Dark Night

An end

I was glad that football season was over, too. Will was a lot more relaxed and he was glad of the opportunity to go back to being just a student. Until the NFL Combine, anyway, which would be in early March. I ignored that, just happy to spend time with him. Study dates were important parts of our time together; he was just hanging onto the GPA needed to graduate with honors and it was necessary to his self image not to be thought of as a dumb jock. His major was business economics, and after his playing career was over, he hoped to work in the business side of sports, maybe get a graduate degree too.

I continued to meet up with Keshondra and Zayna two or three times a month and had lunch with Serafina every other week. She was gearing up to take the LSAT and was nervous about that.

The quarter passed busily and interestingly. My classes were hard but amazing and activities at the house continued to be fun. I was a getting ready for finals when Will went to the combine. He did really well, running the 40 yard dash in 4.24 seconds, did 41 reps on the bench press, 44.5 in the vertical jump, 10'11" in the broad jump, 6.52 seconds in the three cone drill, 3.91 in the 20 yard shuttle, and 10.79 in the 60 yard shuttle. His numbers virtually guaranteed that he'd go high in the first round of the draft. I was glad for him that he was one step closer to his dream and kept my head in my books, getting ready to tear through finals.

I stayed at school for spring break with Will. We did fun things, checking out Venice Beach, a concert at the Hollywood Bowl, the La Brea Tar Pits, walked through cinema history at the former MGM backlot, and hit Universal Studios. Our days ended with dinner someplace new to both of us and then we went back to his room and took advantage of the privacy that he had because his roommate had gone home.

I started spring semester with a certain amount of dread and tried not to be clingy. Fortunately, my classes were the hardest I'd had yet and required a lot of extra work. I cut down my activities with the house which was ok because I'd been elected to run recruitment for the fall and winter quarters. The job was a lot of planning followed by a lot of hard work for a week, then it was over until the next quarter. I was glad to hear that I'd gotten the internship and been accepted into the diving program. Not only would it be real fieldwork, the first of my career, but it would be totally different from anything I'd ever done and I was eagerly anticipating it.

At the beginning of April, I was getting lunch when Paul called. "Is everything ok?" I asked in concern; when he wanted to say something he always texted.

"I'm going to UCLA next fall, Leia!" he crowed.

"Congratulations, Paul! That's terrific!" It turned out that he'd been accepted to Stanford, Caltech, and UCLA. He'd discarded Stanford because it was too close to home and felt that for himself, UCLA would provide opportunities to be the most well-rounded.  I was disappointed to hear that his orientation would be during my internship, but the internship meant that I'd be back at Duke's Crossing for about six weeks and I could talk to him then, answer any questions he might have. Then I remembered that he had a brother who could do the same thing. I'd be around for Bruin Day, but that was highly scheduled and I wouldn't see him then. I started to think about what I could get him for graduation.

At the end of April, Will went to Madison Square Garden for the draft. He went fourth overall to the Green Bay Packers. He signed with a sports agent and negotiations on his contract began immediately. Inevitably his focus wavered from campus and I started to ease away some. We still went to the sorority formal, still dated, studied, and had fun, but the end was in sight.

Will's parents and grandparents came out for graduation and it was nice to meet them. I didn't attend the graduation ceremony because each graduate only got so many tickets, but I was asked to join the family for dinner afterward and Will and I went to graduation parties. And then, suddenly, there was one last kiss, and he was gone. I went directly to my internship and buried myself in learning all the information about algael blooms, sampling protocols, and analysis that I could.