QUICK AUTHOR'S NOTE: If you're reading this, thanks for checking out my new story! I want to quickly state that the beginning might seem a little slow, but this story is different from my previous ones. So please don't assume this will be similar in many ways! Thanks, enjoy :)

ONE

"So, you're really leaving, huh?" Tianna said sadly, though still smiling as always. We've been best friends since kindergarten, and her smile made me miss her already.

"Yeah, I need to, you know that," I replied. Thinking about everything that's happened this past week caused silent tears to fall. Tianna hated that I was finally leaving the small town we grew up in, but she understood I couldn't stay in my house any longer. There were as many bad memories as there were good ones.

"I know, I'm just going to miss you so much, Sophia," she said, laughing crazily as we both cried.

"I'll be back to visit. I wouldn't just leave my best friend forever."

She nodded. "I wouldn't let you do that anyway. I'd track you down and yell at you. Remember when our mothers did that when we wouldn't stop playing hide-and-go-seek?" she asked. I nodded, crying a little more. It was hard to think about either one of my parents at the moment without breaking down.

"You weren't going to leave without me, were you?" someone said from behind me. I turned around and faced Kevin, my other best friend. Tianna and I became good friends with him when he moved to our small town in third grade, and have been ever since. Even through high school, we were inseparable. I even dated Kevin during our freshman and sophomore years of high school, but we realized we were better off just as friends.

"Of course not!" I answered, wiping the tears away as much as I could. Kevin wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into a tight hug. Tianna soon joined, making it a group hug.

I laughed and pulled away from them. "You'll be fine without me. You both went off to college and I stayed back, so you already know how to deal being away from me," I said, smiling softly.

Tianna rolled her eyes. "That's not true! You were always five minutes away from me, and Kevin was only twenty minutes from your house. Now you'll be like, what, a gazillion hours away? Where exactly are you going?"

I shrugged. "I don't know, wherever the roads take me, I guess."

"You don't know where you'll end up?"

I shook my head. "Nope, and I don't care. I'm just going to go wherever my heart tells me to go and where I can play my violin," I said.

My two best friends nodded. "Well if you get to California, make sure to visit Hollywood for me," Tianna said.

"I will."

"Yeah, try to get Megan Fox's autograph for me," Kevin joked. I playfully pushed him away.

"Oh, sure," I said sarcastically. After a moment of silence, I sighed. "I think I should hit the road."

Tianna instantly hugged me once again, and I hugged her back just as tightly. I hugged Kevin next, who kissed my cheek. Tianna started to cry again, but I refused to let anymore tears fall and prevent me from seeing the road.

"I'm not going to say goodbye because saying goodbye means going away, and going away means forgetting," I said, using the quote from Peter Pan, one of our favorite movies as children.

"We'll see you later then," Kevin said with a grin. I nodded and smiled back.

"Exactly, I'll see you later." I got into my car and shut the door. Rolling down the windows, I waved to them one last time.

"You better call us during your road trip!" Tianna shouted as I started backing out of the driveway to my foreclosed house.

"Of course I will!" I yelled back, beeping the horn before turning around the corner, starting my journey across the country. I'd miss them both like hell, but this was a trip I really needed to take; for myself and for my parents who were now together again somewhere in a better place.

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"I love you so much, Dad," I kept repeating, though I doubted he could hear me at this point. I sat next to his hospital bed, refusing to let go of his hand in these last hours of his life.

"You'll see Mom again though. You'll be able to see her long red hair and green eyes, just like we remembered them to be. She'll make you laugh, I'm sure, since she always had a way of uplifting any darkened mood," I whispered, unable to stop my tears from falling.

I woke up crying and scared at the unfamiliar surroundings. It took me a couple minutes to remember stopping on the side of the road sometime late last night. I wanted to keep driving, but it was probably better to get some rest instead of getting into an accident.

I wiped the tears away and got out to stretch. I pulled over on a somewhat deserted road, where a beautiful landscape of grassy fields surrounded me. I took out my violin from my car and began to play any song that came to mind.

