"WE NEED SALTY STICKS!"

"Norah, no. We've made our list and I have a feeling that the money won't even suffice for all of it. Plus, that shit will only make us thirstier and we have to spare water", says Daisy, making Norah pout. We've been walking around the Supermarket collecting the products that we wrote down on the list before. Only the essentials, not too many snacks, said Daisy. Ugh, yes, we've got it mom.

Daisy really is like the mom of the group, even though she's the youngest. She has this caring personality and likes to take care of everything that involves organization. But she's not boring at all, she's like the cool mom. Always ready to go out and have a fun time. She's also like my meme soul mate, because she's the only one that really gets my meme or vine references. And we know exactly how amazing that feels when someone gets your meme/vine references. So for that and all her other positive character traits, I'm grateful.

"Chloe, what the... Why are you eating those cookies without having paid for them?", I hear Eleanor asking me.

"Shut up, I still haven't eaten anything today, I'm starving", I say in my defense.

"Oh, alright then. So you don't mind giving me one, do you?", she asks before grabbing a handful of cookies without waiting for an answer. Typical.

After a while we've got two shopping carts full of food and drinks. Mostly just cans and dry food. And a LOT of water. We go to the cashier to pay with the money that we'd put together earlier, which is meant for nutrition supplies and for gas. Then we bring the products to the back of our van and take our seats. I chose to sit in the back seat behind the driver, which is Eleanor. She volunteered to be the driver for today. For the other days we'll just take turns depending on how tired the driver feels. Daisy sits on the passenger seat, Norah behind her and Syria in the middle, between Norah and me.

"So, where to?", asks Eleanor, slightly turning her body to face all of us.

"Just take the next freeway and drive ahead without any exact destination. No GPS allowed today", suggests Norah.

"And when do we decide to exit the freeway to actually drive simple roads and have nice views?", I hear Syria asking with a hint of sarcasm.

"I don't know, we just spontaneously choose to exit", says Norah.

"No, that won't work out. What if not everyone agrees with that exit?", Daisy asks, bringing some rational thinking into the situation. She's right we have to do something, like maybe agree to one single person who can decide which exit to take, and we just take turns with that too.

So I suggest, "What if we play a game and the winner decides which exit to take? After that we can keep playing the game for the next exits and the winner always chooses, or we just set an order in which we then take turns. Could work, don't you think?" Norah instantly agrees with a "yeah!" while the other girls seem to be considering.

"And what kind of game do you suggest?", Eleanor asks.

"hm.. we brought cards right? We could, I don't know, maybe take 4 regular cards and add an Ace, then lay them facedown and everyone takes a card. The one with the Ace can decide where to drive for the next 3 hours.", I suggested. When it comes to creative ideas, my brain starts working a little faster than usual. Which is what motivates my lazy ass to do anything productive instead of just laying around and napping. "What do you guys think?"

"I think it's a good idea", Norah agrees. We have a strong tendency of agreeing on a lot of things for a reason. We're both gay. At least that's why I think we agree a lot. After all, we have similar interests in many topics, so it's easier to do that. In addition to that, she's an open soul who's always ready to try out new things and who tries to leave negativity out of the way, avoiding every kind of problems. Consider me lucky to have her with me through this journey.

"Okay, let's do it", I hear Daisy's voice. The other two girls agree before Syria moves to get her backpack from the back of the van. She takes the cards out and starts picking the needed cards out of the stack. She mixes them before holding out the mix in her hand and telling us to pick a card. We obey leaving the last card, her card, in her hand. Then everyone takes a peek at their own card.

"Aww thanks guys for leaving the Ace with me, you're so sweet", Syria says, mocking our bad luck.

We give her the cards back to put them back in the Backpack. Eleanor starts the engine and drives out of the parking lot. "I'll have to refuel the van first", she informs us before making her way to the nearest gas station, which is just around the corner. After refueling and paying, she drives into the freeway. Finally, here we are. This is the beginning of a trip full of new memories. This is going to be awesome. At least that's what I hope.

--

"Okay who's the DJ?", asks Daisy, holding out the AUX chord. We've been driving for 20 minutes, listening to the radio, which plays the most mainstream songs. Such radio stations make me hate certain songs, just because of the fact that they overplay them. One good reason why I don't listen to the radio when I'm driving by myself.

"I can take care of that", I suggest, taking the AUX chord from her and inserting it in my phone. "What do you guys want to listen to?"

