Oh, Baby! #Wattys2020

Epilogue

A year or two later

"Hey, Bella!" Her friend, Jeremy, who she calls 'Germy', walks up with his signature goofy smile. His blue eyes take in her appearance, as they always do. "Looking fabulous as usual."

"Germy." She sighs tiredly, looking up from her textbook and computer, they've had this talk before. Many times.

"I know I know," He holds his hands up in defense. "But I can still appreciate your beauty."

"Take a picture."

He pulls his phone out of his hoodie pocket. "Really."

Bella gives him a deadpan look, "No."

Germy was Bella's first friend here. And thankfully for her, his parents didn't let him have a phone until he got to college, so he was very oblivious to her life before. Which made everything better for her because still to this day people recognize her. They ask for pictures and invade her personal life, curious and insensitive to what happened. But she's gotten used to it, and after the first few months of school people are too overloaded with coursework to worry about her.

"Are you coming tonight?" Germy asks her as they walk. This was their tradition. He met her outside of her early childhood education class and walked her back to the dorms. Though she had no idea how he managed to get across campus so fast. But there's been rumors of him sprinting in between.

Bella's silence confirms that she forgot. Jeremy sighs, "Bella, you haven't gone out since the semester started."

He wasn't wrong, she hadn't been out. But there was good reason for it. She had a busy summer and she wanted to stay focused on her work. Besides, there wasn't much she felt like doing nowadays. School and sleep was her daily routine. Aside from the occasional visit home, she really didn't concern herself with public outings. They seemed tedious and wore her out too quickly.

"Come on, Bella. You missed my birthday party last weekend, at least give me this. It's just a football game."

Jeremy is an only child. And he's a business major. Which meant he knew how to get what he wanted. Hitting her with the guilt card was one sure fire way of getting her to go with him.

"Fine, but only because it's you." She agrees, causing Germy to grin cheekily.

"Have I told you that you're my favorite person?"

"Never hurts to hear it again." Bella smiles, leaning in to hug him goodbye. "I'll see you later tonight."

Bella throws her bag to the side, flopping down hard onto her bed. She angrily kicks off her shoes and pulls the covers up over her pounding head. She groans loudly, though no one can hear her and throws a little temper tantrum, her frustration only growing when she finds herself not feeling any better afterwards. Of course she shouldn't be upset about anything, her day was great. There's nothing to even complain about. She just missed Hale. So much.

"You know, it's depressing seeing you like this." Bella's roommate suddenly raises her head from the pile of blankets on the other side of the room. Bella throws a pillow at her.

"What the fuck, Morgan." Bella grumbles, taking a deep breath.

Morgan sits up and yawns, the blankets around her falling off. "You're depressing. Cheer up, bitch. I'm tired of you moping around."

Bella listens to her and her proposed plans for Bella. Morgan has been trying to get Bella to finish her degree online and go do what she wants to do. In Morgan's theory, her problem is being confined to the social normalities of college life. Apparently Bella had a 'free-soul' that needed to be free. She had a lot of theories behind Bella's sadness, but none of them were anywhere near the real reason.