"Mia Harper," I heard the principal say her name into the microphone as she gracefully strolled across the stage. I jumped to my feet, pulled out my cellphone, and started recording before I began whistling and cheering.

Out of all the graduates, I made a scene like this moment was only about Mia when it was being shared between us. I only cared about her moment.

I heard a blow horn coming from the stands, and I would bet any amount of money that's Mr. Harper cheering for her right along with me.

I watched her face on the jumbo screen as she gave a soft smile to the principal, and he handed her the diploma. A few seconds later, Mia switched her tassel on the cap to the opposite side, signifying that she was now a High school graduate, and she began her descent from the stage.

I cupped one of my hands around my mouth and shouted, "WAY TO GO, MMMIIIAAA!!"

When her gaze landed on mine, she wrinkled her nose at me, and I watched her lips mouth the words. "You're so embarrassing." She rolled her eyes, but I knew she didn't mean it because soon after, her mouth turned up into a dazzling smile, and I could only wink in response.

Like me, Mia graduated with honors. She was the captain of the debate team this year. She had led that team to victory time and time again. There were photos of her and the team up in the champions' hallway at the school's front.

Mia has been immortalized here, and I was so goddamn proud of her.

I watched her walk back to her seat before I quit recording.

#

The rest of the graduation ceremony went by in a blur, thankfully.

If it hadn't been for the texts from Mia keeping me entertained, I would have probably nodded off due to absolute boredom.

I searched outside the building for Mia amongst the ridiculous number of people when my phone vibrated with a text.

Mia: So, I somehow ended up at the back of the building. Lol.

Me: That's because you have no sense of direction. Stay there. I'm at the front, but I'll come around to find you.

Mia: Okay. Hurry, I want to take pictures!

I smiled, reading the last text. Of course, Mia wanted to take pictures.

Heck, this was one of the few times I felt like taking pictures too.

I slid my cap off my head and tucked it under one of my arms.

I didn't see Katrina a few feet away from me in my haste to find Mia.

"Hey, GREYSON!" She walked up to me, wrapping her arms around my waist as soon as she was close enough.

I wrapped a single arm around her waist. "Hey," I said as my eyes still searched for Mia.

"Were you looking for me?" she asked with excitement.

Crap! I guess I should have been looking for my girlfriend too.

"Of course," I said, giving her my award-winning smile.

"Good because I wanted to talk. I've been thinking about us a lot recently." She backed away from me, leaving about a foot of space between us.

Oh crap. Katrina was about to dump me.

I knew she was upset about how I made her catch a ride with her friends the other day when I had to take Mia home, but this didn't seem like the best reason for a break-up.

Then again, I've broken up with people for more minor things than this. I should get served my karma and accept it.

"I know here's not the best place to say this, but I had to say it here."

My tone of voice dropped an octave. "Is there a better place to do these kinds of things?"

"Yeah, so many better places."

My eyebrows knitted together in confusion. What was going on here? I wasn't even sure I knew at this point.

"I'm just going to come out and say it!" Katrina yelled out. "Where do you see this relationship going? Do you ever see us getting married in the future? Like maybe after college or something?"

There was this huge ass pause between the two of us before I busted out laughing.

She couldn't be serious.

"You're laughing! Why the hell are you laughing?" Katrina asked, shoving one of my shoulders.

If I hadn't seen the expression on her face, I would have never known how damn serious she was about all of this.

I cut the laughter short. "How can you be serious about this?"

"How can I not? We're practically adults."

I interrupted her. "We're 18, and we just graduated from high school less than an hour ago."

Katrina raised her voice. "That's not the point!"

In the few months that I've known her, I've never once heard Katrina yell at me.

"Okay," I said calmly, hoping not to set her off again. "What is the point then?"

She took a deep breath. "They were right," she muttered to herself, shaking her head.

"What are you talking about?"

"I want us to stay together. I don't know if we're a forever thing, but I would like to find out." Katrina shifted her weight to the next foot as she spoke, and her eyes looked down at her feet. "I know we're both going to college, and this whole distance thing might be rough, but I want to make it work. So, I think we should spend as much of the summer together before we both go away to college. This way, we can talk about our future and make some concrete plans that we can both be happy with." She finally looked up from her feet, and her eyes met mine.

"I don't know what to say here," I told her honestly.

"How about you tell me what you want?"

I wasn't sure what I wanted from this relationship.

It took a moment to think about it. Katrina and I had passed the three-month mark, which probably shouldn't be considered an achievement, but it was.

