How Green Becomes Wood

"I'm awful at guessing ages, so if asked, I always go ten to twenty years younger than my first guess," Alec grinned as he climbed into the van.

Xander opened the back of the van and helped Milo load the bike safely into the back. Once he was certain it was secure, he closed the doors and opened the sliding door for Milo to climb in before getting into the driver's seat.
 
"I wonder if we'll get sensitive about it when we get older?" Alec mused. "It's kind of funny. Most kids can't wait to hit the milestones - 13, 16, 18 - but then it's like this dread about aging sets in about... 21 ish?"

"25 seems to be a big one," Xander said, checking the area thoroughly before pulling out. Parking lots were the most terrifying part of driving. Especially school parking lots. "Then 30."

"Right," Alec nodded. "And I don't know how I'm going to feel after 18 and then 20 and so on, but I kind of hope we all keep looking forward to those milestones!"
 
"I don't think I really care much about getting older, but I might if I start feeling like I'm not achieving anything. Although, right now, I don't know if there's anything I want to achieve, besides the obvious of, you know, not dying." Milo said mildly, looking at everything which passed by as they drove.
 
Xander shrugged. "Sometimes we gotta learn more about ourselves or the world to decide what we want to achieve, and sometimes those achievements change," he commented.

"Wise words from the driver," Alec said, tugging lightly on his seatbelt. "Not dying is an excellent achievement, and not all achievements can be judged the same, but I hope you can find some that make you passionate and happy!"
 
"I think we all eat too many fortune cookies," Milo mused, fidgeting with his camera, although he wasn't taking any photographs right now. Throughout everything he had been to since moving to this area, he had never stopped taking photographs of everything, including the boring bits, but he was occupied looking out the window. Honestly, he hadn't really planned for anything, besides knowing he wanted to go to college, because he wasn't sure any plan would actually come through for him. That also hadn't really changed, even as everything else seemed to be truly constant.
 
"Probably!" Alec laughed. "I don't have a lot of actual plans for the future, but I do have so many ambitions! I think I might want to go the college route, but I'm not sure what I'd study. What about you two?"

"Maybe trade school. College isn't for me," Xander mumbled.
 
"I want to go to college. I also don't really know what I'd study, but I promised my dad I'd go, and I do kinda like learning. It's the peers I don't like." Milo rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, and then with a little grin added, "I bet I'd write one hell of an entrance essay. Admission boards love to hear about hardships."
 
Xander actually laughed at that and then reddened slightly as if embarrassed by how funny he'd found that.

"You will love college! I hear it's a lot quieter than high school, especially if you don't get into a party school," Alec grinned.
 
"I wouldn't apply to a party school," Milo said, glancing away from the window, "I'm not sure where I'd apply to, or where I'd be accepted, but I know I wouldn't go to a party school. My worst nightmare is being placed with someone who is loud all of the time."
 
"That's true, I could." Milo agreed, not bringing up that he didn't feel anywhere near a strong enough of an attachment to this town for familiar surroundings to be comforting to him. There may have been some people he liked, but that didn't make the town feel like home, and visiting with familiar people, even ones he liked, wouldn't save him when his social battery was being drained by a roommate. But he didn't like being the constantly negative friend, so he did his best to not be.
 
"Then at least if you stayed closer, you wouldn't need to move away and could theoretically stay with your grandparents, which might not be optimal, but at least then you wouldn't have to learn a whole new roommate!" Alec babbled blithely.

"Or you two could go to the same school and room together. I'm sure that would work fine," Xander said in a very mild tone.

Alec glanced at Milo and then out the window. "Yes, I wouldn't be utterly draining and annoy him at all," he half laughed uncomfortably.
 
"I don't want to live with my grandparents." Milo said, having still not fully forgiven them, "If my mom can't take me back in two years, I'm going to move back in with her when I'm eighteen and everything is my decision. I can live with her while I'm in college."
 
Alec felt Milo was still looking at living with his mother through incredibly thick rose-tinted glasses, and the result was not going to be the fairytale he dreamed it was going to be. Not that he thought Milo's mother was going to relapse, no, he felt she had a lot going for her this time around, but he was allowing his bitterness to cloud the good things he did have (not that it was surprise, and Alec didn't blame him one bit) in favor for a rosey ending that was going to be, at best, incredibly awkward. He didn't say anything, though, knowing that Milo wouldn't want to hear it and definitely wouldn't be accepting of it. It was pointless and nothing more than an argument.

Instead, Alec asked, "What kind of ice cream are you getting? I'm going for mint chocolate chip!"

"Vanilla," Xander stated, leading the way to the door of the ice cream parlor.
 
"I told you. It's my treat. Don't look at the prices and just get what you want," Alec encouraged. He paused and added, "Well, maybe reign it in just a little and don't get like a fice-scoop monstrosity with every topping available."

Xander snickered. "Darn. That's what I wanted to get."
 
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