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Riker:
"I really wish I could be there today babe," Riker laments, shifting in his seat as you turn your gaze to the computer screen. "I know you do, it's alright," you sigh, turning back to the mirror to continue your makeup routine. "You know I'd be there if I could," Riker assures you, watching as you swipe eye shadow onto your lids. "I'm not mad at you Riker, I get it... the tour is important," you say, shifting your gaze to the laptop to give him a bright smile. "Winged eyeliner or not?" you question, trying to make it seem like he's apart of this day and he smiles. "Winged... you're important too though," he promises and you give him a genuine smile. "I promise, I'm not mad. Did I think my boyfriend would be here for my college graduation... yes. However, that's not possible considering you're in London and I'm in LA so, no worries" you say, puckering your lips for an air kiss before standing to dress. "How do I look?" you question, spinning in your cap and gown. "Like you're a college graduate," Riker beams, shifting forward to get a better look. "Mom's going to FaceTime me the whole thing so... I won't be missing it, listen for me" Riker states, blowing you a kiss that you return. Four hours later, you're walking across the stage when you hear a familiar voice shout your name. Which, is odd because it sounds like Riker is actually in the crowd which is impossible... he's in London. "What... how?" you stammer, squeezing Riker's neck tightly as he spins you around with a chuckle. "You didn't think I'd let a little tour stand between me and your graduation did you?" Riker questions against your ear, pressing warm and loving kisses to your temple as you grip the back of his jacket. "I... had my doubts. But, the tour?" you question, leaning back as Riker tugs on your tassel with a shrug. "Screw it... I left on the red eye this morning before Paul could stop me. The boys snuck me out and the boys are going to cover for me until Paul figures it out, which shouldn't take that long. I can only be asleep for so long," Riker teased, pressing a kiss to your lips and you could care less about the trouble he's sure to get into because he's here... arms tight around you while congratulating you on your graduation.
Ross:
"I swear to Harry Potter, if you miss my graduation I will literally kill you," you seethe, slapping a still sleeping Ross with your pillow. "Chill out woman, I'll be there... let me sleep for another hour," he begs, having just got home the night before in order to make your college graduation. "AN hour... YOU WANT TO SLEEP FOR ANOTHER HOUR! MY GRADUATION STARTS IN THREE HOURS AND YOU'LL BE GOING THROUGH GRADUATION TRAFFIC AND MORNING TRAFFIC!" you scream, snapping back to the five year old Rachel Berry within you as you stamp your foot and storm off to the bathroom. It takes your forty-five minutes to do your makeup and hair and get dressed and you pray that Ross has gotten out of bed. "You know what, don't even fucking bother coming to my graduation you selfish-asshat piece of shit" you snap, tossing everything on the floor at his head before storming from the house. You fight tears the whole way towards SCU, reminding yourself that Ross isn't worth your tears. Only, he is. He's Ross, the boy you've been in love with for three years. Ross, the boy who helped you through nursing school, the boy who kept you from ripping your hair out. He's Ross, you're you, and you're meant to be together. The fact that Ross couldn't even get out of bed early on the most important day of your life thus far, hurt you more than you could ever explain. You've dragged your butt out of bed at all hours of the day and night to follow him on tour, to follow him onto planes and buses and trains. Because he asked you. You asked him for one thing, come to your graduation early, and he couldn't be bothered. When your name is called, you hear your family and friends and the other boys cheer for you but you don't hear Ross. You hadn't actually meant for him not to show up but he's Ross... he doesn't always catch when you're not being serious. "I'm sorry babe," Riker whispers against your ear, pulling you in for a tight hug when you ask where Ross was. "Flowers aren't an apology" you hear Ryland state and when you look up, you see Ross holding a large bouquet of flowers. "I sat in the back... I wasn't sure if you actually didn't want me to come or not so, I sat in the back because I couldn't miss your graduation. It's your graduation and even though you did all the work, I helped and I learned what you learned so... it was kind of like I was graduating too because, I'll never graduate college. But, even without that, even if I hadn't helped I still would've showed up because it's you. You do everything I ask you to do and I wasn't not going to come. Even this morning, when I was sleeping in, I was always going to be here come hell or high water," Ross assures you, using a phrase he's heard you use multiple times. "I'm sorry I made you angry but... I couldn't function this morning, I haven't slept in three days but I'm sorry. I should've gotten up when you asked me too," he finishes and everyone is staring at you. "Are those for me?" you question, nodding to the flowers while whipping your tears away. He nods, ducking when you start smacking him with the bouquet until all the petals are scattered around the both of you and he looks terrified. "You miserable, asshole... of course I wanted you to come to my graduation. I was irritated and annoyed this morning that you were going to get to sleep in and I had to leave. I'm sorry I was a bitch but this is stressful for me and we all know how well I do with stress," you tease, the boys around you breaking the tension with their laughter and Ross lets out a sigh of relief. "I love you Ross, I'm sorry you sat in the back" you tell him, lips pressed to his jaw as he wraps you in his arms. "I love you too babe, I'm sorry I tried to sleep in" he murmurs and you let out a soft laugh.
