If he gets in, we could still all go to UCLA together. Even if we aren’t on the field anymore.
But from the look on Kim’s face, it seems like that might not be happening.
I walk over, wrap an arm around Kimberly’s waist, and lean in for a kiss. She returns it absentmindedly, her lips distracted.
“What’s up? What’s wrong?” I ask, looking from her to Sam and back again.
She leans in for another kiss, and her lips firmly meet mine this time, reassuring me, but she doesn’t answer.
I’m about to ask again, but I just shake off the weirdness instead. Everyone’s shaking off the old shit tonight, so we can too. Leave whatever this is behind for now. I came to celebrate with them, after all. I look both ways before unbuttoning my suit jacket to reveal the flask I smuggled in. “What do you say we go to the pond and—”
The words don’t even leave my mouth before lightning flashes on the other side of the window, illuminating the entire sky with electricity. The glass shakes ever so slightly with the long roll of thunder, and my reflection wobbles in it, staring back at me, but Sam’s and Kimberly’s are staring at each other.
“Nah, man,” he says, pointing to the sky. “I’m not looking to get fried alive tonight.”
“Oh, come on,” I say as fat drops of rain begin to loudly splatter against the window. “What’d you do with Sam? A little bad weather never stopped you before.” I knock the back of my hand against his shoulder. “Remember the blizzard after we won state two years ago? I think you were the one insisting we go. I’m pretty sure I still have frostbite.”
They don’t say anything. The silence makes my skin prickle with an uneasy feeling.
“What?” I ask, trying to meet Kimberly’s eyes. But she looks away at the streamers just over my shoulder instead. I’m beginning to think this isn’t about Sam’s application.
My hand slips from her waist as I pull away. “What aren’t you guys telling me?”
“I…，” she starts to say, her voice trailing off. Sam looks away.
The rain on the other side of the glass comes down even harder now.
“Tell me,” I say again as I slip my hand into hers, just like I have so many times. I look at her wrist and think of the bracelet in my jacket pocket, the pages of that small silver diary spelling out “I U.”
But then I see her start to do that fidgety thing she does just before she tells me something I’m not going to like. I brace myself as she finally straightens and looks me dead in the eyes. The downpour of rain washes out every voice in the room but hers as the truth finally comes out.
* * *
“Kyle!” I hear Kim’s voice call out from behind me as the drops loudly beat onto the metal roof of the front portico.
How could she?
It keeps repeating in my head as I make my way down the steps. I’m already handing my ticket to the valet when Kimberly comes running out after me. I ignore her.
“Wait, Kyle, please,” she says, reaching for my arm.
The instant her fingers touch me, my instinct is to lean into her, but I pull away and grab my keys from the valet as I step out into the rain. “Don’t bother. I got it.”
She follows me, trying to give me an explanation that I don’t want to fucking hear. If she really wanted to explain, she should have done it long before now instead of blindsiding me the day of our graduation.
“I should have told you, but I didn’t want to hurt you—”
Lightning cracks across the sky again and a loud clap of thunder silences her before I even have to say anything. I spin around to look at her. Her dress is soaked completely through, and her hair is now hanging dull and limp around her face.
“Didn’t want to hurt me?” I laugh. “By sneaking around behind my back? Sharing secrets with my best friend—”
“Sam’s my best friend too.”
“You lied to my face, Kimberly. For months.” I unlock my car door and rip it open so hard it almost swings back. “Consider me hurt.”
I get in the car and slam the door.
Berkeley. The word echoes around my head, every syllable a fresh stab of betrayal.
Berkeley. Berkeley.
She applied and she didn’t even tell me. She sent in supplemental essays and updated transcripts, and got in months ago, and she just sat there pretending. Pretending while we picked out dorms and classes and talked about road trips home for breaks, knowing all along she was never going to go to UCLA.
She told Sam.