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May 16th, 1988 — Cambridge, MA 1:14 PM, EST
"Shelby, dear, would you mind terribly taking a picture of the three of us?"
The graduation ceremony had just ended, and Shelby could hardly believe that the piece of paper in her hands was truly a diploma from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that awarded her a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering.
She had no family to take pictures with, so Tony had pulled her along with his parents so she wouldn't feel alone. She appreciated that more than Tony could ever know, because there was nothing worse than standing alone in a large group of people where everyone else had someone to belong to.
"Of course not, Mrs. Stark." Shelby smiled politely and took the camera from the woman, aiming it at the family of three.
"Please, call me Maria." Tony's mom said with a smile. "Mrs. Stark was my husband's mother."
This prompted Howard to chuckle and say, "Maria, you are certainly not my mother."
Shelby had heard stories from Tony about how his father was, but it was clear that he did have lots of love for his wife.
"Let's get a picture of you two kids, hey?" Maria said, taking the camera from Shelby. "The two lab partners."
Shelby laughed and walked over to Tony, who wrapped his arm around her waist. "Yeah, come on, Girl Genius, one picture can't hurt."
"Anthony told us about your senior design project, Shelby, and I'm quite impressed." Howard stated. "I'm glad to see that my vibranium went to good use."
Shelby grinned. "It did. Thank you again. I think that really impressed the panel."
As she smiled for Mrs. Stark's camera, a familiar face caught her eye in the crowd.
She was wearing a pale blue dress, and her white hair was permed into perfect little curls. She gripped a small purse and one of the graduation tickets in her gloved hands, and she was making her way towards Shelby and the Starks.
"Gran?" Shelby's eyes went wide and she lost her grip on her diploma, sending it hurtling towards the ground. Tony quickly retrieved it before it hit the sidewalk, and he looked up, his eyes narrowing on the older woman that was making a beeline towards them.
"Wait, that's your grandmother?" Tony looked at Shelby before looking back at the woman. "Shelby?"
The redhead's heart was racing and her arms began to shake at her sides. She'd invited her, sure, and sent her a ticket, but she hadn't expected her to come. She'd sent it in hopes that she might have a change of heart. She hoped that was the case, and that her grandmother wasn't there to ruin Shelby's big day.
Shelby turned towards Mr. and Mrs. Stark, who watched her with a bewildered expression. "Excuse me." She said, handing Tony her purse before she marched over to the old woman.
"Shelby!" Her grandmother waved to her.
"Gran? What are you doing here?" Shelby asked as she finally reached her.
"You sent me a ticket." Her grandmother responded, holding up the small piece of paper.
"I-I know. But I didn't think you would come." Shelby admitted, folding her hands behind her back.
Gran looked down at the ground, as if she were mustering up the courage to say some important words. "Shelby, I would not choose this life for myself, or for you. But, it's come to my attention that it's not my choice nor my business." She said. "Either way, you have graduated from college, and that's an accomplishment, so I wanted to congratulate you."
"Oh," Shelby responded. "Well, thank you for coming."
The older woman nodded and looked over Shelby's shoulder, as if noticing Tony and his parents for the first time. "Who is that? A boyfriend?"
"Um, no." Shelby laughed slightly. "That's just Tony. He's a good friend." She turned to look at the Starks again before asking, "Would you like to meet them?"
Her grandmother's eyes narrowed on the Starks before shaking her head. "No, I should think not." She then dug into her purse, pulling out two cards. One had her name on it, written in her gran's careful cursive. The second addressed to Shelby at her grandmother's address and had been sent through the mail. She barely recognized the handwriting, but it was most definitely her father's. "Here. He sent this last week."
Shelby took it carefully in her hands. "How did he know I was graduating?"
Her gran's eyes went wide and she blinked a few times before saying, "I do send him the occasional letter every once in a while. Even if he is a lowlife scum, he deserves to be updated on his daughter's life. Now, I've got to get going. I'm going to miss my train." She said shortly before turning around and walking in the other direction.
Shelby slowly walked back towards Tony, incredibly confused by what had just happened.
"That was your gran?" Tony asked. "Are you okay?"
She nodded and stuffed the cards in with her diploma. "I'm fine. I'm just ... surprised she came, is all."
"And now she's leaving?" Tony questioned.
Shelby nodded. "She didn't want to miss the train." She said, as if that made any sense.
"Hey, Stark! Shelbs!" Robbo's loud voice boomed from behind them, causing both of them to turn around. Shelby saw Mr. and Mrs. Everett and Celia trailing behind him. "We did it, hey? Come on, lets get a picture!"
Shelby stood in between the two boys and looked ahead at Mrs. Stark's and Mrs. Everett's camera, and she smiled. Standing in between the two boys was the most comfortable she'd felt all day, especially after seeing her grandmother.
May 16th, 1988 — Cambridge, MA 6:59 PM, EST
After grabbing a celebratory dinner with his parents and Shelby, Tony had headed back to his house to set up for the party he and his other roommates would be throwing to celebrate their graduation. As it was set to be their very last college party, he knew it had to go out with a bang. They had so much beer and booze packed into the house, it was like they were creating their very own liquor show.
He and Robbo were carrying the beer pong table up from the basement, as it had been hidden away while their parents had stopped to visit. It wasn't as if Tony's mom and dad were clueless to his partying lifestyle, but he didn't feel the need to show them outright just how crazy things got sometimes.
"How are you and Shelby doing?" Tony asked, genuinely asking as a friend and not for ulterior motives. Now that they were all going their separate ways, he knew he had to put away his feelings for Shelby for good. But, he also knew that despite being broken up, Shelby and Robbo had kissed.
Rob sighed and said, "I think it's truly over. I mean, there's still those lingering feelings there, but there's no way we'd be able to stick it out being separated by literally the entire United States, you know?"
"Yeah, that sucks." Tony stated as they pivoted the table around the doorframe to get it upstairs.
"Besides," Robbo added, "I still stick with my initial theory."
"Which is?" Tony questioned as they set the table down and pulled out the legs to set it up.
Rob smirked to himself and said, "Oh, you already know."
