Falling

58

Carson Hughes

June, day of graduation

This was simultaneously an end and a beginning. An end to high school and childhood, and the beginning of the rest of my life.

I was happy to finally throw my cap up in the air and walk off the football field where our graduation was held. It was hot, the ceremony was long, and I wasn't sitting near any of my friends.

Logan and Dana were already together by the time I found them, Logan's arm around her and Dana's hand on her very pregnant stomach as they talked to the Taylors and my mom. Dana was only two weeks away from her due date and we were all anxiously waiting for baby Taylor.

"Hey sweetie!" Mom called out, holding her arms out for me to walk into. "My high school graduate!"

I laughed as I pulled her into my arm, then hugged Jeff and Val before standing between Logan and my mom.

"The three of you get close for a picture," Mom demanded, holding up her phone. Val nodded in agreement, taking out her own phone.

"I'm really going to have it immortalized that I looked like this on graduation day," Dana said, gesturing toward her stomach.

"Hush, you look beautiful Dana," Val told her. "And we can show little baby Taylor she was at your graduation."

Logan and Dana had found out they were having a girl, but they were being secretive with names, so all of us had taken to calling her "baby Taylor" since Dana had already decided the baby would take Logan's last name.

The three of us posed for pictures, and as we did, Isaac, Archie, and Hadley came up behind us and joined.

"Where's Vincent?" Jeff asked, looking around the crowded area for his other son.

"He's with his friends," Logan answered, gesturing to where Vinny stood with a group of people.

Since Vinny joined the track team, he had come out of his shell a bit and made some new friends, along with Spencer and Marina. His relationship with those two was a lot better than it was, but I wasn't sure it was ever go back to how it was before everything happened.

Val went over to Vinny's group and took some pictures of them together. Then, she took pictures of just Vinny, Spencer, and Marina before bringing Vinny and Spencer over to us.

Vinny said some parting words with Tyler, one of his track teammates, and brought Spencer over to the group. Spencer immediately went to Isaac's side and the two shared a kiss.

Vinny came to my side with a small smile and bumped his hip into mine.

"Hey," he said.

I grinned. "Hi."

Mom and Val stood in front of the two of us, taking candid pictures as we both looked at each other.

"Okay, now look at the camera," Val said, holding her phone in front of her face.

Vinny threw his arm around my waist and planted a giant grin on his face. I looked down at him with a smile for a moment just as Val snapped another picture, before throwing my arm around Vinny's shoulders and looking at my mom and Val.