Chapter Six: Stand Up
I was in a white room.
There was no furniture, no people, no anything, just me.
"Hello?" I called out but to my dismay there is no response. Using my hands, I push off the blank floor.
"Hello?" I yell again, but there's not response still.
"You can't mess this up Luke." A feminine voice rings out, "You can't afford to."
I have no idea at all who this could be but I decide to play along. "What? Who are you?" I question, trying to focus on anything but nothing appears.
"Be careful. Your time is running up." She warns, I try to run toward her but I can't go to, what I can't see.
"Please tell me who you are? What are you talking about?" I spin around but no one reveals them self. "Hello?" I try again when there's no answer.
"All will be answered. Just know the timer is running out." The voice repeatedly warns in a stern tone, as if they know something I don't.
"Please, just tell me who you are." I say, almost in a begging like tone. I don't know wether or not to trust this stranger but I feel as though they are hiding something important from me.
"Luke!" I spin around hearing Cayden's voice.
She isn't there.
"Luke!" She desperately call again but I can't find her anywhere.
"Luke wake up! Please!" She frantically yells, "Wake up!"
In a flash, I'm shot back to reality; I instantly shoot up causing Cayden to hedge back from me.
I turn my head around, my neck is in pain from sleeping in an uncomfortable position and I feel slightly dehydrated.
The smell of leather and old musk entrails my nostrils. I don't recognize the worn out seat I'm in and my head feels slightly dizzy from waking up so fast.
"Here." Cayden hands me a fresh water bottle that I greedily devour in seconds. While I'm drinking, I notice she has a plastic bag in between her legs.
"Do you want any aspirin?" She fools around though the bag, taking out a small blue and white bottle.
I shake my head in response, "I don't need any medication." Truth be told, I have had too many experiences with alcohol that now, I can handle even the most severe hangover.
"Are you sure?" She pushed the bottle forward but I shake my head. She frowns at my response, untwisting the cap and plopping two pills into her palm.
I stare down at her hand with the medicine. "Just take it in case," She urges but she doesn't know about my high tolerance. But because I didn't want to offend her, I unwillingly swallowed the pills, wincing as I felt them go down my throat.
Cayden smiled, pleased that I listened. Afterward, she pulled out a plastic spoon and a tiny red container. "Are you seriously eating ice cream in the morning?" I teased her, eyeing while she popped open lid, immediately digging into the cookie dough batter.
"What?" She asked half way into her bite. "Do I have something on my face?" She batted her baby blues at her and it took all my will power not to kiss her right there.
"No." I slightly smiling, "I just can't believe you are eating ice cream this early."
"Well technically," She nodded her head toward the dash board clock, "It's already past noon."
True to her word the clock was blaring half past noon. "How long were you up for?" I questioned while she finished the remaining contents.
"Just an hour, but don't worry I was passing some time in that drug store." I turned my head to see a fairly ample market in front of us. Although there was a few customers bustling in and out, there was hardly any cars in the parking lot.
"Where even are we?" The headache that I thought wouldn't form was eventually evading my mind. My heart was racing at the fact we were in unknown territory.
"Seattle." She mumbled and I almost jumped up in complete shock, Seattle was two hours away from where we lived. "We are all the way in Seattle?"
Cayden nervously bit her lip, "Apparently so." I groaned, filling pushing myself against the creaky seat.
"How, how did this even happen?" I questioned, I could remember only a few flashes of droopy smiles, drunken laughter, and illegal turns.
"I don't even know, I can't really remember anything." She heavily sighed.
I dug for phone in my back jean pocket. Typing in my passcode, over thirty missed calls and twenty texts were on my notifications, all ranging from my parents to my friends. What's worse was I couldn't respond as my battery instantly died.
I cursed at my terrible luck. My parents were going to ground me for the rest of my life after this. I could only imagine the veins on my father's neck popping out or the worry lines of my mother deepening with every minute I wasn't through the door.
"We have to go back." Cayden whispered, "My Uncle is in town and I don't think he will appreciate in me being absent when he arrives."
"I can only imagine how your parents feel, I bet my dad is just waiting to have my head." I agreed, starting the engine.
"I don't have any parents, I don't really have a home to go to." Home. That one word trigger memories of her in my arms and small touches laced with apparent affection, me declaring I would find her home.
A bolt of guilt pang in me, by the looks of it, Cayden really didn't remember anything but knowing that I was backing out of a promise to her, caused me to want to turn back and explore cities until she found where she was meant to be.
"Oh." Was all I could mumble before the car started to shake a bit. The arrow on the gas meter was rapidly dropping and I found myself swiveling to the nearest gas station.
Thankfully, it was hardly a mile away and once I parked and made sure everything was set, I fished out a few coins to make a call on a pay phone.
"Come on, come on." I whispered, placing the left over change in my back pocket while the dial rang.
"Hello?" My father picked up, his voice was tinted with a hint of stress and worry.
"Hey um-" I rolled my eyes at myself, "Hey it's me, Luke."
"Luke!" My dad roar and I could almost hear my mother come crashing to the phone. I heard her hushed plea to hand her the phone but my dad refuses her request. "Where have you been?! Do you know how worried sick we are?"
"I know, I know and I'm sorry my phone died." I was trying to look everywhere at the ground as if I could feel my father's intense gaze.
"Your phone died? That's the excuse? You know, we tried calling all of your friends but apparently you seem to take if upon yourself to flee the face of the planet without so much of a warning."
The last response I wanted to hear was one of my father's famous, over bearing lectures. "I'm sorry about that, I didn't mean to." I hoped that would quite him down but my apology only catalyzed his harshness, "You're sorry? Sorry for what Lucas? Sorry for making your mother and I stay up all night? For almost calling the police? Where even are you? Because Ashton told me you aren't even with them. I have never seen such an irresponsible act-"
"Dad I-" I was attempting to explain myself but he didn't seem to want to listen. "You know college is major responsibility and independence, clearly something you need to learn." By this point by gaze focused in on Cayden who was leaning against her own chair, her hands in her face.
She looked like she was crying.
"I am beyond disappointed in you. I never raised you to be like this. No son of mine would have done such a stupid action." My father continued to criticized me but something in his words struck a spark in me. "I want you to come home right now. " Home. The clear walls, my perfectly cleaned room, and perfect family that didn't feel like home. The constant negativity and pressure didn't feel somewhere safe to me; it didn't make me want to come back, in fact it made me want to do the opposite, to flee.
"No video games, extra chores, no going out and you can say good bye to your road trip." But his punishments went out through one year as a sense of
rebellion and want coursed through me.
The sensible Luke would have never done this, but this was a new Luke. One who was independent and willing to take risks no matter what the cost. And as I looked back toward Cayden, who was wiping her eyes, one purpose became clear.
Not only was I going to find Cayden's home, but mine. I wanted, no, desperately needed to find my own. Because the one with my strict father and constant aggression was not home.
"Do you hear me Lucas?" I could only imagine the redness developing on his face but I did the unthinkable. "I-I got to go."
I hung up.