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When George Shaw tries to find a plan for the last fifteen days to spend with his best friend, who he's had a crush on for as long as he can remember, all he needs is a map to plot out a road trip and his daily h...
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"George."
I jolted awake with Abby's blurry voice. "Yeah?"
"Can you hand me my bag?" I gazed around and spotted it on the sofa. "It's probably on the sofa."
Taking it, I walked to the bathroom door. "Are you available?"
She muttered a yes, and the door opened a bit. The warmth hit me when she extended her hand out, waiting for me to give me her bag. I suddenly imagined the unreachable, the forbidden—and shoved the bag into her hand in embarrassment.
When I first planned this trip, with Abby and the great Route 66, I hadn't considered these details. Being alone with her for more than a few hours was too hard without untamed thoughts registering in my mind. My mind unconsciously traveled through her features, then arose inside me. Yeah, I was totally messed up.
When the door was shut again, I came back from my thoughts. Then, my phone vibrated in my pocket.
"Dude, where have you been?" It was Roy. He was seriously a pain in the ass.
"Here."
"I saw your post on Instagram. You're rocking this life, man. I wanna join you."
I didn't answer him. The last thing I wanted was him tagging along. My silence didn't affect him at the slightest, as he went on telling me the recent rumors. The hot topic was who got an acceptance letter from which university. I was still waiting for acceptance letters from several universities but I'd already received one from UC Santa Barbara.
The door suddenly opened, and Abby walked out, drying her hair with a towel.
I'd immediately muttered a bye to Roy and ended the call. I didn't want to spark a new conversation between them. I could see that my phone call—or my sudden hang-up—colored Abby interested, though.
In lieu of touching upon that subject, she put her hands on her hips and said, "Take a quick shower, and I have a surprise for you."
"What surprise?"
"That's the whole point, idiot. It's a surprise."
When she looked at me in disbelief, I figured out my only choice was to get ready as soon as possible and wait for her surprise. I literally ran into the bathroom and took the quickest shower in history. Putting on the first thing I found, I looked at myself in the mirror. I looked fine—cleaner and sort of better.
I swung the door open and found her sitting on the bed. When I took a step forward, the floor crackled so she tilted her head up. "Why did you dress up?" She asked, an amused grin forming on her lips.
"You said you had a surprise."
"Precisely. A surprise, not a date." My heart made a flip at the mention of the date, but I tried my best to hide it behind an eye roll.