I've been playing the violin since I was four. I've always loved the sound of it and the way the music makes me feel relaxed; like nothing in the world matters momentarily. Since I loved playing the violin so much, I was going to go to college for it. Except the issues with paying for college came up, and my father continued to get weaker with cancer. Therefore, I chose to take up two waitressing jobs to pay for his medical bills and help him around the house. I could see in his eyes that he hated my decision to give up going to college to do something I loved, but he knew he couldn't refuse my help, especially when he became too weak to do anything when his cancer progressed to stage four.

My mother died in a car accident when I was eight. Her death really destroyed my father and me, changing everything that we did. At first I wasn't affected by her absence, but as months passed, I began to miss my mother so much more. There was a time in middle school when her death really hit me, and I turned to harmful ways of letting out my frustration. Luckily, my two best friends helped me through everything.

My dad was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer a few years ago. At the time, we didn't have much money to visit the doctor, so when the chance to go in for a check-up came, it was too late. The doctors did as much as they could, buying my dad more time with me up until a couple weeks ago. Now, with nobody left but myself, I decided to leave the small town that held the memories of my parents' deaths. Years ago, my dad and I talked about going on a road trip to visit all the places my mother always wanted to go. We never did get to go on that trip, so I'm taking my own to visit unknown places that catch my eye.

I stopped playing my violin, finally calm enough to drive again. I put it in the back seat of my 1991 Volkswagen Fox; I'd need it when I get into town. My traveling plan not only included remembering the great memories of my parents, but I also wanted to play my violin for the world. My parents used to say that my music touches the hearts of whoever's in listening distance, which inspired me to keep playing. And, other than the inspirational factor of playing my violin, there was always the need for food and gas money along the way, so hopefully people could be generous enough to donate money.

Yes, I needed the money, especially for gas, because my crappy older car often has a problem with containing gas. There's probably a hole in the gas tank or something, though I never got it checked out due to my lack of money. I had a good amount of money saved up from my two jobs, except I wasn't sure how far I was traveling, so I don't know if it'd be enough.

I travelled for several hours more until the entire sky was dark. I finally pulled over when I reached a gas station somewhere in Ohio. Coming from New Jersey, it was a hell of a long drive already, and my crappy car needed gas yet again. I pulled into the gas station and put the pump in my car. Once I was sure the gas was pumping like it should, I walked into the connected store to get something to drink.

I was just about to grab the last cherry coke, when a guy took it before I could. He looked to be about my age, with dark brown hair and the bluest eyes I've ever seen. However, I didn't really pay too much attention to his appearance because he took the drink I wanted.

"I was going to get that," I said, reaching for it out of his hands.

He moved it out of my reach and winked at me. "Too bad I took it first then, huh?"

I gaped at him for a second before rolling my eyes and turning to grab another drink. I moved on to the aisle with chips. I reached for a bag of curly Cheetos, until the same guy took the bag I was about to grab. Luckily it wasn't the last bag. Otherwise I would've been pretty pissed off.

"Seriously?" I said in an aggravated tone. I rolled my eyes again and grabbed the bag behind it. After paying for my food and a map, I walked out of the store. Not paying attention to my surroundings, as usual, I looked down at the map to try to figure out where I was.

"Hey, what do ya got there?" one said, rather creepily I might add.

I smiled politely at them, not wanting any trouble. "Oh, just a map." I walked a little faster to my car, while the three men walked faster towards me. I wanted to avoid them, so I backed up instead, eventually getting cornered on the side of the store. Didn't anyone who worked at the gas station see these three, large, suspicious men walking towards an innocent twenty-year old?

"You don't need a map. You can just travel with us," another man suggested.

"Thank you, but I think I can figure it out on my own," I replied, avoiding their stares on my body. I tried sidestepping the third man on the left, but he caught my arm at the last second.

"You should really travel with us," he said, staring straight into my terrified eyes.

"Hey, what are you doing? Get away from her," someone said. Two guys were in the shadows, but I couldn't quite see their faces due to the flickering street light near us. All I could see was that they were much younger and skinnier than the three men talking to me.

