White Gold *Completed*

Recovering

NIX

I threw myself into my work like never before-anything to distract myself from...him.

I was only two months away from graduating, and was going to be shipping out to London for a week long conference at the Fashion Weekend. Casey, Ryan, Jasmin, and Charlie would also be coming along. Guess it paid off to be an honors student.

I was breezing through classes, most of which I'd done before, but I loved the new classes and the challenges they brought. The only downside was that I was still in the same city as him. I was going to the same dang school as him, probably even sitting in the same rooms as he once did. This distracted me more than once.

Our last big project before graduating was to design an original piece and then promote it and try to find a line that would take it on. Obviously, not everyone would pass this part, so the dedication score wasn't very big. I, however, would not accept defeat. It was not an option, not now, not ever. So, every night when I got home, Pongo would sit at my feet while I slaved over my finals.

I was really struggling to come up with something creative, something that hadn't already been done. No pressure. I had already done this before! Shouldn't that be enough?

I sighed and dropped my sketch tools aside, leaning back in my chair. The apartment was so silent beside the gentle snoring of the puppy. It was one of the things I was still unused to-the silence.

My phone wasn't constantly blowing up with notifications from...him. And it was weird; every time I saw something that he would have liked, I wanted to Snap it to him. Those were the moments when I missed him the most. The normality. Well, the most normal that life could have gotten.

But most days, I just hated him. The mere memory of him would leave me boiling in rage.

My family knew better then to bring him up, though it was obvious my mother was just dying to say "I told you so."

I'd already made arrangements to move back East ASAP after graduation.

I couldn't get out of here fast enough.

"Oh my God, only three more months!" Casey gasped, shaking her head. We were knee deeps in finals papers. It was three AM on a Thursday, we were both a mess. Not even the espressos were helping at this point.

"That long?" I asked and rubbed my eyes.

"Hey, you've done this before, shouldn't it be easy now?"

I huffed and stretched in my seat. "You'd think. If anything I think either the classes here are harder or I've gotten dumber."

Casey laughed. "I doubt that a fashion course in L.A could be harder than one in New York."

"It's taught very differently here, that's for sure. Hey, think the pizza place place down the street is still open?"

"Probably. Whatcha want?"

We ordered a large pizza and lost ourselves in our work until our food arrived.

"Died last night in my dreams,"

"No no no." I shouted, lunging forward to shut off the radio, effectively missing my turn. With a sigh, I hazard an illegal U-turn. The sudden silence in the car was deafening.

I had managed to avoid hearing his voice since the break up until now. And hearing his voice was like a shock to my system. All the qualities it had; deep, but not too deep. The wavers in pitch and tone and his laugh...

I turned the radio back on, breath held.

"Saw all of the saints

Lock up the gates