keep driving // max mayfield

10

Monday. November 2nd. My birthday. I was seventeen. Fuck. That's old. I tried very hard to pretend like it didn't bother me. Growing up and all. But it did. So much. I hated the idea growing up. Getting old. Leaving all my friends. I knew I was going to leave them. There was no fucking way I was staying in the shit hole that was Hawkins Indiana. 

I wanted to be a journalist. Write for the New York Times. With Nancy hopefully. That'd been our dream since the beginning of middle school. Today was, along with being my birthday, the start of clubs. Clubs being the Hawkins school Newspaper. Nancy and I both had to submit an essay on a topic that the editor chose. Today we found out if the editor liked our essay enough to put us on the news team.

I knew Nancy got it. She was the most brilliant writer I'd ever read. She was ambitious, and was bound to make a great journalist. I probably wasn't going to get it. Every year they chose 1 Freshman, 5 Sophomores, 7 Juniors, and up to 10 Seniors. At the end of the year, the Seniors voted on which Junior would become the editor and which Juniors got the internship at the Hawkins Post.

If I got the internship I would stay in Hawkins for the summer, instead of spending it in France with my family. I loved France, and I loved my friends there, but part of me was wishing I could spend the summer without my parents, alone. 

I was woken by the sound knocking on my window. 

What the fuck?

I turned in my bed and saw Robin squatting on my roof, banging on the glass. She was wearing a party hat and was blowing on a noisemaker. I smiled and got up, walking to the window. I opened it and Robin greeted me with a hug.

"Happy Birthday you little shit!" She said, hugging me so hard I could barely breathe.

"Thanks Rob." I said through laughter. 

She pulled away and jumped onto my desk, then onto my bedroom floor. She smacked her hands together like she always did before she went on a rant. 

"Okay, I have the whole day planned out" She took a deep breath, "After school ends, well like 2 hours after, everyone's coming to the Drive In to watch that new movie, the Princess Bride. Then we're all going to Goldens for burgers. Not exclusively burgers but you get the point. But everyone's coming. Like everyone. Even the kids. If that's okay? We all really got along the other night and yeah."

"That sounds... great Robin, really great." I said, smiling at her.

Robin jumped up and clapped her hands like a little kid. 

"One problem though." I said, putting my hands on Robin's shoulders to calm her down.

"What?" She asked with worried eyes.

"My parents... they have to sign off on this and you know how they like to hog my time on my birthday." 

Robin smiled, "Already taken care of, they're taking you to a late birthday dinner tomorrow night."

I picked Robin up and spun her around. "I love you!" 

I looked out my window as I put her down and saw Max smiling at us from her desk chair. I guess that desk was new, it was placed exactly in the same spot as mine. 

Robin snapped her fingers at me. 

"Sorry what?" I asked.

"I asked you if you wanted to drive me to school." Robin said, smiling at me. 

"Want is a strong word."

Robin punched me in the shoulder, laughing at me.

"Go get changed you look like a homeless person."