I didn't get much sleep that night, despite being curled up next to Nova's warm, slumbering form. The sky was just beginning to lighten to a royal blue on the eastern horizon when I carefully untangled myself from her sleeping form and slid out of the sleeping bag. The air was already pleasantly warm and a chorus of birds chirped away above us in unison. I tried to yawn away my sleepiness, knowing I wouldn't be able to settle back down since I was already up.

I parked my butt at the base of a gnarled old tree of some sort and leaned back, taking in deep breaths of the morning. I thought about our conversation the night before, and about Nova and Rick inevitably leaving our sleepy hometown. I wondered if I would ever actually be able to leave, myself. Graduation was only a year away, and then what? Would I really spend my life stuck in the same dusty excuse for a town? Would I follow Nova endlessly, searching for the relationship that never seemed to actually happen? I didn't want to imagine I'd resign myself to something like that, I didn't want to lose Nova, and I didn't want to ask her to change for my sake.

I had absolutely no idea what I should do.

"You're up kinda early."

I gave a start as Rick sat down next to me with a groan. I looked around, alarmed. It looked as if I had been lost in my thoughts for almost an entire hour. I shrugged at him and continued to stare off into the east, where a fiery glow was threatening to break the horizon. The morning's birds had been joined by a chorus of insects, filling the air with the sounds of summer.

"What's on your mind, Puck?" Rick said finally, looking over at me. I glanced back, surprised to see a hint of stubble along his jawline--I had never even realized that he kept himself so clean-shaven.

"I'm not sure," I admitted truthfully after some silence.

"Is it Nova?"

I let out a half-bitter, half-amused chuckle. "Isn't it always?"

"Man, I'd like to pretend I totally don't get you too, but I'd be lying if I said that were the case." Rick picked up a twig off the ground and began snapping it into tiny pieces, letting them fall to the ground one by one. I blinked at him in surprise.

"What do you mean?"

Rick sighed and tossed the rest of the stick away and leaned his head back against the tree, giving me a sideways glance. "I mean, anyone else could look at your relationship--friendship? Whatever-- and wonder how the hell you guys got mixed up in such a mess. But I can't. I think I actually, finally get it after all this time."

"Oh yeah?" I picked up the twig he threw and concentrated on finishing the job. "You've got me beat. I have no clue how I'm in such a mess, I guess."

"It's pretty obvious, isn't it? I mean, you have to have realized it by now."

"Rick, just shut up and tell me already." I tossed a handful of tiny twig pieces at him and he grinned.

"It's your friendship, Puck; obviously. Especially for Nova. I mean, God knows I'm aware of your... shenanigans," he said with an eye-roll, "but you two always go back to the same cutesy little platonic gag-fest that you've had going on since we were kids."

I paused, trying to understand what he was saying. "And this means... what, exactly?" I ventured with a frown.

"And you're supposed to be the smart one," he said with a laugh. "It means that, at the end of the day, you and Nova may well be perfect for each other, but you'll never know because you're afraid of jeopardizing your friendship."

"She said she loved me, though." I blurted out, feeling my face for hot.

"And? Of course she loves you. You love her. Fuck, I love her for crying out loud. We've been friends forever."

I thought back to the conversation Nova and I had about different kinds of love. Rick was right, of course. Apparently, everyone else was much better at understanding all the existential stuff that I sucked with. "Are you saying we'll never be together?" I asked, trying to keep my drop in spirits out of my voice.

"Not necessarily," Rick said, running his fingers through his miraculously still-spiked blonde hair. "Is Nova the kind of girl you take to Thanksgiving dinner, drag to Christmas at your grandma's, and, well, marry? I don't think so."

"Nova's the girl that gets you drunk, forces you to smoke cigarettes with her, and drags you outside in the middle of the night to tell each other stories about the constellations," I sighed, shaking my head.

Rick put a hand on my shoulder. "Is that so bad? Do you really want to let that kind of stuff go?"

"I... I'm not sure," I said finally.

"Remember, there's only one Nova on the planet, and you've got her heart." Rick said, getting to his feet. "Please don't break it by trying to make her something she's not."

We were packed into the car and back on the road within the hour. The landscape was pristinely empty, a true wonder to watch slide past the windows. I had trouble keeping my eyes open, though, and eventually fell asleep against the door as the dull hum of the interstate lulled my brain into shutoff.

I had a dream that I was chasing someone up a steep mountain while they chided me from above and laughed when I couldn't catch up. I tried to claw my way up to their perch at the very summit, but couldn't gain purchase on the loose rocks. My hands were bleeding from a hundred tiny jagged cuts and I could feel sweat and tears streaming down my face. still, the faceless figure on the mount pointed and laughed and beckoned for me to come closer. I tried one last time pick up my weary feet, but found myself slipping and sliding backward instead.

