It was 9:42 and I was almost ready.
Graduates had to be in the gym early at 10 for graduation to start by 10:30 and end hopefully by 1:50.
It took one last look in the mirror, straightening my tie.
"Mamá,voy a la escuela. (I'm going to school.)" I yell as I close my bedroom door.
"Espera quiero ver como te ves. (Wait, I want to see how you look.)" She yells from the kitchen.
"Pero, mamá que tengo que ir. (But, mom I need to go.)"
I go to the kitchen and see her frying pastelitos with Steph behind her sealing the dough
She sees me leaning against the wall beside her from the conner of her eye.
"Mi niño! Te ves muy guapo! (You look so handsome!)" She exclaims, wiping her hands on a dish cloth and grabing my face.
"Mamá, por favor." I say pulling her hand from my cheeks and I pull her into a hug.
"¿Estás listo? (You ready?)" She asks stepping back to check on the food.
"Sí, mamá. Dejé las entradas en la mesa,
graduación comienza en 10:30. (I left the tickets on the table, graduation starts at 10:30.)" I finish turning to Steph and ruffling her hair as she swats me away.
"Pendejo. (Idiot.)" She mutters annoyed.
"Bien, ir o vas a llegar tarde. (Ok, go or you'll be late.)" Mama says.
I grab my keys and leave.
******
"Congratulations class of 2018, may you leave here ready to make your impact on the world!"
Applause rings throughout the flooded gym of more than thousand people, four hundred of them belonging to my class.
The graduates start to disperse and head towards their families, while I scan the gym for Kat.
"¡Santi!" I turn at the sound of my voice.
"Sí, mamá." I reply as she, Steph, and Tinny approach me.
"José! ¿Eres tú y tu familia siguen viniendo? (Jose! Are you and your family still coming over?)" She asks looking past me.
"Claro, mi mamá hizo barbacoa y churros. (Of course my mom made Barbacoa, and churros.)" José replies as his had rests on my shoulder.
"Bien, vamos a ir a casa y comprobar que el sancocho, no tome mucho tiempo.(Okay, we're going to head home and check on the sancocho, don't take too long.)" Mama says to us.
I nod and turn to José who I catch staring intensely past me.
I follow his gaze to my sister, "Mírate, mi amigo. (Watch yourself, my friend.)"
I say in a low voice. I've know Jose has been into my sister for years but she never seemed to notice so I ignored it. Recently she started watching him too.
"Chill bro, I know she's not interested."
I ignore his comment and focus on finding Kat again. I spot her by the stage removing chairs and stacking them.
She looks up at me and smiles, whispering something to another girl cleaning up, she makes her way to me.
"Preciosa. (Gorgeous.)" I whisper to myself. She was in a light pink spaghetti strap dress that hugged her waist before flaring out.
"Congrats! You start summer vacation early." Kat says hugging me.
"Hey José. Congrats!" She greets facing him but still glued to my side.
"Hi Kat." He smiles at her.
"Don't smile at her, ese (bro). Unless you're trying to lose your teeth."
"It's okay José he's just kidding." Kat inserts flicking my chest.
No I'm not...
"I'm not fittin to play games with my life." José responds raising his hands on surrender.
"Remember that." I say to him as we share a look. We both knew what I was talking about. He raises an eyebrow before nodding at me.
"Uh... I'm gonna finish cleaning up, I'll meet you outside in 20." Kat says to me and I squeeze her to me.
"Okay, I'm parked near the football field." She kisses my shoulder discreetly before I let her go.
I turn to José, "Let's go. ¿Dónde está tu familia? (Where's your family?)"
"By the bleachers, they want photos."
We head to his family for pictures dragging my sister and mom along before they leave to go outside.
When all my class is on the lawn we throw our caps in the air screaming.
Before I know it most everyone has headed home and Kat is ready to go, waiting for me by my car.
"I'm nervous." She says playing with the elastics on her wrist.
"About?" I ask pulling up in front of the two family house I lived in.
My family and I lived in the first apartment and our landlord on the top second floor with her daughter and grandchild.
The street was crowded full of cars from my relatives and those of friends like José.
"About meeting your mom."
"Kat, you've meet my mom before." I say confused.
"Yeah when we were friends and it was in passing like 'Hi. Bye.' But what if we have an actual conversation and she doesn't like me. What if She didn't approve of us."
I smile at her worry, "You'll be fine, don't worry, my mom probably likes you more than she does me."
"Okay, let's go." She laughs and replys hesitantly.
The door to my house is open and people are scattered both inside and out talking and drinking.
"Kat!" I hear my sister yell for her.
She turns to me.
"Go, I'll find you later."
I watch her walk away knowing out would be hours before we got a minute alone.
*******
"Hey Stephanie, what's up?" I turn to enter the kitchen.
"Hey sorry to take you away from Santi but I need help."
"Girl your good, someone was going to drag him away and he'd feel bad if I was by myself so you're kinda helping me. What do you need?"
She pulls me to the conner near the fridge. "José he's here."
