When Summer Ends (68 page)

Chewing on my lip I waited for my name to be called. I
watched as Amy skipped up to get hers, doing a dramatic bow which made people
cheer and clap. I laughed and flicked my eyes back to Will again, watching as
he clapped and grinned. Amy and Will got on great, in fact, he got on great
with all of my friends, we hung out quite a lot. Everything was easier now that
people thought I was with Sam. We were allowed to hang out as a group with no
one wondering why a teacher was with us, as far as other people were concerned
he was just hanging with his brother, so nothing more was said about it.

When Erika floated onto the stage, the boys all hollered and
whistled as she sauntered on, shaking her ass and flicking her hair over her
shoulder, looking like a supermodel. She was the only girl here that pulled off
the sunshine yellow ceremonial robes, and still managed to look like a goddess
while wearing them. I smiled. She hadn’t hassled me at all since that lie I had
told her, when I told her I had recorded her threatening me. She had kept out of
my way and I had kept out of hers. Sure, she was still bitchy to me and Amy, I
was pretty sure that would never change; it was just part of her personality.
From what I heard though, Erika was going to be moving to England in a couple
of weeks. Her family were uprooting and moving there for her dad’s business, so
I wouldn’t even have contact with her after today was over with.

Nick got his turn on stage too; fist pumping the air which
made his dad whoop and stand up to do the same thing. Someone nudged me in the
back and I looked around to see a girl from my year, frowning and looking at me
like I was crazy. “Are you going to go on?” she asked, nodding at the stage.

I looked at her quizzically until I realised what she was
talking about. It was my turn to get my certificate. I gulped and gripped my
bracelet tightly as I walked onto the stage, trying to appear confident even
though I was secretly counting the steps in my head and praying I didn’t fall
and embarrass myself. I could vaguely hear my dad shouting something along the
lines of “Yeah, go pumpkin!” I blushed and kept my eyes focused on the
Principal who was smiling at me and watching me walk over to him.

When I stopped in front of him he grinned and held out his
hand. “Congratulations,” he stated. I laughed and shook his hand taking the
little scroll with my other hand, feeling a burst of accomplishment rush over
me.
I’ve done it. I’ve graduated. Now I’m free to get on with my life, my
life with Will.

“Thanks, Principal Sherman,” I replied, practically skipping
off of the stage while Sam hollered and chanted “Go, Foxy!” over and over. I
shot him a warning look which just made him laugh and wink at me.

When I got to the other side of the stage I grabbed Amy and
hugged her tightly before pouncing on Nick who span me around in a little
circle, laughing. We watched as the rest of our year got their certificates,
then, as per tradition, we all threw up our little hats. After that I was swept
into an embarrassing display of affection by both of my parents. They were
gushing over my robe, my hat, my certificate, telling me how proud they were. I
posed for hundreds of photos; it would be a miracle if I could see right after
this considering how many times the flash went off in my face.

I waved to Sam, Angela, and William. They made a swift and
discreet exit right after the ceremony. My parents still hadn’t met Sam, and I
didn’t want them to. I couldn’t exactly introduce them to Sam and then tell
them after that I was dating his brother, the teacher. So we just kept them all
away from each other for now.

I felt my cell phone vibrate in my pocket so I pulled it out
to see I had a new message from Will.

‘Meet
me around the back of the gym.’

I didn’t bother to reply. He knew I would meet him, I didn’t
need to confirm. I smiled at my parents who were happily chatting with Nick’s
dad and Amy’s parents. We were all going out now for a celebration dinner, it
would be fun because all of our parents got on well too.

“Guys, I just need the bathroom before we leave,” I lied.

My dad kissed the side of my head, smiling at me proudly.
“Okay, pumpkin, we’ll wait here.” I smiled and skipped off to see Will and get
my celebration hug from him.

As I headed around the side of the gym, there was no one
there. I frowned and headed a little further up, deciding to wait here for him.
Maybe he’s been caught up talking to someone.

