Living with Jackie Chan (26 page)

“Twice. I can’t stop sweating! It’s crazy!” He’s smiling like a maniac, so I guess it doesn’t matter.

“Hey,” I say. “I want to give you your present before things get crazy.”

“You got me a present?”

“Of course! Well, I mean I got you and Arielle something, too. But this is just for you. You know, to say thanks. For everything.”

I sit up and reach under the bed for a long tube.

Larry grins at me and pulls off the plastic cover at the end and dumps out a rolled-up poster. It’s not the same movie poster I ripped up, but I hope he likes it.

“No way!” Larry yells after carefully unrolling the paper. He jumps up and down. “I love it! I love it!” He pins the new poster up where the old one used to be, then steps back to admire it. “
The Karate Kid.
That’s you, man. That’s
us.
Oh, yeah. This is perfect.”

“Well. You know. Thanks for being my Mr. Han. I really appreciate it.”

He tousles my hair like I’m a little kid again. “This has been a great year, Sammy. The best.” His eyes water up.

“Yeah,” I say. “It has.”

“You better get up and shower. This place is about to become a madhouse.”

He practically bounces out of the room, singing his off-key rendition of “I Gotta Feelin’.”

After my shower, I put on my only pair of dress pants and a white button-up shirt and tie. Larry picked out the tie. It’s supposed to match both my insane graduation robe
and
Arielle’s maid of honor’s dress. Arielle isn’t going to make it to the graduation, obviously, since she’s getting ready for the wedding, which is approximately one hour after I walk down my own aisle. I still think this makes Larry a nut job, but he seems to think it was the best idea ever and will help him keep his mind off being nervous. I don’t point out that since he has now sweated through two shirts, it doesn’t appear to be working.

“Lookin’ good!” he says when I walk into the kitchen to make some breakfast. I’m still scarfing down my toast when the buzzer rings and Larry races for the door to let my parents up. They were going to spend the night here last night, but got a hotel instead. Larry was all, “They wanted their privacy, wink, wink.” I explained that you aren’t supposed to
say
“wink,” but he just laughed. “Be happy for them,” he said. “I am,” I told him.

My dad is wearing a tie and looks like he dropped about thirty pounds. My mom is holding his hand. I almost make a joke about asking them who they are and what they’ve done to my real parents, but I stop myself. Why remind them of what they used to be, when what they are now is so much better?

Instead, in my best Larry impression, I tell my dad he’s lookin’ good. He makes a funny face because he doesn’t get it. Oh, well. When my mom hugs me, she smells different. Like she got some new kind of shampoo or something.

“You guys look amazing,” I tell them. “Wow, Dad. You’ve lost some serious baggage.”

He taps his stomach where his giant beer gut used to be. “Not bad, huh, Joshy?”

“You look so handsome,” my mom tells me. “Oh, Josh. You’re all grown up. I can’t believe this day is here.” And then she starts crying.

My dad pats her shoulder awkwardly. So much for
wink, wink.
They’re clearly still working on the touching/togetherness thing. I can’t imagine how awkward their weekend in Vermont must have been. I try not to cringe at the thought. Even so, while it still feels weird to see them together like this, it also feels good. Really good.

When we’re finally ready to leave and are heading down the stairs, Larry says he forgot something and runs back inside. My parents climb into the van, and I slide the side door open. It smells like Rosie and pine air freshener. I sit on the middle seat and start to sweat.

And remember.

That night.

Here.

When everything changed.

“Hey!” Larry says, banging on the window. “Look who I found!”

Stella waves shyly. She’s wearing the dress she was supposed to wear for prom, and her hair is all done up in a way I’ve never seen. She is stunning.

“Surprise!” Larry says. “I brought you a date.”

They squeeze in next to me on the seat and lay Stella’s crutches over our laps. “I thought you two could help each other with your caps and gowns when we get there,” Larry says. He’s sitting between us and has his sweaty arms around our shoulders. I try not to breathe.

“My mom was supposed to take me, but she stayed at Calvin’s last night and said she’d meet us there.” She says
Calvin
the way Larry and I say
Britt.
“I hope you don’t mind me crashing your party.”

“No,” I say. “No, of course we don’t mind! God!”

