IN SPITE OF Eva's urges to continue driving through the night to whatever imaginary destination she had in mind, she and Caleb found themselves parked outside of a motel, now safely inside the Ohio border.
They booked one of the last rooms (one that had a very distinct old cigarette smell despite the motel claiming they were smoke free). Passing the night manager, Eva noticed the striking similarities between him and the clerk from the gas station, smiling to herself, she earned an annoyed glare from him and quickly turned her attention away.
Once inside the room, Caleb threw his stuff on the old couch before she could say anything. "I'm going to sleep before you can convince me to do other insane things."
"Whatever, Cranky Pants." She rolled her eyes before collapsing onto the bed. It wasn't much, but still better than falling asleep on her seat belt in the car.
"It's almost two in the morning, I'm allowed to be a little cranky."
"Yeah, yeah, just get your beauty sleep already."
"Rude." But he followed her directions and ruffled through his bag in search of his pajamas.
"I need to pee."
"It's okay to keep some things to yourself, Eva," Caleb mumbled as she hopped off the bed and stepped around him and towards the small bathroom.
Once the door was safely shut and he could hear the faint sound of it locking, his pajamas now enclosed in his hand, he quickly slipped off his jeans and t-shirt in exchange for the cotton pants and old shirt.
Eva opened the bathroom door a short moment later, "Hey, Caleb, the sink's not working-" she stopped short, her mind otherwise occupied by the sight of Caleb standing by the bed, and definitely missing a shirt.
"Uhhh . . ." Her mouth was still hanging open as Caleb finally looked up and noticed her, while simultaneously turning bright red in the face. He quickly forced the shirt over his head and awkwardly stood there, not quite meeting her eyes.
"Sorry," she mumbled, feeling her own cheeks turn beet red.
"Uh, it's fine." He scratched his head nervously. "What were you saying?"
"The sink. It's, um, not working. Like no water and such." Eva wanted to slap herself in the face for how absolutely unintelligent she was sounding. It's just Caleb, she reminded herself.
Yeah, but did you see those abs?
Who cares? It's Caleb.
But where did he get those from?
WHO CARES?
Can pouring coffee all day get you abs?
"Eva?" The boy in question asked her, to which Eva realized he had probably asked her something already.
"Sorry, what?"
"I said, should we call the night manager or do you think we can handle one night without a sink?"
She remembered the glare he had given her when they walked in, disturbing him with that probably wouldn't be the best idea in the world. "I think we'll manage without it."
"Okay," his voice cracked a little as he was still embarrassed by the previous situation. He fumbled with getting himself in the makeshift bed as Eva jumped into the bed after quickly changing in the bathroom.
"Goodnight," the words were quiet but he could still hear them despite the noise from the highway outside of the window.
Eva closed her eyes, trying her best to fall asleep in the uninviting space. There was something eating at her mind; however, it wouldn't have mattered if she was laying in the softest bed in the world, there would be no way she'd fall asleep.
Her eyes shot open again as the rustling sound of Caleb trying to find a sleepable position distracted her.
"Caleb?"
"Hmm?" His voice should have been tired and annoyed at how she was still keeping him up at 2 freaking o'clock in the morning, but instead it was alert, almost as though he had expected her to still be awake.
"You have abs." It wasn't so much as a question as it was a shocking observation.
There was a short silence from across the room until finally "uh, yeah."
"But, how? I mean you're not athletic. Not in a bad way, it's just that you have like no muscle at all. I mean, you're just so tall and lanky and you really don't do any sports so it's kinda weird. Not that it's a bad thing!" Eva blubbered, digging herself deeper and deeper in a hole with each explanation.
Caleb chuckled, as though that was the usual response when someone was pointing out exactly how unmanly you are. "I, I don't know. I guess I just have them."
"Nobody just has them."
"Maybe I do."
"Liar. I bet you're like secretly an Olympic athlete who hides from the press with this 'I don't do anything cool' demeanor."
"Okay, kinda hurtful, and no."
Eva let out a dramatic sigh, throwing her arms over her head for extra effect, but managing to hit them on the metal headboard instead. "Ouch." She wrinkled her nose and tried to think of another explanation to where Caleb could have gotten those abs from.
