Amber has always thought that sneaking out in the middle of the night for a road trip with her friends would be fun. Like all in those movies that she watched. But instead, it’s annoying and exasperating and it’s taking every ounce of her being not to blare the horns because that would wake everyone up and that’s the last thing she wants to happen. All of these just because Henry can’t ing climb down his window.

“Henry just climb down already!” Amber hisses. It’s 4 AM. She’s sleepy and hungry. She doesn’t have time for this. The window from the backseat opened and Amy, Eric and Gen poke their heads out.

“Can you please hurry up? I’m hungry.” Amy quips.

“Yo, if you want I can catch you.” Gen offers with a chuckle. “Just come down.”

“You’re not even that far up, Henry. Come on, dude.” Eric says, glancing at his wristwatch.

“What if I break my arm?” Henry asks nervously. Amber sees him look down and she notices the intake of breath and the tightening of his grip on his bag. Okay, now she feels kind of bad. She sighs and gets out of the car.

“You’re not gonna break your arm.” Amber says a bit more gently this time. She knows how much he values his hands what with being a violinist and just nine months ago - a guitarist of their band. But they have to move fast if they want this road trip to actually happen. “Look, use the tree to climb down. You’re not going to fall, I promise.”

Henry looks at her for a moment, worry still etched on his face and hands nervously gripping the straps of his bag. She gives him an encouraging nod and there’s another deep intake of breath before he tosses his bag to her and slowly climbs out of his window and down the tree. She winces when he almost lost his footing and yelped but luckily, no one came down to check on what the hell’s happening. When his feet land safely on the ground, he flashes her a wide grin and Amber rolls her eyes before tossing his bag back to him.

“Let’s get this road trip on the road!” Henry exclaims as he settles down the passenger’s seat like he wasn’t so scared for his life just a few moments before.

“Can we have a cooler set off than that?” Amy asks just as Amber drives off.

They stop by at a convenience store to buy coffee and breakfast and they almost left Amy because she took too long in deciding how many sandwiches she should get. Amber told her to just get all of them which she happily obliged and joins Eric in paying for the coffees while Amber gets back to the car to join Henry and Gen in taking selfies.

They drive up to a hill where it’s the perfect spot to see the sunrise and they’ve got food and a guitar and all the giggles and laughters youth has to offer. She sits down beside Henry who hands her a grilled cheese sandwich and coffee. She smiles and thanks him, watching as Amy settles down next to Eric, grinning excitedly as she looks at the horizon while Gen takes the guitar out of the case and starts improvising, playing random chords and plucking strings to go along with it. Amber smiles wider, looking out at the horizon, too, as the sun begins to rise.

The whole thing was Eric’s idea, surprisingly. He’s always been good at following rules so when he suggested that they go on their own graduation road trip instead of their school’s actual graduation trip, they baptized him with a new name - Rick (which he actually hates, by the way). So now, here they are, a bunch of teenagers who snuck off their houses, ditched the graduation trip, and wasting their whole savings on gas and convenience store food just to have one last bad decision before college happen.

When the sun peeks out of the horizon, Henry wraps an arm around her shoulder, squeezing her lightly. She looks up at him, smile almost as bright as the sun in front of them.

“I’m glad we did this.” He says.

Amber grins. “Me, too.”

“So,” Eric starts. “Where to next?”

The plan was simple: busk in every place they can. So Henry buys a map of the entire city of Los Angeles and circled every busking spot that he knows. With their stomachs full and hearts thumping excitedly, they drive down the hill and back to the city that awaits them.

It’s only 7 AM but there are already a lot of people on the subway. People rushing to work, school and appointments. Amber watches them with keen eyes. Never mind that adults give them looks of disdain, probably thinking that they should be in school but who cares what they think anyways? This is their one last bad decision before they become one of them. Amber’s not gonna waste any time.

They set up the amplifiers and she sits down on her cajon, counting down the beat. Henry and Gen’s guitars come in along with Eric’s keyboards and Amy’s voice soon follows.

The band was Henry and Gen’s idea. Amber was not there when they came up with the it (she’s still a little bit bitter about that) but she was the first one they recruited. Being best friends with Henry since middle school apparently makes them a package deal, according to him. Besides, she’s an awesome drummer, he added.

