Alden Found Me...

"Congradulations to the class of 2013!" Right when the administrater said that, the people around me and I threw our hats in the air. A random person to my left hugged me and shoved me away so he could hug someone else. 

When all the hats fell to the floor, everybody went to their family members. I, on the other hand, was on the floor, trying to find my hat. 

"Why do they all have to be the same?" I groaned to myself. I finally found my hat after five minutes of looking. 

"Hey, can you look for mine too?" I heard from behind me. I turned around to see a guy that use to be in my chemistry class. He always use to tease me about my appearance in middle school, that's how I remembered him. I think his name was Alden. 

"Um..." I really didn't want to go on the grass again and hunt for his cap. 

"S'okay. You don't have to," he said to me. I felt awfully guilty when he started searching through the caps on the grass. 

"Dammit," he muttered more to himself. I couldn't help it! I went on knees and started to help him. 

"Hey, you honestly don't have to," he told me. I ignored him and kept looking. "What's your last name again?" I asked. 

"Waters. Come on, Ashlee, you don't have to." I looked up at him. "You remember my name?" I was honestly shocked that he remembered who I was. 

"Well, we did just graduate. And they did just call out everyone's name off the list." Oh...yeah. 

"Oh...right. Sorry." I tucked a strand of my brown hair behind my ear. I kept looking at the tags in the hats to find his last name on one of them. 

"Found it!" I exclaimed as I indeed did find it. "Thanks," he said to me. I gave him a small smile and awkwardly passed by him. 

There was so many people, it wasn't even funny. I tried finding my aunt through the crowd, which was not a success. 

"Ashlee!" I heard the familiar voice of my friend Lynda. I smiled and hugged her. 

"Can you believe it? We graduated!" she shouted. I laughed. "I know!" 

"Guess where I'm headed to now?" 

I shook my head. "Where?" 

"Emory University!" 

My smile quickly turned into a frown. My eyebrows furrowed. 

"What? Why way down there?" I asked, getting mad that my friend was leaving me. 

"They gave me a scholarship down there. I couldn't just reject the offer," Lynda said. 

Emory was all the way in Georgia, and I'm up here in Maine, and Lynda is my only friend in this whole state. That means, no more Lynda with me...

"Oh Ash, you'll be just fine! You're gonna start a new chapter in your life and make new friends!" Lynda told me. 

I looked down at my small white pumps. My best friend was leaving me. I wanted to cry but it was a great opportunity for her. She deserves to go; Emory was one of the best universities to go into. I'm glad she got accepted. 

"Congratulations," I told her. I was too saddened to sound enthusiastic. 

Lynda wrapped her arms around me. I squeezed her so hard. I'm gonna freakin' miss her. 

"Ash, like I said, you'll be fine! I'll come visit in the holidays," she said to me. 

"When are you leaving?" I asked, hopeful that she still had time to hang out with me.