The End Of Us || losers club ✔️

seventeen

seventeen - mower, minnesota is where i'll be

Maggie's letter sits folded up in Richie's lap. It's heavy on his legs, heavy in his mind. Her written words bounce and repeat in his head, much like a broken record or when a song gets stuck in his head. Over and over, repeating and restarting.

With his head full of words, Richie isn't sure he's the one to be sitting behind the wheel. Eddie is beside him, keeping his eyes peeled for road signs as they speed down the interstate, but if Eddie misses something, Richie is supposed to catch it.

Just one more hour, he tells himself.

His free leg bounces, his fingers dance on the gear stick. The anticipation is heavy and thick inside his body, buzzing around and making it very difficult to keep still. Eddie easily takes notice, but doesn't say anything about it. He doesn't say anything because all his words are put into one action: him reaching across to take Richie's hand (the one on the gear shift) and slowly rub his thumb across Richie's knuckles.

Neither boy says anything, but Richie feels his heart slow it's pattering rate and the nerves in his leg calm. He's still nervous and scared, but they all are. It's become apart of their normal life.

Eddie's warm hand stays planted on top of Richie's up until the digital clock struck 12:30 pm. By then, he's become immersed in being Richie's personal GPS, eyes peeled for road signs and pointing to which lanes Richie has to merge into.

Mike sits in the backseats, staring out the window. He's already told the others many times about his fears being on busy roads, the wandering eyes of other people, their license plate being so easily spotted, but Richie waved his hand each time.

"If we could park in a motel parking lot without getting suspicious," Richie told Mike, "Then I think we'll be okay on the interstate." Even with his reassurance, Mike still sunk farther into the seat with a scared look behind his eyes.

Soon, Eddie instructed Richie to merge for him to get off at an exit. Richie complies, the turn signal clicking loud and clear. The streets from then on become more narrow and much slower. Grassy fields stretch far along the roads, but up ahead buildings and starts of neighborhoods slowly breaks the idea of them landing up in the middle of no where.

As they glide down paved roads, keeping distance from the car ahead of them, Eddie tells Richie to continue going straight, then says to take a left at the lights, then a right at the stop sign, then straight again, and finally to continue down the winding road.

Richie thinks if it weren't for the growing pit in his stomach, or the weight of Maggie's promising words on his legs, he could trick himself that they're simply on a road trip. That the other three could be in another car, trailing behind. Trick himself into believing everything is alright, that they're not taking an extreme risk by doing this.

Richie breaths in, slowly and deeply.

Everything is going to be alright

Mike's doubting words filter into his head. Richie hasn't thought about their second argument in hours, and truthfully, he'd rather keep it that way. He's starting to believe that disappointing friends brings the same horribly thick, dragging feeling as disappointing parents. Maybe even worse, because you never think you're going to disappoint a friend.