Rocky:
"So... that's hot" Rocky tells you, lounging on the bed the morning of your graduation. He'd actually gotten up before you and fixed you coffee and breakfast so you could have a relaxing morning of getting ready. "Shut up," you pout, staring at him from the bathroom as you stand with the green makeup corrector dotted on you face to hide the redness of your skin because, of course your face would breakout the morning of your college graduation. "Will you check my cap and gown and make sure there are no wrinkles?" you question, rubbing the dots in before continuing with your makeup routine. "So... I'm not an expert on crafts and all that shit, but I'm pretty sure this trim thing isn't supposed to be falling off" Rocky states, holding up your cap with the hanging glitter trim and your eyes widen. "No, it's not supposed to do that! What am I going to do now?" you rush, hurrying to him to take the cap from him. "Here, finish getting ready and I'll figure something out," he assures you, giving you a pointed glare at the look of horror that crosses your face. "If you fuck it up, Rocku I swear..." "You'll kill me? Yeah, I got it" he finishes dryly, heading off down stairs. You finish upstairs, dressing in the pale pink dress his mother bought you before slipping your ballet flats on and head downstairs. You're shrugging the gown on when you spot Rocky at the kitchen table, laptop open to a YouTube tutorial on how to hot glue onto fabric. "Fuck" he exclaims, blowing on the finger he's just burned before pressing down on the fabric again. "Fuck, fuck, fuck," he curses, sucking the burned skin into his mouth and you chuckle softly. "What are you doing?" you question, leaning over his back while your hands settle over his chest. "Trying to fix this god forsaken thing... is that alright?" he questions, holding the cap up for your inspection and you smile. "Perfect, thank you baby" you whisper against his ear while pressing a long kiss to his cheek. "Do I get a reward later?" he suggests with a raised eyebrow and you chuckle. "If you can get ready in fifteen minutes to take me to the ceremony then yes, I think a reward would be in favor for all your hard work" you tease, leaning into the kiss he presses to your lips before he's bounding up the stairs. Needless to say, Rocky get's his reward later that day.
Ellington:
"You're going to be late," he says from the bed. This was something you already knew, but if you were going to have to wear that awful cap your hair had to be curled perfectly. "LATE!" He shouts. "Shut it!" You snap from the bathroom, as you unplug the curling iron. You rush out and gather up your cap and gown. "I'll be in the lobby," he says, knowing that would make you go faster. "I'm coming," you whine, hurrying around the hotel room. Since neither of you actually lived in San Diego, the two of you had stayed in a hotel so that you didn't have to drive from LA and there was no rush but that clearly hadn't worked. "Ready," you say to him after you were sure you had gathered everything you needed for the ceremony. "You sure?" He questions, still sprawled out on the king sized bed. "Yes, I'm sure," you tell him, looking around the room one last time to see if anything caught your eye. "Alright, let's go, you're already going to be late as it is," he remakes, bringing himself up from the bed, grabbing the keys to the room and his car before opening the door for you to exit. "My clutch!" You shout, remembering in the lift that you hadn't picked it up. Ellington sighs and presses the button to go back up to your floor. "I'll stay here," he says holding his arms out to take everything you were carrying. "Quickly," he reminds you. You take the key out of his back pocket and rush back to the hotel room. "Make sure you get everything!" He shouts from the lift. You come back a minute later, out of breath, but with your clutch in hand. "Now are you sure you have everything?" He questions before letting the doors close. You nod and he steps in. As you walk to Ellington's car in the parking garage you stop. "No, there's no way. We don't have time to go back," he says, knowing your sudden halt was because you had left something else in the room. "But," you begin. "NO! Get in," he orders, opening the car door. You sigh and oblige, getting in the car as he piles everything into your lap. "I better not get any grief for this," he scolds, backing out of the parking spot and rushing out of the garage. "Why would you get any grief?" You inquire. "Because I know how you are. You don't realize how late you are now, but once you get there and you realize it you will somehow find a way to blame me. That isn't going to happen." You