"Yup."
"Hm."
"Can we not afford it in gas?"
"No, no, we have enough money. But are you sure we'll be able to survive that long in a cramped car with Ed, Selena, and our little siblings?" Angela laughed and shook her head, "It'll be fine. Besides, it won't be cramped, we have two extra seats, remember?"
"Ha!" I shook my head, "Take into consideration the suitcases that will be brought along. Especially by Selena." Angela laughed, "Oh. Right."
"Portland?"
"Yea." My mom bit her lip, snapping her fingers nervously. I felt my heartbeat quicken. Was she thinking about saying no? ...Would I be happy if she did? "Ok," she said, "I'll think about it. Butyou have to ask your father, and I want to know that there will be a responsible driver." I nodded, "Ed Drawe is gonna be driving. He's pretty much the most cautious person in the universe behind the wheel. And he has enough natural energy to supply a factory's worth of Red Bull. No falling asleep behind the wheel for that one." I felt a bizarre surge of happiness when she bit her lip again. Before, I would have just wanted to get this over with. I would have rejoiced in how little fight she put into stopping me. Now, I treasured her every hesitation. Then she sighed, as if in defeat, "Alright," she said, "You can ask your father."
My dad was, surprisingly, harder to convince than my mom. He shook his head, saying he never would have trusted himself behind the wheel at my age, let alone some boy he didn't even know. But, after a bit of coaxing and reassuring, I was able to convince him, and the plan was set in stone. I was so excited...I almost forgot about my birthday.
But not quite.
"So, um," Angela said as I took her hand and helped her into the tree house, "My parents Ok'ed the trip, after a bit of coaxing." I grinned. I was glad it had taken coaxing. Maybe her parents would, gradually, learn to be parents again. "I was just wondering," she continued, looking away from my face as she sat down next to me, at her shoes, as if checking to see if they were still tied. "Yea?" I asked, narrowing my eyes a bit. She looked at me and widened her eyes a tiny bit, in the most suspicious way possible, "What brought on this idea?" I rose my eyebrows, "You mean the road trip idea?" She nodded, her eyes still widened a little bit in that innocent-Tweety-Bird kind of way. I pursed my lips a bit, "Well, I was sort of over Selena's ideas of excursions, but there was no way out of them, so I figured we might as well make a big excursion, occupy ourselves for a while. Put off a few mall visits." Angela pursed her lips right back at me, "Why now, though?" I tipped my head slightly and then leaned it back, "Because Selena's schemes were getting on my nerves?"
"You phrased that as a question."
"Very good observation." I tipped my head and grinned at her, and she smiled slightly and shook her head. "You know what," she said, sighing and looking up at the clouds, "I'm going to leave it alone." I rose my eyebrows, "Really." She nodded, laughing, "Yea. Really." I smiled and leaned towards her, kissing her cheek. She closed her eyes and smiled, and I smiled back. I lay down on the wood and pulled her onto my chest. "So," I said, "What's in Portland?"
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