Tales of the Hearts

T̆̈W̆̈Ĕ̈N̆̈T̆̈Y̆̈ Ĕ̈Ĭ̈Ğ̈H̆̈T̆̈✨

Graduation was just a few weeks away and everyone was cramming to get through the last round of exams before we were finally free.

I'm happy to say Liam is not in danger of failing bio, he's actually on track to get an A if he does well on the final.

All of us were sitting at lunch, Liam at my side as I was
hunched over my calculus textbook, furiously reading
over integrations.

"Zee?" Liam asked, nudging my arm. I looked up at him, seeing the others were all animatedly engaged
in conversations. "You okay?" he asked, his eyebrows
knitted together.

"A little stressed" I admitted, letting out a sigh. Liam
reached over and put the scrap paper I'd been using as a bookmark on the page I was on before shutting it.

"Why don't you eat? You still have another week until
your calc midterm, right?" he asked. I slowly nodded.
"Okay. So how about you look at calc after you eat?" he suggested. I nodded again, watching as he slid the book to his side so I couldn't reach it. I reached for my lunch and pulled out my sandwich, leaning into Liam's side as I listened in on Mae and Jack's argument over which

Marvel movie is the best.

Been weeks since finals are finally over.

Graduation is tomorrow.

Mae, Jack, Alex, Ava and I all sat in Alex's basement,
the floor covered in craft supplies as we decorated our
caps. Mae's had a giant on hers in the University
of Minnesota font and color. Ava was working on
an intricate quote written in fancy lettering with the
Marquette logo at the bottom of her cap. Jack was mostly messing around, complaining that he didn't know what to put on his cap and Alex had a printout of the Wisconsin "W" plastered on top of his and was leaning back, watching a distressed Mae fight with Jack over the hot glue gun.

"You're not putting anything else on yours, Alex?" Ava
asked, looking at the piece of paper he'd hot glued to his cap.

"Don't see why it needs to be extravagant" Alex
responded, shrugging. I laughed and shook my head as I continued cutting out the Michigan 'M' out of yellow paper.

"Also not all of us are artistic geniuses like you, Babes." Jack teased, watching as she glued another rhinestone to her cap. She just smiled and continued working.

"She is mine" retorted Alex to Jack who stuck his tongue out in reply.

"I don't know what to do." Jack groaned again.

"Just slap the lowa 'l on it and call it a day" Alex suggested. Jack groaned again and reached for a piece of yellow paper.

I glued the last bit of the 'M' onto my cap and looked
down at it. It looked pretty good if I said so myself.

"That looks great, Zayn." Mae said, smiling at me.

"Thanks." I said. "Can you guys believe tomorrow is the graduation?" I asked.

"It all seems really surreal" Ava said. Everyone agreed,
nodding.

"We need to make sure we get pictures together, so no
leaving until we do!" Mae insisted, making each of us
promise before we went upstairs to get pizza her mom
had just brought home.

~~~~~~~~~~~

"I can't believe my baby is graduating" my mom said, snapping another picture of me.

"Maybe save the pictures for after the ceremony, mom." I laughed. She nodded and wiped a tear from her eye, David looking over at her and pressing a kiss to her temple in an attempt to calm her down. I smiled at the gesture, happy to see my mom so happy.