Beyond Eighteen(80)

“Miss Mooney, all parties who wish to remain associated with Wesley Academy will be required to sign a confidentiality agreement, whether they were intimately involved or not,” Dean McCallous said. She pushed out her chair, stood up, and slid two contracts across her desk before she held out a pen to me. I looked at the paper, skimming the words binding me to never speak of why I truly graduated from Wesley early, and scribbled my signature at the bottom of the page. I handed the pen to Joanie and listened to it scratch across the page.

That moment marked the death of my childhood and the birth of my new life as an adult with Max. I couldn’t wait to get out of the dean’s office, I just wanted to call Max and tell him it looked like everything was going to be okay.

The dean turned to Joanie then. Her face was stoic and serious, but it softened a little when she looked into her eyes. “Classes resume January 10th. Would you like me to relocate you to a new dormitory for the remainder of your senior year?”

Joanie looked over at me, her eyes filled with tears, before she gave me a shaky smile. I nodded, knowing our lives had changed more than either of us could have expected.

“Yes, please,” she answered.

Dean McCallous nodded to both of us before walking out from behind the enormous desk that separated our lives from hers. She made her way to the massive door, pulled it open, and with the lowest of vocal intention, she whispered…“Done.”

“Wilson, congratulations, you are officially graduated from Wesley Academy for Girls. I truly hope you will further your education, and if there is anything I can do for you please don’t hesitate to ask. I am sorry to see you go, but wish you much luck in the future.” Dean McCallous held out her hand, we shook, and that was it. My career at Wesley Academy for Girls was over.

A huge gasp, loud enough to make every head turn, filled the hall. I didn’t even have to looked to know it was Cindy.

“Graduated! What?” her spiteful tone oozed every ounce of disappointment for what she’d just overheard Dean McCallous tell me. My life had just begun.

“Miss Browler, I was just going to call you. In my office. We have some business to discuss,” the dean’s voice turned callous and then it was my snarky smile that Cindy had to endure as J and I strutted past her. I heard Cindy’s rant disappear behind the slam of Dean McCallous’s office door.

Silent urgency passed between J and me. She turned to me, her eyes wide, as she noticed I had words I needed to say. Yet something in me didn’t know where to start.

“J, I need to call Max,” I told her as I pulled out my phone.

“Okay, but we’d better grab what we need from the room and get the hell out of here before Dean McCallous releases that bitch back into the world,” Joanie spat as we hustled out of the building and headed back to our dormitory.





Chapter Twenty-eight


~ Wilson ~





Joanie and I tossed all our bags into the back of her white Durango and high-tailed it out of Wesley before we had to deal with the wrath of Cindy and her self-absorbed bitchiness. We were heading to Mendocino.

Okay, so maybe the fact that my life suddenly looked wide open and filled with unlimited possibilities was a good thing. It was definitely exciting, but there was a part of me that was scared of floating so unprotected in the vast openness. Where was I supposed to land, and what if I didn’t end up where I expected to be?

My grandpa used to say, “Sometimes the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t.” He was a creature of habit. Consistency and reliability could have been his middle names. He was always about sticking with what you know before you make the decision to throw your towel into the ring. He was the type of person who believed you should keep your friends close and your enemies closer. I didn’t think I could live that way. As a matter of fact, I totally knew that wasn’t going to work for me. There was no way I wanted to keep Cindy any closer than a couple hundred miles. That was close enough for my taste.

Joanie and I talked the whole way up and she drove the entire time. I couldn’t help dozing off. Every once in a while she’d just stop talking to me until I’d blurt out some random answer that didn’t make any sense and was probably to the question she’d asked ten minutes before. We got to the twisty part of Highway 128 at dusk. According to the dashboard clock it was 4:47 p.m. Damn, I wanted to get to my grandparents’ before it got dark. I guess the only bonus about it being dark and slightly foggy when you drove on Highway 1 was that you couldn’t see the steep cliffs and vast ocean waiting to swallow you up.

It was inky dark when we finally rolled into Mendocino. A layer of hovering fog stole the constellations from night sky. The stars told stories about Greek Gods and golden fleeces, stories I wished Max was here to tell me.