“Okay,” he says, but he doesn’t sound too happy about it.
My phone beeps. Mom is calling me. “I gotta go, my mom is calling,” I say.
“Pack up and meet me at my house ASAP,” Ethan says. “Love you.”
“Love you,” I say, and then I switch over to Mom’s call. Even though I’m freaked out, I force myself to remain calm so she won’t worry. “Hey, Mom!”
Okay, maybe that was a littletoocheerful.
“Honey, have you seen the news? They called for a mandatory evacuation for Hockley. Now, don’t worry, it’ll be fine. I just talked to Mrs. Poe and she wants you to go with them to their hotel up near Dallas.”
“I know, Mom,” I say. “I just talked to Ethan.”
“Okay. Good.” Mom takes a deep breath. “Just stay with the Poes. They’ll know what to do. I love you, sweetie.”
“I love you too, Mom.”
I put my phone on the charger and then rush around my room, packing up my suitcase with what little belongings I have. I pretty much throw in all of my clothes, my makeup, and a few trinkets. Besides all of the brand new dorm room stuff, my entire life fits inside of my suitcase. I guess that tornado made sure it would be easy for me to pack up the next time Mother Nature decided to inflict her wrath on me.
I make my way through the house, turning off lights and locking the backdoor. In my parent’s room, I grab their stash of cash that’s hidden in Dad’s sock drawer. They told me about the cash, and said it’s for emergencies if I ever needed it. I figure I might as well take it in case some looters stay behind after the evacuation and rob empty houses. I open the drawer and reach for the cash. There’s only four twenty dollar bills in here. My chest tightens. I guess things are worse than I thought. Now I really regret letting Mom buy all the college dorm stuff for me.
I take one last glance around my parent’s room, but don’t see anything to take with me. In the kitchen, I take some bottled water and snacks for the road, and then I throw it all in my car.
My knees are wobbly as I drive. This whole thing feels so surreal. I look around at the houses I pass. People are boarding up windows, loading up cars. I wonder if everything will be fine when we come back home, or if it’ll be like one of those disasters I’ve only seen on television. In my life, we’ve evacuated for a few hurricanes, but only ever came back home to downed power lines and tree branches on the roads. Nothing major. I tell myself this will be one of those times. I have nothing to worry about, except the cancellation of my party.
Somehow, even though I know it’s stupid, that actually hurts pretty bad. I was counting on this party and now it’s over.
But at least I’ll get to spend a few days in a hotel with Ethan. We’ll hang out at the pool and sneak off at night and make the most of our last few days together.
The back roads are a little busier than usual, but I get to Ethan’s in about half an hour. His dad is helping him board up the windows, and they’re doing the last one when I pull into the driveway. All the porch decorations have been brought into the garage. Like the news said, if you leave something outside, it becomes a flying projectile when the wind hits it.
Ethan wipes his hands on his jeans and jogs up to me. “Hey,” he says with a little smile. He kisses me on the forehead and the warmth of his touch sends a little tingle down to my toes.
I wish we could stay like this forever, but, well, there’s evacuating to do.
The Poes are all packed up and ready to go. Mrs. Poe asks me three times if I wouldn’t rather just ride with Ethan in his big huge truck instead of drive myself, but I’m insistent that I want to keep my car. I can’t let anything happen to it, because we don’t have full coverage insurance and my parents can’t afford a new car with that eighty bucks they kept hidden in their sock drawer.
Dakota wants to ride with Ethan or me, but her parents make her ride with them. I promise her we can call each other and keep in touch on the drive, and Ethan says it’s only three hours so she should just read a book or take a nap.
We wave as Ethan’s parents and sister leave first. Then Ethan turns to me, putting his hands on my waist. “Are you sure you don’t want to ride with me?”
I slide my arms around him and hold him close. I take a deep breath and let the scent of his cinnamon gum fill my lungs. “Sorry,” I say, pulling back and looking up at him. “I have to make sure the car is okay.”
He frowns and then kisses me softly. I wrap my arms around his neck and press my lips to his and make the kiss last longer. I’m panicked about the storm and nervous about the drive and hoping my eighty bucks can pay for all my food so I won’t feel indebted to the Poes while we’re evacuated, but I try to shove it all out of my mind so I can focus on just Ethan and me. The feeling of us together, his warm body wrapped around mine. I love him so much it hurts, and right now the pain is almost unbearable. Despite this stupid hurricane and the cancelled party, I still have to deal with the future that comes after this. Ethan and I will be living far away from each other. And I’m going to miss him so much.
“I love you,” I say against his chest.
“I love you more,” he says, his chin resting on top of my head. I let go of him and take my car keys out of my pocket.
“Guess we better get going.”
He grins, his dark hair falling into his eyes. “Just three more hours and we can relax by the hotel pool. I looked it up online and it’s pretty big. Has a hot tub and everything.”
I smile back. Maybe we can’t have the party, but we can have fun together somewhere else. “See you in three hours.”
