Zack:
She pulled away from the hug, looking skeptical, fearful and stressed about what I was going to say.
“Zack, what the heck is going on? I want to know, and I want to know now.”
“Maya... I... uh…” She came back close to me, and lifted my chin.
“Tell me. I’m sorry. What’s wrong?” She was searching my eyes. I looked down again. It pained me to look in her eyes and say what I was going to say.
“I signed up for the military.” I said quietly, looking down at the asphalt. I looked back up. She stood there, motionless. Maya opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Just tears. I swept her up, and held her. She just broke down in my arms.
“Maya, please don’t cry. It will all be okay. I promise.” I whispered. She buried her face in my jacket.
“Why? What if you get hurt? What if I never see you again?! What if-” She stopped and cried even harder. I soothed her hair, and tried to calm her down.
“Shh... Shh... I’ll be okay. I’m here with you now, and I will be okay. Don’t think about the what-if’s. What-if’s are a curse. Don’t go there.”
She lifted her tear stained face. “Promise you will come home to me?” I nodded.
“I promise I will. I would crawl to ends of the earth to be with you again. I love you.” Tears rolled down her soft cheeks, bits of mascara trailing behind.
“I love you too.”
I kissed her. Once, twice, three times. I put her down to hug her. I just wanted to hold Maya as long as time would allow. I let go, and wiped the tears from her cheeks. I kissed her again. One of those soft, long, tender kisses where I tasted her lips and the butterflies in my stomach were fluttering like crazy. I looked down at the ring on my left middle finger that I bought on our trip to Morocco. I took it off my hand. I picked up hers and I put it in her hand.
“I give you this as a promise that I will come back. And so you can always have a piece of me with you. Whenever you look at it, or you wear it, it will remind you that I’m thinking of you, and I’m one day closer to coming home.” She wiped her cheeks of tears, and wrapped her arms around my neck.
“I will.”
Cody:
I headed back to Bailey’s dorm with the daffodils in one hand, Titanic and The Vow in the other hand. I arrived at the dorm, and I knocked on the door.
KNOCK KNOCK
No answer.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.
The music stops. I hear footsteps coming towards the door, a quick pause, the door opens and Bailey emerged.
“Cody!” She gasped, throwing her arms around my neck. “I am so happy to see you!”
“I am happy to see you too.” I kissed her. “Look what I brought you!” She smiled and took the flowers.
“Aww, Cody. Thank you! What are you doing here?” She asked me. I was bursting with excitement. I couldn’t wait to tell her.
“Well, I had an appointment with the Dean today, and turns out there are two Cody Martin’s that applied here. Turns out, the reject Cody Martin got MY acceptance letter, and I got his reject letter! So, I was actually accepted here all along!” She shrieked and ran in for a hug.
“Oh my God, Cody! This is amazing!” She started freaking out, moving constantly, back and forth. She then took my hand and grabbed her coat. “Let’s go get some dinner!”
So, I took her to a café, we shared a sandwich and a milkshake. We talked and caught up on all things school, jobs, schedules and how much we missed each other. “Bay?” She took a sip of the milkshake. “Mhm?” I looked at her.
“I’m so glad you and I are doing this together. Going to college together, I mean, man, I missed you. Like, words can’t describe how much I missed you. And you’re just so beautiful. I’m truly the luckiest guy of them all.” She took my hand and smiled.
“Aww, I missed you too.” She leaned over the table to give me a quick kiss. “Hey, want to go for a walk?” I nodded.
“Let’s go.” We got up, I paid for dinner, and we went to the car to head back to campus and walk around. The sun was setting, and there was a warm breeze. We walked around, admiring the landscape and the scenery. Later, we just sat down in the grass to watch the sunset. The sun set and we named constellations, but while she was lying on my chest, I couldn’t stop looking at her.
She was still looking up at the sky, when she asked me, “Which one are you looking at?”
“You.” I said to her, pulling her closer to me. She turned to me, kissed me, and then she shivered.
“Are you cold?” I asked her, rubbing her arm trying to warm her up. She nodded. “Yeah, I am a little.” I got up, took her hand, pulled her up.
“Here,” I handed her my hoodie. “C’mon. Let’s go back to your dorm. I brought Titanic and The Vow.”
YOU ARE READING
After Graduation
FanfictionZack, Maya, Bailey, Cody, Marcus, Woody and London have graduated and are awaiting and anticipating their futures as adults. Where we last left off, Zack was a free-floater, Cody didn't get into Yale, Bailey did, Moesby and Tuttweiller were engaged...