Finding a vocalist was easy enough. They didn’t hold an audition for it because that would be stupid when Amy exists within Amber’s circle of friends and she’s the best singer she knows. And just like that, she’s in. But then, Henry decided that they need someone on keyboards and since he’s already on rhythm guitar, he can’t really fill that place. Amy suggested Eric and they didn’t even know that Eric plays until Henry and Amber cornered him.

Afterglow, is what they decided to call themselves. After a lot of arguing and Amber forbidding Henry to contribute in naming the band, they collectively agreed on that. It wasn’t much but it’s still a name and you can’t be a band without a name. And with that, they started having jam sessions twice a week.

It was quite fitting, Amber thinks, forming a band on their last year of high school. It feels like the perfect way to end being young and reckless.

When Eric hits the last chord, Amy mumbles thank you in the mic, looking back at her bandmates, smiling. Amber smiles and starts the next song.

“I’m hungry.” Henry states, slinging an arm around Gen’s neck and peeking over Eric’s shoulder who’s currently counting the money they got from the subway. It must have been a curious sight, seeing five teenagers huddled up on a corner of a street, counting money.

“So, how much?” Amber asks, leaning forward to take a peek, too.

“32 dollars and 59 cents.” Eric says with a sigh, stuffing the money on a small pouch.

“That’s not bad.” Gen has always been an optimistic, a trait that he probably got from hanging out with Henry too much.

“Yeah, I mean, it is our first time.” Amy smiles, patting Eric’s shoulder.

“Let’s buy food with it.” Amber suggests and she can practically feel Henry perking up beside her.

“Yes, please. Let’s do it.” Henry is already bouncing at the balls of his feet. Amber suddenly misses her dog.

They ended up buying milkshakes on a nearby fast food and arguing over who’s going to drive next. Amber stays clear of the argument because she drove first, sighing impatiently and stealing a sip from Henry’s strawberry milkshake. When Gen finally ended the argument by volunteering, they switched to arguing over the setlist. Amber wonders how they managed to stay together as a band for nine months.

Henry fixes the setlist as Gen drives to the next location, constantly nodding off to sleep as he tries to decide what original songs to play and when to play the covers. Amber sees Eric shake his head at him from the passenger’s seat, taking a neck pillow out of his bag and tossing it to Henry. It hits him square on the face and Amber and Amy laugh as Henry glares at Eric but accepts the pillow anyways. Amber takes the piece of scrap paper he’s been writing the setlist on as he leans on her and soon enough, falls asleep with his side pressed against her, squeezing both Amber and Amy to the corner.

“Seriously, this guy.” Amber hisses, pushing Henry but he’s too asleep to budge. Amy offers to draw on his face. Amber grins. Now she knows why she’s friends with her.

Henry ends up playing half a set with a drawn on cat whiskers and moustache and chases Amy and Amber around the park, leaving Gen and Eric in a fit of amused laughter.

They earned $28.95 and a box of donuts that Henry was able to charm out of a very flustered girl. Amber hits him on the head but takes one out of the box, anyways. They decided to save the money and drive straight to Santa Monica Pier. Amy volunteers to drive and Gen sits at the back, laughing at Henry who’s still trying to wipe the remnants of Amber and Amy’s masterpiece off his face. In the passenger’s seat, Eric sings along to the radio, feet up on the dashboard and was later joined by Amy. Soon enough, the five of them are singing along to Don’t Stop Believin’, rolling their windows down and letting the summer breeze caress their skins and tangle their hair.

They found a decent spot by the pier and Amy switches with Henry for one song. Amy and Gen starts the song and Henry turns on his charm that apparently makes girls go crazy and actually fancy him.

It’s two o’clock on the edge of the morning

She’s running magical circles around my head

Amber sees a couple of girls whispering and giggling to themselves. She snorts and shakes her head. What they see in Henry, she doesn’t know. The mystery of this world never ends.

I hit a ride on the dream she’s driving

She turns to kiss me, I crash back into bed

Henry turns to look at her, smiling and she feels the ends of her lips curling up. His smile turns into a grin and he winks at her, chuckling when she makes a face and pretends to gag.

It’s packed at the pier so they actually had a fair amount of people crowding around them. Amber hears people singing along and waving their arms when Henry urges them to. She makes eye contact with Eric whose eyes are almost disappearing behind his glasses as he smiles widely, feet tapping along his keyboards. Gen comes in with the harmonies and she sings along, too, her palm never missing a beat. Amy has on her signature megawatt smile as she strums the guitar, bending down slightly when she sees a little girl approaching her.

