THE JOURNAL OF RACETRACK HIGGINS – Ch 26 – Miles Apart
Disclaimer: Slash. Don't like it? Don't read it. And I don't own the Newsies. And Yellowcard owns the title song.
A/N: Wow, this update took me pretty long… anyway, without any further a due, the conclusion of TJORH.
8/25/04
I made it. I'm finally in college. And so far, no worries. I just got back from the first hall meeting, where me met our R.A., the rest of our hall mates, and went over the rules. Tomorrow is another day full of orientation stuff. What fun. Heh.
Right now, I'm writing this from my dorm. Davey is here as well, across the room, hooking up his computer. I'll get to him later… but let's start at the beginning…
After finally managing to fall asleep (I think somewhere around four AM), my alarm rang way to early for my taste at seven-thirty. Mrs. Conlon was already up, and was downstairs cooking her famous chocolate chip pancakes, way too perky for seven-thirty AM.
Of course, Spot was still sound asleep. I decided to play the evil guy and do the honor of waking him up (never easy, lemme tell ya…).
I opened his door and silently crept into the room. His petite frame was sprawled our across his double bed, peacefully sleeping. I took one took at him and smiled. Oh yeah, he's gonna love me!
From where I stood by his door, I quickly ran into the room and took a flying leap onto his bed, landing right on top of him.
"HIGGINS!" Spot yelled, his voice muffled under me, "Get your fat ass off of me! I'm trying to sleep!"
"Heh. I'm not fat. And you're awake now, so get out of bed. There's pancakes waiting downstairs.
Spot sat up. "Pancakes? My mom never makes pancakes unless…" his voice trailed off and face fell as he remembered. "You're leaving today. That's why."
I nodded slowly. "Come on. Get dressed. I'll be downstairs." I gave him a quick kiss, and then left the room and descended the stairs.
Mrs. Conlon made a huge fuss over the fact that this was my last official mean at home before I was, and I quote, 'a big, bad college boy.' But I just wanted her to stop. I mean, she was only being extremely nice and all, it's just that she was making it so much harder for me. Every time she'd say something about me leaving, I'd look at Spot, and that in itself did not help at all. I could see how sad he was, because his eyes (for once) gave away his emotions.
About an hour later, we were ready to leave. As Spot drove down our street, I took one more glance back at my real house. More and more, that house began looking less like my real one… The Conlon's house was now mine. And I smiled at that thought and turned my eyes back to gaze at Spot.
The car ride there actually wasn't so bad. Traffic was to a minimum, and I was happy for that. And I was so glad I over packed, because it was just Spot and I driving up, and we could goof off and have fun. Which, of course, we did.
The music was always blasted; the bass turned all the way up. The windows were obviously not down, though, because we would have suffocated from the stupid Jersey humidity. And we sung along with the mix of punk, rock, and emo music on Spot's CDs. I did the air guitar, and Spot drummed against the steering wheel.
We didn't really talk most of the ride, and I was fine with that. And if we did talk, it was making fun what we were doing, and the stares we got from the other cars on the rode. But I really didn't care that much, since just being in Spot's company was all I wanted. Plus, we rarely have to have in-depth conversations to enjoy being in each other's company.
Not to say none of that type of conversation didn't happen in the two and a half hour drive. It did. And it was all thanks to a song.
Yellowcard's song "Miles Apart" had just finished, and for the first time, I fully heard the lyrics. Once the song ended, I turned down the volume. Spot protested for a second, but stopped when he saw I wanted to say something.
"What's on your mind, Race?" He asked, genuinely interested.
"That song… it's talking about us."
Spot raised an eyebrow, looking at me out of the corner of his eyes. "Care to elaborate?"
"The lyrics say it all. Everything that is going on and everything I feel." I stopped and sang softly.
"We'll be miles apart. I'll keep you in deep inside; you're always in my heart. A new life to start, I may be leaving but you're always in my heart."
Spot smiled at me. "Wow… that is, like, dead on."
I snorted. "I've heard that song a million times, but never fully understood those lyrics. But now I do… and it's exactly what is gonna happen with us. You will always be with me, even if it's just in my heart."
"I know. Same with me." He paused, and laughed. "Hey, look who's getting all sappy and lovey-dovey now?"
I slapped him in the arm. "…Shut up…" Spot simply shook his heard, and the cranked the music back up.
