Eli watched Clare and Alli talking, occasionally broken by the sound of their laughter as they twirled their marshmallows over the fire. He wished he knew what they were talking about, but decided it was best not to butt in. He figured Clare just needed some space right now with Alli. As much as he wanted to spend some time with his girlfriend on this non-supervised vacation, now wasn't the best time.
Not for the first time today, Julia's face flashed into his mind, along with Sav's.
Staring into the fire with a fierce determination, Eli swung his rod deeper into the fire, twirling the end in the flames until the marshmallows caught on fire and began to burn bright blue.
Adam watched as he munched on his hot dog, mustard stains on the corner of his mouth.
"Dude," he said in between chews, "that's gross."
"Says you," Eli shot back, wiping the mustard off Adam's face as his friend batted his hand away.
"How can you eat them like that?"
"Are you kidding me?" he said, whipping the rod out of the fire and blowing out the flame. "That's the best way to eat them."
Squirting another gooey, melted marshmallow into his mouth, Eli watched the fire flames leap and twist, staring at them so intently that his eyes began to blur from all the smoke.
"Man, this is lame."
"Yeah. Of course it is. It's prom. What did you expect?"
"I dunno. If it was anything like last prom…" Sav's voice trails off. "You know what? Scratch that. I'm glad this is dull."
Eli grins, taking another sip of his punch.
"At least the girls are having fun," he says, gesturing towards their respective girlfriends.
Holly J and Fiona are dancing barefoot, Fiona holding up the train of her long, seafoam green gown as she and Holly J dance back to back. Holly J's red hair, so perfectly styled when they got into the limo hours earlier, is now loose and tangled around her shoulders in a way that amuses Eli. It's so odd to see her like this- Holly J Sinclair, Type A personified, tight-lipped and fierce, yet here she is dancing barefoot with tangled hair. It gives her a charming, little-girl look to her that Eli can never remember seeing on her before, like a reminder that despite her hard-ass persona, she's just as human as the rest of them.
Clare and Alli are beside them, dancing with Jenna. Clare's red dress swirls around her bare legs, and her hair, which had been piled into an elegant bun at the nape of her neck when Eli had picked her up, is starting to trail out, loose wisps of curls falling into her eyes as Alli grabs her hand and gives her a twirl.
Sav sighs deeply beside him, bringing him back to the conversation. "Man, I am gonna miss this," he says.
Eli notes the sadness in his voice. "Really? You're actually gonna miss high school?"
"Actually, yeah. It's weird. Like, I'm not gonna miss all the drama and crap, but the people. I wish I could just take certain people with me when I go. Everything else can stay."
"Yeah," Eli agrees, trying to ignore the tug in his stomach that reminds him of the time he and Clare will have to part for university. "But it's not like you'll be a million miles away. I mean, U of T is in town, and you'll be living on campus. So really, it's the best of both worlds. You get all the freedom of being away from home without being too far away from home."
"Yeah, that's true," Sav agrees. "But still. Even with that, things won't be the same."
He pauses, watching the girls dance. Fiona stumbles slightly- whether it's from tripping on the train of her gown or the fact that she had a drink of champagne before coming neither of them can tell- and he takes a sip of his own punch.
"It's just weird, to think that everything we know is a total lie," he says. "Like, high school is the biggest phony place of all. But once we get out there, it's the real world. We're all of a sudden not kids anymore, and we have to do everything on our own. It's just really scary to think that after this, we're officially responsible for everything in our own lives. No guidance counselors, no parents, no teachers to hassle us. We're on our own."
"It is pretty scary," Eli admits.
"I just don't know how I'm gonna handle it," Sav adds.
Eli looks at him. He's trying to look unconcerned, but Eli can tell it is hard for him to admit his fear.
"You'll be fine," he tells him. "And it's not like we're going anywhere. Anytime you want to jam, Adam and I are here."
Sav smiles at him. "Thanks, man," he says.
"So have you found your roommate yet?"
"No. We don't get our room assignments until the summer." Sav sighs again. "I wish I could room with Peter- he's getting this apartment off campus- but my parents are making me live on campus for a year, so I'll have to wait, which really sucks. I can't imagine living with a total stranger."
"Neither can I," Eli says.
"You know what we should do?" Sav asks. "We should move in together. When you're a freshman. You said you were thinking about U of T, right?"
"Yeah, that's one of my choices. That'd be really cool if we did room together. No unknown roommates, no awkwardness, no R.A.s and all that peppy 'get involved' bullshit."
"Definitely," Sav agrees. "It would be cool. Besides, don't apartments cost way less than dorms?"
"Yeah, and if three of us are living together, then rent and utilities split would be, like, nothing."
Sav nods. "And if Adam goes to U of T, we can all room together."
"That would be pretty awesome." Eli sighs. "Only a year more to go."
"Hey," Sav tells him. "Before you know it, it'll be over."
"Eli."
Adam called his name, snapping him to attention. "What?"
He pointed to the hot dog in Eli's hand. "Your meat's hanging out," he told him.
Eli glanced down. His hand was pointed downward, and his hot dog was dangling precariously out of the bun, dangerously close to dropping into the dirt.
"It's okay," he smirked at Adam. "I like my meat hanging out."
Adam rolled his eyes. "Don't be gross," he chided, punching him on the shoulder.
Eli punched back with a grin, trying to push the memory out of his mind.
