Stuck on You | All American

Chapter Thirty-Six

Today's the day.

After finding out that Corey might be dying, we couldn't just pack a bag and leave to go find him. Spencer, Dillon, and I still had school and Mom still had work; so we had to wait for the weekend to come before we could hit the road. If it's not too late. It has been such an emotional week and I have barely seen Jordan and Olivia; I tried to blame it on breaking my phone and not having one in four days, and the fact that I haven't been staying at The Bakers house as much — but at school it seem as if they were avoiding me.

And I couldn't think of a reason why, since the birthday party I have been on good terms with both of them. I can only squeeze out a minute or two conversations with them before they're off doing whatever keeping them so busy these days. It's always something with them, literally, I guess they tell me when they're ready to. I have my own problems to deal with and trying to figure out why they're acting so weird isn't even on the list of things to worry about.

With all the clothes I need for the weekend laid out on my bed, I start transferring the folded clothes into my suitcase. My phone ringing on charge stops me momentarily, Jordan name appears on the screen.

"Boy, bye." I decline the call. "You think you can just ignore me all week then just call me and I'm going to answer? Please."

Once everything I need is packed into the suitcase, I head out my room and meet everybody in the living room. "Everybody ready?" Mom questions as she raise up from the couch.

"No." I answer. "But if we waited until we were all ready, we would never leave."

"That's why we face things head on together, we're stronger when we're together." Spencer says as he stands beside me. "You sure pops is gonna be at this cabin?"

"This cabin was in your father's family for generations," Mom informs as she rolls her suitcase over to the front door. "And it's your father's favorite place to hide. He's ignoring my calls and texts. The only way to make sure is to show up. So, let's go. Time to roll."

Dillon gets up from the recliner chair and drape his bag over his shoulder as Mom pulls the door open to find Darnell standing on the porch. "Hey, sorry." He rubs his neck.

"Darnell, hey." Mom greets him. "We were actually just about to leave."

"I know." Darnell shows his duffel bag in his hand.

"I invited him." I inform, I don't know if anybody was going to object to that but I start speaking again before they could. "We didn't lost Corey, he did too."

"You're right." Mom nods his head. "You're family to Corey. This is a family trip. You have every right to come." Pulling my suitcase handle up, I roll it out the house. "Come on. I call shotgun."

As the car rolled down the road towards Corey's cabin, I settle into the passenger seat. It felt like the ride was taking forever. Despite the comfort of the car, the anticipation of seeing Corey again, after his second disappearance act, was making the minutes stretch out. The car ride is filled with comfortable silence, even with the soft music playing background seems to fade away —  everyone seemed lost in their own thoughts. The closer we got to the cabin, the heavier the atmosphere became.

The only reason I chose the front seat, not because I was dying to he shotgun, but before I knew it was the safest choice. Since Darnell has shown up in all our lives, it feels like everybody could sense that something was between us before I even knew of my own feelings. Mom had tried to give me a little speech about cheating, Dad had made some light jokes about Darnell and I, Patience had made comments about the way Darnell looks at me and how I speak with him, and Spencer seems very aware if the situation.