“Why don’t we play a game” interjected Amy. Scott was getting close to breaking Amy noticed his grip on the steering wheel would have strangled an earth worm.  Amy had been hoping for a stress free weekend but they were in trouble.

Grace started the alphabet game and they got to F for Franz Ferdinand before “Are we there yet?” a smirk flashed across Steve’s face.  He wasn’t going to
Let Scott away with getting them lost. 

Scott rolled his eyes.  That wrong turn and the extra hour and a half the journey was taking was a sore point.  He could tell Amy was tense as she was doing her thing of chewing the skin around her nails.  He looked across smiled and shrugged his shoulders.  Amy nodded, she knew he was just saying nothing we can do about it now.

It had been Amy’s idea to take a road trip up north and go walking.  The boys had got behind the idea and taken over as usual, for the last four weeks they had surrounded themselves with maps and lists.  Amy had post-it notes all over her computer telling her to check out another hotel, hill they could climb or a pub with an open fire but when D-Day arrived all the planning went out of the window.

The battle cry “HAPPY DAYS” was shouted and they got into there rented Mercedes E class.  They were glad to be saying goodbye to the same same of their normal life.

Amy’s little sister Rachael had been a late addition to the trip.  Amy had gone round last week and found her looking pale and gaunt.  She couldn’t sit still she was pulling at her hair and clothes, tears scarring the makeup down her face.  George had cheated again. 

Amy had called Grace and the two of them had taken Rachael out for some retail therapy before leaving her with a beauty therapist.  They were still worried, but they hoped this weekend would cheer her up.

Rachael played with the shoulder strap of her seatbelt, pulling it away from her skin and rubbing the coarse fabric between her fingers. She picked up her mobile and went to call her ex and the kids.  Had she done the right thing leaving them and was she ready to move on?  Grace gently reached over and took the phone with a sympathetic nudge on the shoulder.

“The twins will be fine and you don’t need to speak to Sir Shags Around!!!” Rachael pulled her hands through her curls and sighed “Your right, but will you let me phone at their bed time?  I miss them already.” A knowing look went round the group.  It wasn’t only the twins she was missing.

Steve popped the cork on a bottle of fizzy, slurping the bubbles before passing it to Rachael with a wink.  The bubbles went up her nose as she gulped it down.  Feeling the first signs of tipsiness she realised it had been a long time and she was going to enjoy herself.

Amy relaxed and giggled as Grace tried to wrestle the magnum out of Rachael’s claws.  But blood is thicker than wine, Amy remarked when she got the bottle first.  It tasted expensive and drinking it was like putting on her most extravagant heels.  Her confidence increased as she looked around at the group with a warm smile.  This weekend would be a success even if she and Scott were not. 

 After the second bottle of champagne was finished they started a game of truth or dare.  They weren’t drunk enough to want one of Steve’s dares though. The truth started with Scott admitting he regretted not sleeping with more girls. 

 “Is what we have not good enough for you?  Does it mean nothing that we’ve only been with each other?”
 “Amy.  Babe, that’s not what I meant.  I was just saying that if I had experienced more I might be better at it that’s all”

The domestic continued as Amy started accusing Scott of saying she was unfulfilling in bed.  Her chest felt tight and the lump in her throat was going to engulf her.  They had been together for 14 years since he was 16 and she 14.  The only thing Amy could remember them talking about in the last month was this trip. 

It was make or break and that thought terrified Amy.  He had been with her during all her acts of teenage rebellion and retribution, all her firsts, all her achievements.  She had never thought that he might not be there for her in the future.

 “Don’t you ever wonder what it would be like?”
 “No, I gave up the chance of a lifetime because I couldn’t be apart from you.  Why would I think about being with anyone else?”
 “You always through that back at me.  Honestly, would you have stayed faithful for that year if you had decided to go with VSO?”

 Amy looked out the window, unable to answer that.  He was looking at the past and she thought who knows what temptation she would have met.  Right now all she knew was that not going to Africa was her biggest regret.

 They drove on.  The three in the back silenced by the realisation that the two pins that held there group together might not be so strong.