Page 19 of Road Trip

JACOB

374 miles An entire lifetime to go

ODU, Norfolk, VA

Seven months later

I t was spring break and most of the guys in the house were going to Chincoteague. Not me, though. For the first time in ages, I wasn’t heading through the tunnel to the Eastern Shore. And instead of packing just a towel and some board shorts, I was packing jeans and boots as well.

Dale, my roommate, stuck his head around the door. “Oh, you’re still here, bro?”

“Yeah.”

“I thought your boyfriend was coming to pick you up?”

“Yeah, not until after lunch, though. He had to work this morning.”

I checked the time. Between Matt’s and my end-of-semester college schedules, we hadn’t seen each other in three weeks and I’d missed him like crazy. Texts and calls weren’t the same as seeing Matt’s face split into a grin or having his head resting on my shoulder. But the next week was going to be just the two of us, and I was looking forward to having Matt all to myself.

“Dude,” Dale said, looking at the cans of beans shoved in my backpack. “Are you sure you don’t want to come to the beach instead?”

“There’s a beach at the lake.”

Dale gave me a look. “I meant a real beach.”

“You know I’m from Cape Charles, right? I don’t have a shortage of real beaches in my life that I need to address over spring break.”

“Okay, but we’re all staying in a motel .”

“Bro,” I said, “I know you have a crush on my boyfriend, but you can’t take him on spring break with you.”

“I do not have a crush on Matt!” Dale, the straightest guy to ever straight, exclaimed. “He’s just really fucking good at Elden Ring .”

“Get the hell out of here, Dale.” I jammed a flashlight into my backpack. “Have a great spring break!”

He knocked twice on the doorjamb, something he always did but had never explained. “You too. Have fun camping and try not to get killed by a scary dude with a chainsaw.”

“Yeah, I’ll try.”

The house was mostly empty when I took all my stuff downstairs a while later. There were a few guys still here but the main living room was clear, so I dumped my bags in the hallway and went and flopped on the couch.

Joining a fraternity hadn’t been in my plan, but Greek life at ODU was pretty low-key, the rent at the huge fraternity house was reasonable when it was divided between a bunch of us, and I liked living here. Charlie had talked to me a lot about choosing the right fraternity, and I’d accidentally picked a good one—or rather, they’d picked me.

Matt gave me shit about being a frat boy, but that was just Matt being Matt. He slotted right in with the guys when he came to visit—which wasn’t often enough, but we were making it work. I never had worked up the nerve to send a dick pic and neither had he, but we made up for it the weekends we were together by getting our hands on the real thing. Dale was pretty good about giving us our privacy when Matt was here, so that helped.

There was the crunch of tires on the gravel driveway, and I was on my feet in a second. I hurried out to the entrance and opened the door just as Matt knocked, and the sight of his smiling face was enough to make my breath catch. I still found it hard to believe that I was dating my best friend. Like, I’d never thought that happened outside of the Hallmark movies Mom swore she didn’t watch, but here we were.

“Hey,” he said, holding up a grocery store bag. “I got snacks for the drive.”

“I haven’t seen you in weeks, you asshole. Get over here.”

He laughed and stepped into the doorway, dropping the bag. I grabbed his face and kissed him, and he threw his arms around my neck and kissed me right back. Like always, he tasted of sun and salt and home.

I could have stayed wrapped up in him all day but we had a schedule, so I reluctantly pulled back. Matt pressed up on his tiptoes and stole one more kiss, then let me go. He picked up the bag. “So, you ready?”

“I would have been ready yesterday except you had your last exam. How’d that go?”

“Aced it,” he said with a grin.

I looked over his shoulder. “And Dad was so impressed he let you borrow the RAV4?”

“He was always going to let me,” Matt said. “I’m his favorite.”

Hearing him say that so casually made me smile. It was a joke, but it was one he never would have made last year. At least I hoped it was a joke and Dad wasn’t planning on writing Luke and me out of his will or anything.

“Get your stuff,” he said. “It’s six hours to Hungry Mother.”

We’d reserved a campsite for the week at Hungry Mother State Park. We still had our trusty Walmart tent but we’d traded in the yoga mats for a real camping mattress because we were fancy now or something. I couldn’t wait.

I headed back into the house to grab my stuff with Matt beside me. “Oh hey, I saw Layla this morning,” he said. “She must be back in town for spring break.”

“Yeah? How is she?” I asked. I still felt kind of bad that I’d been a shitty boyfriend, even though it hadn’t been deliberate. I just hadn’t been able to give her the affection she deserved because it turned out I was already committed to Matt—I just hadn’t known it yet.

Matt threw me a wry look. “She’s seen us on your Insta. She said her parents found out about us, and they think we’re horrible and sinful, but they also think that because you have a boyfriend now you couldn’t have slept with her in high school, and that means she must still be a virgin. She said, and I quote, ‘Tell Jacob thanks for that.’”

I snorted.

“Also, there was some super hot blond guy with her, so she totally has a type, and her type had condoms in his basket. So good for them.”

“Speaking of condoms…”

Matt rolled his eyes. “Yeah, like I’m bringing snacks but forgetting condoms and lube. What do you take me for?”

“Just checking.”

“Well, I already checked. A dozen times.”

I laughed. I’d never really been that into sex when I was with Layla, but with Matt it was a whole different ball game. I still didn’t know if the difference was because he was a guy and my attraction to guys was weighted a little heavier than it was to girls, or if it was because it was Matt. But whatever it was, the sex was incredible.

Matt was incredible.

“Like, dude, what do you do?” Dale had asked me earnestly one night. “Do you toss a coin to see who goes on top, or do you take turns? ”

I think throwing my pillow in his face had let him know it was none of his business because he hadn’t asked again. And for the record Matty mostly got to pick what we did because he was bossy as shit, and it turned out I liked that. I liked it a lot .

“Did you pack your sketchbook?” I asked him.

“Yup. Sketchbook, snacks, condoms, and boyfriend. That’s everything I need. Plus a cooler full of Mountain Dew.”

“A whole cooler?”

“Well, it’s half Mountain Dew, half Coke. Your mom sent the Coke because, and this is another quote, ‘He’s an asshole when he’s uncaffeinated.’”

“My mom said that?”

He shrugged. “I said it was a quote, not who said it.”

“Asshole.”

Matt grinned. “Yeah, but you love me.”

I really did.

We loaded my bags into the RAV4 and closed the rear hatch door.

“You ready to battle that scary Norfolk traffic again?” Matt asked me, his eyes sparkling in the sunlight.

“That depends,” I said. “Have you got a better playlist than last time?”

“Fuck you, I have impeccable taste in music. But yes, I have made a whole bunch of road trip playlists.” He held the keys up, jangling them.

“Then what are we waiting for?”

He tossed the keys and I caught them.

Matt grinned. “Let’s hit the road.”