Suddenly, the mountain morphed into a sheer cliff face and my battered body began bouncing off rock after rock, thump-thump-thump-thump-thump. The bottom of the cliff rolled nearer and nearer until, just before I slammed into the ground, I jolted awake.

Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump.

I looked around wildly, trying to locate the source of the noise. We had moved out of Montana and into Idaho, I was fairly sure. The terrain seemed more mountainous and had more trees. I tried to rub the sleep out of my eyes as I tried to figure out what was going on.

"Shit, shit, shit," Nova was cursing and watching the rearview mirror intently. She and Rick must have traded places while I was asleep, as it was a bit of a surprise to see her behind the steering wheel. She was pulling over to the side of the highway for some reason; the grooves in the shoulder were what had jarred me awake. I turned in my seat to see what all the fuss was about and my suspicions about our location were confirmed by the sight of an Idaho State Patrol car right on our bumper as Nova carefully pulled off the road.

"I told you!" Rick was saying, face buried in his hands. "I told you a dozen times, at least. I knew this was going to happen!"

"I haven't seen a single sign in an entire freaking hour!" Nova said somewhat shrilly. She looked visibly panicked.

"Of course Idaho has a speed limit!" Rick yelled, and I began to piece together what was going on. "Every state has speed limits! It's just a rumor!"

"Just act cool, maybe we can talk ourselves out of this one."

"THERE'S NO WAY IN HELL--"

"Hello, Officer!" Nova said, cutting Rick off mid-sentence as a tall guy with a wide-brimmed hat strolled up to the driver's side window, hands perched on his gun belt.

"Well, well." He said, leaning over and peering at us through mirrored sunglasses. He looked like he was in his mid-thirties, probably a veteran officer. "Looks like you guys are in the middle of a little trip, huh? Where're you kids headed off to?" His voice was pleasant but his demeanor tense. I wasn't quite sure what to make of the situation, so I decided it best to keep my mouth shut and ask questions later.

"Seattle." Nova said tensely, forcing a smile.

The officer let out a long, low whistle. "Colorado plates, huh? You're quite some ways from home! D'you know why I pulled you over?"

"Um, I was speeding?" Nova ventured, smile faltering.

"Damn right you were!" The officer laughed, shaking his head. "Do you have any idea how fast you were going back there?" Nova opened her mouth but nothing came out. "C'mon, now. Just be honest and it'll be better for both of us."

"We were going, I don't know," she glanced at Rick, who just shook his head in a grimace. "A hundred and fifteen, I think?"

My jaw dropped at the same time as the officer's. I didn't even think Rick's old Chevy was even capable of going a hundred and fifteen miles per hour.

"Are you serious?" The officer cried, taking of his sunglasses and looking at us, aghast. "Man, I clocked you at, like, ninety-five back there! What the hell are you guys doing going that fast? You could kill yourselves!"

"We need to get to Seattle by tomorrow morning," I said suddenly, leaning over Rick's lap so the officer could see me. "We can't miss her dad's funeral." The officer studied us for a second, trying to decide whether or not we were telling the truth. Finally, he sighed and shook his head, taking off his big green hat and wiping his brow.

"I believe you kids," he said finally, biting his bottom lip. "Still, you were going thirty miles per hour over the speed limit. Could I see your driver's license and registration, please?" Nova retrieved her driver's license out of her wallet and Rick rummaged around in his glove box until he found his registration in a stack of papers. We sat in a tense silence as the officer took them back to his car to check them. By the time he returned, we were all sweating bullets.

"Okay, Natalie, it's your lucky day," The officer said with a serious look, handing back their articles. "Since you have a clean record and an important event I'm not going to let you miss, I'm going to let you off with a grave, grave warning. Don't you ever drive that fast ever again, y'hear?"

"Yes, sir!" Nova said, nodding profusely, visibly melting. "Thank you so, so much, sir!"

"Don't mention it," he said with a smile. "Really, though, don't tell anyone I let you off, the chief would kill me. My daddy died when I was your age and I wasn't ever able to get to his funeral. I'd hate for someone else to go through that hell."

"We really appreciate it, officer...?"

"Shelby," he said with a grin. "Shelby Smith. Your daddy wasn't to only one with a little too much fondness for an old muscle car." With a wink, he tipped his hat to us and started back to his car. Nova slowly rolled back onto the highway after taking a deep, deep breath and letting it out slowly.

"Man, I thought we were done for back there," Rick said with a groan. "How far is it to Seattle, now?"

"Seven hours, I think," Nova said, bringing the truck to exactly the speed limit and staying there until Officer Smith passed us on the left with a wave.

"A lot can happen in seven hours," Rick said gravely, shaking his head. "That being said, you are definitely stopping at the next gas station so I can drive. I'd like to arrive ticket-free and alive, thanks."

