Reclusive- s.r

twenty-three

"Get in closer to your mom. Yeah, just like that. Okay, smile, Auclair's!"

Celeste grins brightly in her royal blue cap and gown, snapping a few photos of me alongside my parents. I already took photos with my friends, both together and individually, and both of my parents on their own. My cheeks hurt from all this smiling, but I know I'll enjoy looking back at these photos down the road.

My mom takes her phone back from Celeste, and glances at the photo, "Do you think we need another one?"

"No!" Me and my father exclaim in unison, and he runs a hand across his face in annoyance. Celeste and Grace's parents are all at the house as well, and we all met here before the ceremony to crack open a celebratory glass of champagne, because we'd all made it this far. I snap a few photos of Celeste and her parents, smiling when I see her with a huge smile on her face as she hugs both of her parents.

"We really should be getting going if we want to get good seats," Grace's father chimes in, glancing at his watch then at the rest of us.

"Oh, we better get going then," Celeste's mother frowns just as my own mom chimes in, "It's alright, we can get more photos of you girls at the ceremony. We need some of you with your diplomas, too."

I roll my eyes at the mention of more photos, and we all pile into our separate cars and make our way to the outdoor section of campus where the graduation is being held. I'm grateful that it's not raining, because otherwise that would be a shitty thing, and my hair and makeup would get ruined. I smooth down the royal blue silk of my gown in the front seat, and I duck to avoid the matching hat hitting the ceiling of the car. I couldn't even take it out if I wanted to because my mom put a few bobby pins in it to keep it in place and to not mess up my hair.

They let me out at the front while they go to find a decent parking spot, and I follow the crows of blue until I find my other classmates, and all of them starting to get lined up by professors helping out. I'm scanning the crowd for my friends, and also for the one person I'd been wanting to see today. I ended up having to buy a new phone after the bathtub incident, because the rice had made it turn on, but it had too much water damage that I could barely use it.

I'm supposed to be at the front of the line, since my last name is Auclair, so I glance through the sea of blue silk and try and find the R's, but I don't see him yet. He has to be here by now, because knowing him, he was standing here, ready two hours ago. I take a mental note of who I'm standing beside and ditch my place in the line to make my way down to try and find him.

"Hi, sorry, what letter is this?" I ask the first person I see, tapping him on the shoulder lightly. He glances at me for a moment and responds with the letter P, so I know I must be getting close. Sure enough, when I take a few more steps, I spot him, standing taller than other people, in his cap and gown that swallows him whole, and I push through the crowd to try and get to him.

He perks up when he sees me pushing through and gives me a bright smile, and when I stand in front of him, I return the same gesture. My feelings for him have't gone away, and if anything, I think the butterflies in my stomach have become worse being away from him. Spending so much time alone has made me realize just how much I love having him around.

"Hi, Vee," he greets me quietly. "You look great."

"So do you," I respond, meaning every single word. "You nervous?" He nods his head, and I'm instantly agreeing with him. Mainly because I hate wearing heels, and I'm terrified of falling on the stage in front of everyone. That's the last thing I want to be remembered for.

"I've been trying to get a hold of you-"

"My phone was broken," I respond, and he looks skeptical to believe me but it's the truth. "I dropped it in the bathtub, so I had it in rice for four days, which is two more days than I was supposed to. Then it still wasn't working so I had to go get a new one, and well, yeah, you know."