Watermelons (SUNTAN)

Epilogue

It had been almost a year since the incident.

All those hospital trips,

All those nerve racking rides ,

All of them now for a now peaceful life.

Those same young faces from before Maris death, were all graduating today.

It was smiles all across the biggest room in the school. Families proud of their children, children that had better things to do, teachers both disappointed yet excited for the years ahead.

It was really the end of a chapter. Wasn't it?

If only it hadn't felt like a dream.

If only they had appreciated those summers more.

Maybe.

Maybe then it would've felt complete?

Or earned.

Kel looked eagerly at his peers, feeling anxious about the ceremony ahead..

Then feeling a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey Kel. Big day, huh?"

Kel looked behind him to see Aubrey, and her tear ridden eyes.

"Yeah."

Kel turned back, trying to find his family in the crowd.

". . ."

"Sometimes i wonder what she would think of this."

"Yeah."

"..."

Kel saw Hero in the crowd, sitting next to their mother.

"She'd want us to be happy, Kel."

Aubrey paused, as if she wanted to add something else to the sentence, but felt it wasn't okay to say yet.

".."

Kel nodded.

They were then called to the main room, to give their senior speeches, get their deploma, throw their hats, and ultimately graduate highschool.

The whole experience was nerve wracking, but Kel couldn't help but smile, as Hero got up and did the same embarrassing thing Kel had done at his graduation.

"WOOHOOO GO KELLLL!!!"

Hero yelled as his parents looked at him with disbelief, sitting him down quickly.

Then the graduation kept going

After it all had finshed

Kel and Hero escaped from their parents (with permission) to go to Heros new car, he'd drove down just for the occasion.

And drove to the graveyard.

When they got there, Kel and Hero got out and got their picnic stuff ready.

And went to their friends graves.

After laying down the blanket and sitting down, Aubrey walked in and sat with them.

"How'd you get here so fast?"

Hero asked looking up at her.

"I have a bike, dumbass."

Aubrey Quiped, as Kel just looked at the entrance.

"Waiting for him?"

Aubrey questioned, looking at Kel.

"..Yeah."

After about 30 minutes, Basil stumbled in, out of breath.

"Sorry! I *huff* had to *puff* walk here."

Basil managed to barely breathe out.

"Took you long enough!"

Aubrey yelled playfully, motioning him over to come sit. Which Basil did happily.

"We should start eating now, or it'll get dark before we get to."

Everyone agreed with that, and started eating the pre prepared sandwiches that Hero and Kel had made eariler that day.

As Kel ate, he still looked to the entrance,

waiting.

Aubrey looked at Kel, but still didn't say anything.

After some smalltalk,

Hero started to go on a speech.

"I'm so glad I got to see you all graduate. Really, it's amazing. We've all been through horrible things throughout the years. But no matter how split we may of been, our friend group always came together in some way."

Hero paused, as Aubrey sighed, she'd heard lots of speeches that day.

"Just know I'm proud of you all. You guys are really good friends. I know you're tired of hearing it but i truly believe you're gonna do great things."

"Ugh, get to the point Hero!"

Aubrey cemi joking blurted out.

"Anyways.. i also wanted to remember Maris graduation..and to honor her. As well as S-"

Hero went on, Kel blocked out the other half of his sentence, not listening, still looking at the entrance.

Aubrey finally looked at Kel, saying something.

"You know S̶̷̶u̶̷̶n̶̷̶n̶̷̶y̶̷̶ would've wanted you to enjoy this."

Kel blocked out that name, and continued to wait.

Aubrey sighed, going back to talking with the group.

By the time they were finished, the sky was a faint light blue, turning darker by the minute.

They all decided it was time to go back.

Everyone packed up, Hero was gonna give them a ride back to their houses.

Everyone followed Hero back into his car, with Kel at the back.

But Kel stoped at the entrance, while everyone continued to with Hero.

Kel turned looking at the graves.

"𝙾𝚞𝚛 𝚍𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝙼𝚊𝚛𝚒, 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚞𝚗 𝚜𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚍 𝚋𝚛𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚠𝚑𝚎𝚗 𝚜𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎."

Kel then took a breath.

Finally accepting it.

Kel then looked at a grave near the end of the rows.

"𝙾𝚞𝚛 𝚍𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝚂𝚞𝚗𝚗𝚢, 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚕𝚘𝚞𝚍𝚜 𝚜𝚎𝚎𝚖𝚎𝚍 𝚏𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚠𝚑𝚎𝚗 𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚊𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚍."

𝚃 𝚑 𝚎 .      𝚎 𝚗 𝚍