Drive Me Crazy (2 page)

“Yes,” Sierra muttered. “Their new therapist is big on ‘demonstrating your feelings,’ which means they’re constantly kissing and hugging and rubbing each other’s hands. It’s completely disgusting, and Sasha and I are both concerned that a summer cooped up with them in a tiny little cabin in the middle of nowhere could be brutal.”

Alexis chuckled. “Perhaps they’ll consider your feelings before demonstrating theirs when it’s just the four of you in two small rooms.”

Suddenly a soccer ball landed in the middle of the three girls, leaving a muddy print on Kate’s road trip prep list. “Yo, pass that back!” A guy with dark, shaggy hair snapped his fingers. All three girls just looked at him. “Hello? Toss me my ball.”

“Adam, you kicked it at us. Walk over here and get it yourself.” Kate lay on her back in the grass, idly watching the clouds. Adam was Alexis’s cousin, and Kate had known him for years. Not only were Adam and his two brothers over at Alexis’s house most weekends, but Adam’s family also rented one of the cottages at Cattail Resort every summer.

When they were younger, Kate and Adam had actually sort of been friends—especially during their time at the lake. Their idea of fun almost always overlapped, and he used to be downright hilarious. But as the years had passed, his humor had turned to arrogance, and what used to be fun just came across as rude and inappropriate the older they got.

The end of Kate’s patience came in sixth grade, when Adam spread a rumor around their new middle school about Alexis sleeping with a whole collection of Barbie dolls every night. (Which was only a little bit true…. It was just Malibu Barbie and a Ken doll, but the specifics were irrelevant.) Alexis was tortured for the first three weeks of school, and most people called her Baby G for the rest of the school year. She hadn’t been able to shake the nickname until she’d started dating—and kissing—Kyle Stevenson, the captain of the football team, and he’d forced people to shut up already.

Kate hated Adam for ruining her friend’s reputation (if only temporarily), but also because Adam was a prick with a serious sense of self-righteousness, and a bossy, argumentative streak that bothered her immensely.

Out of the corner of her eye Kate watched Adam lift his eyebrows and move toward them to get his ball. “Okay, Kate, if you want to be a bitch about it, that’s the way we can play it.” When Adam reached the edge of their circle, he didn’t stop moving. He stepped on Kate’s stomach and walked over her. He grabbed his ball, turned, and lifted his foot to step on her again.

Kate sat up, grateful for her Abs of Steel workout video, and nimbly grabbed Adam’s ball out of his hands. Ignoring the muddiness, she shoved the ball inside her shirt and declared, “
This
is the way we can play it, Adam.” She held her arms across her stomach and shoved her bag into her lap to hide the ball. She knew she was being childish, but her adrenaline had kicked into high gear. She
hated
Adam and was sick of the way he always did whatever he wanted to. “Now, run back to your friends and find a new game. We’re through with you here.”

Alexis and Sierra exchanged a look. They knew Kate was stubborn, but they both knew Adam was just as much so. This war could go on for hours. With a tiny little smirk Alexis leaned back to watch the drama unfold. Sierra looked mildly uncomfortable but was clearly enjoying the scene.

“I see,” Adam said, crossing his arms over his chest. “So you’re telling me that you like my ball inside your shirt? You’d like to keep it there?”

“All I said,” Kate spat back at him, ignoring his totally lame attempt at sexual humor, “is that you can run along now.” She held her hand up like a stop sign and yawned. “You’re boring me.” Kate was mortified at the way she was acting. She sounded like a third grader…or like Adam. He totally brought out the worst in her.

“Well, this should make things a little more interesting for you,” Adam said. He grinned, bent down, and pulled Kate’s bag out of her lap. In the single moment it took for this to happen, Kate lost her concentration. So when Adam’s hand reached up her shirt and pulled the ball out, she just sat there staring. “I hope that was fun for you,” Adam said. “Since
that
was one sexy move, and probably the only action you’ll get this summer.” With a wink and a snap of his fingers he trotted off to rejoin his buddies, leaving Kate, Alexis, and Sierra staring after him.

