Does Love Really Exist? {Sequel to Love Exists?}

Chapter 16

The fire burns brightly in front of all of us. As an end of year one 'party' a bunch of us gathered at a park for a big bonfire to burn all our papers from the semester. The sun had set hours ago, but it was too cloudy for the moon so we hung around the fire as the only source of heat and light in the open field.

A lot of people had already left, as there's going to be an actual party tomorrow with booze and crap. We'd already decided we weren't going to that, but we came to this as a sort of celebration anyways.

Rocco insisted we bring Hailey with us, so she's tied to a tree a bit away from us on a long rope so she can play outside while we're here.

"Do you guys ever wonder about the future?" Trinity asks, eyes focused on the sky.

I lace my fingers with Rocco's. "I don't need to. I already have everything I've ever wanted right here."

"Cute. But seriously. We're finished our first year at University. There's only another 3 years until we need to get a forever job and a forever home and a forever life. We need to pick classes next year that set us up for that forever," she says.

Seth frowns in confusion, "I can't believe there's only 3 years left of school until 'real life'. It feels like I was 15 yesterday, but now I'm 19. That's crazy..."

"Yeah. It feels like everything's moving too fast, like our whole lives have just passed in a blur. Like we're running out of time to do everything. There's still so much I want to do, but I have to start thinking about a future. A whole future of jobs and taxes and house and everything. Just yesterday, I was thinking about when I'm supposed to go see the Eiffel Tower and the Catacombs and the museums and restaurants and everything. There's too much to do," Trinity agrees.

"Then why are we not going to change anything? If life is moving too fast forward, then let's stop it. Let's not follow the plan for everyone's life and do something else, at least for a year," Rocco says, eyes focused on the sky.

The grass feels damp under our backs and the sky too heavy on our shoulders and the world too big for 4 kids to conquer. How are we supposed to pull ourselves out of this inevitable fate that everybody ends up in? How are we of all people supposed to change the fate that every human has for ourselves? How can we stop ourselves from ending up in a small cubicle for some company, with a house in a nearby neighborhood, only caring about money and the job? Is that even possible?

"How?" The only girl asks quietly, voicing my thoughts in a simple word.

Rocco sits up, eyes full of wonder in a far away world, "What if we just left?"

"Left?" I ask, not taking my eyes away from the moon.

"Left," he confirms, "I already feel like I'm too far along on the path. All I can think of is school and my job and rent and the future. I need change. I can't just stay in this place forever. I need new. I need adventure?"

"And where would we leave to?" Seth asks, eyes closed.

"Everywhere," Rocco sighs, lying back on the ground in between me and Trinity.

"That sounds incredible... but that's not something we can do, is it? We have to go to school. We have to follow the order of humanity," Trinity argues.

"No we don't. Who says we have to follow this? I want to go see the rest of the world too. Everything. Everywhere. I don't want to fall into this same pattern," I say.

"What about the money?" Seth asks, "how are we supposed to get food, hotel rooms, gas, if we don't have a job or income at all? We would end up homeless before we could change our minds."

"The details our pointless. We all want to leave, so let's go. We can't wait forever, or we'll end up in an old folks home never having done anything for the present. Have you ever done anything for the present before? Everything is just setting us up for the future, let's stop thinking about the future for once," I say.

"I agree. The future is too much. Too big. Too open. Who knows? Maybe we'll end up in France and find a good job opportunity? Here, our future is bland. Let's just go," Trinity says. Rocco nods, his eyes falling shut and a ghost of a smile brushed across Seth's face.

And that's what we do.

It takes a few weeks of planning, unfortunately yes there is planning necessary for a road trip to nowhere, but finally we've got a date set to leave, tomorrow.

We got ourselves a decent camper  van (smaller than an RV), deciding that gas was less expensive than hotel rooms. We'd be able to sleep in the back, 2 at a time maybe 3 if we squished together. If we parked and lowered the front seats, we'd all be able to sleep in it. We all quit our jobs, a bold move that none of our parents were happy with.

We pooled all of our savings and all of us got some money off our family for our road trip, promising we'd pay them back in the future.

Me and Rocco gave our apartment back to the landlord, deciding to cut all ties and not have to look back ever, whereas Trinity and Seth let some other people rent their apartment for a few months while they were gone. Probably a smarter move than ours.

We all did good on our report cards, Trinity did the best out of all of us, but we passed all our classes which was incredible in itself.

But it's finally time to go. We made it through the one year of university and even though we did good and we had future's there if we had stayed, this is the better option for all of us. We can explore our own selves and hobbies and go for adventures. After 18 years of schooling, it's time to just be free and enjoy life for a little while with no worries or cares or stress. Just our little family.

We all pile into the car, our bags tossed into the back, Hailey excitedly looking out the window, Seth in driver's seat, prepared to finally escape the world and the path that everybody takes.

Sure we may seem like hippy freaks to some people. Or education wasting children. Or maybe even ungrateful lunatics who are selfishly leaving what their parents wanted for them.

But in truth, we're just looking for something more out in the vast expanse of the universe that we were never able to explore or find in the grasp of the education system.

Shorter than normal chapter but figured it had been a good 3 or 4 months since I'd updated and needed to put out something for you guys.

Unfortunately, I don't really feel any motivation left for this story anymore. I don't have the connection to the characters or the storyline I need to continue writing this.

I'll write one more chapter, hopefully this weekend to finish this off.

-Ellie