Hats flew into the air as the graduates cheered, their high school days officially completed. Lexi looked around to see friends hugging, hands shaking, and kisses being exchanged all around her. She quickly grabbed her cap and diploma and stepped off the stage into Harry’s awaiting arms.
“Congratulations, Lexi! I am so proud of you, honey … and you know Mom is too.” He swept her into his arms and squeezed her tightly against his chest.
“Thanks, Dad.” Lexi smiled and held back the tears that threatened to spill from her eyes for a multitude of reasons. “Can we go?” she asked Harry, anxious to close this pathetic chapter of her life as soon as humanly possible.
“Did you get a chance to say goodbye to all your friends? Some of these people you might never see again, Lex.” Harry scanned the crowd and saw a friend of his. “I’m going to go say hello to Mr. Marpay. Say your goodbyes and meet me by the car, okay?” He gave her a quick peck on the head, and then made his way through the crowd.
Lexi stood alone in the sea of people, glancing at all the familiar and unfamiliar faces around her. Students posed for pictures with teachers and the principal. Parents handed gifts to the graduates, and groups of friends huddled together for even more farewell pictures. Distracted by the things going on around her, Lexi’s graduation cap slipped from her hand and fell onto the floor. She scooped it up and spun toward the door to make a swift exit from all the reverie, when someone crashed into her shoulder, nearly knocking her down.
A strong arm stretched out from nowhere and saved her from a nasty fall. “I’m so sorry. I wasn’t looking,” a deep voice apologized in her ear.
Lexi didn’t need to open her eyes or look up to know who it was. She’d know that voice anywhere. Vincent Drake.
“Are you all right?” He leaned his head even closer to her, making sure she could hear his question over all the noise around them.
Lexi’s heart fluttered when she realized he was still holding her arm. She could smell the spice of his cologne and feel the heat coming off his body.
The crowd around them shifted, so he pulled her against his chest so she wouldn’t be swept away. Her head started to swim when he gave her arm a gentle squeeze because she wasn’t answering his question. Determined to leave the place with one iota of her dignity intact, she opened her eyes, raised her chin confidently, and said, “Yes, I’m fine. Thank you, Vincent.” As his name passed through her lips, Lexi’s stomach flipped one last time. “Congratulations.”
Before he could say anything, before she saw him try and remember who she was, before he pretended to know her name, she simply collected herself and walked away from him without another word. Her heart, however, thundered in her chest.
Lexi made her way through the slowly dispersing crowd and mentally wished her classmates well. Then she walked out of the auditorium, her head held high, and never once looked back at any of them. “Goodbye,” she whispered as she stepped out of the doors of the school and into the bright June sunshine.
∙ 1 ∙
Lexi opened the door to her apartment. In her arms she carried two overflowing grocery bags. She balanced the precarious load, and then set it all down on the counter, kicking the door shut behind her. As Lexi emptied the groceries into their proper places, she turned on the radio, filling the apartment with flowery pop music as she went about the job at hand.
Dancing her way around the kitchen, she made quick work of the bags. When everything was finally put away, she grabbed a large frying pan from underneath the cook top and started browning the ground beef for her dinner. As the taco seasoning hit the meat, the savory smell of chili powder filled the apartment. Next to the frying pan on the stovetop, Lexi warmed a can of refried beans and began the messy job of chopping the lettuce, tomatoes, and onions. Just as the last bit of onion was diced and scooped into a bowl, there was a sharp knock on the door.
Lexi put down the knife and with a knowing smile on her face, opened the door wide. “Hi, Hope. Hungry?” She smirked at the curvaceous brunette standing in the hallway wearing baggy, grease-smeared, navy blue coveralls.
“Tacos? You know they’re my favorite. I could smell them across the hall. Don’t worry, I didn’t come empty handed.” From behind her back Hope pulled out a bottle of tequila and margarita mix. “I brought the drinks.” She grinned and strode into the apartment, setting the bottles down on the counter. “You have no idea how glad I am you moved in across the hall. You’re a great friend, don’t get me wrong, but you’re an even more amazing cook.” Hope laughed as she unzipped her blue jumper and stepped out of the greasy mess, revealing her shapely form in basic jeans and a white T-shirt. She made herself comfortable on one of the stools at the counter and watched Lexi put the finishing touches on dinner.
Lexi had moved to San Francisco five months ago, just after her father died. She left Riverdale following her graduation from high school to attend NYU on a full scholarship. Opening her acceptance letter had been the proudest moment of her life. She may not have finished first in her graduating class, but second apparently wasn’t too shabby in the eyes of NYU. Unfortunately, mid-way through her sophomore year, she received the phone call that changed everything and put her life on hold for the next eight years.
Lexi remembered every word of the conversation that day when one of her father’s friends had called and told her that over the previous two months, her father had become more and more confused. He couldn’t remember phone numbers or codes he had used for years. Someone had even found him standing next to his car one day, unsure of how to open the door. Her father’s friend had rattled on about other incidents, but Lexi stopped listening. She hung up the phone and booked the next flight back to Riverdale. Two weeks after she arrived home, Harry was diagnosed with the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. She still remembered the look on his face when she told him she was dropping out of school so she could stay in Riverdale and help him. Her father was devastated and begged her to go back to school, but Lexi refused. They had no other family; it was just the two of them, as it had been since Marie died all those years earlier.
So, instead of living the life of a college student and spreading her wings, Lexi was pulled back to Riverdale to take care of her father. Instead of nights spent out with friends at clubs or parties or pulling all nighters studying for an exam, her nights were spent making her father dinner, bathing him, and calling the doctor. The only books she cracked were in leisure. She read books on everything from molecular biology to American literature, trying to emulate courses she would have taken at NYU. She even bought herself a boxed set of language courses on tape and acquired a decent understanding of both Spanish and Italian in the many months she spent at Harry’s bedside.