Whelp, we made it about 12 hours before things started going wrong.

We all noticed Andie getting quieter and quieter as the day progressed, but by Monday night they were pale and dish-eyed with panic. They sat in the back seat, gazing out the window, clutching their phone with white knuckles as the screen lit up with calls, at first every couple minutes, and even hours later every 20 minutes without fail.

By the time we were checking into a gross little roadside motel that night, there was a cloud over all of us. I didn’t even bring myself a change of underwear much less a tooth brush or a change of clothes, so I was feeling a little bit grimy. And then there was the slight awkwardness of our room. Like technically Bass, Rook and I all have endless money from the Scelerats, but like… I’m not trying to be immediately tracked down and sent back to Palefish so we had to resort to scraping together the cash we all had on hand to buy a room AND THERE WAS ONLY ONE BED lolol jk no there were two beds, but there are four of us, so we all ended up getting real cozy.

Bass called his coven, and they took it totally in stride that he didn’t want to come home for the holiday. Of course, Bass didn’t tell them the whole truth about where we’re going. I mean he did, he told them we were gonna go help Beverly. But he definitely made it sound like this was a supervised, school approved, internship situation hahahhaaha.

My own solution to the whole everyone at Palefish is probably on the hunt for me is to say nothing to anyone. Now, ordinarily I’d feel really awful if I went missing and Julian and Neal were terrified, but here’s the thing: I don’t think Lana is gonna tell them I’m missing, at least not for a couple days. I don’t think she wants admit that I slipped through her fingers hahahaha. I’ve been sending very vague (lie-free) texts to Julian and Neal that sorta… vaguely imply that I’m having a nice holiday season at Palefish, and so far they haven’t voiced any concerns. Hahahahahahhahahaha

My mom? Well, it’s simple. I had Bass use his magical internet abilities to block her IP hahaha, and if I know anything about my mom it’s that she’s not using the internet on her phone, she’s reading my blog from her laptop, which sits on the dining room table. I had Bass block her boyfriend’s place too. Luckily I’ve been terrible at updating this blog, so when she doesn’t see anything come up for a few days she won’t worry. See? It’s all part of the plan (it’s not there is no plan)

Andie… well, Andie’s got a different issue. That first night, while we were all eating our pathetic vending machine dinner they got three phone calls in a row, and finally sighed and got off the bed.

“Who is it?” I asked.

“Vivienne,” they sighed. “My mom. I have to deal with this, hang on.”

Their shoulders sagged as they opened the motel door and went out onto the cement balcony. I heard them say “Hello?” as they closed the door behind them.

But I mean motel walls are infamously thin, right? We all heard their half of the conversation. They might as well have just stayed in the room with us for all the good it did.

It was awful.

I don’t want to give you the full blow-by-blow, but here’s the brief run down.

First, the frantic explanation: “I’m just going with a friend for the holidays, it’s not a big deal!”

And then, “Does it matter which friend?”

And then, “No, you wouldn’t know them.”

And then, after an agonizingly long pause, “what are you talking about? I’m fine, I just wanted to — Vivienne — no. No. They’re not going to Saint Niveus. ”

And then, viciously, “So what if I did want to join Bellhoof?”

And then there was a VERY long pause in which I thought I heard them sniffing, and then, “I know. I’m sorry. I said I’m sorry!”

And then, finally: “Yeah, well then call Marina, if she’s the one you want to talk to!”

And we all heard them throw their phone. It hit the wall with a sharp crack.

Rook, Bass, and I all looked at each other with round eyes. Then I slid off the bed and knocked tentatively on the door.

“Andie?” I called. “I’m coming out.”

They were sitting with their legs dangling off the balcony, leaning on the metal guardrail, hiding their face in their arms.

I don’t remember exactly what I said, but it was something to the effect of, “…so how did that go?” and Andie laughed, wetly, and without looking up.

“You should have heard her voice,” they said, muffled by their arms. “She had absolutely no idea what to do when she realized I wasn’t going to do what she wanted. She literally asked if I was sick.” They peeked up at me over their arms and despite their red eyes they were sorta smiling. “We’ve never been allowed to spend the holidays away from my grandfather. Apparently Marina’s having a fit.”

HA. I grinned at them and flung an arm around their shoulder to squeeze. “Look at you, you rebel.”

They made a face. “They think I’m gonna give up all my hard work, refuse Saint Niveus and go to Bellhoof instead. They threatened to ask Lana to find me a new roommate because you’re such a bad influence.”

HA! I told them not to worry. “I’ll tell Lana you’re the only reason I’m learning anything, and she won’t make you switch.”

Andie finally turned to fix me with a look. “Do you know her or something?”

LOL OOPS ABORT ABORT

But also like… I mean LOL give us a couple days and all the cats will be out of the bag.

“You just call her by her first name, and you seem to uh… not like her or something so I thought maybe…” they trailed off probably because I had panic face hahaha.

“It’s a long story,” I said and then Bass opened the door to tell us that Jennifer’s Body was on tv, and Andie asked what Jennifer’s Body is, and we spent the rest of the night eating licorice and watching Megan Fox be insanely hot.

We had a really long day of driving today. Bass did some fancy magic to get us some cash, so at least we’re not starving or out of gas. Maybe we’ll even have money to get a second room but honestly I hope not because last night was really fun, with all of us piled into one room watching movies.

We’ll arrive at the Crossroads tomorrow afternoon.

So it’s the middle of the night and we’re on the road again.

We were all asleep — all in one room, thank goodness — all cozied up, snoring, and then Rook shook me awake, pressing his hand over my mouth so I wouldn’t say anything.

“There’s someone here,” he whispered. “At the door.”

I stared at him, about to say he was being insane, but then a shadow interrupted the light under the door and my stomach went all cold.

“I think we can make it out the bathroom window,” Rook whispered, and in not much more than a moments eye contact, we made the plan.

Climbing out the window wasn’t the most elegant I’ve ever fled a place — Bass is surprisingly svelte for so big a person, but he’s still not a comfortable size to be shimmying out of a tiny motel bathroom window. Andie’s an elbow hurricane, so they were an absolute mess, just hilariously lacking in coordination, bless them.

I passed bags out the window after Andie before wriggling out myself. (Yes, it was easier than it would once have been because I’ve been working out, shut up I don’t want to hear it). I was just twisting the key in the ignition when Rook slipped out the window after us. He stayed low, opened the door and slid into the passenger side.

“Don’t turn the lights on,” he whispered.

We all held our breaths as I turned on the car, shifted it into reverse, eased off the break.

“Did you see who it was?” Bass whispered, but Rook didn’t need to answer, because at that moment the light in our room clicked on. Three silhouettes appeared against the curtains.

“Go,” Rook said, and he didn’t have to tell me twice, I was already peeling out of the parking lot.

The thing about being on the road with the Hawthornes last year, is that I learned more things than I even realized I did. Like, I knew to leave my lights off until we hit the highway. I knew to drive as fast as I could until we found a populated area. I knew to stop in town to throw off any assumptions anyone made about where we were heading and how fast, knew to change rental cars at our first opportunity.

“Do you have any idea who they were?” Andie asked as we finally made it out of town.

“No,” Rook said. “Three men.”

Andie paused a moment before saying, “I don’t think my parents would send people after me or anything,” and I realized how insane we must look to them.

“I’m sure they weren’t there for you,” Rook assured them.

“But then…” Andie trailed off, glancing between us.

This whole road trip is feeling a lot less fun all of a sudden. We’re all tired, and nervous. We’ll be at the Crossroads in a few hours.