Chapter 87. Goodbye, Darling!

Ava

The auditorium was still buzzing when I slipped out the side door, the dean’s voice echoing behind me like a victory march.

I didn’t stay for the questions or the chaos, I’d already won. The campus air felt lighter, cleaner, as I walked across the quad, backpack slung over one shoulder, heels clicking on the concrete.

Then I heard it.

A soft strum of guitar strings drifting from the music building across the lawn. Simple chords, a melody I hadn’t heard in years.

Everyone was supposed to be in the hall, the whole school crammed in for the spectacle, so the sound pulled at me like a hook in my chest.

I stopped, turned back, ears straining.

It was the song we used to play when we were ten: me and Martha in her garage, two cheap acoustics her dad found at a yard sale, laughing until our fingers bled from the strings.

“Wonderwall,” over and over, like we were Oasis reborn.

Tears pricked my eyes before I could stop them.