Dusk (BoyxBoy)

Chapter 7 - Good Old Days

***

People always talked so much about the "good old days" being their high school or college years, and that really fucking scared me. Because those days would be gone in the blink of an eye, and spending the rest of my life envying everybody that was young sounded like a horrible way to live.

Summer flew by.

I tried savoring it as much as possible. I spent no time on social media, and every waking moment with my friends. I wished I could freeze time, and make certain moments last forever.

Time. It was something that scared me a lot too. I didn't want to get a job, just to support a family, just to get old and have them repeat the cycle. I wanted to stay right there. Summertime with my friends, not having a care in the world.

But like all good things, it ended. August came out of nowhere and soon, my friends were packing their bags and buying their plane tickets.

I was sitting in Alex's room, watching him stuff a large bag of weed into a sock which he put in his suitcase.

A wave of jealousy hit me while I was watching him. Soon, he'd be in a whole new state, with the whole world at his fingertips. He'd make new friends, new memories, and have the freedom to do whatever he wanted.

I'd still be living with my parents, in the same old town and with the same old people, only with fewer friends.

The more I saw how excited everybody was to leave, the more I hated the idea of going to community college. People would often look at me sympathetically when they heard that's where I was headed, so I tried to not bring it up.

The public's opinion of community college was overall not a great one, at least not with people my age. They looked at community college students as ones that couldn't get into a 'real' college, and went there as a last resort.

I'd gotten into every single college Lucy had gotten into, but I wasn't about to take a student loan and be in debt for the rest of my life. I'd had good grades and got scholarships to great colleges, but they'd never been enough. My family just couldn't afford four years of a university, even with the scholarships and financial aid.

"What's up, Evan? You've been quiet for a while." Alex said, zipping up his bag and sitting on his bed. I pulled myself out of my thoughts and shrugged.

"Just bummed you guys are all leaving, that's all." Alex was going to the University of Arizona, Lucy was headed to Stanford, and Madison was going to Columbia.

"It sucks we're all splitting up." He responded, "but I'm already planning to be here for winter break, we're gonna have an amazing time. Maybe we can take a trip somewhere?" I smiled at the idea, feeling a bit better. I knew my friends wouldn't drop me, and they'd all promised we'd have weekly group video calls.

"That sounds perfect."

***

Madison was the first to leave. We'd all gone to lunch together, planning out our future visits and discussing things she'd be able to do in New York. Her hair had been dyed back to its original color, brown. She told us she didn't want to scare anyone away yet and would dye it again once she made friends. We told her she shouldn't care what opinions people had about her hair, but she shrugged it off.

Alex left after her. We'd thrown him a small surprise going away party, knowing he'd have a better time at that than at some sappy brunch. His basketball friends all came out for one last hang out, exchanging memories of close games and buzzer beaters. When they left, Lucy and I played drunken charades with him and I had hoped the night would never end. He got on his flight the next morning, hungover and half asleep.