Because of You, Well, Us

Chase

The day had come. It was time for me to officially grow up: Graduating high school. Picking my black robe and cap off of my bed, I headed downstairs where my mom immediately started fretting over my tie.

"Mom, that's too tight. Are you trying to choke me on my own graduation day?"

Dad walked over and clapped a hand on my shoulder. "I'm proud of you son. Very proud." He had turned down an all-expenses paid trip to Austria to see me walk, he really felt that proud of me. He told me "I can just watch The Sound of Music if I want to see a shot of Austria, but you only graduate once."

The parents had presented me with a car that would haul all of my junk off to college with my mom at the end of the summer. The Cherokee had bitten the dust over spring break with no warning or anything. So after my final exam yesterday, I had come home to find this car in the driveway. College looked brighter already.

Sitting in the back of my mom's car, I just thought. I had hardly seen or talked to Kate since I called her that night a few months before. Sadly, she had crossed my mind almost constantly since then. Even when I tried to talk to other girls, a picture of her would flicker across my memory, causing more of a headache than she could be worth. Literally. Which got solved by a trip to the eye doctor and glasses.

I did still talk to Andy a bit. I never told him anything about what had happened with she and I over the summer, so it wasn't like he knew it might could get annoying if he whined about her. He really missed Kate, and I knew he still had feelings for her too. He had tried to win her back a few more times, but they ended up in vain. Kate could act as stubborn as a mule when the time came. I must say it made me proud of her. I mean, the same stubbornness had also led her to shoot me down, but there wasn't anything I could do to change that fact. I just wasn't too peachy on the fact that seeing her tonight seemed inevitable. I wasn't quite sure what to do about seeing Kate again. Just prepare for the worst, I guess.

After the ceremony, all of the graduating class had one last hurrah in the green room next to the auditorium. Even though I stood in a group with guys from the soccer team, I wasn't even paying attention to what they said. Someone mentioned getting recruited to play for some school I had never heard of, and then my eyes settled on Kate. I must have stared longer than I thought, because she turned and looked at me too. She even raised her hand in a little wave. I waved back. She resumed talking to her friends, and I assumed nothing else would happen with us.

A minute later Kate left her friends and walking towards me. Our classmates had gotten louder and louder, so I couldn't hear what she said. I raised my hands in a gesture to say so, and she pointed a finger towards the hall. I followed her

"I just wanted to say congratulations." She said a bit sheepishly once we were alone, "But I did't really want to make a scene since, you know, it's us. Not to mention I didn't think Andy would appreciate seeing us talking after everything that happened."

I just smiled "Thanks, you too, Kate."

I could tell neither of us really knew what to do. We had both mastered the game of avoiding one another, even though we lived right next door to each other. Ever since the school year picked up, our relationship consisted of me trying to leave for school earlier so I wouldn't run into her before school, then I moved my desk away from my window. She stayed after school to tutor kids, something she had done forever and what sort of made me fall for her, and I would stay to work out with the soccer guys until I knew she had left for the day. Every so often I would catch myself staring at her window like I did when lived in Maine. I decided that wasn't a good idea anymore.

We both kept standing there, and neither of us said anything. I hated that a friendship that had felt so good for so long had gotten incredibly fucked up so suddenly, and it had seemed all my fault. Kate looked nervous too, but I could tell she didn't want to leave. She wore this dark green dress I'd never seen her in before, so she must have bought it for graduation. It made her look perfect. The darkness made her hair stand out, and not in a bad way. The green made the hazel in her eyes even more pronounced, even though she could barely look at me. Her usually wavy hair looked like it had gotten flat ironed straight, something I knew she only did on special occasions because she had so much hair that it took her forever to get it to lie flat. Before I even registered my actions I kissed Kate, intending on just a peck, but I couldn't stop myself, and Kate didn't seem to want to stop either.

My hands seemed to have minds of their own as they went under her open robe and around her waist. Kate's hands went from my face, to my neck, to the back of my head in a combination that blew my mind, and I didn't want it to stop. Time seemed to stand still, and I could barely even hear our classmates go into a rousing version of the school fight song.

Neither of us seemed to want to let go. Our classmates had moved to the raunchier, lesser known version of the fight song when I noticed that one of Kate's hands gripped the back of my neck, and the other tangled in my tie, keeping me from pulling back. My arms wrapped around her waist, bringing her right against me.

Kate finally pulled away as our classmates let out one last scream. She smiled slightly as she wiped rouge lip gloss off of my face. The same peppermint stuff I know she had worn forever. She couldn't even look me in the eye as her thumb brushed against my cheek and she whispered "Good bye, Chase."

I let go of her waist and mustered a "'Bye, Kate." before we both walked away.

It wasn't just bad; it felt devastating war bad. A battle between trying to laugh and smile when really all I wanted to do was whisk Kate away, little green dress that brought out her hazel eyes and everything. Then we would run off to somewhere new and she would be mine.

A guy can dream too, right?