American Vacanza

boys and headphones • madison

Fancy dinners always filled both my stomach and my heart - but after our dinner at Norman's, I was almost in a food coma. I was stuffed full of filet mignon, tiny green salads and miniature, decadent lava cake, and being in the car along a perilously bumpy highway was almost causing the seams of my tiny romper to burst.

Siena had slowly dozed off in the backseat, headphones clamped around her ears. It's just me and Ethan, I thought, my stomach tingling- but that could just be the filet mignon. Possibly the last time I'll be alone with him as a couple. The thought made me more nervous for my plan than ever. But nothing- and I did mean nothing- could ever change my mind about dumping at his aunt's and speeding away. He cheated on me. With my stepsister. Plus, it was questionable whether that kiss was consensual or not.

Therefore, he was literally getting dumped.

"Fine. Eating a lot of food always makes me tired. I can't wait to get to Aunt Eleanor's so I can finally get some rest," he yawned, taking his hands off the wheel for a second to stretch and yawn. "It'll be a nice break from the hotels, you know? Staying in an actual home, with someone we know?"

Figuring I should probably cut him some slack before we cut him from the trip, I tried my hardest to be gentle towards him. "Sure, buddy," I smiled, "sounds awesome."

The only problem was that my gentle side was probably some other people's coldhearted bitch side.

In my warmest voice, I said, "How about I drive? Then you can sleep if you want,"

"Babe, I don't want to sleep. I just want to spend every minute I have with you," He looked over at me, a look of pure sincerity in his eyes. Aww. It was almost like he hadn't shoved his tongue down my stepsister's throat without permission two days earlier.

Honestly, I'd felt like shit for keeping Ethan around after that. I may not like Siena, but he did something really shitty to her, and she probably felt like I didn't care about that. Well, I did, and Ethan would finally get what was coming to him tonight.

No. Wait. I couldn't let Ethan guilt me out of this one this time. I'd made a decision, deciding it was for the best, that Ethan was going to stay at his aunt's house. No number of sad puppy eyes could change that.

"Oh, I love you too, babe." My words came out sweet and innocent, like that chocolate cake we'd just eaten; but like the chocolate cake, I regretted them right after.

"I know where we are!" he said with a dumb smile. "Aunt Eleanor's is about an hour from here."

"Good," I said, quietly doubting that Ethan knew how to get somewhere. "Can you give me her address, though? I'll map it and see if we're going the fastest way."

"Good thought, babe. Here, take my phone - the password's 3984 - and go to my contacts."

I did just what he told me, then looked out in the rearview mirror at Siena, whose head was smushed against the window.

Her glasses (she'd lost her contacts, remember?) had fallen into her lap. Her headphones were still on, and the faint guitar riffs of a rock song were floating through the air around her. I would've thought a stuck-up priss like her would be more into Beethoven or something acoustic and lame, something like that, but I guess people could surprise you.

But those headphones. Those ever-present headphones. I never knew if she was listening to music or watching a movie or what, but they kept her from being social, from being present in the car. And if I was going to be stuck with just Siena in the car for the rest of the trip, I needed someone to talk to.

Those headphones had to go, and I suddenly realized that Ethan wasn't the only thing we'd be leaving at Aunt Eleanor's. In fact, I could use this one night to get rid of everything we didn't need!

Except the only things I could think of that had to go were Ethan and Siena's headphones. But anyway.

Just then, I heard a loud snore coming from Ethan's direction, followed by the car jerking into the next lane. "ETHAN!" I shrieked, grabbing the steering wheel and startling him from his quick slumber. "What the hell!?"

He woke up, however groggy, and grabbed the steering wheel. "Sorry, babe," he replied. "Guess I am a little tired."

"'A LITTLE'?! You almost killed us! We're lucky that there wasn't anyone right there at that time or we'd all be dead!"

"Look, it wasn't--"

"--The only reason I'm letting you keep driving is because you know how to get to your crazy aunt's house. But if there's one more incident like this, I'm punching her address into the GPS and letting that freaky robotic voice guide us."

"Fine, fine." His shoulders raised a little, and I could tell that if he wasn't driving (and if I wasn't watching his every move) he would be putting his hands up in surrender.

"Hey, I was sleeping in the car!" Siena realized. "I never sleep in the car! How did that happen?"

"I don't know, Sherlock," I replied.

"Whatever. I decided to take Naomi's advice and get ahead on summer reading for sophomore year, but I guess Romeo and Juliet made me fall asleep. It's like Shakespeare's sleeping pill or something."

I wanted to tell her that summer reading was for suckers. The teachers at our school never checked for it anyway. I would be a senior next year, and I hadn't done my reading assignment since the summer before freshman year.

"Great. We're about ten miles away from your aunt's house, so don't fall asleep again. God knows we won't carry you, -" although Ethan and I had just discussed it- "and we'll probably have to leave you in the car to sleep and then you'll suffocate and that won't be good. Besides, there's something I need to tell you when we get there."

"Why can't you tell me now?" she whined in the annoying voice. I hadn't heard it in a while - maybe it was just because Siena got so cranky when she was tired.

I looked over at Ethan. He wasn't really paying attention, but I couldn't risk telling Siena about my plan and having him overhear. "I'll just tell you at the house," I replied through gritted teeth.

"Whatever. Did you ever read Romeo and Juliet? It's sickening, and so cliche and boring. I mean, they're both so stupid, falling in love like that. If my parents wanted me to stay away from someone, I'd stay away, you know? And this whole star-crossed lovers thing is ridiculous. There's no such thing as the perfect man," she ranted.

I looked over at Ethan, whose heavy breathing could be confused with snoring; luckily, he was still awake. "You can say that again."

"Ethan?" she chuckled, the sarcasm grating through her voice. "Since when is he not the man of your dreams? Your one true love or whatever?"

"Hey!" Ethan shouted. "That was mean!"

"I'm sorry, babe. Glad you're awake, though. How far away are we now?" I wanted to get his mind off what we had just said about him, so I stared at the map on Ethan's phone and watched as the little arrow made its way down a little country lane.

"About thirty seconds away," he replied as we turned a corner to a street lined with quaint little houses. Siena watched with wide eyes as we pulled up in the driveway of a tiny house that in no way could house all of us in separate bedrooms.

"Ladies," Ethan said, turning off the roaring engine, "welcome to Aunt Eleanor's."