Royalty

Seventy

"I'll try to tone it down a bit," Summer straightened herself up as I heard her start typing into her phone. "So how does this Friday sound for the little housewarming party?"

I opened up my eyes and stared up at her, her vision focused on her phone screen, "That's in, like, four days."

"I know, but my classes start the following week. It'll get hectic then with exams and projects and papers."

Damn it. I had forgotten she started back at school soon, seeing as it was the end of August. I wished she could just be like me and not go to college because who needs college anyways? I mean, people only go to get a degree closer to getting the career they want, right? I don't think, at least she's never talked about it, Summer is looking for an actual career.

I don't even know what the fuck her major is. I don't know what she's planning to do with whatever degree she's getting, which I think is just a Bachelor's degree. I don't know why she's even in college or why she chose Columbia. These are things I should know about my girlfriend, but the topic has just never come up for discussion.

"What's your major?"

Summer let out a soft laugh as she continued to play with my hair, twirling random sections around her fingers, "Psychology."

"Why?"

"Because I wasn't interested in any other field of study. I didn't want to do any huge projects or something, so it's kind of like taking the easy way out. To be honest, I don't even know what I want to do after graduation. I have no idea if I can find a job through friends or through psychology or if my parents are going to rope me into doing something for the family business. I don't really want to do anything psychological as a job. I only picked the major because it seemed like the easiest."

"Is it easy?"

"Not always. I do have to write a lot of papers and things."

I pursed my lips to the side as I looked up at her, "But if you're not really interested in the field, why are you going to college?"

"Well I wanted to go to college. My parents wanted me to go more than I did, probably just to get me out of the hotel for longer periods of time, but when I decided to attend, it was because I thought going to school and having work to do would take my mind off the fact that my parents were never around for me. If I could busy myself with something else, keeping my face buried in books and joining clubs, I could fill this void I felt in my chest."

The look on her face was making me feel sad for her, and I wanted to hold her in my arms for a hug, "Do you still feel that way? Wanting to keep yourself busy to take your mind off of the lack of support you had?"

A moment passed before she shook her head, a smile starting to creep its way onto her lips, "No. You've filled that empty space." I returned her smile as she slowly rubbed her thumb over my cheek. "I'm still going to class, but I don't feel like a piece of me is missing, like I had felt before."

The way her expression had changed had made me feel warm inside. I felt great knowing that I could give Summer that happy and whole feeling she seemed to be looking for.

"So do any of your other friends go to school, too? Or are they kind of floating around?"

She laughed as she nodded her head, "Eleanor majored in film studies at Columbia. Liam goes there, too. He's in physical education. Niall was doing business management, but he dropped out after a year because he didn't like the studying aspect of college. Zayn graduated in May, a year early. He was doing visual arts. And Louis didn't care to go to college. He said he was 'too good for those book nerds'."