When I woke up, the car was moving. I flipped my seat up and searched for an explanation as to how it was possible. Instead of looking over at the passenger seat, I was looking out the window and at the side of the road. I turned my head towards the driver's seat, where Collin had his hands on the steering wheel.

"What happened?" I asked. I didn't recall waking up or swapping seats during the night.

"I fixed your flat tire," he replied. He didn't give me a further explanation. I didn't get answers about how he did it or how he managed to get us to swap places without waking me up.

I looked outside. It was a vacant, dirt area with a faded gray road. The sun gleamed through the windows. Signs passed by. One of them had the nearest cities. I stared at it, shocked. We only had ten more miles before we were in Bakersfield. That meant that we were hours away from my house.

I looked at Collin, back at the road, and back at Collin. Panic surged through me. When I was in the driver's seat, I at least had some control. Now I was spectating, absolutely helpless. This man could go or do whatever he'd like and I wouldn't be able to do anything.

I pressed against my seat and frantically pulled on the handle. It didn't open.

"Woah there," Collin said. "Deep breaths."

My window rolled down by itself. I slightly jumped in shock, unable to hold back a small cry.

"It's okay, I just thought that you needed some air."

I looked out of the window. The warm air was refreshing. I breathed it in and waited for my heart rate to settle. After a couple of minutes, I was able to calm down. I rolled the window back up.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"A couple more hours. Vito has probably already talked to him, so I need to go far away."

"Him?"

He didn't reply. Of course, what had I expected?

My phone buzzed. I grabbed my purse from between my feet and searched for it. When I retrieved it and saw who was calling, I looked at Collin.

"Pull over."

"Huh?"

"I need to make a phone call."

"Do it in here."

"Collin..."

With a sigh, he pulled to the side of the road. I slipped out and closed the door.

The hot air brushed my hair back. The scorching sun baked the back of my neck. I suddenly wished that I hadn't worn jeans. Or that I could hop back in the car and crank the air conditioner.

My phone buzzed again. I clicked the green button.

"Nat?"

"Hey, mom."

"Are you alright, sweetie?" she asked nervously. "Have you seen the news?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." I kicked a rock. I didn't realize that she would be calling me so early. She usually watched the news much later in the day.

I could hear my dad in the background. "Tell her to come back home!"

"Yes, you need to come back home," my mom repeated. "We've been watching a live stream of the asteroid since this morning. It's true, baby...we need to be together for as long as we can."

"Of course, I agree." I tried to think of an excuse as to why I wouldn't be able to see them right away. I couldn't tell them the truth since they would overreact. Lord, my mom would have a heart attack. "There's just this one lecture that I need to be apart of. Then I'll come home."

"Why does it matter, honey? Just come home."

"I will, I promise. I'll see you in a bit, alright?"

"Okay, okay. I love you...very, very much."

"I love you, too. Bye, mom."

I hopped back in the car. Collin looked at me with a raised brow but didn't say anything. He just pressed on the gas and started driving.

It was quiet. I looked out the window. It was desert-like, just like it had been for miles. I checked my phone. A couple of my friends had messaged me, insisting on hanging out one last time. Yes, definitely a must! I responded. I'm out of town right now, but we can arrange something when I get back.

No response. I tried to switch to a social media site, but it refused to load. No service.

I set my phone down, leaned back in my chair, and sighed. "Where are you going?"

"Just a little further."

That didn't answer my question.

Bored, I turned the radio on. That was a mistake, for "It's the End of the World" blared through the car once again. I turned it off with an irritated sigh.

"You don't believe in it?" Collin asked, slightly smiling. "This end of the world stuff?"

"I..." I still wasn't sure. The news was surreal. It wasn't something that you heard every day. Especially with only a ten-day notice. Did scientists not know? Or did they know but never told anyone? Or was it all a lie?

We've been watching a live stream. How could my parents be watching it come towards earth and it not be true?

"I don't know," I finally said. "Do you?"

"Nope."

"Oh." For some reason, I was embarrassed about having a different answer. Collin spoke confidently, as if he knew for a fact that this was all fake. "Why not?"