"I used to swim a lot," he said with a yawn, figuring it was better to just tell her and actually get some sleep than having her keeping him up all night with her constant questions.
"Really?"
"Yeah, but I stopped after first semester."
"Okay."
"Can I sleep now?"
A wide smile crossed Eva's face as she could feel his pleading tone through the words. "Yes, you may go to sleep. I won't keep you up any more with my burning questions about your surprising acts of masculinity. Not a peep more out of me, nope, consider this conversation—"
"Good night, Eva," Caleb cut her off.
"Good night."
•••
"Oh hell, no!"
"Shit, shit, shit!"
"Why? Why? Why!"
A chorus of slurs and swears coming from the other side of the room the next day gave Caleb the impression that Eva had woken up. His own eyes were still shut tightly in hopes that it would somehow help drown out her screams, as he curled himself tighter into his blanket. This act of comfort only lasted a minute before a slightly smelly pillow whacked him on the head.
"Wake up, Porter!"
Caleb groaned and shook his head no, his eyes still shut.
Eva's response was in the form of a few more whacks with the disgusting pillow until finally Caleb gave in and opened his eyes.
"Fine, fine, fine! I'm up," his voice cracked from lack of use as he rubbed his eyes and tried to get used to the blaring light that was shining in the room.
"Good," Eva sighed, dropping the pillow at the foot of the couch and began to quickly shove her belongings back into her bag.
"What's with the rush?" A still groggy Caleb asked her with a yawn as he leaned back on the couch.
"It's already one, Caleb. One. Do you know how long we slept?"
"Do you know how long we drove yesterday?"
"Do you know how much of the day we wasted?"
"Sleep is never a waste." He shot her a small smile but this Eva was clearly in no mood to mess around, ignoring him as she finished packing her stuff. Somehow through her swearing fit she had managed to get dressed as her old pajamas had been replaced with shorts and a hoodie.
"Please just get up so we can get going?" She pleaded with him, finally stopping what she was doing for a second to turn and face him. Her mascara was smudged under her eye and would probably stay that way thanks to lack of running water, she hadn't taken a shower in two days and Caleb had accidentally knocked her deodorant off the counter and broke it a few days back, but somehow even in the mess of things she still managed to look pulled together enough in a matter of minutes.
Glancing back down at himself, Caleb feared it would take double that time to look half as good as she did, and he knew she would only give him half the time. So he nodded, and got off the couch, heading in the direction of his own belongings before stopping short, and remembering something that had been bothering him.
"Where did you get that pillow you were hitting me with from?"
She opened her mouth to respond before immediately shutting it, almost imitating a fish as she did so. "Um, why do you ask?"
"It smelled kind of," he paused trying to decipher whatever the nasty fumes radiating off it could be, "like something that had been used as a tissue and napkin for years, then dragged around on the subway floor before being dunked in a used toilet."
Eva nodded, appreciating his detailed description of the item in question before giving him a slightly guilty smile. "That would be the bathroom floor."
"What?" Caleb blubbered out, his mouth reenacting the same fish motion that Eva had done earlier.
While she clapped her hands together in response like a grade school teacher would do to regain the attention of her class after letting them know that sadly recess was no longer a thing once you hit middle school. "You better finish packing."
"You hit me in the face with a toilet pillow!"
"You wouldn't wake up!"
"So?"
"So, you're a boy, I'm sure you've done grosser things than that!"
He gave her a deadpan look. "I'm pretty sure no one, no matter what their gender is, likes getting hit in the face repeatedly with a toilet pillow."
Eva let out a huff, knowing he was one hundred percent right, but while she was in no mood to let him win the argument she just crossed her arms over her chest and looked him straight in the eyes. "I'm sure there's someone who likes it."
•••
"Turn now, no not there! We don't wanna go to Taco Bell, we want the highway entrance!" Eva shouted later that day after she had finally convinced Caleb to get a move on, forget the pillow, and leave the hotel after another half an hour of him stalling. But now she would have preferred the motel to this. While Caleb had been a perfectly fine chauffeur considering the situation yesterday, he was a lot worse in daylight.