“Nice to see you again, Stella,” my mom says, turning back to face us. “What happened to your foot?”

Stella blushes. “It’s fine. Just a little mishap.”

My mom smiles and faces forward again.

When we get to the school, we all pile out and Stella and I put our caps and gowns on over our clothes. I feel like a complete tool in mine, but Stella says I look smart. When my mom starts to cry into my dad’s chest and my dad makes this face like he is going to pass out from discomfort at this open display of affection, Stella and I decide to escape as quickly as possible.

“Never thought I’d be graduating on crutches,” Stella says.

“You gonna be OK?”

“Yeah. Fine.” She glances around. “Do you see him anywhere?”

I scan the sea of caps and gowns and shake my head. “Why?” I ask.

“I don’t want a scene. I almost wish I just stayed home. Why bother be here, since my mom cares more about her precious time with Calvin than helping me get ready? Me graduating and getting into college used to be the most important thing to her. Now it’s like she knows I’ll do all of those things with or without her, so why waste the energy?”

I reach for her arm. “She’ll come. And besides, we’re here for you. Me. Larry. You have other people who care about you besides your mom and what’s-his-name.”

“What’s-his-name?”

I give her a Larry smirk. “Hey, it’s not like I’m crazy about being here, either. My parents forced me. Let’s just get through it together. Misery loves company, and all that.”

“Thanks. We better go find our places in line, I guess.”

“Yup.”

We move closer to the other grads, and Stella gets swallowed up by a circle of girls from the
Britt
crowd who act shocked to see her crutches but probably already heard through the grapevine what happened.

Jason waves me over to our section, and we line up together. He tells me a bunch of guys bet each other to go commando under their gowns. It reminds me of something Dave would do, and I realize our big dream of all graduating together and going out after to get shit-faced never happened. I didn’t even make it to their graduation. Some friend I turned out to be.

A bunch of teachers walk around whisper-yelling for people to be quiet as some lame marching music picks up and we all start to slowly improve our line and walk forward. I follow Jason up onto the stage and sit in the third row. The sun is already baking in the football stadium, and people in the audience are using the programs to fan themselves. I scan the sea of people in the audience and try to find Larry and my parents, but there are way too many people to pick them out. Instead, I glance around me and spot Stella a few rows back. I still don’t see any sign of Britt.

Once we’re all seated, we have to sit through about a million announcements and then this long-ass speech about how we’re standing on the edge of our lives or some crap and how it’s up to us what happens next. How we’ll be leaving home, going to college, getting jobs. How we’re the future. Some people in the row behind us are passing a flask around. Yeah. We are the future. Awesome.

Finally, it’s time to receive our diplomas. I feel the mood around me change. People sit up more. Our row stands, and we follow the line of people with the same first letter in our last names.

When they say Jason’s name, there are some polite claps and a few woots from Jason’s family. He steps forward, shakes the guy’s hand, takes his diploma and waves it in the air, then heads back to our seats.

Then they say my name, and my dad’s distinct, ear-piercing whistle cuts through the applause. I swivel my head around.

No.

Way.

Dave and Caleb are way in the back of the audience, standing on chairs, screaming their heads off.

I wave like an idiot, because I just can’t believe they’re here. I can’t believe they came. After everything.

There’s a tap on my shoulder. The guy with my diploma says, “Let’s move it along.”

I shake his hand, grab my ticket out of here, and run to catch up with Jason. When I get back to my chair, I realize my mouth hurts, I’m smiling so big.

After they read the last person’s name, the principal addresses us as graduates and everyone moves their tassel from one side of their cap to the other. The audience claps and the lame music starts up again, and a bunch of people throw their caps in the air. But I just pull mine off and thank God it’s over, because I really just want to get the hell out of here and be with my real friends — my family. But first, I find Jason and tell him thanks for hanging out with me all year and good luck at school. He shakes my hand and runs off to find his own family.

I see Stella chatting with her friends and push my way over to her. I feel the invisible line that always separated us at school begin to shrivel away. “Hey, guys,” she says. “You know my friend Josh, right? We take karate together.”

They all say hey and give Stella hugs good-bye, telling her where the best graduation party will be happening later tonight. Once they’re gone, she nods toward the crowd. “Ready for act two?”

