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suefanficlover: just a little longer!


"Graduation is a time that represents closing one chapter in life and opening another. Mine represented trying not to kick my boyfriend's ass."


The following week, my mom, my sister and I went over to Justin's so I could hang out with him. When we arrived, he greeted us at the door.

"My sister is here but she's upstairs sick."

Seconds later, she came hoping down the stairs almost literally. She hugged Gracie and greeted me. She was still in her pajamas but she looked fine to me. Why would Justin lie about his sister being sick? She was in high spirits too it seemed, grinning and talking loudly. This girl was definitely not sick. I glanced over and Justin. He had on the expression I couldn't read. Was he unhappy, uncomfortable? I couldn't quite tell. I turned back to Demi and we began talking. I didn't really like this girl and yet we were participating in meaningless chatter. Justin approached me as Demi and I spoke to each other.

"I'm going to go on a walk for a minute, clear my head."

"Ok." I responded then turned back to Demi. Like I said, I couldn't help but talk to this girl. It was like I was drawn to her or something. I could never explain it to you in any way but that's when I first noticed this force she seemed to have.

About an hour later, my mom and left and returned with one of my other friends. Well technically now she was more Gracie's friend. We were best friends last year and the year before but we had a falling out. I still loved the girl though. Her name was Taylor and my mom had asked for her to come over. She had needed to get out of her house for a while. See, her mom had breast cancer and had recently decided to stop receiving chemo. Her dad just needed her and her brother to be out of the house for a while so her brother went to their grandma's and my mom got Taylor. I introduced her to Demi and they hit it off right away. It was like they had known each other for years.

It's been two hours now since Justin left. I had thought he would only be gone a moment while Demi and I spoke to each other but he's not come back. After acting silly and talking, I started feeling upset. I had come here to hang out with Justin but instead he dumped me on his sister and disappeared. I laid on a blanket in the middle of the floor that we had been playing with and frowned. Demi was beginning to set up a movie for us to watch when she noticed the look on my face.

"Hey Selena, you ok?"

"No, it's been two hours and Justin still hasn't come back."

"I'm sure he'll be back soon."

I heard my mom calling me from the other room distracting me from my thoughts.

"Yeah?" I responded as I walked in. She had been talking to Dianna this whole time not that I knew what they were talking about.

"Where did Justin go?" I guessed she had noticed his absence.

"I don't know. He went for a walk then disappeared." I could tell my mom picked up on the slight anger in my voice and apparently Dianna did too because she spoke up next.

"Try not to take it too personally Selena. He doesn't do well with new people or many people at all for that matter."

"Yeah I've been talking with Dianna, Sel about him. You know how your cousin has autism?"

"Yeah." I said. I was a little confused as to where this was going. What did my cousin have to do with Justin?

"Well, Justin has it too. Well it's a type of it and it has a name. It's called Asperger's syndrome."

"Oh." I responded.

"So give him some time Sel." Dianna said.

"Ok."

We left after a little while. Justin only showed up just before we left. He could tell I was mad at him. He texted me later and said he was sorry. He then asked if he could still come to my graduation which was now at the end of the week. I was still a little mad but I had already reserved him a ticket and I knew I needed to be patient with him anyways. After a moment, I agreed that he could still go.


That Friday I walked onto my school's football field for the last time as a high school student. The whole ceremony would last about two hours, and though I had been talking to a lot of people when I arrived to the school, I'd sadly have no one to talk to since we had to be in alphabetical order. Who's ever idea this was needs to be shot I'm just sayin'. Ok maybe that was a little dramatic but you get the idea. To top everything off I couldn't see any of my family, Taylor or even Justin for that matter. Yeah, even though Taylor and I had had a falling out I still invited her. She had been there for me when things fell apart in tenth grade and so on so it only seemed fair that she saw me graduate too. Ok, maybe that was just my own logic talking but whatever.

