“What about your schooling? I thought we had agreed you would attend Dartmouth in the fall. I have devoted my entire career to fund your schooling; so that you could go to the best of the best schools that many kids don’t have the opportunity to go to.”
I knew he would pull the college card. My mom was still in utter shock. Thankfully, it was keeping her from chiming in alongside him for now.
“Well Dad, I think I am going to go take a year off and enroll in college in Louisiana once we get settled.”
He took a moment to process what I was saying. I had caught them completely off guard, leaving them for the most part speechless; but it was obvious they weren’t happy with my decision. It was a fire ready to ignite.
“You kids haven’t been dating long enough to go running off with him on a whim. Weren’t you dating his brother not long ago? I mean no disrespect, Sully.”
“None taken, sir.”
Here was the moment I wasn’t looking forwards to explaining. “I love him Dad, and I can’t stay here without him. I think it will be a great adventure for us to see if what we have is real.”
He shook his head at the cliché of every teenage girl in love. “You need to move out of state to see if what you have is real? Why New Orleans, Sully?”
In his usual calm and casual tone, Sully answered my dad. “My father’s services are needed down there, and the opportunity to take over one of the old morgues has opened up. My mother’s art gallery is already set to be reestablished down there as well; since art seems to be much more appreciated in such an incredible city such as New Orleans. She has an amazing venue on Bourbon Street.”
My dad nodded with the notion that he did, in fact, think Sully had a valid reason for leaving Hanover. Whether or not he agreed that I should be going with him was another story.
“You can’t possibly just stand there and allow her to make that decision, Adam. She’s eighteen, she doesn’t know what she wants.”
“That’s just it, Mom. I am eighteen; so, I’m able to decide my own life from here on out. I graduated just like you expected, and now I’m choosing to go to New Orleans and start a new life with my boyfriend. I want a new experience while I’m still young.”
“Adam!” My mom clutched her chest in dismay, looking to my dad to intervene and forbid me to go.
“Ophelia, let them enjoy their graduation night; we can discuss this later.”
Her head snapped to where he was still standing in the doorway, holding his glasses in his hand, and squeezing the bridge of his nose in between his two fingers.
“We can’t very well just let her leave right now without getting this resolved!”
“It isn’t open for discussion. Go have fun, kids; we will talk about this later.”
I didn’t wait around for either of them to say anything else. I quickly jumped up heading straight for the front door.
“Well, that went better than expected.” I looked over at Sully who had a smirk on his face after he said that.
The Mustang purred to life, leaving my house behind where I knew my mother was fuming inside. I was glad to be out of there.
“Are you kidding me? That was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do! That was just the calm before the storm, I’m not looking forwards to discussing it further with them when I go home.”
“Well, I’ll keep you out as late as I can, princess. At least the hardest part is over; now it’s just getting them to accept your decision.”
“I don’t think acceptance will ever be in the equation.”
The Cell swarmed with Hanover High’s freshly graduated seniors. Music blasted from a DJ booth that was most likely one of our classmate's after school job, and the ritualistic bonfire roared to life in the center of the havoc. This was to be our last hoorah of the year before we all went on to do our own things with our lives. Friends parted, couples split, and lives changed from here on out.
My life was taking me in a direction I never could have predicted it would. New Orleans was not in the cards by choice. Most of our group of friends were gathered next to the fire with camping chairs set up claiming their spot, and an ice chest filled to the brim with beer. Gretchen was comfily strewn across Andy’s lap, as he engrossed in drunken conversation with Robbie who was straddled on top of the ice chest. Sarah was sitting on a large sleeping bag that was opened up on the ground.
“Hey you two, we have a whole chest of cold ones for us tonight!” Robbie jumped up quickly, pulling out a beer for me and Sully the second we approached them.
“Thanks, Robbie.” I smiled, taking the glass bottle off his hands.
One thing that we could always appreciate about Robbie was the fact that wherever there was a party, he was right on top of providing us all with the booze.
He raised his bottle up above his head. “Here’s to all of us making it out of Hanover High alive, and for the many drunken college nights ahead of us! May we all remain friends and be no more than a quick drive away from each other.”
Everyone shouted out cheers of agreement except for me.
