Author's Note: One-Shot, post Graduation Day. Buffy's thoughts.
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Graduating
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The cool night air embraces you as you trod the familiar path to your home. A million and one thoughts race through your head, fighting for dominance. You've abandoned the company of your friends to muse in solitude, though you suppose that solitude is much more deeply rooted into your nature than you are willing to admit. Sometimes you think you were destined to be alone. This thought rings truer now that you consider all that you've lost. You were never good at relationships, but you truly believed that you could've worked this one out. Maybe you were to blame for its dissolution; maybe it was your fault for falling for the boy from the wrong side of the tracks. But you couldn't help it. You didn't know you had a choice in the matter. The oh-so-popular saying love hurts pops into your head, and you suddenly understand its meaning far better than you ever did before. You try to convince yourself that there is no point in mourning the inevitable, but a part of you is stubbornly clinging to the hope that you can overcome the crap that life has dealt you.
You reflect on your life; how it used to be, how it will turn out. You're saddened by the realization that you've been forced to grow up way too fast. You're only eighteen, yet you've experienced more than your fair share of horrors. You have a responsibility, a duty, which nobody can possibly understand, singling you out once more. Maybe it's better this way. Maybe being alone means hurting less people, and all you've ever wanted to do was end the pain.
Your thoughts wander back to your newly single status. The one boy, no, man, you've ever truly loved has left you tonight, and you fight the unbearable urge to crawl under the covers and whisper his name repeatedly until he comes back to you. He's the only one who gets you. You often wonder if he knows you better than you know yourself, and perhaps that is the reason he has deserted you. Perhaps he knew that this is what you needed before you knew it yourself. You do know one thing, however. You know that he will always be your soul mate, and any other relationship you attempt to have will pale in comparison. He needn't worry about you finding a better life. He's already stolen your heart, and now your dreams of a future filled with happiness have walked off into the darkness with him.
You round the corner and take pause. Despite all of the trials you've undergone, despite the hell that was the past week, you can't help but feel an odd sense of closure. You try to fight the smile that is forming on your lips, but fail. Because despite all of this, there is reason to smile. Your friends were right; you made it, you survived.
You graduated.