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“Dude, we’re not bringing the gaming table.”
“Aw why not?!”
“David, where are we gonna put it?! It’ll take up half the dorm room!”
“But it has so many memories!”
“And boogers - ew, David! Look at the underside of this thing…”
“It wasn’t me!”
“David…c’mon…“
“Okay, it wasn’t JUST me…some of those are Mark’s.”
“Well then you two charm school dropouts can curb it, right Mark?”
“…Mark?”
David and Barry put a pin in their very adult and mature discussion as they turned their attention to Mark.
Who had been in an almost catatonic state for the past 10 minutes. Just…standing there. Disassociating. Just staring at the now blank wall.
Where the “Sad Boy Pilotgeddon” poster used to hang for over a decade.
“Mark? Uhh…you in there buddy?” Barry heaved his full and heavy box full of collectables down and walked across the floor to nudge Mark semi-gently. “
Snap out of it!”
“Hmm? Wha?”
Mark ripped his eyes away from the wall to find he was now the middle of an Elders Sandwich. David on one side of him and Barry on the other.
Before “The Big Fight (™)”, he might have pushed them away for being so close to him. Invading his personal space. But after the 3 months of soul crushing loneliness and all the tears when they made up, he could deal with a little personal bubble bursting. So long as it was from his two best friends.
His soon to be roommates.
“Dude…you’ve barely packed!” Barry gestured to the large, mostly empty cardboard box by his feet - with “MARK” scrawled across it in sharpie. The only items inside were a bag of shrimp chips, an empty ramune bottle, and some loose dice.
And the now rolled up “Sad Boy Pilotgeddon” poster.
“College starts TOMORROW!” Barry reminded him, as if Mark didn’t already know. As if he hadn’t been dreading this moment all summer - no, his entire life.
Today was their last day of summer.
Their last day at Elder Rock.
Their last day at the Creek.
After avoiding the inevitable for so long, going so far as to take a 2 year gap between graduating high school and enrolling in Herkelton Community College, time had finally caught up with Elder Mark.
And even though it was ALL Barry and David talked about all summer, about their majors and class schedules and urgh…parties…
…it hadn’t felt…REAL to Mark until he took that dumb poster off the wall.
And as excellent as Mark was at playing pretend (he had years of practice after all), he couldn’t pretend he didn’t feel as empty inside as the wall he was staring at.
And while Barry kept listing off every big, dumb adult responsibility they had to waste their last day of childhood on, Mark scrunched up his face. Trying to force the tears welling up behind his prescription lenses back into his dumb head.
“-it’s getting late and Kenneth’s gonna meet us with the car and help us move early tomorrow and we still gotta get our room keys and-!“
“Barry, stop…hang on…” David’s voice squeaked, cutting Barry off. Before placing a (mostly) gloved and black-polished hand on Mark’s shoulder. “Mark…you okay?” David asked, even though the answer was obviously no. “What’s up?”
Mark couldn’t look David in his big, brown dark-lined eyes as he sniffed and wiped his face with his forearm.
“…I…I don’t think I can do this…”
Barry and David shared a look.
“Dude…yes you can! We’ve been over this.” Barry threw a big arm around Mark’s shoulders. “You’re gonna do great as a creative writing major. All those years of world building for GnG are gonna pay off!”
“And we’re all gonna live together!” David added. “It’ll be like a sleepover every night, except my Grandma won’t yell at us to keep it down. It’s gonna be awesome!”
Mark sighed a shake-y sigh. He wished he shared David’s enthusiasm for literally everything for well…anything. Especially this. College. Growing up. Leaving the Creek. But instead all he felt was-
“…but what if I fail?”
“Mark, you got straight A’s in high school-“
“No I mean…what if it’s just like high school…?”
…Oh.
“Dude, it won’t be. We have Kenneth! He’ll get us into parties and show us the ropes and-“
“And besides…” David fished for his friendship necklace tucked into his shirt and pulled the charm out for Mark to see. “…we’re in this together. You got us.”
