slowly drifting ★ circa waves

XVI.

-

"yeah we lost it, the people we know,
yeah we lost it and blamed it on someone.
am i too young to keep this going?
am i too young to keep this?"

-

it was only the next morning when suddenly it clicked in emma's mind, all the times kieran and sian were brought up that she ignored. it was partially obvious the whole time.

she shrugs off joe, who was still leaning on her shoulder. his head slammed against the car seat and he wakes up, groaning in pain. emma winces and sheepishly apologises. he simply turns over and leans against the window instead. emma delves through her bag to dig out her book and reads until the others wake up.

kieran fumbles around with his blanket until his satisfied with the warmth it has provided, trying to fall back asleep despite the fact that almost everyone else is up. ellie has already been awake, chirpy and ready for the day. eleanor tells her to stop being happy and then all of a sudden they're talking about their existential crises as colin and emma roll their eyes.

pulling out a map, sam traces his index finger along the road. "where are we going again?" he pokes kieran until he answers.

"bournemouth," kieran mumbles, "or somewhere like that."

sam nods and looks back towards the map before looking up again. "where are we right now?"

he doesn't get a response from joe, so ellie and emma try and lift him out of the driving seat, being replaced by sam driving and ellie shotgun.

"joe, wake up you lil shit. we're getting food. hey eleanor, wake up fucker."

colin shoves the two until they wake up. eleanor wails in protest, burying her face deeper into her coat-pillow. emma has also abandoned her book and almost dozes back to sleep. kieran is the one now screaming at everyone, waking them up for sure.

at nine in the morning, seven sleepy, half-dead teenagers stumble into a diner that ellie had spotted. they tiredly slide into a booth, except for ellie, emma and eleanor—they don't make it that far. they fall and lie on the tiles, asleep. the boys look around at each other, unsure of what to do. kieran sighs before standing up.

"c'mon lads," he encourages, grabbing emma's converse and dragging her across the floor until she wakes up and sits down. he does the same for the other two whilst colin orders the food.

when it finally arrives, they dig in like they've never seen food before. about two and a half hours later, they hop into the car and nap for a little bit. eleanor and colin claim they want to go back to the diner for a second breakfast, leaving the rest of the gang in the van.

"i'm so bored. what should we do?" sam asks emma, who's sitting across from him in the back of the van. she shrugs and asks ellie for ideas.

"i mean, i'd say we do a prank but we all know how that usually works out. aka not so good."

kieran glares at ellie, who doesn't notice. emma in turn glares at kieran, who then stops and his expression changes into one of confusion. emma doesn't stop glaring. he needs to get up and get over sian, and stop holding a grudge against ellie.

-

"should we go for a third breakfast?" colin asks eleanor, both of them shoving more pancakes into their mouths.

-

"hey, remember when we went to that place and the band and eleanor bust in with silly spray and stuff? why don't we do that to eleanor and colin?" joe talks to emma.

she shrugs, lolling her head back to try and sleep. joe pokes her elbow until she yells 'fucking stop' and he retrieves his hand, instead returning to lean against her shoulder.

ellie kicks joe's shoes to try and make him tell her where his crisps are; kieran bounces on sam's knee just for fun; everyone seems to be fidgeting. (n/a are you proud mr. coe i put two semi colons in a row.)

colin and eleanor are soon in the car and they get back on the road, sam and kieran now in the front with the rest in the back.

after about ten minutes of driving, kieran speaks up. "i don't know where we are."

sam nods his head. "yeah, i think we're lost." he pulls out the map following the lines of the roads. "yep, we're definitely not going the right way."

emma suggests they just stop at the next decent town they come across and roll with the adventure that awaits.

-

aye it's christmas eve while i'm writing this (idk when this'll be up) and i'm excited and i wish you all a happy christmas.

(song is lost it by circa waves)