*sighs* Love you.

Jimmy's POV

I pulled out of her with a groan and plopped down on the bed. She hummed in satisfaction as she turned to lie down and faced me.

"That was amazing. As always." Cindy let out, her voice raspy from only having woken up moments ago, among other reasons.

"Not as much as you."

She grinned widely and kissed me firmly yet softly. As she pulled away, I could practically feel the smile on her lips. I can't believe how much has happened in a short amount of time. It's hard to believe that the prom, Cindy's declaration of how she feels about me, and us finally getting together, was a mere two weeks ago.

For reasons I'll never understand, the school board thought it would be a good idea to schedule our final exams in the time between prom and graduation. While the exams themselves were of no great concern to me, I found it difficult to focus on studying with the partner that I had.

She was very, to put it lightly, distracting. But luckily, this time around, I was able to do something about it.

That's all finally done though and we have officially completed our high school careers with only one remaining event to get through.

"I cannot believe we have to go to this." She whined as she tangled her leg around mine, like she wanted to make sure I wouldn't escape.

"Cindy, it's our high school graduation." I reminded her.

"Just the ceremony. Everyone knows we're done with school once we take our last final, which we've done days ago. We only have that ceremony to pose for photos with our families while wearing that unflattering so-called gown."

"Your antagonism towards it wouldn't have anything to do with that speech you have to make, would it?" I asked.

"Not at all. Besides, you have to make one too."

"Yes, but unlike you, I am not nervous nor unprepared as was made clear when we were rehearsing them last night."

"I am not nervous nor unprepared!" She answered hotly. "You just didn't let me finish."

"Now we both know that's a lie. I always let you finish." I leaned in to kiss her as I chuckled at my own double meaning.

"That's not what I meant!" She swatted my arm but failed to hold back her own laugh.

"Shh. You have to be quiet." I reminded her.

"I thought your Neutron Silence Box or whatever was doing that for us." She mumbled as she nibbled my earlobe.

"I told you it's a prototype. I'm not 100 percent sure it works."

"Well, considering all the noise we were making last night, I sure as hell hope it does!" She replied as she pulled away and laid back down.

As we both have speeches to deliver later today, we thought it would be a good idea for us to rehearse and go over them last night. We, at long last, managed to get that done, and after getting into other, more self-indulgent activities, Cindy ended up spending the night here. It's not something that's happened before nor was it entirely necessary, since she lives across the street and all. However, it did give me a chance to try out my latest invention, temporary named The Silencer. Able to absorb all sounds projected in an enclosed location, it makes the room appear to be complete silent to outsiders. Not a peep should be heard if it works as it should. Considering that my parents' room is right down the hall, for all our sakes, I hope it did.

I may or may not have built it with Cindy and mine's bedroom activities in mind, but its diverse usage shouldn't be ignored.

"God, I'm tired." She sighed. With a smirk, knowing that I had caused her exhaustion, I replied.

"I take it that means you're not up for another round. "

"I'd love to but I really should get going. I don't even want to imagine what my mom would think if she doesn't find in my room."

"Is there any chance she'll think you're here?"

"Probably not, but I'd really rather not wait around to find out." As she spoke, she unwove herself from my sheets and started collecting her clothes. Unlike most days, yesterday she wore a two piece ensemble instead of a dress which had become something of a staple of her. She claimed it was so she could feel more casual and relaxed. While that was completely understandable, it worked out amazingly for me as there was more to work my way through in order to see and touch her, extending the time I had to marvel at her.

As she sat on my bed, now fully clothed, she took the hair elastic that was around her wrist and gathered up all her hair to put it into a high ponytail. It was a good idea, seeing how tangled and messy her hair had become from everything we had gotten up to both last night and this morning.

"How do I look?" She asked as she stood up.

"You look beautiful."

"No, but like," She started with a smile that she was unable to hold back. "do I look publicly presentable? Not like how I would the morning after getting thoroughly fucked half the night by my amazing boyfriend?"

Boyfriend.

I was still getting used to that word.

