Chalye (trans: Moving on)

“That’s what I thought” he said “Have things changed much in the last year?


Knowing what he meant I said “No, not really. They are still pretty much the same in rules and restrictions for me but for Jack things have changed for the better.”

“How have things changed for him and now for you?” he asked

Looking out the window, I signed and said “you know, Alex. I’m a Panjabi girl with a very traditional father. What do you think it’s going to be like?”

I turned around to look at him and said “can we please stop talking about anything depressing or sad. You didn’t drive over 400 miles to listen to my problems. I know you would and I love you for it. But this weekend we are going to have fun”

Thankfully he understood that I needed to take my mind off things and changed the subject. “So what crazy insane things are you two planning for this weekend?”

“Well that’s a surprise. You are just going to have to trust us” I said

He pretended to be horrified at the thought “Please I don’t want to die this weekend. Kate would kill me”

“How is Kate” I asked. Kate was Alex’s girlfriend of a year and a sweetheart.

“She’s fine and she said to tell you hi and that you need to come down there and visit us” He said.

After the whole conversation at the park, we headed home to chill and wait for Jack to get off work so we could leave. Kevin was not mentioned anymore for the rest of the weekend and I could tell that both Jack and Alex were trying really hard to keep my mind off of him.

Kallie and Kevin ended up dating until we graduated from high school, 2 ½ years later when they broke up because they were going to colleges on different sides of the country.

I managed to get through those years without Kevin finding out that I had fallen for him. I didn’t really date because dating someone in Rover would have meant that my parents would have found out in 2 minutes flat and I would have been in a lot of trouble. I watched Kevin and Kallie become as close as it is possible to be come when you are only 18 and I pasted a smile on my face and endured it. When it was finally time to choose colleges and start building lives of our own, I thought that I would be finally able to get away from Kevin.

I knew that I would go to USC which was only a 30 minute drive from Rover and stay home because my parents would never allow me to go anywhere else and plus that’s where Jack was going for his undergrad. Kevin had always said he was getting out of Rover and the state and not coming back so I had resigned myself to live without him. Then something happened and Kevin changed his mind and decided to go to UO. I still remember when I found out. Our close group of friends had decided to have a little acceptance letter party in mid-March to find out where everyone was going. It was being held at Merry’s house because her family lived out in country with acres of land surrounding their house. It was an unusually warm March so we decided to have a BBQ outside.

I remember that I grabbed a ride with Kevin and Kallie because by that time I had gotten used to seeing them together and even though it still hurt, it didn’t hurt as much anymore. By the time we got to her house almost everyone else, about 20 people, was already there. We went outside and grabbed drinks and said our hi’s. A few hours later after everyone had gotten something to eat we all ended up sitting around in a circle and people started pulling out their acceptance letters.

I personally had applied to 6 universities and had been lucky enough to be accepted in to all of them. Since it was Merry’s house, she was the first one to go.

“I applied to UO, NYU, USC, UC Davis and UC Berkeley” she said. She paused and we all looked at her expectantly, waiting for her to go on “and I got into all of them” I leaned over and hugged her and asked “so where are you going?” I asked. She looked around and said “I am going to USC she said”.

Since I was sitting directly to her right, she turned to me and waited for me to tell them where I was going to be next year. “I applied to USC, UO, UC David, Stanford, Yale and NYU” I said” And I am going to USC next year” Merry jumped cheered and we hugged because we were going to the same place next year. We went around the circle and found out that people had gotten into some very prestigious colleges and sadly we were all going to be pretty spread out next year will people going to colleges like Tulane, Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Trinity, Brown and many more.

When it was Kallie’s turn, I felt myself tense because I thought that wherever Kallie would go, as would Kevin. “I applied to only 2 colleges” she said” and I’m going to be going to Duke next year” We cheered for her because we knew that was her 1st choice.

Kevin who had been sitting on Kallie and Merry was the last to go. He seemed to take a deep breath and brace himself before speaking. “I applied to only 3 schools” he said. “Duke, MIT and…USC. And I’m going to…to…USC next year”

I stared at him in surprise because he had always said to me that he would never even apply to USC let alone go there. And he had gotten in Duke as well where his girlfriend was going, so why wasn’t her going there.

After talking some more in the big group we all split up and migrated from people to people just talking and hanging out. I was looking for Kevin when I found him and Kallie some distance away from the rest of us, seeming to be arguing. I was still looking at them when Merry walked up to me “you know he’s going to USC because you are going to USC right”.

I looked at her sharply “that’s not why he’s going to USC”

“Yeah it is because I asked him yesterday if he had made up his mind yet and he said no because he was waiting to find out something else. I asked him the same earlier today and he said he still wasn’t sure. You say you are going to USC and he’s suddenly choosing USC seems to be a little suspicious to me. Especially when his girlfriend is going to another university that he got into as well” she said

Someone called her over and I was left standing there in shock thinking did Kevin really choose USC because of me…?