Heyyo!

48: The Road To New York,

The drive between Ohio and New York was about eight and a half hours long. Lark said that depending on the rest stops we would take, we might get there by ten or even tomorrow if he wanted to drive all night. We thought about it over lunch in Youngstown, Ohio and decided to find a motel room for the night to stay in that was close to New York as possible and then leave early in the morning to head out and finish the trip to New York.

At lunch we stopped by this restaurant and sat in the outside setting. It was pretty warm out and there was little to small breeze outside, only us and three others sat outside in this weather. I checked my phone and saw no messages from Ryder. He can't be asleep still as I know his sleeping schedule on the non-school days and he was definitely awake now. Maybe he was heartbroken and crying while his body rocked back and forth in pain. It hurt me but I would get over it soon enough just like he would get over me and soon find another girl. A prettier and non-problem girl.

Lark spoke up. "Wanna go home?"

"No, I'll be fine." I said to him.

"So I figured that when we get there we can stop by a store and get some easy food for dinner." Lark said.

"Don't forget the cigarettes." I mentioned.

He looked perplexed. "I thought you stopped."

"I will soon. But I just want a couple now." I said to him. "No big problem."

"Okay then." Lark said. "I'll be back, going to take a leak."

Lark got up and left for the bathroom. I sat there alone just looking at my phone. I don't know why but I was still hoping Ryder would call me and ask where I was going. I don't know why though. Maybe because I still had feelings for him that would soon part away from me. But I got nothing at all. I sighed. The waitress came over and asked for the drink orders. Shit, I couldn't get a beer for Lark because I had no I.D so I ended up getting us both orange soda. He can get his beer bottle when she comes back again I guess.

Still no call.

Lark returned on the cell phone with someone and he seemed a little annoyed. He looked at me and said, "Hey, do you have a fifty on you?"

"What!? No!" I yelled. "I don't have a lot on me. Barely forty dollars." I said.

"Alright, damn... Johnny, I'll get back to you." He hung up and put the phone away. "That was this guy I know up in New York. He's got a big bag of 'things' for me and he said if I gave him fifty he'd give it to me at half price."

"What specifically?" I inquired.

Lark leaned inand whispered. "Weed, crack, cigars and some other hard stuff."

"Oh, really?"

"Secret night job." Lark said.

"Interesting." I told him. Damn, I wanted a cigarette now. "Do you think it's okay if I smoke right now?"

"Well not here at the table, but if you go over to the car and smoke that's fine." Lark told me. "I'll order for you."

"Thanks. Grilled cheese with a side of cheesy fries." I said as I got up.

I walked out of the restaurant and went over to the car and pulled a pack out from my pocket and a lighter and lit one of them up. I had one then smoked a second cigarette. I checked my phone again. Still nothing.

I finished the second cigarette and returned back to my seat. Lark ordered our food and we just sat there talking about what we were going to do in New York. Whenever he was free of work and I was free of work we'd go walking around and visit different areas of the city.

We drove for another several hours and landed in Hazleton, Pennsylvania. We ended up pulling into the Holiday Inn Express and decided to save money and share a room together. We're both adults and can share a bed without being weird about it, right? The room we had was beautiful too. Nice carpet floor and bed with blue bed sheets and whatnot and a large TV facing the bed. We piled our suitecases on the side of the room and plopped on the bed.

"Wanna order out?" I asked him.

"Pizza?"

Extra cheese with bacon." I laughed. I pulled my phone out and looked. No messaged.

"Expecting a call from Minnie?"

"Anyone I guess. I didn't really tell too many people about this thing. Going to New York and all, they'd just harass me about it somehow." I explained.

"Tell Ryder?"

"Yeah." I said with my voicing rising up. Maybe he wouldn't catch on to the lie.

"Cool. I saw some menus in the lobby so I'll go check it out, call and order then go get it. I'll be back in about an hour." Lark said as he rolled off the bed. "Want anything else?"

"Nah, just pizza. Get two large boxes if possible." I suggested.

"Alright. Call you in a while for updates." Lark said as he turned and left. "Later." He said and shut the door.

I laid there for another five minutes before sitting up and turning the TV on. It felt weird to be alone, it's been so long since I've been alone like this. The past couple of months I've been alone physically but knowing someone I loved and cared about was just not with me at the moment. I loved Lark and cared about him, but this loneliness just felt strange. Mom gone, Minnie back home and a heartbroken Ryder back home too feeling all alone and wondering where I was and why I left such a horrible like that. And damn I wanted a cigarette too but I had one left and I was saving that to have before I brushed my teeth for bed. And there were no drugs either. I decided to check Lark's bags and see if there was any beer bottles.

He had a couple in there. They were pretty warm though, but not too warm either. I took one and used the bottle opener he had in the same bag, opened the bottle and took a large gulp of it. I had three more gulps before throwing it in the trash can and grabbing another one to drink while watching TV.

An hour and two more bottles of beer later I felt a little tipsy. Lark came into the room with two boxes of pizza in his arm and asked how many I had to drink. "One...plus three...that's...five?" I giggled.

"Silly." He said settling the pizza down on the bed. "Come on and have a slice, it'll help bring the tipsy side down."

I had five slices in total, while he had eight slices. I felt just as tipsy as I did; but maybe that was because I was drinking two more bottles of beer while eating the pizza. I'm not even in college and I'm acting like a stereotypical student; Beer and pizza every night for dinner. I laughed hard enough to roll onto my side and holding my stomach just thinking that.

"Silly," Lark said again as he took a sip of his second bottle. "Hey, so about that job I think you can do in New York, I think you're going to like it a lot. You can sing ay time during work and if you are taking a break you have to say Intermission. The girls have these red type dresses with a mini white apron on the front and knee high red boots."

"Red boobs?" I laughed.

"Boots. Shoes. It's called Spotlight Diner. I guess a lot of actors and actresses waiting for that shining moment get to work there. Some Lima kids work there too."

"Yey!" I giggled, not really listening. "I get to sing!"

"Yeah, some guy...shit, I forget their names...hold on let me think." Lark said. He went silent for a couple of minutes before speaking. "Kort, Rochelle, Samantha work there. And some friends of their are going to visit New York for a while... Bane, Ram and Annie?"

"Those are silly names!" I laughed. "Larky, I wanna have weed!"

"Not now, later." He said. "Come on let's watch a movie."

We watched some weird movie on TV about this boy and his dog being an alien. The boy could then understand the other dogs that he walked too. The poodle and everyone. It was odd. I still remember watching a movie with Ryder once and it was My Dog Skip and we both cried watching that movie.

I miss Ryder.

Before going to bed Lark showered first while I went outside to have another cigarette. I took my time with this cigarette and soon I decided to head back in the room and have my last few drinks of a beer bottle before going to bed.

That last bottle of beer made me drunk as hell. I could barely stand up on my own and when it came to go to bed Lark had to help me walk from one side of the room to where the bed was. I stripped myself of my shirt and shorts and fell asleep almost instantly on the bed as Lark covered me with the bed sheets.

I miss Ryder.