I finish packing, stand back and look at the jumbled mess in my suitcase, wondering if I was going to be too hot or cold or if I’d packed too much or not enough. So I do what I always do in times of confusion like this and ring Ruby, my best friend and planner of this roadtrip/excuse to spend 6 days down the coast and get absolutely wasted as often as possible. After 4 or 5 rings she answers with “Oh my god, please help me, I don’t know how much to pack or what to pack” “Yeah, I have the same problem. I rang you to ask your help.
“Why me, you’re the smart one”
“Haha, I don’t know. Anyway, what time are we leaving? And who’s driving”
“Seths bringing around his big van thingie to mine at 4.” I checked the clock, 12:15. “That thing? Wasn’t that in pieces on his front lawn like, 2 weeks ago? I wouldn’t trust it to get us to the shops, let alone a 7 hour drive away”
“It was, but he worked his boy nerdy stuff and suddenly the cars in one piece and works fine”
“Yeah, sure, bet you it’ll die on the way. Ill be at yours at 3 or so”
“Yep, cya”
I hang up and think about who’s going. Ruby and Seth, my 2 best friends, even though Seth goes to a different school, Anthony and… Ray. That’s the one. Two of Seth’s friends, I’d briefly met them both and they seemed pretty nice. One of them was cute, but I forget which one. I think two more of Ruby’s friends are coming, she mentioned they might be but I don’t know if she said what their names were. Oh well. We’ll see.

I eat lunch and contemplate the possibilities of the week. I remember Seth saying something about tents. “Fuck!” I yell, ‘Tents! Ew, leaking water and claustrophobia and bugs and hard ground… the list is endless!’ All that’s running through my mind is ‘If it rains, the car is MINE.’ Then I realised its Seths car. That thing probably leaks twice as much as the tent, would be less comfortable and have more danger of falling down a hole in the seat or something. I decide I’d rather have the chances of being eaten by a bear then sleep in that thing. I finish lunch, put the plate in the sink and walk into the bathroom and look at myself in the mirror before stepping into the shower.

Ray

I roll over, look at the clock and the blurry neon numbers on the clock. “…Two… thirty three…” I mumble. “FUCK! I SHOULD BE READY!” I jump out of bed and look around for some (clean-ish) clothes. Hey, if I haven’t seen it in over 5 days, even if I find it on my floor, I can pretend its been washed. I throw on some black jeans and an unironed shirt and start to rummage through my wardrobe for a suitcase I’m sure I put here last time I needed one…
Finally I find a suitcase, throw some stuff into it and hope its clean, run into the bathroom and grab some soap and toothpaste and chuck that in there too. 10 minutes later and I’m running out of the house, suitcase and a couple of pieces of toast in tow. I chuck my suitcase into the back seat, jump into my car with tousled hair and sleep clad eyes and start driving. I stop outside her house (her, what was her name, Crystal, Sapphire, something like that) and see that Seth’s van (if that’s what you can call it) was already pulled up. I breath a sigh of relief, not in the mood for awkward conversations outside someone’s house to start off the week. Before I get out of the car I look out the window at who’s already sitting on the verandah, trying to suss out my company for the week. I saw the blonde one, who owned the place, the Crystal or whatever and another girl I’d already met, the cute one with the black hair… ummm… Evie. I get out of the car and slowly walk up the path. I step up onto the verandah and say hi to Seth, all the time watching Evie out of the corner of my eye, trying to see if she acknowledged my arrival in any way.

Obviously not.