Work Text:
It's been a while since this unadulterated feeling of joy has swept through you. If your life was a book, this change in outlook would probably be contributed to the slender hand that slips through your right, the bed happy to hold you but willing to undergo more if you’re in the mood. But the moment doesn’t need to be tainted by sex, not yet, anyway. You can’t say that having a partner hasn’t helped, but an explanation that simple does little but dull your overall triumph. Really, one of the major pushes that got you where you were today was the simple power of graduation. Telling your family and co. about your true identity (in the sense that you really have none, maybe) elicited a mixed feed. Claude the Interloper’s reaction was expected, but then again, who the hell cared about him? Your sister was still too young to really grasp why this announcement was such a big deal, and after showing the proper interest, promptly asked to be read a bedtime story. A polite girl all around, really. And your mom, well, she was probably putting on a show for Claude (of interloping fame) with her objections and hand wringing, but then again, you’re not really sure. The two of you haven’t exactly had a conversation about the entire thing in the year that it’s been. But you’re just happy to be invited to Christmas dinner at this point. You’re in a position of power to say no...but more importantly, you’re in a position to say anything at all. Plus, Claude the Interloper can’t read “Beauty and the Beast” for shit.
It seemed like the entire ordeal would hurt more than it did, but here you are, laying on your dorm bed with a girlfriend of six months - and the waterworks haven’t cracked a bit. Maybe things really do get better. Or maybe you’re just better at handling them.
And, hey, it isn’t all roses on the campus, either. You never knew how much trouble you would get into over bathrooms. Though it’s nothing compared to the high school equivalent, you’re sure that you’re the trump card of a failing conversation at some campus party, somewhere, now and then. And again, you just don’t seem to care. It’s not apathy, it’s something more.
Hope?
Yeah, that’s the one.