"So, do you have anyone at home who'll be missing you?" April asked me. She'd slipped off her sandals and had her bare feet up on the dashboard. She hadn't bothered to ask me whether or not I minded.

"No. Well. Yes, there is one person." I paused. "My best friend. Mark."

"Oh. Childhood buddy?" she asked, yawning.

I nodded. "I've known him my whole life. Since nursery school."

The corners of April's mouth turned up into a mischievous smirk. "And how long ago would that be, exactly?"

"Are you asking me how old I am?" I asked, beginning to smile.

She nodded.

"How old do I look?"

"Well, judging by the amount of gray hairs…"

I jerked my head up, nearly smacking it on the roof of the car.

"Jeez, relax, I was just joking," she laughed. "Seriously, you don't look a day over twenty."

"I turned nineteen in February."

"Oh."

"How old are you?"

She folded her arms under her chest. "Eighteen."

I raised my eyebrows. "You're not eighteen."

"No?"

I laughed. "Come on. I won't tell anyone. Besides, what would it hurt to tell me your true age?"

April sighed and rolled her eyes. "Fine. I'm seventeen."

"You see? Not so bad," I said, keeping my eyes on the road. "Why didn't you want to tell me your real age?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. The older you are, the better things work out for you."

I snickered.

April picked her head up. "What's so funny?"

"You things are easier for you the older you are?"

"Yes."

I laughed. "Sorry to burst your bubble, hon, but the older you are, the tougher things get. I mean, look at m. I'm only nineteen, and already my life's a mess. My parents think I'm a mess, I'm this close to getting kicked out of school, and I was already held back one year. And college is out of the question at this point. And now I'm in a car with a girl I don't know at all, on the road to Santa Fe, with nothing there for me, not even knowing if I'll be able to make a life for myself there." I let out a whoosh of air.

"Point taken," April said, quietly.

We sat in silence for a moment.

"You hungry?" I asked, suddenly.

"I guess so. I was in such a rush to get out the door this morning that I didn't grab anything to eat."

"Doesn't look like you grabbed much of anything," I pointed out, seeing that she was only traveling with a small yellow plastic purse.

She shrugged.

"So you want to grab a bite to eat?"

"Yes. Yes, I'd like that," she said, smiling.

***

"You sure this is okay?" I whispered, as I slid into a booth with worn red leather seats.

"It's fine," she whispered back, sliding in across from me.

We'd pulled up at the first roadside diner that I was able to find. It was nothing too fancy, but then again I couldn't afford much better than this.

"You two ready to order?" a heavyweight waitress approached our booth, plucking a small golf pencil from behind her ear, ready to scribble out our orders.

I looked at April. "You know what you want?"

She nodded.

"Okay, um…I'll just have a burger. Well done, please. Oh, and uh, a coke, I guess."

"I'll have the same as him," April piped up.

The waitress scribbled everything down on a small pad of paper. "Should get your food in a bit," she said, flatly, turning to leave.

"Nice to meet a girl with an appetite," I said, once the waitress had left. "Most of the girlfriends I've had would starve themselves."

"So you're considering me a girlfriend now?"

"I didn't mean that," I said, starting to blush.

April laughed. "I'm just kidding. I know what you mean. My older sister used to be bulimic."

"Does she still live with your father?" I asked, dragging my finger around the rim of my glass.

"No. She's in college. I haven't seen her for almost a year."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. Better she be out there than back home with my father."

"How long have you been living alone with your father?"

"About five years. My mom died when I was eleven, and Jenny left a year ago for Columbia."

"My parents went there. They want me to go there too. Like that'll happen," I smirked. "I'm surprised they still have enough faith in me to believe that I'll actually make it to college."

"Is it really that farfetched?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I can see just by talking to you that you're not a complete moron. You're smart," she said, simply.

I rolled my eyes. "Smart doesn't cut it. I might be that, but even so, I've missed too much school the past two years to get anywhere. I don't know where I'd apply, anyway. I'm sure as hell not going to Columbia." I paused. "But you're probably tired of hearing about what a slacker I am. You have any places you're thinking of going to?"

"I applied to Sarah Lawrence," April said.

"And?"

"I got in."

