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Akara eyes the road as a paparazzi vehicle hugs too close to us

I buckle ain

“Take the next right and circle around,” Akara tells Banks “We’ll lose the last one and then you can jump onto the freeway”

“Right on” Banks swerves to catch the next turn

I tune out their security talk

“Shit, it’s blowing heat again,” Akara says after a minute or two, but he doesn’t fiddle with the vents We’re all just sitting in an uncoer Baby’s fault

I break the quiet “We’re still headed to REI?”

“Yep,” Banks says

“Alright, good” I try to focus on the checklist, but I can feel their eyes ping to

My whole fucking body is burning

Concentrate, Sulli

Right, we have to pick upthe official road to Montana I have ear—stuff I picked up frorab the ca equipment My mom would ask questions, and I’d spill every last detail Hell, I still want to spill even without her asking

“Fuck this heat,” Akara complains as he pushes his hair back with two hands and then reaches for the vents again I think he’s being kind by not saying Fuck this Jeep

I barely glance up “I can take her into a shop once we’re in Montana”

“I’ll just take a look at her,” Banks says to me, and he catches my eyes in the rearview “Myin the shop with her”

I knew he had the skills, but didn’t kno he got them

“That’s cool that you did that with your mom”

The corner of his ot older Back then, I didn’t have a choice, really Needed the money, and I didn’t want to work as a busboy like my brother”

His brother is going to marry my cousin

The fact rolls up to ain So between uess we’re notanyway

“Weren’t you a lifeguard?” Banks asks me

“When I was fourteen,” I say “It was at a local co so I’d save them”

“Can’t blame them,” Banks says

“Why? You’d want to be saved by the famous Sullivan Minnie Meadows too?”

“Not ‘cause you’re famous, mermaid”

Is he…is he flirting? My pulse skips No way My brows pinch, and Akara shifts uncomfortably in his seat He switches a knob on the air conditioning