Winning Her Back

Chapter Twelve

It starting getting repetitive. Ryan coming back for a week, hanging out together, and him leaving again. It almost felt normal to cry as much as I did, and to feel so lonely. I wondered if this was a one sided emotion, or if Ryan felt stressed with the continuous goodbyes. He didn't seem phased though. It was just our norm.

But, the painful year was over. And as I stood infront of my mirror with my white cap and gown for graduation, I knew my life would progress whether my relationship with Ryan stood strong or crumbled to the ground. 

"You ready, sweetie?" My mom asked, lightly knocking on the door before opening it. 

"Yeah, just give me a sec." She nodded, and even though the ceremony didn't start, tears threatened to leave her eyes. 

"I can't believe my baby is graduating." She breathed, taking one last look at me before leaving me alone. 

I deeply exhaled, thinking about everything that would come up in my life. I got accepted to SUNY New Paltz; I would go into their journalism major. I wanted to write books, especially love stories. It was so close to home, too and not to far away from where Willow would be going, SUNY Albany, with Zach of course. 

"Tate, we really need to go!" My dad called, taking me from my moment. I sighed, making my way down the stairs. 

-- 

"Can you believe it!? We are done!" Willow squealed, tears staining her cheeks, however a smile so big shined on her face. She was clutching Zach's arm, leaning into his body. 

"Now, no backing out on that city apartment that we are going to get once we graduate college!" Bea said, looking at the 4 of us. 

"Promise" Shay stuck out her pinky. We all smiled, repeating the same and lightly touching our fingers. It was our thing, since there were too many of us, we couldn't interlock our pinkies, so we touched them instead. It meant the same.

"Welcome to the college life, my friends." A voice boomed from behind me. I smiled, turning around. "Little bro, you are finally out of here!" Ryan said, pounding his fist onto Zach's limp one. "Willow, congratulations!" He said, kissing the top of Willow's hand. "And ladies, job well done."

As he spun around the small circle we made, his smile grew. "Oh hello there." He said, when his body was towards me. "You must be new, my name is Ryan. I think we should date" My friends snickered next to us.

"Is that so?"

"It is. We would be perfect for each other." A cheeky smile landed itself on Ryan's face.

"You do seem quite perfect." My arms, that were at my sides before, were now wrapped around Ryan's neck.

"Honey, you haven't seen perfect until you look in a mirror." I grinned, standing up on my tippy toes to plant a kiss on his lips. "I'm so proud of you." Ryan said, slightly pulling away. 

After protests from my friends, our love fest was over. Ryan's dropped his arms from my waist, slingging one snuggly around my shoulder. 

"And I'm very sorry to say, but Tatum will be living in an apartment with me in the city when she graduates, so..." He cockily said. 

"Now, now. Mr. Carter, let's not get so fiesty." I teased. Ryan chuckled, bringing his face down to my level and pressing his lips to my cheek.