We made one last stop to buy Bohden dog food and then we were set on driving the rest of the way. Though Bohden was initially in the back, he made his way into my lap. I laughed. I rolled down my window for him. He rested his snout on the window, his tongue stuck out. 

After a while, Bohden got bored and turned to look at Collin. He raised his brow, shaking his head. The dog licked Collin's cheek. 

"Okay, can you get him in the back again?" Collin asked me. He tried to sound displeased, but I could see the corners of his lips tugging. I rolled my window up and rolled down the two that were in the back seat. The dog almost immediately hopped in the back to poke his head out of the window. 

"You have to admit," I turned to pet Bohden, "he's really cute." 

Collin shook his head. I looked at him with my brows raised. "You don't like dogs?"

"No, I do... Have you thought about who's keeping him when our trip is over?"

I didn't reply. I hadn't thought about that. I had always wanted to have a dog, but my mom was allergic. I didn't know how happy she would be if I brought a dog home. Collin didn't seem willing to keep Bohden, though...

I decided to think about it once the time came around. There was no reason to worry about it now. 

We sat in silence listening to music for what seemed like hours. Though it was fun at first, I dreaded doing it for another five hours. We still had a long way to Oregon, and if this is how the ride was going to be, then I had no hope for the rest of the trip.

When I couldn't take it any longer, I turned the music down. "So, Collin," I said. I paused to pop a Milky Way in my mouth. All of the chocolate was hiding under my seat to prevent Bohden from eating it, which was great for me, "tell me about yourself." 

He looked at me for a second, his brow cocked. "I thought we agreed not to ask any more questions."

"No, I promised not to push them." Collin didn't respond. I sighed. "Come on, we don't have anything else to do." 

"How about you start, and then we'll see what I decide."

I smiled excitedly. Though his promise wasn't definite, it was better than nothing. "Alright. Anything in particular?"

I had expected him to say no. After all, Collin didn't seem particularly interested in personal details these past few days. He didn't seem interested in me at all, really. So, when he took a long time to respond, I thought it was him waiting for me to fill the pause. However, he asked, "Do you go to school?" 

"Oh, um, yes." The question threw me off. I don't know why, but I didn't think that Collin was someone who would care about that. 

"Like...a university kind of school?" Though his demeanor remained calm, his voice slightly wavered. It wasn't until after the conversation that I noticed it, though. 

I laughed, shaking my head. "No, I go to a community college." 

He relaxed his shoulders, seemingly relieved, though I wasn't sure why. He didn't say anything, so I decided to forward the conversation. "I was going to go to a university, but I have no idea what I'd major in."

"Is that important?"

"Of course," I said, surprised. "I don't want to spend thousands of dollars just to explore what I want to do in life. Which I know that I should have figured that out by now, but I have no clue what I want to do."

I laughed while saying that, but it made my heart sink. Ever since high school I have been asking myself the same question. What are you going to be? I was a horrible writer, so I couldn't be a journalist. I wasn't smart enough to do something with science or medicine. I came to the conclusion awhile ago that I would always have a low-paying job like working at a gas station. I didn't even need community college to do that, though. So what was I doing?

"I guess I don't need to worry about that anymore, with only ten days left and all." I chuckled softly. Collin scoffed and shook his head. My brows raised. "What?"

"Nothing." He continued to smile. "Just, the ten days thing." 

"You seriously don't believe it? Not even a little bit?"

"Nope." It was the fastest he had ever responded to me. "Think about it. Sure, a meteor that large manages to reach Earth. We haven't seen it in the sky yet, so it's probably going to hit somewhere across the world from us. Meaning we won't die instantly. It'd take awhile longer before everyone gets wiped out." 

That was a good point. The dinosaurs surely didn't all die at once. The vegetation had to die out first. Did that mean that some of us would continue to suffer afterward, counting the days before we died out, too? There wasn't enough canned food to sustain our population if plants didn't grow. 

"Alright, so that could happen," I admitted. "Then these are our last ten days of...of normal." 

"Sure." 

I looked out the window. I popped another Milky Way in my mouth, chewing the sticky caramel slowly. Why should I have believed Collin? He probably had no idea what he was talking about. Now that I was thinking about it, this asteroid had to have been ten times larger than the one that killed the dinosaurs. Couldn't that completely wipe out, not just all of humanity, but everything else, too? 

But I knew that Collin wasn't thinking about that. He thought that the team of astronauts going up to make it smaller was going to solve the problem. He must have. It was the only ounce of hope that the government seemed to be providing us. All of the news channels, at least from what I had been reading, had changed from "the world is going to end!" to "stay calm, we have this under control."

What Cece had told me yesterday stuck, though. They would not have caused societal chaos unless they had a reason to. 

I turned back towards Collin. "Your turn." 

"For what?"

"To tell me something." 

He shook his head. He turned up the music, which had been playing softly under our conversation. I groaned and turned it back down. "Come on. Just one thing.—anything."

"What's there to say? I've pretty much just been working all my life." 

