Strings of Fate: The First Loop

CHAPTER 56 -THE MEMORIES WILL BREAK OUR FALL

And this moment... is mine.

The school auditorium bustles with graduating students walkibg around with their proud parents beside them. Streamers of congratulations hang on the walls, fresh flowers decorated the stage with balloons and fake plants along the edges. The buzzing grew louder and louder as the auditorium is fileld with graduates from four homerooms (107, 108, 109, and James' homeroom : 110 ), parents fill the bleachers, guests on the the seats at the stage.

The program started, Inez sat on the seat assigned to her, and mine is just behind while the boys is at the opposite side of the auditorium. "Long Live" by Taylor Swift plays in the background, quiet at first, just a soft hum under the bustle of gowns rustling, folding chairs scraping, and names echoing through the school gym. But then it swells, like a heartbeat, like memory taking flight.

🎵 I said remember this moment / In the back of my mind... 🎵

The music wraps around me like silk and thunder. This is it. Caps. Robes. Flashing cameras. Laughter that crackles like fire in the cold. The lights overhead burn white and unforgiving, but the smiles make them golden.

Matt walks up to the podium, stoic, sure, composed, and endearing as ever. The applause faded into a quiet hush as Matt reached for the mic, the school seal glinting behind him like some golden sunburst. His uniform was perfectly pressed, of course. His hair, not a strand out of place. Kath was beaming in the front row. Inez looked back at me, and I smiled without knowing why. Matt adjusted the mic. Cleared his throat. Took a breath like he was inhaling the entire past four years.

"Good afternoon, friends, teachers, and to the batch that survived deadlines, power outages, and two cafeteria renovations... congratulations."

A soft laugh rippled across the audience. I felt the warmth of it in my chest.

"When I first entered this school, I thought I had it all figured out. I had a plan. A path. And for the most part... I followed it. I studied. I organized my notebooks by color. I mapped my life like an architect drawing a perfect house with no cracks in the walls."

Matt paused, and something shifted in his tone, so subtle only someone who once knew him deeply might catch it.

"But life doesn't care about how neat your blueprint is. Sometimes, the walls fall. People leave. You fail in ways no one prepares you for."

He glanced at the back of the gym, toward the teachers' row. But for a split second, his eyes flicked, just barely, toward us. Toward me.

"And that's when you learn what matters most. Not the trophies or titles. But who helps you sweep the broken pieces. Who forgives you. Who teaches you to laugh again, even when nothing's funny yet."

My hands clenched softly in my lap. I could hear Inez catch her breath. Drake sat in the from row. Tim had gone quiet. Corey focused on Matt.

Matt's voice dropped lower, steadier now.

"We survived not just school, but heartbreak. Grief. Mistakes. Goodbyes. And today isn't about pretending we're unbreakable. It's about proving we're still standing. That we can start again. That every version of us, every messy, beautiful, unfinished version, is still worthy of love, of second chances, of dreams."

A lump formed in my throat. Not because of what he said about failure. But because he meant it. All of it.

"To our teachers, thank you for believing in us, even when we forgot how to. To our parents or grandparents, thank you for the sacrifices you never made us see. To my batchmates: May we always be brave enough to grow. Even when it hurts."

He smiled then, gentle but sure.

"Because the real test... wasn't any exam. It was learning how to be human. Together."