31. Gabe dramatically sings along to Africa while driving past the Statue of Liberty.

Just before we left, I made a mixtape with all of my favorite songs on it. The mixtape was long enough to last us through the twelve and a half hour drive to Belleville, and hopefully, it would keep us awake and entertained long enough to get to Mikey's house. Brendon, Gabe, and I had packed our bags, and we had plotted out a route that didn't go anywhere near New York City. Most importantly, the mixtape didn't have Africa on it. There was no chance that Gabe would sing along to that song while driving past the Statue of Liberty - it was impossible. I was completely sure that there was no way that the vision could ever come true now.

I stuffed my bags into the trunk of the DeLorean and then said goodbye to Mom, Dad, Hillary, and Andrew. "Be safe, Pete, and make sure you call us as soon as you get there," Mom told me.

"I will," I said. "You're being paranoid."

"I just want you to be careful when you're driving all the way to New Jersey all by yourself," I said.

"I won't be by myself," I said. "I'll have Gabe and Brendon with me."

"I suppose you're right," Mom said. "Make sure to say hello to the Ways for me."

"Okay, Mom," I said. "See you in two weeks."

I put the last bag into the trunk, closed it, and got into the driver's seat. "Long live the car crash hearts!" I exclaimed, which nearly gave my mother a heart attack.

"Can Pete just stay in New Jersey forever?" Hillary asked.

"Shut up, Hillary!" I shouted.

"Be nice to your brother," Mom said. I waved to my family one last time as I pulled out of the driveway. I then turned on the road trip mixtape that I had just made and sang along as I drove to Gabe's house.

"This is some awesome music," Gabe said as he climbed into the passenger seat.

"I made it just for this road trip," I said.

"That's great," Gabe said. "Does it have Africa on it?"

"Of course not," I said. "I'm not trying to kill you."

"That's good to hear," Gabe said. "Come on. Let's go to Brendon's house. I want to meet your pen pal!"

I drove to Brendon's house, and after saying a very long and passionate goodbye to Ryan, he got into the backseat and complimented my mixtape. "Is there any iDKHOW on here?" he asked.

"I knew that you would ask that," I grumbled. "I put Choke on the mixtape, but only because I know that you're weirdly obsessed with that band."

"I'm not as obsessed as I used to be," Brendon admitted. "Dallon will always have a place in my house of memories, but I'm over him now. His music is great though."

All of a sudden, Bohemian Rhapsody came on, and Brendon screamed. He then started singing along dramatically, and Gabe and I soon joined in. Somehow, Brendon hit every single one of the high notes, and although neither Gabe nor I had that kind of range, we still had fun singing along and playing air guitar as I drove out of Shermer. Although I had made the road trip mixtape just to prevent Gabe's vision from happening, it was also helping me have fun with my friends on this ridiculously long drive.

The hours ticked by as the DeLorean hurtled down I-90 and Gabe, Brendon, and I screamed the lyrics to every song on my mixtape, played games, and occasionally stopped for gas or fast food. We played a game where we tried to find a license plate from every state, and by the time we crossed the border from Indiana into Ohio, we had actually found most of them. Sometimes, it was easy to forget just how much time had gone by.

"You should try going up to eighty eight," Brendon suggested as we drove down a particularly boring highway somewhere in Ohio.

"Brendon, the DeLorean's not a time machine," I said.

"There's nobody around, so there's no harm in it," Brendon said. He tried to imitate Doc Brown's voice as he said, "If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits eighty-eight miles per hour... you're gonna see some serious shit."

"There's not enough road before the fork to get up to eighty eight anyways..."

That was practically an invitation for Gabe to reply, "Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads!"

I rolled my eyes and slammed my foot on the accelerator, and the DeLorean bolted down the highway. Once the speedometer hit eighty eight, I braked and told my friends, "See? It's not a time machine."

"That's really disappointing," Brendon said. "It's like a beachfront of bad blood..."

"Don't you think that you're being a little dramatic?" Gabe said.

Brendon shrugged, and I kept driving down the highway, comforting myself by thinking of Mikey. There were only another few hours left before I could see him again. I didn't go up to eighty eight again, but I did drive a little faster, hoping that I could see him sooner.

Another few hours went by, and after a few more stops for junk food and coffee, we noticed that something wasn't quite right. "This doesn't look like New Jersey," Gabe said.

"How would you know?" Brendon asked. "All of the highways look the same."

"We must have taken a wrong turn when we hit that fork back in Ohio," Gabe explained. "Pete, you were supposed to keep left at the fork."

"You and Brendon told me that you wanted to go up to eighty eight!" I exclaimed. "I couldn't do that and turn left at the same time!"

