Amazing

The following is a transcript of a conversation between good friends Allyssa and David as they sit at their graduation.




These seats are impossible.

What?

These seats are impossible. I can't get comfortable. Can you?

We'll, you'd better get comfortable. We're going to be here for a long time.

Too long, if you ask me. Why does half the faculty and a tenth of the senior class need to speak, anyway? And then there's the singing. If all the speeches weren't enough, they've got five different songs going on too.

It's supposed to be nice.

But the sun's in my eyes, and I can't get comfortable, and I haven't eaten dinner yet. Give me my diploma and let me go party. The rest of this is ridiculous.

Can you believe we're finally here? We're finally graduating?

Yes. It's been too long.

Well, I can't.

Sounds like you, Lys.

Actually, I take that back. I can.

So can I.

You're right. It's been too long. We deserve to finally be out of there.

God knows we've been in there long enough. That place is enough to make you go out of your mind.

I am going to miss it though.

Make up your mind, Lys. Are you sad or not?

Yes. No. Well, part of me is sad.

Sounds like you.

You should have been at the choir concert last week. Mr. Thurman did that thing he does every year where he reads all the seniors' names during that song - you know what I'm talking about?

That ridiculously boring, sappy song you sing every year that has nothing to do with graduating?

It is called "Moving On."

Still.

Well, I sat through all of that without crying. I even hugged Mr. Thurman and some of the other seniors and all without crying. But then I looked over at Bri - did I tell you she was going to play flute at my choir concert?

Yeah, you told me.

I looked at Bri and realized that I'm moving to Pennsylvania and I may never get to see my little sister playing the flute again. And I may never see a lot of things again. Some of it I won't mind, but Bri playing flute, or Gina or my family in the audience of a concert like that...

That you would mind.

Yes. And that wasn't it. I'm not going to have another class with you, David. Or with Gina. I'm not going to get to see you every day.

You're not moving across the country for another three months.

But I am moving. And you are too, even if you aren't going as far. And we won't be in the same school anymore.

You have to look at the bright side. High school is over. Look at it that way. Look at how far we've come, or look at all the hell we've been through in this place and what it means to be out of it.

You're right, I guess.

I know. I usually am.

I read what you wrote in my yearbook, by the way.

Oh, yeah?

Yeah. That made me cry too.

Don't say that.

"You are amazing." That was so sweet, David.

I said it because it was true, and I didn't think I had ever said it before, and I wanted you to be able to look at it twenty years from now and know that I thought it.

It was sweet.

It wasn't really meant to be sweet.

But it was. You know that's what I think of you too, right? That you're amazing?

Thanks, Lys.

I don't think I said it before either. I wanted to write it in your yearbook but I didn't have the right words for it. And then I read yours and - it's the perfect words. You are amazing.

You're supposed to be the writer.

You're a writer too, you know.

Yeah, but journalism and poetry aren't the same. You're supposed to be the one who always knows the right word.

But that's - that's fiction. This is real life. It's harder to find the right words for real life.

Well, either way, thank you.

Thank you. You're the one who said it.

Stop it, Lys. You're gonna make me cry now.

Boys aren't supposed to cry.

Then stop it.

Fine. I'll stop.

Good.

Thank you for being my friend.

Thank you for being amazing.

Alright, now I'm crying.

We've got to cut this out, or we're gonna have red eyes in all the obligatory graduation pictures.

I'm gonna have mascara all over my face.

Shoulda worn the waterproof stuff.

I did.

Then don't worry about it.

Oh, look. They're starting to hand out the diplomas.

And just as I finally got comfortable.