"We were just talking to her. Do you have a problem with that?" the guy who was holding me tightly said as the two guys stepped towards me.

"Yeah, actually I do. Now let her go before I shoot you," one of the guys said, trying to intimidate the men. It did sound like he'd shoot them, and I guess the men decided to let me go. The man who was holding my arm pushed me away, into one of the younger guys. The street light flickered again, staying on this time though. I looked up at the guy who caught me from falling, only to see it was the same person who took my soda and bag of chips.

"You!" I said, pointing directly at him as I took a couple steps back.

"Are you okay?" the other guy asked me.

"You stole my soda! And my chips!"

"Actually, I paid for them with my own money, so I didn't steal anything," he said, grinning.

"So I'm guessing they didn't hurt you?" the other guy asked.

"No, I'm fine, other than this idiot taking the last of my favorite drink," I replied, starting to walk to my car.

"It's my favorite drink too," he said, walking beside me.

"I don't care. The point is that you took it when I was clearly reaching for it," I said, completely annoyed with him now.

"Hey guys, I got some chips—oh, who's this?" a girl with long blonde hair asked. Her smile was wide, and reminded me of Tianna's smile.

"We just saved her life," said the guy I was arguing with.

"You didn't save my life."

"We didn't? You looked in need of saving back there," he said with raised eyebrows.

"No, I was merely answering their questions politely. I would've returned to my car safely, even if you didn't show up," I said, obviously lying. Who knows what those three men would've tried to do if these two guys didn't show up? Of course I didn't want to admit that though.

"Well I'm glad you're alright! There seems to be some sketchy people around here, or at least that's what I've observed so far since we're not from around here," the girl interjected.

"Yeah, well I'm not from around here either. I'm just on my way to…somewhere," I said, unsure of how to finish my sentence since I didn't know where I was going.

"Would somewhere be California by any chance?" the blonde girl asked with a hopeful smile.

I shrugged. "I'm actually not sure where I'm going to end up," I answered, starting to walk to my car. I took the pump out of the gas tank and closed the nozzle.

"Well, you see, we're travelling too, but our van broke down a few miles back. We came here to see if we could get into contact with anyone willing to help us with our journey."

"You mean hitch hike," I stated, rather than asked.

"Pretty much. So, it would be pure awesomeness if you could help us out. We'll pay for gas as much as we can and food and anything else you need," she explained, practically begging.

I shifted from one foot to another. "Uh, I'm not sure. I don't really know you three…and you stole my soda," I said, narrowing my eyes at the guy with blue eyes. He rolled his eyes at me.

"Oh, I'm so stupid! I'm Chloe Roberts, that's Noah Peters, and that's Caleb Saunders," she said, pointing to the two guys. So, the guy's name who stole my food was Caleb.

"My name's Sophia Davidson," I replied.

"That's such a pretty name!" Chloe said, grinning. "So, what do you say? Can you drive us as far west as you can?"

I bit my lip, thinking if I should really help them out. They seemed nice enough, other than the smirking Caleb. They were about my age too, so how harmful could they be? "I don't know…I mean, I have my violin and luggage taking up some space—"

"You play the violin?" Noah interjected.

I nodded. "Yeah, why?"

"That's so cool!" Chloe exclaimed.

"Uh, thanks?"

Noah laughed. "She said that because we're musicians too. I play drums, and they play the guitar and sing," he said, gesturing to Caleb and Chloe.

"Oh, I see," I said, smiling softly.

"Will you please help us out? We could all travel and play music together!" Chloe said excitedly.

After much internal debating, I decided to go for it. Sure, I could possibly be risking my life, but after everything I've gone through, I think I can handle the adventure.

"Okay, I'll give you a ride," I finally said.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I hope you liked the first chapter! I wanted to let you all know that the character pictures are posted on my website, which is storiesbysavanna(dot)webs(dot)com. I only have the characters I know I'm going to use right now, so there may be more added later. Reviews of your feedback would be greatly appreciated!

~Savanna :)