"Congratulations Graduates!" The guest speaker said into the microphone as the crowd cheered. Rebecca smiled and hooted with her classmates in excitement. She was more than ready to get the rest of her life started. Turning away from the crowd, she rushed for the exit trying to beat the others out.
She slid her diploma under her arm and walked to the spot underneath her favorite tree. She had told her parents to meet her there. As she walked, she thought about the last six years and couldn't help but smile. It had been great. She had made some friends not a lot, but it was about quality, not quantity. She loved them and wouldn't change it for the world.
"Bex," she heard someone shout. She looked around before seeing her green-eyed, beautiful best friend since high school, Joni, waving frantically from under the tree they had deemed theirs on the first day of freshman year. She laughed and shook her head at her over-dramatic ways that Rebecca couldn't live without, and waving and taking off into a light jog in the direction her friend was.
"I can't believe we did it!" Joni squealed as she started jumping up and down. She threw her arms around Rebecca and hugged her tight. Rebecca rolled her eyes before she realized she couldn't breathe as Joni continued her jumping around. She patted Joni's arm to let her know it was time to let go of her. She loved Joni like a sister, but sometimes wondered how they had ever become friends when they were so different. Joni was the typical beautiful, spoiled, rich girl. She didn't act like she was too good for Rebecca though, and she had always shared everything with her. She truly was the definition of a best friend. They had met at the mall when they ran into each other, literally. Joni had twisted her ankle pretty bad and Rebecca, being a nurse's daughter, had a small first aid kit in her purse that included a wrap. She helped her to a bench, wrapped her ankle, then drove Joni home. Joni, wanting to return the favor, had invited her in for dinner with her parents, who loved her and as they say, the rest was history.
The girls were very different, but that never mattered to either of them. Rebecca never thought of herself as not pretty, she just wasn't overly beautiful like Joni. She was short and pretty average. Especially compared to Joni. Rebecca's parents had never struggled financially when she was growing up, they just didn't own sixteen different companies, like Joni's father did. Thankfully Joni loved her no matter how she looked or how much less money her parents had then her own.
"Bex. Bex. Are you even listening to me?" Joni asked her with an impatient look on her face.
"Huh? Um, yeah," she answered her as she came back from her thoughts. "Sorry, what were you saying?"
Joni rolled her eyes and sighed, "You never listen to me," she popped her hip out and placed her hand on it. "I was saying where are our parents?" She looked around the open area that was filled with families congratulating their own graduates.
"Right here," came a female voice from behind them. They both turned around to find Rebecca's mother, Roslyn, standing behind them with a huge smile. "I'm so proud of my girls," she said, wiping a tear from her olive-green eyes. "You both look so beautiful," she looked at each of the girls from head to toe.
Rebecca wore a dusty pink lace sleeveless panel dress with a high neck. She wore simple stiletto heels that matched the dress. Her chocolate brown hair was styled in large curls that reached just to her chin. Joni wore a tight nude bodycon dress with a plunging neckline, wrap skirt with a cut out back. Her lace-up heels wrapped around her long legs. She had left her long blonde hair in its natural wave. Both girls were never really into wearing a ton of makeup so they had both done theirs simple and natural-looking.
The girls looked at each other and rolled their eyes. "Momma, don't cry," Rebecca said as she wrapped her mother in a hug. Soon they were joined by Joni, "Yeah, Momma, don't cry," she said.
Joni and Rebecca had spent all of high school and college as best friends. Each set of parents was like a second to each girl. They both had always thought that it was pretty cool that they got two sets of parents.
"We just love you both so much," they heard Gordon, Rebecca's father, say from behind them.
"Daddy!" They both shouted as they stopped hugging Roslyn and ran towards the man, nearly knocking him over.
"Girls, easy. I'm not as young as I use to be," he chuckled. They both unwrapped their arms to see that the man had unshed tears as he smiled at them both.
"Don't cry, Daddy," Rebecca said, wiping his eyes as they began to fall.
"What am I, chopped liver?" Came a voice from beside them. Everyone looked to see an older man dressed in a very nice, obviously expensive suit. Beside him, his wife was dressed just as nicely.
Richard and Sherri Banks, Joni's parents, were older than Rebecca's parents. Like Joni, they never showed that it mattered to them though. They were very happy when Joni and Rebecca met. They encouraged them to spend as much time as possible together. They had even helped pay Rebecca's college tuition so that they could both attend the same school.
"Mom, Papa," the girls said in unison, hugging them both before the group all began to cry again.
"Let's go eat before we flood the area with these tears," Joni said. "You people cry more than anyone I have ever met," she sighed as she walked past them. Everyone laughed, knowing that she was more dramatic than most people and cried all the time, as they followed her to the cars.
