“But your ticket!” she cried, looking at it in her hand. “You can’t get in without it.”
“Anne,” Robin hissed from five feet away. “Mr. Castleman is glaring at us! Hurry up!”
Anne scanned around them for somewhere she could leave the ticket to the ceremony so that Derek could get it and nobody else would pick it up. Looking at where the computer teacher was tapping his watch, she grinned. “Mr. Castleman!”
“Anne Elliot. You need to hurry up.”
“My boyfriend is on his way and I have his ticket. Can you hold it for me? He’s only two minutes away if he can find a good parking space.”
“I’m in the parking lot,” Derek said in her ear.
“Yes, fine!” Mr. Castleman threw up his hands. “Only because you were such a big help in my class this semester.”
“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” she bounced up and down, knowing better than to hug him. “Derek,” she redirected her focus after handing over the ticket and heading towards where another teacher was gesturing at her. “Mr. Castleman is wearing black Chuck Taylor All-Stars with his suit. He’s also wearing a bright purple tie with computers all over it. You can’t miss him. He’s by the main entrance leading into the stadium.”
“Miss Elliot!” her English teacher hissed. “Get off that phone and get in line!”
“I’ll see you after the ceremony. By the giant mascot statue to the left of the main entrance. You can’t miss it.” Then, with Mrs. Perkins tapping her finger against the invisible watch on her wrist and signaling for Anne to wrap it up, she quickly said, “Bye!”
Shaking her head, Mrs. Perkins sighed. “Miss Elliot, you are a brilliant student, but…”
“I’m sorry,” Anne interrupted, apologizing. “That was my boyfriend, Derek. He’s enlisted in the United States Navy and has been at Boot Camp and A-School and I haven’t seen him since Christmas, and before that back in the summer.”
“It’s fine,” Mrs. Perkins sighed, shaking her head. It was her signature move. “We’ll be in line for another thirty minutes anyway. Mr. Castleman will make certain that Derek gets his ticket. He’s in charge of admission anyway.”
“Thank you!” Anne started walking down the hallway before a thought occurred to her. “If I had thirty minutes, why the rush?”
“You know how Principal Monroe is.”
Thinking for a moment, Anne nodded her head before dashing down the hall to join Robin where the other girl was tapping her foot against the tiles impatiently. “Hurry up,” she sighed.
“I still wish he was running on time,” Anne grumbled as they made the dash towards the cafeteria where their fellow graduating class was assembled, waiting to be led out on the football field. “It’s been months.”
Derek finally made it to the front of the stadium before looking around for the teacher that Anne had described. Parents, family members, and friends all gathered around, clustered in small groups as they started making out their game plans.
“Which side would be the best side to sit on?”
“Should we get up high or try to get a spot down low?”
“How can I possibly manage to walk up these stadium seats in these heels?”
Finally, after overhearing way more discussions than he cared to hear, he spotted the computer teacher standing at the front entrance. It was a good thing Anne had described his tie; Derek never would have seen the teacher’s shoes in this crowd.
“Where did everybody come from?” Derek asked as he approached. “It wasn’t this noisy when I was talking to Anne on the phone.”
“That’s what I would like to know,” the teacher grumbled. “You must be Derek.”
“Yes, Sir,” Derek almost saluted out of habit. “Thank you, Sir,” he replied as Mr. Castleman handed over the ticket.
“Right. The military boyfriend,” Mr. Castleman nodded his head.
“Navy, Sir.”
“Thank you for your service.”
“I haven’t served yet beyond training,” he pointed out.
“But you are about to,” the teacher nodded. “Good luck. Anne was one of my favorite students, but don’t tell her that.”
“You were one of her favorite teachers. She mentioned some of the assignments you gave her for the Graphic Arts class and the drawing class this semester.”
Nodding his head, Mr. Castleman headed towards where he was supposed to be. “Facing the graduates,” he started to say, “Anne will be on the left.”
“Thank you, Sir,” Derek finished, handing over the ticket that had just been handed to him.
Once he was through the gate, he patted his suit coat to make certain he hadn’t dropped anything of any importance.
A few hours later, Anne threw her arms around Derek as they finally met up at the mascot statue that somebody had put a Graduation cap and gown on. “Finally!” she sighed where only he could hear her.
A throat cleared from nearby.
“You have to be kidding me,” one of her sisters grumbled. “Can we go home now?”
“Does anybody see Charles?”
“Aren’t they so cute together, Walter?”
“I’d like to meet him first,” her father, the Throat Clearer, declared.
“You met him at Christmas.”
“I did?”
“Yes, and he’s such a gentleman,” Aunt Cassandra teased, even though Anne and Derek both knew that she wasn’t too thrilled that their relationship had lasted this long in spite of the distance between them. She disliked Walter Elliot even more.
“Well, out of the two of us, only one of us has met him.”
Anne pulled Derek over to where her family was standing. “That’s only because you were busy and told us to go away over Christmas Break when I tried to introduce you, Father.” Turning to grin at Derek, she stated, “Father, this is Derek Worth. Derek, this is my father, Walter Elliot. You have already met my aunt, Cassandra Russell. And these are my sisters, Beth…” Beth cleared her throat, “Sorry, Elizabeth, and Mary.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Derek smiled, holding his hand out for Walter Elliot to shake.
