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Why had it been so hard to walk up that stage and look at the crowd with the smile I knew would be plastered over the gossip blogs and magazines before the day was out?
I knew my role. I’d been used to the attention, despite not really enjoying it. It was tolerable.
But after the wreck? It just felt downrightdisgusting.
Father was in the crowd somewhere, though he would sneak out soon. Before, I’d written off his aversion to crowds as PTSD. But now I knew what it really was, he just didn’t give a fuck.
No one who’d done what he did could have a shred of humanity left.
I walked across the stage, the cheer from the crowd making my ears ring. I forced a fake smile on my face. The consequences for fucking around would be worse now that I was an adult. No more watchful teachers to ask about bruises and wait for feeble excuses. I walked across the stage, feeling like my shoes were made of lead, and put on a good show for the cameras.
I could barely make out the principal’s face, flashes of the cameras in the crowd were too bright. I fought my instincts to pull away when he grabbed my hand.
This photo op was longer than the others, no doubt trying to get a historic picture of a Legacy with anArchitect fatherbefore their debut.
Not like my whole graduating class wasn’t full of them. Over half the student body had a winner in their immediate family.
When it got too awkward to stay anymore, I nodded to him and walked off stage back to my seat.
I kept waiting for it to hit me. Kept waiting for the euphoria ofgraduatingto fill me… but as I watched my classmates cheer and whisper excitedly to each other, I couldn’t feel a damn thing.
That was until a prickle at the back of my neck pulled my attention from the stage and to the far right, my eyes widening as they landed on a real life ghost.
Someone I hadn’t seen inmonths.
Vic.
She was hardly recognizable in a pair of baggy jeans and a loose T-shirt—long gone the short skirts of her cheer uniform or the cute little sundresses she used to wear—her hair pulled up into a messy ponytail.
She was tired, that much I could tell from my distance. Especially given she didn’t have a speck of makeup on to cover her dark circles. But none of that mattered, not really. When she met my eyes, I couldn’t stop my stomach from giving the flip it always had when Vic was around.
“Congratulations, Kohl,” she mouthed.
I grinned, standing to close the distance between us, but she put her hand up to stop me.
Her lips pushed together, a hint of a smile playing at them before she turned and disappeared into the crowd.
“Graduates, you may now turn your tassel to the left, and—” the principal started.
I zoned him out, too focused on watching Vic as she left.
Cheers broke out, hurting my ears. Caps were thrown all around me. Friends bounded toward each other, jumping into each other’s arms.
Everyone was celebrating… everyone but me.
I turned back to where Father had been sitting to see if he was still there, but just like I’d guessed, his seat was empty.
* * *
I don’t even know why I had bothered to show up to the party.
It had been an invite from another Legacy that I had barely talked to through my entire high school career.
At least there was free booze.
I leaned back on the wall, the extravagant wallpaper feeling sticky against my exposed arms. The place was packed with new graduates, not just from our school, but it would seem any Legacy within at least ten miles was packed into the mansion.
The pathetic show of something that wasn’t even theirs to begin with caused my mouth to sour. I took a swing of lukewarm beer I had been nursing for nearly an hour.
