A Summer to Remember

I have a little something that might help calm you down.” She pulled two shot size bottles of vodka out of her purse. She took the lids off both and handed one to me.
    “Here’s to the first day of the rest of our lives! But you’ll be a lot happier for the rest of your life from this moment on, of course.” She winked at me and we both tipped back the bottles.
    “Okay, let’s do this.” I jumped out of the Jeep and slammed the door behind me.

 
     
    CHAPTER 2

    W e had to sit through two agonizing hours of people talking about creating a future for ourselves, memories that were made here, and of course, listening to name after name being called. Finally they announced our class. The crowd burst into cheers and whistles while throwing their hats into the air. It was over and I was definitely ready for another shot or two.
    I slowly made my way out of the gym and tried to squirm my way through the mob of people to get outside. When I made it, I headed over to the tree near the left of the parking lot, where Lily and I had agreed to meet our parents afterwards for more pictures.
    “Ava!” I stopped when I heard Lily call my name. “Oh my God! That was like the longest ceremony ever! I really thought I was going to fall asleep. How are you doing?” she asked as I pulled a few strands of silly string off her graduation cap.
    “Doing about as well as I can after just being dumped.” I looked down in an attempt to keep myself from getting upset again.
    “You have to be at least a little bit excited you just graduated high school. I mean, just think, we never have to come back to this hell hole again! All those speeches were right, today is the day we can change our lives and shape our futures. Do you really want to remember this as the day you got broken up with? Or do you want to remember it as the day your new life started?” We wove our way through the massive group of people.
    “You’re right, I’ve worked too long and hard to get to this point. Tonight it’s all about me.” Even if it was only for the night, I had to lock away the overwhelming emotions I was having from the break up.
    “That’s more like the Ava I know.” She smiled as we stepped through the last wall of people and were met by our families.
    My mom, dad, brother, grandparents, aunties and uncles were all waiting for hugs and to congratulate me. They alternated taking pictures with me. Every couple minutes we were interrupted by some of my fellow classmates also wanting to snap pictures and talk about all our post graduation plans.
    “Where’s Jason? I wanted to get some more pictures of you two together,” my mom asked as she looked at the viewfinder on her camera scrolling through some of the pictures she’d already taken.
    “Jason and I broke up,” I whispered just loud enough for her to hear.
    “What?” She looked up from her camera. “Oh my gosh! Honey, are you okay?” She wrapped her arms around me and squeezed me a little too tightly.
    “Yes, Mom, I’m fine. I’d rather not talk about it right now.” I made an attempt to hug her back the best I could with my arms being pinned to my sides.
    “Of course not, honey.” She pulled away from me.
    “Are you all set to go, Ava?” Lily interrupted just in time. “My parents will give us a ride back to my house so we can get ready for tonight.”
    “Yeah,” I said to Lily. “I’ll be staying at Lily’s tonight, I’ll check-in in the morning and let you know I’m still alive,” I joked with my mom. She can be a little more overprotective than needed at times.
    “Okay, be safe and let me know if you need anything. Even if you guys are drinking and need a ride, call me anytime.” She’s pounded the no drinking and driving speech into my head for as long as I can remember.
    “I know, Mom, we’ll be fine. There will be taxis all over tonight since it’s graduation, but thanks.” I gave her a hug before I headed in Lily’s direction.
    “Okay.” My dad pulled up to the curb in their silver SUV. “I’ll talk to you in the morning.” She climbed into the car and my parents and brother waved as they drove away.
    “All right, let’s get out of here, I’m ready to celebrate!” Lily grabbed my arm and pulled me towards her parents’ car.
    “Me too!” And for the first time all night, I actually felt like it was true.

    “So, what’s the party of choice tonight?” Lily walked into her huge closet and started browsing through her clothes. They