Day 4 before Graduation day.

It felt somewhat satisfying to know that I wasn't the only one worried about the future. Day after day, the time for graduation felt a lot more closer, and I still didn't feel content to what I wanted to be. Those 5 months passed by like nothing.

"Arielle, Coach Alex is planning to make an announcement, come out as soon as you can." Logan's deep voice chimed in.

"I'll be right there." I smiled back, immediately cutting off my thoughts to walk over to the pool where everyone was located at.

Coach Alex gave me a polite nod before he spoke. "Alright, all of you have to listen. As you probably already know, Graduation day is in 4 days." He took a quick breath as if he was trying to fight off incoming tears. "And I just wanted to personally congratulate every single one of you in excelling my expectations this year, and I truly appreciate all your hard work. But now, I just want all of you do me one last favor. Will you do that for me?" His voice echoed.

"Yes." We all answered in unison.

"I want you all to promise me, that after you guys graduate, you all won't forget the memories we made together, and most of all, how strong our bond as a team has grown." He beamed wildly, suddenly tears rolling down his face. We formed a huge group hug and then proceeded to promise him not to forget anything. I couldn't lie and say I didn't wanna cry myself.

It sucks to see time past by so fast, and it truly hurts to know you can't do anything to change that.

Day 3 before Graduation day.

"It seems like everyone's going to ASU, where are you going?" Xavier queried, causing me to let out a confused look on my face as I struggled to zip up the dress I picked out to wear to the Graduation after party.

"What's ASU?" I questioned awkwardly, having the feeling that I should know what ASU is.

"Amphitrite State University. How do you not know that?" He laughed, playfully throwing a piece of crumpled paper at me.

"What the hell? I thought Amphitrite was only Kindergarten to 12th grade? I didn't know anything about a University?" I literally felt so shocked to not even know anything about this.

"They just opened it 2 months ago." He replied, his face staying unreadable like always.

"Then I'll have to think about it. Why, are you going to ASU?" I questioned, curious to what he was gonna say.

"It depends." He answered shakingly, his eyes quickly moving away from mine, his cheeks suddenly burning to a rosy shade.

"Depends on what?" I subtly narrowed my eyes at him, watching him completely turn all fidgety over a simple question.

"It. It just depends." He answered in a low voice.

"Depends? It's not a life or death question." I laughed loudly. "Depends on what?" I questioned again.

"Depends if you're going or not." He blurted out.

I took a pause to just look at him, his smoky grey eyes remaining away from any contact with mine.

"Eh, probably not." I teased, his face suddenly turning back towards me, throwing me a dirty look which made me break out in laughter.

"How does this look on me?" I queried curiously, showing him the beautifully black fitted dress.

"What's that on your wrist?" He questioned.

"I'm asking for your opinion about this dress and all you notice is my bracelet?" I narrowed my eyes at him, subtly annoyed at how insanely observant he is sometimes.

"It's not just any bracelet, Arielle it's a Cartier Love Bracelet. Who the hell gave that to you?" He quickly approached me, forcefully grabbing my wrist to see the bracelet a lot closer.

"It was from Levi." I mumbled, rolling my eyes as I retracted my arm back.

"Throw it away." His voice commanded.

"Excuse me?" Hoping I just didn't hear what I just heard.

"Did I stutter? I said throw it away." He commanded, this time way louder.

"Xavier do you know how expensive this bracelet is?" I exclaimed, my eyes glaring at him as if he was an insane mental patient.

"I could fucking care less if that bracelet is a million dollars, I can buy you a better one. Throw it away." He commanded once again.

"Why can't I just sell it? I really don't wanna throw it away." I cried and laughed at the same time from how serious Xavier looked.

"Arielle. Throw. It. Away." He spoke through his mouth, subtly moving his head closer towards mine.

"What are you gonna do if I don't?" I teased, never failing to have a sense of pleasure when it comes to annoying him.

He moved his face closer to mine as if he was about to kiss me, but then moved towards the side of my face, preparing to whisper something into my ear.

"I'll rip that pretty dress off of you inside that fitting room, and then you'll find out what I'm gonna do." He whispered into my ear, immediately causing chills to run down my spine.

"You've said that before, but you never really end up doing it." I sighed playfully.

"Don't make me do it." Xavier replied seductively, resting his arm against the fitting room door.

I rolled my eyes at him as I effortlessly slipped the bracelet off my wrist. "I'm not throwing this away. It's either I keep it or I sell it." I announced, walking back into the fitting room with a smile on my face.

