Best For Last || Jacob Elordi AU

homesick

       You'd been majorly homesick for the better half of a year, waiting for an opportunity like the one you didn't even know yet that you were holding in your hand. You'd just shuffled into your shared two bedroom house after a long, exhausting day at a cashier job you weren't too keen on, and when you noticed that the dishes you'd asked your roommate to load into the dishwasher before you left were still stacked messily in the sink. You let out a childish huff as you dropped the mail onto the end table by the door. It was almost always junk for Eden anyway, so you'd let her clean up her own mess when she got home in a few hours. She'd told you less than a month ago she was moving out, as if it were her two weeks notice. She wasn't exactly helpful around the house, but she paid her share of the rent. You had no idea how you were going to make it alone, but you only had a few months to figure it out.

You steadied yourself with one had on the sloppily painted wall and kicked your shoes off, ready to go flop onto your bed for the foreseeable future, when a glint of silver on one of the envelopes caught your eye. It was metallic stickers in the shape of rings, on a thick, navy blue envelope addressed to you. Your brows raised slightly in surprise, and you wasted no more time before tearing it open, not worried much about saving the stickers from being ripped. You blinked in shock for a moment before a proud smile spread over your face. In your hand was a deep blue invite paper with white mandala-like flower patterns and a fancy white font, and the top left corner had a small twine knot connecting the invite to a picture of the happy couple.

"Please Join Us For The Wedding Of
~Dante Stevens & Arya Adams~
5|11|24 At Four in the Afternoon..."

Two months from now you could go home for a visit. Your eyes scanned the first paper before flipping it up to see the picture of themselves they'd attached. They stood in front of a few evergreen trees, Arya barefoot and giddy looking up at Dante who smiled down at her in adoration. You shook your head fondly at the sight of them, incredibly happy they were finally tying the knot after 5 years together, two of which they were engaged.
You and Dante went way back; you'd become close more than ten years ago, when you both were 15. You didn't know Arya as well, but she fit well with him and everyone agreed they were perfect together. You stepped over to the fridge and stuck the invite to the front with a tiny magnet, and went to retrieve the envelope to toss away. When you picked it up, you noticed it still had a little weight to it. A minute later, you were reading the folded three times over stack of papers that'd been tied with a baby pink ribbon. Dante's familiar scrawl was all over the first page.

"WILL YOU BE MY BRIDESMAID?
Well, I guess you'll have to be Arya's, but you can stand on my side and wear a tux if you really want. Don't worry, she was actually missing a bridesmaid to match with my amount of groomsmen, so it all works out, and would mean a lot to me if you'll be in the wedding. Hopefully the next few pages will convince you, if seeing my pretty face didn't already."

You rolled your eyes with a chuckle and switched over to the second page. Then the third, and by the forth, your eyes were just about popping out of your head. Those next few pages were a mix of screenshot confirmations and physical tickets: round trip paid to get you to Pennsylvania, confirmations of the campgrounds you'd all stay at, the AirBNB a few days later, and another ticket to get you back to Pennsylvania from... Georgia? Before all the information even got a chance to sink in, your shaky hands were dialing Dante. A few too many rings later, he picked up.

"Are these real?" you immediately asked, holding the papers in the air as if that'd help him see them.

He laughed a second before answering, "They better be."

You were at a loss for words, stuttering trying to find them. "I-I mean, how? Why?"

He sounded completely unbothered, "The bride's family pays for the wedding and the groom's family pays for the honeymoon. Arya's people got money, so I asked 'em to fly out one of my best friends, you know."

You wished he could see your hand slap over your heart. You were overwhelmed with gratitude and flattery; you were already going to say yes, but everything being financially covered was the last bit of convincing you needed.

"Are you sure? 'Cause if you are I'll definitely be there."

"Do them tickets look like I'm playing?"

You laughed, and almost teared up at the sheer excitement of going home, seeing your family and one of your best friends, and getting to travel all in one deal.

"Thank you times a million," you finally spoke. "And tell Arya I'll wear whatever she wants me to as a bridesmaid." He laughed a bit, but before he could fully respond I went on, "So wait, it's not like a one day thing then? It's like a whole road trip?"

"Yeah, just for the wedding party-- there's only six of y'all, but her maid of honor and my best man are gonna be waiting for us at the Air BNB in Georgia. So it'll really be six of us in the RV instead of eight."

"Georgia?" you repeated.

"Yeah, I got family there," he began again, audibly shifting in whatever seat he was in. "So you gonna get here on the seventh, stay with... probably your cousin?"

"Yes, most likely," you replied, impatiently anticipating telling Drew about all this. Your couple-years-older cousin was like the big sister you never had, and you knew she'd be just as happy about you coming to see her as you were. You could even stay in your old room, just like how it was.

"Alright so you stay with Drew on the seventh, on the eighth she can drive you to me and Arya's place around nine or ten, the six of us will get in the RV and take an hour turn each driving to the Virginia KOA. I know it sounds like ass, but listen it go by fast when you got all them people in there. Plus I'm funny so y'all not even gonna notice. We'll be good."

"Okay," you breathed out a nervous laugh. It didn't sound like ass, but any drive over two hours came with waves of nausea and had half your body numb from sitting so long.

"So once we in Virginia, we'll be camping that night and the next. Early-ish on the 10th, we take our turns driving again 'til we get to the Air BNB in Georgia, unload our stuff, go around and do some sight seeing. After that we chill at the house-- they got a hot tub and a pool. And the next day is the wedding. Then we got you a ticket back to PA, but not back to Michigan. That's my bad, my mind totally blanked when we was booking it. I was 'bout to change it, but Arya said you probly wanna say bye to your family and stuff before you just go back home."

"Yeah," you uttered. You were stuck on him calling this state your home. "No that's perfect, I can't thank you guys enough."

He offered to ask if they'd be willing to buy your ticket from PA to MI, but you declined immediately; you could handle getting yourself one airline ticket. After a few more 'thank you's and 'of course's, you guys hung up, and you gave yourself a few minutes to think about it all before you'd call Drew.

Though you'd been gone 7 years, been through many roommates and many taxing jobs, this place was not your home. The east coast was-- Pennsylvania was.

You just hoped you'd be able to avoid the reason you moved away in the first place.