Finally, the day I have been waiting for, high school graduation. This is the ticket that I've been waiting for. All the hard work, long study hours, and stupid projects has finally payed off to be able to walk across the stage in just a few hours. Goodbye high school, hello Olympics.
The wind had a soft breeze that wrapped me like a blanket. I welcomed it in this June heat that had not let up in over a week. I look around me and all I see is a swarm of blue caps and gowns. There was a sea of bored faces that all had sweat dripping down them as the sun was directly above us. I kept searching the crowed until I found the face I was looking for.
Xavier.
He noticed me looking at him and made a funny face with his tongue sticking out. It made me giggle earning myself a few glances from the people around me. This commencement address was taking forever and no one wanted to leave more than I did.
I looked back at Xavier, unfortunately because our last names were very different as mine, Bakers, came before his, Thompson, in the alphabet so we were forced to sit apart from each other and endure this torture before receiving our diplomas and officially become graduates.
The address went on for a little while longer and it wasn't soon after that they started calling people for their diplomas. It wasn't long before my name was said. There was an explosion of noise from the stands. Looking up from the stage that had been placed on my high schools football field I saw mine and Xavier's family going crazy cheering for me. Not being able to help it, I smiled and waved up at them. They were all beaming with pride.
Walking off the stage, diploma in hand, I sat back down in my seat and waited for Xavier's name to be called. I looked down at the piece of paper in my hands, it was so simple yet held so much power. This was my ticket to UCLA gymnastics team. I had been scouted by many schools every since I became a member of the US National team. Every meet there was always someone there to talk to me about my career. Having my heart already set on UCLA I was beyond ecstatic when a representative approached me after I won the gold at a event in London. I almost said yes to them right then and there. This truly is my ticket to the Olympics.
Being lost in thought had completely distracted me from the ceremony until I heard Xavier's named called. The cheering in the stands had started again from our families as their faces filled with joy. I jumped from my seat myself and cheered for him, I kept cheering until he was walking back and took me in his arms and lifting me up. He placed me back down and planted a kiss on my cheek.
" We did it Sierra, we actually did it! onto the next chapter of our lives". I couldn't help but smile at all the emotions that were smeared across his face. Joy. Pride. Accomplishment.
" You need to move onto your seat cause you're holding up the line" Giving him a liht shove on the shoulders to send him heading back. Him stopping for only a few seconds had greatly disrupted the flow and there was a lot of pissed off faces from the administrators.
It wasn't much longer before the ceremony came to and end and I found Xavier rushing to find me. We were then able to give each other proper hugs and congratulations. Our families found us surprisingly quickly. They made us take about 5000 pictures between the two of us and some of our friends. Everyone was smiling and having fun. I looked around and just basked in all the joy around. It wasn't often that there was this much happiness around so I wanted to enjoy every last second of it.
However, our families had a different idea as about 20 minutes later we were all seated in a large dinner. Xavier and I sat next to each other while our family was all around us. We got our drinks and placed our orders and then social our started. Our two families had always been close friends going back a few generations so there was never a doubt in our parents mind that we would become friends.
They had always hoped that we would end up falling in love and getting married making our two families officially one. That never happened though. We have always been strictly friends making sure to never cross the line, we had never even come close to it actually. It was perfect because nothing could ever interfere with our friendship and we didn't want to test it.
Believe me there has been many times when I wanted to cross that line. Who could blame me, Xavier was the definition of handsome. He was over a foot taller than me and very muscular even though he didn't play any sports. He had these chocolate brown eyes that were mesmerizing. Xavier was the one who knew me better than anyone else and I couldn't be more grateful, he always knew what I needed before I knew.
I was pulled from my thoughts when Xavier elbowed my side to get my attention. My green eyes meeting his brown ones.
" You good there short stack, you look like your somewhere a million miles away" He used the nick name he had given me in middle school when I stopped growing at the tall height of 5'0. I have always been training intensely which stunted my growth. Made gymnastics a lot easier but I have to navigate the world at the same height as my 10 year old cousin.
" Yah I'm good, just thinking about how excited I am for both of us. Starting our new lives and becoming actual adults. This is our chance to make our mark on the world!" He smiled with a smile that can light up a million rooms.
"I cant wait to spend the summer with you before heading off to college. This is going to be the best summer ever". Hearing his words made my stomach clench. I wouldn't be able to spend the summer with him, there was a meet in Italy only a month away and after that I had to go to California early for team practices. I was really only going to have two weeks with him before going away. How had I forgotten about that, we had so many plans for the summer and now we were both going to be devastated.
Thankfully our food came leaving me no time to respond to him after we all started digging into our food. Him and I were planning on going to our stargazing spot tonight to have our own graduation celebration. I had until then to work up the courage to tell him. There was no way I am going to be able to get through it. Before I knew it the happiest day of my life so far had turned out to be one that I would be praying to end sooner.