"Steph y'all are practically cousins and he graduated too, of course he's here."i laugh.
"Kat, you know our situation! And cousins?! Not helping." She responds smacking my arm.
"Lol sorry definitely not cousins." I says smiling slyly and rubbing my arm.
"Okay so y'all kissed, he asked you out. You said no. Now its awkward between you guys." I say.
"Yeah." Stephanie sighs.
"Remind me why you said no again? Cause I'm lost, José is pretty handsome, humble and he's nice." I ask confused.
"He's also a Shepard and I can't involve myself with someone in a gang especially with all the people getting jumped lately." Steph looks away sadly.
Not to mention shot... I think but keep my thoughts to myself.
Just a month befire graduation the VP was talking about some girl that got jumped so badly her pelvis was broken.
"José is only a Shepard by association, his cousin is a Shepard and you know how your brother feels about gangs. He would never put you in danger."
"I know that Kat but I can't take that risk I don't want to be one of those girls who loses someone they love just because they are collateral for some a gang. And snobby as this sounds I want to be with someone who has a future or at least has future goals."
"He does, José is going into the Navy."
"He is?!"
"I'm guessing you didn't know." I respond trying to understand what was happening. How did she not know?
"No, I- I didn't." Steph finishes sitting in a stool nearby.
"They announced all the graduates going into the military during the graduation ceremony after all the graduates were given their diplomas."
"I left right after all the names were called for diplomas I went to the bathroom, I came back as the commencement speech ended."
"So..."
"I think it's best this way, can you help me take out some of this food and cover for me if you see him." She gets up and grabs a tray of chicken.
"Yeah girl I gotchu but you should talk to him before he leaves though..." I say grabing a tray of pastelitos.
"I know." She sighs and leads the way.
******
"Kat, niña(little girl) it's been so long." Santi's mother says pulling me in for a hug.
I smile awkwardly, "Hola señora Gonzáles. How are you?"
"Bien, it's good to finally see you again. My son has changed, I think I know why." She tells me smiling knowingly.
"I didn't do anything."
"No, mi hijo(my son) has changed, he smiles more. He's going to college, you did a lot. Muchas gracias."
My heart melts by her gratitude towards me for something I wasn't aware I'd done.
"Thank you, Santi's been there for me a lot also."
"Come, you must be hungry. Both my sons woulda be upset with me if I starved you." She laughs and pulls me to the table of food.
I look around the small backyard filled with people trying to spot Santi. His relatives had all been nice and welcoming. There was music blasting groom outside and everyone was dancing.
I suddenly feel someone behind me pulling me to them. "Come."
Santi whispers in my ear. He leads us to the crowd of dancing people of all ages having fun.
"I can't dance, Santi." I say hoping he won't make me. Criminal by Ozuna starts playing and I curse my life.
Of course.
"That is a lie, but I gotchu just follow me." He says grabing my hips.
We continue dancing between Santi getting pulled away by relatives and friends. The songs keep playing from traditional bachata to Prince Royce and back to reggaeton. The day starts to fade to night and by midnight almost everyone is gone except a few people.
"What are you doing?" Steph asks me as I clean up the trash lying around.
"Cleaning up. I wanna help, I'm waiting for Santi anyways." She joins me with a trash bag.
"Have you talked to José." I ask looking toward the house where he, Santi, and Tony are laughing while cleaning up.
"No, not yet. But let's talk about something else."
"Yes, ma'am."
********
"Let's go." I tell Kat. She was lying on the couch watch some show with Steph about to dose off.
"Hmmm." She responds I don't blame her it was almost 2am at night.
"Mamá, llevo a Kat a su casa. (I'm taking Kat home.)" I tell my mom.
"Bien. Buenas noches niña."
"Buena noches." Kat responds smiling.
We walk quietly to her house which was only a 15 minute walk from mine.
"When are you leaving for West Tech?"
"Last week of August." I say.
"So summer is ours?"
"Yeah and I'll be coming home every weekend." I tell her holding her hand tighter.
"Can I visit?" I smile.
"Yeah, you can visit. I'm only 40 minutes away."
Westview was the best technical university in the state and once you graduated you were basically granteeded a job.
"I got almost a full ride the rest I can pay out of pocket so I'll be living on campus."
"That's great. Don't leave me behind when you start doing your big bad things." She jokes.
I look at her, "I'd never leave you behind, Kat. I want you by my side forever. Te quiero."
"What?"
"I love you, cariño." I repeat.
I see tears brim her eyes and threaten to fall.
"Why are you crying?"
"Because I don't want you to go." She says through tears.
I pull her into my arms, "I got a full ride from LSU, I can stay it's only 20 minutes away."
"No, I want you to go to your dream school. I'll be fine."
I kiss her forehead and pull back as she opens the door.
"Goodnight." She says.
I pull her back and our lips connect, I tighten my grip on her not wanting to let go.
"My dad..." She says breathlessly.
"Right, goodnight. I'll see you tomorrow." I let go and she smiles.
"Night."
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