Going the Distance (20 page)

He sighed, and I knew I had won. “Fine, but I’m talking to Nate first.”

“Deal,” I said, jumping up in excitement. Obviously I had forgotten how tall I was in the past few months, because I hit my head on the ceiling pretty hard and almost fell on my ass. Pretty much making my dad’s point for him. Instead I rubbed my head and kept putting the plates out.

“Tell him it’s going to have to be next weekend,” my dad said as he took the roast out of the oven. “We’re busy this weekend.”

I had already pulled my cell out and was in midtext. “Why?” That was a definite whine, because he looked over and scowled at me.

“Hey, if you want to go up there so bad, you can,” he said, putting the pan down. “It just means I’ll have to go pick out cars by myself.”

I opened my mouth to argue and then stopped. “Cars?”

“Yeah, the insurance settlement came in, but if you aren’t interested, you go, and I’ll—”

“
A new car!
” I screamed, making sure not to jump this time. Instead I grabbed my dad from behind, picked him up, and twirled him around. “
A new car!
” I repeated as he laughed.

“Okay, just because you’re bigger than me now does not mean you get to just throw me around,” he exclaimed as I spun us around again. “Daniel Devin Monroe, put me down right now!”

I dropped him like he had burst into flames.

“How much do we have?” I asked him, thoughts of new Mustangs and Camaros dancing in my eyes.

“Enough,” he said, smoothing his slacks out. “It covered the Jeep and included your pain and suffering, so we have enough for a new car.” I opened my mouth, but he held up a finger. “A car that we will both agree on and use. Deal?”

I nodded, not trusting myself to speak.

“Go clean up before this gets cold,” he said, gesturing at the roast.

There was a puff of Danny-shaped smoke where I had been standing as I ran to the bathroom.

After dinner I got on Skype and talked to Nate, telling him about PT and the new car.

“Well, that’s even better,” he said, taking a bite of something. “Amy and I are going to Dallas next weekend. Meet us there.”

“What?” I said, suddenly feeling way out of my comfort zone.

“Her brother is in some talent show thing, and she wants us to go for support. We’re leaving Friday morning. Meet us up there, and you can crash at her place with me all weekend.”

“But I don’t know her!” I said, wondering why meeting Amy was bugging me so much.

He shrugged and took another bite. “So? You’re going to have to sooner or later—she’s my girlfriend and you’re my little brother. You guys are going to have to meet at some point.”

I felt that tingle in my chest when he called me his little brother. “What if she doesn’t like me?” I asked, laying my cards out on the table for him to see.

He laughed. “Dude, I want the two people I love in the world to meet. Come on. Just show up and see how it goes. We’ll burn that bridge if we come to it.”

I had never had someone besides my dad say they loved me before. It was a good feeling. “I’ll have to ask my dad.”

He nodded. “I’ll call him too, let him know it’s on the up-and-up.”

“You have my dad’s number?” I asked him, surprised.

He gave me a sideways look from the computer. “Dude, you don’t know it yet, but we are family, so get over it.”

I had to laugh at that.

“Dallas?” my dad asked later that week. “Danny, that’s, like, eight hours away.”

“So?” I said, ready for that argument. “We’d need to give the new car a test drive anyways. Why not to Dallas?”

“What if something happens on the way up there?” he argued back.

“I already called AT&T and got their car thing put on our phones. They’ll send a tow truck wherever I’m at, and it’s only, like, five bucks a month.” He opened his mouth, and I added quickly, “Which I am willing to pay for a free tow.”

“What about gas?”

“Well, you said some of that money is for pain and suffering. If there’s anything left after the car, can’t I use it for gas? Just this once?”

He sighed, and I knew I was wearing him down.

“Danny, we can’t have you driving eight hours every weekend. We cannot make this a habit.”

“I won’t,” I said, pouncing on the moment. “This is a one-time thing, and if I want to go to College Station, I’ll pay for it myself.”

“How?” he asked, knowing I had no answer.

“I’ll get a job,” I shot back.

