Moving On

“Dinner is almost ready, come help set the table.” Derek’s Mom called up the stairs.

“Okay, one sec,” Derek said. He still had about three more minutes before the yelling started. Plenty of time to finish the game. His fingers flew over the keyboard as gunshots and explosions echoed out from the monitor. A well-placed grenade blew an enemy into bloody chunks and a victory screen flashed across the monitor.

“Fucking, fuck.” Tony exclaimed through the speakers. “GG. I almost had you that time.”

Derek glanced at the lopsided scoreboard and grinned. “You didn’t have shit, I thought you said you had gotten good?”

“I thought I had,” Tony sighed. “My connection is still so slow that I’ve been playing against bots. Once I get on that sweet ass dorm WiFi though, your ass is toast.”

Loud footsteps thundered up the stairs and down the hall towards his room. “Derek! I’m throwing your food away if you don’t get down here and set this table!” His Mom yelled from outside the bedroom door.

“Okay, okay, I’m coming right now.” Derek quickly stood up and quit out of the game. “Sorry man, gotta eat, see you at the Bell?”

“Of course, see you tonight.”

Derek shut off his computer and headed downstairs. His pace quickened slightly as the dark, rich smell of pot roast hit his nose. He jumped down the last couple steps, nearly hitting his Dad coming up from the den.

“Slow down,” His Dad smiled. “The food isn’t going anywhere. Unless your Mom undercooked the roast. Then it might grow legs and walk away.”

“You can’t undercook a roast, now for the third time, please set the table.” His Mom scowled from the kitchen.

His Dad winked and grabbed the glasses off the counter. Derek picked up the plates and followed to the table, trying not to dive into the meal spread out in front of him. His Mom had made all of his favorites; pot roast, mashed potatoes with gravy, corn-on-the-cob, and what smelled like a pumpkin pie for dessert. 

They finished setting the table and Derek dived into the food immediately, determined to win the neverending eating competition that is the life of a teenage boy. Individual flavors mashed together, overtaken by the need to consume, rather than enjoy.

“This is really good,” Derek mumbled between bites.

“Thank you,” his Mom poked at her potatoes with disinterest. “You won’t be having a decent meal for a few months so I thought it might be nice.”

“They have food at MSU mom, Luke’s brother says it’s pretty good too. There’s a huge cafeteria with actual cooks and they have a Starbucks on campus.”

“Starbucks is not a meal. If you come back all skin-and-bones I’m going to have a talk with that school.”

“They’re not going to starve him, Deb,” his Dad laughed. “They get paid a lot of money to keep students alive.” He turned to Derek excitedly. “I printed out a map of the campus so we know exactly where to go. With any luck, we can beat the rush and get done in time to go have lunch in the city. I have a top ten list from Yelp we can look at to decide where to go, there are some great options.”

“That sounds good, I just need to be back in time for orientation,” Derek’s phone buzzed, it was a message from Luke. “Is it okay if I go? The guys are all meeting up tonight.”

“Now? What about dessert?” His Mom said.

“I can have it when I get back. Mike has to work at like 5:00 AM tomorrow morning so he doesn’t have a lot of time to hang out.”

“Fine, but don’t be out too late, I don’t want to have to pull you out of bed tomorrow. And it would be nice to see my son a little bit before he’s gone.”

His Dad reached over and grabbed the fatty bits of roast Derek had put aside. “It’s fine Deb, we will have all day tomorrow. Let him say goodbye to his friends.”

“Thanks, I won’t be out too late.” Derek ran up to his room and grabbed the vape pen he hid in the far back corner of the closet. He shoved it into his jacket pocket and jogged out the door into the garage. His hand grabbed the car door for a moment out of habit before he turned with a sigh and wheeled his bicycle out to the driveway. His dad had made the car off-limits a couple of days ago to guarantee that no accidents would affect their move-in day plans. Fortunately, the parking lot was less than a mile away. He kicked off and coasted down the driveway, making sure to turn into a skid at the end before taking off down the road.

The local Taco Bell parking lot had been the go-to hangout spot for Derek and his friends most of their lives. The neon washed lot was, oddly enough, the perfect cover from the police, who were too distracted hunting down stoners in the dark recesses of the community park to bother with a few “losers” hanging out at a Taco Bell. Every person in the group had worked there at least once, motivated by the opportunity to snag free food when Luke’s older brother came in to manage the late shift. Derek’s last day had been two weeks ago and for some reason he already missed it. A small part of him wanted to skip college and stay here, working the counter with Luke and Mike while making fun of customers in the back and eating way too many free tacos. They practically ran the place.

The bike crested a hill and the familiar glow of his neon sanctuary came into view. Derek smiled and pedaled hard down the hill. Trees whizzed by as he flew through the night, relying on memory and feel rather than visibility. A loud scream pierced the night and into his right ear as a shadow blew by him. Tony had been riding a bike since he could walk and to this day no one could keep up with him. The small, Tony-shaped shadow cruised off into the distance and turned into the lot, narrowly avoiding a car. Derek arrived a few seconds later and pulled up next to Tony and Luke, gathered around an old Corolla, both already digging into a bag of tacos.

“Hey chicken-tits, save some for me.”

Tony raised an eyebrow and looked up from the carnage. “Chicken-tits? That’s a little try-hard.”

“No way dude, I just thought of it now.” Derek grabbed a taco out of the bag. “And besides it’s not like your weird names are any good either.”

“Yeah, like rat-nuts or apple-fuckers,” Luke chimed in. “Those were pretty bad.”

“Fuck you guys,” Tony said. “I liked apple-fuckers, it’s witty.”

