After a lot of drafts and changing up my mind, I decided this will be the last chapter of this book💚 The epilogue will hopefully be up in a few hours or tomorrow, and I'm already working on the first chapters of the second book.
Hope you enjoy this!
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- I can't believe we'll be graduating in a month – Brooke sighed as we looked at the crowded living room in front of us. We had arrived at the frat party some minutes earlier, and were busy making our drinks while the rest of the people mingled, danced and grinded against each other a few metres away from us.
- Speak for you, I'm staying here for two extra years – I chuckled, adding two ice-cubes to my cup so that its content stayed cold.
A lot of things had happened in the span of the month and a half that followed after that dinner with my parents, and I couldn't help but smile to myself as I thought about them.
After going over it for a while, I had finally decided to apply for a master's degree in Visual Arts at our university, something that had surprised everybody, as I had never been one keen on studying. But I had decided that I wanted to expand my knowledge further, and given I had been getting more opportunities in Michigan after meeting Vincent, I thought I might as well get into a postgraduate course if I was going to stay around for a while.
I had considered moving out of the campus area after making my decision too, knowing I'd probably spend a lot of time in Detroit if I kept networking with people from the Art Institute. But after not that much of convincing from Sam's part, who had barely needed to insist, I had decided to stay at our apartment at least for another year until he graduated, and we would then decide what to do. He would still be going on tour from time to time, and was still taking online classes, but he liked our flat too much and wanted to stay there for his senior year, at least for the few months he wouldn't spend on the road.
Brooke was a different story, though. She had got an internship at a fashion magazine in LA, and she only took it with the idea of moving to their Paris offices if she worked hard enough. I felt kind of sad we would be over two thousand miles away from each other, but now I'd have another excuse, apart from seeing my brother, to visit California and its beautiful beaches.
Thankfully, Danny, Matt and Chase had another year left just like Sam, and some of my classmates had decided to get a master's degree as well, so it wouldn't be that lonely.
I had decided I would resign at the coffee store once I graduated as well, to focus more on art. I was planning on getting a steadier job at some gallery or finding small free-lance things to work on, and I would still give classes to the Winters kids, I adored them too much. But I intended to finally focus on what I liked after so many years of struggling to have enough money to pay the rent, get my art supplies and books, and afford the basics while still treating myself to the things I enjoyed.
I had started speaking with my parents once a week, and had even gone over their house for dinner with Sam a couple of times, still taking baby steps but gently rekindling our dusted relationship. They had confessed that after hearing from Mrs. Winters that I was actually good at what I did, and seeing that I was slowly succeeding after coming to the exhibit, they had realised that it had been rather stupid to push me away because of our contrasting interests. And according to my father, that night at the restaurant his heart had broken upon realising how much they had hurt me throughout the years, but felt even prouder about how strong and happy I had grown to be in spite of it. We still had our differences, and they didn't fully approve of my views of the world, but we were learning to accept our discrepancies and trying to look past them to have at least a respectful bond.
