Hazed (Palm South University)

The library erupts in a thunderous roar of applause and cheers so loud I’m sure we’ll all get kicked out, but I couldn’t care less in this moment. Right now, all that matters is that Erin is in my arms, and she feels the same, and finally, after all these years, she’s mine.

I finally break her kiss as she laughs and looks around the room embarrassed, burying her face in my chest.

“I know you think what’s left of you isn’t much,” I whisper for only her to hear. “But I think it’s the very best of you.”

She shakes her head, looking up at me with glossy eyes. “I’m a mess, Bear. It’s never going to be easy for us. I’m always going to be difficult. It’s in my nature.”

I smile, sweeping her hair back over her shoulder. “Good thing I don’t like anything that’s easy, then, huh?”

I’m not sure if she cries or laughs, but her lips spread into a smile the longer she watches me. “You’re right. I have always felt this,” she says, pressing her hands to my chest. “I just didn’t know what to do about it.”

“We’ll figure it out together.”

“This is really happening, isn’t it?”

I smile, leaning down to press another kiss to her lips. “You bet your ass it is.”

Then, I bend down and swing her over my shoulder caveman style, earning us another cheer from the crowd as I gather her stuff off the table and toss it haphazardly in her bag. Once I’ve got her and her belongings loaded up, I steer us toward the exit.

“Bear! Put me down! I need to study!”

“You can study when I’m done kissing you,” I tell her, and then with a wink at the group as I pass through the doorway, I add, “Which probably won’t be until the morning, so hopefully you’re ready for that test of yours by now.”

Everyone laughs and sends us off with a final set of cheers.

And then I carry that stubborn, impossibly frustrating, absolutely perfect girl into the next era.

I have a feeling it will be the best one yet.

“YOU LOOKED SO HOT walking across that stage,” Cassie says, drawing circles on my chest as we lie in my bed.

Or should I say on my bed, since it’s just a mattress on a bed frame now that I’ve packed up my whole room.

“Oh, yeah? That oversized, shiny, black gown really does it for you, huh?”

“Mmm, I think it was more the funny hat on your head. And when you switched that tassel over to the other side?” She groans. “So sexy.”

I chuckle, absentmindedly playing with the strands of her hair with one hand, the other propped under my head, both of us looking up at the ceiling.

“I’ve spent a lot of days and nights staring at this ceiling,” I say on a sigh. Then, I pinch Cassie’s side. “Most of them driving myself crazy over you.”

“Hey!” She giggles, squirming away from my pinch until I hold her close again. “You drove me just as insane, thank you very much.” She pauses, rubbing my chest again. “It’s so weird, seeing this room empty, seeing all your stuff packed up in boxes. I mean, sure, we pack up at the end of every semester, but when I come back in the fall… you won’t be here.”

She swallows, and I can feel the motion against my chest at the same time my stomach does a somersault. I pull her close and kiss her hair. “I know. It’s surreal. I think even though I knew college was only for four years, it’s always felt like it would never end. I just thought I had all this time, you know? And now…”

“Now you’re about to be a freaking Field Executive!” Cassie says, squeezing me.

I shake my head. “So crazy.”

“And I will have to figure out how to survive this place without you.” She sighs. “I met you so early on, my first day being a KKB sister. Remember? The slip and slide?”

“Like I could forget. Have you seen yourself in a bikini?”

“Have you seen you shirtless?” Cassie whistles. “Abs for days.”

“One day, I’m going to be hairy and have a dad bod. You still going to love me, then?”

“Probably even more,” she says, kissing my neck.

I smile, holding her close as we lie together with nowhere else to be. It was all I wanted tonight, after graduation — to be with Cassie. My aunt drove in for the ceremony, of course, but she’s got a hotel on the beach and a new boyfriend keeping her company for the evening. The rest of the weekend will be filled with family celebration.

But tonight, it’s just us.

“Remember the first time I climbed through that window?” Cassie asks, nodding to the window, which is open now, letting the breeze softly roll in the empty room.