May 1st was a very important day for Noah and Talia and many other high school seniors. It's College Decision Day, when hundreds of thousands of high school seniors commit to a single institution for the next four years of their life.
The couple, though they told each other everything, vowed to never let the other know where they were going for college until May 1st. This created a lot of frustration for both parties because while they were excited for the next chapter of their lives, they've never experienced life without the other.
This arrangement happened in sophomore year when Noah expressed his fear of being away from Talia. He told her that he hoped they'd end up going to the same college. Instead of being flattered by Noah's inability to function without her, she scolded him and wanted him to base his future solely on himself and not on what she chooses to do. Obviously, Noah wasn't happy but knew that she was right.
Since then, the college conversations were kept to a minimum.
Another thing that they decided to do was throw a Decision Day reveal party. Their parents were excited for this party because they get to celebrate their children's next step toward their future. Not to mention, they were nervous for the likely event that the two would be apart for the first time in eighteen years.
Noah and Talia had to make their own reveal method and they did not hold back. Noah's idea was last minute but grand. Talia's was carefully crafted. They were almost more excited about their reveal than they were about where they were going to school.
It was a warm Los Angeles night and the Flynns' backyard was decorated with string lights, streamers, and balloons. Four rectangular white tables were placed parallel to each other on the grassy area, giving a clear view of the makeshift stage where the two would do their big reveals. College-themed cupcakes and cookies sat pretty in the middle of each table, though none of them hinted at the colleges that they chose.
As for food, Talia's and Noah's parents both collaborated and cooked a feast fit for a king. They set up another white table perpendicular to the guest tables and lined it with silver pans of hot food. Talia's dad stood at the outdoor grill, flipping thick cuts of ribeye steaks and saucy chicken thighs. It smelled heavenly and Talia tried to sneak a taste of everything. Noah shot her a look of disapproval as she stuffed a slice of steak into her mouth.
The guests began to roll in around six o'clock. Most of them were family and there were a carefully selected few friends. They made sure to make the party pretty secretive or else the entire student body would invite themselves over thinking that it was an end-of-year bash.
The first hour or so consisted of the guests grabbing dinner and conversing amongst themselves. Every so often Talia's aunts and uncles came up to her and reminded her of how little she used to be. Now, she was "all grown up". Some even revealed that they made bets about when she would end up dating Noah. She and Noah laughed about this later.
"Alright, time for your college reveal!" Elle shouted out once the tables were mostly cleared.
All the guests took their seats and eagerly stared at the two graduating seniors.
"Who's going first?" Lee asked.
"I'll go," Noah said. "I set my thing up right here."
He whispered to Lee his plan. The younger brother nodded and proceeded to run into the house.
"As you all know, I was being scouted by schools for football," Noah began, waving his hand around as if being one of the most sought-after student athletes in the country was no big deal, "and I intend on playing football in college. So the college that I committed to is..."
Noah pointed up at the balcony over his head. Lee and Elle popped up and emptied the contents of two huge trash bags, raining down red and black latex balloons. Noah's parents ran out from the crowd holding confetti cannons. With a loud pop, Noah was now clouded by a screen of silver, his arms raised in the air like a rockstar on stage.
"Harvard!"
The guests erupted in cheers, hollering and clapping for the boy's excellent choice in a college. He was going to an Ivy League school, and if that wasn't an accomplishment enough, he was playing football for them.
Some of Noah's teammates crowded the boy to say congratulations but Noah was looking for only one person. In the space between two of his teammates' heads, he finally spotted Talia standing between her parents, her eyes crinkling because of how wide she was smiling, bouncing up and down because she was so proud of him.
"Oh, that's so great!" Talia's mom gasped. "Harvard!"
"Yeah, that boy sure is going places," her dad nodded approvingly.
"Honey, you're next!"
Lee and Elle were motioning for Talia to come forward and take Noah's place on their makeshift stage in front of the backyard doors. Noah and his parents were hurriedly sweeping up the confetti so that Talia's reveal would not be tainted by his.
