3. Dylan
3
DYLAN
M y lips twitched in a hint of a smile as we stared out at the car as it passed by us. ‘Finally free,’ huh? The other three laughed, even though Shane also rolled his eyes. Funny, other people thought they were free once they’d graduated, but I felt more free when I got here.
Things at home were weird. They had been ever since my mom and brother left, and it was nice to not have to deal with that stuff once in a while. Being with my friends, none of that seemed to matter, but I didn’t talk about it. I didn’t think the guys would understand. Brad listened, he knew some of it, but even he couldn’t understand the same way as living through it. Not that I’d wish it on anyone.
The conversation turned to something else more mundane, and I hummed as I resumed looking at my food. Something about the end of things was feeling too real. Shane and Theo I could deal with, but I didn’t know how I’d be able to face things without Brad nearby. Not that I didn’t like Shane and Theo. Theo and I skated together, and it was a low-stakes sort of friendship where he didn’t ask a lot and I didn’t offer a lot. Shane got us into a lot of interesting places and offered us a sense of direction, but we didn’t always hang out, just the two of us.
Brad, though, listened to so many of my problems. He didn’t care that I bothered him about the dumbest shit or even if I needed to sit in silence for a little while. He’d just sit there with me, or talk about something mindless so that I didn’t have to think about things. Before Brad, I’d never had a best friend.
Well, not unless you counted my older brother Frankie, but I tried not to think about that.
We finished up our meals, and Shane and Theo scattered off into the wind to face the campus again. They needed to finish packing or something, even though I didn’t know it mattered. They had their own apartment off-campus and it would still be the same by the time they got back.
I still lived in the dorms. It was no secret I was the poorest of my friends. Shane had this crazy business mogul mom, Theo’s parents were in IT, and Brad’s family owned a chain of restaurants. My single dad got by. He had an office job that paid the bills, but it wasn’t anything close to them. Which I didn’t really care about. Money was just money, but struggling was hard. Shane could throw money on literally anything he wanted — and did, this whole trip idea proved that — where I had to worry about if I could renew my meal plan some weeks.
Nevertheless, I never complained or said anything to the others about it. Well, none except Brad.
“I have to go clear out my gym stuff. You’ll be okay?” Brad asked, walking backward, poised to leave.
I nodded, shrugging. “Later.”
Brad grinned and turned the other way to head back to campus.
Sighing, I dropped my skateboard onto the ground and kicked off down the sidewalk. There was nowhere I needed to be, and being in this place, knowing that the end of it was coming, made me feel just a little nostalgic. These past three years with my friends turned them into something more like family…more of a family than I’d had in a very long time.
I already knew they were going to go on and do great things. Just probably not with me by their side. That was okay. At least I could enjoy being with them now. I could take in their greatness and long for these days later on, but maybe I could tell people one day in a bar that I went to spring break with the guy on that city’s football team. Hell, I didn’t know what the future would bring.
Another sigh as I skated around the corner. This wasn’t doing my head any good. Was the entirety of next year going to be filled with this stupid angst? I wasn’t some dumbass 12-year-old anymore. I needed to get the hell over it.
Life moved on, and I’d just have to keep moving with it. I kicked the board, grabbing it into my hand. Whatever, I needed to kill the rest of the evening. It wouldn’t be found with my friends. Maybe I could just watch a movie or get stoned enough that it didn’t matter.