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Seventeen is infinitely better than sixteen because seventeen has a whole brand new world to go with it and when they’re sixteen they have each other.
Things are okay when they’re seventeen.
They all move up to New York and stay in Rose’s giant mansion (it doesn’t feel empty, Rose thinks, even though it’s missing the sound of her mother’s vacuum at 2 in the morning when she’s trying to sleep.) because it has the most rooms besides Jade’s house but none of them are willing to be that alone again, on an island in the middle of the ocean where they could be the only people left.
There’s money in the bank and money in the safe and money coming in from business and they’re definitely not going to have to work for a very long time, or ever if they want to (they don’t know at this point)
John buys a car. He’s the only one who knows how to drive because for some reason he insisted on learning, tearing the car that used to belong to his dad over the bluegray stone of the LOWAS streets at wind-assisted speeds, but always stopping nice and slow, always wearing his seatbelt, always hands at ten and two.
It’s a nice car. Baby blue, convertible, with a look like it was ripped straight out of the fifties. Terrible gas mileage. They all love it.
John smiles when the wind whips at his face and sometimes on empty patches of road he’ll close his eyes and just let himself melt into it.
Its summer and they fake the paperwork to get into school next year (they want to go to college some day, they want to learn new things) and pretend they have parents like all the other kids.
They drive to the mall with a box of sidewalk chalk and Rose drinks a strawberry milkshake (she passes it to Dave after she takes a sip and he can feel his own mouth smearing her charcoal black lipstick down the straw) while Jade and John draw bluegreen squares on the worn linoleum.
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John slides his flat oval stone too far and it crashes into the Macy’s wall
Rose and Jade carefully cling to each other as they balance tentatively on the same square
Dave pushes them over but John catches
They get thrown out by security
(but they’ll be back, John’s array of crude disguises has only managed to grow)
John pulls the car out of the parking lot (the top’s down - that’s the default. if anyone tried to steal the thing they’d be in for a very nasty, frosting flavored surprise) and Jade complains about her hair getting whipped into her face because she’s the only one who has it long enough to matter
Stray strands stick to her chapstick and Rose reaches from behind her (Jade called shotgun) to carefully pull them off while Jade’s hands are otherwise occupied trying to wrench the wheel out of John’s hands
They get honks and yells and middle fingers but they couldn’t even care a little bit because if nobody’s getting hurt then there’s no reason to fret. There’s no reason to worry.
When they get home (it’s not just ‘the house’ anymore its a home. something solid to come back to) Jade pulls out her bass and she and Dave work on their new ‘jams’ while Rose works on her knitting in front of the T.V and John cooks dinner.
Dave knocks Jade’s amp onto a high enough setting that John and Rose can hear it from the first floor and Rose shouts up a barely audible message of approval.
John agrees.
Dinner that night is spaghetti and meatballs.
* * *
The next morning they drive down to Denny’s because it the shittest, most cliched place Dave can think of to go to for breakfast
‘im hungry bro’ mumbled into John’s ear with last night’s stale spaghetti-breath.
Jade yawned and ‘same!’d from her spot on john’s other side and unraveled her arms from around his face to rub at her eyes and find her glasses. She slides John’s onto his face too and the metal is cold oh the backs of her ears because of the AC blasting through the room at night
It’s hot in a bed with four people.
Rose slips back into the thin shirt that she must have taken off sometime during the night and rolls onto the floor to make her way into the bathroom
John won’t cook (he always cooks! geez!!) and nobody else can produce something edible yet so they all hop into the car and then they’re at Denny’s
They all order their own food but it turns into a communal plate after an hour or so of John sneaking pancakes and whipped cream away from Dave and Rose sliding her fork across the table to get a bite or two of John’s omelette. They don’t mind.
Dave drinks apple juice
Jade has chocolate milk
John has coffee (black)
Rose orders herself a pot of breakfast tea and adds a spoon of sugar here or there.
Then, they order cheese fries too because they’re 17 and they aren’t sure they’re ever going to not be hungry.
On their way home they see an ancient looking couch with a flower pattern tackier than the 20 foot tall wizard statue they still keep in the foyer.
‘FREE’ reads the sign
Jade shrinks it down and sticks it in her pocket and they have no idea what they’re going to do with it or why they even took it but they all knew that they needed it.
A few miles later Jade magically slams John’s foot down on the breaks and jumps out of the car, dragging them all behind her.
John captchalogues the car and Jade enlarges the sofa so it’s big again and she dumps it in the island between the streets. The other three sit down, just rolling along with it because they really don’t have anything else to do today
or ever.
Dave flops with his ass half on Rose and half on John even though there’s more than enough room.
Jade comes back with a sign that says “FREE HUGS” and they count the number of people who stop which isn’t that many but they understand that other people have important responsibilities. They understand how that feels.
They wave at the cars that don’t stop, men and women on their way back to work from an early lunch, suits and ties and bluetooth cell phones.
It feels good to touch people.
* * *
In the evenings that follow Jade makes note of the things that are new to her
Skyscrapers
Paved roads
Rollerskating
She can’t remember when she started making the list, but she writes down all the things she wants to do and when she’s done them, the marks them off with a little smiley face.
go to the top of the empire state building! :)
ride in an airplane :) :) :)
eat at a fancy restaurant :D
And of course John and Dave and Rose will always come along for the ride.
They spend hours of their days pursuing menial tasks just to make the others smile.
Jade searches through a craft store for hours to find just the right stationary for Rose. She wants to start writing again, and Jade thinks the little kitty notebook would be perfect.
Rose spends a week trying to locate someone with a crane who’d help her get the grand piano she bought up into the observatory. She knows John likes it up there with all the stars and the open space and he’s mentioned a time or two that he misses his piano.
John spends 3 days weaving in and out of record stores to find the vinyl Dave wants. He sees CDs and cassettes of the same album, and he sees older vinyl records, ones in poorer quality in replacement sleeves, but he knows it just won’t be the same. Even if they didn’t have nigh-unlimited funds, John would have still found a way to shell out the near two hundred dollars the thing cost.
Dave spends two weeks trying to find a ritzy hotel that’ll book four seventeen year olds, but Jade says she’s always thought it would be neat to get room service, so he does it. More than a few people need to be bribed but being together, the four of them
in a pile of pristine white comforters, overlooking the city
full of people - full of the people they saved
and just knowing that they can rest and that
they’re not important anymore.
They can be children.
It’s perfect.
They are seventeen, and they are in love.