There was Ryan with a big grin on his face.
There was Lu, a row behind him. Her lips were stuck together, trying to hide her own. Under the cap, wisps of her swept-back bangs peeked out from the sides with light-lavender-hued streaks from where the last of her purple color had faded.
“Good afternoon,” the announcer started at the front of the stage. “We welcome you to congratulate this year’s graduating class of Barnett University.”
Ryan slipped his hand back between the seats as the graduation headliner introduced the crowd. Lu reached forward and grasped his hand right back without question. Ryan’s thumb ran back and forth over Lu’s. Even if Lu was unsure, there was one thing she was positive about these days. The two of them. They were doing this all together.
Happily ever after.
I cleared my throat. Emotion started to clog my windpipe, and I took a breath and sat up straighter.
Happily ever after for Lu indeed. She deserved it.
Every moment.
A small smile curved at my lips as I looked toward the rest of my sisters sitting beside me. Each held an expression of quiet happiness as well. We all paid attention, wiggling in our seats only when the opening remarks went on too long before the staff speaker and then student speaker were introduced.
Really, someone needed to rethink the entire production of a graduation because by the second paragraph of the graduate’s speech, I was certain all the students had zoned out.
Besides Ryan. He constantly peeked back at Lu and then us after catching Gertie’s eye. Still holding Lu’s hand, he gave us a thumbs-up with the other. The dork.
Or maybe he was still nervous that she was going to pull an escape act as well.
The speeches and heartfelt poems before musical numbers by the band droned on and on.
Ryan’s hand soothed and touched Lu as she leaned forward in her folding chair so he wouldn’t have to stretch.
Sitting still and waiting, my eyes drifted from them up toward the sky and the rest of campus surrounding either side of us. I may have been distracted, but not enough to not notice the moment a hand settled on my thigh.
Head whipping to my right, his eyes had to be on me.
But they weren’t.
Dom’s gaze remained focused on the stage.
The speaker went on about leaving Barnett and pressing on to greener pastures of the world. I wasn’t paying attention to the hopeful soliloquy, however. I was more focused on the hand gently resting on my leg as if it had a million times before. Dom’s hand slid down and cupped my knee for a moment, squeezing before it slid back up my exposed thigh from the high cut of my dress.
But still, Dom didn’t look at me.
His hand remained. Right there. Burning through my skin.
I tried to ignore it until I saw movement out of the other corner of my eye. Celeste, down two people, had her own gaze latched on to his hand. It remained, resting on the smooth skin of my thigh, as if there was no other place it should be. But in all actuality, if there was one place it shouldn’t be, it was there. On me. Near me. Anywhere within five feet of me had it not been for the curse.
But it felt warm, nice.
I didn’t want to shove it away. So, I didn’t.
We were sleeping together anyway—right? It wasn’t like we weresleeping together, sleeping together, of course. But it also wasn’t as if we pushed the other away in the mornings when we woke up in bed, curved around each other. We had become too used to the way the other felt after last summer, and our bodies knew it, dying to feel the way we fit so perfectly together again. Even if it only lasted a moment.
And a few hours in the darkness.
I turned to look at him again, only this time, his eyes were no longer on the stage. They were right there as they caught mine. Almost a minute passed until the graduate’s speech finally ended, sending out an affirmation for great days ahead.
I shifted my leg, squirming as my thighs rubbed together.
His hand dropped away, flexing as it settled back on his own knee.
One after another, names were called up onto the stage. Caps were thrown. We all clapped.
