Stargazing With Beilah

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Senior year. 

Their final year of high school had come upon Mem, Sophia, and Qrow far faster than any of them had ever anticipated in their years at that school. Despite the general consensus of the world that time moved at a steady rate, all of them knew that time worked completely differently and the way that school had passed- some days dragging on while others went by in a blur- proved just that. Senior year was no different than their past years- at least not in that respect. Just as every year before had been, their senior year was filled with an interesting and exhausting collection of days both overflowing with time and seemingly without any at all. Everything else about their senior year, though, was completely different than all of the years they had spent together in the past. 

Unlike every year in the past, that Summer, Sophia, Qrow, and Mem didn't do their traditional ritual of getting together to plan out their schedules, hoping to get at least some of their extracurriculars together, nor did they make a Summertime Checklist of everything that they wanted to do that Summer before it was abruptly put to an end by the start of the new school year. The actual school year was just as cold. Sophia and Mem both refused to speak to one another and Sophia even went as far as to explicitly attempt to schedule her classes to conflict with his so they would see each other as little as possible. They never had their "study" groups together at the park or in one of their houses. The three of them never went to Sophia's home on the first day of school for their small tradition of sharing dinner with one another and Sophia's family. They didn't exchange gifts on holidays or visit one another to celebrate events. Unlike all of the years in the past, Mem and Sophia were small islands floating hundreds of light-years apart with Qrow clinging between them pathetically in a poor attempt to be the land bridge that would eventually bring the three of them back together. Despite his best efforts throughout the past year and a half, though, Qrow could not become the glue of their friendship and he was sick of it. 

The graduation ceremony was awful for Qrow with far too many people crowded into a small space for way too long, every sound so loud that he could practically feel the noises coming from the crowd in the air. This was his last chance for the three of them to be in the same place, though, and Qrow would be damned if he let it slip away simply because of the exhausting paranoia heavy on his shoulders and the disgusting anxiety clawing up his throat. He wasn't going to let this opportunity go to waste. 

"Qrow?"

The man in question blinked at the voice breaking his worried thought, "Yeah, Soph?"

"I was thinking-"

"You? Thinking?"

She snorted and punched him in the shoulder playfully, causing a grin to flash across Qrow's face, relaxing a bit at their comfortable banter. 

"As I was saying... what if we went on a trip?" Sophia pursed her lips questioningly. 

Qrow squinted suspiciously, "What kind of trip?"

She practically lit up at his question, "A trip across the country to research the paranormal! And to get in some adventure before we have to be "real adults"."

He hummed thoughtfully as he pondered that. Qrow had been saving up for college for quite some time and had been accepted with a scholarship to one already but the majority of the classes he was planning to take were offered online either as well as in-person or took place strictly online. There were several colleges that were strictly online as well that Qrow has been interested in- none of were too expensive. This road-trip shouldn't interfere with his schooling too much- he could work around conflicts. Besides, he didn't have a plan for where he was going to go after the graduation- it wasn't like he could just stay with parents until he decided.