Day 2 before Graduation day

Our rehearsals had started and it was the most stressful thing ever. Having to walk in heels and praying every second to not fall is insanely difficult. I watched some girls fall already and it just makes my anxiety worse.

"How do you walk in these?" I queried, carefully eyeing at Savannah who seemed as if she had already mastered the arts of not tripping in heels.

"It's not that hard girl!" She laughed. "You just gotta pretend like you're Beyoncé!" She replied, playfully imitating a model pose which made me crack out in laughter.

"Arielle Tesfaye." The man announced.

Shit, here I go, don't trip don't trip.

I cautiously got up the steps, successfully passing through the stage and back down the seats. YAY ME!

Day 1 before Graduation day.

"Arielle we're gonna go get pizza to celebrate the last day of swimming practice, wanna come?" Max's voice came through, causing an image of pizza to pop into my head.

"Yes! hold on." I grabbed my bags and immediately walked towards him.

"We didn't invite Levi if that's what you're worried about." Max smirked, his eyes glancing at me up and down.

"I wouldn't really care if he still came, I'll just act like he's not there." I replied.

"It's his lost. You're special." Max simpered, proceeding to walk me to catch up with the others guys.

"I hope your not complimenting me exchange for sex." I laughed awkwardly, side eyeing him to see his facial expression.

"I stopped trying." He laughed, politely opening the door for me.

"So who here is going to ASU?" Logan's voice announced to the table.

Everyone raised their hand except for me. Causing literally all of them to glare into my soul as if I was a murderer.

"Why aren't you going?" Logan asked, looking at me as if I just committed a horrible sin.

"It's not that I'm not going, it's just I'm still thinking about other options." I laughed, trying to get over the fact that there all just looking at me.

Everyone proceeded to their own conversations as I suddenly felt a quick tap on my shoulder.

"Arielle I have to say it." Trevor anxiously bit his lips at me.

"Say what?" I furrowed my eyebrows at him.

"That I'm a flamboyant pink Flamingo that secretly watches Mean Girls while I wave a rainbow flag over my head." Trevor remained serious as I completely bursted out in laughter.

"Just say it, why are you worried? You've known these boys since like 6th grade." I raised my eyebrow at him, curious to why his so afraid to be himself. "And don't worry about them judging you, I'll be right behind your back." I softly spoke, wanting him to feel comfortable as much as possible.

"G-guys." He loudly announced out of nowhere, making me already feel insanely nervous for him. I can only imagine how he feels right now.

All eyes quickly turned onto him as he prepared to speak again.

"I'm pretty sure you guys don't know, but knowing that Graduation day is tomorrow, I just wanted to let you guys know, that ah, I um.." He remained his eyes down, his anxiety visibly taking over him.

"It's gonna be okay." I whispered.

"I'm gay you guys. There I said it." He let out confidently, proceeding in waiting for the team's reaction.

Max cut off the long awkward pause with a loud laugh, then being followed by others who  also started laughing with him.

Fuck my life. I quickly turned to Trevor to see his sullen face and I felt so bad. Just before I could've spoke to defend him, Max had already started to speak again.

"Dude! We already knew from the start! We're all laughing because it's not a big deal!" Max laughed as he looked at the other guys who were also smiling.

I noticed as Trevor's face suddenly looked relieved as his cheeks burned bright red. "How did you guys know?" Trevor asked in a low voice.

Thank god they accepted him, or else I would've set fire to this whole table and everyone sitting around it.

"Me personally, back in 8th grade, I would always notice you act all nervous when we would all be shirtless in the locker room together." Logan explained, stuffing his mouth with a slice of pizza.

"Yea man, and you're the only boy that doesn't use the locker room to change which kinda dropped hints. You and Arielle change in the restroom together." Diego inserted.

"So all of you guys don't care?" Trevor questioned further.

"Not really."
"Nah."
"STOP EATING ALL THE PIZZA!"
"We don't care."
"No."
"Nope."

Suddenly a familiar voice spoke.

"That's a sin, you're going to burn in hell and I'm going to heaven because I'm an independent man who goes to Sunday bible readings." Steven announced to the table with a straight face.

Wait is he serious?

His face suddenly broke out in laughter, symbolizing that he was just kidding. We all laughed with him as we thought Steven was being serious, which was good he wasn't, or else another strong punch would've came his way.

We all stayed in the restaurant for about 5 more hours, talking about the future, talking about what we wanted to do, and just randomly talked about random things that seemed funny to us.

