Garrett Graham

The seminar drags on. Long. Even longer. Your eyes are nearly closed. Outside, the weather is rainy, and the low air pressure feels like it could make heads explode. Irritated, you sit at a table, tapping your pen up and down on its surface. The popular hockey players stroll down the hallway, apparently heading off to training. You only hear them – you don’t look. But the door is ajar. Garrett glances in fleetingly. Then, two girls whisper behind me.

“Yeah, he ditched them because he doesn’t want to be in a relationship.”

A rumor that’s been circulating around the clock. After his on-again, off-again relationship, he finally drew a definitive line. Her reaction, even weeks later, was nothing short of a tragedy. I shoot the girls a warning look; my head feels like it’s about to explode. When the seminar finally ends, it pours down like buckets. I stand under the awning, watching the scene unfold. With just a shirt and no jacket, I know I won’t last long out there. I lean against the wall, waiting a few minutes.