sit in your seat in silence knowing he had described you perfectly as he usually did. Once to the university you had less than five minutes to get to your place in line in the meeting room. You left Ellington with a slight kiss and rushed off. "Look who finally showed up," you hear once making it to the gathering room. "Thought you had gone all Hollywood on us and decided that graduation was too middle class or something." "Shut up," you say to your friend, catching your breath. "I didn't think you were staying that far away," she continued. "We weren't, but you know me, I forget everything." Once in the Great Gall you can't help but look around for Ellington from your seat. A bright smile crosses your face once you find him to the right of you along with his mom, the boys and Rydel. You were happy to be graduating, but more than that you were happy for him and his family's immense support.
Ryland:
This was supposed to be a special day, right? You had always been told that, that is what it was but you couldn't find anything special about it seeing as Ryland would not be with you. You had done everything in your power to be with him while on tour and where ever else he found himself. This meant online classes for three straight years. It was hard being on the road and being a student but you had accomplished what you had originally thought was impossible mostly because Ryland was always there pushing you to keep going. He never wanted to be the reason you quit school and you knew this so you kept going to not only make your parents proud but him as well. He nearly cried when he told you he wouldn't be able to travel to LA for the ceremony. He and the boys would be in New York and there would be no way for him to sneak away seeing as a live performance of a band of five required five members to be present, the opening acts had to be present too. You had repeatedly told him it was alright but he didn't believe you. "I promise as soon as I am back we will celebrate," he would say knowing it wasn't the same as attending. You would oblige and move on but it still hurt. So now that the day had come and you knew he wasn't going to be in the audience sitting with your family you found absolutely nothing special about the occasion. "You alright?" Your roommate asks, noticing you sitting in front of the mirror. You look up to her with tears in your eyes. "Babe, why are you crying? Is it because of Ryland?" You nod and she comes in, sitting down beside you. "There's no need to cry. He will be here tomorrow afternoon. I know this is a big day and it's special but expecting him to be here is kind of crazy don't you think? Especially with his schedule." "I was with him through all of it for the last three years," you cry. "But babe come on, he is in a completely different situation. He will be here tomorrow. You know he wouldn't want to see you acting like this." This was true. If Ryland knew you were this upset about him not attending your graduation, especially after you had told him you were okay with it, he would be so upset with himself. "Come on, get up, it's almost time for us to go and you need to fix your makeup." You wipe your eyes and she helps you to your feet. Your family would be there cheering you on and it wasn't like Ryland hadn't expressed how proud of you he was for making it so far especially under the circumstances that you did. Him not being there was just a slight step back from the amazing day you were about to have. "Phone," your roommate says, pointing out your phone was buzzing on the side table. You walk over and smile as Ryland's face lights up your screen. "What time is it?" You question before even saying 'hi'. "It's four in the morning," he answers hesitantly. "Ryland, why on earth are you not asleep?" You scold. "It's your big day and I wasn't going to not call you before you headed out." A smile stretches across your face at his explanation. "I will have to go to bed soon though. But I just wanted to call and let you know that I love you so much and I am so proud of you. This is huge and you are so incredible for making it this far." Tears well back up in your eyes but you fight them off. "I will be home tomorrow afternoon to celebrate so don't go too hard tonight, okay?" "Okay," you respond with a chuckle. "I love you and I hope you have the most wonderful day." "I love you too and I will, for you."
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hiii i havent really updated and i feel really bad so heres a suprise update i guess idk:)) ill probably update coffee later but i dont want to continue nightmare i just feel like its going no where idk.. but ty guys for 6k reads it means a lot:))