Ashton:
"Honestly Ash, it's okay." You say over the receiver of your phone. You could hear the guilt in everything Ashton was saying. It was absolutely heartbreaking. "It's just a college graduation." You assure him, though you wished more than anything that he'd be here.
"It's not okay, I hate this." He mutters to himself before sighing deeply. "That's why I got you a big present." You roll your eyes and shake your head. Your family was piled in the living room of your parent's house, watching you talk with you boyfriend, mostly because you didn't have time to go off and talk to him in private.
"I told you not to get me anything." You utter with wide eyes. Ashton laughs and you can almost swear he's shaking his head at you.
"What else was I supposed to do?" You shrug your shoulders to yourself and lean back on the couch. "Okay, now I take it that your mom just disappeared." You narrow your eyes and look to where your mom once was.
"Yeah, how'd you know that?"
"I called them and explained this whole surprise for you, so she was supposed to go get it when I called." You bite your lip and shake your head excitedly. "I thought of everything. Now I want you to close your eyes." You close your eyes and lick your dry lips.
"This is an appropriate surprise, yes? Because my entire family is in this room with me now." You mutter through the phone, barely moving your lips. Ashton laughs lightly and you could almost see him rolling his eyes.
"Yes, now keep em closed. Are they closed?"
"Yes." You sit in silence for a few more minutes, clutching the phone to your ear so that you could excitedly thank him for whatever he got you. Part of you really wished he hadn't gotten you anything because you hate when he spends money on you. But the other half of you expected a good present because he was missing this big day.
Suddenly you felt someone take the phone out of your hand and then grab onto both of your hands with theirs. You bite down on your lip, having a feeling where this was going. You could feel tears welling in your eyes as the thumbs caressed the back of your hands.
"Open your eyes baby." When you open your eyes you see one handsome sight. There, kneeling before you, was Ashton dressed in a suit and tie. "Surprise."
Calum:
You stand off to the side of the stage, where in a matter of seconds you would be receiving your high school diploma. Four years of hell and all your hard work was going to be shown on one stinking piece of paper. It was all worth it, for the most part. The only regret you had at the moment was that your boyfriend couldn't make it. Touring the world had its toll on relationships, this was its toll.
You step forward again, two people away from the rest of your life. You bite your lip, the butterflies in your stomach growing. You hated crowds so receiving a diploma on a stage where hundreds were staring at you was not a fun time for you; how did Calum do it? You step forward once again, one person in front of you. You scan the crowd with your eyes, still having no idea where your family was located, unfortunately.
One more step forward and your right foot was on the first step. You suck in a deep breath as your principal glances down at you, giving you a proud smile. The nerves got to you as he turns to the crowd and stares down at the names of graduates on the podium. This was it.
"Y/N Y/L/N." You step up onto the stage and walk across the quiet pedestal. Everyone is silent, like the principal had requested. You reach the head of the school board as he holds out your diploma and reaches out his hand. Just as you reach to shake, clapping begins and someone hollers your name.
"Yeah baby!" Your head immediately shifts to the voice. You purse your lips together as you shake the man's hand and tear down the steps of the stage to get back to your seat. Once sitting your eyes lock with his. He sits down on the steps of the bleachers, where you now spot the rest of your family. He waves down at you and gives you a thumbs up. Tears well in your eyes as he waves and blows kisses. You knew he wouldn't miss this for anything in the world.
Luke:
"Mom, I'm really not feeling up for pictures." You say to your mother as she continues snapping pictures of you with your various family members. This whole photo-shoot was getting to you, and so were the five-inch stilettos. She glares over at you and you immediately shut up. Your cousin wiggles into your embrace and you wrap your arm around her shoulders.
"Smile." Your mom coaxes. You force another smile as she snaps the picture and you then grab your cousin in a tighter embrace, squeezing the life out of her. You needed some fun in this to make you feel a bit better.
You were down because of various things, probably mostly the shoes hurting your feet. But the main reason was because Luke wasn't here. He was on tour, halfway around the world from you. No matter how much you begged and tried to reason with his management, nothing budged. He was stuck wherever the hell he was and that upset you. Not even the fact that you had survived four years of hell and got the paper to prove it helped.
"Mom, seriously, no more pictures." You tell her as she starts taking pictures of you just standing there fixing your cap and gown. "Mom, I'm not even doing anything!" You exclaim. "Please, I just want to be done with this photo-shoot. I've taken pictures with everyone here."
"Not with me." A deep voice says from behind you. You spin around at once, coming face to face with him. Your jaw drops momentarily as he smiles over at you.
"Oh my God!" You exclaim before cupping his face in your hands and pressing your lips onto his, not caring that this was more PDA than you two had ever shown. On top of that, you were sure your mother was capturing the whole thing on camera too.
Michael:
You grab your rose from the teachers at the front of the room and walk towards your stuff as you zip your gown. You plop down in the chair beside your belongings and stare at the last text from him. I wish I could be there to cheer you on. Tears were welling in your eyes, but you didn't dare let them fall, you couldn't. This was a happy day, not a sad one. You had survived this hell with nothing but Michael. He was your rock, though he was never there physically.
Someone taps your shoulder and you brush it off, hearing laughter from somewhere behind you. This was a stupid middle school prank, tapping a girl on the shoulder to have her turn around to no one there. You weren't falling for it. But then the tapping happened again.
"I'm not turning around." You growl annoyingly. "Try all you want, but I'm not falling for it." But the tapping just happens again. That's it. "What?" You exclaim, standing from your chair and spinning around.
You suck in a breath and let your eyes wonder his. He smiles down at you and raises his eyebrows.
"Wasn't trying to prank you." Is all he says to push you over the edge. The tears stream down your cheeks as you grab him in a hug, showing no sign of letting him go.
"I can't believe you're here!"
"Well believe it baby." He says pressing a kiss to your cheek. "Okay, let go, you're squishing me and your hat is poking me in the eye." You pull away laughing and wiping the tears away. Before you could say anything else, your assistant principal is walking up to the two of you.
"I'm sorry but you can't be in here." He says to Michael. Michael stares down at you and shrugs his shoulders. You push him back playfully and laugh.
"You have to go," You say with a smile, "So I can get out there and he won't kill you."
A/N: Happy Graduation Season to any class of 2015 whether you be college or high school graduates! We're Free!
