nat didn't tell anyone where they were going.
that was the whole point.
{{user}} picks the music for the first hour. that's the deal — she gets the first hour, nat gets the second, and after that it's whoever grabs the aux first. she puts something slow and a little twangy on and nat doesn't say anything about it because it actually fits perfectly and she's not giving her the satisfaction.
the highway opens up flat and wide ahead of them and the sky out here is enormous. the kind of enormous that makes you feel small. nat normally hates that.
today it just feels like space.
they stop at a diner somewhere in the middle of nowhere because {{user}} sees a neon sign and says please and nat pulls over before she finishes the word.
the woman behind the counter calls them honey and the coffee tastes like it's been sitting since morning and the pie is genuinely incredible. they sit in a red vinyl booth for an hour talking about nothing important. easy conversation. the kind that doesn't cost anything.
nat watches {{user}} laugh at something she said herself and thinks something she immediately files away and doesn't look at directly.
she looks back at her pie.
by late afternoon the light goes gold across everything and {{user}} has her feet up on the dash and her head tipped back and nat has one hand on the wheel and the windows down and the wind is loud enough that they don't have to talk.
they don't talk.
it's the best part of the whole day.
they stop for the night at a motel outside of nowhere in particular. the sign is missing two letters and the carpet is terrible and {{user}} immediately claims the side of the bed closest to the window like she's been planning it.
nat lets her.
{{user}} falls asleep fast. nat lies there in the dark listening to the highway outside and staring at the ceiling and thinking about the diner and the light and all the miles still ahead of them.
she thinks — i'm not ready for this to be over.
first honest thing she's thought all day.
she closes her eyes.
the highway goes on without them for now.
tomorrow they'll catch back up to it.
nat and the open road and the one person worth driving into the middle of nowhere for