5 II

[DIPLOMA.jpg in the first comment]

Jorge's dad patted Jorge's back, grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him closer.

"Very nice, son! That's how I like it: best grades of your generation!

"He's so smart," said Jorge's mom.

"Of course he is," the dad said. "He's just like me, a genius. Don't ya think, professor?"

Jorge's teacher laughed politely.

"Sure," he said. "He really is someone capable."

"And he chose the best career of all: the same as his dad's."

"Yeah," the teacher nodded, "and, besides, there's a lot of job opportunities for him."

"Oh, yeah, he'll be drowning in job offers," the dad said, and then he turned towards Jorge. "But I can convince one of my partners to give you a pretty good job."

Jorge shook his head (he didn't need his dad to get him a job. With his academic achievements the only challenge was to choose the best place he could work in.)

"Where's my little genius?!" someone exclaimed and made her way through the classroom. Yes, it was Jorge's aunt. She, as soon as she saw Jorge, she approached him and gave him a kiss on the cheek that left him a mark which wouldn't go away until the next day. "Oh, honey, congrats! And you're so big and handsome now! All the girls must have a crush on you, huh? My sweetie," she pinched Jorge's cheek, and then she talked to Jorge's dad. "And how are his grades?"

"See it for yourself," Jorge's dad gave her the diploma. She read it.

"Wow!" the aunt hugged Jorge. "Now you really surprised me. It seems you really did your best."

Jorge smiled politely (and he hadn't really done his best, to be honest. College, for him, was just way easier than everyone said).

"Jorge," Fede, one of his classmates, called him.

Jorge's dad patted Jorge's back a couple times.

"Come on. You have fun."

Jorge nodded and left. Around him, there was a bunch of adult he had never seen in his life, and classmates he had never spoken to. As always, he ignored all of them and kept walking until he found Fede. He was surrounded by a bunch of classmates.

Jorge approached them. They were talking about their jobs.

"Worst thing is they always say that bullshit that they're paying you with experience," Ricardo complained. "The experience comes by itself, and I don't work for experience, I work for money."

"Well, what did you expect?" Sandra asked. "The salary of someone with a major?"

"No, but even the cleaning people make more than me."

"That's because they do more than you," replied Fede, and everyone laughed.

"And. Do you really want me to do something there if they're barely paying me?" Ricardo asked, from that point on, everyone but Jorge started talking (it's rude to interrupt people while they're talking. Besides, he wasn't interested in talking about jobs; he hasn't had one yet, and he didn't understand the reason to get a job before graduating when he was going to work for the rest of his life). So Jorge, as always, just listened to everyone else (even though the only thing he heard was an infinite amount of complaints about their jobs, which they really hated, but they were convinced they loved them, for some reason).

"Jorge, let's go!" Fede exclaimed, and Jorge followed him. "Come on, let's go get super wasted."

And they, alongside the rest of their classmates, got out the classroom and headed to the parking lot. Jorge, Sandra and Ricardo got into Fede's car.

Jorge, as always, got the shotgun seat, and Fede started the car. Jorge watched the cars and the streets Jorge was now used to. Around him, his classmates joked around and laughed, but he remained expressionless (and that's because he didn't understand why people was so obsessed with celebrating graduations. Everyone had taken all the subjects and payed the tuitions. It was obvious they were going to graduate. Besides, it was pretty easy, and if the rest of his classmates disagreed it was because they spent most of their time either getting wasted, in their significant others, and anywhere else except a classroom. And, in the end of the day, they graduated, no? So why should they complain?)

"What's up, Jorge?" Fede turned towards him and patted his shoulder. The car had stopped, and they were in front of a red light. "Now you gonna gt so fucking wasted or what?

Jorge smiled and said nothing (he didn't understand why they always mixed up celebrate and get wasted. They were supposed to be happy, right? So why they always wanted so badly to distance themselves from reality? Why they always loved to do thing they were going to regret next day?)

"We're gonna get his wasted," Ricardo said. "That's for sure."

"Oh, yeah," Sandra said. "I've never seen you wasted, Jorge."

"It's just that he once heard alcohol kills brain cells, so he barely drinks," Fede replied, and Sandra laughed.

"Ah, but it's not like he'll miss a few," Ricardo said. "He must have even more than all of ours together."

"Word," Sandra said. "Give me some of your braain cells, Jorge. I don't know what I'm gonna do at work without you explainig me everything."

"Maybe if you blow him you'll get a little bit of his intelligence," Ricardo suggested. "Worth a try, right?

"Boy, if I could get his intelligence that way, I'd already have sucked him dry.

Both Fede and Ricardo laughed. Jorge just smiled and blushed.