The speeches seemed to be going on forever and our valedictorian was boring as hell. She was so monotone and kept using huge words I didn't understand. I was yawning a lot by the time she finally finished speaking. The other person, the other 'dictorian -whatever you call the second runner-up to valedictorian thankfully didn't take as long. Once the speaking was finally done, they finally started calling students to come up and receive their diplomas. It started with honor students then went to us "regular" kids. Because there was about 200 of us, they legitimately had to call each name quickly only leaving about two seconds between each name. Very quickly, a line was formed at the stage steps then we walked in a line got our diplomas, shook hands with whoever and then walked back down the other side of the stage and back to our seats. The whole encounter lasted about 5 seconds, basically so fast I didn't have time to find anyone I knew in the stands so I didn't even bother.

Finally, we got to my favorite part of the night. The part where we got to throw our caps in the air. I actually threw mine so high I completely lost sight of it and had to search for it after all the caps had landed. Thankfully, someone found it for me or I probably would have looked for a really long time. I then put it back on and went to search for people I knew. While looking, I passed Lidia. Instead of disgusted looks or looks of hatred, we actually smiled and waved at each other. I actually wanted to turn around to shake her hand and wish her good luck for the future, but I lost her in the crowd before I could.

Justin found me minutes later and quickly approached me. He is actually down here in the large crowd, well that's a great step forward.

"Hey." He said to me smiling as he approached.

"Hey." I said back. That was when I noticed that he was clean-shaven. 'I think I just fell a little more for him.' I thought as I grinned widely.

Justin laughed as he noticed my grin. "What?"

"You shaved. I like it."

"You do?"

"Mhm." I felt my eyes get big as I responded. Oh brother I'm turning to putty right now.

"I guess I should keep it shaved then if you like it that much."

"Yes you should." I responded, nodding.

He laughed again. "Come on, let's go find your parents."

We found Gracie and Taylor while we walked around looking.

"Congratulations." Taylor said as we approached. She hugged me.

"Thanks." 'Man, I hate how awkward it seems with us now.' I thought. If I had graduated this time last year, she would have been the first to find me and we would be laughing and cutting up right now. Sadly, that's no longer the case and I may never understand or know why.

"Gracie, have you seen Mom or anybody for that matter?" I asked breaking the silence.

"Not since we got here." She responded.

"Yeah, we sat on the opposite side of the field as them." Taylor added pointing to the bleachers behind them.

"Oh ok." I then turned and headed to the other side of the field to the other bleachers. Justin still in tow of course.

I finally found my family a bit later. I got hugs and congrats from everyone. Then my mom turned to me.

"We have cake and ice cream back at the house. You ready to go?"

"Yeah sure. Is Justin coming with us?" I asked eagerly as we headed toward the car. I don't know why I suddenly felt so eager about Justin spending time with me but I guess this is a good sign, right? I could hear Justin snickering beside me when I asked. I playfully hit his arm.

"Of course I'm coming too. My mom is picking me up at your house later."

"Yay!" I exclaimed clapping my hands. Oh boy, I'm turning into one of those girls.


As we ate cake, I introduced Justin to everyone in my family that had been able to come. Basically my granny on my mom's side and ain't and uncle on my dad's. (We were only given ten tickets for graduation.) Then, Justin, Taylor, Gracie and I decided to go out on the back porch to eat our cake. Thankfully, it wasn't an awkward situation for me and Taylor. We were actually talking and laughing for the first time in a really long time.

Low and behold though, guess who showed up 20 minutes later? If you guessed Demi, you're right. Here's a cookie. She jumped right in the conversation and I actually did pretty good at playing everything off. On the inside though, I didn't feel too happy that she had decided to come crash my party. Why in the hell does this girl keep appearing in my life?


I'd like to say that after graduation night Justin and I continued to get better. But if I said that, I'd be lying to you. It was like the one step forward and all the positivity was a one night thing. At church, he still wouldn't sit with me and when I finally got him to, he would barely acknowledge my existence; pretty much by not speaking or looking my way. Also, anytime we hung out, I noticed more and more that Demi was the one stuck entertaining me instead of him. When we went on walks, I was with her. When I met their neighbors, again I was with her. He was around but he'd keep his distance. Once we went on a walk with one of their friends. He walked ahead with the friend and I once again was stuck walking with Demi. Since it was now happening so many times though, it was starting to get where i didn't mind as much as before. Deep down I was getting worried though. Where were me and Justin going to end up if this kept continuing?