Amber looks around. Being at the back most of the time, her perspective is a bit different from the four of them. She sees things that they don’t see - she sees how Eric steals glances from Amy and how oblivious the latter is; sees the way Henry nervously looks at Gen everytime they perform a song that he wrote and the way he positions himself so he can still see her through his peripheral vision. She knows he does it unconsciously but there’s a part of her who wishes he won’t notice it just so he can keep doing it. Because despite how she treats him, she’s just as ridiculously attached to him as much as he is to her.

Amber thought the band wouldn’t work, seeing that her and Henry alone are already chaos together and adding a sarcastic Eric, a surprisingly very normal (sometimes Too Normal) Gen, and a free-spirited Ailee to the mix is nothing short of a disaster. They argue a lot, sometimes over the most mundane things. But when they play together, as soon as she counts down the beat, everything just clicks and falls into place.

She feels something inside her crack as she realizes that all these would be over soon.

It’s near sunset when they decided to call it a day, packing up their instruments and settling down the beach, cooler out and soda cans in hand. Soon, the sky is painted pink and orange and they watch in silence as the sun sets, letting the sound of the waves crashing into the shore and the distant chatter of the nearby amusement park fill in the quietness, letting it replace the things that they can’t bring themselves to say.

“So,” It’s Amber who decides to break the silence when the sun has almost completely gone down and the breeze is starting to get cold. She lays down the sand with a sigh, hands behind her head. “My acceptance letter came in last night.”

She feels four pairs of eyes turning to look at her and she grins.

“From where?” Amy asks, grinning excitedly.

Amber sits up and she can’t help but be infected by her excitement. “UCLA.”

Amy squeals and tackles her in a hug, giggling. Eric, Gen and Henry laughs, taking turns in ruffling Amber’s hair (or in Henry’s case, kiss her cheek. Amber shoves him into the sand, of course). She’s one of the last ones to apply to a university because she waited for Henry to send his and he took his time making sure his applications were perfect. Amy’s already set in Pace University in New York while Gen and Eric are both going to Boston - getting their letters from Berklee and Boston College, respectively, a few days ago and celebrating by nicking vodka from Amy’s dad’s collection and drunkenly talking about their future under the blanket of stars and a ratty comforter (which Amber threw up on half an hour later). Henry’s the only one left and Amber’s already excited on how they’re going to celebrate it.

“When’s your letter coming?” She asks, looking up at Henry still with the grin on her face. She sees his smile falter a little as he stayed quiet for a minute, letting air out of his nose. From the corner of her eye, she notices Gen looking pointedly at him.

“Juilliard rejected me.”

Time seems to stand still at that moment and Henry chuckles humorlessly as they all stare at him in shock. They were so sure he’s going to get in. There really was no question.

“, Henry...” Eric trails off, unsure of what to say.

Henry chuckles again, shaking his head. “It’s cool. It’s not like I don’t have a Plan B. I got into Berklee. I already got my letter and all that.” There’s an intake of breath. “We’re out of snacks. I’m just gonna go get more.”

He gets up without another word and leaves. They look at Gen who just sighs.

“It wasn't my place to tell you guys.” He says, slumping back on the sand.

Amy motions for her to follow him and she nods, standing up and going to where they parked the car. She sees him leaning against the door, looking blankly on the other side of the beach.

“You okay?” She asks, leaning against the car door as well. He gives her a brief glance before turning his attention back to the space in front of him.

“You know what I just realized? I spent more than half of my life trying to be good enough for Julliard.” He answers, chuckling darkly. “I sacrificed sleep, I sacrificed summers playing with you guys. It’s all I’ve ever known. I’m too stupid to believe that I actually had a chance.”

Amber is silent for a while and they stand there, watching people laugh and play in the sand, listening as the waves crashing to the shore accompany their laughter. She remembers the first summer of middle school and how she thought it was weird that he turned down going to the beach and having fun with her just so he can stay at his violin teacher’s house to practice. She remembers thinking, who needs a whole summer to practice violin? Amber was never really a perceptive kid.

“Maybe this is a sign.” She finally says.

Henry almost chuckles. “A sign of what? That i’m a complete failure?”

