Free Sophie & Carter by Chelsea Fine

schoolgirl.
    I love his guts.
    The ceremony continues. Names are called. Diplomas are handed out and there is much rejoicing in the land…or whatever.
    When the last name is called everyone throws their graduation cap into the air and cheers.
    Well, almost everyone.
    Carter and I spy one another and make our way toward each other.
    Around us, proud parents are snapping pictures of their graduates and adorning them with flowers and hugs. The chaos is joyful and filled with hope and power. I’m happy for everyone around me. I’m slightly jealous of their faith in the future, but I genuinely want them to ‘seize the day’, or whatever.
    I reach Carter’s side and look up into his face. He smiles at me and tries to shove his hands in his pockets. The glossy robe is in his way, however, and his hands slide down its sleek fabric.
    I laugh softly, “The robes suck.”
    “Yep,” he smiles at me, “they do.”
    “Wanna ditch them?” I ask, half-joking, but he takes me up on it and unzips his, revealing faded jeans and a thin white T-shirt underneath.
    I laugh again as I take my robe off as well and finally allow my skin and clothes to breathe. We drop our gowns on the gym floor, leave them there, and start walking toward the exit.
    Carter breathes in deep. “So…we graduated.”
    I nod, “Yep.”
    “You feel any different?”
    I look at him from the side, “Yeah…” my eyes fall to his lips, “But not because we graduated.”
    He eyes me as well. “Me too.”
    We keep walking.
    Then, right in the middle of all our classmates—in the center of the crowded gym where teachers and parents and Whitneys and Evans are milling around—Carter reaches for my hand and holds it like it belongs to him.
    And it does.
    I smile as we walk out of our graduation ceremony, connected.

CARTER
     
     
    I did something sort of cheesy this morning, before graduation. I hope Sophie likes it. She might think it’s stupid, but I don’t care. I’m crazy about her, and crazy people do crazy things.
    We’re walking, hand-in-hand, down the sidewalk toward our houses as the breeze blows. Sophie’s teasing me about this-and-that as we chat about high school and teachers and subjects we hope we never have to study again. It’s normal.
    It’s wonderful.
    My walk home from school has never been so…happy.
    We reach our houses and pause, hands still interlaced.
    “Okay,” I say, and of course, I sound like a moron, “I have a surprise for you…kinda. I mean, it’s no big deal…I just…here, follow me, I want to show you something….”
    Yep, total moron.
    But Sophie just smiles and plays along. She lets me lead her between our houses, through the yards, and out into the back, where the Big Oak stands guard over our homes and secrets.
    Underneath the Big Oak, I’ve laid out a big blanket and set up a picnic.
    It’s totally cheesy. And I’m sure Sophie’s going to laugh at me.
    But she doesn’t. Not at first, anyway.
    At first she just looks at me, tilts her head to the side and smiles. Then she laughs. But not in a teasing way, in a happy way.
    “I love it, I love it, I love it!” Sophie’s bouncing up and down and I feel victorious so I laugh right along with her.
    We sit down and eat while we talk and sigh and laugh and sit in comfortable silence. When the food is gone and the sun is passing above us, we lay down, side-by-side on our backs, staring up at oak leafs and the sky.
    Just like we did when we were little.
    Except it’s different now.
    It’s better.
    Sophie’s hand reaches across the blanket and wraps itself around mine.
    We lay like that, staring up at the blue sky and the dancing leaves, for what seems like hours. We’ve never been to the Big Oak in the daytime before. Something about it is…promising.
    For whatever reason it seems like today, this moment, underneath the Big Oak and the blue sky, is the beginning of something new and forever.
    Sophie takes a deep breath and exhales slowly with a smile.