“Damn, you’re really gonna drop out?” Marilyn asked Riley as they sat next to each other on the black plastic swings one warm, cloudy afternoon.
Riley sighed sadly and nodded. “Yep.”
Marilyn stared at her best friend for the longest time until she finally asked, “So, what are you planning to do?”
Riley looked up at the sky, thinking about Marilyn’s question. What was she going to do? It was damn near impossible to get a good job without a high school diploma, so the best thing she could do was…
Marilyn nodded. “Damn, I can’t believe this is actually happening. You know, a few years ago, I thought that I was the one who was gonna drop out of high school and you was gonna be the one who was gonna barely graduate high school and get a good job.”
Riley nodded, even though her ears burned from Marilyn’s implications of being a dumb ass. “You think I got a shot at anything?”
“Of course!” Marilyn answered enthusiastically, “Strippers make a fuckton money, and they ain’t gotta have a diploma for shit!”
Riley glared at her best friend for what seemed like forever with her eyes squinted and her mouth turned into a mean frown. How the fuck was she supposed to be a stripper when she lived in a group home?! Marilyn knew she lived in a group home, so she should’ve known this shit wasn’t possible. “Gee, thanks,” she grunted with clenched teeth. She cleared her throat and asked, “So, what are you planning on doing?”
Marilyn sighed and placed her elbows on her lap. “My daddy says I have to go to UC Berkeley,” she answered glumly.
Riley’s eyes grew big as she stared at her best friend yet again. “Ain’t that in California?”
Marilyn nodded, tears stinging her eyes.
“Damn, you’re gonna go all the way back to Berkeley, which is fucking hours away, all because your daddy wants you to go to college?”
Marilyn nodded, her face drooping with overwhelming sadness.
“And you don’t even wanna go to college?”
Marilyn shuddered, the closest she would ever get to crying. “No!” she cried out, “I don’t even give a shit about school in the first place! Why would I give a shit about college?!”
“Well, you can meet a lot of hot men, and you got a lot of freedom with money and…” Riley couldn’t think of anything else. What was so great about college again?
Oh, well. Not like it mattered to Marilyn because she turned her head towards Riley with a huge smirk on her face and her eyes squinted like a foxy cat. And then, she jumped out of her swing, pulled Riley up with her, and squeezed her in a tight bear hug.
Tears stung Riley’s eyes as she looked up at Marilyn one last time (she hoped it wasn’t) and said, “Aww, girl! You really believe that?”
“Of course!” Marilyn answered much more cheerfully, “And I’m gonna miss you so much when I’m gone!”
Well, if Marilyn’s bear hug didn’t release the waterworks, then that sentence sure did. “I’m gonna miss you, too!” Riley cried, fulling embracing Marilyn’s hug while also giving her friend a tight bear hug.
The girls hugged each other and cried for several minutes until Marilyn’s phone buzzed in her shorts’ pocket. “I gotta go now,” she said, “But Imma be supporting you all the way through!” She ran away and shouted at the top of her lungs, “Bye!”
“I’m gonna support you, too, girl!” Riley shouted back, “I love you!” She plopped back down on the swing she had been sitting on and looked up at the sky. The clouds had been blocking the view of the sun for the whole day, but at least it hadn’t been raining. That was something.
“Oi, Greg’s said it’s time to go inside,” some guy’s Australian accent interrupted Riley’s thoughts.
Riley looked up and saw Ryan standing right over in front of her view. “Damn, you were blocking my view,” she said sarcastically.
As the two walked home from the playground, Ryan stared at Riley and said, “You know, I heard you and Marilyn talking about your futures.”
“Yeah, and?” Riley replied.
Ryan scoffed. “Good luck getting a job and a GED, especially both at the same time. Seriously, you’re gonna need a whole lot of fucking luck to pull it off!” He cackled in laughter, grabbing his sides while walking at the same time.
“And what the fuck are you gonna do after you graduate high school?” Riley asked in a serious voice with a scowl frozen on her face.
That stopped Ryan’s laughing. “I… I don’t know,” he confessed, “I didn’t really think that far ahead.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Riley mumbled to herself.
And so the two young adults walked home in silence, not knowing what to say to each other. They didn’t think they would grow up this fast. And now that they were grown, they weren’t exactly sure what to do with their lives. They didn’t have much control of their lives as teenagers (and living in a group home didn’t help matters either), yet they suddenly get a whole lot of control the second they turn eighteen or graduate from high school. What the hell were they supposed to do with all that control of their lives, though?
Life really was confusing, and being a failure in something didn’t really help matters.
ManictheMod 
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