cheek before settling back in my seat, focusing on the new view in front of us.
The late afternoon sun is casting a beautiful light over the Pacific Ocean in front of us, a view we're going to be able to enjoy over the next few days since I agreed to let my mom get us a place right on Newport Beach in the Balboa Peninsula that we've just crossed into.
"It's not the nicest looking area for as expensive as it is," Wesley says, his head rotating a little bit as he drives to take in the foreign area we've found ourselves in. "We're definitely not in Buffalo anymore."
