*
By the time of graduation, I was finally recovered enough to walk without assistance, although I did have a bit of a leftover limp. I was also able to drive again, which did my heart good because I loved my car. I called up Dan a few times since I got out of the hospital just to thank him for the car. The first time I called, he apologized about his dad, and let me know that Isabella had nothing to do with her not seeing me.
Fortunately for me, she was leaving for Paris for the summer, so I wouldn't be tempted to meet up with her. I knew that even if I just met her platonically and Simone found out, there would be hell to pay.
The weird thing about Simone was that she was jealous about certain girls only, for example, she knew about the mutual attraction between me and Candy, and she practically encouraged us to be together.
I watched the graduation on VHS; it mostly consisted of kids being called up and handed their diploma so I was able to fast forward through most of it. Simone was the valedictorian and she made an impassioned speech about how sick she felt knowing that women were still being abused in a supposed civil society. Other than her controversial speech, graduation went smoothly. I was sad to see that Candy didn't go to graduation and I felt guilty because I think she would have gone if I went with her. That being said, she did receive her diploma and was even planning on going to city college next semester.
I convinced Candy to at least come celebrate with us and she happily agreed. We ended up filling a Red Lobster with cheerleaders and their parents and family. Red Lobster wasn't the swankiest of places, but it was a place that most people could afford (and a place that would put up with a rowdy bunch of "kids" excited that they were done with high school).
I invited Delilah to come with us since I felt like she was part of my family again. Although she made up some excuses as to why she couldn't come, I knew it was because she didn't want to face the condemnation of the cheerleaders. I had a feeling that the cheerleaders would take it easy on her, but I didn't know that for sure, after all there were a lot of feelings of betrayal involved, so I told her we'd miss her being there and I congratulated her on her own graduation.
I was never a fan of Red Lobster; I thought their food was so-so and overpriced for what it was. However, like everyone else, I thought their cheesy bread was to die for. Since I didn't go to the graduation and Red Lobster doesn't take reservations, I got there an hour early to wait in line. I got a list of all the people expected to come and put five groups of us in their queue. Not everyone got there at the same time, but it didn't matter because we still ended up waiting another hour before they started calling our groups in.
While we waited, a lot of the cheerleaders were hanging out together as their kind of last hurrah. A lot of them that were graduating were going to schools in other states. Half of the squad would still be in high school next year and were just there to see their comrades off. There were a lot of gossipy conversations going on, a couple of the seniors were passing on their knowledge to their Padawans as they went through one more time the technical details of doing their specialty moves. I was treated to a lot of 'cheers' and exhausting chanting, but they did do some awesomely sexy moves, seemingly right in front of me. Like bending over, keeping their back straight and legs spread so that their asses would stick up more. Or something simple like the splits. Either way it was getting me 'agitated' and I had to do my best to hide my erection.
Simone noticed my predicament and was amused.
"I'm glad you're enjoying yourself," I whispered.
"You look so cute when you're uncomfortable," she grinned even wider.
"You want to perform some Chinese water torture on me too, while you're at it? Or how about bamboo under my fingernails?" I asked.
"Oh, I don't think I'll have to resort to that, you are way too easy to break," she said, knowingly.
Most of us were seated outside or standing. Simone and I were seated, and although I offered my seat to one of the girls, Simone would have nothing to do with it and insisted we sit next to each other. She looked at me mischievously and got up off her seat and gave the girl her seat, then sat her ass in my lap squashing my cock into my gut and making it even harder.
"No, fair!" I said, as she slowly ground into me. "If you keep that up, I'll have to go home," I said, warning her. I leaned in and whispered in her ear, "I'll cum in my pants!"
She burst out laughing, and although only we knew why, the laughter was infectious, and everyone started laughing with us.
"Oh, by the way, I got you a graduation present. I don't know if you'll like it but with you going away for the summer..." I said and brought out a small box.
"Oh, my god! That's not what I think it is, is it?" she asked, turning pale.
I put two and two together and quickly said, "Oh, NO! I mean, not that I haven't thought of it... we just started dating! It's NOT that! Just open it, you'll see."
