When I turned around, his eyes were wet.
He laughed and wiped them fast. “Don’t get cocky.”
I grinned. “Too late.”
That night we ate takeout on the couch with the TV still on in the background. My phone buzzed all evening with congratulations. Friends, professors, people I barely knew.
And somewhere in the middle of all that noise, a quiet thought slipped in.
If she saw me now, would she be proud?
I hated that I wondered.
I hated that some small, stubborn part of me still cared.
Then last Saturday happened.
