Amelia POV
We drove for the rest of the day and all through the night, stopping only for gas. We got food once, and then on our first gas trip, Birdie loaded us down with road snacks. We had five kinds of potato chips, some jerky and several kinds of beverages- none of which were water. “Normally, I’d be all about saving up our money, but this is a celebration of freedom,” she’d said with a smile larger than I thought she was capable of.
I realized I’d never seen Birdie smile very much in the past. The ones I had seen, compared to this one, were forced, polite, small, or laced with pain that she never explained to me. To see her smile so largely, so genuinely made her look all the more beautiful.
I loved it.
The farther we got away from Rhyner, the more freedom we’d have, and the more
