The Reaper's Angel

Chapter 29

 Time always seems to fly faster than one remembers. One moment, Angel was welcoming Happy back to Tacoma and trying to catch up. The next, she was taking her final tests and submitting her senior project.

Now, Angel stood in her bedroom and smoothed down the front of her dress. Graduation day was finally here. She and Johnny had made it the last 4 years together. Things had been weird between her and the club. Angel wasn't sure where the issues were coming from but she knew not to ask about it. For most of the year, Angel and Johnny mostly kept to themselves. They would make appearances when needed or go to lockdown when told. If the Mother Charter came for a visit, Angel would hang around the club and do what was needed to make their stay welcoming.

It had been 7 months since Angel last saw Kozik, with some croweater kneeled before him. Part of her ached, she knew she had started to develop feelings for him. The distance was obviously the universe's way of sparring her heart from hurting more and telling her to get over it.

Now, it was time to finally be done with school and move on with their lives and Angel couldn't help but think back on the last few years. So much had gone on and happened that it felt like a blur. Angel thought back to Johnny's initial meeting with the Sons of Tacoma. Word had spread down to Charming about Angel seeing someone and she was annoyed at how many calls she had gotten so soon after. Bobby had called her laughing, wondering what she was pulling by saying she was dating him. That's when Angel spilled the beans (well half of the beans) and stated they were just trying to make it believable to trick his family. Bobby had found that even more amusing and promised to relay the message to the rest of the family for her. She hoped they wouldn't tell anyone. The more people who believed the lie, the better.

Angel had kept writing to Edward and updating him on almost everything that had been happening. She told him about Johnny but could never write about her time with Kozik. She didn't get many letters back, but she cherished each one.

The band had been doing so well and they had opportunities to expand out towards Seattle for shows. Angel and Johnny ended up moving into an apartment together. They were over at one of the apartments anyway, and it just made sense to live together and save some money in the process. It also helped solidify their lie even more.

After the graduation ceremony, Angel and Johnny stood in front of their families and smiled. Angel had begged her family to just play along with whatever Angel and Johnny said when around his family. They had told Bobby about Johnny's parents. How they were "devout" Christians who beat him when he expressed questions on his sexuality and attempted to send him to a conversion camp when he was a young teen. They didn't even know Angel and Johnny were living together. He was too afraid to let them know much of anything about his life while in college.

So now, there they all stood. Johnny had his arms wrapped around Angel's waist and they smiled as everyone kept taking pictures. Johnny's parents wouldn't stop going on about their future together.

"Congratulations to you two! Oh, I am so proud of you both graduating together. It's so sweet! I bet we'll be hearing soon about you two FINALLY getting engaged! Four years together is a long time, you've both matured. It's time to settle down!" Johnny's mom beamed at the two and it took everything for Angel not to laugh. Instead, she gripped Johnny and looked around for her family to save her.

"Who's getting engaged?" a voice called out from behind.

"Daddy!" Angel ran over and threw her arms around her father before whispering in his ear, "Save us before she talks us to death please!"

Bobby squeezed Angel and laughed. "Congratulations pumpkin. The first Munson to graduate college! I am so proud of you."

"Dad, these are Johnny's parents, Bethany and Michael."