Knight

28

Mason Maloney

"Ugh, I don't even want to think about this!" Bella exclaimed, falling back on my bed with her laptop on her legs.

"Well, you have to," Ross said from across the room, where he was spinning around on my desk chair.

I didn't say anything because I couldn't help but agree with Bella. The three of us were sitting in my room, researching colleges to apply to as we waited for Pete to arrive. Bella was very obviously stressed out about the process, and so was I.

"I don't even know what I want to do with my life," I muttered as I looked through the website of a local community college.

Bella groaned aloud at that while Ross nodded in agreement.

"Do you know where Nathan is going?" Ross asked me curiously.

I shrugged. "Any D1 school that will give him a scholarship and a starting position."

"Why don't you just go wherever he goes?" Ross wondered.

I had thought about that before, but decided it probably wouldn't be the best for me to follow wherever Nathan went. The two of us obviously wanted to do different things with our lives, so I didn't think going where he went would do me any good.

"I have an idea," Bella said suddenly, sitting up on the bed abruptly beside me. "We should all go to the same school."

I rolled my eyes. Any time the topic of college was brought up, Bella suggested that the four of us go to the same place. We were all on board until this proved to be problematic since Bella wanted to leave the state for school while Ross and Pete didn't and I was still unsure. I wouldn't mind going somewhere warmer, but I wasn't sure how I would handle being far away from home.

Now that I was with Sam, I also had him to think about. It was uncertain whether the two of us would last that long, but if we did, we faced the problem of having to do long distance. I didn't even know where he wanted to go.

"I can't afford to be going to school out of state," Ross said to her, his face holding a bored expression.

"Some out of state colleges are cheaper than the in-state tuition in Massachusetts," Bella pointed out, pointing a finger at Ross with a triumphant expression on her face as she poked a hole in his argument.

"But then we have to fly home for holidays and stuff," he argued further.

"We can drive!" Bella exclaimed. "We all pitch in for gas and take turns driving, it's not rocket science."

Ross groaned. "I don't know, Bell."

Before anything else was said, Pete barged into my room and plopped down on my bed beside Bella. He looked over at her laptop before grimacing and shutting it softly.

"I do not want to think about college right now," Pete said, shaking his head at us.

"None of us do, that's the problem," I said, shutting my own laptop and getting up from my bed to set it down on my desk.

"Maybe we should go to New York," Bella said, ignoring what Pete had said.

I gave her a strange look. "It's just as cold there as it is there. I thought the point was to go somewhere warm."

Bella rolled her eyes. "The point is to live somewhere else for a change."

Pete shook his head. "I'm not living in New York."

"Why not?" Bella asked almost angrily, turning to face Pete.

"Everyone goes to New York," Pete said. "Or LA, so I'm not going there either."