I was sure that I had put twelve and a half hours of music on the road trip mixtape, but after playing "Love Will Tear Us Apart," the music stopped suddenly. "Gabe, I think there's something wrong with the mixtape," I said. "Can you fix it?"

"I think it just ran out of music," Gabe explained. "Maybe we should just play it again." Gabe tried to find a way to restart the music, but when it didn't work, he just turned on the radio. Meanwhile, I drove around aimlessly. I had no idea where I was, and I crossed my fingers that we weren't where I thought we were.

Gabe finally got the radio working, and a familiar song started playing.

I hear the drums echoing tonight
But she hears only whispers of some quiet conversation

"GABE!" I screamed. "Turn it off!"

Gabe quickly changed the radio station, but the next station was playing a commercial. He changed the station several more times, looked increasingly panicked as each station played a commercial. "There's nothing on," Gabe said.

"Keep trying," I said. "There has to be at least one station in this place that isn't playing Toto."

Gabe kept searching for a station, while I drove around randomly. Eventually, Gabe came back to the station that was playing Africa. "It's the only one that's playing music," Gabe explained.

"Fine, but don't sing along and don't steal a line," I said.

Gabe tried his best to stay quiet while the song played and I attempted to focus on driving. I freaked out when I spotted the Statue of Liberty in the distance. Despite our best efforts, the vision was coming true. However, I knew that we might still be able to prevent it as long as Gabe didn't start singing.

It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do

"I BLESS THE RAINS DOWN IN AFRICA!" Gabe sang just as we passed by the Statue of Liberty. I glared at him, and he said, "I'm sorry. I couldn't help myself."

Brendon and I both glared at Gabe, but in the end, we couldn't blame him. He and I both sang along too - it was impossible not to. I turned the volume all the way up until the three of us couldn't even hear ourselves screaming the lyrics. We may have been hopelessly lost somewhere in New York City, and we all knew that Kilimanjaro couldn't possibly rise like Olympus above the Serengeti, but we had a great time anyways. Who cared about the visions when I could just bless the rains down in Africa for all eternity?

The song finished, and the radio station that we were listening to played a commercial. "Gabe, how do I get to Belleville from here?" I asked.

"I think you're going to want to take the next left," Gabe said as he looked at the map. "It's hard to tell though. I didn't think that we would be anywhere near New York."

"Maybe we could see a Broadway show while we're here," Brendon suggested.

"I told Mikey that we'd be there by ten o'clock," I said. "We don't have time for that." Brendon mumbled something angrily while I continued to drive. "Gabe, where do I go now?"

"Why is he navigating?" Brendon asked. "Gabe was the reason that we got lost in Chicago."

"Yes, but that turned out well, didn't it?" Gabe said.

"It definitely did," Brendon said. He smiled, clearly thinking of Ryan.

"Do you want to navigate, Brendon?" I asked.

"Sure," Brendon said. Gabe handed him the map, and Brendon told me which way to go. It probably wasn't the fastest route out of the city, and Brendon felt the need to stop every so often and point out a poster for a musical that he wanted to go see, but we did get out of New York eventually, and nobody tried to steal the DeLorean. I briefly wondered why we hadn't just let Brendon navigate from the start - he was clearly better at it than Gabe.

While I drove and Brendon navigated, Gabe managed to get the mixtape to start again. Although we had already listened to every song on there, it was still fun to listen to again. Soon, we crossed the border from New York into New Jersey. Despite our detour, we were on our way to see Mikey, and if we didn't run into traffic, we might not be too late.

Because Gabe, Brendon, and I have the worst luck ever, we did run into traffic on our way to Belleville. We were in the middle of a traffic jam, and I was ready to fall asleep behind the wheel when Brendon suddenly started singing. "Traffic is so much fun, because it's not really like I was trying to get anywhere..."

"Shut up, Brendon," I said as I inched forward.

All of a sudden, another car with an Illinois license plate swerved in front of me. I honked my horn and swore loudly, but the guy in front of me didn't seem to notice or care. He just kept speeding along, weaving his way in and out of traffic. "Good job to the guy who just cut me off, because that's totally what I wanted right now!" Brendon sang, making Gabe laugh hysterically.

Eventually, we got out of the traffic jam, but by that point, it was far past ten o'clock. Mikey would be wondering where we were. Besides, all three of us were exhausted from traveling. All I wanted was to shut my eyes and just sleep, but I had to get to Mikey's house first. I merged onto the Belleville Turnpike and sped down the city streets that led to the Ways' house. We had made Gabe's vision come true, but I didn't think too hard about it. I was about to see one of my closest friends for the first time in seven years. In my mind, after I met Mikey again, nothing else that had happened that day would matter.