"I'm so happy for you," Talia said to Noah as she passed him.
"I'm so excited to see where you'll go."
For Talia's reveal, she and Elle set up a projector on a table while Lee hung a white sheet from the balcony to act as the screen. Talia had been working on a video reveal for about two weeks now and she spent all night last night putting the finishing touches.
The video started off with a four year-old Talia in a cap and gown. Her preschool had a tradition of having a graduation ceremony, which Talia absolutely loved. It made her feel so grown-up though she didn't realize how much growing up she had left.
"What do you want to be when you're older, Talia?" her mom asked from behind the camera.
"I want to be a princess!" the small girl cheered, taking the sides of the graduation gown and twirling around like she was at a ball.
"Okay, honey, you definitely will be a princess!"
Pictures of Talia flashed across the screen, one after the other, illustrating her development from toddler to preteen to teenager. The crowd cooed at every one, slightly laughing at her awkward middle school years where she wore nothing but skinny jeans and t-shirts of her favorite pop punk bands. Talia made sure to keep that section short because it was painful to relive it.
When the pictures were over, another video of Talia began. It was taken just before she finished editing the video together last night.
"Hi everyone. I asked some of you on camera to guess what college I committed to, so here are your answers!"
The scenery switched to her parents sitting at the dining table. She had the grand idea to create a video in the middle of dinner so their plates still had food on them. They were laughing because she had pulled out the camera so suddenly.
"Where do you think I'm going to college?"
Her dad shrugged. "One that we can afford, I hope."
"Yeah, shouldn't you tell us where you're going if we're going to pay for it?" her mom questioned with a raised eyebrow.
"I made sure that we can afford it. You gave me a budget, remember?" Talia answered impatiently. "Now answer!"
"Fine." Her dad rubbed his chin, deep in thought. "I'm going to guess Princeton. You always wanted to go there."
"And you, mom?"
"Maybe Stanford. I know you applied there and I'm pretty hopeful about it."
The next couple of minutes consisted of other family members and friends answering the same question. Noah guessed Harvard, which was either him being hopeful that they got into the same school or him projecting his school choice onto her. Lee guessed Stanford as well while Elle said it was the University of Southern California.
It was no surprise that most of the guesses consisted of either Ivy League schools or Ivy League-adjacent schools, meaning that they were just difficult to get into. Everyone knew Talia to be smart and ambitious and they were confident that she would be accepted into the best of the best.
"Now, for the big reveal. If you could all turn your attention to the sky, you will be given a big hint."
As everyone tilted their heads up to the black night above them, a few sudden pops caused some people to scream.
Lee, crouching next to the line of fireworks he just set off, sheepishly said, "Sorry."
Red and white sparks painted the sky, fading out at quickly as they appeared.
The partygoers were still a little confused until the video of Talia started speaking again.
"I hope that the fireworks are going off by now, but the answer is Santa Clara University. That's where I'm going to be next year."
Once again, the guests erupted in celebration, filling the backyard with whoops and hollers and crowding around the girl. Noah ran through the crowd and picked her up. With the help of some of his teammates, they lifted her high into the air.
She couldn't help but notice her parents in the distance, away from the group of teenagers and excited adults, clapping their hands together. They wore the same smiles she would see whenever she made a milestone, but her father whispered something to her mother, to which her mother shrugged and said something back.
Though she had no idea what her parents' brief exchange was about, Talia couldn't help but feel like she disappointed them with her choice in a university. Maybe they were comparing her to Noah, who was going to the top school in the country to play football. Or maybe they were worried about how the couple would stay together if their colleges were on separate sides of the country.
She looked down at her boyfriend, who immediately noticed the subtle change in her mood and put her down on the ground. He furrowed his eyebrows together and Talia took it as his way of asking, "Is everything okay?"
Her hand found his and she gave it a reassuring squeeze, pulling away to assist Lee and Elle with cleaning up after the reveals.
For the rest of the night, Talia and Noah were bombarded with questions about what they were majoring in, why they chose their schools, and most importantly, if their schools threw outrageously fun parties.
