Two Weeks of Freedom (Amaranthine & Styxx)

[Amaranthine]

"Caroline!" Poppy almost screamed as she knocked on the automatically locking door of her friend's door room. It was well past noon and they should have left the residence almost an hour ago now, but all she had got from her travelling companion was a text and the pale-freckled ginger was starting to get anxious. She desperately wanted to be out of this school, and had she known that her friend was going to be late... Well, she probably wouldn't have offered her a ride half way across the country. If there was one thing that Poppy Sanders wasn't, it was late. She didn't quite know why, but she hated being even a minute late to something and she was generally early to being early... much to the chagrin of pretty much everyone around her.

"Hurry up!" She yelled, though this time she walked off and back towards her room, which was down and across on the opposite end of the hall. She'd pretty much moved all of her stuff out by now, shoved it in to a few boxes she had in the second row of seats on her truck. Being raised rather affluently she was lucky enough to have parents who had paid for her first year of school, and a rather nice truck to go along with it. That wasn't to say she was lazy or unappreciative, no - she had spent her first year working outside of class hours, paying her own way while only her tuition had been covered. She knew that was a luxury and was incredibly thankful.

Grabbing the last of her stuff, Poppy got down to her truck to see her friend already waiting, several boxes of her stuff tucked in to the truck bed. "Well there you are," Poppy said with a laugh. "I was just at your room looking for you, if you hadn't been here you would have gotten a rather strongly worded text."

 

[Styxx]

Caroline Atkinson had been waiting all weekend for today - her first year of the child and youth worker program had flown by and she was ready to return to home. She was lucky enough to make a friend this year who happened to live im the same town as her, and she was even luckier to realize that a certain Poppy Sanders and her had met before - back when they were kids, they had actually been the best of friends. After her parents divorce the had moved to the other side of town, and with that... Well, Cara hadn't talked to Poppy until two months in to her first semester, when they had run in to each other on campus. She had known they shared a floor in the residence building and she knew that the redhead seemed to be familiar, but finding out she was talking to her old best friend had been the highlight of the year.

She had been super greatful when Poppy had offered to bring her home as the year had come to an end, and the pair had agreed to make a trip out of it. The next two weeks would be just the two of them on the road and seeing the sights before they returned home and prepared for the responsibilities that the summer would bring. Cara was glad she'd get a break before spending the summer working her ass of at the same resteraunt she had spent the summer before at.

The brunette had woken up late, though and she hustled to get her stuff together before Poppy would get too annoyed with her. She managed to succeed... Barely. She'd been about to text Poppy apologizing and saying she was ready whenever when the woman walked out the back of the building to see her as she had finished loading her stuff up.

"Hey! Sorry, I slept in." she grimaced. "Hope you're not mad at me, I'm ready to go when you are."

 

[Amaranthine]

Poppy couldn't be angry, and she released the tension in her shoulders as she approached the brunette. After taking Caroline in to a hug she motioned towards the doors of the truck. She spoke as she pulled her driver side door open, "come on, let's get going."

The two had come up with a plan to get home that didn't involve heading straight there. If they wanted they could make it in a day's time, but Poppy wanted a chance to see what America had to offer, and it gave her a chance to get closer to one of her best friends as a child. Though they had both grown immensely over the last ten years, Poppy had been delighted to find that they managed to rekindle the same playful, energetic vibe that had made them such close friends as children. They were going to spend the next two weeks on the highway, back roads and everywhere in between as they slowly made progress towards home. Luckily, Poppy had been saving up for a few months now and had enough cash on her that she figured she was safe money-wise.

Once she was out of the lot, Poppy went for the highway. With the road trip playlist blaring and snacks and drinks between them, they set out. They were heading towards the Atlantic, starting in Pennsylvania. The goal was to get up towards Lake Erie today, get up to Edinboro at least and tomorrow would consist of beaches, drinks and overall a celebratory "we've finished first year" little bash for the two girls. It would be approximately a six hour drive for the girls, not counting rest stops, and the plan was to end up in a little motel for the night after having dinner.

 

[Styxx]

Cara was excited to go on this trip, and she couldn't wait to hit up the beaches tomorrow as the honorary "hit it off" event of their road trip. It would bring them up from Philidelphia, along Lake Erie and they would follow close to the border up to Maine and head down the east cost until they hit their home town in South Carolina. It wasn't the longest trip, but they planned to make the most of it and see as many things as they could. She was also excited for their pit stop in New York City, where they would spend the night in a nice hotel and make the best of the city that never sleeps. Now - how well would she be able to budget her way to there, though? Since the trip had been planned she had plenty of time to save up more money, but she definitely wished that she had more to bring to the table and that she could offer more to Poppy. The redhead didn't say anything about it, but it still weighed on Cara's normally carefree conscious.

Traffic slowed their trip and before they knew it, it was almost eight and they were still an hour away from their destination for the night. Cara desperately wanted something to eat, so she asked Poppy if they could stop for food and ten minutes later they pulled in to a small diner off the side of the highway. An hour later they left with a full belly and a need to decide what they wanted to do for the night. It would start getting dark out very soon and both of the women were getting tired.

"Hey, how about this - let's grab some booze and pull in to a campsite, spend the night in the truck?" While she came off as rather girly at times, Caroline definitely loved to spend time outside, and she was rather trusting. At this time of year it was just warm enough that they wouldn't be cold if they spent the night in the open, but not warm enough that other people would be out at the camp site. She had seen a sign a mile back about an area a few more miles north, and that would work if Poppy agreed.

 

[Amaranthine]

Poppy was... reluctant to say the least at Caroline's idea but eventually she gave in, and hit up the liquor store at the nearest town and got a bottle of whiskey. While Caroline was adventurous, outgoing and always the first one to jump head first in to things, Poppy preferred to be the voice of reason. She enjoyed having a logic to things and she knew that sometimes it could be anal but that didn't stop her from wanting to be able to rationalize stuff. That was what she did on the trip back to the highway, until they pulled off on the exit to the camp site that Caroline had noticed earlier. By then she was able to relent, as night was coming and she found herself quite tired.

They would need to pull some blankets and pillows out, but Poppy had packed hers in to a box that she had in the back seat so that would be easy. Between the two of them they would have more than enough. By the time that they got the bed of her truck set up with a thick olive green comforter under them and thinner blankets to cover them later that night, the sun had faded over the horizon. Hung lanterns around the campsite illuminated the area, leaving them just enough light to see each other and the flowing expanse of stars over their head. Okay... Maybe Cara had a good idea, and she just didn't want to admit it.

Poppy fell in to a pillow, her shoes shed at the entrance to the truck's bed, and the whiskey came held close to her chest. She poured approximately a double shot in to each of the two cups that she had brought up just before and then added some coke to the mix, making a drink that ended up being on the strong side for her (she didn't drink very often, after all). "To us!" She said as she handed one of the solo cups over to her friend, and then offered hers out to clink together.