S-POV
I stare around at the small dorm room. It seems so empty and blank. Now that Delani, my roommate, and I had taken down all of our pictures and posters, all that remains in the white-walled room are the standard wooden bed frames, and old battered desks. The room looks down right depressing now that it is void of the personalized touches Delani spent months perfecting. It is cleaner than I have ever before seen it, now that my laundry and food wrappers no longer litter the floor. It seems like just yesterday I entered the door for the very first time, still hesitant about entering college. But Fredward was right, not that I'd ever tell him that, I loved college. It surprises me how sad I am to leave this small room I'd called home for the past year.
"C'mon Sam, we have to turn our keys in to Dean," Delani calls from the hallway, where she's standing holding her last box. I pick up the final box that needs moved out, and follow Delani. We get on the elevator at the end of the hallway and ride down seven floors to the lobby. Dean, the student supervisor for our building and Delani's boyfriend, is working at his usual spot behind the front desk. He looks up as we approach, and gets up to help Delani with her box.
"Hey babe," He says, giving Delani a quick kiss, "How's it going Sam?"
"Not bad, you?" I respond setting my box down on the counter and digging my hand in my pocket, looking for my key.
"All right. Just waiting for Kurt to turn in his keys so we can inspect his room. I'm going to have to go up to his floor soon. Level three's checkout was almost four hours ago."
I laugh. Kurt is Dean's archenemy. I don't know why they hate each other, but they do.
"Hey, if you want I could go up there and take care of him for you,"
"Nah that's all right Sam, I can handle it. Besides, I think you have someone else to tend to," Dean jerks his head towards the door. I look over just in time to see it swing shut behind Freddie.
"Hey Puckett," He says, engulfing me with a hug.
"Hey Dork," I say, returning the embrace before pulling away.
"You guys have to be the weirdest couple I've ever seen. Even after knowing you guys for a year, I still have trouble understanding how this happened," Delani remarks, looking between us in mock confusion. In many ways, Delani reminds me of Carly: same dark hair, same brown eyes, and same bubbly personality. However Delani doesn't seem to possess the sweet innocence Carly so often displayed. Like the time we decided to sneak in to a frat party; while Carly would have taken hours for me to convince to even go, Delani reminded me to grab the beer.
"Yeah, well, he's just so irresistible," I joke.
"Yeah you should have seen how many girls I had to fight off back in high school," Freddie says running his hands through his dark hair.
"Don't go getting a big head Benson," I slap his arm playfully.
"Well look who it is," Dean says, staring past us towards the elevators. I turn around and sure enough, Kurt is getting off.
"We better go so you can take care of this," Delani says, "See you later Babe," Dean waves at us as we walk away.
Once in the parking lot, I put my box in my car and give Delani a hug.
"Call me when you get back to Seattle," She says.
"I will,"
"You have to come visit me in Chicago this summer,"
"Yeah if Carly will let me get away for that long," I laugh, "I haven't seen her in almost a year."
Delani pulls away from the hug, "You should totally bring her with you!"
I think about her offer. Carly and Delani would probably get along great.
"Yeah, maybe!" is all I can muster up to answer. There's a part of me that fears Carly and Delani would get along so well, I'd be left in the dust.
"Well we better get going. My plane leaves in two hours!"
After I drop Delani off at the airport, Freddie and I decide to grab lunch before starting our long drive back to Seattle.
"So, you excited to be going home?" Freddie asks, once we're settled in a booth at our favorite Mexican restaurant.
"Yeah. But I'm also sad to be leaving. This years gone by so fast."
"I know. But it's been awesome. Aren't you glad I talked you in to applying?" Freddie asks.
"I think I would have applied eventually, even without your pestering."
"Sure you would have. Why can't you just admit that I was right?"
"Well, why do you have to be right all the time?"
Freddie opens his mouth to respond, but before he can get a word out the waiter is ready to take our orders. I'm grateful. I would never want to admit to him that he was right.
After we finish eating, Freddie takes out his wallet to pay. I can't help but smile when I see that he still has the picture of us at the zoo last summer in his front photo slot.
