“EAC potluck,” I said. “I went with Brianne. We’re official girlfriends right now.”
Both girls let out a cheer of excitement. I sat down across from them, feeling lighter myself. It was nice when other people were happy on your behalf.
“Fuck yeah,” said Marnie. “Dude, that’s awesome.”
“It’s about time,” said Cass, smiling kindly.
“Yeah. I’m going to be her date to her cousin’s wedding, so I guess I’ll meet her parents,” I said, glad I finally had someone else to share my news with. After the knee incident, I’d become a lot closer to Cass and Marnie.
“That’s so exciting, oh my gosh,” said Cass.
“Yeah, I’m uh, I’m really excited. It’s my first real relationship.”
“Ah, young love,” said Marnie. We all burst into giggles.
“I have some work to do, so I guess I’ll head up. But let me know if you need me for anything,” I said, standing up again and putting the dish in the sink.
“Of course,” said Cass, giving me a small wave as I went up the stairs.
I felt at peace for the first time in a long time as I settled into bed to do my readings for class.
It was a good feeling.
13
BRIANNE
Seeing Nicole had put me in a bad mood that lasted a while and was compounded by the fact that Robinson had emailed me back to say they didn’t have any open positions. I was furious, but there was no one I could really direct my anger toward. The situation wasn’t anyone’s fault.
The one good thing was that my workload was easing up significantly. It was weird how work tended to come in waves. I found myself with a lot more free time, and since I only had a couple of final projects to complete, I was good to go.
I had no idea what to do with all this newfound free time except tell Kaitlyn that I wanted to get some practice in. I was serious about playing with her. Participating in the school orchestra, and then doing individual study had been fun, but it hadn’t freed my musical expression like jamming with Kaitlyn had.
I knew that hanging out with her would make me feel a lot better. And maybe I could invite Margie to a practice session.
I texted Kaitlyn and told her to let me know when she wanted to practice. I didn’t know whether she’d recruited other band members or not, since I’d pretty much fallen off the map as far as the group was concerned. I didn’t even know how the performance at Shadetree had gone—if it had happened at all.
Maybe I could still get in on the performance, if there was still enough time to practice. It would be a little tricky with graduation happening, but… it wasn’t like my parents were flying in from California like some peoples’ parents were. They lived an hour away and the whole affair would just be a quiet dinner with them after the ceremony.
Still amazed that my planner showed that I didn’t have much to do now, I decided to take a nap. And before I fell asleep, I was inundated with thoughts of Margie and what I wanted us to do the next time we were together…
I woke up in a haze, realizing when I grabbed my phone that I hadn’t set an alarm. Kaitlyn had texted me back and called me, and when I noticed that, I immediately woke up, remembering everything.
I’d slept for nearly three hours, catching up on all the missed sleep from the past few months. Apparently, Kaitlyn was practicing in half an hour.
I quickly got up, washed my face and brushed my teeth, grabbed my violin case, got ready, and left.
As soon as I reached the end of the street, I stopped to text Margie, giving her Kaitlyn’s address and telling her that she could swing by to hang out if she wanted.
When I got to Kaitlyn’s, she was already set up, strumming on her guitar and taking notes. Emily was on her computer, probably doing work. They looked up and waved, and I put my violin case down to get started.
“How have you been?” asked Kaitlyn. “You haven’t even been coming to lunch consistently.”
“I know,” I said, sighing. “I was ridiculously busy, but now that finals are pretty much coming to a close, I don’t know what to do with myself. I have too much free time.”
“And then graduation,” said Emily, who was in my class. “It’s going to be crazy. Is Margie graduating too?”
“No, she’s a junior,” I said, glad that I’d been planning to stay in Rosebridge already. I wasn’t sure I could do a long distance relationship.