Not so much the word itself, since, alone, it hardly has any effect. But being referred to as Cindy Vortex's boyfriend is quite a way to be known as.

Everyone at school knows (or at least it seems that way to me) that Cindy and I are, finally, together. They may not all have gotten the memo when we returned to the prom hall hand-in-hand but being students of Retroville High School, word spread fast anyway. The majority of days we spent in school after prom night were to take finals but that sure didn't stop everyone's attention from being on something else.

It's comical.

I always thought I'd never stopped getting annoyed by everyone's hollering and sexually suggestive comments about Cindy and I. Those continued all throughout the time we were casually hooking up, and even while she was going out with Liam. I always thought it was hilarious how precise some of the things they said were. At the end, it turned out that the more they talked and the more accurate it became, the more I ended up embracing it.

"What?" She asked once she saw the frozen look on my face.

"You used that word again."

Knowing what word I was referring to, she playfully rolled her eyes.

"Yes, Neutron. Boyfriend. You are my boyfriend." She started saying as she walked over to where I sat on my bed. Once she reached me, she gently pushed me causing me to fall back onto my mattress. "And I'm going to keep saying it every single day until that changes." I'm not sure if she meant that in the way I was thinking, but I hope that she did. She was now crawling over me and stopped once we were at eye level. "What are you going to do about it?" She whispered in a husky breath.

In an instant, I gripped onto her waist and turned us over so that I was on top of her and our mouths crashed together. I heard her muffled moan and I knew that she didn't see that coming. Once our tongues met and our bodies pressed closer together, I knew there would be very little stopping us from ending up in a sweaty, naked mess once again.

Except maybe hearing a knock at my bedroom door and my mom's voice coming from behind it.

"Jimmy, honey, are you awake?"

"Shit!" Cindy whisper-yelled as she pushed me off her at the same time I pulled myself away and frantically got up.

"Just a minute!" I replied nervously before I remembering that she very likely couldn't hear me. That possibility still didn't stop Cindy from anxiously gesturing what she should do. There were very few times that I've ever seen that much fear in her eyes.

As an additional precaution to Cindy spending the night, I locked the door. This is something my mom had a rule against me doing once I hit puberty, likely for this exact reason. Both my parents are respectful enough not to come barging into my room without knocking, something I've always been grateful for. But I knew if I didn't respond or do something soon, she would knock a couple of more times and then try to open the door to check if I'm asleep or not.

So whatever Cindy and I have to do to make it look like her presence here ended last night, we have to do it fast.

The solution came to me angrily, only because I hadn't thought of it earlier.

"The bathroom." I mouthed to her while pointing in that direction. She nodded in agreement and glanced at my door before quickly making her way there. Meanwhile, I grabbed my comforter off the floor and jumped into bed, covering myself with it. I hastily pressed the button on my bedside table that synced to every active device in the room, including the Silencer and shut it off. Goddard, whom I had instructed to wake up at seven AM once I realized Cindy would be staying over, took care of unlocking the door for me.

All that happened in such a short amount of time that I felt at ease when I spoke, allowing my mom to enter.

"Come in." I said, making my voice sound as groggily as possible. I stretched my arms as I saw both of my parents coming into the room. "Good morning guys."

"Morning, sweetie. Happy graduation day!" My mom exclaimed.

"Thanks." I smiled.

"Yes, Jimbo. Today's a big day and we're real proud of you!"

"Thank you dad." I replied, happy to see them happy.

"Your father and I decided to make your favorite blueberry almond pancakes this morning, if you didn't already have any breakfast plans with your friends or Cindy."

The slightest shudder went through my body when she mentioned her name.

"No, we haven't made plans or anything." I replied coolly. "The pancakes would be great." I threw them another smile.

"Great!" My mom spoke. "We'll go ahead and start and you just come on down when you're ready." She leaned down to kiss me on the cheek.

"Will do." I said as my dad ruffled my hair.

"We'll see you in a bit Jim-Jam. And congratulations." My dad ended as he and my mom both made their way out.

Once I heard their footsteps halfway down the stairs and I knew they wouldn't return, I kicked off the comforter and Cindy emerged from the bathroom seconds later.

