She was right. June had opened her program and discovered that Julie was the valedictorian and she was in second place. She didn’t blow like Julie thought she would. Her eyes flooded with tears and when Julie tried to hug her, she pulled away and ran to the auditorium floor. Julie looked sadly back at me. Mom was oblivious and had a confused look as she looked at Julie and then me. Julie said, “I’d better go find her. She’s upset. I could see that Julie was upset too. I kissed and hugged Julie and she hurried after June.
We found our seats and Mom opened the program and then understood what was going on. Mom understood that the girls were competitive and there would have been hard feelings either way. Mom felt bad for June anyway.
I saw a guy that I knew making his way through the crowd. He had been in my class. We weren’t friends but he had been Julie’s boyfriend last year. I realized that I didn’t know if they had maintained their relationship or not. His name was Steve. Knowing now about Julie’s considerable experience with sex, I was certain that they had been sexually active last year and maybe this year too. Julie never talked about her boyfriends. Now, I attributed that to the probability that their relationship was purely physical.
Steve shook my hand and he said, “Hello,” to Mom as he shook her hand and held it several ticks too long as he checked her out from head to toe. I didn’t like the look on his face. I towered over him and Mom was considerably taller than him too. He told us that he had a sister in this graduating class. I didn’t know him well enough to remember that.
Steve said that it was nice to see us and then he moved two rows down to his seat with his parents. He looked back a few times to check out Mom. Mom saw him looking and she leaned over to me and whispered, “He’s a skeevy little bastard. I never liked him. I have never understood what Julie sees in him. She’s still dating the little shit. I don’t get it.” She shook her head as if a shiver ran through her.
Just then Dad showed up. He was in his suit and looking a little bedraggled. He took his seat on the other side of Mom and they kissed and hugged. Mom’s face revealed that she was pleased that Dad had made it. It was still a half-hour to showtime.
I scanned the floor where the graduates would be seated like they were in the bottom of a fishbowl. I saw June coming up the stairs toward us in her cap and gown and I wondered what was up. She wasn’t looking at us and then she maneuvered down the row where Steve and his parents sat. She moved in close to Steve and kissed him passionately. He kissed her back and gave an embarrassed glance at his parents who were watching. I heard Steve’s mother say, “Hello, Julie. How have you been? Congratulations on the valedictorian thing.” I could see Steve’s dad leaning forward as he checked out June. I couldn’t fault him for that. June said hello to the parents and then kissed Steve again.
Apparently, they all thought June was Julie and June was going along with it. I looked at Mom as she looked at me. Mom leaned over to me and whispered, “What is June up to?” I shrugged my shoulders.