Excerpt: Catching You

‘I can’t believe it, I’m actually graduating’ I thought to myself, as I pulled into the school parking lot for what would be the last time.
I got out of the car, juggling my gown and cap in my right hand and coffee in the left. I could never go anywhere without coffee. I was late. Traffic had been horrible coming into campus. I shoved the door shut, and jostled my coffee that spilled all over the front of my gown. It was soaked.
“Dammit!” I yelled hurrying to brush it off before it stained. I hoped nobody had seen that. I glanced around and didn’t see anyone. Then I heard a voice from behind me,
“I guess you can’t even make it to graduation without some sort of mishap, can you?” It was Courtney Morgan, the bane of my existence for the last four years.
I shook my gown off and walked toward the football field where the ceremony was, struggling to put on my gown and hold my coffee at the same time. I brushed it off and slipped into line just in time to hear my name called;
“Lauren Bailey”. I accepted my diploma, smiled at the dean and walked down the steps to my seat. I’d pulled it off. I felt a nudge at my elbow. I glanced behind and saw my best friend Elisabeth York grinning at me,
“I thought you weren’t going to show.” A few people shushed us, so I turned back around. The rest of the ceremony went off without a hitch. Afterwards I run off to find my friends. I find them all standing in the grass. I toss Ryan my camera and beg him to get someone to take pictures. When he’s done my roll is full, but I’ve got some great pictures. I’m glad that we still have the summer together, because suddenly I don’t want to say goodbye. What can I say? I’m a sentimental fool.
Well, let me explain a few things. In high school, you have your cliques; the cheerleaders, the popular crowd, the football players, drama geeks and the nerds. I didn’t fit into any of those categories and neither did my friends.
I am Lauren Bailey, but most of my friends call me Rennie . I am 5’3 with long brown hair that turns blonde in the sun and green eyes. I have a high metabolism that makes most of my friend’s jealous because I can eat almost anything I want and still not gain a pound. I've often been told that I look like I could be a cheerleader, but I shudder at the thought. If you think I sound like little miss perfect, don't worry I'm not. I have tons of issues believe me.
Elisabeth York is my best friend. We've known each other since we were in diapers. She’s my total opposite. Picture this; tall leggy blonde-haired person with a 4.0 GPA. That is Lizzie briefly. I'm serious; she's 5'6 with blonde hair that falls halfway down her back, blue eyes and freckles on her cheeks. The one thing that she hates about herself is her nose, when we younger, she fell headfirst off her bicycle and broke her nose and it never healed right, much to her mother’s dismay. I just think it makes Lizzie look even cuter.
Sabrina Harris is another friend of ours. We all call her Bryn, for short. She's the kind of person who you'd want for a friend, loyal to a tee. She’s always there if you need something and is patient as hell. If it were not for her, I’d be repeating my senior year because I failed math. She's 5'4, even though she swears she's 5'6, but I think it’s just the chunky shoes she wears all the times. Now, how do I say this nicely, she is on the heavier side of any of us? I've lost count how many times she's tried diets and lost weight to just add it back on after a fight with her mother.
Then you have the guys….
Ryan Carmichael is 5'10 with dark black hair and blue eyes. A drastic combination, but we love him anyway. He's an artist/musician. There isn't a time you don't see him with either a sketch pad or guitar in his hand. I have endless sketches hanging on my wall to prove it. He often serenades me over the phone with his music. He's my best friend and my boyfriend. We've been together since eighth grade and I just hope our relationship can withstand being 2, 000 miles away from each other this fall.
Nicholas Majors is Ryan's best friend. He hates it when people call him Nicholas, so I do it just to drive him crazy. He and I used to hate each other when Ryan and I first got together, but now we tend to tolerate each other. He's 6'1 with brown hair and grey eyes. He's also a musician, and writes most of the songs for the band that he and Ryan have. He and Ryan are going to the Music Institute in Los Angeles
Finally, there is Derrick Foster. He’s the shy one who keeps to himself most of the time. He spends hours online "talking" to his girlfriend that none of us has met. I often wonder if he could be gay but I don't dare ask him to his face. I do not want to hurt his feelings.
"Lauren, come back to us." I shake my head and glance in the direction of Ryan's voice.
"What?" He laughs. "We were just talking about rides."
"For what?" I asked distracted
"Did you forget that were going to get food at Mackie’s with your family." He cringed at the thought of my little brothers and I smiled.
"Honey, the boys will be fine, I promise. The question is, will the restaurant when we leave?"
I knew that he was picturing two five year olds running rampant throughout the restaurant tables overturned, silverware all over the floor. My little brothers were a little, what you would call, rambunctious. He had the look on his face like he was going to an execution.
"Come on, let's go." I said pulling him towards the direction of the parking lot. I was getting hungry. Mexican food had always been my favorite food. Five minutes later, I was sitting in Ryan's car, the windows down and the wind blowing my hair all over the place humming to the music that was softly playing on the radio.
I glanced over at Ryan and padded his arm. "Huh?" he looked like a deer caught in the headlights.
"Ryan, what's going on? You haven't said a word since we got into the car." I was beginning to worry. He gripped his hands tighter on the wheel, which he usually only did when he was nervous.
"I didn’t want to have this conversation now, but since you have asked I guess I can't keep stalling." He bit his lip,
“Lauren, you know that I love you, but I've been doing a lot of thinking the last few weeks and think that you and I should break up."
He took his eyes off the road for one minute and that is all it took. I wasn’t sure what was going through my brain in the next few seconds, but all I remember is the screaming for Ryan and the crunch of metal against metal as the car collided with the truck coming towards us at full speed. Then the whole world went black.