"New York!
Concrete jungle where dreams are made of
There's nothing you can't do."

Troy was singing in his falsetto. I watched him, amused, as he drove over a bridge into the city. We had a late start this morning due to both of our hangovers. I puked my guts out. Troy was fine, he just had a bad headache. We rested a little bit and drove after lunch into the city.

We were going to find a hotel then I had to go to the bank to take out some more cash. We found a descent hotel and Troy took our stuff up to the room. We changed into something nicer and Troy walked with me to the bank because the car was in the Valet Parking garage. We didn't have to drive, everything was a block or a train ride away.

"We need to do laundry." I said, looking over at Troy.

"I think there's a Laundromat around here." Troy said, kissing my forehead.

"We'll look after I get money out." I said, walking up to the ATM with Troy.

Troy stood next to me, facing the street as I punched my pin number in. "New York. Concrete jungle where dr-"

"Troy, you're not Alicia Keys." I reminded him

"You're just hating on my falsetto." He grumbled.

"Weird." I said looking at my account balance.

"I'm not weird." Troy stated.

"No not you." I said, distractedly.

"Then what?"

I didn't reply, I just pulled 200 out and got my card and receipt back. I handed the money to Troy to put away. I pulled out my cell phone and called my dad. "Hello?" He answered.

"Hey Dad, it's Gabi." I said.

Troy just watched me confused. "What's going on?" He mouthed.

I held a finger up as we made our way back to the hotel. "Oh hey, how is your road trip?" He asked.

"It's going good. Hey, did you um, wire money in my account?" I asked.

"Your mom let me have the information and I wanted to make sure you had enough money to get you through the trip." He said. "I hope you don't mind."

"I don't mind, I was just wondering where the extra money came from." I said. "You could have called."

He coughed. "I've been meaning too but I've been working a lot lately and Aaron is finishing up his baseball. Honestly it slipped my mind."

"Hey, it's no problem. I was just freaked out because I was expecting it to get smaller, not bigger." I said laughing. "Well I'll let you get back to work."

"Alright, but for the record, where are you now? Incase Phoebe asks, and she will ask." Dad said.

I laughed again. "New York."

Dad chuckled. "Alright, we'll talk soon."

"Bye dad."

"Bye." He said, hanging up.

"What was that about?" Troy asked me.

"He put like 25 hundred in my account." I said. Troy pulled me closer to him and dropped a kiss on top of my head.

"Damn." He said.

"He just keeps giving me money. Aaron is going to be a spoiled little brat in a couple of years if he treats him like this too." I said. Troy opened the door for the hotel lobby. "Thanks." I said, walking in first.

"I'm sure Phoebe won't let him spoil her son." Troy said.

"Hm, maybe." I shrugged. Troy and I took the elevator up to our room and grabbed our dirty clothes, stuffing them into hotel bags. I just took everything out of my suitcase. We headed down the street to the Laundromat when we finished gathering our dirty clothes. I got a lot of quarters and started on my first two loads. Troy just threw his stuff in with mine.

"You're not going to shrink it right?" He asked, sitting on a stool watching me do his laundry.

"Do you want to do it?" I asked, looking back at him.

He smiled, watching me. "No."

"Then don't complain." We took up two big washers and a smaller one with all of our clothes.

I took a seat next to Troy and he held my hand. "I've been thinking about something."

"What's that?" I asked him.

"I want to go to Europe, like my mom wanted. Go backpacking. I think that would be kind of cool." He said quietly, looking at our hands.

"I'm sure Berkeley has a study abroad program." I said, looking at him. "That would be really cool. I've never been to Europe."

Troy nodded. "Me either. I think the flight would be killer though. Isn't it like 14 hours?" He asked me.

I shrugged. "Not sure."

"Go to the Eiffel tower, Go see Pompeii, Rome, Greece, Germany, Spain. All the places that you always see on the discovery channel but would never be able to go to." He said. "Mom always watched the discovery and travel channels… more so when I was younger. She'd always say 'we're going to go there one day.' She never got the chance to."

