The rest of the evening passes blissfully uneventfully. Gulping down the last of my pancakes, I look around and feel myself filling up, yes with delicious syrupy goodness, but also with a weird sense of joy, or maybe pride, that I get to call this oddball collection of people my family.
“How long do you think you’ll be gone?” Katie asks as I walk her to her mom’s car.
It’s a good question, one I’ve not had much time to think about.
“If things go well, maybe only a couple of weeks. If they don’t ...”
“You are coming back?” She side-eyes me, and while I know she’s joking, I also wonder if part of her gets the sense that some imperceptible but important shift is occurring.
“I’m coming back,” I say, fighting the quiver in my voice.
She glances over her shoulder, then leans a little closer. “And what about college? Have you spoken to Jasper yet?”
I look back as well, to double-check we don’t have an audience. “No, I haven’t, and right now, I just don’t think I can. He’s so worried about losing people and I can’t be a distraction for him, not while the fate of the pack hangs in the balance.”
We reach the car and turn to face each other.
“You know Todd and Simon and I are all going to school in different states?”
“Yeah, so?”
“So it was scary at first but we talked about it and now we’re fine. We know what we mean to each other, and we know we’ll never not be in each other’s lives. We know that distance doesn’t mean an ending.”
With a sigh I lean against the car, the window cool against my shoulder. “Maybe. I’m just not sure Jasp would see it that way at the moment.”
“He’s going to find out sometime.”
Man, she’s really pushing me tonight. Must be because she knows we don’t have a lot of time before it’ssee you later. “I’ll tell him once I’ve sorted things out with the rogues, I promise.”
She bites her lip and swings her shoulders back and forth. “I didn’t mean to be bossy. I just know you and Jasper are strong enough to get through just about anything. You pretty much have already.”
“Yeah,” I huff. “Thanks.”
“Be safe out there, okay?” she says, and her expression darkens. It’s been easy enough to pretend like I’m not going anywhere, that we aren’t in danger, while we’ve been in the protective embrace of the Pancake Factory, but now that the night is ending, the impending danger is turning the mass in my stomach.
“I promise.”
“Best-friend hug for the road?” she asks, and I don’t wait to respond. I grab her up and squeeze her tight.
As I let her go and move away from the car, I turn around once more to say, “Hey, happy graduation. We made it!”
“Yeah, we did.”
Katie jumps into her car, and I nod at Todd and Simon as they walk past on their way to join her.
My parents are still talking to Tanya by their car and Jasper has just said goodbye to Aisha and Troy, who drive by with the window down.
“Happy graduation, dude,” Aisha calls from the moving vehicle. “And thanks, for doing what you do.”
“Of course.”
“If anyone is going to reconcile rogues and pack wolves, it’s you, dude. Good luck, be safe.”
I give her a two-fingered salute as they cruise out of the parking lot. Once my folks and Tanya have made their way as well, it’s just me and Jasper left.
“Come on, I’ll take you home,” he says.
We jump in his car and cruise back to my place. Jasper turns the car into the drive and parks, and a small smile plays on my lips.
