“I’m fine,” Harper repeated.

There were hardly any cars on the road. It was a completely open stretch of highway, devoid of streetlights or houses. The car window was down, and Harper could smell the nearby ocean.

The moonlight shone down on them, and the yellow lines in the middle of the road began to blur.

“Whoa!” Daniel said loudly. The car suddenly jerked to the side, and Harper’s eyes flew open. His hand was on the steering wheel, guiding it so they didn’t drive off the road.

“What’s going on?” Alex asked, sounding panicked in the backseat. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, Harper’s just pulling over now,” Daniel said, his hand still on the wheel.

“I’m fine,” Harper repeated, now wide awake after nearly crashing the car.

“Nope, you’re falling asleep at the wheel,” Daniel said. “Pull over.” He wasn’t demanding, exactly, but there was a forcefulness to his tone, and Harper was too tired to argue with him. Besides, he was right.

“Who will check the map?” Harper asked as she parked the car on the side of the road. “I don’t want to get lost again.”

“Alex can handle it,” Daniel said. “He’s had a nap, and I have an extra can of Red Bull he can drink.”

“What’s going on?” Alex asked, still groggy and confused.

Daniel had opened the passenger door to get out, but he turned back to Alex. “Hop out. You’re up. It’s your turn as navigator. Harper’s gonna sleep in the backseat for a while.”

Reluctantly, Harper got out of the driver’s seat, and before she slid in the back, she warned Alex that if he got them lost again, she would literally kill him. She sprawled out in the backseat, expecting sleep to come slowly, but she was out within minutes.

Up front, Daniel and Alex started talking, and Harper would drift in and out of sleep, catching bits of their conversation. Most of it was mundane, and there was a bit where Daniel was apparently attempting to explain some kind of sporting event to Alex, and then Harper was asleep again.

She woke up again, and would’ve fallen right back to sleep like she had before, but then she heard her name, and she opened her eyes.

“Harper’s just that way,” Alex was saying. “You can’t take it personally.”

“I’m not,” Daniel said, but he sounded a bit defensive. “Well. I don’t know. I try not to.”

“She’s just a control freak,” Alex said. “And I mean that in the nicest way possible.”

“Is she sleeping?” Daniel asked.

Alex turned to look in the backseat, and Harper closed her eyes quickly before he could see that she was awake. If they were talking about her, she wanted to hear what they had to say.