I squeezed his hand. I knew he was missing his mom pretty bad still. "You know she was always so proud of you. She'd be happy you'd be moving on with your life but we know that she's always in your heart. She's looking out for you, making sure you have a smooth ride here on out."

He kissed my hands and leaned against me. "She did give me you."

I smiled at him. "And she gave me you." I kissed the top of his head, hugging his face into my boobs.

I could hear him laughing. "As much as I enjoyed that, I can't breathe." I laughed, giving him a quick kiss. "Since you're not doing anything can you walk across the street and get some Chinese food?"

"I guess so." He said sighing.

I ginned. "Thank you."

He hopped off the stool, gave me a quick kiss and walked across the street. I watched the clothes swirl around in the washing machine. There was still a good ten minutes. They should be in the dryer by the time Troy came back. When I heard the dryer buzz I put the first cycles of clothes in two dryers. I did the same to the second and the third just needed one dryer. I felt like we were taking over the whole small Laundromat.

We were the only people in there except for a man sleeping up front, the worker and the woman in her thirties washing her kids clothes. Troy came back as I was putting quarters in the last machine. "I bring the food." Troy said.

"Oh good." My stomach growled, I was starving.

I turned on the machine and walked over to Troy. We took our seats and talked while we ate our food. I threw my garbage away and started folding the clothes that were dry. Troy helped as well. We bought a couple of bags to take our stuff back. We walked back to the hotel with our clean clothes and we set them back in our suitcases.


My stomach was starting to hurt. It was only like that when I ate too much fast food. Which we've been going on a McDonalds run at least once in three days. I didn't think much of it. I laid down to sleep but I couldn't just yet. Troy was out just fine. I cuddled up next to him and finally fell asleep.

I woke up with the urge to puke. I rushed over to the bathroom and barely made it before I emptied the contents of my stomach out. Once my puking had finally calmed down I felt like I needed to shit. I only had food poisoning one other time in my life and I don't remember it being this terrible. So much for having a good time in New York.

I sat on the toilet and held the trash bin between my legs because I was starting to get the urge to vomit again. "Babe, are you alright?" Fuck. I can't believe he woke up.

"I'm fine, go back to-" I vomit rose up my throat, making it's way into the bin I was holding. Troy opened the door. Dear god, I was so embarrassed. "Get out."

Troy frowned. "Gabs, it's okay."

"Please… just-" I shut my eyes tight. I wasn't even throwing up food anymore, it was just stomach acid now. It burned all down my throat.

"I'm going to get you some water." He said, walking out of the bathroom.

I just wanted to sleep. I was so tired. I was finally done shitting all over the god damn place… or atleast that's what it felt like. My stomach was finally settled for now. I cleaned myself up. I made sure there wasn't vomit on the floor. I brushed my teeth the best that I could and I laid down on the bathroom floor. I curled up and fell asleep.


"I don't know, dad. Maybe Chinese food." I heard Troy say from a distance as I was waking up. "She's definitely sick… I don't know what to do. She didn't drink any water, she just passed out on the bathroom floor…. I guess, we were planning on staying here for a while… I will… thanks."

I didn't here the rest of the conversation because I got back on the toilet. I didn't even bother closing the door. I grabbed the trash bucket which Troy cleaned I guess, it was lined with extra liners. I didn't really get to see them because I started throwing up again.

I felt like complete shit. I didn't even want to think about anything except going to sleep. I looked up while I tried to catch my breath to see Troy standing in the doorway. I turned back to release whatever was left in my stomach. Troy rubbed my back. I was thanking god I put my hair up before this all happened.

"Just let it all out." He said quietly.

"I just wanna sleep." I said tiredly.

"I know, baby, I know." Troy stayed with me for a minute until I stopped throwing up. He took the liner out of the bucket to throw it away. I just rested my head in my hands.