Kate felt her skin burn where he had touched her. Her heart was racing, and the anger bubbled up inside. Had it been anyone other than Adam, she would have been blushing. Because as far as Kate was concerned, there was nothing sexier than a good, well-fought fight.

The next morning Kate stood outside her house with her duffel bag by her side. She’d been packed for weeks and couldn’t stand the wait for even one more moment. Alexis had planned to pick Sierra up at her house. Then they would head to Kate’s before motoring off to the west in Alexis’s little green Ford.

Kate stood in her driveway, growing agitated for no reason at all. She had come outside more than ten minutes before her friends were supposed to get there, and couldn’t blame them for the fact that she was still waiting. She reached into her bag to grab her cell phone to check the time, and realized it wasn’t there.

Crap
. She’d left it plugged in overnight, and had forgotten to grab it from the kitchen counter before she’d locked up. She pulled out her keys and let herself back in. The phone was right where she’d left it the night before.

She had six new text messages and a voice mail. Before she could look at her messages, she heard Alexis’s horn sigh in her driveway. The horn sounded like a dying cow sucking its last breath, and Kate chuckled as she slipped her phone into her pocket and hurried out the door.

Sierra waved to her from the front seat, and Alexis leaned her head out the open driver’s side window. “I’m driving first shift so I can control the tunes, yo.”

“You can drive every shift, babe. I will man the navigation.” Kate swung her bag into the trunk and moved around to the back door. She stopped short when she realized the backseat wasn’t empty. “What are you doing here?”

Sprawled across the backseat, one foot lounging into Kate’s space, was Adam. He was drinking a bottled Frappuccino, and a little bit spilled as he shifted to make room for her next to him. Kate leaned into the window to glare at Alexis. “What is he doing here?” The panic was evident in her voice.

“Dude, why didn’t you call me back?” Alexis swiveled in her seat. “I called you last night, and texted you, like, eight million times.”

“I didn’t get the messages.” Kate was staring at Adam suspiciously. His precious soccer ball sat in his lap, taunting her. Her skin crawled at the memory of what had happened the previous afternoon. “Does anyone want to tell me what’s going on?”

Adam put on a fake smile and—in a ridiculous Valley girl accent—said, “Like, I’m coming with you!” He clapped. “Road trip with the girls!” His face turned expressionless. “Yes, that’s right, Kate. You and I will enjoy the magic of each other’s company for the next”—he looked at the clock on the dash of the car—“one hundred twenty-six and a half hours in this car—approximately.”

Kate shot a desperate look at Alexis, who glanced in the rearview mirror, and then said, “Adam has a scholarship interview at the University of Michigan. He has to be there on Monday afternoon, and Aunt Michelle can’t leave Jersey until Sunday. My parents knew we were planning to stop to see Kevin in Ann Arbor anyway, so they made me bring him with us. They insisted he didn’t need to take the skanky bus when we were going to the exact same place.”

Sierra leaned her head out the window. “Come on, Kate, just get in.” Kate scowled at her before reluctantly sliding into the open spot next to Adam.

“I may have come across as genuine a few moments ago, when I jumped for joy about this road trip.” Adam adjusted his position so he was taking up as much of the backseat as was humanly possible. “But let me tell you that I’m looking forward to crashing your road trip just slightly less than you ladies are looking forward to having me here. But fate aligned and brought us all together, so I think we should make the most of it.”

Alexis rolled her eyes and signaled to turn onto the interstate. They were on their way. All four of them. As Kate turned to look out the back window to watch their hometown shrink into the distance, Adam said, “So, who wants to play truth or dare?”

