The four years of misery had come to an end. I was finally graduating from college and I couldn't wait to wear the gown and go get the certificate that showed my excellence.

In the past year, nothing big happened except that I am now Jasper Anderson's girlfriend.

Since Jasper was a studious guy, I got serious as well because I would often meet him in the library. I didn't want to change him, I liked and loved being with the actual Jasper. I would get distracted but he promised me to take me out somewhere at the end of the week, even if there were submissions coming up.

We couldn't go home for Christmas last year since we were in our final year but We, Emma, Ryan, Jasper and I had a good Christmas here in New York. For New Year's Eve, we went to Times Square and at sharp midnight, Jasper and I kissed, and it was a proper passionate kiss with no one to interrupt.

Currently, I'm shopping with Emma for a good dress for the graduation night. Graduation night is just a week away and finding a good dress that has to be hidden under the graduation gown was an impossible task.

Especially when you can't decide because of the constant commentary from the next cubicle where Emma was trying about six to eight dresses.

I was confused between a white sleeveless asymmetrical dress and a black crochet dress. They were both elegant, maybe I could buy them both.

No! I have to decide.

I kept looking at the black dress I wore and the white one that was hanging in front of me. White looks pretty and elegant but black is always elegant.

I sigh and decide to go with the black.

I put on the clothes I wore and came and yelled out to Emma to get out soon. I step out and hand the lady at the entrance the white dress and held on to the black till Emma came out.

I looked down at my phone to see if I had received any messages. There were none. I sigh I put the phone back in my pocket. I sat on the couches and waited for Emma. It was taking forever but just when I thought of banging that door of the dressing she was in, she came out of the room. She saw me and walked over to me.

"Is it really hard to decide a dress for graduation? I'm so tired and I'm not sure which I should take." I look at all the dresses she was holding. I pulled two from them that caught my eyes. One of them was in the shade of orange while the other was turquoise blue. I chuckle and add the orange to the pile.

"You really think this would work?" She looks at the dress in doubt.

"Emma, it's turquoise. It always works. Just like black." I get up from the couch. "If you think it will look good on me then I shall take it." She hands the lady all the clothes that she tried on. We walk out with the two dresses in my arms. Emma checked out some accessories that would go with the dress.

We checked out after a while and we headed to my car and drove to Emma's apartment.

We had to move out of our dorms since we were done with our years in college but the graduation takes place a few months later so Emma's parents managed to find this apartment that was on rent. Till I find myself one, I decided to stay along with her.

The traffic on the streets were as usual hectic. I'm not sure how we even managed to beat that and arrive to the apartment. I plonk myself on the couch while Emma went to keep the bags in the room.

"Holly, we got no time to lie around!" I hear her yell. "It's just a matter of days until we graduate. We need to look our best for that day." She rushes and comes back to the living room.

"I'm booking an appointment for us at the beauty salon." I groan at her words.

"Emma, you sound like there is a wedding. It's just graduation! We will be wearing an oversized gown over everything." I try and explain with my eyes closed.

"But I need to get my hair done well, it's been a birds nest." I turn my head and look at her. I sigh and look away, I might as well go with her.

---

"Does this have to be heavy?" I hear Emma complain while she stood behind me wearing her gown. I look at myself in the mirror and set my cap well.

I turn around and see Emma huff, I chuckle and settle her cap. "You're looking great, Emma. Trust me even I might fall in them." I look at my gown.

We hear one of the volunteers yell to announce that we need to assemble at the square. We along with the rest of the girls walked in a line towards Washington Square.

Washington Square was a sea of college students in purple graduation gowns. We were seated according to our program. Emma had to sit somewhere away from me but she was lucky in a way because Ryan and she were in the same program.

I lean back in my seat and try to stretch my neck as much as I could to try and spot Jasper. I could find him anywhere.

I felt my purse vibrate. I take my phone out and see that I received a message from Jasper. I smile and unlock my phone to see the message.

I chuckle.

I look at the screen and wait for his response.

The ceremony began just when I sent him the message. The director and a few of the old professors have a little speech. They tried not to make it very long considering what happened the previous year.

It was soon time to go up on stage when we heard our names being called. I was getting bored and knowing that Jasper really is not a fan of texting and Emma would be busy texting Ryan, I just sit and applaud as each of my year mates collected their degree.

With the number of people in purple gowns here, my turn would take forever to come.

----

"Did you see me trip?" She laughed as she hugs me with all the excitement she could show.

"I'll keep that aside for now and concentrate on the fact that we've finally graduated!" I exclaim and hug her back.

It took a while to spot this chirpy girl but when I did, we forgot all about how heavy the graduation gown was and for the fact that we were on heels, we just ran towards each other and hugged.

"I can't believe it either." She pulls away and laughed.

I turn to Ryan and give him a hug. "Congratulations!" I say. "You too!" He says as he hugged me back. After we hug, I stand straight in front of them. "Have you seen Jasper?" I ask Ryan as I settled my cap.

"No, I was going to ask you the same." Ryan shrugs as he responds. I sigh and look at the certificate I held.

"He's standing right behind you." I heard a familiar voice, his voice. I immediately turn around and hug him. I heard him chuckle before he hugs me back.

"Congratulations Holly."

"Congratulations Jasper." I hug him tighter.

After a minute, Jasper let go of the hug and congratulated Ryan and Emma. We continued to have a little chat in a circle and congratulated anybody who came to us. Among those people, I saw some familiar faces, I instantly smiled, so did Jasper.

Sarah, Peter, Jessica, Jesse and James walked over to where we were at. Peter and Sarah hugged their son and then turned to me and hugged me too. James was now six years old but he still looked adorable for his age, he came up to me and I picked him up. Emma and Ryan were introduced by Jasper to his parents while I interacted with the twins and James.

