AN: Honestly, this is just a distraction fic since I'm working on the latest chapters of "Words We'll Say in Greeting" and "Once Upon A Dream."
Very slightly loosely based on a random scene in high school musical 3, and my life starring my friends.
The rusty old truck wheezes before completely dying quite prematurely but hey, they made it to her house so she isn't one to complain; in fact, it makes her smile just a tad because even though this thing is ancient and on its last stretch of miles, she knows Oliver still wouldn't give it up.
Barry lifts his head off of hers and cricks his neck, having fallen asleep in the ten minutes it had taken them to get from school to her home. Oliver's truck is small in terms of seating; it's only meant for two people, but they still squeeze themselves in there because she doesn't have a car, Barry isn't allowed to drive (not after— no, never mind, they don't talk about it) and they don't want to be separated, not when they have this small window of time left before graduation that keeps staring them in the face.
"I'm saving for a new fuel pump," Oliver says as a kind of explanation, even though she knows that he knows she and Barry aren't exactly familiar with what a fuel pump even is. "It's a work-in progress."
"Didn't you say that last time?" Barry says with a tiny smile, unable to help himself.
"Hey, if my truck falls apart because I'm spending all my time at your houses," he makes sure they look at him when he says, "it's all your fault."
Oliver swiftly kisses Barry's temple that immediately and effectively dissipates any sort of comeback from Barry, making her giggle. Oliver winks at her before getting out of his truck and hurriedly jumps over the cargo bed to open the door for her and Barry. He never needs to, but she always finds it so sweet so she leaves it alone and lets him be chivalrous.
She gathers her backpack from the cargo bed and waits for Barry and Oliver to get theirs before starting to head towards her parents' backyard.
There's this dark cloud that looms over them, reminding them of their expiry date. They're in high school and they're young, but they're not stupid; they know they'll all disperse across the nation in pursuit of attaining an education for the career path they've chosen for themselves.
Barry's been accepted all over the place due to his high GPA, near-perfect SAT scores and an unprecedented amount of volunteer hours he's accumulated since freshman year. He doesn't know where's gonna go, but he knows he wants to end up working with his adoptive fatherin the CCPD.
Oliver, on the other hand, doesn't exactly have the highest grades amongst them or have such a great enthusiasm for school in general, but he's been scouted by several well-known universities who are all offering him different degrees of sports scholarships. He doesn't want to be an athlete forever, but, to him, it's his only redemption so he humors his family and, from what she's seen, himself.
And then there's regular ol' her. She's no brainiac like Barry or star athlete like Oliver, but she's trying. She's an almost straight-A student and she has a couple of extracurriculars. She's applied to five maybe seven colleges and she's only gotten one reply so far... one rejection.
They're all yet to talk about it, yet to talk about what this all means for their relationship... but they don't. They're just delaying the inevitable and to her, that's fine. She'd rather wait this out, let it fester at the back of their collective awareness because she's selfish. Barry and Oliver have been nothing but her solace in this waking nightmare that is senior year, so she let's herself think she's allowed this happiness
"... a little difficult," Oliver is saying to Barry as they all dump their backpacks on the table.
Both boys follow her to the hammock, where Oliver lays first before she and Barry curl up on either side. Thank God her family's hammock is huge or afternoons would be incredibly awkward... But even if it had been, they'd still find a way, force themselves to fit like they do in Oliver's dying truck.
"What's difficult?" She asks eventually, eyes closing as she subtly inches closer to Oliver.
"My Forensics class," Oliver answers. "I honestly just took it because it seemed kind of interesting and Barry wouldn't shut up about it last year—"
"Hey!"
"—but then I forgot our Bare is an actual genius—"
"I take my 'hey' back."
"—and now I'm barely at a D and I really need to pass the class by the end of the semester so I can drop it but still have that half Science credit. I was... asking Barry for help."
"You mean, you want him to do your homework?" She teases.
"I do my own homework." Barry scoffs. "Mostly."
She smiles, but it's pained. Mundane things, just keep talking about mundane teenager, school-related things, surely time would slow down in favor of their relationship...
"Speaking of homework," Barry says. She feels the hammock move; she opens her eyes to find Barry standing over them, arms stretched out for them to take. "Let's go."
Her eyes widen, mostly in incredulity. Leave it to Barry to be so scholastically-focused.
"I... Barry, I didn't mean now!"
Mundane things.
God, she loves them. How can she lose them?
AN: I graduated not too long ago and there had been a number of couples in my class, but they'd all been so mature about their relationships. Sure, they'd been all lovey-dovey, but they all accepted the fact that their relationships were just high school romances. They MAY continue to date for years to come, but they are aware that it may be highly unlikely since we're all headed to different parts of the world for our education. So yes, kudos to them for being an inspiration for a damn Karivarry fanfiction story ahahaha!
Thank you so much for reading! Feel free to leave a review; they mean the world to me.