I’m shaking my head before he finishes. “No, I’m fine. I’m sorry I fell asleep. I can take a shift if you want to sleepin the back?”
Thomas also shakes his head. “Nope. I’m good.”
I narrow my eyes.
He chuckles. “Seriously, I’m fine. I had two cups of coffee before we left, and I’m used to nights of no sleep. This is a walk in the park.”
“Sure,” I say sarcastically. Yeah, I’ve done night shifts with no sleep, too, but that doesn’t mean driving with a lack of sleep is easy.
“Do I sense some sass from you, Hannah?”
“Nope.”
“Sure,” he drawls, returning my earlier comment. “You up for some music now?”
I shrug. “I guess, but radio stations suck. Where are we, anyway?”
“Passed through Ankeny, Iowa while you were asleep, so we have about seven hours left according to the GPS.” Thomas reaches into his front pocket and pulls out a small silver item. “I grabbed this at the last second since I figured we’d want music, and I agree, radios suck.”
He holds out the older version of an iPod for me to take. “I haven’t had an iPod since high school,” I respond. “Do you really still use this?”
“No,” he says with a chuckle. “I’m old, but I’m not that old. I use my phone for music, but since neither of us have ours, I figured I would grab this.”
I plug the device into the adapter, and it powers on. I scroll through some of the music, finding a lot of old rock and country on here.
“Finding anything you like?” he asks after a minute.
I’m about to say no when I find something particularly funny. Without saying a word, I press play. The first notes fill my ears, and I carefully watch his reaction,unsure of what I’m looking for, but knowing there’s a reason behind this song being on his iPod.
“What is this?” he questions, his brows furrowing before a bright red creeps up his neck, even the tips of his ears flushing as he realizes. “Shit, is thisGlee?”
I burst out laughing, perhaps the lack of sleep and stress making me a bit punchy, but never in a million years would I have expected Thomas to have not one, but multipleGleesongs on his iPod. “Yes,” I shriek.
Thomas groans, “Dammit, Marley.”
“How is this her fault?” I question through laughter as the song continues to play. “Thomas, this isn’t even like a popularGleesong that everyone knows was onGlee. This is aGleedeep-cut!”
“Marley used to make us watch it with her! I can’t help it if some of the songs are good, Hannah!”
“I never said they weren’t good, I just never expected you to have them on your iPod,” I laugh. It feels good to laugh so unabashedly. The last—not even twelve hours—have been so chaotic and anxiety ridden that I needed this.
The song ends, and my body lags again. I’m so exhausted, but I know I can’t sleep anymore. One, it’s not fair to Thomas to expect him to drive the whole way. Two, I don’t know if my brain will be able to relax again. It did before, so maybe it will, but at the same time, I don’t want to sleep. What if I fall asleep and something happens? What if they’ve been secretly following us the entire time and choose the moment I fall asleep to attack? Cause an accident or something worse?
A shiver rocks through my body, and I try to stop the spiral. I focus on the music instead, throwing an old country album on.
19
HANNAH
The drive is tortuously long. It doesn’t help that both Thomas and I are so brutally exhausted that we can barely think straight. We don’t talk much, only singing along to songs that play from his old iPod.
When the GPS says there’s an hour of the drive left, the Suburban following us flashes their headlights at us, veering to an exit and leaving us to our own devices.
Not long later, we take an exit off the freeway and drive onto side roads, passing through small town after small town, until finally we end up on a seemingly endless gravel road.
When Elena said we’d be in a remote location, she wasn’t kidding. I haven’t seen another house or even another car now in over ten minutes, the only thing my eyes can see is trees and woods. Arson has his head smashed against the window, his slobber all over the glass as he watches for animals.
“In eight hundred feet, turn left,” the GPS voice announces, and I can finally see a structure in the distance. Thomas turns onto the road, and we continue. Nervesbubble in my belly. What if the people hosting us are horrible people? Are we staying in their house? I never thought to ask specifics, but now, it’s all I can think of.
