Chapter 50: Epilogue

Registering for a 3PM lecture in a hall that could seat more than three hundred turned out to be a mistake. Of course, on this particular Friday, the hall was barely one-eighth full; most everyone else was bustling around the campus outside, preparing for a night of fun before finals week. It was a good thing the hall was windowless, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to resist escaping into the gorgeously crisp November afternoon that promised to turn into a beautiful night.

And tonight will indeed be beautiful.

I couldn't sit still. I had long since tuned out the professor's monotone droning. Instead, I wrote my initials over and over in the margin of my notebook, smiling at my own delusions.

And this is what my initials would be if I took his last name... And this is what they would be if I kept my maiden name as my middle name... And this is what they would be if I decided to hyphenate both last names together... But then, which would come first? Mine or his? Should I put them in sequential order or alphabetical order? Oh, I guess either way would be the same... I should practice spelling out his last name in cursive...

A buzz from my hoodie pocket told me I'd received a text—hopefully from him. I threw a furtive glance at the professor. He didn't seem to notice the boy behind me was fast asleep and snoring, so hopefully he wouldn't notice the screen on my phone light up as I checked the text message under my desk. Even if he did notice, what could he do? College professors didn't give detentions.

"We're almost there," read the text. "Are you getting hungry? Goldilocks' for dinner later?"

"Sounds perfect," I stoically typed back once I got over my silent gigglefit. "I'm starving." I meant, of course, that I was starving for more than just Goldilocks' deep-dish pizza. I'd been starved of my boyfriend's love and attention.

The professor was merciful and dismissed us even though there were still ten minutes left, which was just as well since no one was paying attention. It was hard to resist the urge to tromble the slower people in front of me as they lazily filed out of the hall and out into the autumnal bliss outside. I made a beeline for the shady wooded quadrangle that was home this semester, cutting across the frat houses' lawns and the library parking lot.

A boy who lived on my floor was a few paces ahead of me, unlocking the outside door of the building. He recognized me and politely held the door open.

I quickened my pace so that he wouldn't have to stand there waiting. "Thanks, Theo," I panted, flashing him a soft smile.

"No problem," he said back. "How's it been, Mandy?"

I gave a generic answer, hoping it came off sounding more good-natured than annoyed. I didn't correct him when he called my by the wrong name; I found that the other freshmen on our floor were constantly getting my and my roommate's names confused. I blamed the faceless computer algorithm that had assigned two girls with rhyming names to the same dorm room.

Theo walked beside me up the stairs to the second floor. "Any fun plans tonight? I heard there's supposed to be something going on down at Kappa Zeta Lambda. If you want to check it out, maybe I'll see you there."

"Sorry, but I've never been the frat party type," I said bluntly. "And anyway, Mandy and I have a double date."

I hadn't meant to, but I could tell I embarrassed Theo when he realized he'd gotten my name wrong. "O-oh, I'm sorry, Candy. I called you Mandy just then, didn't I?" he stuttered.

"Candace is fine, too, if it makes it easier for you." I came to an abrupt stop in front of my room, 208. "Well, I'll see you around, Theo! Don't do anything too stupid tonight."

"Yeah. I mean, I won't." The piercing trill of his ringtone cut him off. He seemed grateful for the distraction. "I guess I'll see ya," he muttered to me over his shoulder just before he answered his phone. "Hello? ... No, not anymore. Yeah, I can be there in thirty minutes..." His voice trailed off as he continued down the hall to the boys' half.

Mandy must have heard my voice through the cinderblock walls. She pulled the door open while I was still digging around in my backpack for my key lanyard. "Are you ready for tonight?" she bubbled.

We looked nothing alike, Mandy and I, except perhaps that we both flat-ironed our long hair, hers brown and mine dark red. Her heart-shaped face was unabated by glasses frames like mine was, and her five-eight frame allowed her to move around with a graceful saunter while all five feet and one inch of me had to trot just to keep up.

I let my backpack slide off my shoulder and fall to the ground next to my writing desk—and it would remain there untouched until extremely late Sunday night or early Monday morning. "I'm not remotely ready! I look disgusting!" I tore the elastic out of my ponytail and pulled off my faded hoodie to change into the date-worthy outfit I'd already set aside: a new pair of gray skinny jeans and a low-cut tank top that looked good with a seafoam green cardigan.

"You know he doesn't care what you wear," Mandy said, rolling her eyes.

She was right. Formalwear, sleepwear, swimwear, underwear—it didn't matter to him. "I guess not," I concurred, "but I still have some time before they get here, and I really should brush my teeth and—wait a second, is that shirt one of mine?"

She glanced down at the off-the-shoulder t-shirt she was wearing. "Maybe..."

"You left all your laundry at your boyfriend's apartment again, didn't you?"

