Kenner Halston

While standing at center stage, the audience was a sea of flashing lights. Emery stood, smiling to no particular direction, not knowing which light belonged to her parent’s camera. Her tassel now turned, she stepped off the stage without a glance at who else may be in the crowd, cheering her on.    “Congratulations, sweetie! Your Dad and I are so proud of you”, she heard her Mom say as she rushed towards Emery, flowers in hand. As Emery collected the flowers and gave her Mom a half hug, she noticed her Dad was nowhere in sight.    “Don’t worry. Your Dad is here. He’s getting something for you.”    “Good. For a second, I thought he got called into work like usual”, Emery said.    “Don’t say that. He’s around as much as possible. Not all men leave you, Em.” As Emery was able to shake off the wave of discontent towards her Mom’s comment, she sees her father walking up to them, with a shadow in tow. No, not now. The closer they came into view; the shadow became a shadow no more. Lucas. Emery’s chest tightened.    “Give him a chance,” her mother whispers into her ear just as Lucas and her Dad are standing square in front of her.    “Hey Emery, I just wanted to…congratulate you,” Lucas says, half statement and half stammer. Emery looks at her parents with pleading eyes.    “Found this guy wandering around after the ceremony! It seemed silly not to have him take a photo with our graduate”, her Dad explained. Grabbing Lucas by the arm, they walk out of earshot of her parents.    “Explain yourself.”, said Emery.    “I broke up with you before you could break up with me.”     “You don’t say”     “You’re going off to college. In another state. I had to finish my senior year. It made sense.”     “Self-perseveration?”, Emery asked.     “Yeah, I guess you could say that. Here’s the thing. My logic was flawed. You are imprinted on me, and that’s not something I can hide from. Plus, my Mom got offered a job at UF, so we’re moving.”      “To Gainesville?”      “We leave in over a month.”       “You dumped me because I was moving to Florida to go to college, and now you find out that you are going to be living less than 2 hours away. And you’re here to win me back?”        “You aren’t a person who can be won, Em.” Emery has always been stubborn, a trait she inherited from her father. Headstrong with a one-track mind. When Lucas ended their relationship, she delved into her writing and studied harder. Flagler had been his idea. Not hers. She wanted nothing to do with it, anymore.       “A lot has changed in the last four months.” Emery pulls a letter out of her robe pocket from Minneapolis’ Star Tribune and stuffs it into Lucas’ hand. As she walks away, she can imagine him reading the words “We’d like to offer you an internship for our newspaper, beginning Fall of 2018.”