The Graduation Read Online Free Page A

Remember that narc that was hassling Nick before Christmas? Randy Meisser?”
    “Yeah. You said you were going to run him off campus.”
    “I changed my mind. Thought he might come in useful. He busted Dale snorting coke in a bathroom.” Bubba took off his hat and fanned himself. “We can’t have an ill-mannered druggie giving any long-winded speeches graduation day. Not when it’s hot like this.”
    Michael sighed. “You set Dale up.”
    “I may have put the white powder beneath his nose, but I did not force him to inhale.”
    “Were his parents able to bail him out?”
    “Yes, and weren’t they embarrassed. Relatives flying in from the Midwest and ail. Would you like me to write your speech for you?”
    “No, thank you.” Michael stood up, gripping the bag, testing its weight. “Clair’s in the gym. She wants to talk to you. You probably know that, right?”
    “Of course.” Bubba got up, too, brushing off the seat of his trousers.
    “She said she had a secret to tell me.”
    Bubba raised an eyebrow. “Did she tell you?”
    “No.”
    He nodded. “She’s a good girl. Did you know Kats will be receiving a diploma today?”
    “He mentioned something like that once.”
    “He’s also coming with us on our cruise to Catalina.”
    “Wonderful.”
    Bubba smiled. “He might surprise you. He might just be the life of the party.”
    Michael had what he had come for. He had a great deal to accomplish before he returned to the campus at three. He bid Bubba good-bye and hurried toward the parking lot. Crossing the courtyard, extremely conscious of the sack in his hand, he spotted Jessica talking to Sara outside the snack bar. He practically dropped the sack. He stepped behind a tree, peeking around like a frightened lowlife.
    “ No. Don’t touch me. Don’t get near me. I’m no good, Michael. I’m not. ”
    Her brown hair and brown eyes. He always saw them first. Long and silky, big and round. Then would come her smile. Yet she was not smiling now. She was as pretty as ever, but it seemed to him, even at a glance, that she didn’t smile as often as she had. She was no longer the young girl who had almost wept over the grape juice he had spilled on her sweater.
    Her clothes were seductive now—as was her body. She had on a short green skirt and a thin yellow blouse. Her legs were every bit as tan as Clair’s. He had dreamed about them the last few months, along with the rest of her body.
    Love would not care. It should not care.
    Yet Michael did not feel guilt over his sexual desire for Jessica. It was natural, he realized. He could not separate who she was from her body. He didn’t want to.
    I just want her.
    But she did not want him. Bill came up to talk to her then. He put a hand on her shoulder. Now she smiled.
    Michael left quickly for the parking lot. In his car he removed the gun from the brown paper bag and opened the box of shells. Pressing the bullets into the clip of the automatic weapon, he wondered if maybe he should have waited for Jessica as Sara had suggested. If maybe Bubba was right, and he was stupid.
    He put the loaded automatic in the glove compartment and drove away.

Chapter Three
    Jessica Hart was thinking of winning and losing. She had begun the year at Tabb optimistically. She had figured she would earn outstanding grades, be nominated homecoming queen, get accepted to Stanford, fall in love with a cute boy, and enjoy the respect and goodwill of all she met. She hadn’t thought she was asking for more than her fair share.
    And none of those things came to me. Not one.
    She had received a C in chemistry, the same grade she would receive on her report card. She hadn’t been able to find a lab partner after Maria got hurt. Her overall grade-point average for the year was a C-plus. In a class of four hundred and sixty-four, she was graduating somewhere in the mid-two hundreds. The ranking would have been lower if they’d averaged in her SAT score.
    Her father had held back her