Cadence took a deep breath as she walked into the main hallway at Oak Stream for the last time her sophomore year. She was completely ready to be done with sophomore year. She had passed all of her finals it was now just a day to say goodbye to everyone before the summer ended. With her yearbook in hand, she decided that she wanted to get everyone’s signatures before the school year let out. She knew it was old school and more than likely she would see the bulk of them over the summertime anyway, but since she missed commemorating her freshmen year with any of her crew at Oak Stream, she wanted to do everything she could do to commemorate the conclusion of sophomore year. She couldn’t believe it. In only a few hours she would become an upperclassmen. That felt so strange to even think about.
She had considered asking a few teachers for their signatures but thought against it. She really wasn’t close to any of her teachers this year and she had a feeling she wouldn’t remember the bulk of them in two years time anyways. She knew one thing for sure: no matter how long she lived, she would always remember Kerass. She didn’t know if she would love him forever, but she knew she would always remember him. She was totally in love with him at the moment, but being in love forever is a long time. She couldn’t even fathom what forever would even look like.
It was then that Jay walked up behind her. Cadence smiled at him and held out her yearbook asking him if he would sign it. Jay grabbed the pen and instantly began signing it.
“Can you believe we’re going to be juniors next year?”
“Oh wow, boy do I feel old…” Jay said trailing off. Jay continued explaining that he had a lot more on his mind besides becoming an upperclassmen.
“Yeah?” Cadence said. She watched him as he froze. His eyes betrayed him. He had wanted to say something and before he let it out he changed the subject. She didn’t have time to pry and she didn’t care to either. That was all he felt comfortable sharing at the moment and that was fine.
Jay handed her yearbook back to her before he began saying that he was only saying this because he cared for Kerass. “Look, I don’t want you to be upset that I’m asking this or anything…”
“Spit it out,” Cadence said sternly.
“Do you have any feelings for Gus?”
Cadence, taken aback, couldn’t even speak. She stammered before the words finally came out. “Did Kerass ask you to ask me this?”
“You didn’t say no,” Jay said turning around and walking away from her towards the P.E. hallway. When she opened up the yearbook. The only thing that was written was H.A.G.S. which was the lamest abbreviation for have a great summer. She began to wonder if the whole yearbook idea was an idiotic mistake. Nobody else seemed to be taking it as seriously as she was.
She walked over to the sophomore hallway where to her surprise she saw Damien. She waved at him grabbing his attention. He came over toward her and smiled at her.
“Can you believe it? I’m graduating tomorrow!” Damien said beaming at her.
“I’m really happy for you Damien!” Cadence replied with the same amount of enthusiasm he had given her.
“Listen,” Cadence began asking him if he would sign her yearbook.
“I’d be honored.” In total contrast to Jay, Damien took a long time writing a lengthy note in her yearbook. Cadence stood there awkwardly waiting a solid 5 minutes as Damien kept writing and writing in her yearbook.
When he handed the yearbook back, Cadence immediately started crying. “Is this goodbye?”
Damien’s eyes showed that his heart was breaking along with hers. “Let’s not even say it flat out. Writing in your yearbook was hard enough. Would you do me a favor though?”
Cadence nodded her head not even able to talk in that instance.
“Tell Jay goodbye for me, please. Tell him I’ll always love him, I-” he paused as a tear shed down his face. “I just can’t say that to his face. Just tell him that I forgive him.”
“Why are you telling me this?” Cadence asked pointing out that they hadn’t been close all year.
“I came here for you, Cadence,” he said smiling again. “I knew then what I know now. I can always count on you.”
Damien hugged her before he walked down the hallway the last time at Oak Stream High. The weight of his goodbye hit her fully as she watched him walk away. She had loved Damien in a way that she had never loved anybody else and that fact came to mind as he turned the corner and out of sight. Her emotions began to overwhelm her. She was uncontrollably crying, so in an attempt to avoid embarrassment she wandered into the girl’s bathroom. She cried in there in an attempt to catch her breath. She didn’t know why saying goodbye to Damien was so difficult. Apart from attempting to make Kerass jealous earlier, she had pretty much avoided him all year, but he had a part of her that no one else would ever have. He had her virginity and she couldn’t understand why she was thinking about that as he was just about to graduate. Finally wiping the tears from her eyes, she had calmed down enough to step back out into the hallway.
