No Strings Attached || Grayson Dolan

22. THE ONE WITH THE COLLEGE TALK

April 12th
POV Lydia
Grayson and I have a big talk in front of us, we still haven't had the college talk. I still haven't heard from Yale, but I somehow gotta count on going there when talking to Grayson.

Grayson will be sleeping at my place tonight because I'm home alone, mom and Lacey are at Lacey's field trip with school and dad is on a business trip. The funny thing is that gray has only slept at my place like two times since we started dating, since I'm never alone. But tonight I am, and I'm looking forward to it.

"Are you ready to leave babe?" Gray suddenly approaches me as I'm picking my backpack out of my locker and I smirk, I love when he calls me babe.

"You gonna need to be more discreet than that lover boy, you're lucky no one is around" I smirk and give him a very quick peck on his lips and he groans.

"Was that really necessary, now I want more" he whines as I shut my locker and start walking towards my car. He follows me and I can tell that he tries to grab my hand but I don't let him.

"I guess you'll just have to wait until we're at home then" I smile and he chuckles while dragging his hand through his hair, just the way I'm in love with. As soon as he does that, my heart skips a beat.

* * *

"I'm just gonna go get the mail quickly, here's the house key you can go in" I say to gray and hand him the key, and he nods. I roll down the street with the car and get the mail, and there's a bunch of newspapers in it per usual but there's one envelope in there that catches my eye. I look at it several times because I don't dare to believe it. To Lydia Katherine Hughes from Yale university.

"Gray, I got a letter from Yale" I say as I enter the door and I find him in the kitchen, looking through our fridge as always.

"You need to open it right now!" He exclaims and runs up to me, obviously very excited. The thing is that I'm scared of what's inside, partly because gray and I haven't had the college talk yet but also because I'm afraid that I'll get rejected.

"I'm scared. Could you open it for me?" I plead and he looks at me like I'm crazy, but he takes the envelope from my hand and opens it with his finger but he doesn't take the paper out.

"Come on, let's go sit down" he says and takes my hand, leading me to the couch. We sit down and I take a deep breath as I see him take out the paper.

"You got accepted" he smiles and I smile back, trying to push back the tears but failing miserably. He brings me in for a hug and he holds me close. "I'm so proud of you baby"

"I don't wanna leave you gray" I sniffle into his shirt, and he strokes my hair. Yesterday I found out that he got accepted to UCLA, meaning he'll live in LA. All the way across the country.

"What do you mean?" He says confused and I pull back from the hug, drying my tears. Mostly of joy for coming in, but also sorrow for leaving him.

"You'll be in LA and I'll be in Connecticut" I say and he smiles, what the heck?

"Who said something about LA?"

"I don't know, I heard someone say it in the hallway the other day" I whisper and he laughs.

"Oh no, I did get accepted to UCLA. But I'm not going there, I'm going to Columbia"

"You're kidding?" I say in disbelief, Columbia, that's New York! He's going to be living in New York?

"No I'm not, I got a fully-paid scholarship there. I'm gonna play football for an Ivy League college" he smiles and this time it's only happy tears that comes out of my eyes.

"Oh gosh, I'm so proud of you! I can't believe this"

"I know, this is great for us" he smiles and brings me in for a kiss, which seems to be all I need right now.

"It's still long distance though, that'll be hard" I say as we pull away and he holds my cheeks still.

"I'll be happy to drive the two hours to you every weekend if that's what it'll take. I just got you, I'm not letting go anytime soon" he smiles cheekily and I chuckle, he's really the best.

"We have to make this work. I trust you, I hope you trust me too"

"Oh darling, you'll have schoolwork up to your ears so you won't have time to do anything you're not supposed to anyway" he chuckles and I laugh, he's so right. I don't think I've really understood what going to Yale will be like yet, but I do know that he's darn right. "Plus, I trust you with everything in me"

"I love you" I blurt out and there's a moment of silence between us, because we've never said those three words to each other before. I realize that this probably isn't the right time either. Fuck. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have-"

"I love you too Lydia Katherine Hughes" he smiles and kisses me lightly on the lips, and I release a breath I didn't know I was holding.

We end up making out for a while and when we pull back I realize that saying I love you to him felt so natural, it feels like we've been in a relationship for months. Our whole relationship kind of has gone backwards, we started it off with sex, then became a couple and that's probably why it felt so natural. In some way we've had a relationship for months already, when that's not the truth.
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