Be Sure to Wear a Disguise

"Kate, wake up." A voice coos in my ear. "You need to get to school. It's the day of your graduation."

My eyes are still closed, but I know it's my mother. I grumble my displeasure before rolling away from her. My feet swing over the edge of the bed and I stand. Mom leaves and I slowly pull myself together.

I get dressed and make sure all my bags are packed and all the boxes are in order. After a couple minutes, I bound down the stairs, gripping the rail. I smile to myself. I'm still a clumsy kid, even at nineteen.

Yeah. And still in high school.

The thought pounds into my skull making me pause in the living room. I bite my bottom lip and squeeze my eyes shut. The wave of nausea passes over me, ripping at the empty inside of me. I shallow hard and grip the back the reclining chair.

The moment ends and my eyes slowly slide open, taking in the room. A filtering haze slips in front of my hazel eyes, letting me only see what isn't in the room. Or, more correctly, who.

The second wave of nausea knocks me to the floor. My fingernails scrape against the back of the chair. I bite at my lip so hard, I start to taste blood.

I miss you, still.

My breath pulls in, and my mind snaps softly. It pulls in my emotions, numbing me. I release the chair and stand to my feet. I block out the room and everything else. Quietly I move into the kitchen.

My parents look up at me and smile. They have no idea what just happened seconds earlier. I force a smile back and grab an apple from the basket before leaving the house.

I still live in the same place and when I step out the front door, a sheet of rain greets me. I roll my eyes, reach behind the door and pull on my rain coat.

My car roars to life and I sit there a moment, letting the heater warm up the interior. I sigh. My memory tugs at me and I slowly release it to wander.

Well, Troy left. I fell into depression and missed out on the second half of school. That made me have to repeat junior year. Then I went through senior year in the smallest freakin' school ever. Andthat mean thateveryone knows what happened. Now, almost two years later, I'm better. Sorta

Well that does it. I don't feel like even going to school now. I let out another sigh and pull out of the driveway.

I park in the lot and the rain still blots out the blue of the sky. I get out of the car and slowly walk up the stairs and into the building with the others. Since it's raining, the ceremony will be held in the gym.

Mom and Dad will be here later. Now is when all the seniors, all 17 of us, get to prepare for the graduation. Which really means running around yelling "Freeeeeeeedom!" ever five minutes. I take no part in it though, opting to just pick out my gown and cap and read a book.

Caan, the only person I've managed to get along with, comes and sits next to me. He and I are going to the same collage, some art school down south, out of state. His reason for wanting to leave the state of Washington deals more with the fact he hates rain than anything else.

I look up from my book briefly to watch him nod his head in greeting before turning his iPod back up. I roll my eyes and go back to my book, To Kill A Mockingbird. From there, I start to measure time by how many pages I've read.

About two hundred pages later, a whistle blows through my bubble and Caan taps me on the arm for us to go. I pick up my gown and stuff the paperback book in my back pocket. We wait in line and fumble to get the snap buttons to close.

Caan snatches my cap from under my arm. He holds it high, his 5' 10.5" tall self towering over me. I glare at him and snag his cap, settling it on my head and batting the tassel to the correct side.

"Cheater." He laughs at me, setting my former cap on his head.

I smile at him and the class shuffles out to start. I tune most of it out, even though the whole thing is super short.

Caan and I, with the rest of the class, stand in a line to hear the last and finial speech. I feel Caan lean into me and then I hear him whisper quietly into my ear.

"Frrrreeeeeeeeddddooooooommmm."

He leans away fast, before I start choking on laughter. I hear snickering from other people, so they probably heard him too. Whispering is a hard concept for Caan.

In an instant the caps go up in the air and everything that is high school is over. I grab my cap, formerly Caan's, off the ground and I feel Caan pull me towards the door.

We're driving out Tonight.
We're starting fresh Tonight.
We're escaping this town Tonight.