Golden

Chapter I: Golden

It had been almost five years since Selena Gomez last stepped foot in Triton.

It didn't look any different from how she remembered it.

There was the 24-hour diner and its neon pink sign that welcomed everyone like it always had. There was still that one hotel that housed the fanciest restaurant in town. There was her high school where everyone knew everyone and where she first found out what love was.

Even her room was the same as how she left it. She had told her parents they could use it as a storage room for all she cared. But they told her the house had many other rooms and they insisted on keeping it like that for when she visited. Even though she never did.

It was still the sleepy town of her childhood.

She felt like she was the only one that had changed.

And she felt out of place.

She had come home for her sister's graduation.

Unlike the past five years' worth of holidays where she could make up an excuse to not go home or coax her family to visit her instead, she kind of had no choice with this one. It was her baby sister's graduation and her sister begged her to be there.

Victoria graduated as the valedictorian just like she did five years ago.

It was pretty grand to be back to the high school she went to. Most of the teachers who taught her were still there, commenting on how grown up she looked now. She merely smiled, thanked them, and excused herself to tour the school and walk across the hallways like how she used to.

She visited her locker which she used to decorate with purple stickers – something she only got away with because the teachers liked her. She visited the lab where her best friend fainted after they drew blood for blood typing day.

She visited her old Homeroom classroom where she met him. She sat at the back that day, doodling on her planner when the teacher introduced the new student.

His curly hair was the first thing she noticed because it was much too long than what the school allowed. She wondered then how he got away with it but maybe he was like her - able to sweet talk his way to get what he wanted.

The ring of her phone disrupted her trip to nostalgia. Her mother called to tell her that the ceremony was about to start.

Victoria's speech was perfect like how everyone expected it to be.

They took many photos after the ceremony was done and went to the fanciest restaurant to have dinner after.

The four of them sat on the middle of the busy restaurant. Many of the families from the high school had the same thought of going to the same restaurant after all.

Victoria was excitedly going on and on about her plans in college as their parents listened.

She looked at Victoria with an amused expression. It was like watching herself five years ago.

When dessert was served, Victoria excused herself. Her boyfriend had arrived to pick her up for the party the graduating class had. It was like a sort of last hurrah they did. Selena and her friends had one as well. It was like an unspoken tradition every graduates had.

She watched her sister walk to her boyfriend who was waiting for her by the door. The boy waved at them from behind the glass doors after a chaste kiss on her sister's cheek.

From what Victoria had told her, they had decided to stay together and give long-distance relationship a go. Victoria was going to New York while he was going to Washington.