Your Fault

Chapter 5 Noah

I was graduating. I don’t know if you’ve ever been through something like that, but it’s amazing. I knew the hard stuff was still ahead of me—I still had to go to college, not to mention any number of other, worse things—but still, you just can’t compare graduating from high school to anything else.
It’s a step toward maturity, a step toward independence, a feeling so gratifying that I could barely contain myself as I waited in line next to my classmates and listened to our names being called.
We walked out in alphabetical order, which meant Jenna was several places in line behind me. The ceremony was organized to a T, very fancy, out in the school’s gardens, with huge panels reading CLASS OF 2016. I still remembered the celebrations at my old school, in the gym, with a balloon or two and not much more. Here they had even decorated the trees on the edge of the green. The chairs where friends and family sat were lined with costly green and white fabrics—the school colors—and our gowns were green, too, and were the work of a famous designer. It was an insane waste of money, but by now nothing scandalized me anymore. I was surrounded by multimillionaires, and this was just how they lived.
“Noah Morgan!” was the next name uttered into the microphone. I jolted, climbed the stairs nervously to collect my diploma, and looked with a huge smile on my face at the rows of families. I saw Nick and my mother standing and clapping, and they were as excited as I was. My mother was even jumping up and down. I shook the principal’s hand and joined the rest of the graduates.
The valedictorian—her GPA was .2 points higher than mine—mounted the stage once everyone had received their diplomas to give her graduation speech. It was sweet, funny, entertaining, and tender, and I doubt anyone could have done better. A few tears slid down Jenna’s face, and I laughed to keep from doing the same. I’d only been there a year, but it had been one of the best in my life. Once I’d put my prejudices aside, I’d not only prepared myself for college magnificently, I’d also made a lot of good friends.
“Congratulations, class of 2016. We’re free!” she shouted into the microphone, elated.
We threw our mortarboards into the air. Jenna hugged me so tight, I could barely breathe.
“And now it’s party time!” she shouted, applauding and jumping all around. I giggled, and all at once, we found ourselves surrounded by hundreds of people trying to reach their children to congratulate them. We said a quick goodbye to one another and went off to look for our parents.
A pair of strong arms wrapped around me from behind and picked me up off the ground.
“Good job, brainiac!” Nick said, setting me down and kissing me loudly on the cheek. I turned around and hugged him.
“Thanks! I still can’t believe it!”
I wanted to kiss him, but my mother appeared, pushed him aside, and embraced me.
“Noah, you graduated!” she shouted like another one of the schoolgirls.
Her enthusiasm was contagious. I shrieked and laughed and watched Nick shake his head, amused at my mother and me. William walked up beside her and gave me a hug of his own once my mother had let me go.
“We’ve got a surprise for you,” he announced.
I looked at the three of them with suspicion.
“What have you done?” I asked.
Nick grabbed my hand and pulled me along with him, saying, “Come on,” and the four of us walked across the garden. With all the people there, it took us ages to reach the parking deck.
No matter where I looked, there were huge cars everywhere, some of them with giant colorful bows, others with balloons tied to the mirror. Who could be crazy enough to buy one of those cars for an eighteen-year-old kid?
Nick covered my eyes with one of his big hands and started guiding me across the lot.
“What are you going?” I asked, tripping over my own feet. I was starting to feel nervous but also excited.
No way… “Over here, Nick,” my mother said, more animated than I’d ever heard her in my life. Nick turned me around, then stopped. A second later, his hand moved away, and my mouth fell open, literally.
“Tell me that red convertible isn’t for me,” I whispered incredulously.
“Congratulations,” my mother and William said, both of them beaming.
Nick dangled a ring of keys in front of my nose.
“No more excuses not to come visit me,” he said.
“You all are crazy!” I shouted hysterically when I was able to react.
They’d bought me a goddamned Audi… “Oh my God! Oh my God!” I started squealing.
“You like it?” William asked.
“Are you kidding?” I replied. I was so overwhelmed, I had no idea what to do or say.
I ran over to Mom and William and hugged them as tight as I could. I’d been dropping comments about saving up to buy another car. Mine had broken down five times in the past few months, and I was spending so much money at the shop that it would have been cheaper to buy me a new one, but…an Audi! I never guessed they’d give me something like that!
“Honestly, I can’t believe it,” I said, getting inside. The car was precious, bright, gleaming red. There wasn’t a single corner of it that didn’t seem to be sparkling.
I heard shouts of joy all around me. I wasn’t the only one who’d gotten a car, obviously. All those giant ribbons made the lot look like a gift shop.
“It’s an A5 Cabrio,” Nick told me, getting into the passenger seat.
Still in shock, I started shaking my head.
“This is incredible,” I said, hitting the button and listening to the motor’s soft roar.
“You’re incredible,” he corrected me, and I felt a warmth spread through my interior. I was in heaven. I looked at him and, for a brief moment, was lost. My mother had to call out to me twice to get me to react, and when I did, flummoxed, Nick chuckled.
“Shall we see each other at the restaurant?” William asked, resting his hands on my mother’s shoulders.
Mom had made a reservation at one of the best restaurants in the city.
Afterward, my graduation party would be at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills. They’d pulled out all the stops on the catering and gotten a hall that accommodated five hundred, apart from renting out two floors of the hotel so no one would have to worry about going home till the next day. I had complained at first—it was excessive, and the students had paid for all of it, even if we did get a discount, since the father of one of our classmates was an investor in the hotel.
“When I graduated, we had the party on a cruise ship and didn’t come back for five days,” Nick had said when I’d told him how shocked I was at what my class was planning. When I’d heard that, I’d decided to keep my opinions to myself.
I nodded, dying to take off in my new car. The seats were beige leather.
It had that new car look and that new car smell…a smell I was encountering, just then, for the first time in my life.
I put it in gear and pulled out of the lot, leaving that school behind… forever.