“Yeah, dude.” Barry whipped his friendship necklace out too. “Friends forever?”
They both nudged him, and Mark rolled his watery-eyes affectionately before tugging on the thin chord around his own neck, freeing the purple charm from inside his shirt collar.
“…yeah. Friends forever…gaaah!”
Mark yelped as he was suddenly being squished in a group hug.
“FRIENDS FOREVER!!!!” Barry and David shook the now bare walls of Elder Rock before Mark shoved them off of him.
“Okay, okay, okay that’s ENOUGH! Gahh…Barry you’re all sweaty and David…you’re gonna get…GUY-LINER on me…”
Change was hard for Mark (clearly.) But David’s new look he was…getting used to.
“Yeah, you’d like that wouldn’t you…” Barry smirked, elbowing Mark in the ribs playfully.
“…what-?”
“Oh nothing…” Barry snickered, before rocking back and forth on his heels. Acting all innocent.
Mark crossed his arms and huffed. He had no idea what Barry was talking about…
“I still think you should let Courtney and Tabi give you a make-over…”
“No, thank you.”
“Fine, suit yourself…I think it’d look good on you.”
Mark tripped over his mostly-empty packing box and his skinny butt landed inside it. His gangly limbs spilling over the sides.
Barry laughed before hoisting Mark up and back on his feet.
“See, Mark? There are SOME good things about growing up…” Barry said in a low voice before pointing his chin in David’s direction. Who was completely clueless.
Mark flushed and adjusted his glasses.
…again, he had no idea what Barry was talking about…
Barry rolled his eyes and patted Mark on the back, dusting him off.
Baby-steps, Barry told himself. Mark was already getting out of his comfort zone. Leaving the Creek for College.
(They had all semester to gently nudge him out of the closet.)
“So whaddya say?” Barry grabbed a Funko Pop(™) off the wall shelf to put in Mark’s box. “Wanna finish packing up?”
“I guess…” Mark sighed, looking around at all the mint-in-box collectibles from over the years, now packed away in boxes. His eye caught the bare wall again, and he rest his hand on the spot where his favorite poster used to proudly hang. Watching over them through every scraped knee, every lazy Sunday afternoon, every school dance they missed to play with dice and graph paper instead…
“I’m just gonna miss this place, that’s all…”
Elder Rock had been their hole away from home…their safe space.
"Yeah, us too Mark…” Barry admitted, while rubbing the back of his shaved neck. “We’re taking the memories with us though - our dorm room is gonna look like Elder Rock when we’re done with it. Only we’ll have heat in the winter. And a mini fridge.”
Mark looked over his shoulder at Barry and David, but still didn’t move his hand from the wall.
“…yeah, I just wish…I dunno…”
“What?”
“Never mind, it’s stupid…”
“No really, what Mark?”
Mark pinched the bridge of his nose. “I just…wish we could leave our stamp on this place. So the Ol’ Girl doesn’t forget us…”
Mark’s breathing hitched as he suddenly felt David’s breath on the back of his neck, and his hand on his shoulder. Before he could ask what he was doing, he heard the cap of David’s permanent marker pop off. And the soft squeak of the marker, carefully tracing Mark’s hand still on the rock wall.
“…there! Now you have. Here, I’ll do mine too…” Mark watched with fascination as David placed his hand on the wall next to Mark’s and traced the contour. Before signing it with a big “D.” When he was finished he smiled at Mark before handing the marker over to Barry. “C’mon Barry…you too.”
“Heh, yeah okay! Great idea David!”
By the time the fireflies started to come out, The Elders Three were hauling boxes out of Elder Rock, leaving not a scrap of graph paper, or imported Japanese candy wrappers behind.
The only thing they left behind were their handprints and their initials on the wall, where the “Sad Boy Pilotgeddon” poster used to be.
…and a bunch of kawaii doodles Barry just HAD to add.
Mark looked behind one last time as he climbed out of the hole with the last box. He was leaving something else behind as well, he guessed.
His childhood.