Best of Friends

Epilogue - Coffee & Catching Up

I couldn't be more grateful for people like you. Thanks for sticking around to the end. 

Much love, xoxoxo Maddie

Epilogue - Coffee & Catching Up 

I was more than four months into college before I realized that I'd somehow settled into this way of life better than I'd ever expected. I had my own place, my own friends, my own things. I felt like I had better control of my life than I had in a long time. And it was nice.

I was sitting at my desk, writing in my creative writing class-required journal and reflecting on my day when my phone buzzed. It was from my roommate, and it had only the words:

Baylor:

Why does this emoji have such a big nose? with the long nose emoji at the end of the text. I looked over at my roommate, studying on her bed with a textbook in hand. She wasn't more than ten feet from me, and she had to text me.

"Baylor?" I asked, and she looked up at me with a smile.

"A girl needs to know," she said, shrugging, and I laughed.

Baylor and I were best friends. We'd met the first day of school after becoming roommates, and she was fantastic. Because Mellie had ended up going to a different college, we facetimed every night to stay in touch, but here at OSU, Baylor was my best friend. She was innocent-looking with the dirtiest mind I knew and loved going out dancing and to parties. She knew more people than I could ever imagine knowing, and everyone loved her. But at the same time, she was always down for ice cream and face masks and Rom-Coms on Netflix. I was lucky to have her as my best friend here.

I loved OSU. I loved the campus and the people and the library was phenomenal. The multitude of floors overlooking the lobby, and the metal statue everyone rubbed on their way out the doors was only part of the reason. Football games were always fun and I was looking forward to the Mirror Lake jump after we beat that team up north. OSU was my dream school, and I didn't regret coming. I was living my dream. Without Iain, which is something that a few months ago, I never thought was possible.

My phone buzzed again, and I looked down to see a text from Iain. My heart pounded a little. While we'd considered ourselves no longer together, we weren't really broken up either. He'd gotten a job four hours away, and it was his dream job. We both had to follow our dreams, and they just weren't together.

Iain:

I need to sleep with you. It read and I couldn't help but smile a little. So I replied with:

Zzz or ;) and waited for his reply.

Iain:

Preferably both. I'm in Columbus. I miss you and I want to see you.

I nearly screamed. He was here. I could see him. It would be the first time since I'd moved to college that I would get to see him.

"What's going on, you got ants in your pants?" Baylor asked.

"It's Iain," I said. She knew most of the story after I'd spilled it all to her when I was drunk one night. She screamed back at me, running over to read my texts.

"He's here!" she screamed, "Are you going to go see him?"

"I think so. I mean...," I trailed off.

"Yes! You should, oh my God, can I be your bridesmaid?" she asked.

"Baylor! We're not even together...technically. I don't think I can pick bridesmaids yet," I said.

"Still," she said.

"Sure," I rolled my eyes, and texted him my address on campus. Baylor spent the next hour doing my makeup and picking out my clothes to see him. I didn't care as much as she did, but I was still nervous. While Iain had seen me in just about everything, we still hadn't seen each other in months.

We agreed to meet at a coffee shop just off of campus. I walked through the chilly campus and wondered how in such a short amount of time I'd been able to call this concrete campus home. It was more home to me than my actual home at this point. But I kind of loved it. The leaves were changing on the trees and the Oval looked particularly stunning. I got to the coffee shop and the door chimed, announcing my entrance. I looked up to see Iain in a casual t-shirt and black jeans sitting at a table with two cups.

"Hi," he said.

"Hi," I replied and I realized that our end was another beginning.