I Was Meant for More novel · Chapter 5 of 16

Chapter 5: Commitment Night

I didn't tell her anything was wrong.

I put a thumbs-up on her message like thirty other people did.

Trent texted me privately a minute later.

"You saw the program? You okay with it?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"No reason!! See you Friday."

On Friday night, the Millbrook High gym was hot and full.

Folding chairs covered the whole basketball court.

There were balloons in the school colors tied to the bleachers, and a big screen above the stage for the slideshow.

About three hundred people had come.

Parents, grandparents, little brothers holding signs.

Every senior sat in the first rows in alphabetical order, holding a sealed envelope.

You weren't allowed to open it until you were on the stage.

I held mine flat on my knee.

My mother sat four rows behind me in her good blouse.

She'd switched shifts with two other nurses to be here.

Marianne Fairbanks sat next to her, the way she had at every school event of my life.

She'd saved my mother a seat and brought her a water bottle.

Courtney stood at the microphone in a white sundress with a clipboard.

She'd done her hair in big soft curls.

"Welcome, everybody, to Millbrook's forty-first Commitment Night!"

The whole gym clapped.

She went down the list.

Every senior walked up, tore open the envelope and read the school out loud.

Courtney added a little line for each one.

"Ohio State, and we all know our quarterback is going to run that football team."

"Case Western, our future doctor, please remember us!"

People laughed and cheered.

It was fun.

It was supposed to be fun.

We got to the L's before the H's.

Courtney had arranged it that way.

"And now, one of my two best friends in the whole world. Trent Fairbanks!"

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