Letters by Her [Book 2]

Chapter 27

"We're seniors, bitches!" Ashley declared as she threw open the front door to Kappa Pi.

"I think the whole campus heard you." Dusty smirked as she walked up the front garden, pulling along her own bag and one of her friend's many suitcases.

"Come on, it's exciting, our last chance to rule the roost here." Dusty shrugged in a noncommittal gesture. "I need you to rally some enthusiasm for our last year. You were giddy with excitement during the drive down! Aren't you glad I finally pulled you away from Kyera so you could have some us time?"

"Yeah, it was fun." Dusty smiled.

"So where is all that energy? Where is the girl who mooned an woman on the interstate?" Ashley giggled at the memory.

"I just... now we're back here, it's real, you know? This is our last year here, our last chance to do this, and then we'll be in the real world and not together all the time." Dusty's shoulders slumped with sadness. Ashley wrapped an arm around her best friend and nodded knowingly.

"Dusty, I'm sad too that this is our last year here together, but that's all the more reason to make it count. This is the fourth and final time we get to do this, so let's do it in style and go out with a bang!"

"You're right," Dusty declared, sounding more enthused.

"That's the spirit. Now wake up this house and tell them what the hell we are," Ashley instructed in a loud and passionate voice as though she were a football coach giving a mid-game pep talk during a playoff match.

Dusty smiled at her friend, wishing she could mentally photograph each and every moment they spent together so that it would forever be committed to memory, never losing its magic or potency. Then she turned her head into the Kappa Pi house and shouted at the top of her lungs: "We're seniors, bitches!" 

**** 

For Dusty the jubilance of her senior year was short lived. All of her classes were tougher than previous years, the assignments requiring more of her time. The visions she had of a fun-filled final year turned out to be mere illusions.

"I'm constantly having one exam after another," she moaned to Ashley as they sat in their bedroom bent over textbooks.

"Tell me about it." Ashley sighed. "Between classes and all my presidential Kappa Pi duties, I barely get any time to myself. I can't even remember the last time I had a Sex and the City marathon!"

"These are trying times, indeed." Dusty laughed.

"I just keep thinking that if we work hard now, then it will all be worth it. But I'm wrong, because we work hard now to get decent jobs where we will just have to work even harder." Ashley shoved her textbook away with her foot in frustration.

"It'll be okay, Ash."

"My dad already has a job lined up for me," Ashley admitted.

"That's good, isn't it?" Dusty looked up from her book.

"Where is it?"

"The senator's office in L.A."

"Ash, that's an amazing opportunity. I thought that was exactly the sort of thing you were looking to do!"

"It is, and I am..." Ashley shifted uncomfortably from her position cross-legged on the carpeted floor, surrounded by her political science textbooks.

"Then what is it?" Dusty closed her book, focusing on her troubled friend.

"I just wanted to do it on my own, not have him bail me out yet again. I've done all the hard work here at Princeton. I wanted to get a job on my own merit."

"I'm sure the fact that you will be graduating from Princeton speaks highly enough of you. Your dad probably only needed to introduce you to them as a candidate."

"Even so." Ashley rolled her eyes in frustration. "My dad is just so controlling. I know he's well intentioned."

"Exactly, he just wants to help."

"I just get so frustrated sometimes. And it doesn't help that currently I'm all work and no play, which makes me a dull girl."

"Don't worry, I feel exactly the same. I haven't even had time to see Kyera in almost a week."

"Really? And you guys are like joined at the hip or something!" Ashley teased.

"We are not."

"Are too! I'm beginning to wonder if you don't share vital organs, hence the constant need for closeness."

"Whatever." Dusty smiled and reopened her textbook. Each moment was so precious and in need of cramming in as much information into her head as possible.

"Do you know the worst part?" Ashley asked.

"The worst part about my Siamese connection to Kyera?"

"No," Ashley laughed, "about my dad getting me this job."

"What's the worst part?"

"That they wanted me to start right after graduation."

"Oh no." Dusty's face fell. "But that would mean—"

"Don't worry, I categorically told him that I'd only take the job if we got to have our European summer adventure. And he agreed."

"Thank goodness."

"But still, I was pissed at the mere suggestion of losing our holiday. These days it's all I can cling on to. We've both more than earned a break."

"Too right." Dusty sighed, struggling to get her mind to remember a certain complex equation.

"Have you had a chance to look into jobs?" Ashley asked carefully.

"Huh, um, yeah, I applied to a few financial firms in New York."

"The big apple?" Ashley raised her eyebrows in surprise.

"I always dreamed about working there, but I doubt it will pan out," Dusty said.

"It might. I don't see why it shouldn't," Ashley said. "And I've always wanted to go girly shopping on Fifth Avenue."

"We'd so do that." Dusty smiled.

"I'd be so jealous if you went to live in New York. You'd be living out my Sex and the City fantasy." Ashley made a mock pouting face.

"You can come and stay whenever you like."

"Every weekend it is, then," Ashley joked.
"How's Kyera feel about it?"

Dusty stiffened at the question. "We haven't really discussed the future."

"Graduation is in just over a month. Now might be the time to talk about it," Ashley said, her eyes wide with concern.

"She's not one for talking about the future."

"That may be, but the future is going to happen, whether or not you guys discuss it."