Friends

Finals were brutal and Keeley lost a lot of sleep but they were finally done! Graduation would be the following day so she went out to celebrate with her friends.

It was a last hurrah before they all went their separate ways. Keeley would stay in New York while Lydia headed off to California and Jeffrey went to Washington D.C. She would really miss those two.

Keeley hadn't focused much on making friends in college because she was too busy working, studying, or chasing after Aaron. That was definitely going to change.

She didn't want to be so socially isolated this time. She might even meet people she got along with as well as Lydia and Jeffrey if she put herself out there.

"I'm terrible at bowling," Lydia moaned when she got yet another gutter ball.

Jeffrey instructed her patiently when his turn was up. "It's in the wrist movement; you're doing it wrong. Watch."

He executed a perfect spin and got a strike. He hadn't gotten one yet so his face lit up with delight.

"Okay, that was way cooler than I expected. But I guess it proved my point. Try doing what I did next time."

Keeley lazily consumed the chili cheese fries she purchased at the snack bar as a special post-finals treat as they talked. She needed to focus on enjoying her youth while she was young again instead of wasting her time by being single-minded.

Now was the time to try a bunch of different things. Like these fries. They were surprisingly decent considering they were bowling alley food.

When her turn was up, she didn't do much better than Lydia. At least she hit about half of the pins on her first try but she didn't get any  the second time.

Jeffrey was definitely going to win this game. The other two were playing to see who got last place at this point.

"I'm doing what you did and I still can't get more than four pins at a time," Lydia complained. "Can you take the second half of my turn for me?"

Jeffrey laughed. "Sure. You're so far behind it's not like it'll help you much anyway."

She stuck her tongue out at his back as he managed to knock over the rest of the pins, giving her a spare.

Keeley smiled at their antics. Those two could have been so cute together if they weren't moving to opposite sides of the country.

Lydia would likely end up with the California boy she wanted and Jeffrey had a decent chance of meeting someone at school too. She didn't care about such things.

If she ever fell in love again, it would be far, far in the future. She had too much life to live before then and didn't want a man holding her back this time.

At the very least, she wouldn't date anyone until after she had her doctoral degree and was working in a research lab or at a university. Not that she even wanted to date anyone at all. Aaron had kind of ruined her on that front. If she spent her life alone, that would be perfectly fine.

Worst case scenario, she could use a sperm donor or adopt  at some point. She wanted to be the mother she never got a chance to be someday.

Besides, she couldn't deny her father the chance to be a grandpa. Expanding their family might help ease some of the hurt that came from losing half of it.

"Keeley, it's your last turn," Lydia reminded her, shaking her out of her thoughts.

"Got it."

She glanced at the score board. Unless Lydia somehow got a strike or a spare on her last turn, all she had to do in order to avoid last place was hit at least a couple of pins.

Keeley chucked the ball down the lane with force and it managed to hit three pins on the right side. She managed to hit another four pins on the second half of her turn, almost certainly securing her victory.

In the end, Lydia got another gutter ball after hitting five pins and Keeley beat her by twelve points. Jeffrey wiped the floor with them both.

Her friends laughed and teased each other after the scores were out and she felt content. She wanted to remember this moment.

Calling over an employee who was sweeping the floor nearby, she asked if he would take a picture of the three of them. He was surprised but agreed and Keeley handed him her phone after opening the camera.

Jeffrey stood in the middle of the girls and they wrapped their arms around each other's backs so they were a bit huddled together in the photo, all wearing bright smiles.

It was a good picture. She might have to get it printed out and stick it up on the corkboard her father bought her at an office supply chain store for her dorm room.

Having a bit of the past with her as she moved forward into the future would be wonderfully symbolic. But thinking of the past…Aaron had actually been avoiding her.

Not that she actively tried to reach out to him or anything but if he caught her looking at him, he would look away. Previously, he would stare back with a smug expression that seemed to say 'yeah, I know I look good, keep staring.'

She really needed to stop thinking about him. She would never see him again after tomorrow—they were seated next to each other because the graduating class was ordered alphabetically by last name.

Among all of the seniors, no one was closer to Hale than Hall. She was fairly certain that the boy on Aaron's other side was named Landon Green.

It would be a relief to have him out of her life. She only thought about him so much because he was confusing and she had to worry about what he would pull next. Once he was out of the way and she had other more important things to worry about, she was sure she would be able to get him out of her head permanently.