Riding home that late afternoon in June on the train from downtown with almost too many shopping bags and a cup of ice cream for each of us, laughing  and exchanging lively conversations along with a few roasts here and there was the last time the three of us were together in the same place. We didn’t know it then, but I’m not sure we would’ve done anything differently even if we did.

We had picked up our report cards the day before, happy to know we had once again gotten through the year with decent grades and a whole ton of great memories. High school just kept getting better and better. Eleventh grade was better than tenth grade and there was no doubt that twelfth grade would be the best year of high school. How could it not be? We were going to be seniors next year! There was always a charm associated with that word, a sense of superiority and accomplishment and not to mention, a whole lot of fun. There was senior ditch day, senior prank and of course graduation! We were all going to graduate together.  We would throw our grad caps and feel them rain down upon us, the whole sensation would be topped off with the deafening cheer of achievement. We would feel that moment together.

We decided to hang out the whole day together in downtown the day after we got our report cards.  We spent the entire day shopping, eating, taking pictures (only a few of which that would end up being main worthy). We did our fair share of fooling around too, but most importantly we talked. We talked about anything and everything; clothes, food, celebrities, guys, movies, books. We told secrets and stories, we discussed our lives, our aspirations for the future, our plans for the summer and the list could go on forever.  I told them that my family had planned on going for a three week vacation, camping out west by the mountains and visiting family friends along the way.  Amber had gotten a part time job and planned on spending her summer working and saving up while Ariana planned on catching up on every Netflix show there was. We had made plans to go paint balling soon after I would come back. Little did we know that we would never go paint balling that summer much less even graduate together.

While I was away having a great time by the mountains with my family, Ariana’s  father had been appointed a higher position in his field, he got a new job on the other side of the country. It was well paying too, Ariana kept sending pictures  of what her penthouse would look like and she said there would be people waiting on her, basically anything you could imagine of a rich and lavish lifestyle. I was happy for my best friend, obviously I was, she was going to be living a life full of luxury, but that didn’t change how much I was going to miss her and how her absence would be felt a great deal whenever I hung out with a group of friends from then on. I planned on saying good bye as soon as I got back, but by the time I got back she was long gone to her new home, her new life in a new place with new people. I never even got to say good bye. As for Amber and I, things weren’t about to go on the same way as they used to either. Two teachers at our current school were convicted of sexual assault and there was no way our parents were about to send us back there.  Amber got sent to a well reputed school located a 2 hour bus ride from her home and I got sent to a private school that had been ranked the #1 high school in the whole city for the past ten years. To be quite honest I had good expectations, after all I had heard amazing things about my new school.  At that point I wasn’t too depressed about not spending senior year with my best friends. Amber and I could still hang out whenever we wanted and as for Ariana, we called everyday. It almost felt like she wasn’t so far away. Almost.  I didn’t notice it then but a small gap had opened up inside me, my hopes slowly falling and disappearing  into it one by one.

I was wrong about many things that summer because I had stood firmly by the hope that senior year would be the best year of high school.  Maybe not as good as I imagined without my best friends, but everyone said senior year was the best. Why would I be any different? It didn’t occur to me then that the people I would be going to school with that September would turn out to be an entirely different breed of high school kids that would crush all my hopes for my last year of high school. The last year before we would step out into the real world.

To Be Continued…