jolyne had woken up to the soft sound of sam's hums. the car was moving and she had absolutely no idea where they were heading. her arms rose to stretch, now sam knew she was awake.

"good morning, sunshine. we just started our trip to indianapolis. we'll be in town in about three hours." jolyne nodded, closing her eyes again, hoping maybe she could fall back asleep.

the time was now around ten in the morning, maybe they had started late today. it wasn't unusual for sam to make a commitment just to break that just as fast as he started it. jolyne was used to his ways by now so she wasn't surprised.

"where do you think we're going, jolyne." she opened her eyes slightly, shifting her gaze over to her best friend in the driver seat. she didn't really thought about where they were going, she trusted sam on taking her to somewhere where she would be safe.

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"sam, can you come pick me up?" jolyne whispered into her phone. it was almost two in the morning and sixteen year old jolyne was calling sam to save her from a high school party. sam had been knocked out for almost the last three hours. rubbing his brown eyes, he sat up.

"are you okay, joylne." panic was evident in his raspy morning voice. he was still trying to focus his eyes in the dark room. jolyne hesitated.

"i'm fine, for now at least, i think. it's just that alex has been drinking and i don't want to be around him right now." jolyne said shakily. joylne was dating a nineteen year old boy named alex, who sam really didn't like.

"i'll be there in a few minutes, go out to the front lawn." sam said, putting on his plaid pajama pants and a white shirt that were just laying on the ground, probably things that belonged in his hamper, but he didn't care right now. he walked down the creaky stairs, just to run into a very sleepy jake.

"where are you going?" his raspy voice was also very evident. sam's eyes squinted towards his older brother.

"jolyne needs me right now." sam turned away from jake, huffing a little in the process. sam was very much not a morning person, but he'd do anything for jolyne.

"did she finally break up with alex?" jake asked a bit hazy. it looked like he was standing there sleeping. his eyes were completely closed, sam could be gone and he wouldn't know because his eyes were closed, but yet he was semi aware of the situation.

"i don't know, i don't think so. i wish she would. the scum is drinking right now and it's scaring her, so i'm going to pick her up." sam had just newly turned seventeen and he hadn't had his license all that long, so the car wasn't exactly always his. he shared it with the twins, and the rule was he always had to ask one of the twins before using the car. he figured since this would be considered an urgent matter, he thought leaving unannounced wouldn't matter in the long run to jake or josh, they would understand because it involved jolyne.

"be safe out there, please." jake mumbled before walking back into the room he shared with josh. sam nodded his head in the direction of his brothers' room before opening the front door and walking out to the small yellow car that he ended up sharing with his older brothers.

the short ride to the local frat house seemed so long. sam couldn't help to think about how alex would mistreat her sober, but couldn't fathom what he'd do to her drunk. he quickened the pace of the car to get there faster.

upon pulling up to the house, he saw a scared looking jolyne standing outside the loud, party filled house behind her. she quickly ran over to the passenger side, suddenly looking back to the house in front of her. a very drunk alex had been running towards the car, screaming slurred words towards sam and jolyne.

"get back here, you'll regret leaving me for sam!" was the last thing sam heard before jolyne slammed her door shut and he slammed on the gas, getting them as far away from the house as he could.

"thank you, sam." she sighed out when they were far enough away so they could start to relax. sam looked over into the direction of his best friend. worry lines spread across her forehead. he remembered when her mom would always tell her to stop worrying so much because her worry lines would become a permanent feature of her face, but that only worried her more.

"don't worry about it so much. what happened back there?" sam couldn't shake the thought of what alex had screamed towards jolyne earlier. had she broken up with him? was that why she had felt so uncomfortable at the party?

silence loomed over the two of them, he understood if she wasn't ready to talk about it. it wasn't long before sam was pulling into her house and unlocking his doors to let her out.

"thank you, sam. i know i can always count on you to save me." her smile grew only to fade. her hand reached for the door handle to get out, but she quickly turned back to sam, laying a kiss on his lips. she quickly turned back towards the door, smiling again.

"goodnight sam." and with that she was gone, walking up her dark driveway.

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"i don't know. hopefully somewhere fun." jolyne laughed, making sam chuckle from his side of the car. he assured that she would find this part of the trip 'fun.' silence then rose between the two and they stayed that way for the rest of the three hour car ride to their destination. which upon seeing the destination, jolyne's eyes had began to sparkle.

