You know how they always say that graduation is really just for the parents? Because I could totally see why that was a saying. I wasn’t even graduating and I was so bored with the whole thing. There were speeches after speeches from the superintendent to the principal to some student speakers and then the valedictorian and the salutatorian and I didn’t know any of the students that had spoken.
Carter, Sophie, and Ethan were the three people that I was there to celebrate. I mean, I was friends with a lot of people that were graduating, mainly from the soccer team, but I wouldn’t have sat through an hour and a half of speeches of people basically saying the same thing over and over for anybody except for Carter and Sophie.
“I don’t know why I come to these things every year,” Will mumbled with a shake of his head from beside me.
“To support your brothers,” Tom reminded him from the other side of him. Will had tried to convince Aster to come with us to the graduation ceremony today but not even she could be tricked into sitting through so many hours of boredom and sentiment. “They’ll be there for you next year.”
“Andy doesn’t go to anybody’s graduations, he’s only here for this one because of Sophie, not Carter,” Will defended, motioning to Andy, who was sitting on the other side of me.
“But I’m here, and that’s the important part,” Andy piped. Owen had made the drive up here to see Carter graduate as well as long as his whole family including his wife and his young daughter who are sitting on the other side of Tom with Ace and Alijah as they quietly amused themselves. Randy, Paige, Anthony, and Sophie’s parents were also in the row with us as we finally got to the part of the ceremony where they announced each graduate to cross the stage and receive their diploma.
“You guys really need to be quiet before you get us all kicked out,” Owen said with a pointed look.
I wasn’t sure how that got all of them to shut up, but it did. Since they were being called in alphabetical order, Carter was near the front of the list so it didn’t take that long to hear his name being called and to watch him walk across the stage in his long red gown and square cap with the red and black tassel hanging from the left corner.
Once they called his name, we all started cheering for him, even getting a few dirty looks from other people in the crowd, as he flashed a gorgeous grin in our direction before walking completely across the stage to shake hands with all of the school officials on the stage and then getting his diploma handed to him by his guidance counselor and then he disappeared back into the crowd.
Ethan’s last name was Moore, so he was in the middle and when he walked across, I clapped for him but nothing as dramatic as when Carter passed. And then Sophie, with the last name Turner, was pretty close to the end so the wait between Carter and Sophie was really long and slow.
I noticed a few people that I recognized walk across the stage like Rikki, who I hadn’t talked to in forever which was probably a good thing because she really hated me for dating Carter, Cleo and Joanie from the team, and a few guys that I knew from Carter’s basketball team and then a few more that I’d met from Will’s hockey team.
Eventually, Sophie went across the stage and when we cheered for her, she offered us a huge wave from the stage and then bowed dramatically in her black gown (boys wore red gowns, girls wore black gowns) before she grabbed her diploma and basically skipped off of the stage. She was so excited to be graduating, and you could tell because she was grinning from ear to ear, ready to start a new chapter of her life.
Although she was staying here for a year to take a break from school before college. I was sure that it was to spend more time with Andy before they had to figure out their future but she insisted it was because she had no idea what she wanted to do with her life. Either way, she was staying home for an extra year, getting a job, and taking a few classes at RCC.
After all of the graduates had crossed the stage, the valedictorian took the stage again to give one last speech. The very last one, according to the printed program that they’d handed us at the door.
They flipped their tassels over from the left side to the right side of their square caps as a symbolic representation of their graduation and then they did the whole ‘we did it!’ thing before the graduation caps started flying through the air and the whole room erupted in applauses.
By that time, I couldn’t tell if I was cheering for Carter and his major accomplishment of getting his high school diploma, or if I was just cheering because I was so happy that it was over. Either way, I was happy.
We met back with Carter and Sophie in the lobby area of the convention center that held graduation and then Tom and Sophie’s mother insisted on some pictures of them. Tom had even taken some pictures of me and Carter and when he did that, Carter had taken his cap off and sat it on my head because he felt like being goofy.
He took some of all of the brothers as well, since they were all there which was a rarity considering Anthony and Owen lived so far away and Ace and Alijah were so young that they were either with a babysitter or off on a business trip with Tom.
