It’s my graduation day. I had worked my as off to make it through the last four years of high school. I sacrificed a social life to work for my father, age eighteen and I started working for him two years prior. My friends were excited that high school was finally over for them. Elian was already two months pregnant, I wish she wasn’t, she’s just lucky her parents are rich otherwise she would be struggling to give her child the life she wants them to have.

My parents, on the other hand, would have grounded me me even after the baby was born for being so stupid. They value education, they want me to know how to earn what I work for, they don’t belittle the things they earned while working.

They graduated from the same elite and prestigious college they met in, after they graduated and had the money, they got married and two years after they had me. They became rich enough to take care of me and give me the life they had longed for but taught me what I should do to be able to get where I want to be in the future.

My mother worked for a major oil company that paid her an amazing amount of money that she never abused, my mother was never a big spender, the less she had to pay for the more she saved and the richter she got. That’s how she got so wealthy, as did my father, he spent a lot of money before he met my mother, she changed him in a very good way.

My father used to be an alcoholic and a drug addict before he met her and fell deeply in love with her, her beauty got his attention, but her personality captured his heart.

My father says that should be what every man should say about a woman. Making my mother happy was his goal the day they met and fell in love. Of course, my mother rejected him at first because he drank and dealt with drugs, but once he was clean and proved to her that he would never do them again. She accepted him.

“Lyra! Hey Lyra! You’ll never guess what just happened!” My friend Elian, who has been pregnant for two and a half months now yells as she walks over to me from across the soccer field. Where I had just finished practice, that she formally calls a stress reliever that I picked up when we started high school.

“What is it now?” I ask as I walk over to one of the benches and sit down them down a bottle of water and breathed heavily.

“You know soccer season has already ended and you’re not even on the team. If you get any skinner, you’re going to end up looking like a stick.”

“And? Why would I care if I’m not on the team or not? You know how I am Elian.”

“Anyway, my parents got everything for me and my baby, I’m going to do a gender reveal party tomorrow since tomorrow is Sunday and our graduation is today. My mother is going to teach me how to be the greatest mother ever.” She says happily as she sits next to me.

“I think it’s stupid that you got yourself pregnant before graduating high school let alone college, you know how hard it will be for you, a teen mom to get into college now a days? Really hard, but it’s your choice not mine.” I stare at her upset about the whole thing.

“I didn’t have to lose my virginity to get pregnant though, I got a donation.”

“Even so, your baby will never know who their father is or how to be loved by a father. You’re lucky you’re rich and have parents that will take care of you no matter what.” I get up and start kicking my soccer ball around.

“They were disappointed when I said I wanted that donation, but I really wanted a baby, I didn’t feel comfortable asking one of the guys to, you know.” She looks at me, clearly expecting me to yell and scold her.

“That doesn’t mean you go and get a damn donation to get pregnant! You’re lucky I love you, otherwise I would have left you to fend for yourself a long time ago!”

“I know that but-“

I sighed, “Elian, you’re my best friend and I love you, but sometimes the decisions you make are completely and utterly stupid and reckless. Just, be careful with the decisions you make, not only for yourself but for your baby too. If you ever need anything, come to me and I will help you and scold you whenever you need to be scolded.”

“I know and thank you, you’re the best. I know I can count on you, and I know I can be completely and utterly stupid and reckless sometimes with the decisions I make and I’m thankful to have a best friend like you.” She smiles, “Sometimes I wish you were my sister by blood and not just my best friend who helps me make good decisions.”

“It really pissed me off when I found out you were getting that damn donation. I’m still pissed about it by the way and I am your sister, I’m your soul sister, that’s better than being sisters just by blood. I’m here to look out for you and protect you, that’s what big sisters do. We look out for our younger siblings even though we hate you youngsters most of the time.”

“Because we’re annoying most of the time?

“Exactly,” I say then we both laugh before we hear car tires screeching to a halting stop and then a very loud crash as the sound of metal hitting against metal and we see a tire flying then landing in the middle of the soccer field.

I ran to the car crash to see what happened and to see if anyone got hurt or killed, only to find out that my other friend, Roku, was in the driver’s seat with a metal pole protruding from his chest where his heart was.

I just stood on the side of the road in complete and utter shock, staring at the corpse of a friend I knew since he came to the U.S. in fifth grade with tears falling down my face in silence and shock. Elian fell to her knees beside me screaming in horror as I just stood there, eyes wide in terror. That was the last thing I remembered before I fainted from shock.