~ Chapitre Sept ~

Donald stared up at Stacie confusedly as he set the table. "Someone at the door?" he asked, even as he heard another knock, this time more pronounced than the last.

"That's weird," she said, placing the plate of pancakes on the table. "Who'd stop by on a Friday morning?"

"I don't know. My parents aren't supposed to get here until tomorrow evening." He wiped his hands on a washcloth and gave her a brief kiss on the lips. "I better go check."

Walking to the door, not many possibilities crossed Donald's mind. So close to his graduation day, there weren't too many people who'd just drop by for a visit. Even his family had agreed to come only a day earlier.

So when he opened the door, he couldn't have been more surprised by the person who stood a little sheepishly behind it.

"Bumper?" Donald said incredulously. "What the hell are you doing here?"

The corners of Bumper's mouth crooked into the shadow of a smile. "Can't I come to my own graduation?" he joked.

"Not when you ditch us to go to LA," Donald replied smoothly, having regained his composure, face shuttering into an expression of impassiveness. He started closing the door. "Asshole."

Bumper grabbed the door with his hand and wedged his foot in. "Come on Donald. Hear me out."

"I don't need to. Let me guess: your little stint in LA didn't work out the way you thought it would. Either you sucked, or John Mayer didn't recognize your amazing singing abilities immediately, and you got pissy about staying in the background, so you came back."

Bumper had the grace to wince.

Donald let out a breath. "That's what I thought," he said, and started closing the door once more.

"Wait, man, come on." Bumper wedged his feet in more firmly. "I know you're pissed and –"

"Fuck you, don't tell me how I feel."

"Donald?" Stacie's voice floated over to the two men from the kitchen. "Donald, who is it?"

Shit.He closed his eyes briefly. "No one, babe," he called out.

"Stace he's lying. It's me!"

"Bumper?"

They could hear the rhythmic beat of Stacie's footsteps as she padded over here. Donald gritted his teeth. "Happy now, you jerk?" he said, glaring at Bumper.

Bumper ignored him, smiling as he saw Stacie walk behind Donald, inching the door wider. "Hey, Stacie," he said good-naturedly. "Long time no see."

She blinked in surprise as her arm reflexively went to Donald's waist. "Bumper, what're you doing here?"

He groaned. "Not you too! What, can a guy just not show up anymore?"

Donald was about to snarl back a reply, but the warning press of Stacie's hand on his side stopped him.

"Sure a guy can," Stacie said diplomatically. "But you're not just a guy, and as far as I know, you were the one who wanted to leave." She smiled at him then, eyes soft and gentle. "Besides, we both know that's not why you're really back."

Donald watched in hidden amazement as Bumper deflated, a look of defeat crossing his face. "You're right," he conceded, smiling wryly back at her. "Can I at least come in and explain?"

Stacie glanced at Donald, whose mouth was pressed into a hard, unforgiving line. She knew it had been hard for him, watching his best friend walk out the way he did. Donald wasn't one to hold a grudge, but his forgiveness wasn't easily won either. Stacie had honestly no idea what he would do.

He sighed. "You've got five minutes," he said, popping the door open. "Then I swear I'll kick you out."

"Deal," Bumper said earnestly, walking into the house that had once also been his. Everything still looked the same, but – his eyes shifted upstairs – he highly doubted his room had received the same treatment.

They walked into the kitchen, where Donald immediately took a seat at the table, shoulders stiff, expression inscrutable. Bumper's eyebrows rose as he took in the plate of freshly made pancakes. "Today's not Saturday," he remarked in obvious surprise.

"Yeah well lots of things have changed here," Donald intoned.

"Since you…uh…left, I've been spending the night here a lot more often." Stacie shrugged.

"How'd you not get found out?"

"Everyone's known about us since the Bellas won at Lincoln Center you dumbass," Donald snapped. "Now start talking or I'll kick your ass out."

Dumbass, jerk, asshole…I'm getting the works here, Bumper thought wryly to himself. It was certainly well deserved. "Right," he said. "Listen, man, when that assistant called, and told me John Mayer wanted me as a backup singer, I freaked. I mean, it was John Mayer, man." He looked at Donald in earnest, but his face was blank.

He sighed. "Look, I know I fucked up. I shouldn't have left when I did, but I honestly thought that this might be my big break. You don't know what's like, man. Singing for the Trebles was a nice way to pass the time for you. You always raved about going to law school or campaigning for Obama. You had great plans – a great future.

"But it's not like that for me. The Trebles wasn't a hobby – it was my chance at a career. I'm a Music and Theater major – there's nothing else I want to do with my life. Let's face it, there's a chance in a million I was gonna make it big enough to get a record deal somewhere."

Donald remained silent.

"So when this opportunity came up, I couldn't turn it down. It was my once in a lifetime chance to make it happen for me. I was so focused on making it happen that I couldn't think about anything else." Bumper let out a breath. "I'm sorry, man."