"Well I'm sorry, but the next option was Taco Bell, and your directions can be very vague, so you should be able to see the confusion."
"Please just get on the highway," she pleaded with him as he finally did what she said. "Thank you."
"Well, it's about time I get appreciated around here," he said with a smug smile as he reached for his sunglasses that were laying on the dashboard.
"Appreciated for what?" Eva asked him, her elbow leaning against the windowsill on the passenger side.
"I don't know, for saving your sorry ass yesterday, for being your punching bag when you need it, for driving."
"Hey, I never made you drive," Eva retaliated.
"Well, you never volunteered to do it either."
"You didn't give me much of an option."
"Sure I did," Caleb said with a small scoff, but his hands tightened on the steering wheel ever so slightly.
"Caleb, you literally ran me over when you sprinted away from the motel just so you could drive."
A small blush came over his cheeks, "I didn't run you over."
"You just as good did."
He let out a small sigh, "Do you have a point?"
"Yes. Why are you so obsessed with driving?" Eva asked him just as the car barely slid past a semi truck while merging. "I mean, you kind of suck."
"Well, maybe I wouldn't suck so bad if I was given more opportunities to practice."
"And this is somehow my fault?"
"Yes."
Eva let out a laugh, "well, whatever. You're driving now, aren't you?"
"Well, yes, but-"
"And I obviously didn't stand in your way."
"Well, no, but-"
"So you blaming me for your lack of driving practice and skill is quite the empty argument, wouldn't you say?"
"I liked you better when you were asleep, at least your mouth was shut then."
"Wow, I'm hurt, Caleb, really. That was hurtful." Eva mocked, putting one hand to her chest with fake shock practically spewing off of her.
"I can see how much it pains you," Caleb responded, letting out a small chuckle as he glanced at Eva out of the corner of his eye.
"Whatever," she grumbled in reply.
The corners of his mouth bent up ever so slightly, giving this argument a draw in his book. Which when you consider the opponent was Eva, was just as good as winning. “So where exactly am I driving?”
“Well, we still want to go to Chicago, right?”
“Right,” he agreed, loosening his fingers from the steering wheel as Eva turned on the radio. Thankfully not to One Direction this time.
•••
“You know, Caleb, I may not be from around here, but this really does not look like Chicago, at all.” Eva’s tone was annoyed, but having been sick of arguing with him and being well, in the middle of god knows where, it didn’t have the same venomous sting to it.
“I think I know that much, Eva. But you weren’t exactly up for helping either,” he mumbled, trying his best to see out of the windshield that was currently getting pelted with raindrops. Because getting lost just wasn’t enough, and the universe thought that rain would be a helpful surprise.
“I was asleep.”
“Aren’t you always.”
She scowled but said nothing, instead sighing as she gazed out of the window. A few cars had whizzed past them but nothing had come their way in the last ten minutes or so. Something that even though it was nearing eleven o’clock at night, was still unusual for a typically busy interstate. “Just pull over, we can hardly see anything through this rain anyway.”
Caleb sighed but did as he was told, flashing his indicator even though no one was around to see the signal, he pulled off to the side of the highway. After promptly putting the car in park, he turned his attention to Eva who looked just as miserable as he felt.
“Where’s the stupid map?” she sighed, shuffling through the old gum wrappers and empty snack bags that had found themselves onto the floor.
“I don’t think the map will help any if we don’t even know where we are.”
“Well, look for a road sign, there has to be one somewhere.”
“Apparently this part of the country lacks in road signs.”
She let out a loud and frustrated groan, leaning her head back against the seat and shutting her eyes.
Caleb bit his lip anxiously as the realization that they were actually lost in a place hundreds of miles from home finally set in. “What about your phone?”
“No, service, trust me I’ve been trying for like the past half an hour.”
“Well, then I guess we better keep driving.”
She raised her eyebrow at him in response as he was already changing gears and merging back onto the road. “What good will that do?”
“We are going to drive until we see some kind of road sign, or exit, or anything that can help tell us where we are.”
Eva didn't reply, but instead sat back up in her seat and gave him a little nod. A small blush crossing over her cheeks as she realized how calm and rational Caleb was being compared to her.