He shrugged. "What are the odds of it being true? ...It doesn't matter. Better for me this way."

"What way?"

"People believing it."

Man, talking to Collin was exhausting. It was like running around in circles. Once I thought that he had finally expanded on his ideas, he clipped it short again. I finally stopped trying to talk to him and looked out the window, hoping that time would pass by quickly.

***

After what felt like forever, we finally arrived in Modesto. Collin looked over at me, smiled slightly, and reassured me that we were in the right town. We just needed to head a little further to find the house.

I checked the clock. It was eleven-thirty. My stomach ached, reminding me that I hadn't eaten since yesterday. "Can we stop and eat first? I see a Wendy's right there."

Collin pondered it for a moment before turning towards the fast-food restaurant. I smiled to myself triumphantly. We entered the drive-thru, where Collin got a baked potato and I got a burger and fries.

When we reached the window, Collin slid down in his chair and shoved his hand in his pocket. He pulled out a couple of crumpled bills. He handed the woman the correct amount and slid the rest of the money back into his pocket.

We sat in the parking lot and ate in silence. I had my window rolled down, but after a while, the heat grew too unbearable to stand. I wiped the sweat off of my forehead and turned the air conditioner up higher. Even then I could feel the sun roasting me.

"Should've gotten some Frosties," I muttered.

Collin looked at me and raised a brow. After a moment, he smiled. "I'll be back."

He extended his hand to grab my trash. I handed it to him and he left. He threw our garbage in a nearby trashcan, then walked into Wendy's.

Though I hadn't noticed it earlier, I saw an object on the floor. It was a couple of feet from the trashcan, where Collin just was. I considered whether to grab it or not. It was much too hot for me to want to go outside, but if it was Collin's, then I didn't want to leave it there. It may have been important. And if he didn't notice it and we left without then, then I would have felt guilty.

I opened the door and made my way towards the trashcan. I plucked the object off the floor and went back to the car.

It was a wallet. It couldn't have been Collin's, then, since he had all of his money in his pocket. I opened it, looking for an ID. There wasn't anything that would hint at whose it was. There were only three folded up pieces of paper inside of it.

I opened one. The creases were deep, as if someone had opened and closed the picture often. The corners were also soft and torn. Even so, whoever's it was, they had carried the photo around with caution. It was an image of a cliff with large, vigorous trees covering it. At the bottom were the ocean and a gorgeous, empty beach.

It was beautiful. I had never seen a place with such natural beauty. All of my life I had been immersed in a desert with farms and run-down houses being the only attractions. The photo seemed more like a fantasy-land than a reality.

Before I could open up the next photo, the door opened. Collin slid into the driver's seat and handed me a cup. I dropped the picture on the wallet and took the cup. It was a vanilla Frosty.

I looked a Collin, shocked. "You didn't have to get this."

He shrugged and dug into his own. I set mine in the cupholder and grabbed my purse. I found my wallet and grabbed a couple of bills. I didn't know how much the ice cream cost, but this would pay for it.

He shook his head when I tried to give it to him. "It's just ice cream."

"But you bought lunch."

"Just eat it."

Hesitantly, I set my purse back down. I slowly ate the dessert. I savored each bite and tried to remember the last time I had one. It had to have been years ago. It still tasted the same as it had when I was little. Maybe better.

I felt Collin's stare burning into me. I ate, feeling uncomfortable under his gaze. Once I had emptied my cup, I set it in the cupholder, and finally looked at him.

He hadn't been looking at my face but at my lap. "How did you get that?"

I looked down at the wallet and then back at him. My cheeks reddened. So it had been his. I hadn't thought so, since there wasn't any card that would have told me so. I didn't think that he even used it as a wallet. Just for the photos.

Collin slowly lifted up the picture I had been looking at earlier. He inspected the image, assumably making sure that I hadn't tarnished it. Once he was satisfied, Collin carefully folded it. He grabbed the wallet and slipped the picture back in.

"Why do you have those?" I asked.

He looked at me and shook his head. "You haven't answered my question yet. How did you get this?"

