Postcards

Chapter 24

A/N: Another story is coming to an end. I always feel a bit sad when that happens, but I've got some other stories in the works. A huge thanks to all of you for reading/reviewing, and a huge thanks to my beta for her awesome skills. I've tweaked this a bit, so forgive the errors that might be in here.

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One week. In one week, I would start college at Oregon State University with Edward by my side, and it seemed as if the past year had flown by.

Edward and I had consummated our relationship not long after our first bonfire at First Beach the summer of senior year, and we'd only become closer since.

When it had come time to pick colleges, neither of us had any idea where we wanted to go but neither of us wanted to stray too far from home.

In the end, it came down to schools that had good reputations for the areas of study in which we were interested. I'd decided that I wanted to do something in the forestry industry while Edward was thinking about a degree in either earth science or teaching.

Alice and Jasper were moving far away from home and going to college in Georgia. Alice had gotten accepted to the Savannah College of Arts and Design where she was going to study fashion, and Jasper would be attending Savannah State University.

I was having a hard time dealing with the fact that my best friend was going to be so far away. Actually, all of my good friends were going someplace different. Angela and Ben were going to California while Eric was making his way to New York City.

I knew that we'd keep in touch, but it wouldn't be the same as seeing them every day or almost every day. And, I was afraid that we would get so busy that we wouldn't keep in touch and that our friendship would fall apart.

"Did you finish packing?" Dad asked, interrupting my thoughts, and I looked up at him as he stood in the doorway to my room.

"Almost," I told him as I took a look around my room.

Dad had wanted to drive me to Oregon, but I'd told him I would be fine. Edward and I were going together, we'd rented a small U-Haul to carry all of our stuff.

Sadly, since we were freshman, we'd be living in the dorm for our first year, and I wasn't looking forward to it at all. When I'd found that out, Dad had offered to pay extra for me to have a single room, and I'd gladly taken him up on the offer. I had no desire to live with a stranger to with whom you may or may not get along. Edward, on the other hand, had gone the roommate route, and he'd been in contact with the guy, Alec, for the past couple of months. Edward thought his roommate sounded nice, and I certainly hoped so for Edward's sake.

"I can't believe you're leaving for college," Dad said quietly, and I couldn't help but hug the man.

"I'll call and come home for the holidays," I promised, and Dad nodded.

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"So, how was your first day?" I asked Edward as we met up for dinner after our first day of classes.

Our schedules weren't compatible at all. So, we had promised that we'd eat dinner together every night so that we'd at least get to see each other for a bit.

"Not too awful," he told me around a mouthful of pizza. "You?"

"Same," I said with a shrug. "A couple of my classes seem really cool. They do trips out to the forest preserve and stuff, so that's exciting."

After that, an uncomfortable silence fell between us as we ate, and as we tossed our trash and made our way out the door of the cafeteria, I felt like something was off.