Graduation day begins quietly, but nothing about it feels small. The sky is still washed in pale gold when I step outside, the air cool against my skin, carrying that soft stillness that exists only in the space before everything changes. For a moment, I let myself stand there, barefoot on the edge of something that feels both like an ending and a beginning, my chest tightening with everything this day holds. We made it. After everything, the pain, the loss, the fear, the moments I thought I would lose them… I am still here. They are still here. And somehow… we are whole. The low rumble of an engine breaks through the quiet, grounding me. I don’t need to look to know who it is, but I do anyway, my lips curving slightly as Harley’s truck pulls up in front of me like it always has. Familiar. Steady. Unshakable. He leans across the seat, pushing the passenger door open without a word,
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