It took about five minutes of Caleb driving approximately twenty miles per hour where you would typically drive seventy, before they saw a sign announcing an exit coming up in two miles. They both let out a desperate sigh of relief not even caring what could come up of that exit.
“Thank god,” Eva moaned as the car turned on the ramp and off of the highway. She smiled brightly at the sign as they passed below it. Haven. Yes, yes it was.
Haven turned out to be less of a haven, and more of a small village stuck in the 1950’s. And in Wisconsin, apparently.
Eva whacked Caleb on the arm as he pulled into a spot in a tiny parking lot in the center of the town. And by center, it was more of a five hundred meter long street with about four stores around it and a green patch that was supposed to be the town’s park, even though it was about the size of a large minivan.
“What was that for?” he complained, rubbing the spot where she punched him even though the pain had already subsided.
“For driving us all the way to fucking Wisconsin!”
He pouted but said nothing in response but a small shrug.
“Don’t you shrug at me, you can’t get out of this one so easily, mister.”
He was biting back the urge to smile as Eva was doing her best to keep her tone as even as possible. Because, yes, they did end up much further north than they had anticipated, but clearly the situation had an upside as both of them soon found themselves overcome with laughter and clutching their stomachs to help ease the pain.
“Oh my god. Why did our parents ever trust us to do this?” Eva said through gasps of laughter.
“I have no idea. They must seriously think too highly of us, because we’re such a mess.” Caleb responded, his laughter dying down, but the smile not faltering on his face.
“We really, really, really are.”
“Wow, three really’s. I guess we are a serious mess.”
“Yeah,” she smiled back up at him. The rain had slowed all the way down to a mere drizzle and the clock on the car’s radio clearly read 11:48pm, but they were in Wisconsin, and had slept until one pm that day, so neither of them yawned, or fell asleep. Nobody got drowsy and mentioned how they should probably try to find some kind of lodging soon. They both just sat in the car, grinning at each other like eight year olds who had snagged three pieces of candy from a bowl on Halloween when the sign had clearly said to only take one.
And then that moment collapsed through a deep rumble coming from the drivers seat.
Caleb’s smile faded away as it was replaced with a pink shadow over his cheeks.
“Sounds like you’re hungry,” Eva said, trying to suppress a new grin that was making its way across her face.
“Ha, yeah. Kinda starved, actually.” He admitted, his head already turning towards the bag of goodies they had sitting on the back seat.
“Yeah, I could eat too, the last thing we stopped for was a bag of gummy bears and french fries from the gas station.”
“We should not have eaten those.” Caleb shuddered at the memory of the under cooked and slightly green excuses of a potato.
“No,” Eva agreed, reaching for the bag that he had been eyeing earlier and dropping it on her lap. But it was a lot lighter than she had expected, or wanted for that matter. Reaching inside, she confirmed the horrible theory that had been eating at her brain. “It’s empty.”
“What do you mean?” Caleb’s face was one of complete devastation as though he had just been told that someone ran over his puppy, not eaten the last potato chip.
“I mean it’s empty. All gone. No more food for Caleb,” she said showing him the insides of the obviously empty bag.
“Why,” he groaned, clutching his stomach again. This time it wasn’t to stop the hunger though.
“Maybe because we haven’t actually thought to refilling it since we left,” Eva’s response was quiet but through the silence that had settled in the car, it sounded deafening.
“Well, there has to be some kind of supermarket here, I mean I know this town in small, but the people gotta eat, right?” He asked hopefully.
“Right. But don’t you think they would be closed now? I mean it’s almost midnight.”
“Well, we better look to make sure.”
Eva sighed but nodded, opening her door to the Wisconsin air and stepping out of the car, Caleb following suit on the other side.
The small parking lot they were in was completely stranded except for their car and an old bike leaning against pretty much the only lamppost in the whole town. With every step they took, their shoes would squeak from the wet pavement below them, as a few scattered raindrops still fell from the sky.
“Um,” Caleb mumbled, his eyes frantically searching through the limited supply of shops.
“Kate’s Flowers, no.” Eva muttered, joining in on the search.
“Joe’s Auto Repair Shop, I don’t think so.”
