Along for the Ride

by Sarah Dessen

I was such a smart kid, I should have figured out that the only way to really get my parents’ attention was to disappoint them or fail.

But by the time I finally realized that, succeeding was already a habit too ingrained to break.

I wish.

Maybe we were all destined to just keep doing the same stupid things, over and over again, never really learning a single thing.

And just like that, he’d done it again: taken a thought he’d probably come to on the fly, under any number of influences, and somehow managed to make it deep enough to resonate. It was an art, what Hollis did. Never calculating, but it did have its charms.

That was my brother, the living, breathing To Be Continued.

There’s something about living at the beach in the summer. You get so used to the sun and sand that it gets hard to remember what the rest of the world, and the year, is like.

Hearing this, I relaxed, as my mother’s rants were as familiar to me as nursery rhymes.

feeling that lump rise in my throat again.

Instead, she gave me nothing but her company, realizing even before I did that this, in fact, was just what I needed.

“You own a Tic Tac. Gum is just borrowed.”

“Like not to talk to a girl’s boyfriend in her own kitchen.”

Loll

“No,” Leah agreed, “but you don’t have to dress like a truck driver, either.”

Loll

“Maybe it’s her low self-esteem,” Leah said.

Lol

A few late nights does not a habit, or a relationship, make.

Unless

The best of times.

So cute

I fell into the perfect routine. Mornings were for sleep, evenings for work. My nights were for Eli.

Of course, nothing is really perfect. But Eli’s Rice Krispie treats were pretty close.

“I don’t.” Her mouth dropped open. “Oh, and,” I added, “I bought a bike.”