It took Courtney a minute to collect herself, but as soon as she did she frowned slightly and asked, "How could I miss you when you never leave me alone?" Still, at odds with her words she drew him into a tight half-hug with her free arm, only made awkward by the suitcase and dufflebag she was still holding on her other side.

"Sure, Babe, I'm the one who won't leave you alone. And who is it that keeps nagging me about studying for a test I won't need to take for a year? How the hell did you even find out about that thing?"

"I'm just making sure I won't need to dump you because weren't able to graduate on time. Honestly, Duncan, there's a limit to how far I'm willing to ignore what a horrible choice for my boyfriend you are."

"Man, Princess, keep talking like that and I might start wondering why the hell I turned down all those show groupie bimbos who might've actually been nice to me," he said, which she thought was a bit unfair. She had just told him that she wanted to stay with him even though it wasn't in her own best interests, after all. But he sounded like he was just teasing instead of actually annoyed, so she didn't get huffy about it. After a second his hand flexed in her hair, hardly a caress, then finally pulled away for the first time since she'd gotten within arm's reach of him. "Speaking of which, before we head out are there any jerks I need to beat the hell out of for hitting on you since you got back home?"

"I can fight my own battles, Duncan. Anyone who got too pushy has already learned to stay away from me."

"Pushiness has nothing to do with it, Princess. Any asshole who thinks they can get away with hitting on you has gotta learn otherwise."

"I don't know how many people are going to believe that, when I somehow ended up dating the pushiest asshole of them all. And it's not like you'd want me chasing down those 'show groupie bimbos' you mentioned," she said, then realized at his smirk that she'd said the wrong thing.

"You kidding me, babe? Man, I'll take a side trip back home just to point out any've them I recognize on the street and watch you rip them to shreds." He picked up her fallen suitcase, then slipped an arm around her waist to guide her towards his car. "Have I ever mentioned how insanely hot you are when you're clobbering someone?"

"Often enough that it's a little bit weird," she replied easily, turning her attention to examining the car as they got close enough for her to see it fairly clearly through the darkness.

He'd always seemed to her to be the type of who'd drive some heap of rust six owners from new, but it was actually surprisingly decent to the point that it was a little dull. After a moment she remembered him telling her the story of how he'd got it back in the fall; after passing the test to get his probationary license he'd wanted his own car, but he didn't have enough spare cash to get one he liked and he'd known his parents would never co-sign for a loan.

But instead of trying to talk the price down on something decent, he'd instead hunted down the absolute worst cars he could find at the limits of his price range, the ones that weren't just overpriced but seriously shouldn't have been offered to anyone but a scrapyard, and took his parents to see them all on the pretence that he wanted their advice on which one he should buy. By the time he tried to convince them to hop into a twenty-year-old Chevy with gaping holes rusted through the floor they were ready to offer to match his cash just to get him into a car that was safe. They'd had a couple of provisions--they had to approve of whatever he wound up getting, and if he didn't pay them back in a timely manner they would start refusing to pay his bail when he got himself locked up and make back their money that way--but he ended up getting exactly what he wanted.

He'd been positively gleeful on the phone when he'd told he about how one of his friend's brother had needed to sell off his car for way less than what it was worth when his college textbooks turned out to cost a lot more than he'd expected and the car had been his only possible source of quick cash. In a scam she still couldn't believe he'd actually gotten away with, Duncan had had the guy bump up the price to just the maximum he could pay with his parents half of the investment--though it was still less than the car was really worth, so she supposed his parents had no reason to think it was anything other than a good deal--and then the two of them had split the difference from the original asking price between themselves. Sure, it hadn't been nearly enough to cover his share of the car's cost, but it at least let him have a fairly decent amount of savings available if he needed it. Decent for a high school student without a regular job, anyway.

"Mind if we just toss your stuff in the backseat?" Duncan asked when they reached it. "The trunk's pretty stuffed."

