wrong.
They wave goodbye before retreating out of the way, and then Jackson is there smiling at me and hugging me.
Brett.
Where’s Brett in all of this?
I glance around and he’s there grinning at me, a proud look on his face, and everyone else in the room disappears.
“Well done.”
“Thank you.”
“I’m really proud of you.”
“I couldn’t have done it without you.”
He shrugs modestly before looking around at the chaos around me. “I’m really happy for you.” He looks at everyone else, all still laughing and smiling, talking amongst themselves, before he turns back to me. “I guess I’ll leave you guys to it.”
He sends me one last smile before turning around and heading back to his table, leaving me feeling a little empty inside at his absence. I don’t want him to go back to his table.
I blink rapidly to pull myself together, remembering to enjoy this moment and everything it means as everyone goes to sit back down to enjoy the last ten minutes of lunch.
My heartbeat is still going crazy in my chest.
I’m so hyped up.
So happy.
So, so damn happy.
I don’t know if I’ve ever felt this proud of myself in my life. I honestly might get these papers framed.
Fuck this.
“I don’t want to be here,” I say, everyone turning to me as I stand and gather my stuff.
“Where are you going?” Brendon asks.
“Home. My mom’s at her sister’s, and I’m going to have a drink and order some food and celebrate.”
A wide grins spreads across Chase’s face. “Yeah?”
“Hell yes.” I glance around at them, noting how Aaron is already standing to join me and Jennifer is putting the English book she had out back into her bag. “You guys want to come?”
“We can’t ditch,” Livy says, looking around worriedly.
I laugh in her face. “We’re graduating, Livy.” I can’t wipe the grin off my own face. “I’m graduating.” Oh god, it feels so good to say those words. “It can just be an extra senior day. What the hell can they do to us now?”
“Yes!” Sophie shouts. She starts banging her hands on the table, pounding them up and down. “Senior day, senior day, senior day!” Sasha, Jackson, and everyone else joins in her chant and we’re creating such a scene that I’m pretty sure we’re about to get yelled at but in this moment in time I really don’t care. And looking at my friends right now, I don’t think they do either.
Livy eyes me for a second, considering before her face breaks out into a grin and then she’s standing too.
Everyone else scrambles to their feet, all getting ready to leave, and I notice that the rest of the cafeteria is all looking this way. I look at Brett, and he’s looking over too.
“You coming?” I call out, not giving a damn that everyone’s watching. “Party at my house.”
He looks at me, and for a second I think he’s about to say no, but then he stands, pushing away his tray of food and throwing his backpack on his shoulders.
His friends look at him before glancing back to me. “You guys too,” I say, and I mean it. Maybe I can actually have a nice conversation with people outside of my group, something I should have done years ago but didn’t because of my own stupid issues.
Actually, screw it—screw it all! I climb up onto the bench, looking around the cafeteria at the people I recognize but have barely spoken to because of my own damn insecurities, and I cup my hands around my mouth to shout, “Yo, seniors.” Blank faces stare back at me. “We’re ditching. Senior afternoon. Party at my house.”
For a second, no one does anything, they just look at me with surprised eyes, and I think the damage has been done—I can’t take back the way I’ve treated the rest of the senior class. But then there’s a murmur and people start to move, Hallie standing up first, followed by the rest of the girls soccer team, and then other people, grabbing their stuff and pushing their lunches away.
Sasha starts laughing behind me. “Yes, Abigail!”
I know it’s not about me, not really—they just want an opportunity to ditch and a party to attend—but I don’t care. I don’t care about anything at all.
I turn back around, and just like that, half the cafeteria, in the middle of a Thursday afternoon, the entire senior class of Grove Valley High stands as a whole and walks out of the cafeteria to head to my house.
The teachers don’t