“So, what are we going to do to celebrate?” I asked Carter once all of the pictures were done and we were all walking out of the convention center.
“We need to go eat,” Will told us. “I’m starving because that boring ceremony just made me so hungry.”
“Will, be nice,” Sophie snapped. “It was a nice ceremony.”
“It was boring,” He deadpanned. “How about that spaghetti place? Or the Cheesecake Factory or something. Anything, really.”
“Carter and Sophie get to decide,” Tom said, motioning to the two graduates. Carter was walking with me with his arm around my waist, which felt kind of weird because he was still wearing his red gown and it felt kind of itchy on my skin but I’d never oppose to being so close to him so I just put up with it. Sophie was walking hand in hand with Andy right in front of us as our group herded into the parking lot.
“I’m actually going to take Maddie out,” Carter announced. “So Sophie can decide, we’re going to take off.”
“What? Why can’t we celebrate with everybody?” I wondered curiously as everybody turned to look at us.
“Because I have something to show you,” He explained with a boyish grin before he turned to look at everybody else. “We’ll be back at the house later.”
“You’re no fun,” Sophie pouted but I just gave her an apologetic shrug because I had no idea what Carter had planned, I thought that we were going to go to dinner or something with the whole family. Carter didn’t look like he was about to explain himself though, so I didn’t try to ask him again what was going on. Instead, we said goodbye to the rest of the group and I let Carter drag me away from them and to his car.
“So what’s going on?” I finally asked him as he pulled out of the busy parking lot of the convention center.
“I’m taking you out,” He repeated what he had said earlier.
“Yeah, I got that part,” I giggled. “Where though? And why right now? You should be celebrating with your family and everything, you know.”
He shrugged. “Owen and Anthony are leaving soon anyway so I wouldn’t be spending time with them. I hung out with them all morning too so it’s fine. And I’m taking you out now because I want to celebrate with just you.”
“Okay then well if that’s what you want. I guess it’s your day.”
“Exactly.”
“So what are we doing?”
“I’m not sure yet,” He admitted. “Do you have any ideas?”
“Wait, you don’t actually have a plan?” I wondered with an incredulous laugh.
He shook his head. “Nope. I just know that I want to spend today with you. I mean, we just sat in that stuffy auditorium for three hours and I was half asleep the whole time.”
“It was your graduation, Carter,” I reminded him with a laugh.
“Yeah, but I didn’t think it was much of a big deal. It’s not like I’m done with school, just high school. I only went to it because my dad made me. He doesn’t seem like it, but he is kind of sentimental when it comes to things like this,” He explained as he continued to drive to nowhere in particular. “Come on, Maddie, you know that you were bored.”
“It wasn’t… the most exciting three hours of my life but it is still a big deal for you,” I assured him. “You’ve been working for thirteen years to get your diploma and now you’ve finally gotten it. Almost your whole life has been invested into getting this diploma.”
“That’s a societal delusion,” He informed me with a wide grin.
I rolled my eyes at him. “Whatever, it’s a big deal whether you want to admit it or not. Anyway, you need to decide where we’re going before we run out of road.”
“We should go to the cabin,” Carter randomly suggested.
“We’re not exactly dressed for nature,” I told him, motioning down to my simple red pleated dress. I was wearing lacy black heels and a lot of borrowed gold jewelry from Sophie so that I looked nice for Carter’s graduation. I also had on the gold heart bracelet that he’d given to me for Christmas and it jingled happily every time that I moved my wrist. Carter also looked nice, wearing dress pants with a tucked in button up shirt and a tie that I had picked out that morning hiding under his red gown.
“Let’s stop by the house and get some clothes and then we can go to the cabin for a few days,” He offered me. “I mean, since we’re going to France in two weeks, we won’t have much alone time while we’re there.”
“We’re only going to be there for a week, I think we’ll manage. But okay, I do love the cabin and it’s your day so whatever you want,” I appeased him, honestly loving the idea of going to the cabin with Carter today just randomly. Yesterday was my last day of school, so my exams were over and I had about a month before soccer conditioning started up again for next year, so it was the perfect time for a random trip to the cabin for a few days to ourselves in the middle of nature.
