Chapter 35: Grand Canyon Kiss

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"I see my path, but I don't know where it leads. Not knowing where I'm going is what inspires me to travel it." – Rosalia de Castro

•••

Having to let go of our cabin in the mountains felt like saying goodbye to the life I never knew I wanted. Packing up our bags and tossing them into that insanely disordered trunk once more made me think about how different things were from the moment Della and I started traveling together. The first time I'd thrown my bag into the trunk of her car, I was disgusted by the mess, but when I looked inside this time, I felt a small smile well up inside of me.

Della's messiness was somehow endearing now. Just like so many other things about her that I'd hated before; her chipper attitude, her bubbly laugh, her affinity for clashing colors and ukulele music, her ability to make me think about things from a fresh perspective, her terrifying way of making me care...

"You ready?" I asked, closing the back of the Beetle.

Della stood at the foot of the steps to the front porch, staring longingly up at the cabin. It seemed lonely and lifeless now that we weren't living in it.

"Yeah..." she sighed, wrapping her arms around herself. "Let's go."

As she walked by me, she handed me the keys, and I didn't complain.

The drive down the side of the mountain was somber, to say the least. Della just curled up in the passenger seat, wrapped in my hoodie, and stared out at the side mirror to watch the view of our cabin slip away.

When the silence was too much for me to handle, I turned on the radio. This simple act seemed to snap Della out of it and she spun back around at me.

"The copilot gets to pick the music, Lovett."

I snorted. "Where was that rule back when I had to suffer through your weird K-pop music?"

"My car, my rules!" She grabbed her phone and began scrolling through her massive library of music.

"Whatever," I smiled. As long as she was happier and had a bit of that sparkle in her eyes again, that was fine by me.

•••

By Della's direction, we went through New Mexico and Arizona next, stopping only for bathroom and snack breaks. I found this odd because I would've assumed Della would have insisted on stopping to see the Grand Canyon and everything else there was to see in Arizona.

"Is it really a road trip across America if you don't stop at the Grand Canyon?" I asked, stopping at a red light.

"A road trip is whatever you make it, Jason." She slid her sunglasses down from her forehead to her nose. "Just like everything else in life."

"So you don't want to see the Grand Canyon?" I frowned suspiciously at her.

"I didn't say that," she smiled a little, stretching in the seat beside me. "But we actually do probably need to get to Cali before your big debut. How long have we been on the road anyway?"

I thought about it for a moment. So much had happened in the span of a few days, it felt like we had been traveling together for years on a trip that had no real beginning and no end in sight. All of my days had melted together and I couldn't count them up.

"I can't remember," I admitted. "It's been a few days though."

Della threw her bare feet up on the dashboard, leaned her seat back, and closed her eyes as though she was settling in for a nap. "Then we should probably zip. We can always come back later, right? We need to get you to LA. Take this next exit up here."

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