The next day was very uneventful seeing as we were stuck in traffic for the past hour. Some time that morning we switched seats so now Tanner was driving we were just passing through Williamstown when the morning traffic hit, though there was a pile up so now we were stuck here for another hour or two. I sighed and looked over at him as he had his head leaning on his hand looking out onto the road. My phone rang so I pulled it out and answered it without looking at it.
"Hello?" I said as Tanner glanced over at me.
"Yeah hi, is Tanner there?"
"Um..who is this?"
"Its Spencer, can I talk to Tanner?"
"How did you get my number?"
"I met your cute little friend at our game the other day, and got her number. I talked to her and she seemed upset so she told me that you, her best friend ran away with some guy named Tanner, and I thought what are the odds so I asked her for your number and she gave it to me happily. Now may I speak to Tanner please?"
I sighed pulling the phone away from my ear. "It's for you." I said as he reached for the phone.
"Who is it?" He asked confused, I just leaned my head against the window as he put the phone up to his ear. "Hello?" I heard him say, "what the hell did you do? I- I don't care what coach said where the hell are you guys? That's only a state ahead, we're half way through Vermont. Yeah. Yeah. Don't say that, dude stop being a dick, you know what I don't have time to listen to you being rude." He hung up before I could say anything.
"So what's up?" I asked as I took my phone back.
"Nothing's up."
"Okay well what did he say?"
"He didn't say anything!" He said yelling at me, I jumped and looked away as my eyes stung with unshed tears. I heard sighing as I felt him pick up my hand "I'm sorry. Okay it's just he started talking about you, and I didn't like it." I turned to him and gave a small smile.
"Its okay."
We sat there like that for the next twenty minutes as he rubbed circles on the back of my hand I thought back to a time when me and my brother got into a fight.
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Flashback
I just got home from volleyball practice pushing the loose hairs that fell out of my ponytail back I tossed my keys on the table and dropped my bag onto the floor. My parents were both at work as Jack didn't have practice today seeing as they won all of their games this pass week so the coach gave them the day off.
"Jack I'm home!" I yelled walking into the kitchen I went over to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water, turning around to lean up against the counter I heard a door slamming and loud foot steps pounding down the hallway.
As I took a drink Jack stormed into the room, "are you kidding me!?" He yelled as his voice dropped an octave.
"What are you on about?" I said as I capped the top of my water, and set it on the counter next to me as I grabbed an Apple out of the basket sitting on the table in front of me. I went to walk passed him when he stepped in front of me blocking my exit.
"Come on move," I said as I put the Apple up to my mouth about to bite into it, until he knocked it out of my hands I looked up at him as it rolled across the floor. "What the hell is your problem!?" I yelled walking over to the Apple picking it up I went over to the sink and washed it off then put it back into the basket no longer hungry. I turned back to Jack who seemed to be fuming.
"You said you were just hanging out, you promised." He said through his clenched teeth.
"What?" I said then realization hitting me like a spike to the face. "Jack it's not what you think I didn't..."
"You lied to me, the other day at school he was talking about you to his friends I overheard him and didn't like what I heard so I socked him."
"You what? Oh my God Jack why did you do that?" I asked as I went back over to him and hugged him a few seconds later he exhaled a breath and hugged me back.
End of Flashback
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As we inched along the highway Tanner distracted me as he came up with a game. As he stopped the Jeep again behind a long line of cars he turned to me and said.
"Let's play a game."
"Okay, what game?" I asked looking over at him.
"It's called the licence plate game, but I have a few new rules."
"Okay lay it on me," I said knowing that this was going to be a long trip and he loved playing games.
"Alright every time you see a plate with a state on it you have to name that state and it can only be named once, but when you name the state you also have to say something about yourself that not many people know." He said as he looked over at me.
"Okay do we take turns or, what?"
"Nope just start with the one in front."
"Alright, Massachusetts." I said and looked over at him "now what?"
"Now you tell me one thing about yourself that not many people know."
"Okay , um I was captain of the volleyball team mostly because of my brother." I said as I had my feet up on the dash and I was sinking down into my seat looking up at him.
"What do mean?" He asked as his brows came together in thought.
"Well my brother was always the schools golden boy and captain of the lacrosse team. So when I got into high school and tried out for the team I got on junior varsity and varsity, but of course most of the girls were mad because they had worked so hard to just get on varsity and it just got handed to me because my brother was the star of the lacrosse team, he was a freshman but he was also the captain, which is rare." I said looking at him, he just nodded his head as he looked out of the window. "Your turn." I said sitting up in my seat and turning around to face him, as I took his hand and held it up to my mouth just hiding behind it.
He chuckled and I looked up at him as he watched me. Then he looked out the windshield and on to the other cars that were surrounding us. "Maine." He said looking back over at me.
"Now something about yourself." I said smiling up at him as I looked down at his hand and started making shapes on it.
"I had a younger sister that got killed when I was younger, she was maybe five I barely new her seeing as I was two so I don't really even know what happened, my mom won't talk about it seeing as she's also never home she's always busy away at work."
"What about your dad?" I whispered as I looked up at him.
"He left a few months after my sister died, my mom kicked him out because he was always getting drunk and was being abusive."
"I'm so sorry." I said whispering it, he looked at me giving me a weak smile.
"Don't be, like I said I was little. I don't have many memories of him anyway. Hey you hungry?" He asked as we pulled up to an exit getting off of the highway we pulled into a McDonald's.
"You know me so well." I said as we walked into the little yellow and red building, he pulled me up to him wrapping his arm around me as we walked up to the counter. Once we were sitting down eating our food we started talking again.
"So if I may ask. How did it happen?" He asked as I slowed my chewing taking a drink from my sweet tea I looked up at him.
"How did what happen."
"That scar on your wrist, how did you get it?"
"Oh that is a painful story I don't know if your ready for that yet." I said as I laughed.
"Oh come sure I am."
"Alright but you asked for it. We were playing a game it was home and we were on our second set I was playing front right when the ball came over right to me but it was right in front of the pole so I ran up and dived for it just as my wrist sliced across the pin sticking out of the pole, long story short we won but I sat out for the rest of the season though we only had like two games left." I said finishing up my fries.
"Ouch, that had to have hurt."
"Yeah it did. But what about you, any scars from your games." I asked seeing as lacrosse can be a pretty violent sport.
"Actually no, but my buddy Spence has some pretty nasty scars from defending me."
"So technically you owe him one," I said smiling as he laughed.
"Yeah I guess you could say that." He said smiling up at me.
We left soon after getting back on to the highway heading to the next county.
"Hey we're in Washington." I said looking over at Tanner, he had his eyes closed since I was now driving he looked around in disbelief, I was snickering by the time he looked over at me.
"We're not in Washington," He said sitting up.
"Oh yeah we are just not the state, we're in Washington County." I said smiling.
"Don't do that to me," He said laying back down. "Wake me when we're in New York would you?" He said as he fell back into a restless sleep.