Just a heads up, I'm using replacement names🖐️ Eve = Fei (me) Tiff = wife ❤️
The auditorium was too loud.
Too full of people Eve didn’t care about.
Teachers were smiling too hard, parents were crying too hard, classmates were hugging each other like the world was ending instead of beginning. The air smelled like flowers, sweat, cheap perfume, and the fog machine the school had apparently decided was necessary for graduation.
Eve sat in her folding chair near the front row, tassel crooked over one eye, fingers drumming anxiously against her gown.
Bounce bounce bounce bounce—
“Eve” a teacher hissed quietly from beside the stage. “You’re next.”
But her mind wasn’t on the diploma.
It definitely wasn’t on Principal Velez giving the same speech he’d given every year about “spreading your wings.”
Because Tiff wasn’t there.
Or at least… she wasn’t supposed to be.
New Jersey had held graduation earlier that morning. Eve had watched through a laggy livestream from the bathroom while pretending to “fix her makeup.” Tiff had looked gorgeous in her cap and gown, grinning so hard her cheeks hurt, waving directly at the camera because she knew Eve was watching.
Then Tiff had texted her:
Tiff: Wish I could be there for yours :(
Tiff: I’ll make it up to you, kitty❤️
Tiff: Proud of you already btw💕
Tiff: gonna cry when you walk that stage❤️
Eve: if u cry i’m disowning u
Tiff: liar. u love me too much🤗
Eve had smiled so hard her face hurt.
Now she just felt hollow.
Because she wanted Tiff here.
Wanted her loud laugh in the crowd.
Wanted her screaming embarrassingly loud.
Wanted her arms wrapping around her after the ceremony.
Instead, Tiff was two states away.
So Eve swallowed the ache down and stood when her row was called.
The heels she’d stubbornly chosen clicked against the polished floor.
The crowd clapped politely as students crossed the stage one by one.
Eve barely heard any of it.
The applause grew louder.
Eve stepped forward automatically.
Her hazel eyes scanned the crowd anyway, hopelessly searching even though she knew—
Her head snapped toward the back of the auditorium so fast her tassel whipped across her face.
Standing near the entrance doors—
Curly hair messy from the drive.
Breathing hard like she’d sprinted inside.
Still wearing part of her graduation outfit beneath a leather jacket.
Smiling like Eve was the only thing in the room.
The entire auditorium erupted.
Didn’t care about the principal calling after her.
Didn’t care about the diploma nearly slipping from her hand.
Nearly tripping over her gown.
Actually kicking off one heel halfway there.
People shouted as she shoved past rows of chairs.
But then Tiff opened her arms.
And Eve launched herself directly into them.
Tiff caught her effortlessly with a loud laugh, stumbling back a step as Eve wrapped around her like a clingy cat.
“Course I came,” Tiff breathed.
Completely uncaring about the hundreds of people around them.
The crowd lost their minds.
Cheers exploded through the auditorium.
Someone screamed, “GET ITTTT!”
Hands tangled in Tiff’s curls.
Tiff smiling into the kiss before kissing her back even deeper, one hand under Eve’s thighs to keep her lifted against her.
Happy in that overwhelming, chest-aching way that made her want to cry and laugh at the same time.
When they finally pulled apart, Eve’s face was completely red.
“You drove all the way here?” she whispered.
Tiff grinned. “Three hours.”
Eve made a strangled emotional noise and buried her face in Tiff’s neck immediately.
“Aww,” Tiff teased softly, rubbing her back. “Did my pretty kitty miss me~?”
“Because I’m emotional, dumbass.”
“Language,” a teacher called weakly from nearby.
Eve flipped them off blindly without looking.
Tiff nearly choked trying not to laugh too hard.
“C’mon,” she murmured softly against Eve's hair. “Go finish graduating, pretty girl.”
“You literally have to-.”
“Oh, I absolutely could.”
Eve peeked up at her immediately. “Promise?”
And five minutes later, after Eve officially got yelled at and THEN officially graduated, Tiff absolutely carried her out bridal style while Eve clung to her like a koala.
That night, New York felt soft.
Warm summer air drifted through the backyard while fairy lights glowed across the fence.
Music played faintly from inside the house where both the Gomez and Ro’meave families were still celebrating loudly.
Jose and Garroth were arguing over grilling techniques.
Lizzy had already cried three separate times.
Ruby kept taking pictures.
Zianna kept calling Eve “her graduate.”
But eventually she escaped.
And somehow Tiff always knew where she went.
The grass was cool beneath them as they laid side-by-side in the backyard, tucked beneath an old blanket Tiff had dragged outside.
The stars above New York weren’t super visible.
But tonight, they looked beautiful anyway.
Eve rested on Tiff’s chest, listening to her heartbeat.
Tiff’s fingers lazily combed through Eve’s brown hair.
“You tackled me in front of your entire school,” Tiff said eventually.
“I think one of the teachers was recording.”
Eve tilted her head up slightly. “You really drove all the way here just for ten minutes?”
Tiff looked down at her softly.
“You graduating mattered.”
Eve felt her throat tighten instantly.
“And,” Tiff added teasingly, “I wanted my dramatic movie moment.”
Eve rolled her eyes fondly before settling closer again.
For a while they just stayed there listening to distant laughter from inside the house.
The wind rustled through the trees.
A car horn sounded somewhere far away.
Tiff traced shapes against Eve's arm absentmindedly.
“The way you screamed and ran at me?” Tiff laughed softly. “Thought you were gonna knock us both over.”
“You absolutely could’ve.”
“No, like…” Eve swallowed. “Really missed you.”
The distance sucked sometimes.
New Jersey and New York weren’t impossibly far, but they weren’t close enough either.
And now graduation meant things were changing even more.
It scared her more than she liked admitting.
“I don’t wanna grow up,” Eve whispered.
Tiff looked down immediately.
The vulnerability in Eve’s voice was rare.
Tiff gently brushed her thumb across ’s cheek.
“You know growing up doesn’t mean losing everything, right?”
Eve stared at the stars quietly.
That made Eve’s eyes sting instantly.
Tiff continued softly, “And I know I’m not going anywhere.”
Eve buried her face against her again.
Tiff pressed a kiss to the top of her head.
Then another just because she could.
Eve made a soft, content little noise.
“You literally graduated.”
“And you tackled your girlfriend in front of hundreds of people.”
Eve tilted her head up again, studying her face in the dim glow from the backyard lights.
Loved the softness in her eyes.
Loved the warmth in her smile.
Loved how safe she always felt around her.
“You looked really pretty today,” Eve whispered.
“If I asked you to dance with me right now, would you?”
“In a backyard at midnight?”
And under the stars, with muffled laughter spilling from the house and graduation gowns abandoned nearby—
They danced slowly together in the backyard.
Like nothing else in the world mattered.
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