New Kid on the Block *h.s [completed]

Chapter 114

Beep! Beep! Beep!

I lift my head off my pillow ever so slightly, groggy with sleep and still very much out of it. On the table beside me, my phone jumps around with excitement, making a long and low buzz as it vibrates on repeat.

I stick a hand out, squeezing my eyes shut tightly against the light. Blindly, I search for my charging cord, and when my fingertips find it, I yank it to pull my phone towards me.

I flip it over onto the screen, where an incoming FaceTime call reads 'Ashtray' at the top. I tap the green answer button, opening my eyes but keeping them closed to slits.

The call connects, and I see the faint outline of Ashton through my narrow vision.

"What do you want?" I groan, rubbing my forehead with the palm of my hand. My voice is phlegmy and forced from being asleep from so long, and my cheeks feel flushed.

"It's graduation day!!!" He sings out in greeting, opening his arm to the side to sling his phone (therefore the camera, therefore me) around the room in song and dance.

"Good morning Pipe!!" Maddie cheers from beside him, clapping her hands together excitedly. She looks like an elf beside Ashton, compared to his broad chest and long legs.

"Good morning." I reply bitterly, sitting up in my bed and leaning my phone against a pillow.

Today is also my graduation, and it makes me nothing short of overjoyed to know that, even though I can't walk across the same stage as Maddie and Ashton, I can receive my diploma on the same day like we've always planned. Though, in this moment, I'm not showing my enthusiasm to it's extent.

"Since your lazy ass can't be here to walk across stage with us, you're going to be here digitally." Ashton announces, and as he walks, I realize the room he's in is some sort of dressing room, probably behind the stage wherever the ceremony is taking place.

I hear a voice call out for all graduates to line up, so I remain quiet as the attendance order is listed. I recognize most of the names, those of kids I went to kindergarten with and those who transferred in middle school, but there are a few I don't remember hearing before. It's weird to think that there are kids in my own shoes, who moved in the middle of their high school years, except started new at my old school.

After a good 10 minutes of frustration and teachers yelling at people to get in, and stay in, line, the doors open and I hear the graduation song begin to play.

Ashton is one of the last people in line, since his last name starts with a W. Maddie is further up since her surname has a B for 'Beaumont'.

As the line begins to move, Ashton's holds his phone closer to his mouth as whispers, "Here we go, Bagpipes. 4 years."

"4 years, Ashtray. We did it." I answer, feeling my heart warm with love for my two best friends and all that we've accomplished, together and apart.

Ashton follows the person in front of him out to the bleachers, and grin like an idiot when I hear the crowd clapping and cheering. I know Maddie and Ashton's parents are out there somewhere, and I know they're proud.

The graduates are led to the bleachers reserved just for them, and as soon as Ashton sits in his seat, he flips the camera around for me to see the stage. The decorations are beautiful, the stage is huge with pots of red flowers in all corners and to line the edges. There's a big screen at the top, for a close up of the graduates receiving their diplomas and for the baby photos that will appear with names at the bottom.

I watch intently as the principal walks onto stage to start the ceremony. It's still the same man that withstood the position from the two years before I left, and even though he can't see me, it's good to see him again.