you cannot reach this number ʳᵃⁿᵇᵒᵒ

20

"this tastes like shit."

"its literally hotel food, the fuck y' expect?" wilbur and tommy were bantering about the free breakfast.

we were currently resting in roseburg, oregon, just 4 major cities away from coraline.

hopefully.

"three more hours of driving, right?" jack asked after swallowing his last bite of waffles.

i nodded, moving my food around on my plate. i had no appetite to begin with, and the hotel food quality wasn't helping.

"ill drive from now on, okay? you need to rest, mate," phil offered.

"no, it's fine—i'm fine."

"ranboo, let phil drive. knowing you and how close we are, you'd speed the whole way up," tubbo flicked a grape off his plastic fork at me as he spoke.

i smiled, but only slightly, and chucked it back at him. with a huff, i grabbed the keys from my back pocket and tossed them to phil.

i looked across the hotel's dining area. kirsten, ford, and niki sat alone together, sharing a laugh and eating. they wanted "people assigned-female-at-birth time" alone together, since they have to spend hours on end in a car with boys, boys who call themselves men, and phil.

i watched the three of them make their way over to us, all of their plates holding rice and egg.

"where'd you get the rice? i want some!" tommy whined as niki took a bite.

"rice cooker baby," ford smirked, "māmā is always right."

—

"we're in portland!" phil shouted from the front of the car.

i jolted my head up, greeted by the sight of buildings sitting under a rainy haze.

"ranboo, can you send me the bnb address?" kristen asked from the passenger side, i assumed she was manning the gps.

i did as asked, and then took in what the van looked like:

tommy and tubbo were groggily trying to fall bask asleep next to me in the back, probably upset at phil's loud announcement. next to them in the fourth seat was a cooler, most likely ransacked by the duo.

in the middle seats, wilbur was on his laptop, jack peering over his shoulder. they were giggling to themselves, i couldn't see what they were looking at.

next to them was ford and niki. ford's head was cozily resting in the nook between niki's head and shoulder, her head atop of ford's. over top of them was a large knit blanket. in niki's hands was her phone, earbuds plugged in, and shared between them. a youtube video was playing on the screen. they looked cute together.

soon, we arrived at the air bnb. those who were asleep woke up, and everyone piled out of the van. we all grabbed our respective luggage, and made our way into the rooms.

it was a home made for large amounts of guests, so everyone got their own room (minus phil and kristen, they of course shared). everyone agreed let me have first pick, out of pity i assume.

i picked the room that held a queen sized bed, adorned with white sheets and duvet. across from it was a dresser, and a tv mounted above it. the hardwood floor was mostly covered with a shaggy black rug, soft to the touch.

there was also a balcony, overlooking the city. two wicker chairs with cushions on the seats stood with a matching table between them. it was peaceful. the sound of rain against the awning, dripping down two stories of height to the ground.