He rolled his eyes. “Fine. If we find a car this weekend, and there is money left over, you can go.” I began to get up to celebrate, but he cut me off. “But I am warning you, if there is anything wrong with your leg or hip and you don’t tell me, I will take that car away from you so fast you’ll think you dreamt it up.”

I nodded. “Yes, sir.”

He sighed. “You know you’ve done the ‘sir’ thing since you were six, and it doesn’t score you any points, right?”

“Yes, sir,” I said again, smiling.

He shook his head. “Go get ready for bed. And no talking to Nate all night on your cell. I can hear you through the walls.”

I gave him a small salute as I ran off to take a shower.

Once my dad was safely in bed, I texted Nate. “I’m in.”

All he sent back was one word.

EPIC!

I
WANTED
a Mustang; he wanted an SUV. I wanted another Jeep; he wanted a Volvo. I wanted a convertible; he wanted a minivan.

“Did you get turned into a forty-five-year-old soccer mom when I was in the hospital?” I asked him at the third lot we looked at.

He didn’t say anything, but he had a sour look on his face.

I thought car shopping would be like actual shopping but for much cooler things. Instead it turned out to be a lot of numbers and safety figures that did not take into account how cool metallic red with a deep clear coat looked. I wanted something stylish, something flashy. He wanted something practical, something that would save on gas.

But there was more to Dad’s shopping than that.

He was asking way too many questions, doing so much more than just kicking tires. I’ll admit it took me till the fourth lot until I noticed it, but give me a break, I
did
notice it.

“What’s going on?” I asked him as we looked over another mess of cars we weren’t going to agree on.

“What?” he asked me back. “I want to make sure we get the right car.”

“Right for what?” I said, not letting him off the hook that easily. “I mean, what’s your criteria here?”

He didn’t say anything at first; he just walked around this ugly Geo like he was really thinking about buying it, but I knew he was just stalling for time to put the right words in order. Finally he sighed and looked up at me. “The last car I bought ended up saving your life. Do you think I’m going to ask anything less from this one?”

That shut my big mouth up in a hurry.

Finally we were able to come to a compromise. We got a Ford Fusion—one, because it looked the least nerdy of the cars he liked, and two, because it got great gas mileage along with that emergency thing on the mirror that lets you talk to someone. So if I broke down or had an accident, I could push a button and get help. The car wasn’t cheap, but the insurance settlement covered it with very little to spare.

Just enough to get to Dallas and back, it turned out.

“You do know I should take what’s left and put it towards insurance, right?” my dad said as we drove back to base.

“Yeah, but you wouldn’t do that because I’m your only son and just got over a debilitating car accident, so you want me to be happy.” I glanced over at him during a red light and gave him the widest-eyed, most innocent look I could muster. “Right, Daddy?”

He burst out laughing as the light turned green. “Okay, okay! If you
never
call me Daddy again, I’ll drop it.”

It was a fair deal all around.

“So no texting in the car,” my dad began, reciting to me his version of the Ten Commandments when we got home. “No drinking, no speeding, no anything you would not do if I was in the car. If I find you’ve broken even one rule—”

“You will take the car away and throw me in the dungeon I’m sure you’re in the process of building,” I finished for him.

“You’ll be lucky if you’re alive to get to a dungeon,” he warned.

“I promise,” I said to him, texting Nate. “I am a complete angel in the car, no second chances.”

“Danny,” he said, getting my attention. “You had a second chance—you almost died. Let’s just act like there are no more do-overs, okay?”

I nodded, realizing he really was worried for me. Or, more likely, scared out of his mind.

The next week was like living in slow motion.

School sucked, but that was the same as it always had been. Except with no basketball, it seemed even worse. Every single second was another second that kept me away from the weekend. Nate had e-mailed me directions to Amy’s house, and I plugged them into the car’s GPS. I was so ready.

I threw enough clothes into my duffel to last me a week because I had no idea what we were going to be doing up there, and I wanted to be ready. My dad made sure he had the numbers of someone living everywhere I would be, and even called Amy’s parents to make sure they knew I was coming. I mean, the president went places with less fanfare than this.

