iv.

. left for last .

Summer '13 Exchange for the talented Alex (Mauradings, or previously So Far From So Close)

Pairing: Krissington friendship drabble

Prompts:

Anne Boleyn, public speaking, honor cord(s), "You never knew how much space you occupied in people's lives" – F. Scott Fitzgerald

*open ending, drabble-y, dare I say nonsensical

...

"And lastly, I'd like to reiterate one quote I told you all at the beginning of the year."

The man at the podium took one last deep breath, "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."

Far off into the sea of black robes, Kristen Gregory snorted, all the while her friends were cautiously dabbing tears from their carefully outlined-eyes.

"Dr. Seuss." She mouthed along with the director, rolling her bright indigo eyes with annoyance. "Could they get any more original?" She murmured under her breath, watching with contempt as all around her, kids reached up and took off their special-order silk graduation caps and flung them in the air.

Once, twice, three times she got cuffed in the face by caps of surrounding students, and after the fourth, she swore under her breath and marched off. It took time to navigate the grass, as it was rocky with stringy abandoned honor cords and discarded robes.

She should be going now, she knew that, but truth be told, she didn't really want to. There wasn't anything special waiting at home for her, just a couple of over-excited red-faced parents and a sup-par dinner celebration (compared to the others, who would surely be throwing bash after outlandish bash in honor of their apparent freedom). So she sat down on the side of the road and lingered. For what, she wasn't quite sure.

"That was awful, don't you think?"

Kristen whipped around, only to find herself in company of Derrick Harrington.

"It's the director, what did you expect? A nobel-prize winning speech?" She smiled in a drolly way, the glint in her eyes waxing as he took a seat next to her on the curb.

"Actually, I was talking about yours."

"Mine?" Kristen broke into a coughing fit. When she hacked to a stop, she lifted her eyebrows in incredulous disbelief. "Mine?"

"Yes, yours." Derrick's smirk widened. "You know, when we elected you as valedictorian, I expected an exceptional speech."

"You don't elect people as valedictorian. You earn it. I've got the highest grade point average here, 4.91." The blonde scoffed.

"Well, I know I voted you in as president, so I still deserved a good speech."

"I'm sure it was your vote, and your vote only that won me the election." It was easy to fall into his pattern of speaking, with the low

"You're finally getting it." When Derrick smiled, a small crinkle appeared in the corners of his eyes. Kristen found herself staring, transfixed, and shook her head to clear her thoughts. "Besides, how did you not get a five-point-oh? I expected better from AB." He used the ancient nickname with unprecedented verve, and Kristen felt her face heat up yet again. She had forgotten about that; back in tenth, after Derrick had done a project on Anne Boleyn for honors history, decided that her mannerisms reflected Kristen's exactly, and promptly started calling Kristen by 'AB.' It had taken her several weeks to decipher the name, after which it promptly died out not two days later when the class moved past the 1600's. Forgotten.

"What's your GPA?" She blurted, suddenly on the defensive. It couldn't be higher than hers, of course, but god forbid he came close. She would never hear the end of it.

"4.56." Derrick admitted sheepishly. Kristen found herself wondering if he shared this with his buddies, the old team. Surely none of them had high grades. "But it doesn't matter. Going to college on soccer anyway. Stanford." He added.

"UNC Chapel Hill." Kristen replied simply, even though he already knew. Everyone knew in the group. Even Massie did, all the way across the pond. If she had been in the boastful mood that day, it wouldn't have been hard to find previously untold qualities about her future school to brag about. Like; the struggle of getting in out-of-state (which she had accomplished, early admission at that), or maybe the internationally renown pre-med program (that she would start in the fall).

"Nice." Derrick pulled, leaning first back, then forward. "I have to say," he added, getting back onto the subject, "your quote was a tad better than old Mr. Park's."

"Which one?" She had used several in her carefully crafted speech. It had taken days, thousands of drafts, buckets of stress-tears and several freak-outs to complete the thing: those that probably explained why she had bristled at Derrick's earlier offhand remark.

"The Fitzgerald one, the "You never knew how much space you occupied in other people's lives" one." His eyes found her face as he continued. "Works perfectly for our group. You know, we've been together since, what, seventh grade? We've survived Massie leaving, Dylan's mental breakdown, Chris moving and all that. But, now, we're splitting. We're going our separate ways. Separate corners of the country. Gone."

"Not gone." Kristen argued, her voice taking on a frantic tone, because she hadn't thought of it this way. "Just not together."

"Not together, gone, whatever. We don't even have the summer." Derrick chuckled grimly. "Not even."

"Wait, why not?"

"C's already gone." Claire.

"She's gone? To Florida already?"

"Yeah." That might explain why he's so grim, Kristen decided. "Not even a goodbye."

"Are you… over?"

"What do you think? Claire seem like the long distance type to you?" The question didn't even need an answer. "Cam, Olivia, they broke up yesterday. Dylan and Kemp; not far off, with her in Canada and him at Stanford with me. Who's left? Alicia and Josh? That relationship's been doomed from the start. I would be wholly surprised if Alicia didn't know Josh was cheating with Kori." He let the information flow off his tongue effortlessly, not caring any longer. "And then that leaves you, AB. The only one."

"Lucky me." Kristen offered dryly. "Don't have to worry about a devastating breakup." She spoke with as much sarcasm as she could muster, because, really, Derrick didn't appear to be that upset.

"No. You aren't lucky." Derrick retorted immediately. "You've locked yourself out of normal high school life." He proclaimed, ruffling Kristen's feathers further. Just when she had the perfect retort planned ("A relationship makes you normal in your mind? And you call me odd."), he smiled, and leaned back again.

"So, are we the last one's left in Westchester?" She broke the silence finally, because it had become unbearable. She didn't want to sit in silence with this boy.

"Not quite yet. But, soon, yeah. We'll be left for last."

"Left for last." Kristen echoed. "Yeah. Left for last."

But honestly, it didn't sound that bad. Not if she had Derrick by her side.

...

Well, I hope that wasn't too horrid on the eyes. I struggled quite a bit with wrestling Anne Boleyn (what a creative prompt!) into the story, so sorry if that part made no sense.

Alex, I hope this wasn't too off the lines of what you were expecting! Your prompts were fantastic, and I hope this story didn't bend them too much!

Thanks for everyone who voted for me in the one-shot challenge, when we sink the ships won first!

bridget