When they stopped at a gas station in the middle of Pennsylvania for toilets and treats four hours later, Kate was convinced that she had died and gone to hell. Absolutely everything she had envisioned for their girls’ road trip had soured into a giant disappointment.

Alexis was snippy (she refused to wear her glasses, and straining to see highway signs had given her a headache); Sierra was distant and quiet (Kate knew her parents’ split was bugging her, but Kate couldn’t talk to her about it with Adam lurking around); and Adam was rude, sarcastic, and condescending (translation: asshole). As far as Kate was concerned, the start of their highly anticipated road trip had been four of the worst hours of her life. She’d spent most of them folded into her corner of the car, trying to put as much distance as possible between her body and Adam’s.

“Only one toilet works, so we’ll have to flip to see who gets to test the waters.” Adam was swinging a giant rubber fish with a key attached to it. He had been sent inside the gas station to find out where the loo was located. “I, personally, am relieved that I stand to pee.”

“I’ll go first.” Kate rolled her eyes at Adam and grabbed the limp fish from his hand. “I brought seat covers.”

“Of course you did.” Sierra laughed. “I’m coming with you.”

“Me too.” Alexis grabbed Kate’s hand. “See ya, Adam. Girls pee with partners.”

When they were safely out of earshot, Alexis blurted out, “What’s with you, Kat?”

“What do you mean?” Kate pulled out a tissue to open the door to the bathroom. The knob was grimy, and pieces of the tissue stuck to the metal when she twisted her hand away.

“I mean, why are you being so abrasive to Adam? What’s your deal with him?” Alexis held the door open, and Sierra and Kate followed her into the restroom. The smell of cigarettes and sanitizer was overpowering. The size of the room made the disgusting toilet cowering in one corner look miniature. There was a machine on the wall dispensing Purple Passion condoms, and next to that was a wooden sign that said:
WOMEN ARE LIKE FISH
:
THE BIGGER, THE BETTER
.

“My deal is he bugs me. He’s rude, arrogant, and is ruining our road trip.”

Sierra held her hand out for a seat protector, which Kate proudly pulled from her bag. “Ladies, turn away. I’ll go first.” Sierra laid the thin piece of paper over the toilet seat and groaned when it soaked up little wet puddles that had been camouflaged on the black seat. “This is disgusting—I’m squatting.”

Alexis and Kate turned to face the condom machine to give Sierra some privacy. Alexis nudged Kate’s foot with her own. “So you’re saying that you are already convinced you’re going to have a crap time on this trip, just because Adam is here?”

“Do you feel like things are off to a great start?”

“No, but I think that’s because—” Alexis cut off as Sierra flushed the toilet with her foot.

Sierra piped up from behind them. “Because you’re being a brat, Kate. Do you need to be so argumentative? I mean, he asked if anyone was hungry this morning, and you told him you’d rather starve than share his bag of pretzels. That’s just sort of mean. I know he’s not your favorite person, but maybe you could give him a chance, and see if things could be a little more…”

“Fun for everyone?” Alexis finished.

“So now it’s my fault that our
girls’
road trip is ruined?” Kate couldn’t decide if she wanted to scream or cry. How could her friends not see her side? “You’re saying that since I think Adam is annoying, I’m the one ruining the trip?”

Alexis moved toward the toilet for her turn. “God, this is gross. No, Kat, that’s not what we’re saying. I guess I’m just wondering why he bothers you so much. You’re not usually like this, and he’s not
that
unbearable.”

“You know I’ve hated him since middle school. And now he’s always just such a prick that I can’t really get past it. Lex, I can see why you deal with him—he’s family. But, Sierra, doesn’t he get under your skin?”

“Come on, Kate.” Sierra washed her hands in the filthy sink, lifting her long, slender leg up to turn the faucet off with her flip-flop when she’d finished. “You know I don’t let him bother me. He actually sort of cracks me up, if you want to know the truth.”