“A sign that you should stop striving for perfection. You’re more than enough, Henry. Your talent, it’s more than enough. Stop being so scared of failures. They don’t happen to bring you down, they happen so that you can start all over again. Juilliard is one school, Henry. Yeah sure, it’s quote unquote, the best, but maybe you don’t need the best. Maybe, the best isn’t the right one for you.”

Henry is still silent, unmoving, and hopefully letting everything she said sink in.

“Do you regret all the sacrifices that you made?” She asks when he still wouldn’t respond.

He finally looks at her, eyes still uncertain but there’s already a small smile on his lips. “No.”

“Good.” Amber smiles back.

“Maybe Berklee could be my reset button?”

She grins. “Definitely.”

Henry grins back and suddenly, Amber is being pulled into a hug and his face is buried on her shoulder. There's a gentle squeeze and she smiles, wrapping her arms around his waist.

“Thanks, Am. You’re the only one I have.” He says, voice muffled by her shirt.

“Wrong, idiot.” She pulls away for a moment, grinning. Henry looks confused. “You have three other idiots who got your back.” She her head to where Amy, Gen and Eric are watching and Amber sees how they pretended that they’re not staring.

“You’re right.” Henry chuckles. “We’re all just a bunch of idiots, then.”

Henry goes back to his normal way too excited over everything self, laughing and pulling Amber towards the sea. She shrieks as he dumps her into the water, cursing and swearing that she’s going to kill him. Henry laughs and runs towards Eric who clearly doesn’t want anything to do with it. Amber smirks and nods at Henry. Despite Eric’s screams of protest, they managed to carry him and fling him to the water, both of them laughing as Eric resurfaces, sputtering water and glaring at them. Amy and Gen run back to the car before those three get any ideas on throwing them in as well.

When Henry, Amber and Eric return to the car a good half an hour later, they’re still damp and carrying five hotdog sandwiches and bottled water.

“Dinner.” Henry grins. They get on the car, getting the car seats wet and Amber cringes. Running away is one thing, ruining the car seats is another. Her sister’s going to kill her.

Amy turns the radio on and they sing along until their stomachs are full and their throats are sore, worries and uncertainties of their futures forgotten as they get drunk on the last sips of their youth.

Before they know it, they’re watching the sun rise again. They’ve reached the end.

Amber sighs and she feels Henry grip her hand, squeezing it lightly and she looks up to see him smiling sleepily at her. She squeezes back, a silent reminder that she’s always gonna be there, no matter how far Boston is from L.A. Amy looks at them from the front seat, flashing her signature smile at them. Amber wonders how she’s gonna survive not seeing that smile as often as she wants to.

“I’m glad we did this.” Amy says.

Amber couldn’t be more thankful that they did this. Henry grins at Amy before reaching for his bag and taking out what looks like a bunch of CDs.

“My graduation gift to you guys.” He says, still grinning. “It’s not much but I hope you’ll like it.”

It’s a demo CD, Amber realizes as she takes one. All their original songs that they recorded in Henry’s makeshift studio is made into a CD, complete with an album cover and all. The cover is a picture of them in Gen’s garage where they usually practice, and they’re all laughing at something Amber can’t remember (probably one of Henry’s lame jokes). She smiles.

“I can’t believe you actually did this.” Gen says and Amber thinks his face is going to split from grinning too much. “Is this what you’ve been doing for the past two months?”

Henry smiles shyly and nods. “Wasn’t easy.”

“This is amazing, thank you.” Amy smiles and Amber sees that she’s close to tears. Singing has always been something that she loves but is ultimately too scared to pursue it as a career even though she’s wonderful at it. Having her voice on a CD in an actual band must have meant a lot to her. “I would hug you but I’m too lazy to get up.”

“I’ll do it for you, then.” Eric says with a grin as he jumps over the gear lever to tackle Henry into a hug. Amy laughs as Henry whines. Amber laughs with her and outside, the sun is peeking at them, almost as if it knows that their time is almost up.

When the laughter has subsided and the sun has finally risen, they drive home.

Amber rolls her window down, glancing at Henry who was driving and at the three in the backseat, smiling. Amy and Eric fell asleep leaning against each other while Gen is snuggled to the corner of his seat, snoring against Eric’s neck pillow.

Amber chuckles. “We are just a bunch of idiots.”

Henry snorts. “Yes we are.”

The wind tangles her hair and the sun splatters against Henry’s pale skin. What a perfect way to end their recklessness.

Sometimes we break but never notice how far we’ve run.