She proceeded to walk into her Pre-IB sophomore English class. It was then that the bell rang and she sat down next to Gus who was already seated. Gus had helped her all year and she had honestly become a better student, at least at English because of it. She brought up her grade to an A by the end of the year.
“What have you got there?” Gus asked pointing at the yearbook in her hands.
“Oh, it’s just a yearbook,” Cadence said putting her hair behind her ears.
Gus’ eyes widened. “I didn’t know they still sold those. I mean, isn’t that kinda old school?”
Cadence embarrassed by what he was saying knew it was true. It was old school and practically no one else sophomore year had bought a yearbook.
“You want me to sign it?” Gus asked gentler than his previous statement. Cadence just nodded her head. She didn’t even let go of the yearbook, Gus had to reach over and grab it from her. Still embarrassed, she could sense that he felt bad about making her feel uncomfortable.
“You know, don’t worry about it, it’s cool,” Gus said. “Retro.”
Gus signed the yearbook quickly before he handed it back to Cadence. She started to pick up on what Jay had accused her of. Even though she didn’t want to admit it, she might have feelings for Gus. She knew the repercussions of her actions would not be worth it. She didn’t want to experience a falling out from Kerass again. So she avoided talking to Gus the rest of the period. As the bell rang and Gus ran out of the classroom, Cadence looked at what he had written in her yearbook. He had posed a simple question: Why don’t we go there…Gus
As the final bell of the school year rang, Kerass shot out of his desk and almost ran down the hallway fully embracing the freedom that summer brought him. Summer was his favorite time of year and he was more than ready to leave his underclassmen life behind. The mass of students left the building quicker than usual during the final day of school in an attempt to rush into summer.
Kerass stepped outside and immediately headed towards the bus. He looked around at all the students rushing towards a bus or their parked cars in the school parking lot. It would be a solid three months before he stepped back onto the school grounds again. He couldn’t believe that when he returned he would be a junior and Julia, well she would be a senior… Cadence tapped his shoulder and kissed him on the lips briefly, which surprised him. He felt uncomfortable with kissing her again knowing that he had kissed Julia in the school hallway. In fact, it had been the same exact place that he had once kissed Cadence during their freshmen year.
“What’s wrong?” Cadence asked in a hushed tone.
Kerass bit his tongue upset that his face was so readable. He had shown her that he was uncomfortable with the kiss and he silently beat himself up for being so vulnerable.
“Julia kissed me,” he finally said aloud.
Cadence’s eyes narrowed. He didn’t even want to know what she was thinking.
“And I kissed her back,” Kerass paused taking a deep breath. “But it meant absolutely nothing. It was meaningless, I swear.”
Looking at her face Kerass could tell that she was avoiding eye contact. “Say something...” he said knowing that she probably wouldn’t answer in the moment. “Please.”
Jay walked into his house ecstatic that another school year had come to a close. His dad was sitting on the couch. He was surprised to see him home so early. Fear rushed through Jay. What if his dad had gotten fired? He was too nervous to actually say anything at all.
“I found her,” his father whispered after another minute of silence.
“You don’t mean…” Jay stammered.
His father said he did. He had found her, Jay’s birth mother. “I recognized how heartbroken you were when she took off, so I hired a private investigator and he found her.”
Jay couldn’t feel anything. He couldn’t smile, he couldn’t cry, he couldn’t even move. Forcing himself against his will, he started walking saying that he had to go to her.
“You’re going to leave me, aren’t you?” his father said as his eyes glistened.
Jay looked back at his father. As much as he had been frustrated and angry at him for not telling him about the adoption, he knew that his father must care for him a lot to hire a private investigator to find her seeing how much pain it brought him. He had screwed up, but hadn’t he paid enough for his mistake? Jay didn’t want to repeat the mistakes of the past. Choosing in that moment to forgive his father, he held out his hand and said, “Come with me.”
His father smiled. After quickly packing, they headed out the door for this summer’s grand adventure. It may all be in vain because she might run out again, but it was a bonding experience they would always remember. Their car left Oak Stream as the summer was just beginning.
End of Year 2
No comments:
Post a Comment