"It fell on the ground. I picked it up for you."

"Oh." Collin seemed taken aback by what I had said. "Thank you."

"No problem," I said with a shrug. "I only got to see one of them. Where was it taken?"

Collin reopened the picture. He stared at it thoughtfully, rubbing one of the corners with his thumb. I watched his movements with interest. When I had first met Collin, all I had seen was a dangerous man. When he stared at his picture, though, his hardness seemed to melt. He looked at it with longing. He looked at it with a sadness that made my heart ache.

"It's Oregon," he finally said. "A place called Shore Acres."

"Have you gone?"

"Oh, um, no. I've always wanted to, though." He whispered the last part so quietly that I almost missed it. I gave him a small smile.

"It's beautiful." He didn't respond. He sighed, refolded the image, and placed it in the wallet. "What are the other two?"

I didn't think that Collin was going to respond. He started the car and left the parking lot. He only started talking once we were far from Wendy's. "I have a picture of New York and another of Hawaii. They're the places we...I've always wanted to go."

By the way he talked about it, it seemed that Collin dreamed about it, but never planned on going to those destinations. If we really only had ten days to do whatever we wanted, then he should have been going off to his dream places instead of hiding. I wished that there was a way that I could have helped him.

Slow down, I told myself. This is the person that held you in front of a gun last night. Now you feel bad for him?

I thought back to that moment, but I didn't feel as scared or angry as I had. The memory was overtaken by him going out of his way to fix my tire instead of leaving me stranded. I thought about how he bought me a Frosty just because I had mentioned it. I saw his face as he looked at his pictures and the relief that he had when I told him that I had found them.

I didn't fully trust him, but I didn't hate him. With a little more time, we could probably become friends.

Collin turned into a neighborhood. He slowed down and checked the addresses. Finally, he stopped at a large, white house. There was a sign in the front yard, indicating that it was for sale. Two cars occupied the driveway.

Collin cursed under his breath. He turned the car around and sped away.

"What's wrong?" I asked. He was muttering under his breath frantically. He had been fairly composed the entire time I had known him until then.

He sucked in a deep breath. "That's where I was going to stay."

"Oh."

I looked out my window, not wanting to look at Collin panicking any longer. What was he going to do? If that's where he had intended on staying, then where would he go now? Maybe he had other friends nearby. Maybe he was driving to another house right now.

"I'm sorry for getting you stuck in this," he said. "I'll stop at a gas station or something. You can go; I'll be fine."

I didn't say anything. I chewed on my bottom lip. He was going to walk just because he didn't want to keep me around anymore? Last night, I would have been hollering with joy. Now I was more worried about where Collin would stay instead of me getting home.

He's done this before. This can't be the first time that this has happened to him. It was probably true, but it didn't make me feel better.

I looked at Collin. He had gone back to his calm demeanor. All of his emotions simply sank back and hid behind its wall. Why did he hide behind it? What was he keeping back there that no one else could know?

Collin parked at a gas station and got out. He gave me a small smile. Slipping his hands in his pocket, Collin turned and started walking away.

I didn't leave the passenger seat. I watched him as he left. If I let him go now, then all of the secrets he was hiding would be kept forever. I would go home and forever wonder what I would have discovered if I would have stuck around with that mysterious man.

I rolled down my window and poked my head out. "Hey!"

Collin turned. His brows raised. I felt just as surprised as he looked. What was I doing? Was my curiosity really worth it? What if this went wrong?

Then again, I was supposed to die in ten days. I may as well have done everything I wanted with no regrets. Besides, what was the worst that could happen?

I smiled. "I thought that we were going to Oregon."

He stood still and looked up at the sky decisively. After a minute, he looked back at me and smiled. With a shake of his head, he walked back to my car.

Our characters are off to Oregon! How do you feel about that? Do you think that they will stick through with their trip, or depart early? Do you think that it's a good use of their last ten days? Let me know what you think!

If you like this story, try voting with a Frosty! If not a Frosty, any frozen treat would work. Stay beautiful! 

This song is called Everyday by Dave Matthews Band. Enjoy!