The chocolate-colored eyes, belonging to the petite, Asian girl with luxurious curls who stood in the reflection, brought a shudder down the spine of Tina Cohen-Chang. Glancing to the right of the mirror, her gaze caught a calendar with the date that had been marked with a red circle for an enduring period of time. This was the day that she had awaited from the day that she first stepped into the hallways of McKinley High School. Graduation Day.
She remembered the insecure, color-streaked haired girl who wanted nothing more than to get out of there as quickly as possible. Little did that freshman girl who only had two Facebook friends know that these four years would move just too quickly for her liking or that she would meet lifetime friends. And a soulmate.
Tina glared down at the dark, black dress that furrowed out from underneath the blazing red graduation gown. It had been exactly a year since she repeated the outfit. The memory of sitting eagerly with Brittany on her right and Blaine on her left made her mouth dry and her heart rate climb. Her thumb rubs against the lower rim of the dress.
"Mike! You spilled fruit punch all over the end of my dress!" Tina gushed while she sat on top of Mike's bed as she furiously tried to keep a straight face to avoid laughter from spilling over. Mike's innocent face with a hint of guilt was ten times as harder to not forgive especially when he was dressed up for his big day. His red-tinted lips from the beverage danced and lowered towards hers in attempt to curve her struggling act of anger. Tina released a giggle that vibrated against their intertwined lips and dared Mike to speak out in forgiveness.
"I'm sorry, Tee. Do you think you could ever forgive me?" Mike pleaded, pulling away ever so slightly so that she could see his widened eyes begging for mercy.
"You are lucky you're so damn cute," she retorted, pulling him back onto his bed like they were before. Their lips meshed together as they tried to avoid the inevitable conversations about the future, graduation, and plans. Tina's mind still couldn't help but swirl the doubts that come September everything would be different. Feeling the tension built up from the brunette, Mike pulled away and grazed a thumb over her flushed cheek.
"What's wrong?" he asked even though he was confident that he knew the answer to his own question.
"I know that we still have all of sum-summer but today is the day that makes it all official…" Tina began to stutter, "Mike, I can't say goodbye. I'm so p-proud of you but this marks the beginning of the end."
As a tear fell down the cheek of the frightened girl, Mike leaned in to kiss it away. "Tina, you're the only girl for me. This is the beginning of a new chapter, not the end of the book. I have tremendous plans for you and me. In just a year, I'll be right back in Lima where you are sitting today in the auditorium cheering you on as you get your diploma. You have to believe me when I say that this is a forever kind of thing." The edges of Tina's lips compulsorily pulled up into a slight grin from the reassurance. She couldn't imagine her life without the man that laid beside her and almost wish that this moment was as eternal as her feelings for him.
"Michael! Tina! We're leaving in five minutes!"
They both scrambled to their feet and tripped over each other in attempt to get up. Tina ended up hovering over Mike and a tearful laugh escaped her lips.
"I love you so much."
Tina's thumb traveled from the bottom of her dress up to her face to avoid tear-stained cheeks on her big day. She knew that Mike was guaranteed to not be there in the crowd like he stupidly promised the previous year. She had stalked him the other day on Instagram, like an inquisitive, heartsick girlfriend she was, and knew that he was spending the weekend up in the Rocky Mountains with college friends. The brunette was glad on one hand that she wouldn't have to put on a brave, sarcastic face again but the other part of her yearned to be able to be around him again.
The black outfit that draped over her curves was suppose to symbolize new beginnings but she could only think about former aching.