Lost Love

29. Graduation - The Epilogue

‘Oh you look beautiful, Imogen,’ my Dad tells me.

‘Thanks,’ Ozzy teases, winking at him. ‘Immy isn’t so bad either’

I roll my eyes at him and slip my brand new pair of Dune nude shoes on to accentuate my blue toe nails, which are sat by the front door as everyone else gets ready to head to university. Calvin comes out of the living room, with Elle snuggled beneath his arm. He sends me a smile and grabs his keys from the side as he makes his way to his car. Calvin and Ozzy have formed a bond between them as they’ve been spending a bit of time together on double dates, which is extremely fun for me. 

An hour and a bit later, we’ve parked and are making our way to the cathedral in the centre of town for my graduation. I have to dash off to get my robe and hat in a separate area, whilst the rest of my family takes their seats as part of the congregation in the cathedral. 

I spot Blake and Beth adjusting one another’s gowns, when Blake spots me and waves me over. I’m smothered in hugs as I get to them and she grins. She is glowing today, looking dazzling in a bright red dress with black heels, as Beth is in an ethereal green knee length dress. 

‘You look beautiful,’ Blake asserts, touching at my curls. 

‘As do you,’ I say enthusiastically. ‘Is the boyfriend here?’ 

She rolls her eyes at me. Ozzy and I have been ribbing Sam and Blake ever since they finally a week ago conceded to trying to have a relationships rather than just always returning to sleeping with one another. From the sounds of things, they are getting along rather smoothly with the relationship status, but Blake insists that’s purely due to the end of term highs and the after sex glow they seem to have. Ozzy and I have been discussing this for ages and it is far more than just sex, the way Sam always has one eye on his phone when Blake is out at her societies or the way Blake always gets this wide smile when she sees Sam walking down the path to our house after a lesson. 

I’m then cut off from finding out more about Sam as I see Emma walk into the building with her group of friends, dressed in their blue gowns with their short dresses beneath. As much as I wanted no contact with the girl, that was impossible as I was put in one of my modules with her. While I didn’t hear her talk about her incident with Ozzy, I sure heard about it through some friends who began asking me if it was true. It’s all in the past now, however. While Emma is lonely and single, trying to snag a good guy like Ozzy whenever she has the chance to bring is up, I am happy and content in my relationship and couldn’t ask for anything more. Well, apart from yanking her fake hair extensions out as revenge, but it’s far better to move on than dwell on that indiscretion. 

My friendship with Leon sadly disintegrated. If I saw him walking passed, I would say hello and ask how he was, but it never went further than that. It would be foolish to assume that a friendship could be salvaged after an unplanned break up and getting back together with Ozzy. From his Facebook status, he’s in a relationship with a really pretty girl who does music as well and I’m really happy for him. He’s truly smiling in those pictures with her in just the same way that I look at Ozzy and how he looks at me.

We make our way to the cathedral and we find our seats next to one another. We’re relatively close to the front which means we can hear every word of the ceremony, which I’m grateful for as there is nothing more annoying than enduring a muffled hour or so of someone talking but not hearing a word of it. 

The ceremony isn’t as dull as I anticipated it would be. The highlight is of course hearing my name and going up to collect my certificate. I look out to the audience and see my family beaming so proudly of me. I don’t think they believed I would get here after that accident over two years ago.