Still in Montreal, so let’s see where we left off….
Leigh and I ended up talking for forty more minutes while I continued to pack up various little things around my room. I was saving my big frames, paddles, and such for last. I looked at my phone and realized it was past nine and I had yet to eat anything, like Hannah had recommended. I shrugged it off. I really wasn’t hungry (even though experience should have taught me to just eat something anyway). I was also late…
“Oh my gosh! I’m late to meet Hannah!” I clutched my phone. “I completely lost track of time!”
Leigh stood up from my window and brushed off her jeans. “Do you need a ride?”
“Leigh, I would love that!”
She bent down to grab her purse from the floor. “Where are you all meeting?”
“The Faucet.”
“Yeah, I can definitely drive you there. No big thing.”
I grabbed my black cardigan off my bed and we headed out the door. I know it seems weird to be wearing a cardigan on May seventh, but it had snowed that morning. Of course, it was all melted by now, but it was still a little cold. You know what they say about the weather here, wait five minutes and it will change.
When we reached the Faucet, I leaned over and gave Leigh a long hug. “Thanks, hun, I really mean it.”
Leigh smiled as she hugged me back. “Of course. I’m going to miss you a lot when you leave.”
I laughed. “I’m still around. I’m not the one moving to Texas.”
Leigh laughed also, “Not yet. I’m still in the state for a little while.”
I nodded as I hopped out of her green truck. “I’ll call you in a couple of days, when I get back from my graduation trip.”
“Yeah, have fun in the mountains.”
“I will.” I smiled. “Bye, Leigh. Good luck with your packing.”
“Thanks. Bye.” Leigh waved as I shut her passenger side door. I strode over to the door as I pulled my ID out of my wallet. The bouncer bent it a little before handing it back to me and nodding me in.
I started to enter the restaurant. When it was busy, there was usually a hostess standing at the door that separated the kitchen and waiting area from the bar and the rest of the restaurant. Since it was so late now, no one was standing by the entrance. That’s not to say that they stopped serving food (I think that was around one), but most people didn’t come in needing to be seated to eat dinner at this point. As you got closer to the inner entrance, the walls became crowded with murals. Once you passed through the inner doorway, the ceilings got drastically shorter. There were places I could touch them with a slight boost. My taller friends could easily hit them, some without even standing on their toes.
I pulled out my phone to give Hannah a call, but as soon as I reached the inner door, I spotted my 5’10” blonde haired Big Sis standing at the bar. She was still wearing her jeans, boots, and black North Face jacket that she had worn to my graduation that morning, but she had taken off her blue and cream scarf. Happy to finally see her again, I rushed toward her with spread arms. “Hannah!”
She opened her arms and we hugged each other. “Glad you finally got here.” She smiled. “The boys were starting to out number me, except a couple of them brought their girlfriends.”
I laughed. “You would invite only boys out to hang out with us when we were partying because I graduated.” I shook my head, “You really think I need a new boyfriend, don’t you?”
She shook her head and tightened her embrace on me for a moment. “I don’t think you need a new boyfriend. You know most of the people I still know here in town just happen to be guys.”
“Of course, Big, they just happen to all be guys. This really isn’t a set up or anything.”
She dropped her embrace from around me and shook her head. “You know sarcasm was never very becoming for you.” She did laugh a bit when she said it.
“You’ll have to thank Will for that one.” I giggled a bit. He really had upped my sarcasm a little from before I met him. I was now very well versed in the quick witted sarcastic comeback to an already overly sarcastic remark. Actually, with a lot of the people I hung out around now, that was almost a God send. I’m not sure if Melanie and I would get along nearly as well if I hadn’t picked up that skill from him. She always liked to joke that if she had been around while he was, he probably would have started to treat her like a little kid sister. The sad thing about that is that I think she’s probably more right than she is wrong, though I don’t like to admit it. She says that they’re almost like soul mates or they would be if they met, but she always promises that they’d clearly be platonic soul mates, kind of like Collin and I.
Hannah shook her head again, “Yeah, Will definitely turned you from a sweet and adorable pushover into an openly witty sarcastic ass.”
I gasped a little. “I hope you don’t really believe that!”
