Jodi
“I still can’t believe I have to go back without you,” Amber groans from the passenger seat of my car. “It’s not fair.”
Hope Peak, Montana is a long drive from Seattle but my hometown of Crescent Ridge, Colorado is even farther. Amber’s house wasn’t directly on the way, but best friends got to stick together.
Especially since she’ll be going back to college on her own for the spring semester.
“You could’ve finished early too,” I remind her. “You were only short a couple of credits.”
“I want to enjoy college,” she replies as she fiddles with the heat dial. We’re both bundled up because the heat doesn’t work. It cranks out just enough warmth to keep my windshield from freezing over and that’s it. Or it might be our body heat doing all the work.
Amber was smart. She has her coat on, but I left mine at the college. It was right there on the hook by the door. I just had tograb it. Insulated, thick and trimmed with faux fur. It was made for mountain winters.
I didn’t realize I forgot it until we were an entire state and several hours away.
“I’ve missed the mountains,” I confess as the miles tick down to Hope Peak.
“You sound like my dad.”
“Shut up.”
It’s been a long day. We left the apartment we rented in Seattle at five in the morning and it’s already past seven at night. Bathroom breaks and stops for gas easily turned a twelve-hour road trip into more.
“Home stretch,” Amber says with a heartfelt sigh as we pass another sign.
Easy for her to say. I’m only spending the night in her hometown before I continue on to Colorado. It’ll be nice to see her family, but I have a Christmas deadline to meet. My brothers bet that I wouldn’t make it home for the holiday. If I do, they’ll pay the first month’s rent on my next apartment. If I don’t, they get the right to name my first born. It’s a silly bet but that’s my family in a nutshell. I’ve got four days to make it home and that’s plenty of time. James and Jeremy can suck it.
My car makes it to a steep incline when the engine begins to stutter. It’s made similar sounds before but this time it doesn’t recover. It dies on a long stretch of snow-covered road.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I shout slamming my hand down onto the steering wheel.
“I’ll call my dad,” Amber offers. “He’ll get us towed to town.”
A second later she frowns down at her phone.
“Do you have service?”
Looking at my phone, I wince.
“No.”
We both groan but there’s only one solution. We can’t sleep in the car overnight without heat and we can’t hope someone else is driving up to Hope Peak in the dark. We’re going to hike to town.
“At least you’re dressed for it,” I mutter as a bitter wind cuts through my sweater.
“Ten miles in the snow,” she mutters back. “You were right, we should’ve flown home.”
Shivering in the cold, I want to agree with her. But I can’t. Amber and I have been inseparable since our freshman year. Now she’s going to finish her senior year in Washington while I start working in Colorado. This was our last hurrah. No matter how we finish the final leg of our trip I can’t regret making one last college memory with my best friend.
“No, this was our last college road trip together. The drive was a good idea.”
“Until now.”
“Until now,” I agree.
We don’t get fifteen feet before the warm steady rumble of an engine comes up behind us.
Reid