Finally Friday arrived, and I had been wrong.
This
was the longest day in the entire world. First period was, like, a week and a half, and by the time it was over, I was close to gnawing my own arm off to get away. Second period was even worse, so by third I texted my dad and asked if I could just bounce during lunch to get a head start.

He texted me back that I could, but only if I didn’t have any work for those classes.

Luckily for me, I had already thought of that.

I texted him back that I was good, and he said to call him every hour or so on the road.

My feet never touched the ground as I flew to my car and took off.

As soon as I was out of Corpus, the world I knew as Texas fell away. There was nothing as far as I could see on either side, just a flatness that, I had to admit, was a little overwhelming. Not many people really understand how huge Texas is until they’re in the middle of it and have to stare it down. I mean, you could put, like, four other states in here and still have room left over, and most of it was a lot of nothing. Just land and land that went on for miles with nothing to break it up but the horizon. As I drove, the nothing was just something to get through to spend time with Nate. But as the hours went on and on, I realized the nothing was larger than I had thought. I had driven four hours straight, and I was barely halfway there. I pulled over and got myself some much needed caffeine for the next part.

I completely ignored the fact my leg was aching when I walked the minimarket, grabbing a couple of Monsters and a Snickers bar to go. I desperately wanted to lie down and let my leg relax, but the fact I was over six and a half feet tall made that an impossibility. The small benches in the minimart would have barely fit me if I was normal sized, so I was shit out of luck. I absently rubbed the side of my leg as I waited in line to be rung up.

Which was when I saw the guy across the store staring at me.

I was so shocked this guy was intently looking at me that I didn’t even notice he was halfway cute. A little older than me, he looked like he was in college and was trying to bore a hole through my head the way he had locked eyes with me. When he saw me looking, he smiled and nodded. I nodded back and looked away, confused. Did I know him? He didn’t look familiar, but that didn’t mean anything. There were days I’d forget my name if it wasn’t written on my driver’s license. I glanced over again, and he was pretending to look at something on the shelf, but his eyes were still looking up at me.

He motioned his head to the right.

I had no idea what he was talking about.

He jerked his head again, and I looked to the right and saw the bathrooms.

When I looked back at him, his smile got wider, and he nodded.

“You’re up, stretch,” the cashier called out to me.

I paid for the gas and my stuff quickly as my mind began to decipher what was going on. Was that guy hitting on me? Like, for real? I got my change and looked over again, and he wasn’t there. He had no doubt gone to the bathroom to wait.

I almost ran to my car in fear.

My hands shook as I tried to put the key into the ignition. I wasn’t an idiot. I knew there were guys who cruised rest stops and bathrooms like that. I’d just never thought it would happen to me. I mean, did he know about me? Was I giving off some kind of sign he could tell? I almost stalled the car as I tried to race out of the parking lot. I got maybe ten miles away before I stopped checking my rearview mirror to see if he was following me. I knew it was stupid, but I was still terrified.

I suppose I should have been flattered, but I felt the same way I had in Germany when my dad asked me if I’d done what Joshua had said. Dirty, ashamed…. I pulled over and threw up on the side of the road.

I washed my mouth out with a Monster and continued toward Dallas a few minutes later. I made sure not to stop again.

An hour from the city, I got a text from Nate asking me where I was. I pulled over to call him back and explained where I was. “It says, like, an hour with traffic,” I explained, talking over the cars that rushed past me on the freeway.

“Yeah, once you get through Dallas it’s, like, just north of it,” he explained. “Just keep on I-75 and you’ll be fine.” I heard someone ask something in the background. “Yeah, you’re going to be cutting it close for the show. You want to just meet us there at the school? ’Cause we’re going to dinner after.”

I’d finished my last Snickers about fifty miles back, and dinner sounded good. “Yeah, text me the address to the school, and I’ll put it in the GPS.”

His voice got high. “Oh, look at you with the sophisticated GPS. Aren’t you special?”