She laughed again, “You are not a sarcastic ass, don’t worry. I don’t think you could ever get up to his level.”
“Good.”
“Anyway, Will aside, come over and increase the number of ladies in our party.” She turned back to the bar and handed a dollar to the bartender. “Oh, what do you want? My treat for the graduate.”
“Is it dollar wells still?”
“Yeah, for the next…” she checked the clock, “Half hour it looks like.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be late. I got distracted by packing.”
“I totally get it. You have to leave tomorrow, so don’t worry about it. The important thing is that you finally made it out.” She smiled, then took a sip of her drink. I think it was a double rum and coke, which was her usual well drink of choice. “So what will you have?”
I shrugged. “A double vodka cranberry, I guess.”
She smiled with a bit of a chuckle, “Of course you would get a well vodka cranberry.”
“Hey, if nothing else, all of us are overly predictable.” I tried to mask my laugh under my breath as I chided her. A vodka cranberry was also my well drink of choice.
She turned back to the bartender, “Can I also get a double vodka cranberry?”
“Sure thing,” the bartender smiled.
Hannah turned back to me. “So how is the packing going?”
“Well, I managed to get all my pictures and cards packed up and I did all my clothes yesterday before Rachel’s graduation party. So, I’m actually making progress.” I paused for a second, “But I haven’t packed up any of my frames or paddles yet. It’s kind of hard.”
“I know how that is.” Hannah nodded. “I had a bit of trouble moving out too, if you remember.”
I nodded. Two years ago, I had visited Hannah after graduation. She was moving out of the house the Saturday afterward, as well, and I had been up to visit Will for a date. She had been visibly upset, but she was also happy to have the company to help her load things in a car. I think she was staying at one of her friends’ houses for a few days and then driving back with everything, if I remember correctly. That was the hard part. I think that if I had to cross state lines with all my belongings, I definitely would refuse to leave. It’s one thing when you only live forty minutes away, but driving all of your belongs back to California (like Will had to, albeit a couple of months after graduation) or Washington (which is much worse and what Hannah had to do) seems like the impossible. Hannah had lived in the house for three years also, so she was definitely sympathetic to my situation, of all people.
“But, you really just have to remember that it’s something you have to do,” she gave me a smile, “Right after graduation, we all want to stay right where we are because it’s gone so well for us for the past few years. But you know we can’t all stay twenty two forever. Eventually, everybody has to grow up and move on.”
“Yeah,” I nodded again, “that’s what Will told me when he had to move away… Leigh was saying something similar today.”
“And you know, it’s not like you really want to stay at the school forever.” Hannah gave me a warm smile, “You want to stay with everyone you care about.”
“Well yeah,” I nodded in agreement, “It’s the people around you that really make your experience wherever it was.” I always did a lot of nodding around Hannah. It’s because she was always advising me and really looking after me. It was nice to know that even after she had graduated and moved back to Washington, she was still looking after me to the best of her ability.
“And while it’s nice to want to stay with everyone you care about, in a couple of years, everyone you care about will be twenty two and then they’ll be leaving.” The bartender handed her my drink and she pulled another dollar out of her wallet and set it on the bar.
“Thanks,” the bartender smiled as he took the tip.
“No problem,” she smiled back as she handed me my vodka cranberry. “For the graduate.” She smiled at me as she raised her rum and coke. “A toast to you graduating?”
“Cheers.” I smiled back at her as I took a drink.
“Don’t worry, we’ll do another one when we get to the table.” She gave me a short wink. “Anyway, half the people you care about are gone already, right?”
“Well, yeah, because you all graduated.” I shrugged as I took another sip. “You all graduated already though.”
“You get along just fine without me and all of them, right?”
“I mean, for the most part. There are some days I really still wish you were here though.”
“That’s the way it’ll be here without you. And you can come visit a lot more often. Really, you’re pretty much set. When you miss it or the people here, you can just drive up. I can’t do that.”
“I wish you could.” I lowered my head.
“Chin up.” Hannah smiled as she set her glass on the table. “I’m here now, so no pouting for you.”
I smiled and set my drink on the table as well.
Help! I'm Post-Grad... 