"Just play anything", says Daisy before I scroll through my playlist, looking for a song where all of us can sing along to. I stumble upon a song from one of my favorite bands and type play in hope that the girls know the lyrics to it. As soon as the drums start playing, Syria looks at me with a warm smile which tells me that she knows exactly what song it is. "All I am is a man. I want the world in my hands. I hate the beach, but I stand in California with my toes in the sand" Both of us start singing as soon as the vocalist appears, making Norah join us. Daisy and Eleanor stay quiet until the chorus comes up.

"'CAUSE IT'S TOO COOOOOLD FOR YOU HEEERE", we all sing in sync to Sweater Weather. Moments like these make me appreciate the life that I'm living. It's the simplicity of these moments that remind me that happiness isn't a goal but a journey, and it consists of small moments of joy and gratitude. You look around you and everyone is happy, and you're happy, and everything is fine for a short amount of time. And that is more than enough to make me grateful for everything and everyone that I have.

We keep singing until the song is over and my music app plays the next song. Coaster by Khalid starts playing for 2 seconds before I change to the next song. Oh no, you're not doing it again. There's no way that Adrianna-related-songs will ruin this road trip. I go back to my playlist and start deleting songs that remind me of her. I might download them later when I'm over her, but for the moment I need to get rid of them.

"Are you for real?", Syria asks beside me after seeing what I'm doing.

"It's for the best. Or do you want a depressed Chloe sitting near you, drowning you in her tears?" I tell her, trying to distract any brought up sadness by bringing some humor into the situation.

"Nah, I'm good. I'll wait until we get to the beach to take a swim, but thanks though", she answers back with the same humor. I smile shortly at her before continuing to delete some songs. 

The rest of the ride was spent singing along to Beyoncé songs after Daisy took the AUX cable from me. She just loves Beyoncé, there's no doubt. Plus, they all hate the fact that I would just change to the next song without it being over. Okay, I'm sorry, I can't help it that I'm a little impatient when it comes to listening to music. As soon as my favorite part from a song comes up I can't wait to hear the ones from the next songs that I had in mind. Life's short you know? You should only do the necessary. 

Two hours into the trip, Norah was starting to ask for a pee break. We were currently driving in a small village that Syria chose to drive into. There wasn't any sign of a public restroom nearby, so Eleanor had to drive into the freeway to find a rest area. When we entered the first rest area that came up, Norah was already fighting back her urge to pee. As soon as the van stopped she jumped out of it and ran in direction of the public toilets. It looked hilarious. The rest of us got out to use the toilet, too before meeting again outside. Norah and I wanted to go buy some snacks, so the others went to the van to wait for us. I paid for my two Twix bars before noticing that Norah was still looking at the snack shelf.

"What are you still doing here?", I ask.

"I can't decide between the Mars bar, the gummy bears or the paprika chips.", she answers thoughtfully.

"Just buy all of it?" I suggest. She then holds out her hand, holding two coins without looking away from the shelf, informing me that she hasn't got enough money for all of it. That's when I got this crazy Idea. "I dare you... ", I start saying mischievously "...to put the mars, the chips and the gummy bears in your pocket and to walk out of this store without paying for it", I finish with a smirk. Norah looks at me with a shocked expression.

"Oh no, Chloe don't challenge me, not now. We're gonna get in trouble", she almost whispers while looking around to check if anyone heard our conversation.

"Not if you do it right." I challenge her. What am I even doing? I guess I'm just bored and I'm just trying to spice up this trip, so it's not that bad, or is it? Norah looks deep into my eyes, probably debating in her head whether she should do it or not. Then I see a smirk appearing on her face before she looks around and grabs two mars bars, one small bag of chips and one with gummy bears. After putting the products in both pockets, she starts making her way to the exit. Oh my god, she really did it. I follow her and soon as we're both out of the store, we both start running towards the van. I'm not sure if I heard right but I think I heard a male voice yelling behind us. We didn't look back though and as soon as we arrived and entered the van, Norah yells at Eleanor to drive.

"DRIVE, DRIVE, DRIVE NOW!"

The three girls look at us with confused looks on their faces, but Eleanor obeys and starts her engine before driving away and into the freeway.

"What the fuck happened?", they ask us.

Norah and I are still recovering from our little sprint from a few seconds ago. After we succeed to even our breaths, our eyes meet for an instant before we both burst out laughing. It's been a while since I've had this kind of laughter and felt this adrenaline rush. We're both still laughing and gasping for air again, while the others are looking at us, still confused of the situation and waiting for answers. Norah takes the snacks out of her pockets and puts them on Syria's lap, trying to hide that smile on her face. Syria seemed to understand everything with Norah's look and our silence.

"Oh hell no, you didn't..."