"Y/n, where are you?" Brian asked, sounding frantic. "It starts in an hour, where the fuck are you?!"
"Bri, relax," I said. "I think I'm going to skip."
"You think you're going to skip your graduation ceremony?!" Brian asked. "Y/n, are you crazy? C'mon!"
"I just don't want to go, boy," I said, wrapping the curled phone wire around my finger. "I don't know, it just doesn't feel like a good time to go do something like that, y'know?"
"No, I don't know," Brian said. "I refuse to believe you'd actually leave me here alone with these idiots."
"Well, I mean-"
"What if someone bullies me?" Brian asked. "Who's going to punch them?"
"Brian, you are nineteen, you can take care of yourself," I argued.
"But we had a deal," Brian protested. "We shook hands on it."
"Dammit, Bri," I groaned. "Fuck it. I'll be there in, like, five minutes. It's not far."
"Yeah, you better get your pretty ass over here," he grumbled before hanging up.
"My- What?" I asked. "Hello? Brian? Shit."
I sighed heavily and hung up the phone, then ran to the front door. I slipped on my shoes.
"Where're you going, kiddo?" Dad asked.
"Out with Bri," I said quickly. "In a hurry. Back late!"
I opened the door quickly and ran down the street, immediately regretting not grabbing my sweater. I bolted down the street as quickly as I could, taking the turn to the busier street and breathing hard. I muttered cusses to myself as I dashed up the stairs, through the doors, then down the hall and all the way to the auditorium. Brian was standing outside of the door looking anxious. He visibly relaxed when he saw me and held out a water bottle as I approached, dying. I grabbed it and chugged.
"You didn't have to run the whole way, love," he said, chuckling. I glared at him. "Buuut, I'm lucky you came. Leaving me here to graduate alone after whining about going to Chapman together for all these years?"
"But you're not even going to Chapman," I argued, wiping my mouth free of any dribble. He shrugged.
"Today wouldn't feel right without you, love," he said. "Let's go, this is a big day!"
"I really just don't want to deal with these idiots anymore," I said. "And if I just skipped graduation, I wouldn't have to."
"Aw, you know you love me enough to be around these fucking bastards for a few extra hours," he said. "Y/n, you'd have to be stupid to suffer through years with all these sons of bitches and then skip the day it all led up to."
"Stop it with all your logic and good points," I muttered, following him as he led me to everyone else. "I'm trying to be annoyed, boy."
"You already are annoyed," he pointed out.
"Shut your whore mouth, Brian," I said, crossing my arms over my chest. "So, where are we supposed to go?"
"Backstage," he said. "Cap and gown, and then more instructions on what to do."
"I can't believe we're going to be done after this," I said. "I mean... We have today, and then summer, and then we're thrown out into the real world."
"And you're going halfway across the world from here," Brian said. "Are you going to be able to adjust?"
"Yeah," I said confidently. "I'm a smart girl who can throw a punch, I'll be fine."
"People're going to be jealous and intimidated," Brian said, grinning. "Might be hard to find a better friend than me."
"I'd say that's because you're the best friend there is, but we both know that's my title," I said. "You're the one who's going to struggle to replace me."
"I could never replace you," Brian said, smiling.
"Exactly, boy," I said. "Let's go get backstage, shall we?"
"We shall," Brian said. "It feels surreal, doesn't it, love?"
"Yeah," I agreed, following him as he led me to the backstage area. "I'm off to the girl's dressing room, I guess. See you at the ceremony, Bri."
"See you then, love," he said, smiling at me as we parted ways.
I walked into the girl's dressing room, seeing all my classmates chatting and changing and all that. I walked over to the rack of robes and searched for the one with my name on it.
"Hey, Y/n," someone said. I turned around to see one of the popular girls smiling at me sheepishly. "I just... Wanted to say sorry. For asking you to do my homework so often when we were younger."
"Oh, no big deal," I said, waving it off. "I got the extra practice, and you got the extra time to hang out with your friends, right? I didn't mind."
"Really?" She asked. I nodded. "Well, sorry anyway. It was a shitty thing to do."
"It's fine," I said. She nodded before going off to find her friends again. I finally found my robe among the others and took it off the hook. I threw it over myself quickly, then walked over to the mirror to fix my hair. There were flyaways everywhere and it looked frizzy from running all the way to school. I sighed and turned to the girl next to me, who was applying lipstick. "Can I borrow the hairspray for a moment?"
"Sure," she said, not turning her attention away from her makeup. "Just put it back after."
"Thanks," I said, taking the bottle and spraying my hair a little. I patted down the untamed wilderness (it almost rivaled Brian's) and set the bottle down again before wandering off to find where the caps were being stashed. When I finally found them, I put one on and made sure the tassel was properly in place before walking out to where everyone was going to wait for the ceremony to start.
Only a few minutes passed before everyone was out and a few staff members were shuffling around, trying to get everyone in line alphabetically by last name. I glanced around, seeing Brian in his spot, picking at his nails and trying to look nonchalant. I guess he felt me looking at him, since he looked up and scanned the room. We locked eyes and he smiled, flashing me a thumbs up. I grinned and held up one hand in the shape of half a heart. He did the same, finishing the heart's other half from across the room. Once everyone was in line, the adults found a way to keep everyone in the line as they made everyone back up so no one was on the stage.
The sounds of the auditorium doors opening rang through the room just before being permeated with the chatter of a crowd spilling in. I spared another glance at Brian, who looked a little more nervous, still picking at his nails. I turned my attention to the adults running the ceremony again as they quietly told us what we were supposed to do. Go out, sit down, stay quiet through the speeches. Names will be called, get up, be handed your diploma, sit back down, a few more speeches, then we're done. Seems easy enough, but I looked around at all the people in graduation gowns and sighed. This was going to take a long while.
Edited 2/6/21
