“Okay, turn here,” Jessie said pointing out the window to the right as she grabbed at the girl sitting next to her in the driver’s seat with her free hand.

Katie pulled the wheel to the right and leaned on the breaks causing loose dirt to spin a cloud of dust around the SUV they were driving in. Jessie coughed when she inhaled the dirt coming in the window. The air conditioning had gone out on them the day before and it was too hot out to keep the windows up even for a minute.

“Where’d you get your driver’s license? A Cracker Jack box?” Jessie scoffed at her girlfriend.

“Excuse me?” Katie yelled defensively, pushing a stray hair off her sweaty and sunburned forehead. “Where did you learn how to read a map?”

“Obviously from the same place you bought your sense of direction,” Jessie yelled back. “It’s not like you’re any help. And I thought you said this car was brand new.”

“It is. My parent’s just bought it last year,” Katie said, pulling the silver Nissan Pathfinder to the side of the road and jamming on the breaks.

“Then why is the air conditioning broken?” Jessie demanded.

“Because it obviously wanted me to have to put up with your whining,” Katie countered, turning to face the blond girl. “Why don’t you clue me in to why we’re so lost, oh mighty Oracle,” she said with frustration in her voice.

“We are not lost.”

“Look around you Jess,” Katie said, grabbing the younger girl by the shoulders and turning her to look out the window. “We’re in the middle of friggin’ nowhere. There’s nothing but cactuses and tumbleweeds around. The streets are made of dirt. And I’d swear I actually saw an alternate dimension vortex open up in front of us two hours ago. Face it, we’ve been lost for the past two days.”

“And that’s my fault?” Jessie said turning back to look into intense green eyes. They were having their first major fight and Jessie was determined to take it all the way for the make up privileges of course. But looking into her girlfriend’s flawless face her resolve was quickly threatening to fall apart.

“It’s entirely your fault,” Katie replied, about ready to smile and lean forward any second but doing her best to control herself. Jessie was so cute when she was angry. “I wanted to stay home and spend all summer feeding you ice cream and worshiping your body. You’re the one who was all like let’s drive to California . Yay, fun in the sun,” Katie continued mocking her girlfriend.

Jessie’s brain had stopped working right about when Katie said something about worshiping her body, but managed to find her voice in spite of it.

“Yeah, well…that’s only because I wanted you to stay in a bikini all summer,” Jessie managed to say, feeling her lips curl into a smile.

“All you had to do was ask,” Katie said, with a wide grin as she leaned forward quickly and pressed her lips against Jessie’s in a firm, yet somehow gentle kiss.

“Do we get to make up now?” Jessie asked raising her eyebrows.

“Not until you find us a way out of this vast wasteland and into a skanky, dirty motel room,” Katie answered with a waggle of her eyebrows.

“Ooh, my favorite kind,” Jessie commented, kissing Katie once more before pulling out the map again.

“Lemme see that,” Katie said, grabbing the map out of Jessie’s hands and moaning when she had it in front of her. “You know you were looking at it upside down, right?” she asked, turning to see Jessie slinking down in her seat embarrassed.

“And I thought you were supposed to be the brains of this operation,” Katie added with a smile before handing the map back to Jessie and pulling the SUV back onto the road. “I think if we keep going straight here we should hit the main drag. Could you grab me a bottle of water from the floor in the back, braniac?”

“Yes, master,” Jessie teased as she reached into the back seat and felt around for the bottle. Once she had her hand around it, she picked it up only it was attached to something soft, gray and slightly smelly. “Eww,” she said, making a face. “Do your laundry much?” Jessie asked holding up a sock that hadn’t been washed in it seemed years. Katie turned to look at her and smiled a wide grin.

“That used to be white, you know,” she commented, which earned her a playful nudge after Jessie had dropped the sock back into the depths of trash they had thrown in the back seat.

