I stand outside by my car staring at the apartment building I had lived in for 3 years with my now ex-boyfriend Billy. I have a mixture of feelings going on right now, excitement, fear and hope. I can't believe that I am doing it, but I am, I'm leaving for a new life. A new life in another city, hell a whole other state. I look at my car and the little u-haul I have in the back that holds the little bit of possesions I own and smile...it's time to go. I take one last look at the apartment Billy and I shared and saw the curtain move as Billy was looking out at me. Billy didn't understand how I could be unhappy in the life we had. He didn't understand that I wanted more in life then just laying around on the couch on a Sunday watching a ball game. Oh well, that's his problem now not mine anymore, I think to myself as I get into my car and drive away. As I drive, I look at the familiar dirty streets in my city and realize exactly how much I'm NOT going to miss them. I turn on the highway and start heading south. I pop in my Backstreet boy cd and turn it up as loud as I can stand it, which is pretty loud, and sing along. I am heading for Kentucky to meet up with my friend Autumn. Well, really, I am meeting her there because she has her own car and u-haul. After Kentucky we are heading for Athens GA where we are meeting Lorie. Then we are off to Florida and our new lives. We are off to sun, fun, beaches and MEN...it's all about the MEN, my friend Tanya's voice echo's in my mind. Tanya wasn't thrilled when she heard I was leaving but she understood why. She knew I have hated living here in IL ever since, well ever since I moved here as a child. Now, I am on my way out and I have no plans of ever returning!
The way this little journey started was a fluke. Lorie, Autumn and I were all talking on icq complaining about how we hated our lives and our boyfriends. "Man, I am sooo sick of Mike" Lorie told me over icq. "Geesh, what'd he do now? I asked her. "He got mad because I was talking on the phone to a guy I went to school with. He's so jealous, I can't stand it anymore" "Well then leave him" "Yea, and go where and do what? she sent back to me. Meanwhile, I was having a conversation with Autumn too.. "Man why are men such jerks?" Autumn asked me for like the millionth time. "I have no idea. It must just be in the genes" I told her. "I gotta get out of this relationship, he's driving me crazy" she sent back. "Well then get out of it" I said. "Yea ok, and were do you expect me to go?" She asked. I also wanted out of my relationship and had no idea where to go or what to do. It seemed all three of us wanted out but didn't know how to go about doing it. Then Autumn sent me a icq asking if I was talking to Lorie, I told her yes. I also told her that Lorie also wanted to leave her man but had no where to go. They both already knew what I wanted. Autumn then asks."Hey why don't we just all 3 move then?" "UH, and where are we moving to Autumn?" I ask her. "Well, why not Florida. We all want to go there so why not just do it". I think about that and think she has lost her mind. I icq Lorie what Autumn said and I was surprised when Lorie said "Hey, I think that's a great idea, lets do it." I start thinking about what they are both saying and decide that it's not really that crazy of a idea. I mean we all 3 want out of the lives we are living now so why not pick up and move, we really have nothing to lose. Well, except the jobs we have now and a place to live, but life isn't fun without adventure...right?? So we all decide to do just that. We quit our jobs and told our boyfriends we were leaving them. They didn't believe us which isn't a surprise, we've threatened before. We packed our cars rented u-hauls. Now Autumn is waiting for me to get to her place in Kentucky and Lorie is waiting for us in GA.
Right after I pass the Kentucky/Illinois border I pull over in a rest stop to give Autumn a call and let her know I'm in Kentucky and not far from her place. "Hello?" Autumn answers. "Hey girly, I'm finally in Kentucky and on my way to your place. You ready for our little adventure?" I ask her. Laughing she says "Oh hell yea, I am. How long before you get here?" "Hmm, I'd say a couple hours. That is if I don't run into any lovely road construction" "All right, I'll be sitting here waiting for you then." "Ok, girl. See ya in a few hours then." "Later" "Later girly" I say as I hang up the phone. I get back into my car and head south again. I get to Autumns house like 3 and a half hours later. (Yes, you guessed it...road construction) Autumn's sitting outside waiting for me. I pull up and get out of my car and walk up to her. "Hey Autumn" "Hey Trelyn" We give each other a hug and I sit down next to her. "So, you ready to get this party started?" I ask her. Laughing at me and my stupid line she says "Yea, I'm ready. Lets get out of here" "Alrighty then, lets go." I say as I get up and go to my car. "Wait, first shouldn't we make sure we are taking the same highways" "Oh yea I guess we better don't wanna get lost" I say as I grab my maps from the car. We look over our maps and make sure they are the same and they are. So we get into our cars and I let her take the lead out of her town. We hit the highway and we are on our way to Georgia to get Lorie.
