Maddie POV
The journey continued, with the surrounding landscape slowly changing. The great avenues of Chicago were left behind, giving way to long, tree-lined roads, the streetlights increasingly spaced out. The silence that fell between us was comfortable in parts, but also unsettling. I needed to break it, to feel like we were still just teenagers on a normal trip — even with Averie, who looked like a figure out of some old tale, sitting there in the backseat.
Dereck, being Derek, was the first to bring up the topic, as always.
“Okay, let's liven this up,” he said, turning back and looking at Averie and me. “So, Averie, seriously... don't you have a favorite singer? A movie crush? Not even a guilty pleasure?”
Averie raised an eyebrow, looking confused.
“Guilty pleasure?” she asked,
