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You blinked several times, adjusting your sight to the orange and lilac shades having taken over the sky as hours have passed by. The daylight wasn't as striking anymore, which allowed you to enjoy the view as soon as you set your eyes on the window, the countryside glowing golden behind the thin glass.
You took a few seconds to gather your thoughts, slowly yet surely emerging from the slumberous trance you had been in for the past hour. You became aware of the van's light shudder, the familiar voices all around you, and most importantly, the reason why you were here in the first place. A shiver of unbearable excitement — or was it the air slipping through a slit getting cooler ? — ran along your arms, making you huddle in your seat.
You easily recognised your friends' heads in the seats in front of you: Chris (Hemsworth) and his girlfriend Elsa, snuggled up and both asleep, and Evangeline and Paul who were enthusiastically discussing something while Robert was still driving. The radio had been turned down not to bother the sleeping couple.
"Welcome back into the world."
And of course, you didn't even need to take a look to know whose voice spoke as you were shaking the last bits of sleepiness away. Your best friend, and carefully-hidden crush, Chris Evans, always appeared to be beside you no matter the situation. By the looks of his ruffled hair and soft eyes, he must have had slept for quite a while as well.
"Are you about to say you missed me?" you chuckled, quickly leaning against him.
"I don't need to, you can read my mind," he winked.
"If you already miss me, I wonder what it's gonna be like when we're off to col-"
You paused mid-sentence, regretting the words as they slipped from your tongue; you should've waited to be completely awake instead of talking nonsense. Going off to college was a sensitive topic, especially for you, and you had decided you ought not to torture your friends with it as you did with yourself.
Towards the end of the semester, it had even become almost impossible for you to have a good time, the fear of being separated from your friends having a tight grip on your brain. When anyone would bring the subject up you would go very quiet, and as much as you were happy for everybody that got into their college of choice, leaving high school made you sad and was scary. But knowing that the hurt would end up dissipating was even scarier, because if every wound ended up healing, were we all meant to be temporary in the lives of the ones we love? All you could do was overthink, again and again.
"I'm going to call you every hour, that's what it's gonna be like. I promised you things weren't going to change," Chris smiled, only half-joking, which helped brushing off your nascent anxiety. "But it's not emotional hours yet."