And thus ended our in-depth conversation. We quickly fell back into our routine of singing/air guitar-ing/drumming on the steering wheel.
After another forty-five minutes of driving, we finally reached Allentown. I could already see Muhlenberg's signature clock tower in the distance.
We pulled into one of the campus lots. As Spot cut the engine, I thought to myself, This is it. No turning back now. I'm in college!
Since Spot drives like a maniac, we had lost Mrs. Conlon's car somewhere still in Jersey. She was still a good hour from Allentown, and that was mostly due to Hailey having to go 'pee-pee' every single time they passed a rest stop.
We decided to move in whatever was in Spot's car while we waited for Mrs. Conlon to get there. I checked in, got my room key, grabbed a duffle bag (and Spot), and started up to my new home.
I was kind of hoping that Davey would already be there, but unfortunately, he wasn't. The room was completely empty. Both beds were lofted, one on either side of the room, with our dressers underneath. Our desks were against the back way, with a window in between them. All in all, a very boring and gray room. But I knew it wouldn't be for very long.
I dropped my duffel bag next to the desk on the right side. "I hereby take over this side," I said to Spot, cracking a smile. He smiled too, but I could see it was a tad bit forced. I sighed, as I started back down the two flights of stairs to get more stuff. I knew this was going to be hard on him.
After a few more trips back and forth to Spot's car, we had brought everything that we had up to my room. We were exhausted and sweating, since there was no air conditioning, and the fan I had brought was, unluckily, in Mrs. Conlon's car.
"Hey Spot, would you mind running to the soda machine in the lobby to get some water?" I asked as sweetly as I could. My water/drinks were also all in Mrs. Conlon's car. "I wanna start unpacking, but I am parched!"
He glared at me. "If only I didn't love you so damn much. You owe me BIG time. Two flights down, two flights up…. You really own me." He kissed me quickly, and then left.
Not even two minutes went by, and the door opened.
Not looking up from where I was, I called out, "What'd you forget?"
A vaguely familiar voice answered back in a talk-sing kinda voice, "Gotta light?"
My head snapped up. "I know you… you're Davey!" (1) I said, breaking away from our Light-My-Candle-type intro, scrambling up to make an actual introduction.
He looked just like he did in the pictures he sent me: unruly curly brown hair, bright blue eyes, and nice smile.
No matter how hard I tried to fight it, the thoughts of 'he's hot' entered my brain. But as fast as they entered, they disappeared, as I reminded myself that we both have boyfriends.
Almost immediately, we found stuff to talk about. We were animatedly discussing how hot it was when Spot entered the room.
"Never fear, Brooklyn is here!" Spot exclaimed, a bit out of breath, but carrying two water bottles.
"Oh thank GOD. Spot, I love you!" I grabbed a water bottle from his hand, chugging half the bottle in one sip.
Spot pouted. "What, no kiss for being your slave?"
I rolled my eyes, but obliged, giving him a small peck on the lips.
Spot saw Dave eyeing us from across the room. "So, I'm guessing that that's Dave?" His voice not betraying the tiny twinge of jealousy still left from our fight.
I nodded. "Spot, this is my roommate Davey, and Davey, this is my boyfriend, Spot."
"Nice to meet you," Dave said, as they shook hands.
"Yeah, you too," Spot said, half heartily.
Suddenly, the door barged open. "Dave, where da hell do you want your stuff?" An Asian guy carrying two duffel bags called out.
"Over there, Swifty," Dave said, pointing to his bed. "And this would be Swifty, my boyfriend. Swifty, that's Race, my roommate, and Spot, his boyfriend."
He seemed like a nice guy. Moments later, Spot's cell went off, indicating his mother had arrived.
Enter more running up and down the two flights of stairs with no AC. And the fan I brought did very little. Yeah. So not fun.
Eventually, everything was unloaded. By that time, though, it was almost four o'clock. And the first orientation festivities (did I really just use that word?) began at four-thirty.
That meant the Conlon's had to leave. Mrs. Conlon was, of course, crying hysterically. She hugged me like there was no tomorrow, but I didn't care. I know she loves me as her son, not just as her son's boyfriend. That means the world to me, knowing that my own mother doesn't truly love me for who I am. And I know I will miss her and her constant cheerfulness as well.
Hailey… She's the little sister I never had. She's such a cute kid. …Although I won't miss her hyper-ness at six o'clock in the morning.