"Fine, but if we stop somewhere and somebody my bags through the window and steals them, you're paying to replace everything."

He snorted as he threw her suitcase in, showing no regards for any breakables she might have packed in it. Luckily there weren't any. "Nobody's gonna steal your crap, Sweetheart."

"I'd rather be safe than sorry," she said, putting the bags she was carrying in more neatly, then pulling a jacket he had on the seat over them so they'd at least be a little hidden. "Well, I'm ready. Are you finally going to tell me where on Earth you're planning on taking me?"

"Nope," he said cheerfully, getting into the car and gesturing for her to take the passenger seat. "You really think I'd give you a chance to run right home if you decided you didn't like my plans? Not after all the time I had to waste convincing you to come in the first place."

"Because saying something like that is really the way to convince me not to turn around and go back to bed right now," she said, rolling her eyes but taking her seat peaceably enough. She was pleased to see that it looked like he'd actually been thoughtful enough to clean up her spot before picking her up, the mat at her feet still even showing the tell-tell marks of a carwash vacuum. "Are you going to lock me in now so I can't make a break for it?"

"Good idea, Babe," he said, flashing her a smirk and flicking the door lock before starting the car up. "Tell you what, I'll give you one hint about what we could end up doing right now. If we take a side trip north on the way, we can stop at Harold's hometown on the way so you can give him one last for being a weasely little cheating bastard."

Courtney frowned, and leaned back against her door to look at him through narrowed eyes. "Why do you even know where he lives?"

"I just told you five minutes ago, didn't I? You, getting a chance to beat the hell out of someone? Who's not me? Hot. Your choice if we head that way, though. I wouldn't want to risk running into the little slimeball if violence isn't in the gameplan." Hardly two minutes onto the road he pulled off again, into a 24-hour fast food joint. "Man, I'm starving. Want anything, Princess?"

She wasn't really hungry after her own breakfast, but didn't especially want to sit there watching him shovel food into his mouth without anything else to do until it got light enough for her to pull out a book. "I'll take a fruit yogurt, I guess. And a small coffee; I'm not used to being up this early." She tapped on her armrest and watched him as he ordered, then leaned her head back and closed her eyes when he started digging into his pocket for his wallet. "I think I'll choose to leave Harold alone. It's not like you can hold onto a grudge forever."

Well, she could. But she wasn't going to let him exploit that fact to get some bizarre thrill.

"Whatever. If you change your mind, we can always hit him up on the way back." He got their food and passed her portion to her, stealing a swig of her coffee before handing it over.

Courtney made a face at him. "Oh, gross Duncan. If you wanted something to drink, you should have gotten your own."

"You've had my tongue in your mouth before, Sweetheart. Today. Little late to get squeamish about germs."

"Well for future reference, kissing you isn't my way of giving you permission to slobber all over anything you want. At least ask first." He ignored her in favor of tearing into the first of the burgers he'd bought himself, and she wrinkled her nose. "I don't know how you can stand to eat those greasy things. They've probably been sitting under a heat lamp since midnight."

"Still better than that crap Chef used to make," Duncan said with a shrug, as they finally turned onto the road leading straight out of her town and the real start of their vacation. "You'd better get used to this greasy crap, Princess; if you think I've got the cash to take you to real restaurants for three weeks you're gonna be disappointed."

"I know that. But they do have salads." She poked at her yogurt with her spoon, taking an occasional bite as she watched the streets go by and the distance between houses grow wider and wider until they reached the place where they left the suburbs behind completely. "Okay, there's not going to be another stop sign until we're much too far away for me to jump out and try walking home. Will you tell me where we're going now?"

"Y'know, I'm kind've surprised you couldn't figure it out for yourself," he said, flashing her a grin then reaching out to open up the glove compartment. He must have had it packed tight, because the moment it fell open travel books and printouts began tumbling out onto her lap. "We're heading on a little road trip, Princess. Time for you to start figuring out what you want to see on the way."