nowhere Read Online Free Page A

now. 
    Sad and frustrated, I took it out on the nearest target—Tyler. “We’d have been done sooner if you’d helped.”
    “It’s okay,” he said. “It won’t take long to get there. We’re meeting everyone just around the corner.” 
    “I’m ready,” Emma responded cheerfully.
    I was in a bad mood and we hadn’t even left the house yet. I tried to think of an excuse not to go, but I couldn’t come up with any. “I guess I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.” I ran my hands over my unruly hair. It didn’t matter how I looked, because I wasn’t interested in impressing anybody. “Let’s go get this over with.” My lack of enthusiasm reflected in my tone.
    “Okay Mom, we’ll see you later,” Tyler said. 
    “Have a good time, honey. And please be careful. You know I wouldn’t want anything to happen to my boys.”
    “Don’t worry, we’ll be careful. I’ll make sure to take good care of Mike and Emma, too.”
    Emma gave our mother a hug. “Bye Mom.”
    Ugh.  Did she always have to be the perfect daughter?  I swore she did this shit just to make me look bad. I simply waved goodbye and followed Tyler out the door.
    “Shot gun, double barrel, no blitz,” Austin yelled, racing toward the passenger side door of the truck.
    What the hell did that mean? Where I came from, we simply said, “shotgun.” Again, I was reminded of how different this place was. They spoke a completely different language. 
    As soon as we settled into Tyler’s four-door extended-cab pickup truck, I asked, “Exactly where are we going?”  I racked my brain, but sadly, I couldn’t imagine what there was to do at nine o’clock on a Saturday night in Nowhere. There were no coffee shops or restaurants open this late, and there was no movie theater or arcade. I wondered if we were going to be spectators at a tractor pull? I didn’t even know what that was, but it seemed a likely possibility.
    Tyler and Austin exchanged looks again.
    “Yeah, where are we going?” Emma repeated when the boys didn’t readily respond to my inquiry.
    “We’re meeting a few of the guys from the team. You’ll like them. My girlfriend Liz and some of the other cheerleaders are tagging along too. We’re celebrating the fact that we all survived the first week of two-a-days.”
    “That doesn’t answer the question. Where are we going?” I shouted, not bothering to hide I was getting pissed off.  I had a premonition we were being led to the slaughter.
    “You’ll see. We’re almost there.”
    Uh-huh . I saw nothing but darkness and trees. We were even further out in the country than where Pop-Pop lived. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, Tyler turned at the next side road and suddenly the ride got a whole lot bumpier. What the fuck, a dirt road? This couldn’t be good. A posted sign read, “Road closed from Nov to Mar.” Too bad it was only the end of July. Though these guys would’ve probably ignored the sign anyway. I was beginning to think my cousins didn’t have a brain between them.
    “This is where we’re going?” My voice filled with disbelief. “Is this another one of your sick jokes? Like when we were kids playing hide and go seek, and you pretended to be nice and showed me a great hiding place, except it was right next to a skunk’s home. I didn’t know that, of course, and got sprayed.”
    “No, this isn’t like that.” Tyler laughed. “But that was funny.” He was enjoying himself a little too much. “I promise—no tricks tonight.” He made a big show of crossing his heart. “As a matter of fact, we’re here.” He did a U-turn and parked his truck on the side of the road, leaving the headlights on and turning up the radio.
    The song playing sounded like a cat getting run over. I didn’t understand how anyone could enjoy the sound of twangy country music. “We’re here?” I stuttered. “We’re out in the boonies, Tyler. Be serious.”
    “I am.” He jumped out. Emma and I exchanged