Our trip to Georgia is pretty uneventful. We only stopped a couple times to stretch our legs and use the bathroom. We get to Athens and stop at a gas station to use the phone to call Lorie. The phone rings like 7 times and I am beginning to wonder if Lorie didn't change her mind, when finally someone picks up. "Hello?" a person whispers on the other end. "Lorie, is that you?" I ask. "Yea, it's me. I can't talk loud because Mike is in the other room." "Why is he at your parents house? I thought you told him it was over." "I did but Mike doesn't listen if it's not what he wants to hear." Lorie says quietly in fear of Mike over hearing. "Well Autumn and I are on our way over. You are ready to go, right?" "Yea I"m ready. I don't know how Mike is going to react, but I'm ready to go". "Ok, great. We're on our way then." "Ok, see ya in a few." Lorie says hanging up. I hang up the phone and tell Autumn that Mike is over at Lorie's parents house. "Oh great, that's all we need is him causing trouble."Autumn says discusted. "I know, I know but Lorie says she is still leaving. We better get over there before he can change her mind." I say walking back to my car. "Yea, I guess we better." Autumn answers heading to her car. We find Lorie's house and park the cars. As we walk up to the house we can hear people yelling. We look at each other like -Oh great, this is going to be fun-. Autumn rings the bell and we stand waiting for someone to answer the door. Lorie comes to the door and says "Ok, I'm ready lets go." Autumn and I look at each other and shrug our shoulders and follow Lorie to her car. "Are you sure you have everything?" I ask her. "Yep, got everything, now lets go before Mike can start crap again". Lorie says looking at the house. "Ok, you got it." I tell her while Autumn and I head for our cars. But before we can get in them Mike comes running out the door towards Lorie. -Oh great, here we go now-I think to myself. Autumn and I look at each other and then both start towards the arguing couple. We get over where Mike and Lorie are fighting and hear Mike tell Lorie that she isn't going anywhere with anyone. That she is staying right where she is. "No, Mike I am leaving and there isn't anything you can do. I'm tired of all the crap that goes on between us so I'm outta here." "Like Hell you are." Yelled Mike. Autumn and I are trying to figure out a way to get this to end peacefuly when we hear sirens coming down the street. We look at each other and then Lorie and we all have a -Great, this is all we need now-look on our faces. "Great Mike now look what you caused to happen, the cops are coming. All I wanted to do was leave with no problems, but nooo you couldn't have it that way." Lorie yelled at Mike. "I already told you Lorie, you are not leaving me." Mike says to her with a cold look on his face. The police pull up to the house. "Ok, what's going on here?" the first officer asks us. "I want to leave and he is stopping me." Lorie tells him. "Well sir you have no right to hold her against her will, if she wants to leave she has every right to." the policeman tells Mike. "NO, she has no right to leave me. She thinks she can but she can't, I won't let her." Mike is screaming at the cops. The second officer looks at us and says "Look if you are going to leave, I suggest you do so now while we are here to detain this gentlemen. We will keep him here with us long enough for you three to get into your cars and get going. " The three of us thank the officers. Lorie says goodbye to her parents and heads for her car. We wait for her to pull out of her drive and follow her down the street. We hit I-75 going south to Florida and the beginning of new lives.
After we cross the Georgia/Florida state lines we pull into the closest rest area. We get out and head for the restrooms. We haven't said a word yet, we are too tired for any other thought but using the restroom and sleep, and don't have the ablility to make complete sentences. We come out and head for our cars. "Sleep, need sleep now" I say as I crawl into my front seat. Unfortunatly I can't lay down in my backseat because of the mess I have created back there with my lack of packing knowledge. Autumn and Lorie laugh at me because they had warned me earlier today that I might want to clean the backseat out incase we pull over to catch some z's. Of course I totally blew the suggestion off telling them that it'll be ok, I won't need to crash. The real reason was because I was too lazy to clean it. They get into thier own cars and quickly fall asleep themselves. We only are asleep for a couple hours when I get woke up by some little kids running past my car screaming. I jerk awake at the sudden noise and almost bang my head on the roof of my car. Sighing I decide to get out of my car and check out the surroundings. Stretching my arms I take a look around. I can't believe I am here, actually here in Florida. The home of Disney, Universal Studios, beautiful beaches and THE BACKSTREET BOYS!! I smile at the thought of BSB because, although I know I'll never meet them it's still fun to think about the possibility. Especially now that I am actually going to live in, not only the same state but practicaly the same town as my favorite BSB, AJ!!! Just thinking of AJ makes me more excited to get to Orlando. I know Autumn and Lorie have to be feeling the same way. Autumn hasn't said anything but I know just the thought of living in the same city as Howie has her excited. Lorie too, she has this major thing for Kevin and though she hasn't said anything I know she is just as excited as we are.
