Meet Me After Class

Chapter 57: The College Canvas

With this experience, I had a new outlook. My issues with Adam would still be there, but they didn't seem quite as soul-crushing anymore. We'd find our way back to each other eventually. We were best friends; this was just another unwritten chapter for us, not the ending.

I gazed around at the pillows and empty snack boxes strewn about and smiled wistfully. As much as I'd enjoyed my summer of growth in New York, these past few days of cozy sibling bliss were what I'd miss most. Belle was already passed out, her head on my lap.

With a contented sigh, I finally closed my eyes too, shelving the what-ifs for now. Because in just a few short hours, I'd be loading up the car and heading off to start the next big adventure: college.

And off I go . . .

My fingers brushed against the necklace resting on my chest. Then my phone started vibrating wildly, Penny's goofy face lighting up my screen. I smiled and answered the FaceTime call.

"Wendy! Check this out!" Penny angled her phone to show off the crashing waves behind her. She was tanning on a beach in LA, living her best life, I suppose.

"Oooh, I'm so jealous. Not all of us get to lounge in the sun all day."

"That's not even the best part!" She tilted her head to proudly display a cursive letter W tattooed right below her ear, a tiny star inked above it. "Ta-da! What do you think?"

I gasped dramatically. "Penny!" My jaw dropped. "Is that real?!"

"Duh!" She giggled, tracing it gingerly with her fingertip. "Melissa and I got tattoos three days ago. This one's for you, silly! You're my star!"

I was touched. Penny had never been the sentimental type. I never imagined her doing something so permanent and sweet just for me.

"I absolutely love it," I said earnestly. "But please tell me your parents know, especially your mom, and didn't completely freak out!"

Penny brushed me off with a casual wave of her hand. "Oh, please, like I care what they think anymore, especially mom! I'm 18 already, and they know I've been obsessed with tattoos since we watched Angelina Jolie sporting them in Wanted. Hell, I even worked part-time at Fred's Inked back home!"

I nodded, remembering Penny flitting around Inked, our small town's only tiny tattoo parlor, and endlessly doodling ink designs on her notebook.

And she seemed to read my thoughts. "Trust me, if they had a real problem with it, mom would have dragged me back herself by now."

"Look at you, all independent in the big city," I laughed.

"I know, right? Growin' up so fast!" Penny flipped her hair overdramatically before her expression shifted to something more serious. "Soooo...have you talked to HIM yet?"

I didn't have to ask who she meant. "Nah. Adam actually left for Nepal with Jay like the day after I left for New York."

"So you haven't seen him at all since graduation?" Penny asked gently.

I sighed, thinking back to that night when our families went out to dinner to celebrate graduating high school. "Well, actually, I saw him after the graduation dinner."

I hadn't told anyone about that tense conversation, not even Penny. But suddenly, I found myself opening up to her now.

"He asked me not to go to New York. He thought I was choosing Mr. Scott by going." I shook my head at the memory. "But I wasn't. I wasn't choosing anyone. I was choosing me."

Penny nodded thoughtfully as I continued. "We didn't talk at all after that. We just left things on bad terms, I guess."

I expected words of comfort from Penny, but she just shrugged, examining her nails. "Well, people grow apart sometimes. You two were attached at the hip since I met you two, but you've got your own lives now."

"Yeah," was all I managed to say. I wanted to tell her how much I missed Adam and how much I wished I could fix things between us. But, knowing Penny, she would just try to change what I think. We'd had this conversation before. She had already told me what she thought about the whole Mr. Scott-Adam thing.

Penny gave a small shrug. "And people change, Wendy. We can't force things to stay the same forever." But she wouldn't quite meet my eyes.

I knew she was right deep down. The future was barreling towards us, whether we were ready or not. But letting the past fade away felt unsettling all the same.

Penny launched into an excited spiel about life in LA, rattling off gigs while continuing her hunt for a steady job. I was happy she was thriving in the sunshine and chasing her dreams. Still, I felt a pang, knowing our paths were diverging.

In the middle of her description of the cute surf instructor on Venice Beach and Melissa's reaction, I heard my mom's voice calling up the stairs. "Wendy, time to go! We need to get you to the airport!"

I sighed, looking back at Penny on my phone screen. "That's my cue! I'll call you as soon as I land in Chicago, okay?"

We said our goodbyes, and I slowly set my phone down, my fingers moving to the necklace Adam had gifted me. I gazed around my bedroom, realizing I wouldn't set foot here again for a long time. When I returned next, I'd be a changed woman after my first term of college.

My eyes fell on the stack of notebooks on my desk—all the plays and scripts I'd dreamed up over the years, ever since I first fell in love with theater. Adam had patiently listened to me read him every one, offering suggestions to improve the dialogue or jokes to lighten particularly dramatic scenes.

I smiled, remembering the hours of impassioned debates Adam and I would have in this very room—me defending my favorite classic romance novels while he insisted his comic book heroes were far more compelling.

"What's so great about this Mr. Darcy guy anyway?" he'd complain. "And Heathcliff is just a brooding weirdo who treats women like crap!"

"You just don't understand them like I do!" I'd argue back dramatically. "They're complex, that's all. Not like those simplistic superheroes you worship!"

Those memories tucked away in this room were gold to me.

"Wendy! Let's go!" My mom's distant voice broke my nostalgic spell. With one last sweeping look, I grabbed my bags and hurried out the door.