“Exactly,” He grinned at me. “And it’ll be fun. The cabin is really cool in the summer because everything is growing and I can show you the waterfall again.”
“It sounds beautiful,” I said, matching his elated grin. “You should let Tom know that we’re leaving.”
“I’ll call him when we get inside,” Carter told me once he parked in the large garage by the house and we both walked in. With everybody out celebrating the graduation (ironically, without the graduate) the house was empty so we would be able to get in and out fairly quickly.
We made a quick lunch with lunch meat and potato chips downstairs, made out a little by the fridge, and then we went upstairs to our separate rooms to pack our bags for the cabin. I made sure to pack an equal amounts of comfortable underwear and lingerie. I didn’t pack my laptop though, figuring that a remote weekend with Carter would be perfect, and leaving my laptop here would make it even more remote and even more perfect.
I slipped my dress off to change into something more comfortable just as Carter swung open my door, walking in without knocking and making me jump a little bit.
“I called my dad, he said to have fun,” Carter informed me before even noticing that I was just in my underwear. “And I’m now realizing that I should have knocked.”
“It’s the normal thing to do,” I chuckled, barely fazed that he was looking at me in my underwear considering that we’d had sex countless times before so it wasn’t anything new to him. I turned away from him to grab the clothes that I’d already laid out on my bed to change into. “But you’re already in here now so it’s useless. Are you all packed already?”
“Yeah,” He said, clearing his throat, as I slipped into a pair of jean shorts and a purple tank top. “How about you?”
“All set,” I piped with a coy smirk. “And stop looking at me like you’ve never seen me in my underwear before. Let’s go.”
As I started walking past him to the door with my bag hanging from my elbow, he wrapped his arms around my waist and kissed the side of my neck. “Babe, I’ll never get used to seeing you naked.”
I blushed a little bit and turned around to face him, pressing my lips to his for a short moment but when he tried to push his tongue between my lips, I pulled away with a giggle. “We have to leave now to make it there before dark.”
“I can drive in the dark,” He mumbled.
“Let’s go,” I urged him with a louder laugh as I pulled on his hand and led him out of my room so that we could leave. Although I really wanted to just stay there and make out with my boyfriend, I wanted to get to the cabin and we could wait to make out until we got there.
“I thought today was my day,” He groaned jokingly but he still followed me down the stairs and then into the living room.
“It is your day,” I giggled. “But I just want to get there before it’s dark is all. I promise that I’ll make it up to you when we get there.”
“Alright then,” He quickly agreed and then we were walking out the front door of the house and back toward the garage. “That sounds like a deal.”
“Good.”
Once in the car, I prepared for a really long drive up to the cabin by getting comfortable in the passenger seat and texting Sophie and Paige that I’d be gone for the next few days. Sophie replied with an abundance of winky faces.
We’d been in the car for about half an hour and we were pretty far away from Rawlins now but we were in the middle of nowhere and we would be for another hour until we drove through another town so it was nothing but fields for a while.
“So, I love you,” Carter told me randomly as we were stopped at a red light. I wasn’t sure why there was a traffic light right there because this road seemed so deserted, there were only a couple of cars around us and it could have just been a stop sign but I guess that maybe it was busier during the week or something.
“Yeah?” I wondered jokingly.
“Yeah,” He nodded. “I feel like it’s been a while since I’ve told you that.”
I leaned over and made sure that the light was still red before pressing my lips to his. “Well, that’s good to hear because I still love you too.”
“Also good to hear,” He grinned, kissing me again.
And then the next five seconds of my life seemed to go by so slow. I blinked once and I saw a large truck driving down the road that intersected the one that we were driving on. I blinked again and then I saw that same truck swerving toward us, off of his road and onto ours. Another blink and he was headed right for us, headlights flashing, his horn honking, tires squealing. As I blinked again, I was screaming Carter’s name, reaching to get closer to him and to hide my face in his shoulder.
And then I blinked one last time only this time, everything went black and my eyes didn’t open again.