Donald blinked rapidly, a swirl of emotions playing across his face. The steady and warm press of Stacie's hand on his shoulder snapped him out, however. He glanced at her, and felt himself calmer already.

He looked at Bumper, and held out his hand to him. "You were an asshole," he said simply. "But I get where you're coming from. I'm glad you're back, man."

They clapped hands. Bumper's mouth curved. "Me too."

Stacie wiped misty eyes, clapping and cheering the hardest as Donald was handed his diploma. This was it – her boyfriend had finally graduated.

His eyes locked with hers, and he gave her his winning smile; the one he reserved only for her. Her heart twisted in her chest and she smiled back.

The rest of the ceremony was a blur, and Stacie only snapped out of her daze once the graduates threw their hats into the air, officially all done with college.

She went with Amy, Beca, and the other Bellas to congratulate Chloe and Aubrey, who were both crying as they hugged each and everyone of them.

Chloe sobbed a little as she hugged Beca. "I'm going to miss you so much!" she wailed.

Beca smiled, patting the redhead awkwardly on the back. "Chloe, come on. You're getting your MBA here. We'll see each other all the time."

Stacie and Amy shared an amused look as Chloe hugged Beca a little harder, lamenting that it wouldn't be the same.

She peered discretely underneath her eyelashes at Donald, who was currently taking pictures with his parents and siblings. Though she'd met his family last night when they'd invited her for dinner, she still didn't feel right going up there just yet, wanting to give them some time alone with him. Besides – she smiled to herself – it looked like his younger brother had really missed him, if the way he kept wedging himself firmly between anyone and Donald was of any indication. Jake, at eleven, was a cute kid. Stacie was positive he was going to grow up to be just as handsome as his older brother.

She glanced at his older sister, who was taking the pictures with good nature. On top of being a very astute businesswoman, Natasha was also a photographer on the side. She regarded photography the same way Stacie and Donald looked at singing.

As if he read her mind, Donald caught her eye and smile, beckoning her to come over. She smiled hesitantly as she slowly made her way over, her smile becoming more confident as she looked at the soft light shining in his eyes.

"Hey," he said.

"Hey," she replied, swallowing thickly. She would not cry. "Congratulations."

"Thank you, sweetheart." Donald engulfed her in a fierce hug, and Stacie gladly melted in the warmth of his embrace, clutching onto the material of his graduation gown tightly.

"Oh, Nat, you have to take a picture of this!"

"Mother, I'm on it."

Stacie's breathless laughed was muffled against Donald's chest as he pressed her harder to him. She stepped out slightly to give him a kiss on the cheek.

He surprised her by holding on to her more firmly. "You'll come visit me, right?" he asked, the sheer intensity of his gaze sending shivers down her spine.

Stacie linked their fingers together tenderly. "Of course," she replied. "DC's not that far away. I'll come see you once a month."

One of his dark eyebrows rose in thinly veiled amusement. They both knew DC was a good six hundred miles from Atlanta. And yet, he knew Stacie was serious about visiting him once a month.

His heart warmed. He was on the right track to falling hopelessly in love with her.

"Tell you what," he said affectionately. "How about we keep the once a month thing, but I meet you halfway? Like in Charlotte or something."

Her smile was almost blinding. "Deal."

Just as Stacie pressed a kiss to his mouth, an ear-splitting screech echoed across the field. They all turned around to find a perfectly livid Amy glaring daggers at a very confused Bumper.

"Jesus, Amy what's your problem?" Bumper asked.

"You're my problem you arrogant son of a bitch! No offense, Mrs. Allen," Amy added, glancing briefly at Bumper's stricken mother. "I can't believe you!"

"What'd I do now?" he said, clearly annoyed.

"You left is what you did! And you show up again expecting everyone to forget that you just abandoned us. Well you can forget about that plan!"

"You're crazy you know that? Why are you so hard on my ass about this? Unless," and Bumper's expression turned sly. "Unless you missed me, of course."

Amy scoffed, though there was a betraying flush beginning to creep at the base of her neck. "Missed you? Please! Give me a break, I didn't –" Amy paused in her train of thought as her eyes connected with Bumper's, whose expression was decidedly very uncharacteristic. From where Stacie was standing, it looked like a sweet blend between admiration and genuine affection.

"Oh damn it all to hell," Amy muttered and crushed her lips to Bumper's.

Stacie laughed as everyone watching began to whoop and cheer, Donald being the loudest. She shared a look with Donald, who's arm was still very much tight around her waist, as she glanced back amusedly at Bumper and Amy.

Of course, their first kiss had to be in front of a crowd this big. Those two couldn't do anything without an audience.

Author's Note: Sorry guys for the long wait! I hope you liked this chapter :) For those of you who may not know this, I'm a second year college student, and spring semester is all kinds of hard right now. Because of that, I don't know if I'll be able to update as frequently as I did before, and so I'd like to say that, while I could still add to this story, this could be a very plausible end to it. We'll see. But at any rate, thank you guys for being so great, I'm so glad I found fellow Stacie x Donald fans with whom I could share this story with.

Much love!