I turned toward him. “I thought people only did that with tunnels.”
“What?”
“The wholeholding your breaththing. I thought that people only did that when they were driving through tunnels. You hold your breath to see if you can make it the whole way to the other side. Or maybe it’s more of holding your breath in hopes that the mountain doesn’t crash on top of you,” I mused. “Kind of morbid either way, if you think about it.”
“I’ve never thought about it.”
“Right, well, yeah,” I stuttered.
The mood of the car changed for a moment as Dom shifted. He shook his head. “Sorry. Was thinking about something.”
“Don’t be. I’m the one who is reminiscing on stupid road trip memories and the possibility of being crushed to death,” I said. “I’m sure whatever you’re thinking about is much more interesting.”
“It wasn’t. Just tired,” he said.
That was more than unsurprising. Sleeping on the mini couch for a week wouldn’t be good for anyone, let alone anyone’s back. I remembered before, him waking up next to me. It wasn’t a huge bed, but we hadn’t been completely on top of each other.
“If you want, you can try and sleep in my bed. Get some actual sleep for a night.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Really?”
“Nothing more,” I hastily added.
“Of course not.”
I nodded. “I figure you’ll be in a slightly better mood if you don’t look like you’re constantly going to pass out. Though I know not acting like an ass these days is hard for you.”
“Okay.” Dom chuckled and shook his head. “You went on a road trip before?”
“A short one,” I said, seeing we were returning to the last conversation. “It wasn’t far when I was in college. There was a group project. We didn’t get it done before the weekend, but the rest of the group was going to a concert. They dragged me along. Honestly, it was one of the final straws that made me realize that I didn’t belong where I was. In general, I mean. After that amazing weekend with people I barely knew, drinking and living, I knew that I hadn’t been living up until that point. I hadn’t lived at all the way I’d always imagined myself. I was living someone else’s life, however nice it looked on paper.”
“And there were tunnels?”
I shut my eyes and snorted a laugh, covering my nose at the sound as I nodded. “A few.”
I had held my breath through them all after being told about the game the first time. I was good at it. I’d been holding my breath for a long time, waiting for everything to come crashing down.
Until I did something about it. I’d forced myself to start over again from rock bottom in all the rubble. Luckily, I had found all the good things in my life in those shards of what had been. Eventually, I built my own life back up over the past six years and was starting to see the light at the end.
I took a deep breath.
“That was a deep one.”
“What was?”
“The breath you just took,” Dom explained as he took the next turn. I could see the apartment building in sight. “I’m almost impressed. I taught you well.”
I rolled my eyes. “Shut up.”
Dom laughed through closed lips again, pulling into the parking spot I had never used before turning off the car. I was still shaking my head the entire way back into the building, fiddling with my keys for the door.
“Home free,” I whispered. My key ring clanged in the tiny dish on the table while the rest of the apartment looked just as we had left it a few hours ago. It felt longer.
The pot that Dom had made the macaroni and cheese in was still balanced on the counter, drying from whenever he’d had the time to wash it. The curtains were half drawn over the sliding door. All of Dom’s stuff was strewn across my tiny section of living space. His suitcase was folded open, and his laptop was plugged in with a large notebook on top of the stained coffee table. The bed was unmade. The sheets were untucked from when we had jumped out of it to run to pottery earlier, worried that I was going to run late and upset Faith.
Oh, Faith.
I kicked off my shoes and made my way toward the sink. Grabbing a glass and filling it with water, I took a long sip before setting it back down.