I cleaned myself up again, splashing cold water on my face. I brushed my teeth and headed over to the couch. "Tired, so tired." I said, zombie like, as I passed Troy.

"Why don't you go get in bed?"

"Noo." I said, laying on my back on the couch. "I'm gross."

Troy chuckled. "Baby it's fine. Go lay on the bed."

"No. I'm going to sleep now." I told him, rolling over.

"I'm leaving the bucket by the couch in case something happens." He kissed the top of my head.

"Thanks." I grumbled.

I fell asleep on the couch and I don't know where the hell Troy went but when I woke up I felt better. I didn't feel like vomiting or eating. I stripped my clothes off and took a long shower, it felt good being under the water and getting that sick feeling off me. I just braided my hair and put some comfortable clothes on. I pulled the couch out into a bed and found a mattress topper in the closet. Thank god for expensive New York Hotels. I covered it with a sheet and laid on it, turning the TV on.

It wasn't quite as comfortable as the normal bed, but it'll so for now. I heard the door clicking open and Troy grinned at me as he walked in. "Hey Beautiful, are you feeling better?" He asked.

"A little bit." I said, I noticed the grocery bags in his hands. "What'd you get?"

"I got you some no salt saltines. I called your mom, she said you like the ones with no salt better cause they don't make your tongue feel weird and I bought you some soup in a can, but you don't have to eat that if you don't want to. I also bought you some pedialite because you're probably dehydrated. You need something to get you going and I bought things for me to eat in this awesome hotel microwave." He said showing me the products he bought.

I smiled at him. "Thanks Troy. You're the best. Can you give me a cracker to see if I can eat it without throwing it back up?"

He nodded, dropping the stuff and opening the box of crackers. He pulled out a couple from the package and handed them to me. I took a bite of one and it felt okay as I chewed it slowly. I ate the first cracker and my mouth felt really dry. He was already one step ahead of me, giving me the pedialite bottle.

He took the rest of the stuff into the little mini-sort-of-not-really kitchen. I took a small drink and started on another cracker. Troy climbed in the couch bed with me. "Why aren't you in the big bed?" He asked, kissing my forehead to see if I had a fever.

"I don't want to get all the gross germs in there."

"They wash the sheets, you know." Troy said chuckling.

I gave him a soft smile. "I know, but still." I took another sip after my second cracker and decided I was done. I gave the remaining crackers to him and the bottle of pedialite. "What'd my mom say when you called her?"

"She was worried about you but I told her I felt fine and I would take care of you. She said we should just come home but by the time we got home you'd be fine." Troy said softly, looking at the TV.

"I just want to sleep all day." I said tiredly, leaning my head against his chest.

"You have been sleeping all day. It's almost five o'clock." Troy snuggled against me, putting the crackers in his mouth. He set the pedialite on the stand next to the couch.

"Thank you for taking care of me." I said, laying against him.

"Just returning the favor baby."


The next day I felt much better. I still couldn't eat a lot because my stomach was messed up but we decided to go out. We wanted to go do New York tourist-y stuff. We decided to go take a ferry to the Statue of Liberty. That was not a very good idea on a queasy stomach but once we were off the boat I felt fine. We got stuck in traffic and we walked through Central Park. I've grown to love New York, especially when I'm here with Troy.

The next night we walked around Times Square and tried to sneak in to a premier of some movie but we got kicked out. We ran all the way back to the hotel. I guess being kicked out of something meant it was time to go. We packed all our stuff up and headed out the morning after.

We spent a day in Boston before we drove up to Maine. When we got to Maine, it had been officially two weeks since we left. I already got an oil change and we spent so much money on gas, I didn't even want to count. But even though the trip was a crazy disaster, I loved every minute of it.

Troy couldn't find a cabin to stay in so we just stayed at a Hotel. It would take about a week to drive back, we just decided to head back home and go whichever way the road takes us. I enjoyed being on the road but it was definitely time to go home.

