The Leaving Cert

This is a follow-up to my previous story 'Graduation Night'

Since graduation a lot has happened, Hannah fixed things with Sean, Jade doesn’t remember that night and what happened with Jake and neither does Hannah, she has no idea how I feel and I don’t think she ever will. For those who don’t know, the leaving cert is the end of year exams that you do and it decides what college you can go to, which then decides what you do for the rest of your life. It Is a lot of responsibility to put on seventeen and eighteen-year-olds and none of us could care less.

I don’t know what it was but every year that did the leaving before us were so stressed and panicking about the exams but none of us cared, we were numb to it all. The exams span from the seventh to the twenty-third of June. They were boring and time-consuming, but I didn’t mind the whole thing that much because I got to see Hannah in the hour or two between the exams. We didn’t necessarily talk and yes it hurt but I saw her and that made me happy.

You see, Hannah got off the bus at the same stop as Sean as they lived close beside each other, Hannah doesn’t have internet at her house so I knew I wouldn’t really be able to talk to her so I messaged Sean on Facebook the next day

“Hey Sean, how are you feeling? I was just wondering if you know what happened to Hannah?” I said not wanting to hear they were back together.

“Hi Andrew, I’m pretty hung over, I told you I shouldn’t drink, why are you asking about Hannah?” He replied.

“It’s just that she seems pretty upset last night and I was just checking she is alright…” I replied quickly

“Oh, yeah. She’s fine, she just gets like that when she’s drunk. Don’t worry about her.” He laughed

I quickly thought about the night again, I definitely saw something go down between them and it was definitely not Hannah’s fault. “I don’t think her being drunk had anything to do with it now, being fair to her”

Sean didn’t like that, Not one bit. I actually haven’t talked to Sean since the twenty-second of May, and I think he told Hannah not to talk to me and that’s why we haven’t talked. But last Monday, the twelfth of June I had walked to the shop with my friend Liam and on my return, I bumped into Jake.

“Dude, Hannah. She asked about you, like if you’re alright and stuff but she hasn’t talked to you in a while” He smiled

I looked at him and nearly just fell to the floor. “Wait, Hannah. Hannah Hannah asked about me?”

“Yeah man, I told her you were a bit upset because you and her haven’t talked in a while”

“…You do realize that makes me sound like a p***y, s**t… alright thanks, man”

Between exams we would all go to the old school which was just up the road a bit, this is where the kids that could drive would park their cars and where we could be away from the school and relax for an hour or two. Jake was feeling…weird, no, more…adventurous.

We all sat on a bank and watched the cars come and go and a big bush separated the bank from the road so Jake had the bright idea of trying to climb through the bush and get out the other side, although it doesn’t sound cool, it was. Jake then decided to climb a couple trees. I stood at the bottom of the tree wishing I could be on top of it or even a building but my daydream of standing on a building ledge was interrupted by a giggle to my left, a giggle I recognized and I unfortunately loved.

On this small dirt bank, lay Sean and Hannah, she was happy and I was happy for her but I looked at Jake and then back to her and did this once or twice more before calling her name “Hey Hannah, come look at this”. She arose from the ground and stood beside me

“Look at what?"

I didn’t say anything, I just looked at her and then I pointed up towards Jake. “Holy s**t Jake, you’ve got to be about 20 feet up”. Jake wasn’t stopping though, he kept going until he couldn’t anymore

“Jake! You’ve got to get down, our next exam is in about 5 minutes and we still have to walk to the school” I yelled.

I would write about the exam but I wouldn’t want to bore you if I haven’t already. We made it on time and we sat the exam, this exam was the last ‘compulsory’ subject meaning that the rest of the exams were ones you could choose from and this meant that this was the last time I would see Hannah for a long time, I wouldn’t see her again until the end of August. I stood at the side of the road with Liam and we waited for his mother to pick us up and bring us home but I did a quick look around before she arrived. There was Hannah, my last chance to see her in person so I tried to take it but she was heading somewhere and Liam’s mam was around the corner “Bye Hannah, see you at the debs I guess” I said with a small laugh.

“Yeah, see you” she replied quickly and kept walking.

“Turn around…please turn around” I whispered to myself.

