LOVE AND DEATH, edward cullen

fifty two

━━ love and death. (2024)
edward cullen x fem!oc
chapter fifty two

"When we were five, they asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up. Our answers were things like astronaut, president — or in my case, a princess."

Edward's hand tightened in mine and I glanced at him with a warm smile. His eyes sparkled when he raised my hand and pressed a soft kiss over my knuckles.

Graduation wasn't particularly new to Edward — seeing as he's done it several times over the past decades. But the night before he continuously expressed how proud he was of me for getting through all for years. All while kicking his ass by reaching top of our class.

He promised he wasn't offended that I beat him. Although i'm sure some of it was out of pure love and he was purposely trying to hustle me at some point. He knew more than me, obviously, but to let me beat him at our test scores and get a higher GPA than him? That's when I knew.

"When we were ten, they asked again and we answered – rock star, cowboy, or in my case, gold medalist." Jessica, our class valedictorian, was standing before us on the podium. "But now that we've grown up, they want a serious answer. Well, how 'bout this — who the hell knows?!"

Loud hoots and hollers surrounded us in the audience, including the parents and faculty behind us. I even smuggled a large grin.

"This isn't the time to make hard and fast decisions, it's the time to make mistakes! Take the wrong train, and get stuck somewhere chill. Fall in love — a lot." Several people whistled around us and Edward purposely squeezed my hand again. I felt the brush forming across my cheeks. "Major in philosophy because there's no way to make a career out of that. Change your mind. Then change it again, because nothing is permanent."

My smile slowly started to falter knowing my choice will never be able to be changed once it's decided. This was going to be one of the last remaining days being human.

"So make as many mistakes as you can. That way, someday, when they ask again what we want to be... we won't have to guess. We'll know."

The auditorium erupted into an explosion of cheers and applause. Several family members stood up and whistled for Jessica as she smiled brightly before walking off the stage.

One by one names were called by the principal and truthfully I tuned out almost everyone unless it was names I actually cared about. Sunny and Amanda I made sure I cheered the loudest for — purposely embarrassing them with my loud snide comments to make them blush.

Everyone would laugh but Edward would elbow me gently in the side. He tried to hide the fact he was grinning smugly at my bravery.

When my name was called, I received an excellent response from almost everyone — including a few teachers I've managed to get on their good sides even during their hardest projects.

Charlie and Beau jumped to their feet to applaud me — I could easily spot them in the crowd. When my eyes wandered towards Edward, he flashed me a quick wink and made sure he purposely clapped the loudest amongst everyone else.

Holding my high school diploma in my hand suddenly felt weird. It was basically just a piece of paper telling you "congratulations, you made it through 4 years of school just to have to do four more then figure out the rest on your own, good luck." But did it actually mean something to me? Was I supposed to be happy for myself? I couldn't stop thinking about the fact in just a few short months — maybe in even weeks, I'll have to change into something entirely different and say good bye to my old life and my family. The ache in my gut was my anxiety getting ready to defend itself from whatever evil lurked in the shadows. It still had a few days to live — give me that at least, before I throw everything away.