It seemed like forever since I last saw them even if I saw them on Skype once in a while. Emma soon joined me and started to the twins. She wanted to meet them ever since I got back from Philadelphia that winter.

While I laughed on one of Jesse's silly jokes, my eyes met with those that were similar to.

My heart beats were extra fast out of happiness when I saw my parents standing three feet away from me. I carefully set James back on the ground and excused myself from them and walked over to my parents.

"You guys actually made it!" I smile.

"We've lost a lot, we couldn't possibly want to miss the day you graduate." my mother pulled me into her arms and hugged me. Feeling her warmth and the fact that dad and mom had flown all the way to New York made me her back tight.

After I hug my mother, I turned to my father. Instead of me hugging him first, he hugged me. I hugged him back. It felt great to have them both here. When I was done hugging my father, I wiped the tears that fell on my cheeks.

I felt Jasper come and stand beside me, my father had a small frown on his forehead.

I slowly locked my arms with Jasper and took in a deep breathe before introducing my parents to Jasper.

"Mom, Dad." I look at both of them. "This is Jasper, my boyfriend." I introduce them to Jasper. Jasper like a gentleman greeted my parents by shaking their hands.

"I'm so happy to have finally met you Jasper." my mother looks at Jasper. "I've heard a lot about you over the past year and I wanted to thank you for all that you have done," she tells him. I look up at Jasper, wondering how he was to reply.

"I did nothing." he begins to say and then he looks at me. " I just made her see things a little different. It was all her." he smiles and completes his sentence. My parents seem satisfied by his answer, which was nothing but he rarely spoke a lot.

"Is there anything that we could do for what you have done for us?" my dad asks Jasper. Jasper held my hand firm and gave a small nod.

"I know it's a little late now but do I have your permission to date your daughter?" I chuckle, so does my mother. My father nodded his head and had a smile on his face. "You can indeed date her."

Jasper thanked him.

I had to leave Jasper after some time because my parents wanted to spend the rest of the day with me, Jasper gladly lets me go. He would be the first person to make me go if I weren't to go.

I kiss him goodbye, wave at Emma and Ryan and then walked with my parents to where they had parked their car.

My parents treated me to a lovely late lunch at a lovely restaurant. I've only seen in movies how it was to have a meal outside at a restaurant with family. It felt amazing to have my parents sit in front of me and have a casual conversation while we had our meal.

My mother was over the moon, she wanted to take me shopping the very same day. She took me to several shops and tried to get me a lot of things. Dresses, tops, jeans, a variety of shoes, I couldn't walk by the end of it.

We were finally done and we were in the car.

"Did you have fun?" my mom asks, I nod with a genuine smile. I really did have fun. I lean back and tried to close my eyes for a bit but my father told me that my day wasn't up yet.

He gave the driver a series of directions, the driver followed my father's words and went according to the directions. After some time, the driver stopped the car. My parents got out of the car, I didn't move because I wasn't sure of what they were up to.

My father told me to get out of the car when he saw that I wasn't standing along with them. I got out of the car and we were in a street with several buildings on either side of the street.

My parents walked into one of the buildings on the same side that we had gotten down on. Without a word, I followed them and got into the building. I saw them climb the stairs that were right in front of me, I let out a small sigh realizing that I was still on heels.

I climbed the four flights of stairs and found them both standing in front of a door. When my dad saw that I had finally caught up with them, he reached for something in the pocket of his pants and pulled out a key. He unlocked the door and they both stepped in.

I stood at the door and looked at the empty apartment that was in front of me.

Why were they here in an empty apartment?

Were they planning to move to New York?

What about the house in LA?

"Come on in, Holly!" My mum calls out to me, with a nervous nod I step in.

"Why don't you check this place out." Dad tells me, keeping all my thoughts in mind, I follow my dad's suggestion and walked further into the apartment.

There was a kitchen on my right, I could see that from where I was standing. I turn to my left and walk down the corridor. On the right, there was a small room and right in front of me was a large room with a wardrobe and an attached bath.

It was gorgeous!

When I turned to head back to where parents were waiting for me, I noticed that the floor had maple wood flooring. They were my favourite.

My parents had a big smile on their face when they saw me but seeing two rooms, regardless of their size made me think of them moving in here.

"So, what do you think?" My dad asks.

"It's good." I say and look around at the room. "But I haven't understood why you wanted me to check the place out." I say with a soft chuckle.

There was silence between the three of us, my parents looked at each other and then they turned to me.

"We think you've come to an age of having a place to yourself." My dad begins to say, I wait for them to continue.

"You'll be working soon and it's hard to find a place in this busy city." My mom continues.

"So we thought of giving you a place, as a graduation present." My eyes widen when my dad spoke.

"Y-you mean to say this is my place?" I ask they both nod their heads.

"It's all yours. No renting, it's in your name." Dad shrugs and says.

"But it must have cost a lot." I gasp and say.

"That's not for you to worry about." Mom came close to me. "It's the least we could do for all the years when we ignored you and us not be good parents." I could feel my eyes tear up. My mother put her arms around me and I sobbed a little.

"The fact that you came for the ceremony was the best gift I could have asked for." I say. "Four years back, I had my doubts if you would." I add.

"A lot changed in the past years and we both promise that from now on, it's all going to be different and we will be a family." I heard dad say as he came over to us. He hugged the two of us, like a sandwich, I was in the centre.

"Just so you know, Holly." I hear my mother. "You were never a mistake or a burden." I smile a little and hug her tight.

It felt different, it felt good because it was a feeling that I always wanted to feel.