Three Years Later | ✓

30 | I Can Hear His Smile

BEFORE WE KNEW IT, weeks had flown by and spring break arrived. Milo finally asked me to be his girlfriend and I calmly accepted, although on the inside my stomach was doing somersaults while my brain was sent into a frenzy.

Meanwhile, everyone else was more than thrilled to be escaping their dorm rooms and returning home to their families, packing their essentials into bags or suitcases and taking a road trip back home.

I, on the other hand, didn't have a reason to return back to that little island I called home as my parents decided to go on vacation for two weeks in Peru, finally having the freedom to travel around the world like they always wanted. Ava was bummed to hear the news that she would return home by herself but came to terms with it quickly.

When I told Milo that I wasn't going to return back home, he chose to stay up in California with me. I insisted that he should go back home and see his folks but he refused, stubbornly denying to leave me alone and claimed that he'd miss me too much, which cast a smile on my face. As he had already visited during fall and winter break, he decided that he'd just video chat with them.

So here we were, sitting in his dorm while video chatting his mom through Skype, our fingers intertwined as our hands rested on my knees while Milo rubbed small circles with his thumb on my hand. When his mom first saw me, she gasped, making me nervous for a second, then smiled at the two of us, melting away my uneasiness.

"Oh, look at you, Hadley. It's been so long since I've seen you, how have you been?"

"Hey, Mrs. Jensen. I've been good. How are you?"

After exchanging pleasantries and small talk about college life, that's when the real questions she's been dying to ask spilled out.

"So I see you two have found each other again," she smirked. "When are you going to pop the question to her, Milo?"

Both of our eyes widened as our postures grew ridged, Milo stiffer than me. "Relax, mom. We've only been together for a couple of months," responded Milo as he quickly regained composure.

"Months? I think we all know this has been a thing for about...three years now?" She replied, that smirk never dropping from her face. Our eyes widened at her expression again and Mrs. Jensen laughed at our faces, "I'm just kidding, it was only a joke. I'm happy for you two though."

Milo's phone rung and saved us from enduring some type of awkward tension between the three of us. "I'll be right back. I ordered some pizza and the delivery guy is outside the building."

With that, Milo slipped on a light jacket and put on his shoes before heading out, taking his keys and wallet with him.

"Hadley, is he gone?" Mrs. Jensen asked through the screen, talking a bit more softly as if Milo would hear her. I nodded and smiled, waiting for her to continue.

"He talks about you a lot, you know?" She said, her smirk clearly audible in the inflection of her voice if I had my eyes closed, making me blush.

"What does he say about me?" I said as calmly as I could while my pulse picked up speed, curious as a smile was glued to my face. 

"Good things but nothing I ever doubted. Sometimes when I'm on the phone with him, he tells me about his day and when he gets to the part about you, I can hear his smile."

My cheeks grew even redder as my chest tightened and my brain flooded with dopamine.

"I know I'm embarrassing him more by telling you that, but what I'm trying to say is, thank you for taking care of my boy," Mrs. Jensen thanked with a smooth tone, her expression relaxed and content as if she knew this was bound to happen.