“Hi, Daddy,” Jessie said into a payphone outside of the first dingy motel they had managed to find. “Everything’s fine. We’re right on schedule,” she lied, kicking at a small rock that was stuck in the dirt at her feet.

“So, you’d be somewhere near Vegas now, right?” Rick asked through the phone. “Bright lights, big city,” he joked.

“Yup, Vegas,” Jessie lied again. “I gotta go though, cuz Katie needs to call her Dad. Love you,” she said and hung up.

They weren’t anywhere near Vegas. They were in tiny dirt expanse of a small town outside of Tempe, Arizona. And Katie didn’t need to use the phone. She was in their tiny motel room taking a shower. Jessie hoped there would be enough hot water by the time she got back there.

When Jessie finally did get back to the motel room, Katie was sprawled out on the double bed in nothing but a towel, her wet hair falling around her bare shoulders. Jessie had the look in her eyes that Katie knew meant no good. When Jessie took a step forward, Katie held up a hand in protest.

“Not until you shower,” she warned.

Jessie ignored her and bolding jumped on top of Katie, kissing her deeply. When Katie’s hands stopped protesting and Jessie had teased her enough, she hopped back to her feet and took the towel with her.

“Look’s like you’re going to need another shower,” she said over her shoulder to Katie, who was now completely naked and in shock.

“There’s no hot water,” Katie managed to say once she had found her voice.

“I guess you’ll just have to warm me up then,” Jessie said throwing her clothing items one at a time out of the bathroom and onto the floor in front of Katie who wasted no time jumping to her feet and racing into the bathroom, closing the door behind her with a loud click.

“Where are our clothes?” Jessie asked from her lazy position next to Katie on the bed.

“I think there’s a sock in the car,” Katie teased, running her long fingers up and down Jessie’s still shirtless arm. “The bags are near the broken air conditioner,” she added seriously.

“They didn’t have a room with a working air conditioner?” Jessie asked with a smile as she extracted herself from Katie warm cocoon and walked to the opposite side of the room. She grabbed two sets of clothes out of the bags and threw one to her girlfriend before sliding into loose jeans and a tanktop.

“They did, but I just love hearing you complain,” Katie said with a smile slipping into khaki shorts and a short sleeved shirt that had ‘Rockstar’ written on it in sequins.

“In that case, when were you planning on feeding me?” Jessie joked.

“You’re finally ready to eat now that you’ve had your dessert?” Katie asked, raising an eyebrow. “C’mon, there’s a cheesy little diner across the street.”

“You think there’s actually any food underneath all this grease?” Jessie asked, once their orders had finally been placed in front of them. She had ordered a cheeseburger, or so she thought, but the mess on her plate looked like something out of a Picasso painting.

“I highly doubt it,” the brunette across the table from her said, her mouth jammed full of French fries. “Maybe that’s why they call it road food. Could be like wild squirrel, you never know,” she added with a wink.

“I don’t care what it is,” Jessie remarked, picking her sandwich up with both hands. “I’m starving.”

“You should be,” Katie replied, dipping her last fry in ketchup. “Have you figured out where we should go tomorrow?”

“I have devised a fool proof plan to get us back on the interstate in a minimal amount of time,” Jessie answered after swallowing her first bite of mystery burger. She then proceeded to pick an ice cube out of her coke with her fingers and roll it around her tongue, not even knowing how seductive the action really was.

“So we shouldn’t get lost for at least another day or so?” Katie asked, trying to unwrap her mind from the ice cube now melting in Jessie’s mouth.

“If you buy me a piece of pie, I may even be able to put that off even longer,” Jessie teased, extending her foot under the table to connect with Katie’s leg. When it had almost reached the height of the seat and Katie’s mouth was slightly open and smiling, Jessie pulled it away quickly. “If you spring for pie, that is.”

Katie quickly extended her arm and called the waitress over. She was an older woman wearing a pink apron and a pissed off look. The nametag on her chest read ‘Tammy’. She was clinking her pen against her order pad annoyingly.

“What else can I get you ladies?”

