All I Ask of You

Chapter Twenty-Six

 "Okay, it's official, there's nothing in all of Nebraska," Harper stated, staring out the window.

It had been hours since anyone had seen anything aside from the open road and the yellowing prairies. There wasn't anything interesting to look at, leaving all four teenagers with nothing to do aside from find every single possible way to be the most annoying people on the planet.

Annie was trying to get through War and Peace, though she was doing better than trying. She was around two hundred pages in. Granted, that had more to do with her not sleeping than anything else. If she slept on the drive at all then she wouldn't have been nearly as far as she was.

Harper had given up on sketching around halfway through Missouri. There were too many bumps on the interstate for them to get anything done. Not to mention that Tony had already put a cap on how many times they were allowed to cuss at the road. So naturally, they were left with nothing to do.

No one let Peter do anything except sit and sleep after he got car sick the day before, and it was for the best. Deep down, Peter had to know that, but it also meant that he couldn't really do anything except talk about different stuff with Ned.

Meanwhile, Ned was easily having the time of his life. Sure, the drive was definitely a bore, but having everyone in that minivan was easily the best part of it. Getting the chance to go all the way across the country while seeing everything along the way was great. And he never missed a chance to point that out.

"I think if I had a dollar for everytime you said that, I'd be a trillionaire," Tony replied, "And if it's any consolation, we're about to stop in Wyoming."

Annie raised an eyebrow, "Isn't that in Canada?"

"No, it's above Colorado and under Montana. Definitely America," Ned said, shaking his head.

Peter gasped, "Oh, yeah! It's that Area 51 place that's actually not real. Mr. Stark, are you taking us to get abducted by aliens?!"

"Are you kids being serious? First singing Wizard of Oz all the way through Kansas and now this?"

Pepper laughed, "Come on, they're just having fun. At least, I hope so."

"Well yeah, I might be a dumb actress, but I at least know all fifty-one states," Annie deadpanned.

Harper smirked, "I'm telling you, Ned, we gotta dye her hair blonde!"

"Oh hell no! I might actually kill you if you do that," she exclaimed.

Everything went oddly silent. The only thing that could be heard was the car and the faint tones of classic rock.

Annie rolled her eyes, "Come on, it's a joke. If I don't joke about it now then it's gonna be a touchy subject for a really long time."

"M-maybe it should be," Peter said.

She shook her head, "No, because as far as the rest of the world's concerned, I did nothing wrong. Anyways, um... what're we getting for dinner?"

It was hard to not get worked up over the situation. Annie figured that right then was the perfect time for her to get over everything. Plus, she hadn't thought about what she'd said. But if she could make light of it, then everyone else should have too.

They didn't have to deal with thinking about what she'd done periodically. That by all rights, she should be getting thrown in prison or into a juvenile detention center. Or somewhere that people went when they killed someone else.

Except, what was she supposed to do if it was an accident? Wasn't it supposed to be different since that guy was a criminal? But then she couldn't help reminding herself that she had let him go months ago. That if she had just listened to Peter, all of that could have been figured out months ago. In a way, it really was her fault, but she didn't know how to even begin to talk about it.