The Last Time We Met

27

By week's end I had received acceptance letters from all the colleges I'd applied to, and Cedric had heard from Berkeley. His text about it consisted of a screen's worth of confetti and fireworks emojis with the word BERKELEY in the center.

Now I had to really imagine a life where we'd be apart for four years, only seeing each other on the weekends, if that.

That night, as I rolled out crust for artisan pizza, I asked Mom when I could see Cedric again. "I mean, it's been weeks. He's quarantined, I'm quarantined. Don't you think it would be okay for us to see each other?"

Mom took a long sip of wine from her spot across the counter, where she had paused in chopping artichoke hearts and cherry tomatoes. "I don't know about that."

"I mean, he says his mom is taking extra precautions when she gets home from work."

"Still."

"And she doesn't even work directly with COVID patients. She's in oncology."

Picking up her knife again, Mom said, "Let me think about it."

All night I drifted along, thinking about the possibility of seeing Cedric again. Having him close, in real life, touching him, it would make everything better. I'd be able to see that he wasn't about to drop dead of COVID.

I was about to head upstairs to call him so we could decide which show to watch together when Mom stopped me. "I don't want you to get your hopes up," Mom said, and the fact that she could barely meet my eyes told everything. "I need you to hang on for just a couple more weeks. Hopefully by May, all of this nonsense will be over."

May? I wanted to scream. It was only the second week of April. I wasn't sure I could handle two more weeks of not seeing Cedric, not the way April already felt like it had lasted three months. But what I said was, "Okay."

I needed to do something. Something more than calling him every day. Prom had originally been scheduled for sometime in May. May 16th?

Between classes, I scoured the internet for ideas. There were a lot of elaborate promposals out there, but none of them seemed to fit me, or Cedric. I needed something about us, not what other people had done.

Have you seen these idiots? Cedric texted me in the middle of all this, and in the middle of my Trigonometry class.

What idiots?

He sent a link that led me to an article about a mob of people protesting the COVID lockdown in Michigan. People, some with masks and some without, carrying signs like I NEED A HAIRCUT and EVERY JOB IS ESSENTIAL.

Wow was all I could think to reply.

Right?? They're all going to get COVID and die.

After Trig I sorted through my negatives. I didn't have a lightbox to make it easier to look at them, and I also didn't have a dark room to make more prints. But I had some prints of the photographs I'd taken of Cedric, and some of the two of us that had been posted online. And Mom had a scanner on her printer downstairs.

By May, I could convince Mom to let me see Cedric in person. In the meantime, I'd have to improvise.

I texted Eli. Hey, do you have any of those cardboard standups from the movie theater I could borrow?

You that desperate for companionship? Eli texted back, with some cry laughing emojis.

I have this idea for a promposal

Eli sent back the big eye emoji. Tell me more

I explained my plan, and Eli decided that while it would be funnier to use the Pennywise standup from the new IT movies, Peeta from the Hunger Games would work better, and besides, The Hunger Games is so 2012.