“Two pieces of pie, please,” Katie ordered with a sweet smile.

“Comin’ right up. And here’s your bill,” Tammy said, placing the tab on the tabletop. “We’ll be closing up in a bit.”

Katie grabbed the bill before Jessie could get her hands on it. She reached into her pocket for her wallet and realized it wasn’t there. Frantically, she searched every other pocket and possible place she could have put it and still it wasn’t there.

“What’s wrong?” Jessie asked, finishing her dinner.

“I can’t find my wallet.”

“Did you leave it in the room?”

“No. I…now that I think of it, I don’t think I had it in the room either.”

“S’okay,” Jessie said reaching across the table to take Katie’s hand in hers. “I’ll just go grab mine from the room. We’ll find yours later,” she added as she got to her feet and stepped out of the booth.

“No, Jess. Let me go over there and look for it,” Katie insisted, mimicking Jessie actions. They were both out of the booth when the waitress reemerged with a scowl.

“Where do you two think you’re going?” she asked, hand on her hip.

“Well, you see it seems I dropped my wallet back at the motel,” Katie tried to explain.

“Uh-uh,” Tammy replied. “Thought you’d do a little chew and screw, huh girls? Well I’ve just about had it with you spoiled city types coming in here and thinking you can take us honest and kind folk for a ride,” she said to the two girls who were itching to respond. “Quiet,” she warned them and then called over her shoulder, “Bennie, call Butch over at the station and tell him to send a car over to take these two girls over for a night in jail. Maybe next time they’ll think twice before trying to pull a fast one on the unsuspecting.”

Jessie and Katie merely looked at each other with fear in their eyes. Jessie reached over and took Katie’s hand, but it did little to tame her discomfort as they waited for the law to come arrest them.

“Oh my God, we so need to get out of here,” Jessie whined as she leaned her forehead against the cool metal bars of their jail cell.

“We don’t have any money, Jess,” Katie said slouching back on the rock hard cot in the far corner of the room.

“Well, whose fault is that?”

“Mine. All mine. Everything to go wrong in this trip is my fault,” Katie yelled, Jessie turning to look at her. “Happy now?”

“Incredibly,” Jessie replied through clenched teeth.

“Good.”

“We need to call somebody,” Jessie stated.

“Why don’t you call your Dad,” Katie began as she raised to her feet, “or Lily even. I bet they’d be thrilled to hear that their perfect daughter is in the slammer and it’s all her delinquent girlfriend’s fault.”

“Katie, please, I’m sorry,” Jessie pleaded, tears springing in her eyes. “I’ve never been in jail before.”

“No kidding,” Katie said with a smile as she crossed the small cell and wrapped Jessie in her arms. Then a light suddenly went off in her head. “Tad.”

“Tad, what? Where?” Jessie said, pulling back and looking around.

“No, silly. I’ll call Tad,” Katie explained. “He can wire us the cash and then we’re home free. Hey, Butch, I’d like my one phone call now,” she added as she wandered over to the door.

A few minutes later, a tall lanky man wearing an all khaki and deep brown uniform emerged in front of the girls carrying an old style rotary phone. He pushed his sheriff’s hat off his forehead and motioned for Katie to take the receiver. Tad picked up on the third ring.

“Speak.”

“Tad, hey. It’s Katie.”

“Katie, how’s the open road?” he asked with enthusiasm in his voice.

“Great. Actually, I was wondering if you could wire us some cash…like a couple hundred bucks or so,” Katie said eyeing Jessie at her side.

“Couple hundred bucks? For what?” he asked.

“We’re in jail.”

“What? You’re in what?”

“J-A-I-L, Tad. You can spell, right?” Katie teased.

“Yeah, but…”

They were interrupted by the clanging of keys and boot heels and a manly voice with a distinct southern accent coming down the hallway.

“Katherine Singer?” It said.