Anne’s father stared at Derek’s hand for a long moment, then made eye contact for an even longer moment, before he took Derek’s hand. It had been a test and both men knew it. “I have heard many things about you, mostly from my late wife and my sister-in-law.”
“I am terribly sorry for your loss, Sir.”
“Where were you?”
“Boot Camp,” Derek replied honestly. “They wouldn’t let me leave.”
Nodding his head, Walter only turned to head back to his car only because Elizabeth was behind him tapping her foot and sighing.
“Where is your friend, Charles?” Mary asked Anne again.
“Probably somewhere with his parents,” Anne answered her.
“Will we get to meet him tonight?” Derek asked. “He’s your only friend that I haven’t gotten to meet.”
“No,” Anne sighed, shaking her head. “Father doesn’t want me to go to Project Graduation, even though I’m allowed a guest because he thinks it’s not enough.”
“Enough?”
Anne struggled to figure out how to explain her father’s logic. “I won’t be making the right connections, being seen by the right people. He wants to take us out to some fancy restaurant where he can brag about my accomplishment, show me off to his friend’s sons, and name drop. He can’t do that if I’m somewhere else having fun.”
“He’d try to set you up in front of me?” Derek asked with a raised eyebrow.
“We’ll see,” was all Anne said with a shrug. “Possibly.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Seeing the cars that already lined their driveway, Anne groaned. “Oh, great. We aren’t going to some fancy restaurant with meal choices that you can’t pronounce. We are the restaurant.”
“What?”
“It seems Father is throwing me a graduation party without telling me about it,” she whispered.
“I wasn’t even allowed to invite any of my friends.”
“It can’t be that bad.”
“All of these cars,” she gestured wildly. “Every single one of them. They all belong to some former associates who are all probably only here to find out how Father is faring after Mother. He hasn’t worked law in years, ever since he had a falling out with my Uncle Warren. I don’t have a clue what he does in his office every day. I just found out that he sold his half of the building to my uncle.”
“Well,” Derek whispered, leaning over the console to give his girlfriend a quick kiss. “We will play nice, smile, be polite, and then in an hour or so we will escape outside and hopefully see some stars.”
An hour later, Derek carefully led her outside.
Mary had already disappeared, celebrating her sister’s graduation with her own friends who were all trying to figure out how to sneak into Project Graduation.
Elizabeth had boldly walked out of the house holding an unopened bottle of wine and the keys to the car that Walter Elliot had bought Anne for a graduation present. That was until she had realized it was a sensible car like her sister and she swapped the keys out for her sportier car.
But Anne didn’t care that her sisters didn’t stick around. Her aunt had left the party as well.
“Where are we going?” Anne whispered, glancing back to make certain their escape hadn’t been spotted. If she had to listen to one more toast celebrating her important milestone, Anne would probably do something. She didn’t know what, but it would be something.
“Outside. Away from these crowds,” was all Derek would say.
Noticing her slight shiver, Derek removed his suit jacket and placed it over her shoulders. “I never realized it could get chilly in May.”
“Sometimes. Most of the time it’s just muggy and humid. I think it was just leaving the air-conditioned house and coming out here.” A moment later, Anne handed the jacket back to Derek, who didn’t put it back on. “Come on. There’s a swing out back. Mom loved to come out here, stretch out, and read.”
“I got my placement orders,” he informed her after a long period where they sat on the swing and moved back and forth.
“Yeah?”
“Italy. Next week. I’ve been given two weeks to see everybody before I have to report to base before being shipped out.”
“Italy,” Anne breathed. “That’s so far away.”
“I want you to come with me,” Derek stated, getting down on one knee in front of her. “I want to marry you. Soon. This week even. I love you more than anybody and anything in the world and I can’t be apart from you any longer.”
“Oh, Derek,” she sighed, a tear running down her cheek as he slid the ring on her left ring finger.
“Say yes,” he whispered.
Anne studied the ring on her finger. She could barely believe that Derek had proposed to her at her graduation party. Granted, yes, he had been smart enough to take her outside where nobody was paying any attention before he asked but… this was not what she wanted. Instead, she slid the ring back off.
Holding the ring out, handing it back to him, Anne whispered, “I can’t marry you yet.”
“Anne?”
“I can’t marry you right now. Maybe in four years after I’ve finished college and gotten my degree…”
Interrupting, he mumbled, “There’s no telling where I’m going to be in four years.” Shaking his head, Derek started to pace. “I’m being shipped out to Italy for crying out loud. I want you to go with me.”
“Chicago accepted me,” Anne whispered. “I’ve been dreaming about that school ever since freshman year. You even said, only a few months ago when that letter came in, that it was a good plan. I have a full ride, Derek. Room. Board. Books. Tuition. Everything.”
“But…”
“Derek, I love you. I want to say yes more than anything, but I can’t marry you right now,” Anne whispered, reaching out a hand towards his shoulder. “Maybe if we had a long engagement.”