“Dude, how did you do that?” Alexis was referring to Sierra’s leg-faucet trick. “Kat, maybe you’re just being a little bit dramatic? I’ve forgiven Adam for the Barbie doll rumor…. You should too.”

“I’ll do my best to be civil,” Kate said as she moved to take her turn at the toilet. “But I can’t promise anything. I don’t like when people mess with my friends, which he did, and you guys are just going to have to deal with that. I’ll try to get over it, but unless he starts to act less like the asshole that I’m certain he is, then this car ride will be a little hostile.”

“Kat: the defender of my reputation!” Alexis laughed, turning a quarter into the Purple Passion machine. “How effective can a twenty-five-cent condom be? This place freaks me out.” She pulled the lavender package out of the dispenser and set it on top of the machine. “Free protected sex, courtesy of Alexis Goldstein. Some creep will find this later and it will make his day.”

“So generous, Lex. I’m glad you’re looking out for the people of Wherever-we-are, Pennsylvania,” Kate said, and then giggled as she washed her hands. When she’d finished, she gestured to Sierra to bring her leg over to turn off the faucet with her foot again. Sierra happily obliged. Then the three girls hustled out of the bathroom to give Adam his turn.

When he emerged from the bathroom thirty seconds later, Adam was waving something in his hand as he strolled back to the car. “Check it out!” he called, grinning widely. “Purple Passion!”

Kate, Alexis, and Sierra looked at one another and all burst out laughing. For the first time all day Kate felt like there could still be hope for their road trip after all.

Late that afternoon, somewhere on the other side of Pennsylvania, the girls decided it was time to call it a day. The sun would be going down soon, and they had passed a sign that said there was a campground a few exits up the highway. They had a tent, and were excited to use it. Most of the motels they’d passed that they were able to afford were far creepier than a tent, anyway, and camping was much more fun.

Adam had volunteered for a shift as navigator and was holding the atlas upside down—just to be funny—and calling out random directions every time they passed an exit. Kate was driving, and found Adam’s map humor to be about as amusing as Mr. Tannen’s famously painful history class. But Sierra’s constant giggling was egging him on, and Alexis periodically chimed in by loudly reading the billboards they passed. Kate felt like the only outsider, which made Adam seem even more annoying.

“Seriously, Adam, can you please just pay attention and figure out where we’re going?” Kate slammed her hand on the steering wheel, startling Alexis out of her zoned-out state in the backseat.

Adam laughed. “Geez, Kate, chill. Take the next exit, and then trust me…. I’ll get us there.”

“I’m sure,” Kate grumbled, then stuffed a handful of Swedish Fish into her mouth to keep from saying what she wanted to say.

Adam leaned across the front seat and studied the dashboard. “Hey, daredevil, you’re really risking it driving fifty-five in a sixty.”

“Adam…,” Alexis warned sleepily from the backseat. Things hadn’t gotten a lot friendlier between Adam and Kate over the course of the day, and Alexis and Sierra had started to mediate. Adam had started to push Kate’s buttons just for the fun of it. He seemed to get a thrill from pissing her off.

Adam grinned. “This exit, please.”

Kate signaled to exit, and followed Adam’s direction to take a left off the exit ramp. They drove for nearly ten minutes down a narrow, empty road in silence. The only sound was a periodic shuffling of paper when Adam adjusted the map. “How much farther?” Kate asked eventually. “I’m starting to get a little freaked out. This sort of feels like the setup for a horror movie.”

“I think the map might be outdated,” Adam responded. “We should have been there by now.”

“Give me the map,” Kate demanded. She slammed her foot on the brake and pulled to the side of the road. She glanced at the atlas and said, “We should have gone right off the exit ramp. We’re going in the wrong direction.” She shoved the map at Adam, put the car back into gear, and pulled a U-turn.

Ten minutes later they pulled into the campground, which was less than a mile off the interstate the
other
way. As they drove through the park searching for a spot to call home for the night, neither Kate nor Adam said a word.