“Tell me about it.” Julian sighs. “I’ve got a ranked list of all the colleges I’m going to apply to, I’ve hit up a few teachers for recommendation letters, and I’ve got all of my SAT, ACT, and AP scores headed to the right schools,” he says, listing everything he’s managed to do in just the last week. “I’m ready. Or at least, I hope I am.”

Camille laughs. “How did I know you’d basically already be done?” She turns to me. “How about you, Elijah? Any idea what you might want to do after graduation?”

I shrug and my cheeks burn. A thought started to grow in my head soon after the rest of my family got back to Meridien and I watched Frankie start taking classes, but I haven’t even told Julian about it yet. I’ve been helping Frankie study for her anatomy quizzes, and it turns out I’m pretty good at understanding the classification of muscles and the inner workings of the nervous system, too. I started thinking maybe I could be an athletic trainer. And once I started thinking about it, it was all I could think about.

“I downloaded the Coastal Texas application a few days ago,” I finally say. “I’ll probably fill it out after homecoming. I don’t know; maybe I’ll even try to keep playing football. As a walk-on or something,” I say to my shoes.

“As a walk-on? No way,” Julian says, gripping my hand tighter. “You’re good enough to get a scholarship, Elijah! You should talk to Coach Marcus about getting you some film. I can help you, if you want.”

I turn to look at him and smile. “I would like that.”

We get to school, and everyone is gathered on the steps, showing off their mums and garters and taking selfies with their homecoming dates. Bucky shows off a tremendous blue-and-white garter and kisses Camille about a hundred times while they take silly pictures together. I take a few minutes to really look at the garter Julian has given me. On one of the ribbons is the date of our first kiss three years ago and the date of our second kiss just a few weeks back. I try to keep my smile to myself, but it doesn’t work. I give Julian a little elbow and point to the dates, and he gives me a sly smile and winks. My heart melts like hot butter.

Julian goes back to studying his garter. He pulls one of the ribbons away and points to a bit of blue fabric I have glued to the end. “What is this?” he asks.

“It’s a piece of your very first football jersey,” I tell him. “From when we played peewee ball together way back when. Ms. Birdie let me have it.”

He looks at me, a soft smile on his face.