step daddy 2 - e.d

ONE

one year later

  "congratulations baby. you've worked so hard and i'm unbelievably proud of you."

i look up at him with an uncontrollable grin on my face. the sky is a pale blue colour today and it's really clear, there are no clouds in sight. even though the sun is beaming down he's pristine like always. sweat free and looking ten times better than ever; this man never ceases to amaze me.

"thanks e."

"hey."

his tone is a little less soft and more firm when he says this, and i've known him long enough to know he wants to say more about it but instead a shake of the head is issued to me and i repeat the action of shaking my head too, strolling away without saying anything.

"rose!"

immediately i halt and and a grin lands on my face at the sound of dianne's voice.

  "heyyyy!"

  i drag out my y's in a playful tone because even just hearing her voice puts me in a good mood.

  "bitch i am so done with this shit. all the teachers are trying to be friends now."

  i giggle and she rolls her eyes, folding her arms and looking around with an empty look on her face which looks even more flawless than usual as her skin glows in the sunlight.

  "i just can't believe it's all over now. we're finally done with school. i don't know about you but i can't wait to go to uni."

after she says this i begin to smile even more. it feels like there have been countless nights of no sleep and studying for hours, doing my work with ethan's – sometimes useless - help and days of stress and tears. it's finally graduation day. a surge of relief hits me like a ton of bricks and i honestly feel as if i couldn't be happier.

  "i don't think i'm gonna go to uni."

dianne sighs and pouts, diverting her eyes to me now.

"roooseeee. you said this last time and i thought you were just joking. you're actually not coming?"

"no way. too much work and i can't take it anymore. i just wanna live my life. also it's too late for me to apply now, i made my mind up the day i needed to."

"yeah but..."

i can tell she's trying to formulate some kind of rebuttal to encourage me to change my mind but there's almost nothing she could say that i'm not prepared for.

"what about getting a job when you're older?"

"there's loads of jobs that you don't need a degree for."

"good luck with that. how do you expect to get your own income then?"

i hesitate.

"...babysitting?"

dianne clamps her lips shut for a brief moment as she holds back her laugh and she quickly calms herself down, throwing her braids behind her shoulders.

"fine. so you think ethan will be okay with this?"

i look over at ethan who is talking to lily's mom which means lily is definitely somewhere around. ethan is my step dad and that's what everyone at the school thinks he is; so they don't find it suspicious when he takes me everywhere and shows up to all my school events. of course, they don't know the true depths of what our relationship is actually like, but they don't need to. lily and dianne know and while i do regret telling them it sure has made everything easier.