Sunlight | Luke Castellan

XXV. the end of the beginning

   NINE MONTHS LATER...

"Today is something that we all have looked forward to our entire lives." Emma blinked nervously as she stared out into the crowd of our classmates, and she adjusted the podium microphone downward so it could be closer to her. "I know that for me, I've had it marked on my calendar ever since I learned what a calendar was."

The metal chair beside me creaked as Rowan leaned close. "She's had over a month to write this speech," he whispered, "and she started with that?"

"Oh, shush," I quieted the satyr as my friend continued speaking, shooting him a sideways glare so I could stay facing forward. I recrossed my ankles over each other and smoothed the navy graduation gown of any wrinkles. "You know she's rewritten this five times."

"I expected a little more pizzazz."

I rolled my eyes at his comment and gave a subtle shake of my head. Ever since I had met him, Rowan Alderwood had been the death of me, but as time passed, that remark came from a place of love. He joined my school under the alias of being my cousin, a relative I had gotten to know during my month of "healing" at my uncle's home, and infiltrated my friend group quite seamlessly.

The transition to being my protector had been brutal with how our personalities clashed. Not even Percy and I had argued as much growing up. It was only around Thanksgiving when our tempers lessened, much to my mother's relief, and we could remain in a conversation without genuinely wanting to kill each other. Of course, I still had met my match when it came to commenting anything witty.

"Not all of us have thirty-three years of life experience," I reminded him. It was his turn to shoot a narrowed glare in my direction. I couldn't help but grin to myself. "How do you feel knowing you'll be the first protector in a century to graduate high school, grandpa?" Rowan jabbed my heeled foot with a thick sneaker, and I was grateful his hooves were hidden away to keep me from receiving any more damage.

"I hope you trip."

"Keep that attitude up and I'll throw away those vegan meals you still have packed in my fridge."

"But I know, for some of us, change is terrifying," Emma spoke, and my attention shifted back to her again as the satyr snickered. The girl tapped her manicured fingers against the sides of the podium. I knew Hannah probably had a victorious grin on her face at seeing them. "Starting tomorrow, we enter the unknown. Every person around us is going to ask what our plan is, and we've been so stressed to give them the perfect answer. The honest truth is..." She lifted her hands as she shrugged her shoulders. "How sure can we be about our plans when we're finally experiencing the world for the first time?"

"There we go," Rowan nodded in approval as some of the students around us gave cheers and comments in agreement. I could see in my peripheral vision that he was trying to catch my reaction, but I was leaning forward. The sly smile I had on my face had fallen, and I was hanging on to every word.

"We might be adults now, but inside all of us is someone who finally gets to sit at the big kid table," my friend continued, her lips parting in a smile of her own at the reaction she had received. "We're still learning the ropes. There are going to be days that we feel like we have everything together, and there are days where it will feel like everything is falling apart. I implore all of you to remember that our lives have truly just begun. Make the most of it. Get a tattoo that means the world to you. Fall in love. Do something incredibly stupid. Figure out what feels right so when the time comes to settle... you'll have no regrets."