"What kind of work?" From what Cece told me, Collin was far more interesting than that. I was slightly disappointed that, out of everything he could have said about his life, this was the topic he brought up. 

"Anything, really. Whoever'll take me. Then, when that job's done, I go to the next one." 

I leaned over, placing my elbow on the cupholder. I rested my chin in my hand. It took a moment, but he finally gave in and looked at me. "What?"

"I'm just waiting until you tell me more," I said. I looked up at the ceiling, plastering on an innocent expression. "'Cause, I don't know about you, but that doesn't really explain that traumatic moment when a gun got pointed at me." 

"Traumatic? That's cute, Nat." 

Though Collin probably didn't realize what he had said, him calling me "Nat" made my heart leap. I stared at him, confused and slightly flustered. It was good that Collin was looking at the road, for I didn't want him to see my face randomly grow red. 

I recomposed myself as what he said finally hit me. I frowned. "What's cute about it?" He's probably the only person who would find that situation cute. 

Collin shrugged. "I just think it could have gone much worse than it did." 

Well, that was true. No one got hurt. But that didn't mean that the fear of dying was any less prominent. I couldn't imagine ever going through that again, and Collin's noncholantness only made it more infuriating.

"Besides, you let me back in the car, so it couldn't have been that bad."

Well, that's true.

We talked about simple things after that. I asked for his favorite color, which apparently he didn't have. His favorite food was Burger King's impossible whopper (I took a mental note to stop there to eat if we needed to) and he had only seen one movie in his life—The Great Gatsby.  

"Really? Out of all movies?"

"Yep," he replied. "It was playing at a drive-in."

I, of course, gave him a list of must-see movies for the future (things like Jaws, The Princess Bride, and practically any movie that Adam Sandler is in). He'd sometimes stop me to give a brief synopsis on the movies. Though it was simple conversation, he seemed genuinely invested. When we were finished with that topic, we went onto another surface-level one. They seemed to spark more interaction than any other conversation we've had. It wasn't much, but it was something. 

We made two stops, one quick one to let Bohden out and another that Collin insisted on. It was nearing eight o'clock and the sun was about to set. Collin had been speeding for the last hour, insisting that we needed to hurry before "it" closed. I assumed that it was a store or a restaurant, but he kept me in the dark about it. 

"It's a surprise," he told me. "Just wait until we get there." 

Though intrigued, I was also nervous as to what this surprise could be. He seemed excited about it, though, so I decided to trust him. That didn't stop me from looking over my shoulder to make sure that police weren't following us, though.

We stopped in a parking lot that consisted of two other cars. We were parked in front of a small building. It was painted black with white trim. Two small, circular tables were propped outside. It was a charming little place. 

The inside was just as pleasant as the outside. The smell of coffee filled the room. A large case with various pastries was set next to a small, vacant counter. Two men were in the corner, quietly talking and drinking from large mugs. I had to admit, this hadn't been what I was expecting.

I looked at Collin and cracked a smile. "We stopped for a bakery?"

He nodded. "You have to try their coconut cream pie, it's incredible."

We ordered two slices of pie and black coffees (though I put creamer in mine right away). They also had dog treats, so we got a bag for Bohden. We sat outside so that Bohden could sit with us while we ate. It was already pretty dark, but the outside lights were on and the weather was nice. It was a perfect break after hours of driving. 

Collin stared at me expectantly. I sipped my coffee slowly. Then I set it down a giggled nervously. "What?"

He motioned at my plate with his fork. "Try it." 

I looked down at the slice of pie in front of me. It looked like a standard coconut cream pie. To satisfy Collin, I took a piece onto my fork and popped it into my mouth. I was instantly overcome with a sweet and refreshing flavor. I smiled and nodded at Collin, unable to say anything while I was chewing. He laughed and took a bite out of his own pie. 

A thought formed in my mind as I ate. This bakery was only a couple of hours away from Oregon. From the way Collin talked about it, he had eaten at this place many times. Couldn't he have just taken the trip up already?

I asked him. The question seemed to throw him off. He took a bite of his pie and chewed slowly. When he was done, he said, "My friend and I had been planning this trip. He wanted to go to all three places back-to-back, though. Like a huge vacation or something. I always wanted to go, but it seemed...wrong without him." 

He had been bringing up many stories with his friend lately. Was it the same friend in all of the stories? If so, then he was clearly important to Collin. A sudden feeling of guilt made my stomach twist. Was I stealing a special moment from him and Collin? I didn't know that day when I had offered. If I had, then I surely wouldn't have asked him to go with me. 

"Now, thanks to you, I'm going to go." I looked up. Collin was smiling softly at me. My worries immediately melted. I slid a large piece of pie onto my fork and raised it into the air. 

"To a great trip," I said.  

Collin chuckled softly. He lifted his fork towards mine. We gently clinked them together.

"To a great trip."

Hey guys! This is a pretty mellow chapter, but I hope you enjoyed it, nonetheless! They're so close to making it! What do you think they're going to do when they first arrive? 

If you liked this chapter, try voting with a fork! Stay great! 

This song is called Shotgun by George Ezra. Enjoy!