32-The day before graduation

"Ican't believe we're graduating tomorrow," Tiny says as she connects her cell phone to my Bluetooth speaker. She settles on "?Qué Tengo Que Hacer?" by Daddy Yankee.

The girls and I spent half the day shopping for ceremony outfits and gifts for the guys. Telle thought it would be fun if we all wore the same outfit. At first, we were all against it, knowing her choice of attire would mean walking around half-naked. But surprisingly, she chose an emerald-green backless skater dress with a halter top and gold heels. We even got a matching dress for Sophia, minus the halter top and backless style. And now we're back at my Abuelita's house.

"You mean you can't believe that you would be graduating." Telle snickers as she steams the wrinkles out of the hideous gold-yellow gowns we will only wear for two hours.

"Awe. Aren't you cute?" Tiny mocks, swinging her hips from side to side.

"What's up, bitches!" Tia barges into the room, throwing her hands in the air, Lupe following. A burst of energy surges through the air like fireworks exploding.

"?Oye! No me hagas lavarte la boca con jabón," Abuela yells from the kitchen.

"Shit." Tia cowers with a fearful and surprise expression. "?Perdóname!" she yells back, and I can hear Abuela grunting and Mom laughing.

"Yeah, Tia. Don't piss off Abuelita, or she'll wash your mouth out with soap," Lupe teases, repeating Abuela's words and plops on the bed.

"That's Abuela for you. She's old school." I chuckle, sitting on the floor while Sophia plays with her blocks.

Tia lowers to her knees, grabs Sophia by the waist, and tickles her sides, smacking a kiss on each cheek. Sophia giggles uncontrollably and reaches behind and grabs Tia's long hair.

"Ow! Damnit, girl!" Tia laughs, gently removes Sophia's fingers from her hair, lifts her onto her lap, and tickles her.

"Would you stop swearing around my kid?"

Tia rolls her eyes. "Your mommy is so serious all the time." She baby-talks Sophia, who's still giggling and babbling. "She's a year old, babe. She ain't going to remember what the fuck we said."

"Tia," I groan in annoyance, but she laughs, steals my baby, and sits on the bed beside Lupe.

"So now that we all grown up and shit, what the hell are we supposed to do with our lives?" Lupe asks while laying back on her elbows, feet dangling off the side of the bed.

I thought about that when I watched Donnie and Ash walk off the stage during their ceremony. Donnie and Ash are off to do great things, and I am so proud of them. Even after I had Sophia, I still doubted where my life would lead me. I didn't have many options, and when I didn't enter the essay contest, I knew I was fucked.

I've always wanted to be a photographer. When I take pictures, it's the emotions from that moment so they will last a lifetime—a memory no one can steal from you.

Growing up in an abusive home, you find ways to fill the void and fix the broken pieces with a happy memory. There is no such thing as happiness overload. I want it to ooze from my skin. I want to be like a freaking Care Bear and shoot hearts from my chest.

It's one of the many reasons I held onto as many pictures as possible after Donnie left and when Jo would leave home for days at a time. When Jo finally came back, I would take every opportunity to snap a picture of him with a smile on his face. I wanted to remember those moments to help me get through the next time I had to go a few days without him.

Tia speaks breaks away from my thoughts. "I got accepted to nursing school," Tia says while bouncing Sophia on her thighs.

When Tia received her acceptance letter, at first, she wasn't happy about it, knowing that our career paths would lead us in different directions. We planned to move together to Chicago for school and rent an apartment in the city, but now…

"I know what Telle's going to school for." Lupe presses the tip of her tongue on the roof of her mouth. She leans back further, causing her shirt to rise and reveal her birthstone belly button ring.

Telle glances over her shoulder when she takes notice of the sass in Lupe's tone.

"Stripper school." Lupe wiggles her eyebrows.

Telle throws her head back and laughs.

"Wait, they got schools for taking your clothes off?" Tiny gapes at Lupe. "Are you fucking for real?"

"Damn straight they do." Lupe sits up when Sophia reaches for her and sets her on her lap.

"Shit, if that's true, we should all be going to school to learn how to climb up a pole with your vajajay out in the open for money. Do you know how much money you can make in a night?" Tia asks with wide eyes, like it's the most fascinating thing she has ever heard. "Think about it. We could make a good three thousand a night for five days. That's what...like fifteen thousand?"

"Three thousand? You won't be making that unless you're at a high-end club. This ain't Vegas," Lupe says.

"You better shave that kitty cat, Telle." Tiny tries to hold back her giggling but ends up cackling like a drunk hyena.

Telle doesn't react right away. She waits until her laughter dies down to respond.

"Do you know why God created this?" Telle asks her, ignoring our friend's antics.

"What?"

Telle flips her off. "For a biatch like you."

We all burst out laughing.

"But seriously," I cut in, trying to catch my breath, "what are your plans?" I look to each of my friends. After everything that has happened these past few months, we haven't had a chance to talk about our plans for the future.

"Well," Telle sighs and runs her hands through her wavy brown hair with red highlights. "I want to teach dance."

I could definitely see Telle as a dance teacher. She loves to express herself through dancing. She's great with kids too.

"You'll make an awesome teach, Telle." I wink at her. She blushes at my compliment, one I try to give as much as possible. Telle grew up with a mother who verbally criticized her for her appearance. She either wasn't wearing enough make-up, her clothes weren't tight enough, or she wasn't showing enough skin. The lady was high on some fucked up shit because Telle is beautiful. It wasn't until she moved in with her aunt that she could escape that environment.

"I want to own my own gym for MMA fighters," Tiny pipes in, sounding eager to share. It's no surprise that Tiny comes from a family of fighters. Her brother is working his way up to become a professional. She's always been his biggest supporter since their mom works three jobs to keep a roof over their head after their father abandoned them.

I lean back on my hands and peer up at Lupe while I'm upside down. "What about you, Lupita?" I grin. She hates it when I call her that.

She glares at me and gently tugs at my hair.

"I'm taking art courses this fall." She claps Sophia's hands together and listens to her babble words that don't make sense.

Not many people know this, but Lupe has mad art skills. She uses chalk to create self-portraits. For the guy's graduation gifts, she drew each of them a picture of all of us hanging out in front of Seb's uncle's shop. It's amazing what she can do. Lupe doesn't want to follow in her mom's footsteps and become an art teacher.

She wants to be the artist.

I could see her opening an art gallery one day.

"Ok, enough of this sappy shit. I don't need to be getting all depressed that we ain't going to see each other every day." Telle waves dismissively, trying to hide the sadness shining in her eyes. "Are you bitches going to help iron your gowns?" Telle cocks her hip, glaring at us with attitude.

"Why? It looks to me like you got it under control." Tiny smirks.

"Just go fill this up with water and iron your own damn gown." Telle shoves the iron into Tiny's chest.

"That can wait." Tia jumps on her feet. "Want to see what kind of trouble we can get into before we are officially no longer high school students?"

"Oh, fuck. We're going to die, aren't we?" Telle mumbles.