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The sun had set well over an hour ago, back when there were still golden fields of grain flying by the car windows. Now, bundles of light brightened and dulled, brightened and dulled, shining down from the occasional streetlight and singing a visual lullaby of sorts to the three women in the car.
That’s when Julien knew it was time to start looking for a motel for the night. She was well aware she wasn’t the best driver – despite having significantly improved upon the two years to total a car track record of her early twenties – but she certainly wasn’t about to risk it with the precious cargo she currently had on board: two pups, who had luckily settled down nicely about thirty minutes into their nine hour drive, in their crates in the trunk; and in the backseat, her two favourite people in the whole wide world.
After their last stop for gas and snacks, Phoebe had joined Lucy in the back. Her reason for foregoing her usual “Shotgun!” as she skipped her way over to the car? Well, to her joy, she had managed to convince Lucy to let her paint her nails with the cheap bubblegum-pink nail polish she had just found at the gas station convenience store. It was definitely a silly thing to be doing in a moving vehicle, but Lucy couldn’t possibly say no to Phoebe’s excited little jumps when she showed off her newest find.
So, they took off again. Julien had simply been smiling to herself behind the wheel, more than happy to just listen to her boys chatting about everything and nothing as the miles disappeared into the rearview mirror. Their chatter rose and fell along with the changing landscapes they passed through. Rolling green hills tinted amber with the first signs of autumn, turned to fields languidly stretching out beyond the horizon, turned to the outskirts of the new city they now found themselves in.
It wasn’t until she rolled into the parking lot of a seemingly half decent motel, that she realised her bandmates had gone quiet behind her. Julien had been so focused on the increased traffic as they were nearing their destination, making sure to keep everything in one piece and take all the correct exits, that she hadn’t noticed the silence that had settled over the car.
She pulled into a well-lit space underneath a streetlight and put the car in park, before looking back over her shoulder. Instantly, it was as if a cosy blanket had enveloped her. Julien felt the corners of her mouth tugging up, a soft warm glow spreading out from the centre of her chest as her eyes took in the sight before her.
Lucy was leaned back against the door, pink nails standing out starkly in the semi-darkness of the car’s interior. The hat she was wearing, one of Julien’s trusty ball caps, had slipped down to cover half of her face, but Julien could just about make out her relaxed features in the shadows. Her eyes were closed, mouth slightly agape. Deep, slow breaths provided the only bit of movement in the backseat, now that the car had come to a stop.
Phoebe – who had apparently moved into the middle seat at some point, though Julien was glad to see she was still wearing the seatbelt there – was cuddled up into Lucy’s side. Their hands were linked, Phoebe’s right one delicately clasped in both of Lucy’s. Her head was tipped sideways onto the taller woman’s shoulder, and streaks of blue hair were covering her face. She looked the picture of comfort.
Julien savoured the pleasant warmth radiating from her chest, allowing herself a few moments to let her gaze drift over her lovers’ sleeping forms, trying to commit the image and all the little details to memory. The way Phoebe’s head moved gently with each slow rise of Lucy’s chest. How Lucy’s denim jacket loosely hung off of Phoebe’s shoulder. Their fingers, tenderly intertwined as their hands laid on top of Lucy’s thigh. Tears pricked at Julien’s eyes, the cheesy kind that you see in movies, but they couldn’t have been more true.
She suddenly felt so overwhelmingly thankful that they were doing this trip. It was… important. Even though they hadn’t exactly been apart these past few months, she had missed her boys. Missed this. Missed spending time on the road together, yet now, doing it for no reason other than to bask in each other’s company, to see different places, new and old, through one another's eyes for the first time. Julien hadn’t realised she craved it so much until this trip.
A tiny shift in Lucy’s posture made Phoebe mumble in her sleep, and Julien figured that they should probably head to an actual bed sooner rather than later. She sighed, a smile stuck on her face and unlikely to leave her watery eyes any time soon, before shutting off the car, and looking back just in time to see Lucy slowly blink her eyes open and Phoebe stretch her arms up into the roof of the car, yawning shamelessly.
By the time the two sleepy boys finally stumbled their way out of the car, Julien was already making the trek back from the motel’s reception, keys to a room for the night in hand. She giggled when Phoebe excitedly dragged Lucy over to show off the pink nails, before heading to the trunk and collecting their dogs and the bags.
Once Beans and Maxine had done their business on the patch of grass in front of the motel, they all went inside the small but neat room. It only had one bed, but it wasn’t like that had ever been an issue for them. So by the time this first day on the road had come to an end, they were huddled under the covers, pressed close and ready to drift off, undoubtedly to dream about obnoxiously singing along to the car radio, being clumsily hand fed snacks, and traversing down unknown, meandering roads – together.