Read Online Don't Stop Now by Julie Halpern - Free Book Online Page A

at such short notice. Maybe it’s more popular during seasons of high space travel.
    I pick out my salad from the salad bar, which I got because I always pretend I’m going to try and eat a little healthy on a road trip, when, really, what’s the point? It’s a road trip. But more important—what does Josh need at the drugstore?
    When someone says they need to stop at the drugstore, particularly someone who will be staying at a hotel later in the evening, the first thing I assume is condoms. Does that make me a perv? Or just hopeful?
    After picking out lettuce, tomatoes, croutons, and Thousand Island dressing, I return to the table with my response. “So what do you need at the drugstore?” Casual, real casual.
    â€œWell, seeing as we didn’t plan on a road trip, we’ll need to get toothbrushes and multivitamins, stuff like that.”
    â€œNaturally.” I nod.
    â€œAnd what else, Lil?” He’s prodding me to answer for him, to anticipate his thoughts and needs.
    I would hate to be wrong on this one. Mortified to be wrong. So I just say, “I give up.”
    Josh sighs. “ Hiding Out , dude. The hair dye? We still haven’t done our hair, Cryer style.”
    â€œRight. Hair dye. Of course.” Remind me to hit my head against a wall later.
    Â 
    At Walgreens we scan the shelves of hair dye. I don’t know how anyone chooses between walnut brown and espresso brown and hazelnut brown, except by what they might want to eat.
    Josh saunters over to me with a box, holding it near his face as if straight out of a commercial. “What do you think?” He glances shiftily at the box. “Is it me?” I read the box, “Sunshine Blonde,” complete with bouncy-headed babe on the cover.
    â€œLooks just like you,” I say. “Except she has blue eyes.”
    â€œSo who are you going to be?” he asks. “How about we do a Legend of Billie Jean on you?” The Legend of Billie Jean is yet another late-night TV movie of the eighties, about some small-town Southern folk who get themselves mixed up with the law after a lecherous old guy gropes the main character (Billie Jean), and something involving her little brother’s bike. A little too complicated for my late-night lucidity. The most memorable part of the movie is when Billie Jean cuts off her long, blond hair into this tough short cut and gets all badass. She keeps shouting, “Fair is fair!” My other favorite part of the movie is when this other character thinks she got shot, but really she just got her period for the first time. They just don’t make movies like that anymore.
    â€œI never said I’d cut my hair,” I argue. “I need enough for a summer ponytail.” I scan the shelves for a color that I like. It’s hard to look past the absurdly posing faces on the boxes to imagine what the hair color would look like on my head.
    â€œHow about this?” Josh walks up behind me, leans his head on my shoulder, and wraps one arm around me with the box in his hand. “You know I like your hair red,” he says in a way I want to describe as purring, but that would imply something. The color is called “Copper Rust,” which I think might technically be a shade of green. I take the box from his hand and walk over to a small mirror in the beauty aisle. Holding the box next to my face, I squint to try and imagine what it would look like translated onto my head. I don’t know if it’s really me. I’ve kind of always wanted to dye my hair dark, add a little brooding mystery to my look. Red hair doesn’t seem very brooding, and how can I be mysterious if my tall red head stands above a crowd? But, Josh…
    â€œOK.” I sigh with acceptance.
    We pick up loads of other toiletries and snacks, as well as a local newspaper so I can read the comics and Dear Abby. I scan the last-minute-impulse buys while Josh spills the