“Definitely.”

I help clear a path through the maze of people until we spot Larry and crew. At first they don’t notice us. Caleb is talking to my mom, Dave is checking out some girl who looks way too young for him, and Larry and my dad are busy fixing Larry’s tie. Star and Calvin are standing nearby. Star is craning her neck, clearly looking for Stella, which seems like a good sign. Calvin looks bored out of his mind, which is not.

I check my watch and realize we need to be in the park in about twenty minutes. I push my way through the last remaining people to reach them.

“Dude!” Dave says when he sees me. He and Caleb run over and hug me as if I’m their long-lost brother.

“Man, you’re, like, super-stud now,” Dave says, squeezing my upper arm.

Caleb rolls his eyes.

“It’s great to see you losers,” I tell them. “How the hell did you get here?”

“We drove,” Caleb says. “We decided a road trip was in order.”

“Plus your uncle invited us!” Dave adds.

Larry practically skips over to us. “OK, boys! We gotta jet! I have a wedding to get to!”

“Come in our car,” Dave says.

“But —” I gesture toward Stella, who is hugging her mom, at least.

Dave checks her out up and down and nods approvingly.

“She’ll come with us,” Caleb answers.

“Definitely,” Dave says.

“Just don’t get pulled over,” I say. “I have to be there on time.”

“We know, we know, Mr. Best Man.”

So I ask Stella if she wants to join us, and she gives her mom one last hug before we follow my best friends off the field.

“I’m Caleb, by the way,” Cay says when we get to his car. “And this is Dave.” They shake hands with her.

“It’s great to meet you,” Stella says. “I’ve heard all about you guys.”

“I assume that means you’ll be wanting to sit in back with me?” Dave asks.

She laughs. I nudge Dave away from the back door, and Stella and I squeeze in. As soon as we’re sitting down, I take a deep breath and remember the smell: Caleb’s mom’s paints, fast-food wrappers, and Dave’s crappy cologne. It brings so many memories of hanging out with these guys flooding into my head. The good and the bad. But right now, mostly the good.

I roll down the window and breathe in the fresh air blowing in my face.

Stella smiles at me and leans over to whisper in my ear. “I like your friends.”

I catch Caleb’s eyes in the rearview mirror, and he smirks at me.

Dave turns around and grins at us. “So, what’s up with you two? Are you, like, a couple?”

Caleb punches him.

“What?” he says, pretending it hurt. “You know you want to know, too.”

“We’re just friends,” I say.

“Yeah,” Stella agrees.

But I feel my face prickle, and when I glance over, she’s blushing, too.

When we reach the park, we all get out.

Stella stops me before we find Larry.

“Let me fix your tie,” she says, balancing herself on her crutches. She reaches up and ruffles my hair, too. “Cap head,” she tells me.

When she’s done, she steps back and hobbles on her crutches. “Does my hair look OK?” she asks. “I should’ve brought a mirror or something.”

“You look great,” I tell her. And then, it just pops out. “You look beautiful.”

She blushes again, and I feel like an idiot for saying that out loud.

“C’mon, we’re gonna be late,” Caleb says.

I take Stella’s crutches from her and turn around, then crouch down. “Piggyback,” I say. “It’ll be faster.”

She jumps on my back, and we race down the path toward the gazebo where Larry is standing with my parents and a bunch of his friends. When we reach them, Stella slides off and grabs her crutches. Larry’s face is wet with sweat again. I wish I’d thought to grab some napkins or something for him. It seems like something a best man should have thought of.

“It’s gorgeous, isn’t it?” Larry asks.

Arielle and her mom and sister have totally outdone themselves. The gazebo has strings of flowers all around it. The entrance is completely covered with pink and white roses. I peek inside and see Arielle talking to her dad, who appears to be crying. But Arielle is laughing, patting his shoulder. When she sees me, she comes rushing over to hug me. “How was graduation?” she asks excitedly. “Congratulations! Did Larry scream like a goofball?”

“Hey, I resemble that remark,” Larry says.

Arielle rolls her eyes. “We know, Larry. All too well.” She turns to me. “Well, you look very handsome. The perfect best man.”