The days of school breeze by. During spring break Aaron got some closure. He drove past his old house. All the memories flood back. He doesn't want to push himself for more. He's not ready for that yet. He thinks about it as graduation hits the two weeks away mark.
Being two weeks away from graduating is a huge thing. You're getting so close to closing a chapter in your life. It's a lot to process, especially for kids in the public eye. News outlets will be recording because they are considered a success story. On top of that, Aaron is in the top 10 basketball players in the country and Alex is high up on the list too. Roni is one on the ones to watch for fashion designers, so that's a big deal also. They have some notoriety behind them and they hope they can live up to it.
Sherry and Lear want to do something special for the kids and graduating so their planning a party. Sherry also knows that she's going to drag Aaron out to go shopping. He can't go to college with a minimum amount of clothes. He needs new sneakers to play in also. He hates shopping but it has to be done. Plus, he has money that he's just sitting on. He's been meaning to use it, so what better thing to use it on then himself. He may not want to, but Sherry isn't taking no for an answer.
Speaking of shoes, Alex has brought himself several new pairs. He's a true sneaker head and his girlfriend doesn't trail to far behind him. She has an obsession with sneakers also. If she's going to spend her money on anything, it's going to be those. She and Alex purposely match with shoes often. To be honest if they took pictures in their outfits, they would be couple goals all over the internet. The problem is, they don't post the pictures. It's not like they're insecure. Their both hot and make an extremely good looking couple, but they're taking it slow. A little too slow. They've spent almost five months together. Granted they weren't dating for a majority of the time, but it seems like they're being a little too cautious. Part of the reason for that is that it looks a little suspicious to have a football player and the person who records football stats dating.
"Alex, how come we never post the pics that we take?" Niyah asks.
"Uh, it's never really crossed my mind. I guess because we're taking it slow."
"Slow doesn't mean secret."
"Your right. I just don't want it to look suspicious."
"I know. Me neither."
"It's not because I want to hide you. You know I love you right?" He says. He didn't know when to say it, but it came out and he's alright with it. He means it.
"You what?" She looks at him shocked.
"I love you. You don't have to say it back."
"No, it just shocked me. I love you too." Their lips crash into each other. They live in the moment. Alex pulls out his phone and types a caption. He slides his phone to her.
"Post it." He says.
"Really?" She questions. He nods his head yes and she posts it. She gives her phone to Alex and he does the same. They don't even check the comments or likes that they get on it. They just enjoy the moment with each other.
After Aaron's shopping trip he comes home. He doesn't want to go shopping again, but a certain item can't leave his mind. He grabs his keys and goes to the jewelry store. He's been looking at this ring for awhile. He purchased it without a thought and takes it out the box when he gets into the car. He rolls it between his fingers. He's ready to make this promise to Roni. There's no one else that he would promise to do this with. He's never seen himself as a romantic person. Something about Roni brought it out in him. He's been debating when he wants to do this. He wants to make it special so it can't be today. Whenever it is, he can't wait.
Roni and Nessa have been pretty busy. Roni's decorating her cap and handling so more legal stuff with her mom. Nessa wants to help her with the legal stuff but she doesn't have the patience for it. Everything about that woman aggravates her. She's worked so hard on her self help journey and she can't set that back. Roni knows this and she rather just clear up everything's fine get it over with. That's where the twins differ. They look the same but they're totally different people.
Along with graduation, the year anniversary of the shooting approaches. This is also Malaya's birthday. That's a hard thing to manage. Taking such a tragic day and making it happy for Malaya. Andrew died the day after. It's just going to be a roller coaster of emotions. What a great way to start of summer break! Everyone's going to handle it different but no one knows how they're going to handle it. Alex doesn't know if his anger is going to come out. Aaron doesn't know if he's going to isolate himself . Roni doesn't know if her anxiety is going to peak. Kian and Nessa don't know if they're going to act out. Mariah and Luke doesn't know wether she's going to be happy or sad. Lear and Sherry are just parents who have to find the best way to help. It's just going to be a rough time, but they look past it and try to be optimistic. They graduate soon and get to go to the next stage in life. Dwelling on the past only makes them stay farther behind and they want to grow. Life has always been hard for them and they've finally come to a happy point and they can't go back to where they were. When life tries you, you have to get back up again.