“None of you are ‘witty’, you just throw random bullshit words pushed together,” Mike said as he joined the group and tossed his Taco Bell uniform into the car. He turned and pointed at Tony. “Your brother is an asshole. I should’ve been done thirty minutes ago but instead, I’ve been cleaning bathrooms.”

“He really has been,” Tony nodded. “His appeal got denied so now he’s on probation for the next six months. Mom and Dad are pissed, he was failing before and now he just lost a semester.”

“Good, he deserves it,” Luke said. “We’ve got enough junkies around already, I don’t want to work with one.”

They all nodded in agreement. Their area wasn’t rough by any means but it was just poor enough to trap most of the people who lived there in a cycle of minimum wage jobs and drug abuse. Of course, Tony’s brother had no excuse, he had escaped to college. It took one summer with the wrong people to bring him right back in. Derek considered himself lucky to have the friends he did.

“You two better watch yourselves,” Derek jokingly pointed at Luke and Mike. “If I come back and you’ve gotten into that shit I’ll kick both your asses.”

“Sure thing string bean,” Mike said. “But don’t hold your breath, I’m already sick of this job and I’m not getting into college anytime soon. I’m about three customer complaints away from chasing the dragon.”

Luke slid slowly away from Mike. “That’s dark dude, just apply to a fuckin college. They have scholarships, and if that doesn’t work do community college, they don’t really care what your grades are.”

“I’m not stupid,” Mike said. “I know all that but it doesn’t matter until my sister graduates. I’m not leaving her alone with my Mom. Once she goes to college I’ll start thinking about school. But enough of this depressing shit.” He grinned and walked around to the trunk of the car. “I figured we should celebrate our two young men going off to see the world.” He saluted Derek and Tony, then pulled a six-pack out of the trunk. “My cousin just started working at the liquor store and luckily for us, he’s chill.”

Derek cautiously grabbed a beer and surveyed the parking lot, there was no one around except for a couple cars in the drive-through and an employee on his smoke break. “I don’t know, my Mom might smell it on me and I don’t want to be stuck in a car for four hours with her mad at me.”

“My Mom and Dad don’t give a shit,” Tony said as he cracked his beer and chugged the first half. “They’d probably buy me beer if I asked, they’re all about letting me, “enjoy my childhood while I can”. It’s awesome, sucks your parents are so shitty.”

“They aren’t shitty,” Derek said. “They just don’t want my grades to be messed up.”

“Your grades don’t mean shit anymore, you’re out of high school and college hasn’t even started yet,” Mike clasped a hand on Derek’s shoulder. “And to be honest, I’m not gonna let my friend have his first beer without me around. So drink up motherfucker, think of it as a going-away present to me.”

Derek took a sip as his three friends looked on expectantly. It was bitter and unpleasant but he managed to hide his displeasure and chugged about half. The parking lot echoed with cheers as his friends broke into applause.

“Nice dude, how is it?” Mike asked.

“It’s good,” Derek said.

“You liar,” Mike laughed. “That cheap shit tastes terrible. You’ll get used to it though, what matters is that it gets you drunk.”

They sat nursing their beers for another hour, talking about nothing in particular. Derek mostly just listened, he had always liked listening more than talking, everyone else had so much more to say. Eventually, everyone slowly settled into silence as Tony finished up his energetic defense of impractical armor on anime girls. A moment passed as they sat and listened to a pair of locals get into a fight at the bar across the street. As usual, it was Tony who broke the silence.

“My brother says everyone changes when they go to college.”

“That’s stupid,” Mike said. “It’s just school; you go to class, meet girls, get drunk, and hopefully don’t fail out. The only thing that changes is you don’t have to listen to your parents anymore.”

“I hope you’re right, I like how things are right now.”

Luke laughed. “Really? You’ve never kissed a girl and you have to ask your Mom’s permission to leave the house. You’re telling me you don’t want anything to change.”

Tony blushed, “I’ve totally kissed a girl, but that’s not what I mean. I’m just gonna miss hanging out here with you guys.”

“We will still be here when you get back,” Mike said. “Luke and I are going to hold down the fort until you two get back.”

“Actually, I might be taking night classes,” Luke said. “My Dad has a spot at his HVAC business he needs filled so I’m applying to a trade school.” He noticed the disappointed faces and quickly backtracked. “But I’m sure I’ll be free over the holidays when you get back, there’s less AC repair in winter.”

“We will find a way,” Derek said. He was sure of that, no school was going to change how he felt about his friends. 

“Absolutely,” Mike said. “Nothing else changes in this town, so why would we?” He checked his phone and saluted the group. “Well boys, it’s about that time. I want to hear about all the crazy parties and don’t forget to send me photos. I need something to distract me from this place.”

“You know it,” Derek said. He hopped on his bike. “I should head out too, my Dad has a bunch of stuff planned tomorrow and my Mom will kill me if I’m too tired.”

He sat for a second watching the other three say their goodbyes. He wanted to say something, something dramatic or heartfelt, but anything he said would be too cheesy. There was just no way to sum up thirteen years of friendship. And besides, saying anything would make it too real. It was better to just say “see you later” because there was no time limit on that. They could always meet up “later”.

The goodbyes ended and the group separated. Mike drove off, Luke walked to his house around the corner, and Derek rode off with Tony down the sidewalk. He muscled his bike back up the hill and stopped at the top. It would be six months before he saw the neon glow from this spot. He stared back at it, feeling a weird sense of loss. This was where all of the best moments of Derek’s life had happened, he knew that sounded lame, but it was hard to deny when the couple hours spent with his friends in a Taco Bell parking lot was the only real freedom he had known.