Lemonade (WLGYL #2)

Chapter 4-Present

 Jessie squeezed my hand. "It'll be fine. You don't even have to hug him."

I gave her a look. "Right, so I'll just stand to the side awkwardly and pretend I don't know him while he hugs the rest of you?"

She rolled her eyes and was about to respond when microphone feedback cut her off. Jessie winced, looking towards the podium where the Chancellor of Mason's school was now standing.

I had carpooled with Jessie, Caleb, and their parents to Mason's college in Wisconsin, two hours away. Mason was already here and would be driving himself home from the ceremony because he also had to move out of his apartment today; I was just glad I wouldn't have to spend a long car ride with him amid any awkward conversation.

To say I was nervous about seeing Mason again was an understatement. Since I had noticed him in his driveway last night, I couldn't stop thinking about him. Not even in a romantic I miss you kind of way, but just that I didn't know how it would be to talk to him again; to have him look at me.

Fixing my dress, the one I had packed from school, I knew that I would soon find out.

The Masterson's and I were sitting in a large auditorium with rows upon rows of uncomfortable stadium chairs and college graduates lined up beneath us. Mason went to a giant school: there were at least thirty thousand undergraduate students. Because of that, the ceremonies where the students were called out by name and had to walk across the stage were by specific "colleges" only, so Mason, being in the College of Engineering, already had his.

Immediately after that ceremony, we weren't able to see him because we had to go straight to this auditorium and find seats for the university-wide commencement; this time, the graduates wouldn't get their names called. Instead, the Chancellor was supposed to give a generalized speech, which I guess he was doing now but I had already zoned out, and then some other presumably important people were going to talk.

From the small glimpse I had gotten of Mason, while I was far above him, he was wearing a red graduation gown, his cap tucked under one arm, and his chocolate brown hair was curling in the back from sweat.

My feet, shoved in a pair of wedges that were the slightest bit too small on me, were already hurting, and I still had Mason's family party to go to. I swore under my breath, decidedly suffering through the rest of the ceremony.

As we got up, the graduates now gone and, well, graduated, Caleb shot me a sympathetic look. "You'll be fine," he said, mirroring Jessie's earlier sentiment and nudging my shoulder with his. I forced a smile for his benefit.

When I had first seen Caleb again, my initial thought was that he looked older. As if he aged five years in the few months I had been gone. His hair was longer, a curly mop on his head, and he had stubble. I couldn't remember a time where Caleb had ever grown out his facial hair. I didn't even realize he could. As I walked through his front door, he gave me a massive hug, lifting me off the ground, and his cheek was coarse against my face. It felt different. But he was still Caleb and when he smiled at me, it was authentic and kind and purely him, and I knew nothing had changed at all, not really.

I sighed. "Thanks, Cal. I guess we'll see."

Behind him was Reyna Cruz, his next door neighbor and girlfriend of four years. She gave me a smile, pushing back her dark curly hair behind her ear. Her canary yellow dress offset her brown skin, glowing with a shimmery lotion she tried to get me to use earlier. I respectfully declined, thinking that with any glitter on my pale skin, I'd look like a vampire straight out of Twilight.

"At least he knows you'll be here," Reyna provided helpfully. "He won't be surprised."

She made a good point. Maybe Mason was freaking out about our reunion as much as I was. Doubtful. "You're right, it'll totally be fine." I wasn't sure I believed myself, but I swung my arms around Reyna's shoulders and Jessie's anyway, Caleb walking on his girlfriend's other side. "What could go wrong?"