“Go on, have a moment,” she told him.
“Fine.” He rolled down the window and stuck his head out. “Woo-hoo!
Florida!” The car swerved and he abruptly straightened, blinking as he got control of the wheel. “Oops.”
Caelyn was giggling. And then she started laughing hysterically. Something about the look on his face as he’d lost control of the car for that one instant was just too much to take.
Maybe it was that she’d never seen Elijah look out of control before.
She kind of liked it.
They crossed over into Florida late that afternoon.
When she’d seen the sign that said Welcome To Florida, The Sunshine State, she’d whooped and hollered and exchanged high fives with Elijah.
But the celebrations had been short-lived. Firstly, because they still had hours left to drive. It was a long way from the border of the state down to Sarasota and Siesta Key.
She was getting tired, and so was Elijah.
Worse yet, she was compulsively checking her cell phone. The texts from Jayson had stopped for the time being, but then she’d received some from her roommates.
Now, she was getting worried, because the texts had changed from hey, what’s going on? To WHERE R U GIRL????
It was only a matter of time before someone called the police, or the school, or her parents were notified. She needed to do some damage control.
Finally, she opted to call Alicia rather than wait for the inevitable freak out from friends and family when they discovered she was gone.
Alicia answered on the first ring, as if she’d been waiting by her phone. “Caelyn, are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” she said.
Elijah looked at her, curious. She hadn’t told him she was going to call anyone back home.
“We thought you’d decided to stay at Jayson’s, but then Nellie said she saw Jayson at the union and he hadn’t seen you since the other night. I was starting to freak out.”
“I’m fine,” Caelyn told her again.
“Oh. Where are you?”
There was a long pause as Caelyn debated how to answer that question. Finally, she opted for the truth. “I’m in Florida,” she said.
“Wait—what? I didn’t hear you. I thought for a second you said Florida.”
“I did say Florida.”
“I don’t get it.”
Caelyn sighed. “I left. I’m not coming back to school, Alicia.”
“But that doesn’t make any sense. The semester’s not even over. If you just take off, you’re going to flunk everything.”
“I know it doesn’t make any sense, but it’s what I had to do.”
“Why?”
“I can’t…I don’t want to talk about it. I just needed to leave.”
“Come on, Caelyn. This is totally crazy. You can’t just leave and go to Florida.
What are you going to do there?”
“I don’t know,” Caelyn said. “I’m hoping to get a job waitressing.”
“Why Florida?” Alicia said. And then she moaned. “Oh my God, is this because of that stupid postcard my mom sent? You’ve been obsessed with Siesta Key ever since.
I should never have let you keep that thing. It’s cursed. That’s why I threw it out.”
“It’s not cursed,” Caelyn said, almost laughing.
“Everything my mother touches is cursed.”
“Listen, I’m fine. I’ll talk more about it in a few days.”
“You need to seriously think about what you’re doing. You could screw up your whole life, doing this. Are you alone?”
Caelyn looked over at Elijah and smiled. “Not exactly…but look, Alicia. I called because I didn’t want you to worry.”
“Well mission not accomplished. I’m more worried than ever.”
“I have to go. I’m sorry. I’ll call you tomorrow or the day after.”
“Caelyn, seriously. Don’t do this!”
“I’ll call you later,” she repeated. And then she hung up.
***
By the time they reached Sarasota, neither of them were quite as jubilant as they’d been previously. The weather was almost stiflingly hot, and they’d also passed through a couple of brief torrential showers that hadn’t lasted long, but had made it difficult for Elijah to drive.
Florida was beautiful, and Caelyn was excited that they’d finally arrived safe and sound. At the same time, there were a few big question marks floating around, now that they were getting close to their destination.
Elijah had asked Caelyn to call around to the various hotels and motels in the area and try to book something cheap. “For both of us?” she’d said.
He’d just looked at her. “You tell me.”
She’d shrugged in return. “I…I guess. I’m not sure what’s going on.”
She’d hoped that perhaps he would tell her what he wanted to do. After all, they’d only just met and it hardly made sense for them to try and live together out in Florida.
“Are you going to be working out here?” she’d asked him.
“I’ll figure something out.”