She slumped down on her bed, her face glowing pink as she smiled. "Yeah. I meant to do it the last time I was over there, but we got kinda distracted."

I grinned lewdly. "I figured as much. You can keep it, if you want. I look terrible in yellow anyway." Truthfully, I was happy to share with Mandy. She was more than a roommate; she was my best (and only) girlfriend.

Toiletry bag and cell phone in tow, I stepped out into the hallway and headed for the girls' bathroom to make myself over.

I checked my phone as I was putting the finishing touches on my hair and makeup and found he had sent me another text ten minutes ago. "We're in your room," read Castiel's message. "Hurry it up, Ice Princess! I'm sure you look fine."

He's here! In my room! Right now!

This time I really did have an audible gigglefit, which made the girl using the next sink over stop curling her eyelashes and stare at me in the mirror while I frantically re-packed my toiletry bag. I rushed back to 208 and opened the door to find Castiel and Mandy sitting on her bed, locked in a heated kiss.

The two had been inseparable ever since I introduced them back in August. Castiel took one look at those blue eyes and he was done for. In many ways, Mandy reminded me of a female Castiel: they both smoked like chimneys, cussed like sailors, fussed over Demon like he was their first-born son, and were gifted musicians. At the same time, Mandy was sweeter, nicer—maybe a little bit too nice for her own good—which was the perfect contrast to Castiel's bitter streak.

I only wondered how my boyfriend and I would hold up compared to the seemingly unstoppable romantic powerhouse that was Mandiel.

"Where's mine?" I whined.

Castiel tore away from Mandy's lips, his smirk expanding into a full-fledged smile—the kind he wore whenever Mandy was around. "What, your kiss?"

"No, my boyfriend, dipshit!" I play-smacked the back of his head, messing up his black hair. He'd dyed it back to its natural color when we moved from Sweet Amoris. I'd always liked his fiery ginger persona, but black-haired Castiel was more true to life than red-haired Castiel.

Before Castiel could say, "Look behind you," my boyfriend's arms were already squeezed tightly around me. I would have cried out, but his touch took my breath away. It took every ounce of willpower I possessed not to burst into tears of happiness when I smelled his cologne and heard his voice.

"I missed you, Candy."

"I missed you so much, Dake," I whispered back, nuzzling him as he gently kissed my neck. I turned around so I could look into his blue-green eyes and hug him face-to-face. I hadn't seen him since August—chronologically, only four months—but it felt like an eternity. He and I floated in a dreamlike state until I remembered Mandy and Castiel sitting there staring at us. "Um," I said, flustered, "Dake, this is Mandy, my roommate. Mandy, this is Dake."

"We 'officially' met while you were still getting pretty," she giggled, standing and pulling Dake into a friendly hug. One of her fingers reached up and touched his lips, as if to shush him. "Oh yes, I know all about Dake... I know all your dirty secrets," she announced in a loud, mockingly-seductive whisper.

"Wow, Mandy. Way to make him feel comfortable," Castiel sassed.

It was true, though; some nights, Mandy and I bonded for hours by telling each other everything there was to know about our respective boyfriends. I thought I knew Castiel pretty well, but his girlfriend saw him through different eyes. Her observations about him were definitely...enlightening. Similarly, I told Mandy the Dake-and-Candace story—about the beach, the study abroad program, the surf tournament, the house party, the prom—and the unforgettable summer we'd spent together after graduation.

We were almost never apart the entirety of that summer. He would come collect me late in the morning and we'd go straight to the beach, where we would stay until I ran out of SPF 80. Most afternoons and evenings, either my Auntie or his Uncle Boris was at work (or on on a date—with each other), leaving one apartment or the other vacant and unsupervised. He would come over to mine under the pretense of 'helping me pack,' and I went to his to 'eat dinner and watch movies.' (Although we did those things some of the time, that wasn't usually all that happened.)

When summer ended, I moved into my dorm on campus, and Dake went back to Florida, but saying goodbye to him for good was impossible.

My friends Nathaniel and Lysander were supportive of Dake and me at first, but they thought hanging onto him via a long-distance relationship was foolish and would ultimately end in heartache when one of us succame to tempation—but I didn't listen, and neither did Dake. I suspected they were just jaded because their relationships with Melody and Peggy didn't pan out after the girls moved away to far-flung out-of-state colleges.

For the past four months, Dake had sent me his love in calls, texts, and webcam chats, and I had done my best to reciprocate, but both of us were at a breaking point. He'd already gone out of his way to come to Sweet Amoris in May and stay the entire summer, so I promised I would visit him in Florida during my winter break, but he couldn't wait that long. He broke down and spent a large chunk of the money from his part-time job on a plane ticket to visit me this weekend—which was more than okay with me. His flight had been delayed and landed too late in the afternoon for me to drive to the airport myself because I had to (begrudgingly) go to my Psychology lecture. It was sweet of Castiel to step in at the last minute and pick him up; he knew how important Dake was to me.