Before I knew what happened someone grabbed me and dragged
me around the last corner, behind a bush so we were out of sight. I squealed
from shock, but I knew it was Will because of his laugh.

I turned around in his arms and smiled. “Hi,” I breathed.

He grinned and pressed me against the wall. “Hi,” he
replied, kissing me softly. I moaned into his mouth, just praying that we were
completely out of sight because we really shouldn’t be doing this here. He was
obviously excited I was now graduated. He broke the kiss trailed little kisses
across my cheek to my ear. “I’m so proud of you, Cutie.”

“Will, we should probably go somewhere a little more
private,” I suggested breathlessly as he kissed down the side of my neck.

He sighed dramatically and pulled away from me, taking my
hand, his other hand moving up to cup the side of my face. “I need to talk to
you about something,” he whispered, kissing my lips again lightly. “Can we go
somewhere? I don’t want to take you away from your family or anything, but this
is important.”

I gulped nervously.
Is this something bad? Why does he
look so serious?
“Um… okay. We’re supposed to be going for dinner, but I
could cancel them,” I stated, wincing. My parents would be annoyed with me, but
I guess if it was important then I needed to.

He shook his head in rejection. “Don’t cancel. This can
wait, but I need to talk to you today, so maybe we could meet up after dinner?”
he suggested, cocking his head to the side, looking at me hopefully.

I nodded and gripped the front of his shirt, pulling him
closer to me. I didn’t want to let him go, I was actually a little terrified.
Is
he going to be break up with me? Is he going to tell me that he wants someone
else? Or more space? Am I crowding him?

He smiled and brushed his thumb over the line of my
cheekbone. “You look beautiful in your robes, just like an angel,” he
complimented, kissing me softly.

I felt my eyes filling with tears; I didn’t want my time
with him to end. I would never get over this guy; never in my life would I ever
be able to find someone that made me as happy as he made me. He was the one for
me and I would never recover from this if he broke it off. How had I let this
guy have so much power over me? How had I let him so far inside me that it was
going to be like sheer agony to watch him walk out of my life?

“Have I done something wrong?” I whispered, trying
desperately not to let the tears fall.

He frowned and looked at me like I was crazy. “Something
wrong? No, why would you think that?”

“You’ve been so distant lately, you’ve been busy, and we’ve
not really seen each other that much. Are you having second thoughts about me?
Do you want to… to…” I couldn’t say the words, I couldn’t force the two words
out of my mouth, they tasted so bitter, so repugnant that I didn’t want to say
them.

“You think I’m going to break up with you?” he asked
incredulously. I nodded, chewing on my lip, waiting for him to say the words
and for my world to collapse into the pits of hell. He frowned angrily and
shook his head. “Cutie, why do you always assume the worst? Why do you doubt my
love for you all the time?” he asked, shaking his head sadly.

“I’m not good enough for you. One of these days you’ll
realise it,” I mumbled.

He closed his eyes and blew out a big breath, pressing his
body against mine. “Cutie, I’m the one that’s not good enough for you, not the
other way around. I love you. I love you more than anything in the world and
I’m always going to love you. You need to stop doubting yourself and stop
doubting me. You’re stuck with me now. You’re wearing my promise ring for
goodness sake, doesn’t that tell you how I feel about you won’t change?” he
asked, pressing his forehead to mine.

I swallowed noisily. “So what’s the thing we need to talk
about?” I asked, wrapping my arms around his neck, pulling him closer to me,
letting his sweet words wash over me. I felt my body calm down and relax. I was
being stupid and he was right, I really needed to stop doubting him, I should
have known that he loved me, I shouldn’t have questioned that. I was just still
so insecure because I would never feel worthy of his attention.

He smiled. “We’ll talk later. It’s important, but not bad.
Don’t start stressing that beautiful head about it, okay?” I nodded and pulled
his mouth back to mine, kissing him deeply, showing him with that kiss how much
I loved him, needed him, and appreciated him. He pulled back after a minute or
so. “You should go; your parents are probably looking for you. Call me after
and we’ll meet somewhere.”