"Santa Clara, huh?" Noah asked her when they finally got a moment to themselves in the kitchen.
"Yeah, it's a pretty small school in Northern California, but I did my research and it seems like a good fit for me."
"What happened to Princeton? Wasn't that your number one college growing up?"
Talia tightened her lips and shook her head. "I got rejected. By half of the schools I applied to, actually."
Noah screwed his face up in confusion. He always thought that Talia had the highest chance of getting into prestigious Ivy League schools. She was in every honors class growing up, scored above average on the ACTs and SATs, was heavily involved in leadership roles in school, and volunteered regularly with the service club. It was hard to believe that the poster child for an Ivy League school was rejected by them.
"It's not a big deal. I made my peace with it."
And she did. She opened up her rejection letter on some random Thursday night and ruminated in that disappointed feeling for hours. When she dreamed about her future, she always included Princeton in those plans. It was where she wanted to lose her mind over her academics because at least she could look at the pretty stone buildings outside of her window. It would be especially pretty in the winter when the snow would blanket every courtyard and turn the campus into every Hallmark Christmas movie ever.
Now her plans were derailed and she chose a college that was not on her radar until she realized she needed to apply to safety schools. It was a gruesome few weeks where she read more rejection letters from colleges she thought she had a chance to go to, but eventually her disappointment was no more. She was content with Santa Clara and looking forward to making it her home for the next four years.
"Well, I think you'll do amazing in Santa Clara. I looked it up a little bit after your reveal and it does seem like a pretty campus. I've read that it has a good academic program, too," Noah smiled. He leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. "Fuck Princeton. They passed up on an amazing girl."
"Yeah!" Talia exclaimed. "Fuck Princeton!"
Though it was a fun night, Talia could only think about how far away Noah would be in just a couple of months. She may be a lengthy five-hour drive from home, but Noah would be in a completely different time zone. It was almost pathetic that she wished she chose a place closer to him, as she always said that choosing a college based on your significant other was a disaster waiting to happen.
But he was her best friend. Before the kisses, before the sex, and before the romance, he was the boy who listened to her talk about her favorite books in the lunch line. He won't be there to give her his sweater when she got cold. He won't be there to follow her around the mall for hours when she decided she needed new additions to her wardrobe though her closet was already full. And he definitely won't be there when she'll get lost around campus because somehow, Noah had a great sense of direction and she did not. It was scary to think of only seeing him through a FaceTime call.
It was nearly midnight when Noah was driving Talia home. She said very little during the ride, only answering his questions about whether she enjoyed the party with three words or less.
Instead of taking a left onto Talia's street, Noah turned right. This caught her attention and she sat up straight as Noah pulled into the neighborhood park's empty lot.
"Why are we here?" she asked. It didn't take a genius to know. This was their spot for serious conversations.
"Because I can tell that something's on your mind."
Noah adjusted the way he sat so that most of his body was facing Talia. It was his way of letting her know that she had his full attention.
Talia shrugged. "Nothing, really. It's just that tonight, things felt a little too... real."
He nodded slowly. It also hit him in the middle of the party that they were about to go into completely unknown territory. Harvard was a different universe than Los Angeles, and it was a universe without Talia.
"I'm scared of being far away from you, too, if that's what you're thinking of," Noah said. "How am I going to live without hearing how hungry or cold you are every five minutes?"
"How am I going to live without insulting you at every football game?"
Noah was relieved to see Talia smile at their banter. Even the smallest laugh could brighten her mood, but her teasing grin faded back into the worried look that plagued her tonight.
The air was still around them and there, the couple sat, in the same parking lot that they shared their first kiss just a couple of years ago, gazing upon their best friend's face under the yellow fluorescent lighting from the lamppost above the car. They were so grown up now that it was almost scary, but there was a lot of growing that they were going to do on their own.
Talia whispered, "Do you think we'll be alright?"
Noah cupped her face in his hands, running his thumb over her cheekbone, catching a stray tear.
"I know we will."
~*~