I guessed that she thought I was going too fast and was proposing to her. But judging by the reaction after she unwrapped her box, I got the right present for her - a beeper.
Now for those of you that didn't live in the early nineties, cell phones didn't come into wide use until the mid to late nineties. Before cell phones, were beepers. Beepers were like early caveman like texting systems. You could call someone's beeper number and send them a four-digit code. The beeper was a small device with a text screen on it that would receive 'beeps'. The beeper would either beep or buzz, then the display would show both the number of who beeped you and a numerical up to four-digit code that they sent. Quickly, just like in instant messaging shorthand, there were codes that universally meant something. If you wanted to tell your sweetheart you loved them, you could beep code 143. You could send several beeps in a chain to cobble together a message, but most of the time someone beeped you to tell you to call them. The cool thing about beepers is that you could cheaply send messages to people you knew who weren't home.
"It's so we can keep in touch while you're away doing your charity work over the summer."
"I can't afford this..."
"Don't worry about it, it's actually fairly cheap when I bundled it with my phone bill. Each beeper was just ten dollars a month. I'm paying for it so it won't cost you anything... Annnd I verified that your beeper service will work in the town you'll be staying in, in Costa Rica. And you can cheaply send me a beep rather than make a long-distance phone call, so it will save you a ton of money."
She started to tear up, "You're the best! Around!..." she started singing, before she started kissing me passionately.
When we finally went inside, it was chaos. It took over a half hour just to order all our food. If not for the cheesy bread, I felt like I would have starved. It was so loud in there you had to add to the noise by shouting just to be heard. I gave up trying to have a conversation and just did my best to nod my head and focus on one person at a time.
After we were done eating, I looked around and saw that everyone else was finishing up their meals, so I stood up and shouted for everyone to quiet down. Surprising to me, they did just that.
"I just wanted to say that although this school year is marred by the barbaric acts of few, I will look back fondly and remember this year as one of the best years I've ever had. One of my best friends was hurt this year..." I gestured to Candy then looked around to everyone seated around us. "And the guys who did it will pay!... But that's the thing isn't it. She IS one of my best friends and she still is. Our friendship survived, because it's that strong..." I said and had to pause because I got a little choked up.
"A year ago, I had no friends, other than my family. I was a pariah, something despicable to everyone at school... It wasn't your fault. I didn't know how to treat people and since most of my peers were two to three years older than me, it just made it that much harder to find anyone that'd give me a chance. So, I had to protect myself by being an asshole!" I looked around, seeing the moms and quickly correct myself, "Sorry, Language!"
I looked at my mom and she looked a little embarrassed but the other parents just laughed.
"As for me, I consider myself the luckiest man alive, because somehow I met all of you and got to know each and every one of you."
I looked around at each one of them to make my point, "I know things about each one of you that you only tell your closest friend... Don't worry, if it's a secret my lips are sealed," I paused.
Walking over to a beautiful raven-haired cheerleader. "Katrina here, wants to be a Neurosurgeon!"
Everyone looked surprised, and she blushed.
"I thought it would be a great idea, she's smart enough AND has the steadiest hands I've ever seen."
I walked over to another table and continued, "Paulette, wants to work with children. Some of you already know that, but did you know she wants to specifically help those with ALS like her brother..." she blushed but everyone just nodded.
She must have realized that she had nothing to be embarrassed about because she welled up with pride.
"One of my clients... Yeah I have clients," I clarified and quickly continued, "was a doctor who now works for the Kaiser Permanente Neurology Department. I told him all about you and he wanted me to relay an internship offer with his department in L.A... If you're interested."
"Oh my god, really? I'll be going to USC, that hospital is close by, that would be perfect!"
I smiled and handed her a card, then continued before she could say any more.
I went around the room, round robin style and Let everyone of my new friends know the little details about them that I observed. A few of them were very sentimental and started crying, which of course got the waterworks flowing with half the people around us.
I went to Simone last and said, "Now this girl, is amazing, as you all know. And honestly the only thing that I know about her that you don't - ARE secret - unfortunately I can't go there. But I would like to say how proud I am of her," I gushed.