The rest of the beautiful drive through Idaho was uneventful (thank goodness) and we were making good time until the truck overheated in the dry portion of eastern Washington, where the temperature was up near one hundred and ten. We spent four hours in a tiny diner in the middle of nowhere waiting for someone to come along with extra radiator fluid. A couple of old truckers offered to pee in the radiator, to which we politely declined, considering Rick didn't even want to pour in tap water just to get us to the next gas station.

By the time we were within an hour and a half of the city, all three of us were tired, cranky, and just about fed up with mishaps along the way. We stopped to fill up one last time before entering the city at yet another truck stop (interstates have a lot of those, I guess) just after dark.

Rick said he had to pee really badly, so he handed me the cash and told me to fill it up, I paid the sullen-looking teenager at the counter and began pumping gas into the tank, resting my head against the cab and closing my eyes for just a moment. I must have dozed off, because a short time later I felt something warm, wet, and foul-smelling begin to soak through my pants.

"What the... SHIT!" I jumped back, spraying gasoline everywhere, staring at the handle blankly for a moment before my brain kicked in and I yanked my finger off the switch. By then, it was no use. My entire lower half was absolutely sodden in gasoline and I smelled like an oil refinery.

Of all the pumps we could have driven up to, we chose the one with the broken overflow mechanism.

"You okay, Puck?" Nova climbed out of the truck and took one look at me and burst out laughing. I slammed the pump handle back in its place and kicked off my shoes and peeled off my fuel-soaked socks.

"Why the fuck is this so funny?" I snarled, throwing my wet stuff in the bed of the truck. Nova's face changed immediately.

"God, I'm sorry!" She said, starting toward me. "It's just, you know... par for the course so far. Sorry!"

"Stay back," I said with a sigh, gesturing toward my soaked pants. "you'll just get it all over yourself, too." Nova bit her lip and nodded apologetically.

I slumped over the side of the bed and groaned through gritted teeth. Then, I spied Nova's jacket, just what I needed at a time like this. I snatched her pack of cigarettes out of one pocket and a lighter out of the other. I took one of the last three left and brought it to my mouth, lighting it and inhaling like my life depended on it.

"Puck, what are you doing? Is that a cigarette?" Nova suddenly sounded very concerned.

"I only took one," I said, turning to face her and taking another long draw. "Look, I could really use it right now."

"It's not that, it's— "

She never got to finish. I tapped the ash off the end with my index finger and watched in horror as my pants lit up like a Christmas tree.

Nova screamed, I yelled, and before I knew what was happening, Rick had reappeared and jumped on me with one of the sleeping bags, tackling me to the ground hard but putting out the fire in the process. We just laid on the ground panting for a minute, trying to process what had just happened. Luckily no one was parked close to us and the whole event seemed to go unnoticed.

"You alright?"

I looked down, inspecting my legs. "Just singed, I think."

"You smell like a NASCAR wreck," Rick pointed out as he helped me to my feet. I shrugged, pretty much resigned to my horrible luck.

"Your tank is full," I said finally, gesturing toward his truck. "We should head out."

"You know what would be really, really fun?" Nova piped up, giving us a peculiar look. "It's a warm night. What if Puck and I rode in the bed for the rest of the trip?" She bit her lower lip and gave Rick a look.

No, it really didn't sound like fun.

I sighed. "Do I really smell that bad?"

Both Rick and Nova nodded sadly.

"Whatever." I climbed up into the bed and shifted stuff around to make room. Nova climbed up after me and settled down next to me, placing her hand in mine. Rick opened the back window and we started down the interstate once again, wind whipping our hair up into a frenzy. Nova smiled over at me and I knew she was remembering the last time we had ridden in the bed of Rick's truck together. We settled in close and watched the city grow around us as the darkness became deeper and deeper.

As it turned out, Stacy's house wasn't actually in Seattle itself, but some kind of cute wooded suburb another hour north of the city. We followed a few winding roads further and further west off Interstate 5, dropping down several steep hills as the growth got thicker. After getting turned around three or four times, we finally found ourselves in from of the correct house, and what a house it was! The thing was built like some sort of fairytale cottage, only bigger, backed right up against Puget Sound. Rick shut off the truck and let out a long, low whistle. A dog started barking ferociously from inside as Nova and I hopped down out of the bed and tried to work some feeling into our stiff joints.

Past the garden, a door banged open and someone started hollering at the top of their lungs. I didn't even see the dog as it slammed into my chest and began slobbering all over my face in an oddly familiar manner.

"RONALD GODDAMN REAGAN, GIT BACK HERE!" A female voice bellowed out from the darkness.

"Are you ready for this?" I asked Nova as Rick attempted to drag the dog off of me.

She reached out and squeezed my hand, giving me a pained look.

"As ready as I'll ever be."