AN: A caffeine and depression fueled fic based on reality. I do leave uni in the morning, to go back home, and it's the last thing I want to do right now. Axel/Kairi. Prompt 93 - "Give up".
The music plays, people talk, and it's all just background noise to me. If you'd asked me, when I started university, I'd have described the three years as stretching endlessly ahead of me. Tonight, it's my last night here. I leave in the morning, after three years that have seemed entirely too short. I've tasted freedom, and I'm not ready to give it up, not just yet. But give it up I must. No more going to bed at one in the morning, no more lounging around 'til noon. From now on, I have to keep sensible hours, eat all meals with the family (no more pizza for breakfast if I feel like it) and keep the music turned down.
If I could afford a place of my own, then that's what I'd do, but I can't yet. I take a drink that's offered to me, and drain the glass in one long gulp, just because I can. Tomorrow, this all ends. People are talking to me, but I'm simply not interested. All I want is to keep this freedom that I've been enjoying.
The song lyrics seep into my alcohol-dazed brain, and they're the only thing at this party that makes sense to me. "Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road…" I find a seat near a set of speakers, and listen to the song. It's an old favourite, but I don't think I ever related to it so much before. "I hope you had the time of your life." The time of my life? Well, maybe. I learned that I'm perfectly capable of coping alone – that I don't need my parents hovering protectively over me all of the time.
Oh yes, the drinking is something else that I'll have to give up when I get home. My mother just wouldn't approve.
And that leads me to the biggest problem of all, and the one thing that, above all, I would never be able to leave behind. I'm talking about Axel. My parents don't know about him for the very simple reason that I haven't mentioned him. Not even once. When they sent me off to university, I was the perfect little daughter I'd always been. If they saw me now, they wouldn't even recognise me. They certainly wouldn't approve of him – he drinks, smokes, rides a motorbike. He's got long hair, he wears make-up. Hell, even I wasn't allowed cosmetics when I left home, and I was an eighteen year old female.
Speaking of Axel, I haven't seen him for a while. He's here somewhere, though. I get to my feet, swaying unsteadily, and start looking for him. He's hard to miss, what with his cherry red hair, even brighter than mine. When I find him, he's actually made it to his bedroom, and he's barely awake. I curl up in his arms, wanting so much for this night to never end. I fall asleep there, with him, I'm almost certain of it, and that is where I want to stay.