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“Look at you! What’d you do, grow about a foot taller?” I returned the hug, not caring that people were giving us weird looks “You doing okay?”

“Yeah It’s not too bad”

“Good” I patted his back and pulled away,for him to sit next to me

I introduced him to Dex and they shook hands Dex didn’t ask why the kid was sitting with us, just accepted his presence

The cereed to tune h the speeches If things hadn’t gone to shit, I would’ve been sitting right next to Juliet waiting to accept my own diploma

I shook off the useless regret What was done was done I had my GED That’s all that ave a dae

“Juliet Hayworth,” the principal announced

The three of us stood up and cheered

Froe, Juliet turned and waved in our direction She s down the stairs and back to her seat

There were a lot of kids to get to between Hayworth and Zi I could scoop Juliet up and run away

Finally, it ended The graduates threw their caps in the air The noise of people shouting for their kids and students yelling for their friends rose to a thundering cloud around us

“Thank fuck,” Dex groaned “I thought it would never end”

“Amen,” I muttered

“I better get back before they notice I’ratulate Juliet, so I’ll find you guys in the crowd, okay?”

“All right, buddy”

He gaveaway

“Nice kid,” Dex said

“I feel bad I haven’t been around to look out for him”

“Well, you’re horab your purse Let’s go find our graduate”

I rolledover h the crowd, clearly not giving a crap about the people who side-eyed his leather cut and biker patches