Blackout

“Seniors! Seniors!” chanted the boys as we left the auditorium. I took the cap off and looked around for my family. I rolled my eyes tearing myself away from Tony’s side as I saw my brother standing in the crowd looking lost.

I never made it to Timothy. My arm was pulled, and I was standing face to face with one man that I hadn’t wanted to look at. I bit my lip as I looked up at Tyler’s face. He was here not for Rachel since I knew they hadn’t lasted more than a few days after their hookup from what Facebook had shown me and she had told me after we finally made up.

“Hey, Em,” he smiled. “I came just for you.”

I batted away the flowers he held out to me and turned on my heel to storm away. He gripped my wrist and didn’t let go until I stopped trying to pull away. The tears were building up as I thought back to the holiday party. Tyler had been such an ass, and I had no reason to stand here any longer. But something in me wanted to take him back. I wanted to give him another chance. I, I didn’t want to feel like I was making a horrible decision by staying with Tony in Boston.

Tyler followed me as I searched no longer for my family but for Tony again. I wasn’t going to cry on the day of my graduation. That was my only strength. I’d cry tears of joy, but shedding tears when they had to do with Tyler was going to kill me. I couldn’t do it. He was going to make everything worse for me. Then he found Tony first.

I didn’t know that there was going to be such a reaction. I just turned around and witnessed Tony punch Tyler in the face. My boyfriend did the one thing I had wanted to do since I first ran into Tyler at this stupid ceremony. As he walked away like nothing happened, I saw him wink at me. That was one of the things I loved about him. He at least was making me feel better.

“Emily, what happened?” Rachel asked me as she ran over to the commotion. She looked at Seguin than me as I shrugged.

“He got what he deserved,” I told her. I linked arms with her feeling that pang of hatred that I felt when she hooked up with him. I was still working at getting over that just like I knew she had gotten over the idea of Tony and me. “Anthony punched him.”

My brother found my best friend and I standing there talking. He laughed knowing that I must have had something to do with the commotion that was going on only a few yards away from us. After throwing his punch, I hadn’t seen Tony around, but the smile on Timothy’s face made me wonder if he had heard about what happened from just my boyfriend.

“You sure know how to pick guys, Em,” laughed Timothy. He kissed the top of my head and nodded at Rachel. “You seem to know how to pick them, too, Rach.”

“Yeah, but at least, it means that her judgment is as bad as mine,” laughed my best friend. She had found it easier to make jokes about everything than I had. The Tyler situation that had been created at the Christmas party was still something that I got mad about whenever it was mentioned to me. Some of the girls who had been there and knew the situation had tried to use it against me. I wanted to kill them, but Rachel and Tony always found a way to calm me down.

“Your prince is coming this way,” smiled Rachel. There was tension between the two of them ever since he had mentioned that he was glad that things played out the way that they had. Tony knew that Rachel regretted hooking up with someone else. I almost was glad things played out like he was. Tony wrapped his arms around my shoulders and stood there staring at the group.

Tony kissed my shoulder as he and the rest of our group stood in silence. Adam had passed by and waved. I was glad I could talk to him again. He and the girl who broke us up had separated, but in a way, I wanted to see him knock her up. It would have been my own secret revenge despite the fact that I would have had nothing to do with it. I just liked the idea of him being miserable with her.

“What the fuck did you punch me for?” asked a familiar voice. My eyes widened as I thought of any reason why he wouldn’t have left by now. Tony dropped his arms from around my shoulders. I felt as though the only armor I had was breaking.

“For harassing my girlfriend. I’ve wanted to do that since you left my house,” Tony spat. I grabbed his hand as I noticed him ball it up into a fist. I wasn’t going to let him punch someone again. Graduation was already dramatic enough for this to get on Facebook and be liked by enough people to get it to be my most liked anything on the outlet.

“Emily, I’ll talk to you later,” sighed Tyler. The looks on the faces of everyone in the group told him enough that he had to go away.

-x-

“Emily, please call me back. I ruined your graduation. Talk to me. You still need to talk to me. Call me back,” said Tyler in the voicemail I listened to after the graduation party. He actually sounded like he wanted me to call him, but seeing the pictures of Tony and I around my room made me want to not call him.

I turned over the phone in my hand. This reminded me too much of the situation I had been in last October. Tony’s number popped up on my caller ID. It pained me to think of what I could be doing to him. I answered the call and forced the happiness in my voice to revive itself.

“Hey, open your door,” said Tony.

I did as he said and grinned at the idea of him being there. I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him into the room. I didn’t want to question how he got into my house. I just was glad that he was there. I kissed him and dropped my phone hoping that I would get away with any ideas of contacting Tyler.