Roadtrip of Legends

Our annual summer road trip was the stuff of legends. Every year, on the first day of summer, we packed Lexi's pink VW Beetle full - with gigantic hats, risque bikinis, and bad decisions - and set off on our East Coast Bonanza. That day, Maria had also packed a tyre pump. She dumped it in the car unceremoniously.

"OK, Maria," I giggled to myself. "It won't be exactly like last time!"

"Yes, well," Maria grumbled. "We won't have to wait for roadside assistance this time."

Maria was sporting mussed hair and raccoon eyes. The iced coffee in her hand had done little to change her mood. She glared at me as she took a sip and then handed me another bag to place in the car. I shook my head and didn't respond, lifting the bag into the already-too-full boot. I pushed it into place with both hands. It took a few attempts to close.

I donned my gigantic hat. It felt like a salute from a soldier off to war.

Maria was right about one thing. Although the stuff of legends, our road trips were a spectacular array of human disorientation. Meaning, our plans could go either deliciously or monstrously astray on these trips. And, let me tell you, there was no in between.

The first summer road trip we all took together was right after highschool. Lexi and I tripped down the East Coast and attended a week-long party. A party where we first met Maria who, by way of allowing us to stay in her parents' beach house for an extra week after getting kicked out of our hotel, quickly became our friend. Maria stayed in contact and attended university in our city the following year.

It had been five summers since, and now we were embarking on our seventh trip. Whilst some friends have come and gone, Maria, Lexi and I had always stayed true to the summer road trips. Three weeks. Three girls. One hell of a good time.

Well, mostly. Lexi had tried to add Beau into the trip a few times.

Lexi kissed her partner, Beau, quickly as she bade her forgotten farewell. Beau's face was the picture of foolhardy love. I watched as his eyes lingered on her dangerous mini skirt as she pranced into the car. My jaw clenched. Lexi turned the car key and revved the engine, throwing a wave out the window and flattening the accelerator. The poor VW Beetle peeled out of the street, sputtering every time Lexi tried to change gears.

"It's been too long," Lexi groaned, grinning widely.

"I need the music," Maria responded, clearly not listening. Maria dived towards the stereo and turned the volume up until the sound was pouring out of the open windows. Maria relaxed back into the passenger seat and crossed her feet, clad in converse, on the dash as she sipped at her iced coffee again. Her sunglasses lazily made their way down her nose.

It took us a few more hours like this - Maria with her iced coffee and blaring the music, Lexi happily arguing with everyone on environmental issues, and me sitting in the back, feeling both a part of everything and also relegated to the sidelines as I watched bemusedly - until anything bad happened. It had always been like this. Lexi was always so free to do whatever she pleased, have whatever ideas she wanted. They came so easily to her. I envied her for it.

Although having solidified herself as somewhat of a hippy, Lexi had her moments where she would stress like crazy. She would have panic attacks in the middle of the night and cry on the phone to me about how she wasn't pretty enough or how she didn't know what she was doing with her life - as if anyone really does. I comforted her until she calmed down and she switched to ranting about her perfect partner and her perfect job. I loved all of that about her. Lexi was just so genuine and the faults are what make people special, really. Sure, she could be a bit self-centred, but couldn't everyone? She was young and fun and silly. The world was her oyster.

I wished I was like that.

Maria, on the other hand, was always a little more closed off. I could never quite put a figure her out. She had her own friends, and her own interests. Apart from the road trips, she was never a part of our friendship group. But it did give us a good time to catch up with her.

It made me feel a bit sad, really. This would likely be our last summer road trip. We all had jobs now. Surely, Lexi would convince Beau to marry her and they would move away together to some distant city to have their tribe of beautiful babies. Maria would slip away to where she did her own thing. I would just be where I always was, too scared to move away, too hurt to stay, same job, same pay, wishing for things that seemed too far out of my reach.

The roadtrip continued like this, me contemplating my endless thoughts while pretending to listen to things I tried to care about, from people I knew too much about. I was fiddling with the hair ties around my wrist when we hit a bump in the road. Literally.

The car bumped and I heard the tyre pop loudly. I could see sparks from the corner of my eye. The stress of the moment hit my head; I suddenly had a headache and a ringing filled my ears. The car careens towards the side of the road. It bumped again against the side of the road and I could have sworn I felt one of the back wheels leave the road. I jumped in my chair. I gripped my seat. I let out a shriek. Every muscle in my body tensed.

