Music sounds better with you

You and me, Nick Nelson, forever and always

The rest of the day moves by in a flash.

Once he's finished having his professional photos taken (one of him with a fake degree, one with his mum, one with Charlie, one with the both of them either side of him), they head over to the admin office to collect his official paperwork and degree certificate. The queue is long and it takes them about an hour to move through it, but Charlie and his mum keep him entertained by doing silly impressions and teasing him for all the little wobbles he's had with both of them over the years.
He'd run the risk of being offended if they weren't clearly doing it with all the love in the world.

His heart is so full; his mum can't stop hugging him at every opportunity she gets, repeating time and time again how proud she is of him and Charlie both, and every single time she says it, Charlie flushes the most beautiful red colour, like he still can't quite believe his mum-in-law is so unbearably fond of him.

It sounds silly, but in his head he can't help but revel in the fact that he's got his mum and he's got Charlie, and they're here for him. Nobody else gets his mum and his Charlie, which sounds like quite a sad existence for them, if he's being honest.

From there, they head back to the main hall so Nick can return his cap and gown, but not before his mother has taken some more pictures of him outside his first year accommodation, and then outside the campus bar he used to frequent when he lived next door to it, and then outside Charlie's first year accommodation for some reason.

Nick's happy to humour her, and he's even happier when he manages to reunite with Ben and Holly and their contingents, who are all having a drink in a marquee in the quad. They join them for a Pimms, then they all join together to make the walk from campus to the pub they've booked their meal at. They've got a table booked for 32 people, all six of the housemates plus their parents and other halves, and when they get there it's not ready yet, so they all congregate by the bar and share bottles of prosecco that Ben's dad buys for them all.
Pretty soon, Claire and her family turn up, and hot on their heels are both Manrika and Harry and their groups. Once everyone's arrived, they're seated and menus are dished out, then more prosecco arrives for the table and it continues to flow as starters are ordered.

Once the waiters have disappeared with their humongous order, Ben, who somehow managed to snag the seat at the head of the table, stands up and taps the side of his glass with his bread knife.

"Everyone? Can I have everyone's attention?"
"No," Harry calls from the other end to the table, and everyone chuckles. Ben flips him off.
"I was about to tell you how much I love the five of you, but Harry's now excluded, I think."
"Boo!"
"Shut up a minute!" Ben whines, but he's laughing. "Listen, it's just, like, the most insane thing to me that I'm still friends with all five of you. You hear all these horror stories about people rooming with absolute nightmares in their first year and... well, everything they said was true. I ended up meeting five of the rudest, loudest, messiest losers I could ever have imagined, and I love each and every one of you so bloody much."
"Here, here!"
Ben raises his glass. "To us. The sorry six from Flat 17, onto becoming the... the c-words of Chestnut Grove. I'm going to miss you all so much." He raises it higher. "To us!"
"To us!"

Everyone stands as they raise their glasses, echoing the words, and they all drink.
The meal is decadent and lovely. Nick sits between his two favourite people and eats his favourite meal from his favourite pub's menu, sipping wine he'd never pay for in a million years as everyone gets progressively merrier and tipsier. He chats with everyone he can and he doesn't think he's laughed so hard in ages, particularly when Holly does an absolutely spot-on impression on a hungover Harry and ends up spilling her glass all over her pudding.

It's coming up to eight o'clock by the time all their plates are cleared away. Some of the group have parents who need to drive home, but Sarah is staying another night in the hotel, so they make arrangements for brunch the following morning. Nick's just booking a table for three at a restaurant in the city centre on his phone, when a familiar presence appears behind him.