3 days, 4 people, 10 states
Shit. I don't think I've ever reached this level of exhaustion. I know I exaggerate a lot, but this is not one of those times.
Alright, I'll rewind a couple of weeks. On the 12th, I was all set to go when Soldier came to pick me up. He came late in the evening and we stopped to get gas; he picked up some beverages for me. I only made it a couple of hours before I fell asleep, but it was great; we did some not-entirely-responsible things (read that however you want, I'm not elaborating). Of course, being me, I woke up in the middle of the night. I felt so sick, and told him that he needed to pull over because I was going to throw up. Soldier was really sweet about it; he stopped somewhere and rubbed my back while I just tried to breathe. It passed and I didn't get sick, and eventually I got back to sleep.
Our first real stop was Kansas City; I woke up just before we got there in the morning. We stopped to pick up C, the first friend. We were there for a few hours to rest and I had joked with Soldier about cuddling while he tried to sleep, which he said he was fine with. That threw me off a bit and I didn't try it.
Driving through the plains and desert got really boring, really quickly. We took turns stretching out in the backseat to sleep, and somehow entertained ourselves otherwise. C was fun, and we kept seeing and talking about things that threw us into laughing fits. We were coming up on the Rockies at sunset, which made for some cool pictures.
I remember waking up at like 2 in the morning while Soldier was driving and I was in the passenger seat. We were driving through the mountains and the moon was just under full (it was full the night before)...we sat and talked for a few minutes about how pretty the mountains were with the glow.
Next stop was Vegas; it was another early morning arrival. We went to gamble a little bit before we had to pick up K from the airport. I lost a little bit playing the slots and called it good...it's only fun if you're winning! C went off to play Blackjack and Soldier and I went to the car for him to take a little nap. Just as we got there, C called that we needed to go get K. Another nice guy. We went back to the casino afterwards. They all played craps and I watched, then C and K went off to play blackjack. I stayed with Soldier and after a while he made me roll a round. He tried to explain it to me, but I still had absolutely no idea what was going on, and my round didn't last too long.
When we'd lost enough, Soldier wanted to go back to the car and sleep. Since I didn't know the other guys well, and didn't want to just sit there watching them, I said I'd join him. Then he suggested we could grab a drink instead (like I was gonna turn that down). We went to another casino, he asked what I wanted to drink, and ordered the same. He paid, we sat and chatted for a while, he grabbed me a matchbook as a memento. I really enjoyed it. We took a quick selfie on the Strip, then went to get a bottle of Fireball for the rest of the trip.
We went back to check on the other guys and walked back to the car just ahead of them. As we were walking along, a few couples passed us looking cozy. Soldier made an interesting comment about the heat--that it was so hot you couldn't even hold hands. I didn't know what to say, so I said something about how I like the heat. I kind of wish I'd been clever and said that it sounded like a challenge.
Roughly four more hours in the desert brought us to LA. We still had fun, but we were all ready to be done in the car by then. C and K had some groomsman duties to take care of, so they wanted to be dropped off first. Soldier said he'd bring me to my sister's after; as we got farther away from my part of LA, I got more and more nervous about the situation. We were an hour away from where I needed to be. My sister offered to come pick me up, but Soldier kept insisting he'd bring me. I know I was rude when we got to the groom's parents house, I pretty much just stayed in the car...I really didn't know how to handle the situation or what to say. So just trying to stay hidden seemed like the best idea. It probably wasn't. Meh.
Soldier drove and I navigated the hour drive to my sister's. My slightly biased opinion is that we made a pretty damn good team. We made it there unscathed and my sister invited him to stay for a beer and dinner, which he accepted (much to my pleasure). She also offered him a bed since they didn't really know where they'd be sleeping, but he declined that one (damn).
I kept checking the clock since I only had about an hour before we had to leave for my sister and brother-in-law's gig, but I also didn't care. It was great to just be hanging out with Soldier again. He decided it was time to leave and I walked him to the door; he gave me kind of an awkward half-hug. I told him to let me know if they decided they wanted to come swim or hang out, and he said, "You too!" Luckily I did have a witty reply this time: "You want me to tell you if you guys want to come hang out?" He clarified to let him know if I was bored and needed something to do. I was a little surprised, and I didn't really plan on doing it, but I was quite happy he offered. Still, I was sad to see him go.
The past 2 weeks have been insane and I'm still trying to put my life back to normal, so you get the story in installments. Stay tuned for the next one!
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