A Summer to Remember

back in the car and closed the door.
    “I already told you, Ava, I hate waiting on you!” He looked away from me quickly.
    “That’s not why you’re mad, Jason. I can tell there’s something else. Just tell me so we can talk it out and enjoy today. I don’t want to fight.” I reached for his hand but he pulled it away.
    “Dammit, Ava! Everything is always about you, isn’t it?” He opened the door of the Jeep and hopped out.
    “What are you talking about? I just want to know why you’re mad. Everything seemed fine last night when we talked on the phone.” I could tell he was really pissed off but I didn’t want to spend a day like today arguing. It was too exhausting and tonight I just wanted to have fun.
    “I can’t do this anymore! I’m done!” He slammed his door and opened up the back to grab his cap and gown.
    “What do you mean you can’t do this anymore?” I didn’t think I’d been this confused since the last calculus test I forgot to study for.
    “I mean I’m done! Me, you—we’re done!” He slammed the door and followed the swarm of classmates into the building.
    I sat there for a minute, frozen, in complete shock. What just happened? One night we’re talking about our summer and college plans and the next minute he’s done? My eyes swelled with tears. I dug through my purse and picked out my cellphone. I scrolled through the contacts until I reached Lily’s name. As soon as I was about to hit new message, I heard a tap on the window. I looked up to see Lily’s grin drop, she knew right away something was wrong. I’m not the type of girl to let people see me cry. She grabbed the handle of the door and yanked it open.
    “Ava, what’s wrong?” She grabbed my shoulders to take in my expression then pulled me in for a hug. Great, here comes the waterworks!
    “Jason broke up with me,” I managed to get out between sobs. “I don’t know what went wrong, one minute we were talking about all our future plans together and the next minute he says he doesn’t want to do this anymore. I just don’t understand it.” I dug a tissue out of my purse and wiped the tears from my cheeks.
    “Aw sweetie, I’m so sorry.” She gave me another hug then pulled back and looked at me. “Ava, I think I might know what went wrong.” I could tell by the sound of her voice I wasn’t going to be happy with what she was about to tell me.
    “What? Did Steven say something?” I stopped dabbing the tears off my face long enough to look at her.
    “No…” She looked down and immediately looked like she regretted saying anything to me. “Maybe this should wait until after the ceremony.”
    “No, just tell me now. The sooner I know what’s going on, the better.”
    She slowly looked back up at me. “When Steven and I were heading into the auditorium to wait for rehearsal to start, we saw someone…” She waited for me to understand what she was saying. Then it finally dawned on me. She didn’t even have to finish her story. I already knew who the person was. “Cally’s back…and she seemed like she was waiting for someone.”
    Lily could already see the heartbreak written all over my face. Cally was the reason Jason and I were off and on through freshman and sophomore year. Eventually, Cally ended up moving to Texas to live with her dad and I thought all of the Cally problems were over. I guess I was wrong.
    “I asked Steven if she and Jason had been talking recently and he said he wasn’t sure. Jason probably wouldn’t tell him anyway because he knows he’d tell me and I’d tell you.” She grabbed my hands to try and comfort me.
    “Babe! Come on, rehearsal is about to start!” Steven yelled from the front door, interrupting our conversation.
    “Okay, give us just a minute!” Lily yelled back. “Listen, Ava, I know this has got to be hard for you right now, but you don’t want that bitch to see you like this, especially on a day like today.”
    “You’re right.” I flipped down the visor and looked into the mirror. “Oh my God. Please tell me I have time to touch up my makeup.” I dabbed around my eyes with the tissue to make an attempt at fixing the smeared black mascara, which was now running down my cheeks.
    “Of course. Hurry, though, we have to get going.” She dug through her purse, pulled out a compact, and handed it to me.
    “I can’t believe I have to do this after all that.” I carefully patted the powder onto the dark circles under my eyes.
    “Here,