We'll Carry On

2) In Which Travis Has Mixed Emotions

I like to try and make good life decisions.

Going for karate lessons? Good decision. Blu-tacking posters behind my door instead of on the paint? Good decision. Packing an extra EpiPen? Good decision.Befriending Dante? Well, he kind of befriended me, but still; good decision.

This? This was not a very good decision.

First off, getting in a car with three strangers doesn't sound great out of context. When the context comes in the form of "Don't worry, we co-owned a treehouse,like 5 or 4 years ago. I think you'll like them, I know Laurance has the same dorky T-shirt as you, so that's something.", it does absolutely nothing in the reassurance department.

Honestly? I'm under no obligation to be here.

I kind of feel like I'm obligated though.

It's stupid. It's stupid,right? Dante's my friend, he'd be fine if I said no. Done and done. I don't have to socialise with strangers, and Dante can go on a road trip with his friends without a awkward geek embarrassing him.

But he asked me to go, so he obviously doesn't mind my awkward geekiness around his friends. What if he's asking me because he's worried that he and his friends won't get along anymore ? So I should come to keep him company? Their dynamics seemed fine in the group chat, but online personas don't always match personalities. But they bounced off each other really well.

Besides, do I really want to miss out on going to a concert?

I'm over thinking this, aren't I?

Anyway, too late now because I'm sitting in the car with Dante, on our way to pick up Laurance and Aaron.

Weird alert, but I memorised their names and descriptions. Literally no one expects anything from me but after being in a group chat with them for a considerable amount of time, it's apparent that they take every chance they get to rag on someone. Laurance offhandedly brought up the fact he's watched Riverdale, a fact which Dante and Garroth made fun of for a solid half an hour.

In my ideal world, this plan would have bullet points , maps, and emergency contacts. However, Dante is in charge and his version of a plan is a text saying "okay so like Travis and me are gonna go grab tickets, @laurance u go meet up with aaron halfway and sit at that shitty bus stop with the angelina ballerina dance class poster thing and than we'll snatch garroth. Garroth ur gonna make sandwiches cause I know u got that fancy ass bread" (to which Garroth responds with ">:(" , accompanied by Aaron saying "Ass bread?")

Dante has put the tickets in an envelope and left it in the glove compartment, which he'll probably forget about and panic.

As promised, Laurance and Aaron are sitting at the bus stop, both of them watching a phone screen. Dante pulls up and leans on the horn, waving at them. A few pedestrians give us a weird look and I slide down my seat and out of view.

This was a horrible idea and I'm going to be dead by morning.

Laurance flips us the bird and we're off to a great start. Dante gets down and does that bro handshake-shoulder bump thing with him, while Aaron opts for an small smile and starts carrying the bags towards the booth. Speaking of Aaron, he's wearing sunglasses and a cap pulled low over his head. I'd say that it's a weird combo with his slacks and sweater vest but I'm wearing a shirt that says 'consciousness is an illusion, it's worm time babey!!!!!'  so I'm not about to tell this man how to live his life.

Aaron gets in the furthest back seat looking moody , and I have one of those 'oh god this is going to be so awkward' moments until Laurance slides in the middle row. He, on the other hand, does not seem to believe in those moments because he sticks his hand through the gap between the front seats, flashes me a peace sign and then grabs the aux chord.

"Oh my god, what are you doing?!" Dante gets back in, already trying to push him away as he disconnects Dante's phone.

"Your music sucks ass, my man. I bought Spotify premium and now I'm putting it to good use."

"This is a war crime." He grumbles, already on the road again.

"Your face is a war crime. By the way, you lied to us. There was no Angelina Ballerina poster."

"What? It's a mouse in a tutu, who else is it gonna be?"

"Her name is Alice Nimbletoes."

"Why the fuck do you know that?"

"Street smarts."

Something loud and with a lot of bass pulses through the speakers and he finally leans back, satisfied. And then unfortunately turns his attention to me.

"Aye" I finger gun at him.

Smooth, Travis, real smooth.

"Aye, what's up?" He finger guns back, and thank god, goes back to fiddling with his phone. There's a weird silence for a while, I'm pretty sure Aaron is asleep at this point, until Laurance lies down across the seats, holding his phone over his head as high as the wire would allow.

"Where're we going after kidnapping Garroth?"

"Uh, we're going to find somewhere to eat and then we're going to go to the first hotel to crash for the night." I supply, frowning at the map. I can't drive yet, and this is probably the first time I'm grateful for that fact because I can't make sense of the map at all. Dante had circled a few locations with a red sharpie, and I can connect them well enough to form a route but that's about it.

"Nice. Can we try and scam our way into a fancy hotel? At least once?"

"Hell yeah," Dante says, turning the steering wheel, "Get our hands on some sweet,sweet horse divorce."

"...I'm sorry, what?"

"You know, horse divorce? The stuff on crackers?"

"Oh no, why're the horses getting a divorce?" I add on as Laurance bolts upright with a frown. I see Aaron suppress a smile.

"Travis, no. Are you guys trying to say hors d'oeuvre?"

"Nah, pretty sure it's horse divorce." Dante parks the car and smiles at him.

"Oh my- guys. Guys, it's pronounced 'orderves', it's not that hard."

I make a show of sighing and awkwardly rubbing the back of my neck. Laurance, looking incredibly frustrated as Dante gets out of the car, looks at me instead.

"Sorry, I just thought... someone like you would know how horse divorce is actually pronounced."

"Okay, I'm ninety percent sure I just heard the words 'horse' and ' vore'  in the same sentence, and I high key don't want to get in this car now." A new voice chimes in.
Garroth is glaring at us through the open booth.

"Because if you're into horse vore, I need to leave right now."

Aaron looses his composure as he slams trunk shut, and Laurance furiously starts typing into a google search bar.

"Garroth, how do you pronounce this?" He demands, waving the phone around as the blonde slides in next to Aaron. He seizes Laurance wrist and squints at the screen.

"H-wh-whores de vour. Whore the vore?Wait, what?"

Laurance burries his face in his hands as Dante, Aaron and I start laughing.

"I hate all of you."