Apparently, I couldn't keep a girlfriend to save my life, which never bothered me. I wasn't looking for my forever but dating someone was nice. Now that I thought about it, I was probably living in the moment.

Katrina huffed, clearly getting annoyed with my delayed response. "Are you having a hard time thinking about us when there's Mia, who is finally single?"

"WHAT?" I said. I must not be hearing her right.

"You heard me, Greyson! You want to throw away our relationship for her, don't you?" Katrina tilted her head back and laughed like a madwoman. "Unbelievable. Actually, No. It's not because every damn thing with you is about freakin' Mia. Mia. MIA! GOD! Do you know there are actually other people on this Earth other than her?"

"Umm." What was going on here? And had aliens abducted my girlfriend because I've never seen her act this way before.

I stood there in disbelief. I felt like the girl standing in front of me was a total stranger. "Where is this coming from?" I asked softly.

Katrina spoke through her teeth. "You want to know, Greyson?"

I nodded.

"How about from having my so-called boyfriend choose his best friend over me all the damn time. Or how about hearing stories about Mia and all her stupid accomplishments and how proud of her you are when you can never congratulate me on a B- that I studied my butt off for. Never mind the fact that I barely see you outside of school. I could go on and on, Greyson. But honestly, it would be exhausting counting the times you've made me feel like crap compared to Mia stupid Harper."

I frowned. I didn't talk about Mia that much. Did I? If so, I was a terrible boyfriend, if you could even call me that.

"I'm sorry, Katrina, truly." I reached out to hug her, but she pushed me away.

Well then.

"If you're sorry, how about you show it by giving us a real chance? Pick me over her right now, and we will take it from there. I need to know you at least want to stay committed to us, whether we're in this for the long haul or not." Katrina made fists at her sides.

I opened my mouth, but no words came out.

Katrina almost spoke again but then...

"GREYSON!" I heard Mia shout my name. I looked behind Katrina and saw her running towards us.

Mia made a dive for me, and I caught her, bringing her into a hug.

When we released each other, Mia turned to Katrina.

Katrina's arms stayed limply at her side as Mia went in for a hug. "Hi, Katrina. Congrats girl! I can't believe we're high school graduates!" she said.

Then Katrina rolled her eyes at Mia.

Since childhood, Mia, my best friend and one of the most prominent people in my life, was the same girl who was sweetly hugging Katrina out of pure joy and all types of kindness.

Mia let her go after a few seconds, and Katrina plastered the fakest grin I've ever seen on her face.

How did I not see this before?

Katrina doesn't like Mia.

Heck, I shouldn't be surprised after everything she had just said to me. I released a harsh sigh, dragging a palm down my face.

If I had found this out a couple of months ago, this relationship wouldn't have lasted as long as it did.

I didn't like anyone that spoke badly about Mia or outright didn't like her. Mia was like family to me; I never wanted to be with anyone who couldn't accept her.

I gently pulled Mia to my side, earning me a glare from Katrina.

Mia, obviously confused, looked up at me and asked, "Why are you being weird?"

I shook my head.

I'd tell her about this later. Maybe not every detail about this conversation, but the most crucial one was that I decided to break up with Katrina after graduation. Which wasn't planned, but she hadn't been making this easy for me.

And I thought having a break up on the last day of school was terrible.

I smiled at Katrina, but anyone who knew me could tell this wasn't exactly my friendliest smile.

"Anyways, we have pictures to take and people to catch up with. I'm sorry about everything, Katrina, but I can't make the choice you're asking me to." Katrina flinched like my words had slapped her in the face, then she got red like she was about to boil over.

Softly gripping Mia's arm, we began to walk away.

Mia leaned into me. "Are you guys fighting?" she whispered low enough that only I could hear her.

I shook my head again.

"I've never seen her so angry." Mia glanced back. "She's always so nice." She frowned, genuinely concerned about the relationship I no longer had. "What did you do to her?"

"ME? Nothing," I said the last word entirely too calmly.

"You-"

I cut her off and pointed to a cherry blossom-looking tree. "Stand over there and let me take your picture." I whipped out my phone.

Mia huffed off in the direction of the tree and stood below it.

Tossing a few locks of hair over her shoulder and readjusting her cap, Mia said, "Greyson, you can't just..."

I changed the subject again. I held up my phone and I said, "Quick! Say 'IloveyouGreysonMcNamara!'"

"Not on your life!" I snapped the picture catching Mia in a mid-eye roll with her arms crossed against her chest.

I grinned, admiring the photo.

If Mia saw this, she'd tell me to delete it. I chuckled to myself.

That was not happening.