Our first stop on the way home was Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We just stayed the night because it took 12 long hours to actually get there. Our second stop was St. Louis. We were more than half way home and I decided instead of driving all the way through to Albuquerque we went to Colorado. It took us even longer to get to Colorado. Once we actually got there we slept a whole day.

The next morning I felt refreshed. I was getting kind of tired of driving though. Denver was such a beautiful city. I was glad we made it here before we drove the couple hours down to Albuquerque. We walked around a little farmers market and we bought some fresh fruit. We were going to go hiking later on so it was nice to have something healthy to eat.

We hiked up to a summit of a one of the smallest mountains. By the time we came back down we were exhausted again. We barely got through dinner and we slept in the next morning. The six hours it took us to get back to Albuquerque was nothing compared to the twelve hour days we drove sometimes.

There were no cars in my drive way when I pulled up. We sat in the car for a minute just looking at my garage. "You're not going to not talk to me for like a week again, right?" I asked him, finally looking over at him.

"What? Of course not." He said.

"I'll miss you." I said, touching his hand. "Thank you for going on this adventure with me."

He smiled. "Thank you for making it interesting."

"Dislocated Jaws and stomach flu are so interesting." I said.

"Don't forget about the time you got caught having sex on the beach or getting us kicked out of the club." Troy grinned.

I laughed. 'For the last time, those were your ideas! You're a bad influence on me."

Troy chuckled, leaning over. "I love you."

"I love you too. Let's go visit your mom tomorrow and tell her how our road trip was." I said, giving him a soft kiss.

He gave me a sad smile and nodded. "It needs new flowers."

"You should get a tattoo." I said, looking at him.

He raised his eyebrows. "Look who's coming up with the bad ideas now."

I pouted. "Come on, you'd look so sexy with a back tattoo." I ran my finger down his spine. "Just think about it."

He sighed. "Fine. Come on, let's haul this crap over to my house."

I grinned and we got out of my car. We stretched our legs out. "I wonder where mom is." I thought out load as Troy pulled his bags out of the trunk. "They probably went to dinner."

"But both cars are missing." Troy mentioned.

"Maybe Cam picked up the boys and then they went to dinner." I shrugged. "Oh well. I'm not even hungry. I just want to take a nice long hot bath."

I closed my trunk and walked over to Troy's. "It feels weird being home."

"I guess this is what it'll be like when we come home from college." I said, looking up at his door.

Troy opened the door and I followed him inside. "Dad?" Troy called out.

We heard footsteps from the kitchen. "Troy. Gabi." Jack's face lit up. "I wasn't expecting you back home so soon."

I laughed. "One can only take so much Troy."

Jack chuckled and Troy looked offended. I giggled, kissing his cheek. "How was the road?"

"So much fun!" I said, giving him a big hug. "How are you doing?"

"Working away." He said. "But I do still have a weeks vacation that I have to use in the next couple months."

"If you go to Florida, don't take Gabi, she likes to punch people down there."

I scoffed, smacking Troy's arm. "I'm going to go and call my dad to tell him I'm home. I'll see you guys tomorrow."

Jack chuckled. "Bye Gabi."

I gave Troy a kiss. "Bye baby." He kissed my forehead and I waved when I walked out.

I walked home and took my stuff out of the car, dragging it to the doorstep. I opened the door and took it upstairs to my room. I separated the dirty clothes and put them in the washer. I put my other clean clothes away. I drew myself a hot bath and lit some candles and sank down into the water.

It was back to our normal lives. I'm sure it was going to be fun since the boys are coming back. Cam had to tell me something which I wasn't really worried for. I still had to call my dad but I would do that later. I wondered where Mom was. Maybe she was working. I didn't really tell her I was coming home today, I just said soon.

I cleared my head and relaxed against the back of the tub.


The end of the road trip. I didn't really want to drag it out. I already feel like i kinda am with this story but i'm still working on it. i'm trying to find the right place to end it. I can't believe it's already saturday. School is coming back so fast. blah blah blah yadda yadda yadda k bye.

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