The first light of morning had barely reached the rooftops when Evan Mercer closed the rear hatch of the SUV and stepped back to inspect the damage. Calling it packed was generous. The cargo area had disappeared beneath duffel bags, backpacks, two rolled sleeping bags, a tent Tyler had insisted they would need, and a cooler wedged into the remaining space at an angle that suggested someone had stopped caring about physics sometime around midnight. A case of bottled water occupied most of the floor behind the passenger seat, while a pair of hiking boots had somehow ended up in the cup holders. The roof held another sleeping bag beneath a web of blue bungee cords, along with a battered black duffel that Evan had checked twice to make sure it was actually secured.
He had spent nearly an hour packing the SUV the night before, rearranging everything several times in the hope that the four of them had somehow brought less stuff than they actually had. It hadn't worked. There was no clever arrangement left to discover, no hidden compartment that would magically create another two feet of storage space. They were simply going to have to live with the fact that for the next two weeks, every time one of them needed something from the back of the vehicle, half the luggage was going to have to come out first.
Evan rested one hand against the edge of the hatch and looked down the quiet residential street. The neighborhood was still mostly asleep. Porch lights glowed beneath darkened windows, sprinklers whispered across small lawns, and the pavement retained the coolness of the night beneath the tires. Somewhere beyond the houses, a truck moved along the highway, its engine carrying faintly through the morning air before disappearing into the distance. The smell of damp grass mixed with the coffee in Evan's hand, and for a few seconds he simply stood there, letting himself absorb the unfamiliar feeling of having nowhere he needed to be.
Two weeks.
That was the plan, anyway.
Two weeks on the road before they had to return to university and begin their senior year.
The thought still felt strange.
Three years of classes, apartments, football games, late nights, bad decisions, and increasingly expensive textbooks had somehow flown by, and by the time they came back from the trip, they would be seniors. After that there would be graduation, jobs, apartments, and all the other things people had been telling them for years would happen once college was over. Evan had spent most of the spring trying not to think too hard about it.
The road trip had been an easy decision. There was something comforting about having a destination, even if the destination was thousands of miles away.
"You know you're going to check that again before we leave."
Evan turned at the sound of Ryan's voice.
Ryan Callahan was standing on the front steps with two cardboard coffee cups in his hands, looking considerably more awake than Evan expected from someone who had gone to bed less than five hours earlier. His brown hair was still damp from the shower, thick strands already beginning to curl across his forehead, and he was wearing a faded gray university T-shirt with black athletic shorts. The shirt hung loosely from his shoulders, but the early morning light still caught the definition in his arms when he lifted one of the coffees.
He walked down the steps and held it out.
"I figured you'd need another."
Evan accepted the cup, feeling the warmth through the cardboard. "You remembered my order."
Ryan gave him a look.
"Of course I remembered your order."
There was something so matter-of-fact about the answer that Evan smiled. Ryan had known him long enough that there were certain things neither of them needed to think about anymore. He knew how Evan took his coffee, which songs he always skipped, which foods he wouldn't touch, and exactly how long Evan could tolerate being awake before he became useless.
The same was true in reverse.
Evan knew Ryan hated hotel pillows that were too firm. He knew Ryan always forgot to charge his phone and would eventually ask someone for a cable. He knew Ryan preferred the window seat whenever they flew and would steal the blankets whenever they shared a couch. None of it had ever seemed particularly significant. It was simply what happened after three years of being around someone almost every day.
Ryan leaned against the side of the SUV and looked through the windows at the luggage piled inside.
"How bad is it?"
"Pretty bad."
"I told Tyler not to bring that much stuff."
"You brought two pairs of sunglasses."
"They're different."
"They're both black."
Ryan glanced at him.
"They're still different."
Evan laughed quietly and took a drink of the new coffee. It was exactly how he liked it.
Behind them, the front door opened and Tyler emerged carrying a backpack in one hand and a paper grocery bag in the other. He was wearing cargo shorts, a faded university sweatshirt, and sunglasses despite the fact that the sun had not yet fully cleared the horizon. He looked at the SUV, then at Evan and Ryan, and seemed to realize immediately that they were both staring at him.
"What?"
Evan nodded toward the grocery bag.
"What's in there?"
"Food."
"That's reassuring."
Tyler walked past them and opened the rear hatch, apparently satisfied that he had answered the question. He spent the next several minutes shifting bags around without making the situation any better, eventually disappearing almost completely into the cargo area while Ryan watched with a quiet smile.
Marcus arrived a few minutes later carrying his camera bag and a black hoodie despite the warming morning. His short curls were neatly faded around the sides, and unlike the other three, he looked as though he had actually slept the night before. He stopped beside the SUV and studied the pile of luggage with the patient expression of someone already regretting agreeing to the trip.
"I thought we were packing light."
Ryan looked toward Tyler, who was still half buried in the back.
"We were."
Tyler's muffled voice came from somewhere inside the vehicle.
"We are."
Marcus raised an eyebrow but said nothing.
Evan watched the three of them for a moment, coffee warming his hand as the sky brightened overhead. This was what he had wanted. Not the carefully planned route or the national parks or the miles of highway waiting somewhere beyond the horizon, but this. The four of them together, before everything inevitably started changing.
They had finished their junior year at university less than a week earlier. Their final exams were over, their apartments were mostly packed away for the summer, and for the first time since they had met as freshmen, nobody had a paper due or a class waiting for them the following morning. They had spent years talking about what they would do after university, but those conversations had always felt distant. Graduation belonged to some future version of themselves.
Now that future was close enough to see.
Evan looked toward the road.
The neighborhood was beginning to wake. A garage door opened several houses down. A woman in a robe stepped onto a porch to collect a newspaper. Birds moved between the power lines, their silhouettes dark against the growing orange light.
For the next two weeks, none of that mattered.
There was only the road.
Ryan came around the front of the SUV and opened the passenger door, dropping his backpack onto the floor before climbing inside. He adjusted the seat, connected his phone to the stereo, and glanced over at Evan through the open window.
"You driving?"
Evan looked at him.
"Wasn't that the plan?"
"I just wanted to make sure."
Evan shook his head, smiling as he walked around the front of the vehicle.
By the time everyone was inside, the neighborhood had begun filling with morning light. Tyler and Marcus argued quietly over who had taken up too much space in the back while Ryan searched for the playlist he had spent several days putting together. Evan started the engine, and the familiar vibration of the SUV traveled through the steering wheel into his hands.
For a moment, nobody moved.
The house stood behind them with its porch light still glowing, the front door closed and the windows dark. Evan looked at it through the windshield and felt the strange weight of leaving something familiar behind, even though he knew they would be back in two weeks.
He shifted into drive.
The SUV rolled away from the curb.
Ryan lowered his window as they reached the end of the street, letting the cool morning air rush into the cabin. Evan glanced over at him as the first sunlight caught the side of his face, illuminating the warm brown of his hair and the faint green in his eyes. Ryan was looking out across the neighborhood, smiling faintly as the houses slipped past.
Neither of them said anything.
They didn't need to.
The university was somewhere behind them now, along with the apartments, the familiar streets, the classrooms, and the routines that had shaped most of their lives for the last three years.
Ahead of them, the highway stretched west beneath a sky turning slowly from blue to gold.
Evan pressed his foot a little harder against the accelerator, and the SUV carried all four of them toward the horizon.
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