I couldn't believe he was standing in my dorm room right now, hugging my roommate and laughing boisterously at her attempt to phase him. "I'll have to watch myself around you, then, won't I?" He seemed more impressed than creeped out by the fact that I'd told Mandy absolutely everything about him.

Castiel took Mandy's hand and pulled her towards the door, her coat under his arm. "Come on, Little Girl. They need a minute to get reacquainted."

"Oh, I bet they do. We'll wait around for ten minutes," Mandy told us sternly, "and then we're leaving without you."

It took more like fifteen minutes for Dake and me to get reacquainted. Once we were alone together, we fell to the floor right where we stood and made out, overrun by a frenzied rush of emotion. It felt almost like a game: How much can we get away with in ten minutes?

If Castiel and Mandy hadn't been waiting on us to rejoin them, we would have stayed shut in that room all night. Luckily, they weren't serious about leaving us behind. We found them sitting on the cold concrete ledge of a raised flower bed outside the building, smoking cigarettes and subjecting the passersby to their lovey-dovey Public Displays of Affection.

"Finally," Mandy huffed, flicking the ash from her cigarette as she stood. "Let's go! I'm so hungry!"

"I am, too," Dake agreed. "Where did you say we were going again?" he asked Castiel.

"Goldilocks'," he answered, smoke streaming from his mouth.

"They have the best pizza ever," Mandy elaborated. "It's like God exploding in your mouth."

Dake looked down at me with a wry smile that I knew meant, Your friends...they're weird. And I like them.

The musical clock tower in the middle of campus tolled 6PM. We crunched through the brown-and-yellow leaves that skittered across the streets and sidewalks, carried by a cold gust of wind.

Dake shivered and shoved his hands into the pockets of his jacket, but the slinky performance fabric didn't look very warm. The knuckles of his left hand clenched around a small object. I thought nothing of it as I looped my arm through his and stroked his back, matching his stride.

Our foursome reached the strip of adorable boutiques at the far end of campus where Goldilocks was nestled between a brightly-lit bar and a kebab restaurant. Inside it smelled tantalizingly of marinara sauce, garlic, and cinnamon. The cheery hostess showed us to a booth in the back and gave us sticky menus to study.

Before he sat down next to me, Dake fished his phone out of his pants pocket. "Look what Brodie sent me," he said, holding it out to me.

The picture in question was of a girl's dainty hand wrapped around a calloused, tan boy's—and on the girl's finger was a breathtakingly beautiful ring. Its colored stone was set in white gold and bookended on either side by two smaller white diamonds.

"Is that...Brodie and Chelsea?"

"Yeah."

"He proposed?"

"Yeah."

"So now they're—"

"Engaged. He just asked her earlier today."

I squealed with girlish excitement, throwing my arms around Dake's neck. "I don't believe it! And I don't believe how amazing this ring is!" I couldn't take my eyes off of his phone's cracked screen. "Is that topaz or a yellow diamond?"

"Ooh, lemme see!" Mandy cried, leaning across the table and prying Dake's phone out of my hand. "I think it is a yellow diamond! Who's the happy couple?"

"His best friend Brodie and his girlfriend—well, I guess fiancée, now," I filled her in, still reeling from the unexpected news. "He's the one who tipped me off about the surf tournament last year when I was in Australia. If I hadn't run into him completely by chance, I never would have found Dake."

"Aww," Mandy cooed. "How sweet! ...How old are these newly-engaged friends of yours, Dake?"

"They're both nineteen, same as me."

"Wait a second," Castiel interjected. "Two things. One, no offense or anything, but how does a nineteen-year-old have enough cash to buy a yellow diamond? Because whatever he's been doing, I want in on it right now. And two, aren't they a little young to be getting married?"

Dake tittered and nodded, understanding his confusion. "Brodie's taken first in almost every surf tournament in Queensland since I moved away," he said proudly.

I was flabbergasted. I had no idea competitive surfing could rake in that kind of cash. "I'm sure that's just because you're not there to take first from him," I said, rubbing his cold hands.

"Naw, Brodie's been getting really good. He's probably better than me, now."

I knew Dake had been out of practice since he broke his nose and was forced to move away. Surfing had been his main source of entertainment, self-confidence, and identity before I turned his whole world upside down. Castiel and Mandy probably didn't notice, but I could hear the bittersweetness in his voice when he talked about his best friend surpassing him.

"And you're right, they are young," Dake admitted, answering Castiel's second question, "but you've got to hand it to him for coming right out and asking her like that." His smile returned and the sadness in his eyes receded. "He knew she was the one. What's the point of waiting around until everyone else thinks you're old enough to know what you want?"

