“Take your time,” Tully murmurs to herself as I get in the car, pulling out my phone to drop it into the center console to find there’s already a coffee here waiting for me. My heart swirls, knowing it was Noah who would have thought of it.
“I wouldn’t have had to take my time if someone thought of giving me a little heads up,” I grumble right back at her as another yawn rips through me.
She kicks the back of the seat. “I did give you a heads up. It’s not my fault you’re a heavy as fuck sleeper.”
I roll my eyes then sit up a little straighter as a light switches on inside Rocko’s house next door. I spin around to face Tully. “No, no way. You didn’t invite Rocko, did you?”
Rivers’ head whips around to Tully before shooting straight back out the window, searching out Rocko’s place. “Fuck off. You better not have,” he growls. “If that fucker is coming, then Alyssa is coming.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Tully seethes at him. “I didn’t invite him, and for the record, if that slut is coming, then I’m out.”
“Yeah,” Rivers scoffs. “Because she’s the slut here.”
Tully’s hand whips across the backseat until it’s smacking Rivers in the chest. “Excuse me?” she demands. “What did you just call me?”
“You heard me.”
Fuck me. This is going to be a really long day. I better grab some painkillers before we go because by the end of this road trip, I’m going to need them.
“Will you two knock it off?” Noah snaps, dropping down into the driver’s seat and starting the engine.
“Dude, this isn’t a fucking good idea,” Rivers says, sounding as though this isn’t the first time he’s said it this morning.
“Why?” Noah snaps back at him with a raised brow. “Because you have a fucking hard time keeping your hands off my sister?”
Tully’s mouth drops open as Rivers’ eyes practically bulge out of their sockets. “Nah, man,” he rushes out. “No fucking problem there.”
“Good,” Noah grunts as Tully scowls across at Rivers. “We’ve got a long fucking trip and I’m not listening to you two fuckheads arguing the whole way. And for the record, none of your loser add ons are welcome. So, shut the fuck up and pretend like you give a shit.”
Their eyes sail back out their windows as the argument promptly dies.
Well, that shut ‘em up.
I beam at Noah. “And that’s why I keep you around.”
A cheesy grin cuts across his face as he reaches over and takes my hand, placing it on the gear stick with his sitting firmly on top, more than ready to get this trip over and done with.
“Fuck, can we stop?” Tully whines from the backseat five hours later. “I need to pee.”
“Seriously?” Rivers groans. “We’ve already stopped for your weak ass bladder three times. You couldn’t possibly need to pee again.”
“Well, if dickhead in the front didn’t wake me up so early, I wouldn’t have just finished my third coffee. Besides,” she adds with a scoff. “Don’t act as though you haven’t peed off the side of the road every time we stopped.”
“Shit,” Noah groans cutting off whatever Rivers was bound to snap back at her with as he looks up in the rearview mirror, probably to scold her. “Have you seriously drunk three coffees? I only bought extra large ones.”
“Tell me about it,” she says with a desperate little groan. “And my bladder is only big enough to hold one of them. So, hurry up and find another gas station.”
Rivers chuckles. “Have you been paying attention at all?” he grins, loving a chance to shut her down. “There’s no more gas stations for miles. If you gotta pee, it’s gotta be on the side of the road.”
“Fuck, no,” she screeches, searching out Noah’s eyes in the mirror. “Is he fucking with me?”
“Nope, sorry, Tullz,” Noah responds. “You have three options. You can either squat out by some prickly ass weeds, try to shoot it into a cup, or hold it. What’s it going to be?”
“You’re a fucking jerk,” she snaps as I press my hand over my mouth, desperately trying to hold in a laugh as to not anger the beast behind me. A resigned sigh comes sailing out of her. “Pull over,” she instructions Noah as Rivers howls with laughter.
Noah’s Camaro comes to a stop and Tully practically dives out of the car. She quickly looks around and it doesn’t take long to realize that there are no trees to hide behind, no divots in the land, no bushes, literally nowhere for her to hide. “Shit,” she groans. “You big bastards better turn the fuck around. If I catch either of you looking, I’m going to make the next twenty four hours a living hell for you.”
And this time, they know she means every single word of it.