"All right, so do you want me to follow you?" Freddie asks as we walk outside to the parking lot. Even though it's only the beginning of May, it must be 90-something degrees outside. It reminds me of how much I miss Seattle's weather.
"Yeah. We can stop at a rest stop to refill on gas and get something to eat in a couple hours," I unlock my car, which I'd been able to afford thanks to the leftover money in my college account, and climb into the drivers seat. Freddie leans against my still open door, swinging his keys around on his finger.
"Sam, we just ate,"
"Yeah, well I'll be hungry again in a few hours,"
"Ok. Just call me when you're ready to stop. We should probably get going now though, it's already 3 o'clock,"
"All right," I say starting up my engine. Freddie leans down to give me a quick kiss before he goes and gets in his own car.
We stop about eleven o'clock at a rest stop in northern California.
"Do you want to find a hotel or something? I'm exhausted. I don't think I can drive through the night," I say when Freddie pulls up next to me and rolls his window down.
"Yeah, that's fine. I think I saw a sign for a Holiday Inn back when we got off the exit,"
"Ok, I'll follow you there," I roll my window back up and follow Freddie out of the parking lot. We get to the hotel about five minutes later, and ten minutes after that we're checked in and in our room.
"We should probably get some sleep. We want to get an early start tomorrow. We still have like twelve hours of driving left," Freddie says, sitting down on the bed where I'm laying, flipping through channels on the TV.
"Ugh. Why couldn't we have just taken a plane?" I complain, settling on Celebrities Under Water.
"Because then neither of us would have a car the whole summer,"
I mutter something unintelligible.
"Get ready for bed Sam," Freddie says, grabbing his duffel bag and heading to the bathroom. Once the door shuts behind him, I get my pajamas out of my backpack. I change, and sit on the bed watching TV, until Freddie comes out. I laugh when I see him.
"What?" He asks looking around for the source of my laughter.
"You," I laugh, "You're in college and you still wear Galaxy War pajamas?"
He looks down at his 'Nug-Nug' T-shirt, and matching pants with a frown.
"I don't see anything wrong with it,"
"Of course you don't," I pat his shoulder, as I walk past him into the bathroom. I brush my teeth, and pull my hair back into a ponytail. When I get back into the room, Freddie's already snoring. I roll my eyes, but turn off the lights and get in my bed. In no time, I'm asleep.
I don't think Bushwell Plaza has ever looked as welcoming to me as it did now. After spending all day behind the wheel of a car, I was beyond happy to find a place stocked with food. We stop in to say hi to Spencer, but he's not home. Neither is Freddie's mom.
"I wonder where everyone is," I say, rummaging through Freddie's fridge.
"I don't know," Freddie says. Suddenly, we hear a 'BOOM' noise.
"What's that?" Freddie asks.
"Not sure, it sounds like it's coming from outside,"
'Well let's go," Freddie takes my hand, and pulls me out to our fire escape.
"Fireworks," I breathe, staring up at the colorful explosions. I've always been fascinated by fireworks.
"Look, they're making a heart," Freddie points up at a red firework that did indeed explode in a heart shape. We watch the fireworks in awe. I'm amazed. I've never seen fireworks form shapes like these are.
"I wonder what they're for?" I ask. Freddie doesn't answer me, but the fireworks are so loud, I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't even hear my question.
The fireworks begin spelling out words. The first one reads 'I LOVE YOU'. "That's sweet," I mutter, thinking some random guy did this to tell his girlfriend he loved her. Another sequence of fireworks lights up the sky, this time spelling out 'SAM WILL YOU MARRY ME'. I'm staring at the sky in shock and look over at Freddie to say, 'Hey, that girl has the same name as me!', and almost faint at what I see. Freddie is on one knee, holding out a diamond ring to me.
"W-what?"
"Sam, I love you. Will you marry me?"
"Er-yes," I whisper, still in shock. Freddie stands up and puts the ring on my third finger, before kissing me.
"Did this really just happen?" I ask against his lips.
"Yup. Congratulations Mrs. Benson,"