“Why,” he asked, jerking backward. “You just said that you can’t marry me right now, and I’m going to Italy! Do you really think long distance will work with that much distance between us? We’ll barely ever see each other, and even then, mostly through our screens.”
Drawing back, Anne flinched. “What are you saying?”
“Maybe we should break up,” he blurted out.
“Because I won’t marry you before you leave?”
Derek looked at her before slowly saying, “It might be for the best.”
“Because I don’t want to marry you yet? I’m eighteen! You’re nineteen! We’re too young!”
Shaking her head, Anne struggled to understand what was happening. This couldn’t be happening.
“I don’t think we can survive the distance,” he stubbornly stated. He recalled just how difficult it was between his own parents when his father was stationed overseas and their mother opted to stay stateside to give their children some stability. “It nearly destroyed my parents’ marriage, and they were together much longer than we were.”
“So, you’re breaking up with me.”
“It’s for the best,” he lied.
“It’s the biggest mistake that you will ever make.”
“We don’t know that,” he mumbled, certain that he actually agreed with her.
“Fine,” Anne snapped, holding out the ring that she had been playing with in her left hand. “Here.”
Nodding his head, Derek took the ring from her outstretched hand and walked off without another word.
It wasn’t possible for Anne to know how Derek took the ending to their relationship. She only knew that her heart was shattered in little pieces on the floor around her, too tiny to even be able to pick up and glue back together again.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Anne sat there on the top of her bed, feet crossed and head bowed as tears streamed down her face. She’d cried enough that her head ached and her nose was both stuffy and wanted to run, but her grief was silent.
She refused to cry loud enough to alert her sisters to her distress. Beth would merely mock her grief, telling her to suck it up and deal with it. Mary wouldn’t understand, asking Anne if she could help her with some task that Mary could have handled on her own.
Every single time Anne thought she was done crying, she would feel the pain all over again, a clutching feeling in her chest, and the tears would start to cascade down her face once again. Dripping on her pajama pants and her bed sheets. Running into her mouth where she could taste the saltiness of her sadness.
It was painful, crying without making a sound, the sobs choking her as she forced her broken heart into silently breaking apart even further.
She wondered how everybody couldn’t hear the cracking as everything over the past couple of months was pushed aside and broken all because she wasn’t ready for the next step.
She wasn’t ready. She never wanted to give him up, but Derek was insistent that it was all or nothing and Anne couldn’t put aside of her dream of art school that easily.
“Anne!” one of her sisters called from downstairs.
Looking up, Anne caught her reflection in the mirror. She was surprised that nothing appeared puffy. That her eyes were not bloodshot with all of the crying she had been doing for most of the day.
“Anne!” another sister called.
“What?” she managed to reply, the choking sound in her voice only audible to herself.
“We’re leaving to go summer school shopping for Mary,” Beth – Elizabeth – shouted. “Are you coming?”
Closing her eyes, mostly to block out the image of her in the mirror, Anne swallowed down the choking sensation that threatened to close her throat. “I can’t go,” she answered. “I’m dealing with some serious cramps.”
“Fine!” Elizabeth called up. “There’s some pills in the bathroom that might help.” It was one of the few helpful things her sister had ever said to her.
Granted,
the eldest sister suspected that Anne was lying. They had been in the house together enough that they were aware of each other’s cycles. If Anne was lying about cramps, then something was seriously wrong and Beth would rather not be in the house with a distraught sister.
She would rather cart her youngest, and annoying, sister around for school shopping. Shopping was always fun, even if it was for paper and pencils so that Mary could retake her English class, again.
Hearing the door close and the car leaving the driveway, Anne collapsed on her bed, curling up into a ball and allowing her sobbing to consume her.
It felt good to release the ugly crying. Letting out the choking sounds that made it difficult to breathe and releasing strangled sounds she had kept inside as her body struggled to breathe in and out. The pressure that built up behind the eyes and the pulsing headache that followed. Sitting back up, Anne felt the tears pouring down her face, mingling with the snot that had started to drip out of her nose at the change of positions. It was better than the additional pressure on her sinuses from when she was laying down.
“Why?” she sobbed, rocking back and forth. “Why? Why? Why?” It was the only thing she could think enough say aloud. Everything else was a jumble of thoughts that threatened to drag her under and caused her to suffocate underneath the onslaught of emotions she never expected to feel.
Rocking back and forth, she clutched a pillow to her chest as she cried into it. Finally, exhaustion caught up to her and she curled up and attempted to get some sleep. It didn’t help that she would jerk awake, remembering the painful scene between them, and start sobbing all over again.
Her sisters and father only noticed that Anne didn’t come down to cook dinner; thankfully Elizabeth held on to the lie they both knew was a lie. The next day she came upstairs with a pint of Bunny Tracks, knowing that her sister liked the combination of mini chocolate bunnies, caramel and fudge swirls, and vanilla ice cream.
She had also picked up Moose Tracks and Phish Food when she had been out shopping. Mary, oblivious as always, didn’t notice the last-minute addition of four pints of ice cream to their shopping as she pondered over the freezer pizza section even though she had been sent to grab a frozen lasagna.
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