Say The Word

Chapter 33- Great, Four Years High School Sentence Finished But Also What The F-

Flashes from cameras filled my vision as I went on stage to receive my graduation scroll. I had walked on the stage no less than 400 times by now with all the rehearsals before the actual thing. It felt completely different from the rehearsals as expected and my heart did a little happy flip. Papa was in the crowd, his white coat still on, trying his best to take a good photo of me receiving the empty scroll (the papers would be given later so, yes, the scrolls were just for show but it was still fun). Wonderful, I finally got out of high school, which means I had to choose where I wanted to go for my foundation, totally not jumping from one school to another.

"Mon chou!" papa called out, pulling me into a hug the moment I stepped down from the stage. "Félicitations*, mon ange."

"Merci, papa," I was grinning like an idiot into papa's clothes, the smell of hospital was thick but it did not matter to me, papa was there and it was all I cared. Well, at least until Vati decided it was a great idea to interrupt us by clearing his throat.

"Ah, sorry, I forgot to tell you he was coming," papa scratched his head.

"It i- It's alright, papa, I don't really mind." Of course I had to lie, of course. (Seriously, I have to stop doing that.)

"Glückwünsch, gut gemacht*, Vava," Vati walked towards us, handing me a bouquet of flowers.

"Did you not say you would not bring anything for Vastel? Full of surprises as always, I see," papa casually commented. He reached past my hesitant extended hand and took the flowers for me. They were some sort of blue and white flowers with some yellow roses, which are the only flowers I could see clearly.

"I just thought maybe the kid could use some flowers," he shrugged. "It's a graduation ceremony after all, flowers are a must."

The air was getting a little awkward when the conversation died down with no one knowing what to say. That was when, thankfully, Elly walked over to us, waving.

"Hey, Vastel and Vastel's dad," she greeted papa and I before noticing Vati. "And, uh...Vastel's..."

"Other dad," Vati continued it for her. "Hi, and you are?"

She visibly panicked. "I'm Elly, Vastel's friend, sir. I'm sorry I-"

"It's okay; you aren't the first one to be so surprised. Vava didn't tell me he has such a cute friend though, love that jacket."

"T-thank you, sir, I picked it up myself. Sorry, I meant, uh, I-"

"Oh, no, no need to call me sir, Elly. Just go with whatever you want, Mr. Rotenberg, Leon, Vastel's other dad, Vastel's dad; whichever you're comfortable with."

Papa's ringtone cut through the sore atmosphere. He handed me the flowers as he excused himself. Elly took the time to tell me about the class photos going on in the field.

"Go, you two, I'll tell him that you went for photos," Vati sent us off with a smile that in more than one way irked my heart.

So we went; his flowers in my hands. As we passed a trash can, I considered throwing the flowers away, as rude as that may sound, I really did not want anything to do with him. He cannot just show up at my graduation ceremony, gift me some flowers and act like I still needed him. Fortunately for his flowers (and unfortunately for me), Elly stopped me.

"I don't think you should throw those away, Vassy," she said. It was not meant to sound sarcastic, I knew that. Just that it did sound mildly irritating or it could have just been that my judgement was clouded by Vati's presence, either way; I was a little more than slightly annoyed.

"Why? It is not like I need it anyway, who cares what he gives me, I don't want it."

"I'm guessing you don't like him very much but the flowers he gave you, he's trying to say sorry."