New life chapters

After the ceremony…

“You sure everything’s alright?” Mark asked, standing by himself as he spoke on the phone.

He was currently on call with Jess. She had originally told him and the others that she would be here for the graduation day but instead the brunette tease was heading back to her roommate’s home state, planning to stay the summer with her.

“Yeah… it’s all cool,” she said on the other end of the line, “Tara will keep me busy for the next couple of months.”

Overall it had been a tough year for the tease. She had been **** to leave home due to her mother’s toxic **** addict boyfriend. The same mom who had now decided to shun her, not returning any calls. This was followed by the realisation that she had failed enough classes that she would need to repeat her junior year, something she had only just recently told Mark.

“Well I better go Jess,” Mark said, seeing someone was about to come up to him, “You take care and give me a call in a couple of days or something, when you have some spare time.”

“Sure thing stud,” she replied as the two ended up their conversations with a last goodbye.

Mark had been distracted by the big bodied blonde boy heading in his direction. He had a big goofy smile on his face as he tilted his graduation hat in Mark’s direction.

It was Bryce, after more than a couple of times, he had finally graduated his senior year, “Never thought I’d make it.”

They smiled, Mark happy to see him in much better state than what he was after the final football match of the season. A particular match that Mark had failed to win for his team with the last play of the day.

“Congrats man, I’m proud of you,” Mark said honestly.

“Thanks Rodgers,” he replied, “You still going to play football next year?”

“Yeah, yeah I will,” he said, “what about you though, have any plans for the future yet?”

Bryce nodded unconvincingly, “Guess I’ll get a job labouring for the old man’s construction company back in Philly.”

Without solid concrete plans, Mark was at least happy that he had some form of work that he could get into rather than be without anything at all. Although their relationship had their rocky patches at times, Mark really did appreciate the help he had gotten from Bryce.

“Maybe I’ll come see you one time in Philly,” Mark suggested, “When I’m on the east coast one day.”

He shook his head, “You’re not going near my father’s house there, he’ll still want to ring your neck for what you did to my car that he paid for, I haven’t forgotten that either.”

He still felt guilty for the accident but seeing Bryce turn from a serious reaction to a smile on his face, Mark felt a little more relaxed.

“I really do wish you the best of luck from here,” he said as he put out his hand to shake Bryce’s.

Bryce looked down at the hand and didn’t reach forward with his right hand so they could meet. It was an awkward few seconds but when Bryce leaned forward and wrapped gis arms around him, Mark chuckled.

In a big bear hug, Mark almost took a couple of steps back as his weight leaned on him. Bryce gave him a couple of pats on this back as they hugged, “Once my brother… always my brother.”

Finally saying his goodbyes to Bryce, he almost felt a little emotional. Almost as if he was about to get a teary eye, this was just one of the days… if he felt like this now… how was he going to cope when he said goodbye to Tiff?

***

After saying goodbye to Bryce, Mark waddled back to his friends in Ali and Miranda who were standing together, each with a drink of champagne in their hands.

The roommates were laughing, mid way through a conversation as Mark approached them.

“Speak to Jess yet?” Ali asked Mark as he took a sip of his own drink.

He nodded, “Not coming, she’s on her way home with Tara today.”

Both girls seemed a little disappointed, rather concerned about her state. They hadn’t seen a whole lot of her since the prom, which was odd considering the social butterfly that she had always been.

“Let’s face it,” Miranda said, “She was never coming today, it’s too much of a reminder of what she won’t have next year,”

“That’s not true,” Ali disagreed, “She loves Tiffany and she has a lot of friends that are seniors graduating today, I’m sure there was just no option, she probably couldn’t have gone home with Tara any other time.”

Mark didn’t know who to agree with, the tone in Jess’s voice wasn’t peppy. She probably did and didn’t want to make an appearance at the same time.

“I thought she was going to stay with you this summer?” Miranda then asked Mark.

He turned his attention to the blonde, all the while trying not to stare at her cleavage, “No, I did offer it to her but we never made an agreement.”

In fact, Mark did have someone coming to stay with him this holidays. Winter had just booked her tickets to come out to the West Coast this summer, excited to join Mark out in California. It’s something he had kept on the low key, not wanting to make a big deal out of it.

“There she is!” Ali started said, cutting off their conversation as the beautiful graduate came walking into their circle.

“Aww thank you all for coming!” she said with the greatest smile on her face.

Seeing her in the other night in her prom dress was one incredible sight but this wasn’t that far off that. Her beautiful brown hair down and curled, underneath the black graduation hat. The dress underneath the long graduation gown looking just as stunning.

She went around the group, hugging all three and giving a kiss on the cheek to all.

“Can you believe it!” Miranda told her, “You’re done!?”

“Four years in the book,” she smiled.

The three spoke for a while, even going over some of Tiffany’s favourite memories for the last four years. It was such a bitter sweet moment but he wanted just one last chance to talk to her privately. He didn’t have anything in particular to tell her but he just wanted to spend some final time with her before she went on to celebrate her graduation and in just two short days, move away.

When he finally got that chance, Mark and Tiffany walked off to find a private area to have that conversation.