Hazel's Hitchhiker

24: Avondale, AZ

Hazel

There was so much damn road construction in Avondale that I began to wonder if this car would ever make it to the house. From what I gathered, it seemed like Avondale was a growing town. And even though it was a growing town, it was one of the nicest towns my eyes had ever witnessed. Maybe I should've gone to GCU or ASU. Seconds later, it occurred to me that Austin was just as nice based on the pictures I saw. I'm sure Austin would be a fun adventure. With all the road construction going on, we arrived at Joey's mom's house by noon. Once the car was parked, Joey immediately woke up and looked confused as to where we were. Oh shit, what had I done? My stomach felt knotted not really knowing what was about to happen.

Joey

It turned out that I really was tired. Waking up from my nap, one would assume that we would still be driving on the road. But here we were in front of a house and not on a road.

"Where are we?" I asked trying to find my phone.

"Please don't get mad at me," started Hazel. "We're at your mom's house?" She closed her eyes and held her breath once she finished her sentence.

My mom's house. We were seriously at her house? Was I still napping? How was I supposed to feel? One part of me wanted to be angry as another part wanted to be happy. But what really got me was the fact that somehow Hazel was able to figure out exactly where my mom lived.

"Hazel," I began trying to be calm. "How did you figure out my mom's address?"

"I took your phone while you were napping." No time was wasted in handing me back my phone. "I was even able to memorize the password to get into your phone." She began to laugh uncomfortably.

Wanting to be mad and yell at her, there was no strength to do that. Instead, I just sat there looking at the screen which was locked on Google Maps with the address. Damn, why the hell was my mom's address saved under her contact? Honestly, curse the day my mom texted me her address within a couple of months of walking out on us.

"Okay fine, you somehow figured out my password. Whatever. Phillip literally knows the passwords to all my social media accounts. What about Austin? You realize we might not make it there on time anymore?"

"Yeah, I know," she sighed. "After doing a lot of thinking while you slept, I came to the realization that I really don't give a shit about graduating early. Like once I graduate, I have to become a nurse and go out into the real world. And I'm not really sure anymore if I want to even be a nurse.  Sure, my parents will probably be pissed off, but who cares? This is my damn life. Not theirs."

"What about the scholarship?"

"We don't need to be there until Sunday night to get that. And I'm pretty sure we'll be there in time for that. As long as nothing else crazy happens, we should be good."

It was hard to imagine anything else crazy happening. The only thing my brain could picture was the possibility of Hazel getting pulled over. Hell, I could even get pulled over. It seems that the two of us had been speeding over the road a little too much during this trip. And it was certainly interesting how much thinking Hazel had been doing in the last couple of hours. She didn't even bother to talk about it with me. And regardless of all that, here we were in front of my mom's house. This was the very woman my own eyes hadn't seen in over four years. The woman who left me to be with my terrible father. If it weren't for Phillip and being a part of the basketball team, it would've been likely that I might've moved here and left my old man just as well. Yes, I wanted to see my mom, but at the same time, I didn't.

"Hazel, I'm not sure if this is a good idea. How do we know she'll even be home? It's likely that she's probably at work as it is Wednesday at noon."

"If she's not home, we can wait. There's plenty of time. There are some places in Avondale we could visit until five."

Damn, this girl had an answer to my legitimate excuse. What would've been the harm of getting to Austin by tomorrow? Did we really need to visit the woman that left us? With all this thinking, Hazel took the keys out of the ignition and opened the door only to step out of the car. Crap, this was it. She had made the first move. It was my turn to open the door and step out. Unbuckling myself, my hands opened the door. There it laid before me a wide-opened door to step out of.

Little did my skin anticipate how hot the outside would be. Damn, it felt like it was over a hundred degrees outside. Did we have any water on us? Slowly but surely, my entire body made its way out of the car and fully outside into the baking heat of a desert. Why the hell would anyone want to live here? With my armpits starting to sweat, we both started walking to the door with both car doors shut. The walk was all a blur to me, but standing in front of that door was probably the most memorable experience of the entire trip.

"Ready for this?" asked Hazel looking like she was about to knock.

"No, but let me do the knocking." And with that, my knuckle did the knocking which happened to be light.

Was she actually home? The closed garage door made it hard to tell. My heart began beating a million times in such a short time. If she was home, the door would be opened. To put at ease everything that was being felt, my eyes closed themselves. Could we just get this over with? This short time felt like an eternity. Creek! There was a noise from the door. It was opening. She was at home. Kill me. Now! There in front of my very own eyes was my mother.

That was intense! Let's hope this meeting goes well. Remember to comment and vote!

Would you do something this crazy?

Will Joey get along with his mom?