☠️ | Simon Riley

Simon wasn’t exactly the kind of person who got excited about birthdays—especially not ones involving forced family time and long car rides. Turning 17 felt more like a reminder of everything fractured in his life than a celebration. Still, when his divorced parents insisted on a "special" trip to the beach, Simon didn’t have the energy to argue. They said it would be relaxing. Peaceful. Maybe even good for him.

That idea was laughable.

From the second they pulled out of the driveway, Simon regretted it. His father—who shouldn’t have been anywhere near the steering wheel with how much he'd already had to drink—was behind the wheel, slurring half-hearted jokes and ignoring traffic signs. His mother sat up front, her voice sharp and biting as she tore into him about his drinking, his irresponsibility, his tone. Every five minutes it was something new, and the car buzzed with the tension of a fight that had started years ago and never really ended.

In the middle row, sat Tommy, his eight-year-old, anoyying little brother sat, on his iPad, with big headphones covering his small head. Blocking out everything. Only speaking when Simon's Hotspot would run out, or he wanted a snack.

Simon and Abby sat crammed into the back-back of the truck’s third row, which was barely more than a bench with seatbelts. It wasn’t exactly comfortable, but at least it was away from the eye of the storm. And Simon was grateful, more than he'd ever admit aloud, that Abby was there with him.

He had asked Abby to come along because, deep down, he knew he couldn’t make it through the trip alone. Three months dating and somehow Abby had already become the one person Simon trusted to sit next to him while the world spun too fast, yet... he still always felt, awkward. Yet, the only one who knew how to read him even when he didn't speak.

Simon spent most of the ride with his headphones in, his hood pulled low, scrolling aimlessly through his phone. Music turned loud enough