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A small smile crawls on my lips. “Okay, I guess we’re racing,” I mutter to myself, but I see Destiny’s head snap towards me out of the corner of my eye. I press the gas to the floor, just for a second, making the car lurch forward and fall back. I know I have no chance of winning. This is a damn soccer mom car for crying out loud.

“What was that?” Melody questions, her big violet eyes going even wider. That makes everyone’s attention snap to me.

“Someone certain on the side wants to race.” Kai howls with laughter.

“You’re going to race him in the mom mobile?” He asks, and I reach behind my seat, swatting at the air, hopeful to hit him, which is unsuccessful as I see through the mirror he has curled into a ball, suctioned to the back of the seat.

“Melody.” A still second passes before a sharp slap rings through the car, followed by a not very manly scream. I scream-laugh along with the others, looking back over to see Riot still at my side.

“If we’re going to race, there should be music playing.” Melody chimes. “What about Rockstar, Post Malone?”

“I mean, I can’t think of anything better,” Destiny says, tapping away on my phone connected to the CarPlay. A few seconds later, Rockstar plays through the speakers, the bass shaking the entire car, windows rattling and all. “No way this is the sound system the car came with,” Destiny gapes.

I lurch forward one more time, and his window rolls down. His hair whips with the wind. a devilish smirk on his face, the sun beaming on his scar. He puts three fingers up. One goes down, then one more. Once his hand drops, we both take off.

I’ve never pushed this car, redlining it as the engine fucking whistles. Yeah, no way that’s stock. I hear the howl from my friends behind, Destiny gripping the Holy Shit handles with her life.

I giggle, stepping on the gas more, the whistle growing louder as the speed climbs. One-ten, one-twenty-five, one-forty, one-fifty. He keeps right next to me, the nose of his car slightly in front. Pressing the sport button in the car, it lurches forward again as it takes off, leaving Riot behind. I hit the top speed before it doesn’t move. One-seventy-seven. Not bad.

I roll my window down, sticking my hand out of the window, flipping him the bird. The cold floods the car, making everyone groan, so I retract my hand and roll the window back up.

“I’ll take that as you won,” Kai says.

“What’s going on?” Anna questions from the third row, her head peaking over the seat. Has she been asleep this whole time? I could’ve sworn I saw her in the mirror.

“Anna, have you been asleep this whole time? We’ve been almost screaming.” She shrugs sleepily.

“I was tired.” We all laugh, changing the music that we can scream along to, keeping the volume up all the way.

Riot stays behind us after losing, just further back. But all that matters is that he doesn’t bother us the rest of the time. The rest of the drive is peaceful. We blasted music, ate snacks, and just yapped. It took us around another hour to get to the diner. We ended up just getting the food to go, since the sun was getting ready to set.

We stopped at Walmart, picking up a couple of thousand dollars’ worth of stuff. A tent to fit ten people, stuff to start a fire, food to cook over said fire, and a small propane grill in case the fire idea doesn’t work. Backup plans are always good to have. A couple of other small things, blankets, sleeping bags, pillows, a small heater.

We head to the lake. Once we arrive, we have to buy our spot. Come to find out, they added cabins. We chose the one furthest away from anyone, and luckily, the best spot on the lake, which is why it’s so expensive. It keeps us out of the cold, and we still get lakeside. Price doesn’t matter when I’m not the one paying. We all decided to stay two nights instead, since this is the last time we’ll all be available at the same time for a couple of months.

I got stuck in the mud halfway there, and a lot of anger was brought out when Kai and Destiny got out to push the car. We put logs in front of the tires to try to get traction.

“FUCKING GO,” Kai yells from the back, putting all his weight into the car, trying to propel it forward. I press on the gas, the RPMs climbing, and the tires spinning in the mud. I hear them both grunt as they give one last shove. The tires catch on the logs, sending me forward. I don’t stop driving until I’m out of the muddy area, back on dry grass.

They get back in the car, panting from pushing the heavy-ass car, then being forced to chase it.

It takes another five minutes to find the cabin. I reverse the car into the makeshift driveway so the trunk faces the lake. I put it in park, and everyone scrambles out of the car.

We waste no time before going inside and oohing over the gorgeous cabin. It’s extremely homey and warm. A couch sits by the windows, a TV on its stand in front of the couch. Floor-to-ceiling windows overlook the lake.

There’s a ladder on the left wall that leads up to a little loft with what looks like bunk beds up there.

We all explore for a little bit before settling in the living room on the couch, watching whatever movie the TV has on. “What are we doing for dinner?” Melody asks.

“We can do hot dogs and s’mores by the fire?” Kai suggests, and Melody is immediately up and gathering the items. We all take that as our sign to get up and grab stuff as well.

We carry everything out to the little fire pit, and Kai gets to work on starting the fire while everyone else unpacks all the food.

I’m excited to do this. My first time camping since being with my mom. This time, it’s friends. I’ll never replace my memories with her, but I love making new ones, especially with people I care so much about.

I wish I could do this with Riot. Spend intimate time with him. Just him and me out in the world, doing things we love. I used to think it was possible, but now I don’t know. He left, and I’m with someone else. Granted, I hate Mason; he’s just a distraction, a bad one at that. Riot left and made me feel like nothing. I took the first man who gave me the slightest bit of attention.

Riot would have to do a lot of groveling to get back in my good graces. Even then, I’m scared of trusting him again.