I raised my eyebrows. "So what are you doing coming out here with me? That's one of the best schools in the state! And you'd be away from your Dad, at least."

"I could never be away from my Dad," she said. "As long as he knows where I am, I can never get away."

I shook my head.

"Here you are," the Waitress said, placing a tray down on our table with a sullen look on her face.

"Thanks," I said.

She smiled primly and left once more.

"You think I'm stupid," April said, as I took a bite out of my hamburger.

"What?" I said, with my mouth full.

"You think I'm stupid for not going to Sarah Lawrence."

"Well, you have to see the situation from my point of view," I said, swallowing. "Try to see this from my perspective. I'm a slacker. My grades are barely passing, and I have nothing going for me in life. I have no chance of getting into a good college and getting away from my parents. You on the other hand got into Sarah Lawrence, one of the best schools you can get in, and you have the perfect opportunity to just leave, and be get away from everything. I'm not saying you're stupid. I just don't quite understand."

April shrugged. "I guess you can't really understand until you've been in the same house with my father."

"That bad, huh?"

"Bad enough for me to hitchhike with a guy I don't know at all, isn't it?"

I said nothing, and took a sip of my soda.

"And you want to go to Santa Fe."

"So?" I said.

"So, there's something you have going for you. You can buy a place in Santa Fe, start a new life there."

I shrugged.

April sighed and sat back, reaching for her burger.

***

I glanced at the dashboard to check the time. It was almost seven. We'd been driving straight on for almost five hours now.

I yawned. My eyelids were beginning to droop, but I forced them to stay open long enough for me to find a motel.

April was asleep in the passenger seat beside me, her head leaning against the window.

As I pulled into the parking lot outside a motel with the cheap lit up words, 'NEON LIGHTS MOTEL,' hanging above the entrance, April stirred, and opened her eyes.

"Are we stopping?" she asked, sleepily.

"Yup. We'll get a room here and get back on the road in the morning."

"Alright," she said, yawning.

I got out of the car to grab my duffel bag and my guitar case, and April took her purse from the floor of the car and followed me inside.

"Have you got a room for two?" I asked the man at the front, taking my wallet out of my pocket.

The man smirked. "We've got room for a whole village in here. You two are the only ones."

I took that as a yes, and fished a couple of twenties out of my wallet. "You take cash?" I asked.

"I'll take anything you've got, kid."

"How much?"

"With the two of you it comes out to fifty."

Must be a pretty shitty place then, I thought, handing him the money.

"Here's your key," he said, plucking it off a hook from a board in back of him.

"Thanks," I said, as April and I headed for our room.

"What room are we?" she asked, looking over my shoulder.

"Two A." I smirked. "I wonder how long it's been empty."

"As long as it has two mattresses, it's fine with me," she said, as I unlocked the door to our room.

"Well, there's one mattress," I said, raising my eyebrows.

The room was small, and darkly lit. There was one tiny window above the single double bed, and a dinky TV set placed in front of the bed.

"It'll do," April said, yawning.

"You need anything to change into?" I asked. "If you want, you can borrow an old T-shirt of mine or something."

"Alright."

I raised my eyebrows. I'd thought that she would be two embarrassed.

I fished an old CBGB's T-shirt out of my bag and tossed it to her.

"Don't look," she said teasingly, going over the corner of the room.

I stared at the opposite wall, not knowing quite what to do.

"Do you play there?"

"What?" I said, careful not to look at her.

"Do you play at CBGB's?"

"I wish. The only band I've ever been in was a garage band." I paused. "We never made it out of the garage."

"That's too bad. Alright, you can look now," April said.

I turned to see her slide under the covers.

"So, um, we'll be sharing a bed then?" I asked, stupidly.

She shrugged. "I don't see any other beds in here."

"Okay," I said, slowly.

"You mind if I turn the light off now?"

"No."

"Okay. Goodnight, Roger."

"Night, April."

She reached over to the bedside table and turned the lamp off before bunching up the blankets around her and closing her eyes.

I changed into a T-shirt and a pair of flannel boxer pants in the dark, and slid into the bed beside her. I felt awkward doing so, but April didn't seem to mind, and soon I could hear the sound of her snoring, softly.

Soon I drifted into sleep myself.

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