A warm breeze swept across the sprawling grassy lawns of the state college. Spring had arrived at last, and with it the pressure of final exams, the anticipation of graduation. The college was abuzz with activity, the library filled with last-minute crammers, but the quad was just as packed with students desperate to get some sun after a long and cold winter. It was a stately old quad befitting a college steeped in tradition. The lawn was bounded on either side by brick century old buildings, clothed in a dignified growth of ivy. Ancient trees lined the edges of the grass, filtering the sun for the students grouped around their roots.
Most students were used to the beauty of the college in spring, taking it for granted. They had much more pressing thoughts on their minds, especially the seniors. Their college careers were nearing their ends, their adult lives unfolding before them and for each this meant something different. Some were filled with ambition, others with trepidation. But as they sat amongst the trees thinking that their lives were about to undergo some major changes, not a one of them could have imagined just how right they were about that.
At the foot of one of the largest trees on the quad a group of three such seniors reclined in the shade enjoying each other’s company in silence for the time being. Brian, Megan and Rachel had been friends since junior high. Of course they’d once been but a few members of a much bigger clique in high school, but with age things changed. Friends went to different colleges; others transferred or simply dropped out. A couple guys drunk or smoked their way to expulsion. So it was that only the three of them remained. But as their group shrank, they only grew closer and that only made their impending graduation and separation that much harder to face.
Brian, the lone young man of the group, was an average kind of guy. He was smart; he’d made it through the top state college in four years after all, but not a genius or even a nerd. His grades had mostly been B’s, with a smattering of C’s. He was a thin young man of average height, a couple inches short of six feet. He’d played high school soccer and volleyball, but he was no jock. Some girls thought him cute with his shaggy brown hair, hazel eyes and light skin. But he didn’t exude that air of confidence some guys had, and so most girls just didn’t notice him.
It hadn’t been an easy spring for Brian. His average grades hadn’t been enough to land a job in the tough economy. With each day he moved closer to the end of his time living in the dorms with his friends and closer to moving home with mom. It was a future he didn’t want to consider. Brian’s mom wasn’t mean or cold, on the contrary, she was just too loving. To her Brian was still her baby boy, needing to be coddled and advised on every decision. His failure to secure a job had only reinforced her conviction that he needed her guidance. Meanwhile, without job prospects Brian had lost all his ambition and so rather than study for exams he now lazed on his back reading yet another dusty old novel he’d found in the expansive stacks of the college library.
Rachel gave the young man a contemptuous look, glaring at him until he was forced to look up from his book. “What?” he asked.
“You know what, Brian. How long are you going to play around reading trash when you should be studying?” Rachel demanded.
Brian frowned and rolled his eyes. How could Rachel possibly have understood what he was going through? She was a successful young woman with excellent grades and a job waiting for her after graduation. Rachel had always been the studious type, serious and well-spoken. She’d been on student council in high school, captain of the college debate team. Brian knew it was never smart to get into an argument with her, but he just couldn’t help himself this time.
“It’s Catcher in the Rye, Rachel, it’s a friggin’ American classic! You can’t call it trash.”