This Stop, I'm Getting Off Alone

The first stop on our road trip, just the two of us.

I got thirsty and went into the rest area to buy water, and when I came back, Will Harding had driven off.

I called him ten times. Every call went straight to silence.

An hour later he finally picked up, and the voice on the line was my best friend's.

"Sorry, Junie. Will just turned around to come get me. We're on the highway now, we'll reach your rest stop in an hour, tops."

I hung up and saw that the post I'd made earlier from Will's account, before we left, had a flood of new comments.

Under the wall of "so jealous" and little hearts, there was one from Bertha Roman, dressed up with a cutesy emoticon.

【*Sneaking off on a trip without me, I'm mad!*】

And Will's reply to her:

【*Heading downstairs now. I'll come back for you.*】

Something in me wanted to laugh.

Before this, Will couldn't be bothered to buy a second bottle of water for me. He couldn't be bothered to pull over and pick me up on his way home from work, even when it was on the route.

Because he was that lazy, it took me a year and a half of coaxing and wheedling before he agreed to a pre-wedding road trip. He even planned the route himself.

That change in Will had kept me up for nights, too excited to sleep.

And now I understood. The change I'd worked so hard to earn, that I'd practically begged for, someone else could pull out of him without lifting a finger.

……

By the time the third wave of travelers had cycled through the rest area, Will's car finally pulled in.

Bertha climbed out holding the iced tea she always got, smiling bright as anything.

"Her Majesty Junie! I knew you'd been waiting forever, so I brought you an iced tea, hand-delivered!"

She pulled a cup out of the bag, stuck a straw in it, and pushed it at my mouth.

I took a sip on reflex, and the second I tasted mango I jerked my head away and coughed it back out.

The itch crawled up my throat. I braced a hand on the wall and couldn't stop coughing, until my eyes started to water.

Bertha gasped and rounded on Will.

"What is wrong with you, Will? I told you to go buy iced tea, why would you get one with mango in it? Junie's allergic to mango!"

Will fired back without missing a beat.

"How was I supposed to know what to get? I just bought two mango smoothies."

"You idiot, the whole point was to get Junie's flavor. Don't tell me you saw me drink a mango smoothie one time and decided that's the only thing the place sells."

I wiped the corners of my eyes and took the water Will held out without a word.

The same as so many times before, I listened to him say,

"If it were June Winfield, you'd just buy a bottle of water and be done with it. Not like you, always making me memorize all this nonsense. Such a hassle."

But however much of a hassle it was, he'd still remembered, hadn't he?

That sentence surfaced in my mind out of nowhere.

The truth is I love iced tea too, and I love making Will go buy it for me.

But he was always too lazy. Too lazy to tap into the app, too lazy to check the ingredients for anything I was allergic to.

I'd remind him to his face, and a breath later he'd say he forgot.

Back then Will would be cradling his phone, mid-match in a ranked game, not looking up.

"Water's perfectly fine too. Who actually memorizes stuff like that?"

I'd ordered the exact same iced tea in front of him more times than I could count.

And none of it stuck the way one careless glance had, two years ago, when he came to pick us up after Bertha and I went to a movie.

Will and Bertha walked ahead.

I fell a step behind, digging through my bag for my allergy medicine.

When I looked up, Bertha was already in the passenger seat.

I met her eyes from outside the car.

She smacked her own forehead.

"Look at me, where's my head. Junie, come sit up front."

"No need."

"No need."

Will and I said it at the same time.

For once, something like surprise crossed his face. Fair enough. It wasn't the first time Bertha had taken the passenger seat by mistake.

Every other time, I'd switched back with her.