A Little Off the Map

Highway 160

"You're lost," Manny said flatly. She wasn't surprised, but she was vaguely irritated, given that she'd been saying they should stop and ask for directions for the past four hours.

"I'm not lost," Jay insisted. He'd been saying that for the past four hours, too, and it had had just as little effect as Manny's mantra had on their current situation.

"Well, you don't know where you're going," she replied, flipping the glove compartment open in search of the map.

Jay reached over blindly and shut it, making her yelp and hurry to pull her fingers out of harm's way. "It's not in there. You've checked a million times."

"Well, it has to be somewhere," Paige chimed in from behind them. "You've only been driving for, like, a day of this whole trip. You can't possibly have messed up already."

"I think you're underestimating him," Manny remarked with a roll of her eyes.

"Someone is," Jay sing-songed, pinning her with a dirty look.

Manny huffed, but didn't bother to respond. She'd thought they were on okay terms after the joking stunt he'd pulled at the Grand Canyon, but he was seriously getting on her last nerve. There was no reason for them to have been driving in circles for so long. Any sane person would've given up by now and asked for help.

"I'm with the girls on this one, man," Sean voiced from the backseat. "I mean, last time I checked, Utah didn't have a lot of white water rafting to offer."

Jay snorted. "Last time you checked? You do a lot of research on the states in you day, Cameron?"

"Har dee har har. You know what I mean," the other boy responded. "We were supposed to be at the Colorado River five hours ago and, looking around, I don't even see anything that closely resembles a body of water."

"You're looking for the wrong kind of body, man." Jay shook his head. "Paige is right next to you, can't that keep you occupied for another couple hours? Or is she losing her touch?"

Paige slapped the back of his head lightly. "You don't know anything about my touch, you perv! Shut your trap."

"Ow," he complained, using both hands to shield any more blows. "I think I just felt it."

"Hey, hands on the wheel!" Manny shrieked, reaching out to grab on in case Jay's reflexes weren't up to speed.

"Calm down," he laughed, batting her hands away and taking control of the vehicle. She glared and opened her mouth to berate his lack of focus, then clamped it shut, trapping down a scream as he flew across three lanes and careened onto an exit.

A few death-defying moments later, they had slowed to a lawful speed and their heart rates had returned to a normal rhythm. Jay flicked the blinker on and cleared his throat. "Well. We're here."

Manny's head shot up. Her adrenaline was still pumping from the Nascar moment they'd just had and she was raring to go. "We are not in Colorado," she protested hotly, "And if you would get your head out of you're a-"

Jay interrupted her smoothly, "I never said anything about Colorado."

"It's on the list," five voices chorused.

"The list, the list." Jay made a gesture that showed exactly what he thought of the list. "That thing is running all of our lives. All due respect to your stepfather, Emma, but really. We need to do something that wasn't a dead man's dream."

There was a long, uncomfortable silence. Everyone was silently preparing themselves for Emma's inevitable outburst at Jay's insensitivity. She surprised all of them – herself included – with what came out of her mouth. "Maybe you're right, Jay," she acquiesced. "Maybe we do need to do something different. What did you have in mind?"

"Well, what better place for a pit stop," he proposed, grinning, "Than four places at once?"

XXX

The Four Corners – Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona

Paige immediately settled herself down on the ground and positioned her limbs so that they each lay in a different state. "Oh my God, you guys!" she exclaimed, dizzy with excitement, "I'm in four places at once! This is so cool!"

"You sound like a five year old," Jay informed her, but he sounded amused and he was already spreading himself out on the ground in a similar fashion. "And, look, I got us to Colorado after all."

"The bottom corner of the state doesn't count," she informed him. "But you might just earn points for this anyway. It's fun. And I could get a tan."

"Yeah, about that?" Craig stood over her and used his foot to nudge her midsection gently. "You can't just lay there all day, you know. Other people want to experience being ubiquitous, too."

"Big word, rock star." She beamed up at him. "Ms. Kwan would be so proud."

He made a face and nudged her again. "Move it or lose it, Michelchuk."

She relinquished her position to him just as Jay stood up, allowing Manny to take his place. Craig had only marveled for a minute before turning his head to the side and meeting Manny's gaze head on.

"Uh …" He fumbled for something to say. They'd been neatly avoiding each other the entire trip – it had worked out so nicely, in fact, that he'd begun to believe he would never have to face up to everything that had happened with her. "It's weird, isn't it?"

Manny wiggled her fingers and toes experimentally, inwardly in awe of how each resided in a separate area code. "Yeah," she agreed, tearing her eyes away from his. Despite everything that had happened between them, she could still get lost in the deep brown of Craig's gaze. "Weird."

Luckily, Emma saved them from any further awkwardness by offering Manny an outstretched hand. "My turn," she claimed, pulling the other girl to her feet. Manny mouthed a 'thank you' to her friend as she surrendered her spot.

At the same time, Craig switched with Sean and wandered off to check out the gift shop with the others. Hyperaware of Emma's close proximity, Sean settled himself on the ground and closed his eyes.

Emma took advantage of his temporary blindness to study him. She didn't remember the details of their drunken night in Vegas, but she knew she'd been terrible to him. Even if she hadn't retained any memory of it at all, she would've been able to tell by the wounded look in his eyes, the way he'd kept a careful distance at the Grand Canyon.

Strange, how Jay had chosen the Four Corners for his stress-relieving destination. It mirrored perfectly how Emma felt on a regular basis: in several conflicting states once and not being able to find the right words to say in any of them.

"How does it feel?" Sean questioned, turning his head and opening his eyes to peer at her inquisitively.

Shocked that he was initiating a conversation with her, Emma took a moment to answer. "It feels … like my life," she admitted with a mirthless chuckle.

Sean quirked an eyebrow, a habit he'd picked up from Paige. "Care to elaborate?"

Emma gestured to her prone position. "In a million places at once and I don't belong in any of them." He didn't say anything. "I'm sorry, you know?"

"For what?"

"For being so awful to you the other night." She shrugged, a little helplessly. "You didn't deserve it. You've been nothing but nice to me and I was … a bitch. A stupid, drunk –"

"You know," Sean cut in. His hand stretched across Utah and took hers in Colorado. Emma stared at their intertwined fingers, thinking it had to mean something that no matter how far away she felt, Sean could always reach her. "That's the first time you've ever apologized to me."

She smiled. "Guess this trip is doing at least one of us some good."

Sean stood, pulling her along with him, and pointed to the gift shop's entrance, where Paige was giving Jay a piggyback much to Manny and Craig's delight. "I'd say it's doing all of us some good."