"the indianapolis museum of art!" she yelled inside the car, making sam jump a little before letting a chuckle out. sam had known that this would probably be the reaction that would come upon the arrival of the museum.

"oh my god, i didn't know that we would be going here!! this is the best thing ever!" jolyne happily cheered as they pulled into the parking spot. getting happily out of the car, they fixed their clothes. together they walked through the parking lot into the museum.

although this was just a few hours from home, jolyne had never went to this specific place before and she was excited to be here. sam smiled at the gleam in her eyes as they walked through the museum together. casually, sam took a picture of her looking or posing with art, making sure that the picture was perfect enough to post if she had wanted to.

"i want to go to the lume." jolyne stated looking towards the room that was sort of darkened in front of them. it was an immersive experience where the whole room was the works of vincent van gogh. he smiled, letting her to lead the way inside.

her head went towards the air as she spun in the room. sam seemed just as amazed by the room as jolyne had seemed in the room. together they traveled the room, the artworks changing as they went along.

"can you take a few pictures of me?" jolyne asked, her brown eyes now looking into sam's. he smiled, nodding his head. she backed against the wall, him snapping pictures the whole way there.

"do you want to take a picture together?" he heard a small voice from behind him. he turned around quickly, his eyes meeting the older lady who stood behind him. his eyes suddenly lit up as he handed his phone over to her so he could walk over to jolyne.

the two of them smiled, seemingly holding onto each other like they never wanted to let go, but that moment quickly started to evaporate as the lady started to come towards them. she had snapped as many pictures of the pair as she could.

jolyne seemed to wander off again at the sight of the room changing art works. sam had been left with the old woman before him who had his phone. when his hand started to grasp the phone from her hand, she started to speak to him.

"you love her. the way you look at her is like no other. there's so many women here at the museum, but you don't look at them the way you look at her." the old woman stated. her hand letting go of the phone.

"oh? she's just my best friend. i've known her since we were little little." sam smiled, starting to turn away from the woman, but she spoke again.

"childhood best friends to lovers, it's a trope that's so real. realer than you think. has she ever had a boyfriend?" sam thought this old woman was getting personal for no reason, but he felt inclined to continue the conversation with her. his heart started to beat.

"only once, but it didn't last long. she never really told me why." sam shrugged, he knew why. he was someone who needed the validation from minors to be the cool guy. he didn't like the guy anyways, plus it was when they were still in underclassmen high school. that's when relationships didn't matter much past high school he felt. thinking back, he hadn't had many girlfriends either.

"hm, doesn't seem like you liked the guy. i think you were jealous." the woman scoffed, sam's heart was going wild now. he knew that he had a minor crush on jolyne when they were younger, but he never admitted it. the night she kissed him was the last night he had feelings for her. he vowed that he would protect her in a big brother sort of way rather than a boyfriend way. it had effected him oppositely than what others would've done. his love for her never died after that day though. he thought that he could withhold his promise, but days like these really tested him. he really wanted to see where this trip would take them. it seemed like the whole world knew that they were meant to be together, but them.

"maybe, i was." was all that sam could fathom to say. the woman nodded at him.

"it's never too late to profess your love. from the looks of it, she feels the same way about you. everything you've ever worked for, may come full circle soon between you two." with that she smiled. "you two remind me of me and my husband."

"where is he right now?" sam said looking around. the woman's face dropped into a frown, but a smile grew back onto her face looking back at sam.

"i don't know, hopefully somewhere better than here. he died a few years ago, nothing to sudden. he had cancer, so i knew it was coming. we could all see it coming, but the way you look at her. it's how he looked at me. i could see it in his and i can surely see it in yours. you love her, even though you might not fully know that yet." sam felt his heart hurt for the woman. she though, through the pain.

"i have to get going, jolyne is probably waiting for me. thank you for everything." he gave her a small nod before walking off. the woman smiled as he walked in the direction of jolyne, shaking her head and chuckling before walking off towards a different exhibition.

"was everything okay?" jolyne asked, looking up to sam with her concerned eyes. jolyne always cared about others. he knew if she had been in his spot then she would've cried at the ladies back story, and he wouldn't blame her.