In the end, we just ended up in a ditch on the side of the road. Maria gave me a look. Lexi was already scrambling for her phone to call Beau. She was crying, hyperventilating. Maria caught my gaze again, rolling her eyes.

Maria threw the door open and hurled herself out. The remnants of her iced coffee, mostly melted ice, had splattered itself across her shirt. I quickly joined her and stood outside the car hugging myself. It never occurred to me to

There was no reception and soon jumped out of the car and scrambled to jump on top of the car, holding her phone aloft.

Maria rolled her eyes again, then opened the boot of the car and began emptying our bags from the back. I tried to help. Maria was ruthless and my efforts were in vain. She soon had the boot emptied and our bags were strewn on the grass around us.

Lexi had started to sob louder. Maria and I both ignored her as she paced back and forth at the side of the road. No one was stopping for us today. Cars whooshed past on the highway, all laden with their own summer fun. Lexi threw her thumb up anyway. When this didn’t work she stomped back over to where Maria and I were, jacking the car up to remove the wheel.

“Can you believe there is no reception here?”

Maria gave me another long look as she answered sarcastically, “No, Lexi, I cannot believe it!”

“Are you laughing at this?” Lexi was too mad to pause for an answer. “This is just like last time! This will ruin the entire trip!”

I stood up beside Lexi and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “Hey, I know. But it’s ok! We know what to do this time. We’ll be ok.”

Maria had jacked the car up by this point, working efficiently with a look of great exasperation. She rolled her eyes again. I was certain of it, even though I didn’t see it.

Lexi groaned again. “If only I could get a hold of Beau.”

“What,” Maria snapped, “Is Beau going to do?”

Lexi looked over at Maria, stricken. “Help.”

“That man is useless, he can’t help.”

Lexi frowned down at Maria. I recognised the look in her eyes to mean trouble. I tried to jump in quickly. “How about I try calling him on my phone?”

“No,” Lexi’s voice was hard. “What did you mean by that, Maria?”

Maria flicked her hair over her shoulder and stood to her feet. “I mean, every other day you call me up complaining about him. He never does anything that you like-”

“That is not true!”

“Admit it! You like being in a relationship more than you like him!”

“I do not!”

“You do! Am I right, Joy?”

They both turned to me. I raised my hands as if in surrender. “Now, we don’t need to fight. We were happy just ten minutes ago -”

“You agree with her!”

Maria groaned at the same time as Lexi exclaimed. While Lexi was giving me a scandalised expression, Maria cried out, “We are never happy together. Jesus, the first time we met, I was bailing you both out.”

“What do you mean?”

“You guys got kicked out of your hotel room because, Joy, you can’t say no to Lexi when she does something irresponsible.”

“Hey!”

“And, Lexi, you think that ‘YOLO’ is a legitimate way of life then cover that up by spouting philosophies that you only follow for about a month before you get bored.” The entire time Maria spoke she was getting louder and louder, trying to speak over the top of Lexi's protests. I just stood in shock. Something in me agreed with Maria.

When she was done, I looked to Lexi. Maria’s tactic had worked. Lexi heard every word. Her eyes shone with tears. I thought she seemed to have more anger than sadness in her. I stepped away from her, keeping my hands in their surrender.

“How about I try calling, Beau?”

“You both think he's useless,” Lexi snapped back, waving me off with the flick of her hand. She glared at Maria. “Anything else you want to say?”

“Yeah,” Maria had puffed up her chest, “While you mention it, he’s a cheater.”

“Who?”

“Beau.”

“Maria, I think you should stop now -”

“How dare you!”

“We should just go to separate corners, I’ll give him a call -”

"How would you even know that?"

"She can't possibly know -"

“I slept with him.”

I felt my mouth drop open and I stared wide-eyed at a smug-looking Maria. Maria just folded her arms. Lexi seemed to mirror me. I could almost feel her shaking. I felt my stomach sink and my throat tightened. Lexi turned to me. “Call him.”

“I don’t think now is a good time.”

“Call him, now.”

I reached into my back pocket, fumbled the phone and found his number. I could feel both eyes on me the entire time. Maria was back to rolling her eyes.

“Put the thing on speaker.”

“I don’t think -”

“Speaker.”

“You are such a pushover, Joy.”

I shot Maria a look as the phone continued to ring. I could feel my cheeks beginning to heat and I chewed on a thumbnail absently, eyes fixed on the phone. I willed Beau not to pick up.

The phonecall connected and there was a slight shuffling noise on the other end.

“Hey, babe! What's up?”