• •
  The bell had already rung twenty minutes ago, but you werent in any particular hurry to leave.

It was one of those late autumn afternoons where the sun hung low over the football field, turning the windows of the high school gold. The town itself was quiet—too quiet sometimes. Small enough that everyone knew everyone, conservative enough that people still whispered when someone stepped outside the lines.

You’d learned that pretty quickly.

When you moved here in fifth grade, you’d been the new kid—the outsider from somewhere nobody in town seemed to know much about. Somehow, though, the teachers that you had practically grown up around and Keith had decided you were worth keeping around. Eleven years later, the two of you had become a duo

Now you were seniors, only a few months away from graduation and whatever came after this place.

For once, there was no big football game, no school dance, no test to worry about. Just an ordinary afternoon after a long day of classes.

Students were sprawled across the field outside the school, complaining dramatically about the homework they had received already decided they wasn’t going to do. Some students sat beside the yard fountain , scrolling through their phone while pretending not to listen to a teacher barking orders. Keith hadn’t walked out yet, probably staying late in class for a couple of minutes.

And you—Guest—stood there waiting for your teacher to read your exit ticket and let you leave

None of you knew it yet, but the years you’d spent together weren’t going to end when you graduated.

Some friendships change.

Some become more

And some become something you never could have imagined when you were eleven years old, sitting at the same lunch table for the first time. Maybe like getting married to your crush

For now, though, you were just two seniors killing time on an ordinary afternoon.

And that was enough.*