I turn around when I hear a noise behind me "Hey girl, how long have you been up?" Autumn asks me. "About 10 or 15 minutes. Ever since some kids ran past the car" "Yea, me too, but I tried to go back to sleep" Autumn said while yawning. I laugh at her and she throws some grass at me. We get into a all out battle of a grass war when we hear Lorie "Hey, why didn't you two wake me up?" We look up at her and then glance at each other and smile and procede to throw grass at her. We are all three throwing grass and laughing not noticing the weird looks we are getting from people that have pulled into the rest area. "OK, guys" Autumn says laughing "I think we better stop before we pull all the grass up in the area" Lorie and I look at her and we just start laughing harder. During the war Autumn's hair seemed to go from her blonde hair to green hair. She was covered in grass. "Ok, you two what is so dang funny?" Autumn asks us with a little tone of annoyance in her voice. Laughing I ask her "Uhh Autumn, when did u dye your hair green?" "What are u talki...ohh noo" Autumn yells and runs for the bathroom. Cracking up me and Lorie follow her. She is in there brushing out her hair from all the grass. "Sorry for laughing Autumn but you did look funny" I say to her still laughing. "Yea yea, remember paybacks are a bitch" She says trying to sound pissed but has a hint of laughter in her voice. We walk out of the bathroom and can't believe how hot it got just from the short time we were in there. "Dang it sure gets hot fast here" I say to myself but loud enough for the girls to hear me. "Well, I guess you and your cold yankee blood better get used to it" Lorie says and starts laughing. "Very funny Lorie, haha, I'm laughing here." I try to say it like I'm mad at her yankee comment but don't pull it off. She looks at me and starts laughing again so I decide to chase after her and she starts running towards her car and jumps in. "Children" Autumn says rolling her eyes, even though she is younger then us by a year. "Ok kids lets get going now" Augtumn says to us. I look at her and then knock on Lories window and she rolls it down. "Autumn just called us kids" "Oh, really" "Yep" Lorie gets out of her car and we look at each other and then Autumn. "Kids, huh?" Lorie says as we walk towards her. "Aww, come on guys I was kidding, joke joke, funny funny, laugh laugh, sorta thing here" Autumn says while backing up. Lorie and I look at each other and smile. She must of had a feeling of what was going to happen becuase she took off running towards the bathrooms. Laughing we take off after her. As we round a corner we run into a state trooper. "Whoa, you two, where's the fire?" he asks. "Uh, we are soo sorry officer. We were just looking for our friend" "Well I suggest that you walk while looking for your friend. There are too many people around for you to be running around here." The trooper said sternly. "Yes sir, officer. We'll walk from now on" Lorie says all innocent. When she says this I am behind her rolling my eyes. "Ok, then. Don't let me catch you doing it again. Have a good day ladies." the trooper says while walking away. "Oh yes sir officer we'll walk from now on" I mimick Lorie after he leaves. "Oh shut up" Lorie says while slapping me on the shoulder. Laughing we walk towards the bathrooms and find Autumn cracking up "Oh that was soooo funny..you guys running and then 'BOOM' run smack into a state trooper" "Yea that was a total laugh in a half" I say very sarcasticly "Oh but ms. innocent here got us out of it with her little goody good 'Oh yes sir officer we'll walk from now on' spiel. And he bought it too. That never happens to me. No one ever believes I am innocent" I say complaining. They look at me and then each other and start cracking up. "Hun, to be believe innocent you have to act innocent. And I don't think that's possible for you" Autumn says as her and Lorie walk away laughing leaving me standing there. It finally hits me what she just said "HEY! and exactly what do you mean by that ms. Thing?" I yell after them. I run up to them and they are still laughing. "See you just proved my point" Autumn says smiling. "And how exactly did I do that?"I ask her folding my arms in front of me. Lorie jumps in and says "Well remember what I told the officer about us not running around here anymore?" "Yeah, so. Point being?" Laughing she says "Well which one of us just broke that rule...again?" she asks trying very hard to keep a straight face but not being successful. Looking at her with a whatever look I say "Well you were the one that told the officer that, not me. So see I didn't break anything and besides I didn't run into anyone getting here" "And my point being made once again" Autumn says laughing at me. "Ok, yea whatever" I say and start laughing. "We better get going if we wanna hit Orlando before night fall" Autumn says when we get to the cars. "We have about 5-7 hours left on this little road trip adventure and then we can officially start living our new lives" I say with excitement in my voice. If the girls were listening close they would of also hear a hint of a little fear. This was a big step for all three of us and I was hoping we could pull it all off and not fall flat on our faces. "Well then lets get this party started" Lorie says laughing. Autumn and I look at each other and laugh because we can remember that is exactly what I said to her in Kentucky. We get into our cars and head back out on south I-75 towards Orlando.
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