Part 1: Prelude to a Long Summer

She was seated next to me sound asleep, in the middle of the backseat of the car. I kept trying to will her head onto my left shoulder, but apparently she was unable to receive my telepathic messages I was sending her.

Note to self: Don't watch Star Wars while on Vicodin. It seriously messes you up for life. No matter how hard you try, you cannot use the force.

Her long black hair fell over her shoulders, some of it traveling over to mine. I could smell the shampoo as the car came to a stop sign.

"Are you sure you know where you're going?" said Maggie to Jack, snapping me back into reality. I leaned over to the front seat so as to get a peak at what the two of them were arguing over. There were little red marks on a map. The only reason it really mattered was so we could get to the hotel. Otherwise, California's a straight shot ahead. I tried to stay attentive toward the two of them, but I was mostly distracted by Cory and Faye.

It's not that I've ever really disliked Cory. At least I've tried not to. How can I find fault in the one person who used to stand up for me when I'd get picked on back in middle school? The one friend who's stuck by me all these years. The closest I've ever been to having a "best" friend, or a "close" friend. For a long time I thought I was his best friend, but as time went on, he seemed to find closer friends who shared more interests with him than I did. I can't really blame him, though, as we've become more and more different from each other, our conversations have begun to get tiresome more quickly.

I can't hate Cory, but it's hard to like him when he's got his unconscious head slumped over onto Faye's shoulder, his hand covering her kneecap.

My heart palpitations ended probably about 20 minutes into the car ride. I can't really ascertain that fact. Time flies by quickly when you're with good company. I wonder if Faye could feel my heart beat, too. I wonder if she knew it was for her.

Thinking about the time once more, I leaned over to check the clock. Though it said 9:30, we had passed two time zones since beginning our trip from Ohio, so it was probably around 7:30 Mountain time. Or perhaps we were still in Central time? I've never been quite sure where the time zones started and stopped. All I knew was that by this point of the trip we had made it to the eastern edge of Nebraska.

Part of me couldn't wait to get to the hotel, to stretch my legs out and walk around for a while. But that would also mean I wouldn't have Faye adjacent to me.

I suddenly realized I was overheating. I've been overheating for probably the past hour. Funny how having an active mind can make one completely oblivious to his or her own physical condition.

"Hey, could you turn on the air conditioning?"
"I will at the next gas station. I don't want to run out of gas," Jack responded.
"We should've stopped at that one five minutes ago. If we run out of gas and I can't get any cell phone reception, you're doing the walking," spouted out Maggie.
"We'll be fine. The gas level isn't even halfway through the red yet," replied Jack, "you always think something bad's gonna happen, and it never does.

I leaned back, as to take my head out of the line of fire between the two of them. I grabbed the bottle of water between my feet, hoping there was still a bit left. I lifted it up, but to not much avail. A couple warm drops of water entered my mouth, but didn't refresh me in the least.

As I put the bottle back down, Faye's breathing pattern shifted to a yawn, as she batted open her deep brown eyes. She carefully stretched her arms out, so as not to awaken Cory.

"I'm sorry, did I wake you up?"
"No, I've actually been drifting in and out of sleep for a bit now."
"Mm."

I leaned my head back to the Buick's shoddy excuse for a head rest. I wanted to slump over onto Faye, but I knew that was inappropriate. Instead, I just craned the back of my head toward her, to appear as if I were watching the sun sink into the mountains ahead.

She had to have at least an inkling of how I felt for her. I couldn't imagine her not even noticing at least a slight change in my presence when we'd make eye contact, or how fast my heart rate was when she would hug me upon greeting.

She always told me that I was a good hugger. That's because I wanted to make any embrace as special to her as it was for me. Hell, in the two years that I'd known her, Faye putting her hand on my shoulder felt more intimate to me than any contact I'd ever had from any other woman.

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As Jack had predicted, we made it to the next gas station without any problem. Even Cory was awakened by the stop. I tried not to watch as Faye smiled at him, and kissed him on the lips. I had to get up and get out of the car, following Maggie into the convenience store to distract myself from that other distraction. Faye and Cory stayed in the car. Jack was at the pump.

I made my way over to the juice and tea section. So many choices. Snapple, Tazo, Fuze, SoBe, and that god-awful Honest Tea. I remembered trying Honest Tea with Faye when we were on break, and we both agreed that it was awful. We'd always try different iced teas our store sold whenever we had break together. We were kind of like Tom and Ray Magliozzi or Ebert and Roeper, except judging iced teas instead of cars or movies.

Faye's favorite was Fuze white tea, but I preferred peach Tazo, myself. I decided I'd get myself the Fuze, and maybe Faye would want to share it. Then I realized Cory wouldn't want his girlfriend sharing germs with some other dude, so I got one for her too. Not to look suspect, I got a Dr. Pepper for Cory. Maybe Faye wouldn't want to kiss him if his breath smelled like cola, which I always found to be an awful stench.

After accidentally dropping the Dr. Pepper on my way to the counter (thank god for plastic bottles) and getting my usual verbal lashing from Maggie, I made my way back to the the car, where Faye was waiting with the other guys.

Faye opened the door for me as I approached the car, and scooted back to the middle seat. She flashed me the most politely sublime smile one could imagine and said, "thank you," as I handed her the Fuze and passed the Dr. Pepper to Cory.

"Hey, no one got me anything to drink!" remarked Jack.
"I'm sorry, I forgot. I figured Maggie would've covered you"
"Don't pass the blame on me," she retorted.

Jack ran into the store quickly to pick up a soda. Faye opened her bottle, and sipped the tea through those perfectly shaped lips of hers. Before I knew it, we were off.