The server appeared at the head of the table, flustered as dug in the pockets of his apron for the pen he didn't realize was behind his ear. "Hey, sorry to keep you guys waiting. Do you know what you want?"

"I know what I want," said Dake—but he was looking at me, not the server.

My heart melted as I gazed back. I did a double take when I noticed the familiar eyes of the server were staring at me unblinkingly.

Mandy recognized him, too. "Hey, Theo!" she chirped. "I didn't know you worked here."

"Hey, um...Mandy," Theo coughed distractedly. "I just started a few weeks ago."

"Not hitting up that frat party after all?" I said before I could stop myself.

"Uh, no. I was, but my boss called me in because they were short-staffed tonight. You know, 'cause everyone's out...having fun."

"Awkward," Castiel hissed.

Mandy meant to stomp on his foot under the table, but the heel of her boot dug into mine instead.

"Ow!" I cried. "Dammit, Mandy!"

Her hands shot up to her mouth to hide her smile. "I'm sorry, Candy!"

My big toe throbbed, but I couldn't help but smile, too.

Castiel and Dake burst into unrestrained laughter.

"Um... I'll give you guys a minute to decide," Theo stammered. "No rush." He couldn't get away from us fast enough.

Once we regained our composure, we were able to tell poor Theo our order with straight faces and enjoy eating out on a Friday night as though we were normal people. The gigantic pizza we ordered devoured and the check split in half (I made sure to leave Theo a good tip for having to deal with us), we went back out into the cold November night, which had turned completely black.

We said our goodnights to Castiel and Mandy when we got back to the quadrangle; they walked arm-in-arm under the street lamps out to where Castiel's Lumina was parked, and from there he would drive them to his apartment. Depending on how her night with Castiel went, I knew I wouldn't see Mandy back at the dorm until late tomorrow morning—or maybe even tomorrow afternoon.

I could tell I was in for a fun night with Dake, but I didn't know then that I was in for an earth-shattering surprise.

"I can't tell you how glad I am that you're here," I whispered to him when we returned to the safety and solitude of room 208.

"There's nowhere else I'd rather be," he assured me, kissing my forehead. He sat on the comforter of my bed, beckoning to me to sit next to him.

"I had a surprise planned for you for Christmas," I said, unbuttoning my coat and cardigan and carelessly letting both fall to the floor, "but since you're here now, I might as well give it to you early."

"Really? I have something for you, too," he divulged as I joined him on the bed.

"Want me to go first?" I crawled closer to him, bringing my face within an inch of his ear. "I'll give you a hint: you have to take off my clothes to find it."

An eager smile spread across his face. He brought his hand around to my back, sliding it underneath my shirt and meaning to pull it off.

"No, you have to start lower than that."

His smile spread wider. He shoved me down onto my back and straddled me, unbuttoning and unzipping my jeans with impatient hands.

When my jeans came off, he found my surprise: a new tattoo coiled around my left ankle. Geometric triangles, dots, and lines formed an Aboriginal band, the same as the one around his left wrist. Getting a tattoo was like getting a shot and getting tickled at the same time hundreds of times in a row, but the astonished look on his face when he saw it was well worth it.

"They're pictographs of the Wakara people," I said as he examined it. "The lines mean 'journey,' and the circles mean 'place of rest.'"

"I didn't know it was Wakara," he admitted. "I just thought it meant that life is like a journey."

I nodded. "That's exactly what it means. I wanted one like yours, because—"

"Because you want to come with me?"

"Yes."

"Candy..." He laid down on top of me, enveloping me in a hug.

"Ow!" I cried, pushing him off of me. "What is that?" Something hard dug into the bare skin of my midriff where Dake had lifted up my shirt.

"Sorry," he said, sitting up. "That's my present for you. I guess I was kind of thinking the same as you were."

He brought his hand out of the pocket of his jacket...holding a velvety ring box.

"Dake, what is...? Why...? I..." I was suddenly abashed by the fact that I wasn't wearing pants. I had always imagined this moment of my life going much, much differently.

He opened it.

Much to my simultaneous relief and dismay, it was not a yellow diamond. It wasn't even a regular diamond. It was a sheet of stationery folded into a tiny square.

I took it in trembling hands, and unfolded it.

It was an admissions letter addressed to Mr. Dakota Halloran, congratulating him on his acceptance into the college's School of Nursing. I finally put two and two together. "You're coming here next semester?"

He nodded. "I'm sorry about the theatrics, but I had to come here to tell you in person."

"In person...with a ring box?"

"Oh, the whole ring box thing was Castiel's idea."

"Of course it was," I sighed, tears leaking from my eyes as I smiled. "Why am I not surprised?"

Dake smiled, too, his eyes uncharacteristically misty. "I had to come here to be with you. I can't get through nursing school without you. And... I can't say goodbye to you ever again, Candy."

"Then don't," I told him, holding him close and kissing him deep. "And neither will I."