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He swiftly jumps onto the side of the gate. “Nope. I don’t joke.” He winks, the gate rattling under his hands and feet.

The fence isn’t that tall, only a foot or two above me.

Once Sean gets to the other side, he looks back at me waiting. “You coming?” he asks, impatiently.

I groan. I feel the need to protest, but I can’t help but want to climb over with him. I wrap my fingers around the small metal curves of the fence and climb it. When I descend down, I hit my feet hard, slamming into the concrete. My ankles are going to be sore in the morning.

“See. Easy,” Sean adds as he takes a small step closer to me.

He likes to do that. Always moving in and closing the space between us.

“Isn’t this technically breaking and entering?” I ask him, flushed.

“We didn’t actually break anything. So it’s fine.” He grabs my hand and leads me to the football field.

I try to contain my laughter, but I can’t. “That’s not how it works,” I object, still in a giggle fit.

The empty field sends a tingle through my toes. Only a week ago we were sitting on this field during graduation, but right now, it feels like we still have all the time in the world to figure out our lives. I’m happy to move on, but it’s bittersweet.

I tilt my head, trying to act bored. “Will you tell me what we’re doing out here?” I give him my best sassy look. He tends to be drawn toward something he has to work for.

“That just takes all the fun away.”

We make our way to the edge of the field and onto the track that wraps around it.

Sean stops walking abruptly and turns to face the bleachers. Mimicking a football player, he starts cheering himself on. “And there he goes! Kingsley for the win! He’s got it! Touchdown!” His arms wail in the air, pretending to catch his imaginary football.

I cross my arms, pretending to be unamused. Though nothing Sean could ever do would be unamusing. He’s the most interesting person I’ve ever met.

He jogs back over to me, slightly out of breath. He tilts his head, admiring me.

“We’re here, because I wanted to see you,” he huffs out. “We haven’t exactly spent time together away from school. So I thought after school hours would be a good way to, you know—ease into it.” He glides his hands through the air.

It’s annoying how funny he is. I’ve never been so obsessed with someone in my whole life.

For a few silent moments, we stare at one another, and I think he might kiss me—but I break our eyes apart by glancing up at the covered stands. In movies, the football stands are almost always open, but in Washington you have to keep them covered or it would get rained out.

Of course, I was only able to make it to the football games if I had a good excuse. Otherwise Eloise saw it as a waste of time and wouldn’t let me go. I joined the dance team every year just to have the excuse. It was mandatory to dance at half-time.

“Let’s go up in the stands,” I suggest while reaching for his hand and dragging him with me.

Sean tightens his grip around my fingers as we speed walk our way to the stairs.

I try not to think too hard about the way his thumb rubs the side of my wrist.

Running up the steps, Sean yells, “Be careful, Billie!”

I laugh as I trip up the bleachers. It wouldn’t be the first time I fell on these things. We make our way to the very top, the whole field perfectly visible and bright green.

“I can’t believe it’s over,” he says, sitting on the cold metal bench beside me. "We actually finished high school. We don’t get to sit on these bleachers ever again.”

“Way to dampen the mood,” I joke, shoving his knee.

“Aren't you at least a little sad? Supposedly, the best time in our lives are behind us.”

I shake my head. “Trust me, we will have plenty of better days ahead of us.”

He leans back, relaxing against the wall, sighing heavily.