They finally said their goodbyes and left, leaving Spot alone with me. I knew he had to leave within the next half hour, but I didn't want to believe it. It's not like I won't see him… he's gonna visit me as often as he can. But I just didn't want to say goodbye.
He's my best friend, my boyfriend, my brother… everything. And he means so much to me. I really don't know how I'm gonna make it through without him by my side, like he has been all throughout high school.
We were outside the dorms, leaning against his cars, his keys in his hand.
"So…" he started. "I guess this is goodbye. For now, at least."
I half-smiled. "Yeah… but you better get your ass up here to visit me often," I warned, jokingly.
"I will, don't worry. I will. And Davey ain't that bad… I still have a bit of jealousy in me, but I trust you Race. I truly do. And you can bet I will be here a lot."
With that, he leaned in and caught me in a kiss. Not a big, massive, make-out kind of kiss… A genuine, from-the-heart kiss. When we broke apart, I knew I was gonna miss him from the bottom of my heart.
"I love you, Spot," I whispered into his ear.
"And I love you too, Race." He kissed me quickly again, and pulled me into a hug. "Goodbye."
We untangled, and he got into his car. As he drove off, I couldn't help but feel sad.
Ok, I gotta move on now…
The orientation stuff was kind of boring. Met a few interesting people, but nothing special. The hall meeting though…
Everyone on our hall was required to go. There was about twenty-ish people, half guys and half girls.
Mike, our R.A., introduced himself, and told us we were going to go around the room, one at a time, and introduce ourselves telling our name, age, where you were from, and one interesting tid-bit about yourself. As soon as he said that, I knew exactly what I was going to say.
I was kind of in the middle of the circle, right before Dave. Finally, it was my turn.
"Hey. I'm Anthony Higgins, but my friends call me Racetrack, or just Race. I'm eighteen years old, and from Toms River, New Jersey. And my tid-bit about myself is that I'm gay and have a boyfriend."
A quirky girl named Sara called out, "Oh my god! I love gay guys!"
That got a round of 'me too's' from most of the girls and I had to smile. And the guys? They didn't really seem to care. Dave said he was bi as well, and again, no bad reaction. No one said 'fag' under their breaths when we left; no one seemed to glare daggers at Dave and me… They just generally accepted the fact that I was gay.
And from that, I knew that college would be great and I would get along just fine.
That leaves me to where I am now. Davey just finished setting up his computer, and is now uploading various programs onto to. And me? I'm finishing writing my last entry to this journal.
Yes, you read right.
A new chapter in my life has started, so I feel this journal should end as well. I will never forget anything that happened this year, as well as the people it happened with.
And Spot? He will always be in my heart, no matter how many miles apart we are.
So for now, this is Racetrack Higgins, signing off.
-Racetrack
(1) Rent, anyone? lol
A/N: OMG. IT'S DONE. It's really and truly finished. Only took me a year and almost nine months to finish it!
Before I get to the shout-outs, I just want to say a BIG thank you to everyone who's been with this story from the beginning and reviewed almost every single chapter. And especially the people who kept pestering me (whether in real life or online) to update this thing, I love you so much!
Shout OutsFlit: hehe… You'll have to fight Swifty first! Lol.. Thankies and I love you :)
Air: YES I UPDATED! Hehe. Hey! You can't pester me to update anymore! Lol. I love you and thanks a bunch!
BitterSweetDragon: Oh man… 50 off at Coldstone? I envy you! Thankies!
DorkyColaGeek730: SARA! –glomps- didja see how I added 'sara' in? lol. I finally finished it! hehe. I love you mucho!
Hopscotch and Link: -clutches heart- don't dig it out with a spoon, please? I updated! Lol thankies!
Fait aka Taps: Sadly, all good things must come to an end! Thanks for the review!
Nanii: Don't die on me! lol Thankies so much!
Two Freakin Awesome Girls: Thanks SO much for reviewing!
LateOrliBloomer: one sitting? WOW! Lol thanks a bunch!
Queen of Doom: Thanks for the review! I'm so glad you enjoyed it!
Sloane Miette: Ah! Didn't mean to kill you! –takes back the ice cream- lol thanks for reviewing!
Well folks, there you have it. The ending. As much as I hate this fic, I'm sad that it's over. Make me happy one last time… by REVIEWING!
-Braids
