You And I: On Tour

Troye X

The day of graduation dawned bright but cold. Still half asleep, I reached over to where Connor had been when we fell asleep but my hand was met with cold sheets. My eyes snapped open, searching my line of vision for him.

"Connor?" I called quietly, knowing my brother was still asleep in the room next door. There was no answer so I threw off the covers and climbed out of bed. He wasn't anywhere to be found in my room or my bathroom so I headed down to the kitchen, thinking he might be there making coffee. Mom was there, but no Connor.

"Morning, sweetie." She greeted me, looking up from the newspaper she was reading.

"Hi mom. Have you seen Connor?"

"I have. He asked me to give you this." She was grinning as she handed me a silver envelope with my name on the front in Connor's handwriting. I tore it open to find a simple card with 'Congratulations' written on the front.

"What...?" I frowned, opening it. Inside was just one sentence.

Meet me at our place. xx love you xx

"Don't worry about breakfast. Just get dressed and go." Mom said. I frowned. Clearly she was in on whatever it was that Connor had planned.

"No hints?" I questioned.

"No. I'm sworn to secrecy." I rolled my eyes but headed back up to my room to get dressed, eager to find out what Connor was up to.

In fifteen minutes I was in my car, heading towards the lake where we'd spent so much time over the last summer. It had still been pretty cold the last few weeks so I wondered why he'd chosen to go to the lake.

The sun shone down brightly through the trees as I turned off the highway. It wasn't long before I spotted Connor's car parked to the side but he wasn't in it. I parked my car and got out, following the familiar path down to the edge of the lake.

For a moment, I couldn't see him anywhere but I eventually spotted him right by the water, almost in it. He wasn't looking in my direction so I called out to him.

"Connor!" He spun around at the sound and grinned.

"Happy graduation, babe." He started walking towards me. When he was close enough, he hugged me tight and pressed a kiss to my cheek.

"Happy graduation to you too. Are you going to tell me why we're here?" I asked. He just smiled and gestured for me to sit down. I obliged and he sat down beside me.

"I've got some news for you."

"Good or bad?"

"I think it's good." He took hold of my hands as he continued. "I got into MIT."

"Oh my god, Connor! That's amazing!" I threw my arms around him and kissed him in congratulations.

"That's not all though."

"No?"

"I found an apartment close to campus that I think will be perfect for us."

"I didn't know you were looking."

"I wasn't. When I got my acceptance letter, there was a brochure about off-campus housing and I had a look at some of the apartments online."

"Do I get to see it?"

"Of course. It's going to be your house too." He nudged my nose with his. "But I really think it's the one Troye. It's just perfect."

"If you love it, I'm sure I will too." I promised. We sat together for a while longer until we had to leave to get to the ceremony on time. As we walked to our cars, we swung our hands between us, enjoying our last moments of being high school seniors.

"I guess I'll see you there." He said, leaning against his car with his hands on my waist.

"Of course. I'll be cheering the loudest when you get your diploma." I promised, kissing the tip of his nose.

"And I'll be cheering the loudest when you get yours."

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Mom and dad insisted on driving us all together to the ceremony so I was squashed in between Sage and Tyde in the backseat. Somehow, Steele had managed to be allowed to come in his own car so he was the only one not with us but he met us at the entrance to the auditorium where the ceremony was taking place.

"Troye!" I turned at the sound of my name and saw Zoe bounding over, Joe and Alfie close behind.

"Hey guys. Congratulations." I said, hugging each of them. "Zo, you look amazing."

"Thanks, Troye." She giggled and spun on the spot so that the skirt of her pretty black dress swirled around her legs. "And congratulations to you too."

"Can you believe we're seconds away from finally getting out of this place?" Alfie said, tossing an arm lazily over Zoe's shoulder.

"You guys are. I've still got another year." Joe said with a pout.

"Aww. You'll be fine, Joe. It's only a year." I comforted him. "I'm sure we will come and see you sometimes."

"You'd better. Or I'll come to your dorm rooms in the middle of the night and freak you out." He threatened.

"That is if you know where our dorm rooms are." Tyler's voice came from behind me and I smiled over my shoulder at him. "You guys look great."

"So do you, Ty." I replied.

"Where's your boy?" Alfie asked suddenly, looking around.

"He's coming separately." I explained. "His family wanted to drive with him, as did mine."

"Fair enough. You two spend all your time together every other day. It's only fair that your families request this day with you." Tyler reasoned.

"Exactly." I agreed. The five of us stood around chatting, the group slowly growing until everyone but Connor was with us.

"He's taking his time." Kayla complained. We wanted to get a group photo but because Connor wasn't there, we were running out of time. Most of the other students were already inside. I stood up on my tip-toes to try and spot him, my eyes scanning the shrinking crowd. Behind me, our friends continued to take photos with small groups and pairs as we waited.

Finally I spotted him, running along in front of his family, searching for me. I raised my hand to wave a him until he spotted me, a grin crossing his face.

"Sorry guys. Dustin got caught in traffic on his way home" He apologised when he got close enough.

"All good. You're just in time. We're taking a group photo." Tanya told him, pulling the both of us over to the group. It took a moment for us to get ourselves in the right spots so everyone could be seen. We ended up in two lines with Zoe, Kayla, Niomi, Connor and Tanya in front while Marcus, Tyler, Jim, Alfie, Caspar and I were in the back. As much as Joe wanted to be in the photo, we wanted one with just the graduating group. Once we had one, Joe jumped in the front line and we took another photo too, to make him happy.

Then, it was time for the ceremony. We rejoined our families, leading them to their seats and then scattered ourselves through the rows of students, finding our names on the alphabetically assigned seats.