Liam wrapped his arm around me and consoled me “It’s alright man, you’ll get her, you will because just remember what she said at grad. She wishes you had asked her out. People are 110% more honest when they are drunk”

After Liam’s mam picked us up I got dropped home and as I walked into the house and as my phone connected to the wifi it buzzed. I took out my phone and my eyes shot open, I ran to my bedroom and closed the door, just seeing her name got me like this and now I get to talk to her? I can die happily now.

“Hey, sorry I couldn’t talk earlier. How are things?” she messaged

“Hello, oh don’t worry about that, it’s fine, trust me. Things are good, how, how are your…things?” I replied trying to be cool

“My things are okay. I think I’ve failed all these exams” she laughed

“I’m sure you did great. Can I ask you something?” I asked

“Sure, Go ahead.”

Knowing that I wouldn’t have to see her until late August I knew that I could just ask her and I wouldn’t have to face any embarrassment the next day so I asked her “What do you remember from graduation, as in what I told you, do you remember much of what I said?”

There was a pause for a minute or two, she opened the message and didn’t reply for a minute and I had a sigh of relief when I heard my phone get a notification.
“I don’t remember much but I remember you said I was beautiful and that’s all really”

“Oh right, that’s good because that was like 'the beginning' of all that.” I laughed

“Is it? I’m sorry I can’t remember most of that night”

The conversation went on and on, changing topic over and over again until night arrived and I had to go to sleep because I had an exam in the morning.
“Hey, I wrote this thing… and I kind of want you to read it, but I’m going to go to bed so I’ll leave you with it.” and I then sent her the link to my original story and she read it while I was asleep, I expected to wake up to a message from her about it but there was nothing. My mother rushed me off to my final exam and I was not prepared for it, I stared out the window most of the exam, watching the rain as it soaked anything in its path.

I decided to leave the exam early, I wrote all that I could and didn’t see a point in staying any longer so I left, I put up my hood and I headed out to the road so I could begin the wait for my mother to pick me up, I walked up the steep hill that lead to the road and as I reached the top I looked left and I saw someone walking towards me, I took out my retractable umbrella and opened it up, I put in my earphones and I stood there staring blankly across the road, the surrounding area seemed to transform to a different road, I looked to my left and there was Hannah with tears down her face.

It was grad night again and I had one more chance to say what I wanted. Facing her I said “Hannah I love you” and I leaned in, there was a sudden tap on my shoulder and the area disappeared and blended from a town road to a country road, I looked at Hannah and focused on her so that she wouldn’t disappear. I could see her and he face became covered in more tears and her hair got wetter and wetter. I closed my eyes for a second, trying to go back to that night and wanting to be with Hannah I opened my eyes and she was still there.

But she changed her clothes, it wasn’t her dress anymore and she didn’t have as much makeup on and she wasn’t a hallucination anymore, she was stood right there in front of me and I paused. “Uh, you didn’t hear that, did yo-” Hannah put her hand over my mouth and started speaking “I read the story and I loved it, it was so well written and I love how it was written for me” She stepped closer and took her hand off of my mouth “Oh, and yeah, I heard that” she stood on her tippy toes and closed her eyes.

I took my opportunity, I dropped my umbrella and I grabbed her waist and I kissed her, this is very clichéd but it’s my story and a kiss with her in the rain would be perfect to me, I don’t care if it’s overused.

 

 

Reviews

[Kelly B.]

More more more! I LOVED the first story you wrote and was super excited when I saw you had a second part written. Your life is infinitely more exciting than the average person's haha. At least it seems to be on paper. I'm jealous. I will patiently await to hear what happens with you and Hannah! I'm a sucker for a happy ending so I'm rooting for you!

[Mr.Smith]

Thank you so much

[rowan.taylorrr]

I loved the first one and I love this one even more! great job

[Karen John]

I love the story especially the ending!
You should check on the teeny tiny mistakes though...
There's a "he face" instead of her face"
And the last para is long single sentence with multiple "ands" and comas..
Try splitting those into different sentences....
Loved the story 😍

[Dalton Wagoner]

The story is awesome, but I noticed a few grammatical errors; "It *is* a lot of responsibility," "The conversation *went* on and on," and "it was so well*-*written."