Katie turned her attention to the man coming down the hallway and told Tad to hang on. There was an older man wearing cowboy boots and a cowboy hat and a beer belly that hung over his low riding jeans with a wiggly wobble. He tipped his hat at the girls as the Sheriff Butch turned to address the man.

“Bubba, what in the Sam hell are you doing here?”

“I found this girl’s wallet outside of the Nowhere Motel and Tammy said she had the poor girls carted down here,” he replied. “She feels mighty sorry about this, by the way,” he said turning to the girls with apologetic eyes.

“Here you go, miss,” he said, handing the wallet over to Katie who said a quick bye to Tad who was still talking when the phone was hung up. “I gotta get back on the road now. It’s a good thing Tammy’s Diner is the best trucker’s stop on this drag.”

And with that, their savior disappeared back from whence he came and Jessie hugged Katie enthusiastically. The door of the cell creaked open loudly as the two girls stepped apart.

“I guess you’re free to go,” Butch said with a tip of his hat. “I’ll give y’all a ride back to the motel.”

“So which way do I go?” Katie asked as she pulled the SUV out of the motel parking lot and onto the quiet Arizona streets. They decided to leave early, just in case.

“Katie, wait,” Jessie said through sleepy eyes, placing her hand on her girlfriend’s knee.

“What? Did we forget something?”

“I wanted to give you this,” Jessie said reaching into her backpack and extending a leather bound book to Katie.

“Jess, what is this?” Katie said with a smile, surprised.

“Your graduation present. I was going to wait until we got to San Jose to give it to you, but in case you just want to go back or something.”

Katie opened the book and it was filled with thick off white pages. It sort of looked like a scrapbook only a really nice one. Flipping through it she found all sorts of stuff from when they spent time together. There were ticket stubs and a program from the play last year. And right at the beginning was the letter Katie had written to Jessie.

“That’s when it all started, really,” Jessie explained. “You’re going away to college and we’re going to have to do the whole writing each other thing. So I figured you could put all of them in a book and then when you got home I could put all the ones you write me in it too. Then when we’re all old and stuff we can look back on how it all began,” she said, with a bright smile that climbed all the way to her eyes.

“Jessie, this is amazing,” Katie said with a huge grin. “You’re amazing,” she added with a serious face seconds before her lips captured Jessie’s in a passionate affirmation of all the love they would share in days to come. “Thank you.”

“And why would I want to go back?” Katie asked after they had pulled apart.

“Because this trip has been nothing but a disaster orchestrated by me,” Jessie admitted, “and I’m totally with you if you want to just go home and make me feed you ice cream for the rest of the summer.”

“No way,” Katie replied quickly. “I’m having way too much fun. This is the stuff road trips are made of, Jess. Truck stops and greasy diners. Sleazy motels and guys named Bubba. And let us not forget getting thrown in jail, losing my wallet, and leaving Tad hanging. And if you do that thing with the ice and your tongue again, I might even excuse the dirty sock thing.”

“What thing with the ice and my tongue?”

“I’ll show you later,” Katie teased as she put the car in drive and turned up the radio. “And this, this just tops it all off. A country version of MMMBop. Can it get any better than this?” Katie joked with a smile as they pulled onto the road.

“Which way am I headed, Captain?” Katie asked as Jessie pulled out the map.

“Left, definitely left,” Jessie answered as she was still trying to figure out which way the map was supposed to go.

“You sure?”

“I think. Maybe?” Jessie offered as they flew down the street, windows open, radio blasting.

Katie just smiled. They were going to get lost, no doubt about that. But she couldn’t think of anybody else in the world she’d rather get lost with. And there was that whole fight and make up thing that they’d been doing which wasn’t entirely a bad thing. So yeah, Katie smiled. And she smiled even wider when Jessie crumbled the map into a little ball and threw it out the window. After all, Katie still had more than a month before orientation.

“Now if we could only find a cliff,” Katie said as they both raised their arms and sang along loudly with a song they were all too embarrassed to admit they knew the words to.

END.