"Stupid itchy gown," I grumbled under my breath as I continued to dig ferociously at my skin.

The royal blue gown's rough fabric was driving me insane. Little red splotches were beginning to cover my arms from the annoying thing. The urge to rip it off was overwhelming. I was literally ten seconds away from screaming.

"Riley Elizabeth Davis."

I jerked my head up when I realized my name had been called. Everyone in the audience was staring at me, expectantly. I gulped down my horror as I stood there looking around. My mind was hollering at my feet to move, but my body was not getting the memo. I froze like a statue as my stomach dropped into my feet. I couldn't breathe.

"Riley Elizabeth Davis." The commencement speaker called again with an annoyed tone in his voice. He cleared his throat and pushed his horn-rimmed glasses back up the bridge of his nose while he gawked at me.

"Riley, move your ass." My best friend, Brynn, pushed at me from behind.

When I didn't respond, she swung her hand back hard and hit me on the butt to get me to move. I jumped in the air and stumbled down the last step. My heels caught on the bottom of the too-long graduation robe and I began to fall forward. Maybe the fall would knock me out and I could get out of this. Luck had never been on my side; why would it start now?

Unfortunately for me, Brynn managed to catch the back of my robe before I landed flat on my face. She pulled me to my wobbly feet and shook her head at me with a smile.

"You're ridiculous." She rolled her eyes at me.

Loud shrieking laughter erupted from someplace in the audience. I knew that sinister laugh. My brother, JD, was cracking up. Stupid jerk, older brother. When I found where he was seated, I could see my Mom smacking him repeatedly with the graduation pamphlet, trying to get him to be quiet.

I huffed as I straightened the cap on my head. A stray lock of my curly blond hair fell out. Now my hair had even decided not to cooperate with me. I tried to tuck it back up and it fell out again. Damnit.

Taking a deep breath and shaking my hands at my sides to relieve the tension in my body, I began to walk across the stage. The gown kept trying to trip me up as it flowed loosely around my legs. The length was too long for my height and I had to be careful not to trip over it again since there was no one to catch me this time. Heels and robes did not mix well for me. I was clumsy enough without added hazards.

A chubby woman with glasses was standing on the opposite side of the stage handing out the diplomas. When I finally got to her, she shook my hand too hard and awkwardly. My hand throbbed from her death grip. She handed me the diploma as I turned to walk off the stage.

A bright pop of light from a camera flash stunned me, freezing me in place once again. The plump woman placed her hand on my back and nudged me to the side of the stage to go back up to my seat. I had forgotten the school had decided to take a picture of the graduates to sell to the parents after. My parents would never know they could buy that picture. I didn't need another embarrassing photo in the house.

"Brynn Marie Evans."

I watched my insane best friend strut across the stage like she was on a catwalk. Unlike myself, Brynn loved the attention. Even the guys on stage were whistling and hollering as she swung her hips back and forth like a supermodel. Brynn was a force and I envied her confidence. That was something I severely lacked.

I shook my head and began climbing the steps again to go back to my seat. Brynn sashayed right next to me and hooked her arm in mine. I looked over at her and furrowed my brow grumpily. She stuck her pierced tongue out at me in response. We may be graduating today, but my best friend still acted like she was twelve.

Once I was done giving her the evil eye, I turned my attention back to my family. My Mom and Dad were holding hands as they sat patiently in the audience. JD was busy not paying attention. He was poking his girlfriend, Anna, in the stomach and whispering in her ear. I swear if those two had to stop touching one another, they would explode. They were the lovey, dovey kissy kind of couple and I had seen more than my fair share of it over the years.

JD was four years older than me and was the classic definition of an overprotective older brother. I had spent the last eighteen years of my life following him around like a little shadow, which didn't help the situation. I went where he went, ate what he ate, and even had the same taste in music because of his influence. He was annoying, funny, kind, and took his role as my protector very seriously.  Even when I purposefully did things to drive him crazy, JD had always been my safety net.

All that changed about six months ago when I got my first job. Up until that point, if anyone was ever looking for me, they automatically assumed I was hanging out with JD and his ragtag group of friends. Between trying to graduate, holding down a job, and dealing with my overly dramatic best friend, I just couldn't find the kind of time to see him like I used to. It was a little sad how fast everything changed.

Applause rose through the auditorium, causing me to jump out of my chair. Brynn was laughing at me again.

"What's going on? Did I miss something?" I asked her quietly in shock.

"Duh, Riley. We just graduated high school." She said with a huge smile spreading across her face.

"That's it?" I asked, surprised.

"Goodbye, high school." She winked at me.

Well, that was extremely anticlimactic.

One by one, each row was dismissed to perform the final walk through the aisles back to the large room in the back of the building. When we all got back to the room, most of the other graduates were high-fiving, hugging, and crying. I didn't join in because I was too busy trying to rip the damn scratchy gown off me.

Unzipping the gown proved to be a challenge. It had gotten stuck about halfway down and refused to budge. Cursing at my luck, I looked down and fought with it for about five minutes when my annoying best friend walked up to me.

"Meow, I didn't know I was in for a show." Brynn used her best fake transatlantic accent. Her idea of helping was to mock me.

"Instead of standing there, give me a hand. I'm stuck." I complained.

She rolled her eyes at me and walked over to help. She grabbed the zipper from my hand, pulled it up once and then back down all the way. She made it look too easy.

"I have a way of making zippers drop." She said in the same old-time movie way and winked at me. She was too much sometimes.

I quickly bunched the robe and stuffed it into my tote bag. My short white lace dress was slightly wrinkled from sitting too long, but I didn't really care about how it looked. It would work to go out in tonight.

Brynn and I had made plans to celebrate by going out to a few of the parties we had heard about. Brynn's plans included drinking too much and lots of boys. My plan included keeping an eye on my wild best friend to keep her out of trouble.

Brynn and I were so different. Our friendship didn't make much sense, but yet it worked perfectly for us. We didn't really want the same things, so we weren't competition for one another. In the rare circumstances when we did want the same thing, I gave in to her since she always seemed to need it more than I did. Brynn being happy was more important to me than my own hurt feelings.

"Are you wearing the hat tonight?" She raised one eyebrow and looked at my head. The stupid cap, I had forgotten to take it off. I pulled a few strategically placed bobby pins and removed the hat. My long blond curls tumbled down on my shoulders. I shook my head and smoothed out my hair using my hands.

"I'm ready."

"Brynn unzipped her robe, revealing a skintight red dress. Her body was flawless. I had too many curves even to attempt to wear something like that. My chest would be popping out and I would be giving everyone here a free show. Her brown hair had a natural reddish tint to it, and it went perfectly with the crimson dress. She pulled a tube of lip gloss out and applied the shiny coat to her thin lips to make them stand out more. I wasn't surprised to see the gloss was deep red with glitter in it.

"Now, I'm ready too." She blew me a glittery kiss and hooked her arm in mine. We weaved arm in arm through the crowd towards the doors that led to the parking lot to finally escape.

Hello, sweet freedom.