Graduation Day

"Damn girl, you look good!" Savannah appeared behind me with Diamond, both wearing makeup with their nails and hair done to perfection.

"We're wearing the same thing!" I laughed, giving both of them tight hugs.

Diamond breathed in as I looked at her. "Ugh I think I'm gonna cry!" She looked up as she carefully wiped her fingers underneath her eyes.

Savannah crinkled her face. "Think about the expensive products you put on your face this morning and see if you still wanna cry." I couldn't help but laugh as Diamond waved her hands in front of her face.

Diamond took a deep breath as I threw her a genuine smile. "Okay, I'll be fine. I'm fine." Her eyes looked back at us as she flipped her straightened hair back.

The ceremony was about to start so we quickly left the restroom and walked back to our seats.

Why did time go by so fast?

It feels like I just started this school year yesterday.

We scurried off to our seats as we patiently waited for the ceremony.

I couldn't help but look around to see if there were any familiar faces, there were none.

All three of us held each other's hands as the people on stage started calling out names.

Savannah whispered under her breath as she kept looking at the stage. "Is it bad that I care more for the food I'm eating after than this graduation. You already know my parents cooked some bomb ass food." She stuck out her tongue as she laughed.

I laughed with her as I quickly agreed. "You're so lucky! My mom is probably just gonna treat me with super sad restaurant food."

As names continued to get called, my anxiety without a doubt began to rise.

All I could think about right now was hopefully not tripping in front of everyone.

"Michael Larson."

"Jezebel Callous."

"Sofia Ren."

"Micah Vallenti."

"Savannah Kings."

Savannah sighed as a bunch of people cheered for her loudly. Diamond and I loudly clapping after we hugged Savannah to congratulate her.

"Jade Lavandine."

"Daniel Jackson."

"Arielle Tesfaye."

By the time I heard my name, I felt my heart completely stop. I proceeded to quickly get up on the stage to get my diploma. I was insanely happy and it was such an unbelievable feeling to finally know that high school was finally over.

Other people's names were also called, but I couldn't help the urge to examine my diploma the whole time.

After everything finally finished, my mom and my brothers gave me hugs and congratulated me happily as I still tried my best to process everything that was going on.

"I'm so proud of you!" My mom looked like as if she was about to cry, and I wasn't gonna lie, I felt like crying myself. "Now let's take some pictures!"

I groaned as I tried to take the camera away from her. "Please don't! I hate pictures."

"Because you always look bad in them." My brother Tanner harshly spoke, making my mouth drop at his saltiness.

"Congrats Arielle!" My other brother Alec greeted me with a warm comforting hug.

"Aw thanks Alec." I replied joyfully, throwing Tanner the dirtiest look after. "I wish all siblings were like you." I added towards Alec, catching Tanner roll his eyes at us.

"All of you shut up, high school graduations are a one time thing, now smile! Tanner, Alec, get in the frame." My mom continued to command.

I playfully rolled my eyes at everyone. "You know what, you guys get over here." I sighed, pulling Tanner and Alec for the picture.

Tanner snapped his hand away from my grasp, then burying his hands into his pockets as Alec and I hugged.

"Say cheese!" My mom laughed, squinting at her smart phone camera.

"Cheese!" Alec and I exclaimed.

"Pussy." Tanner added.

After the picture was taken, all dirty looks were thrown at Tanner. "Mom I'm gonna be right back, I wanna get outta this thing, text me where you guys parked and I'll meet you there." I gestured towards my clothes as we all said goodbye to each other.

I finally graduated!

By the time everyone had left, the students changed into their Graduation after party clothes as I sat still in the locker room to just process everything.

"You okay?" Xavier's strong comforting deep voice entered the room.

"I just can't believe it's done." I looked at Xavier with a puzzled look on my face. "All this time I wished for high school to end already, and here I am, wanting to cry over the fact that I'm here, getting dressed for a Graduation after party. Everything just went by so fast." I continued, my voice remaining low as my brain still tried to process everything.

"It's not like everything is done yet. There's still college." His voice sounded serene, his silver eyes looking as bright as ever as we kept our gaze. "These memories are gonna stay with you forever, you hear me?" He spoke, slowly moving his face closer towards mine.

"I know." I whispered back, our eyes dilated intently into each other as if time had completely stopped around us.

"I can now officially say, I now know how it feels to love someone." He cooed steadily, his face now an inch away from mine. "I love you so fucking much." He groaned quietly, lust heavily audible from the tone of his voice.

"I love you too." I breathed, his enticingly soft lips plunging into mine.

End of book 1