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I felt like I was on top of the world! Weeks of preparation and testing had prepared me to take the GED exam, and I’d passed. It was a test that was damn near eight hours long, but there were breaks built into it. The amount of knowledge that it took to complete was incredible, but thanks to all the studying that I’d been doing I felt very confident. It only took them about a day to send us our results, and when I saw that I’d passed it, I almost cried. I called my parents and told them about it and they were happy for me as well.
The last step of night school was a small graduation ceremony that would be taking place in a couple of days. I was beyond excited about it.
The five years following me getting hit by a drunk driver were the hardest ones of my life. I’d worked hard to get to where I was and I knew that I still had a long road ahead of me to arrive at where I wanted to be. Still, this step was a big one and I planned on following it up with another. I’d already been looking at a couple of different colleges and would be ready to submit applications soon.
Everything was going good for the most part with the exception of things between Adia and I. It seemed like we’d somehow switched places. Ever since she’d dropped her bomb on me about being a virgin, she’d been avoiding me like the plague. I really wanted to have a conversation with her about it, but I couldn’t do it if she wouldn’t even talk to me.
When I would go to the main office she would always find some excuse to either rush me out or she’d end up leaving. It was annoying, but I was trying to deal with it.
Adia being a virgin explained a lot. I could understand why she’d been so reluctant to try and get to know me. A lot of guys had probably been turned off by it. I could only imagine how they’d tried to get her to give it up. I wasn’t going to be one of those people. I genuinely liked Adia and wanted a chance to get to know her better. I understood her not wanting to get too intimate. She probably didn’t want to tempt me or herself. I was curious about why she had waited so long to tell me, but I also understood it to a certain extent.
Bright and early on a Saturday morning I found myself at the mall. I was searching an outfit, something nice I could wear to our graduation ceremony. I wasn’t going to get a whole new suit, but I at least want a pair of pants and some shoes.
I’d been there for about an hour or so and hadn’t had any luck with finding anything to wear. I was about to head into another store when I spotted someone familiar to me. He saw me and waved, so I decided to go over to him and say hello.
“What’s up?” I greeted Adia’s roommate, Dashawn. He was dressed casually in an all black sweat suit and black sneakers. He had a couple of bags in his hands.
“Raphael? I’m good, man. What about you?” he asked.
“I can’t complain. Getting ready for graduation,” I said.
“Adia mentioned something about that,” he responded. “Hey, I want to apologize for all the awkwardness when we first met. If I came across like a jackass, I wasn’t really trying to.”
I waved my hand to brush it off. “It’s cool. Water under the bridge.”
“Thanks,” he said.
I scratched my head nervously as I thought about whether or not I should ask my next question. “Um...so how is Adia? Did she tell you what happened between us?”
He nodded his head knowingly. “She’s good, and yeah I heard.” It was clear that he wasn’t going to offer up any details.
“This might be a little awkward, but do you know how I might be able to get her to talk to me again? I don’t want her to have the wrong impression of me.”
Dashawn thought for a moment as he weighed his options. Then he finally spoke. “It’s not really my place to get involved in her love life, but I know she really does like you.”
“I like her too. Hell, I like her a lot,” I admitted. “I just want to make things right. I’m not sure what she’s been through, but I’m not trying to put her through it again.”
He smiled. He seemed pleased with my answer. “If you’re being honest, and I think you are, then you should just tell her. She can be a little stubborn sometimes, but just tell her how you feel. I would recommend doing it in person.”
“I want to, but every time she sees me, she runs away,” I told him. “I just need a few minutes.”
He looked around nervously as if he was being watched and then leaned in a little bit. “Look, I really shouldn’t be telling you this, but she’s here at the mall. If you go up to the third floor, she’s in the nail salon getting her feet done. She can’t get up and run away from that.”
A smile came across my face. “Thanks man. I appreciate it.”
“No problem. Just don’t hurt my best friend,” he said.
“I won’t,” I promised.
I took off, feeling like a kid in a candy store. I took the escalator to the third floor and wandered around until I found the only nail salon up there. Sure enough, Adia was inside sitting in a chair getting a pedicure. She looked so relaxed with her headphones in and her eyes closed. I paid for a pedicure as well and got seated in the chair next to her. Once I was all settled, I tapped her on the hand. She opened her eyes and looked at me with surprise.
“Raphael? What are you doing here?”
“I’m looking for something to wear to graduation,” I said. “I was walking past and saw you, so I came inside.” I wasn’t going to tell her that Dashawn had told me where she was.
“Oh,” she said. She looked down at the woman doing her feet and realized that she couldn’t go anywhere.
“I wanted to talk to you. I need to-”
“Raphael, please, just don’t,” she said. “I’m fine.”
“Well I’m not,” I said. “I wanted a chance to explain some stuff to you.”
She let out a heavy breath. “Stuff like what?”
“Adia, do you know what it’s like to feel like you’re never going to walk again? I had to go see a bunch of specialists and more than one of them told me the same thing. I was determined to see it through and now I’m here,” I said. She was looking me in the eyes with curiosity. “In the beginning, when I first started doing rehab, I would get down on myself for not progressing fast enough. In my mind, I remembered how to walk and run and do everything else, but my body wouldn’t cooperate. Ultimately, I learned that the only way that I was going to make any progress would be through hard work and patience.”
“What are you saying?” she asked.
“I’m saying that I may not know the reasons behind you being what you are, but it doesn’t really matter to me because I’m patient enough to wait ‘til you’re ready. You told me that a bunch of guys that you used to mess with had put pressure on you at one point or another. I’m not about to be one of those guys. I waited months to stand again and even longer to walk and even longer to run. I’m a patient man. I really like you and I want to see where things between us could go, and I’m patient enough to wait until you’re ready. In the meantime, I don’t want to lose you.”
Tears formed in her eyes but didn’t fall. “That means a lot to me.”
“And I mean every word of it,” I said. “If I was trying to play you, I wouldn’t have kept stopping by the main office to see you even when I knew you were going to shut me down.”
She laughed. “That’s true.”
“So, what do you say?” I asked her.
Slowly, Adia nodded her head. “I want to take it slow, but I’d like to keep seeing you.”
I smiled. “Good. There's’ just one more thing.”
“What is it?”
“We can’t go bowling anymore. You beat my ass last time, and I haven’t forgotten,” I said with a laugh. She burst out laughing as well. She reached across and grabbed my hand, holding it in hers.