“Johnson and Son’s Hardware, nope.”
“What about Smith’s Market?” Caleb called out, the small store at the end of the block catching his attention.
“Sounds perfect,” Eva agreed, hastening her steps as she changed directions towards the store.
“Kinda weird how they’re all named after people, huh?” Caleb asked once he caught back up to her, crossing the street from the parking lot.
“I think you mean kinda corny.”
“Yeah, but nice at the same time.”
She stopped her frantic almost run to the store and glanced back up at him, a curious expression on her face. “Yeah, kinda nice.”
They reached the door of the store moments later, immediately noticing that the lights were still on inside.
“Oh, thank god,” Eva groaned. “When does it close?”
“Midnight,” Caleb answered, noticing the times carefully stenciled on the glass door. “What time is it?”
“Four to twelve,” she replied already opening the door, a high pitched ding coming from a bell above her as she did so.
Smith’s Market was practically what it sounded like. A tiny store with about five aisles filled with cheesy cards, toiletries and of course food. Flyers covered the front of the store advertising everything from used cars for sale, to free babysitting. It had a very small town feel to it, even going so far as to have a large plaque with employee of the month on it.
“I’m sorry, kids, we’re closing in just a few minutes.” A large man came from around the corner as soon as they entered the store. He looked to be about middle aged, and it seemed like he hadn’t shaved in at least three days.
“We’re so sorry, but we’re from out of town, and this huge idiot here got us lost, and now we don’t have any food,” Eva began to blubber out, trying her best to convince the man to at least spare them a pack of gum.
The man just looked at her, his eyebrows inching up further on his forehead. “I’m sorry, but we’re closing.”
“Oh, come on, Dan. Give the poor kids a break, I’m sure they will only be a minute.” Another voice interrupted his, as a woman, who Caleb assumed to be Dan’s wife as she slid her hand through his, came from one of the aisles.
The man sighed, but decided against arguing with his wife, probably knowing she would win the argument anyway. “Fine, I’ll give you kids five minutes.”
“Thank you,” Caleb said, offering them both a smile, before dragging Eva away and into the first aisle before she could open her mouth again.
“Hey,” she protested as he finally let her arm go, disappearing to grab a basket.
“You were just going to waste our precious shopping time.”
She scowled but didn’t protest, instead turning her attention to the rows of food in front of her.
•••
After their allotted five minutes (and many arguments about what flavor of pretty much everything they should get), the pair found themselves getting their food rung up by the owner’s wife, who still had a perky smile on her face despite the time of day it was.
“Forty-five fifty,” she said after scanning the last item through. Caleb handed her a fifty before Eva could protest and dig through her bag.
“Hey, I could have gotten that,” she mumbled.
“You can get the next one,” he offered her a small smile, gathering up his change and one of the shopping bags.
“You two really make an adorable couple,” the woman noted, handing over the remaining bags.
Both of them let out a nervous laughter in response.
“Oh, we, we aren’t, like a couple or anything,” Eva stumbled through the words as a familiar blush crossed her face once more.
“Really?” The woman looked shocked, “you could have fooled me.”
“Well, we’re not,” she confirmed again, her voice a little more steady this time.
“Yeah, just friends.” Caleb joined in, inching towards the door.
“If you say so,” the woman laughed, already waving off their protests.
Caleb was about to defend their lack of dating again but decided against it. He feared there was nothing they could say to make this woman believe them. So instead they both said their thank yous to the couple before returning back across the street and to the parking lot.
Once safely inside the car, and already digging through the bags of food to subside their hunger, Eva let out a small laugh.
“Can you believe her? Thinking we’re dating, wow.”
Caleb nodded, a wide grin on his face, “it’s crazy I know.”
“We’re just friends,” she replied, shoving a pretzel into her mouth. “Just friends.”
A/N: Wow, so apparently it took me two months to update this book, very sorry for that. :/ But I do hope that you enjoyed this (semi long) chapter! I love getting feedback, so even if you are a silent reader feel free to just comment one word or vote, or whatever. I honestly love getting any type of response! :) Hope everyone is having a great summer and you aren't plagued with summer homework like I am.