"everything's fine. she just needed someone to talk to." he smiled down to jolyne. she nodded looking back at the art. the thoughts didn't leave his mind, as much as he wanted to shake it from his thoughts. maybe he incoherently asked her to come because he was starting to feel like more than friends again or maybe because he wanted her to feel the same way.

"do you wanna go to the children's museum? we could drive down, it's not far." jolyne happily nodded as they made their way back to the car. they kept their talking to a minimum on the walk there, but it was comfortable. it was approaching close to three in the evening and the pair could feel themselves start to get hungry. they knew if they ate now then that would leave them just a little over an hour to explore the children's museum before it closes.

"where do you wanna eat, jolyne." sam asked her, her eyes went wide. in the almost two decades that they've known each other she thought he would know by now not to make her pick where they go, but still he asks every time. now making her think of what she wanted, but she really couldn't pick.

"let's go to the slippery noodle, i heard it was pretty good." and with that the pair got into the car and drove the fifteen minute drive to the restaurant. the sign read, 'indiana's oldest bar. slippery noodle inn. dis-is-it. good food and booze. live blues.' it definitely something sam would like to see or be at. blues was one of his favorites. jolyne really didn't mind it, sometimes it would come up in her playlist when she's painting and she would jam to it when it was on, nothing much after that.

after going in and getting seated, sam and jolyne both had a drink. it was like a reward for the start of the trip kicking off. sam would only have one drink to calm his nerves of the conversation earlier with the old woman, plus anymore than one would equal a hazard when driving and he didn't want that. they have a time schedule to follow.

after a shorter than expected dinner, they drove back to the children's museum to explore. when they walked in they were met with so many different things, but something caught the eyes of jolyne when she walked in. the terra-cotta warriors up close event.

"sam, i really wanna go see the terra-cotta warriors!" jolyne started to pull on sam's arms, his stomach did flips with every pull. quickly pushing away that emotion, he followed her into the big room where someone was talking about the warriors on a film repeating over and over for new or old comers to the exhibition.

they happily walked around the rest of the museum until it was closing time. exiting the museum they went to sit outside of it. this was going to be the time when they would talk for hours about simple things that wouldn't matter in the future.

"so, what's our next state?" jolyne asked sam. sam quickly put one finger up, before getting up himself and jogging in the direction of the car. soon he got back with a small journal in his hands. it was covered in stickers and other things. he opened it to a page of jumbled writing, scanning through his poorly written words.

"ohio." sam said, his hand closing the book and putting it down on the bench between his legs. jolyne looked down at it, then back up to his eyes. ohio had been one of the places in america that she hadn't been to ever in her life. so, she was pretty pumped to see what she could do in ohio.

"i have something that you'd think is super fun planned for ohio." they smiled at one another, before going the car together. it was around seven at night now and it was going to start getting dark in a bit. they thought i'd be time to call it a night.

sam drove to a gas station where he began to pump some gas into his car. the day had started to get cooler as the sun set, making standing outside bearable now. jolyne sat in the car on her phone, looking through the pictures that sam had taken earlier, before stumbling upon the ones the older woman took for them. she zoomed in on sam's face. she didn't know what it was about him, but she could feel those stupid high school feelings had started to rush back to her. they were close in the pictures, that wasn't what made her flustered, it was how he held her. his arm was around her waist almost effortlessly, but still holding on tight. it was like they were meant for this moment, but she quickly scrolled past that picture, and all the other duplicates of that photo in her camera roll.

thinking back to the times when she could've had boyfriends didn't really interest her. when she dated alex, she had assumed that would be her life for the majority of high school and maybe they would get married to get her mind off of sam for at least a moment, but all she talked about was sam when she was with alex. that's really what started the verbal abuse for her and him. maybe it was just him trying to defend what he loved by yelling at her to forget about him, but if he really loved her wouldn't he let her go? she didn't know. it was all until that party that she stayed with him. alex had told jolyne that he had felt single this whole relationship and wished that she would leave him and never come back. she did as she was told and ran, calling sam on the way out. she didn't know why he had caused a scene on her exit, but she knew she was finally free and that's all that mattered. she kissed sam to tell him how she felt, but he seemed to ignore it that night so jolyne had pushed back her feelings once again to maintain the friendship that they had built up over the years.

if only they had both known how much they felt for each other.