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Dempsey
Graduation Night
All hail Queen Gemma.
While I barely made it to this night considering my shitty grades, my twin sister gracefully arrived with perfect attendance and straight As, earning the adoration and praise of every single person in this auditorium.
They all cheer proudly as she takes her turn across the stage I just dragged myself across.
I just want to go home, dammit.
“Can you believe we finally did it?” she whispers once she’s seated again beside me in our chairs, diploma in her dainty hand. “PMU, here we come.”
Nudging her with my shoulder, I smirk at her. “You’re going alone, sis. I told you. I can’t do college.”
Her bottom lip juts out despite us having this same conversation over and over again. No matter what I do, I’ll never be as smart as my sister…or good.
Gemma is just good.
The angel to my devil.
A twin who stole all the decent genes and left me with all the genetic garbage.
“You can’t live with Mom and Dad forever,” she says with a frown. “And why would you want to? They suffocate us.”
Her.
They suffocate her.
If she thinks they’ll allow her to live on campus like she wants, she’s out of her mind. Dad is overly protective of her.
“I’ll figure something out,” I say with a shrug.
The last person walks across the stage and then the principal is back at the microphone, speaking about following our dreams and living life to the fullest. Gemma and every other fool around me grin at him, eating up all his empowering words.
Not me.
I just want to get the hell out of here.
“Cool tattoo,” Brandy, a girl sitting on my left, whispers. She points a finger at my newest tattoo on the back of my hand.
“Graduation gift to myself,” I tell her. “Designed it myself.”
Gemma elbows me. “Mom is going to freak when she sees you got another tattoo.”
We’re eighteen now. It’s not like she or Dad can actually do anything about it.
“I’m so scared,” I deadpan.
The principal congratulating our class and the auditorium subsequently exploding with cheers and applause drown the rest of our conversation. All the girls around me with their fancy hair and caps pinned neatly on clap happily. The guys, however, all try to see who can toss their caps highest into the air. I decide to use mine as a frisbee to try and nail my annoying-ass English teacher in his bald head.
My cap disappears and unfortunately misses. Not that I give a shit. I’m ready to get out of here and go home, hide away in my room until I’m forced to socialize with family for the graduation party Mom has planned.
The next hour is a blur as we shuffle through the crowd, looking for our parents to hitch a ride back home with because we still don’t have cars of our own. Finally, we load up in Dad’s SUV and make the trek back to our property.
As Mom and Gemma chatter with way too much enthusiasm, I stare out the window, wondering what happens from here. I can’t go to college. No way. I’d die from boredom. But I’m also not cut out for working with Dad or my brothers. The military can fuck off because I’m not about to be some meat shield.
It won’t matter that I don’t exactly have it all figured out, though. Dad will expect a plan bright and early tomorrow morning. I’ll have nothing but smart-ass remarks and general disrespect. It’ll end in frustration and slammed doors. I know the drill.
