Involved

epilogue

isabelle langa

I sat in the car with my mother, listening to her voice as she went on a tangent about something I couldn't be bothered to hear. She was stressed. And when she's stressed, she puts it on everyone.

"Mom, please relax. Jeremiah said he reserved the entire restaurant, so it shouldn't be an issue," I reminded her. We were headed to my graduation ceremony that I should've arrived at ten minutes ago. But my makeup and hair took longer than I anticipated. Even then, with the way I planned my day I was still on schedule.

After my ceremony, the plan was to go to a restaurant I had never even been too. But Jeremiah and Alexa planned that part and their opinions were trusted opinions.

"Is Killian coming?" My mother innocently asked. I shook my head with a sigh.

I hadn't seen him in three weeks but knew that with the way his schedule was set up, it would be impossible for him to make it. When I thought about it too deeply, it brought tears to my eyes, so I tried not to. I hated long distance. It was driving me insane, but if I said something, he would drop everything by quitting basketball just to satisfy me.

"No. He has a game in Cleveland tonight," I glanced at my phone for any text from him. So far, all I had gotten today was text messages from my brother about what the attire was for today and whether jeans and sneakers was acceptable. I fought tooth and nail to get tickets for him and six of his friends considering I was originally provided with only four. There was no way I was letting them show up in jeans and sneakers.

Not having Killian here definitely was upsetting, especially because I knew it wasn't in his control. But he was in the NBA now and there were a lot of things he no longer had control over.

"Oh. Well I'm sure he'll watch the ceremony online when he can," she tried to cheer me up. I nodded as we pulled up to the arena.

"I'll meet everyone back here when it's done," I informed her before I was on my way out of the car. Thankfully it didn't look like I was the only one not on time.

I checked in at the desk, being escorted to where my seat was. The excitement in me was turning to nerves. Killian never graduated because he ended up getting drafted into the NBA that summer going into senior year. It was bittersweet for Alexa because she was dying to attend the ceremony and throw a graduation party for him. But her excitement transferred onto me and now I had a dozen people ecstatic to see me walk across the stage.

Going through my sophomore, junior and senior year without Killian around was definitely odd. I wanted to rebuild trust and the current situation was definitely testing it. With how much he travelled for basketball, we were somewhere between long distance and not long distance. Our schedules never seemed to match and I knew things wouldn't get an easier with me attending law school in the fall.

I had to shake away all those thoughts because the longer I thought about it, the more stressed it made me. The future was scary. Instead, I payed attention to what was directly around me.

The seats in the crowd were all full and we had begun the ceremony. The graduating class a large one which meant the crowd was just as large and I couldn't spot where my family was. But I could hear them. As soon as I walked across the stage it was like being at a football game because that's exactly how my family treated it-Junior and his friends, to be specific.

The ceremony finished and we were all directed to meet with our loved ones outside. The first person I was greeted by was Olivia.

"Isabelle!" Olivia ran up to me and I crouched down to hug her. "Here. I made you brownies," she put a ziploc bag in my hand. Her and I often baked so I had taught her a few things. I couldn't believe she made these for me.