I sighed; I didn’t want to leave him here at the school. I
wanted to take him with me, introduce him to my parents and have him come to
dinner with everyone else. It felt so wrong to go off on this momentous
occasion without the love of my life.

“Okay. I love you, Will.” I kissed him again softly, before
turning and moving away from him. I only got one step away before he slapped my
behind as I walked off.

“You rock that robe, Cutie,” he complimented, winking at me.
I blushed and did a little curtsy before walking off quickly towards where my
parents were waiting and talking to Trevor, Nick’s dad.

Dinner was good. Our parents were all sharing stories about
when we were kids, talking about how time whizzes past and before you know it
that little baby that you gave birth to, was now graduated from high school.
Nick, Amy and I just laughed at them as they reminisced. It was good, but in
the back of my mind I couldn’t stop thinking about Will. I constantly wished he
was here and that he was part of this. He was the only thing missing from this
picture.

When we’d finished with dinner, I text Will to tell him I
was done, and we arranged to meet in half an hour. I skipped into the house to
change. When it was finally time, I made my excuses to my parents and headed
out of the house to go and meet him and find out what this ‘important thing’
was that we needed to talk about.

I jogged over to his car that was parked down the road from
my house. I tried desperately not to stress about what it was, he said I
shouldn’t worry, and I was trying my hardest not to, but I must be more of a
pessimist than I thought I was because the fear of what this was about had been
eating away at me.

As I slipped into the passenger side he smiled happily. “Well
hi there, long time no see,” he chirped.

I smiled and rolled my eyes playfully. It had actually felt
like a long time to me, even though it had only been a few hours. “Yeah it’s
been ages. How have you been? Keeping okay?” I replied, playing along. I raked
my eyes over him; he looked so handsome in black jeans and a white T-shirt.

“Yeah, good thanks. You’re looking well,” he answered.

I grinned and scooted over in my seat and pressed my lips to
his to silence him. “Enough of the playing around. Let’s go somewhere and talk
because the anticipation of what this is about is actually killing me slowly,”
I complained, pouting at him.

He smiled and started the car, driving to the children’s
play park that wasn’t too far away from my house. We both climbed out and
walked into the deserted park. He headed over to the bench and sat down so I
followed suit and sat next to him, waiting for him to spit it out.

He turned to me, looking a little nervous. “So I’ll just get
to it then,” he stated. “You’re dead set on staying here to go to college,
right? You definitely don’t want to go to your dream school in New York?”

Okay, I wasn’t expecting this conversation to be along
these lines!
I nodded in confirmation. He knew the answer to that; we’d
spoken about it at great lengths over the last few weeks. I wasn’t leaving to
go there; I was staying here with him because I didn’t want to leave him. We’d
made the decision together, as a couple, what was better for both of us. We had
both decided that staying together was what was important; location didn’t
matter as long as I was with him. I’d already told my family and friends, I’d
told Amy that I wasn’t going with her, I’d turned down my places at the other
colleges. I was staying here with him. So why was he asking me this now?

He nodded. “Okay, so, you said I’d been distant and busy
lately, so I thought I should tell you what I’ve been doing.”

My heart stuttered in my chest. I knew something had been up
with him lately. He’d seemed stressed, and always preoccupied on the internet.
“Right, okay,” I said uneasily, thinking he was going to tell me that he’d been
seeing someone else.

He took a deep breath. “I got a new job.”

I gasped, shocked. “You did? What job?” I asked, looking at
him curiously. I still wasn’t sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing.

He nodded. “Yeah I did. It’s another teaching position, but
it’s not in this area,” he replied, raising one eyebrow and watching for my
reaction.

He’s moving away?
“Oh.”

He smiled. “I’ve already accepted the position. I have to be
there in a few weeks so I’ll be moving away from here.”

I could feel the horror building in my chest; the hysteria was
threatening to crush me.
Will is moving away from me? I’ve turned down all
of my college offers to stay here with him, but yet he’s accepted a job
somewhere else? How could he do that to me? Why would he?