"That was way too close." Cindy said tiredly as if she were holding her breath during my parents' entire visit.

"Yeah." I agreed as I stood up again. "They should be in the kitchen though so you should be safe to leave though the front door. You just have to be quiet." She nodded and I knew she was already thinking of how she would execute her escape plan.

"I'll head out now. It's after seven so my parents are definitely awake. Let's see what story I come up with if my mom finds that I didn't spend the night in my own bedroom."

"Good luck." I said sincerely.

"Thanks." She spoke as she grabbed her purse full of notes from my desk. Turning back around to face me, she spoke. "I'll see you up there then. Congratulations."

"You too." I gave her a brief kiss and squeezed her hand. "I love you."

"I love you too." She smiled one last time before reaching for the doorknob.

Cindy's POV

It's only been two weeks since Jimmy and I officially got together but it feels as if everyone in town already knows about it, not that it should really surprise me. While the majority of people seemed to have found out through their own sources (since Jimmy and I certainly weren't going to make any sort of announcement about it), those we're closest to, our parents mainly, were informed by us.

I wouldn't say it was something my mother was entirely angry about, but I wouldn't say she was about to host the celebratory party either. Considering how my last relationship ended, I couldn't really blame her for not being too thrilled about this one.

I managed not to get an earful though, from either her or my dad, which was the main thing I was nervous about. That was relieving, since having to defend my relationship with him wasn't something I was looking forward to doing. I had no idea my parents felt that strongly against Jimmy until they spoke about him during dinner with Liam. So for him to now take on this particular role in their lives was something I was anxious about.

For Jimmy's parents, on the other hand, things could not have gone any better.

His dad is...well, himself. Since I've personally never had an issue with him and he with I, it didn't surprise me that he was fully accepting of our relationship. That's not to say that his mom wasn't. But something about her reaction when we told her we were together said that this was just a confirmation to her. I mainly got that from the slight smirk on her lips when we announced it. While I had seen it from my own mother various times, I'll consider Mrs. Neutron's another example of mother's intuition.

That's also part of the reason why I was terrified when I realized she was behind Jimmy's door.

I didn't have to be told that staying the night, even if it was going to be completely PG, was an absolute no. So to actually have done it, while extremely progressive for us, was so scary.

My sleeping over was kind of a mutual agreement between the two of us. We didn't notice how late it had gotten and even though I live right across the street, it just seemed to be safer if I didn't leave. What's worse is that if I had left, the later it got, the higher the possibility of me waking up either parent increased and that wouldn't have been safe either.

Jimmy had told me about a new invention he had been working on and while I had forgotten about it, him bringing it up last night made our sleepover seem like a much more enticing idea. It was risky of course, especially considering he wasn't even one hundred percent sure that it would work. But after getting a little too rowdy once or twice, it seemed to us both that it turned out to be a success.

It's really just our dumb luck that we almost got caught anyway. It would have been quite a way to start such a memorable day in our lives.

Finally, our graduation day has arrived.

While a part of me did expect the role I'll be playing, I wasn't entirely prepared for it, mainly the speech I had to make at the ceremony. Seeing as Jimmy is making a similar one as well, I sincerely thought it would be a good idea to rehearse them ahead of time to spare us the potential embarrassment if it went badly.

I may have talked a big game this whole time and acted like I didn't care, but I knew, just like everyone, that this day was pretty important. And as occurs with nearly all important days, it passed by way too quickly. Before I knew it, I was standing with Libby outside the football field, waiting to line up.

"I can't believe this is really happening!" she repeated almost exactly what I was thinking with a more cheerful tone. Just before I was able to reply, Sheen, Carl, and Jimmy approached us, wearing the red graduation robes that are required for all the boys. It contrasted the royal blue one us girls had to wear. Jimmy, like me, wore a gold stole over his shoulders.

"Looks like this is it." Carl spoke.

"Yeah." Libby spoke before anyone else could. "I know it's a little early to say this, but I'm really going to miss you guys." I could already tell she was getting emotional.

"Carl's leaving in a month but we're going to be seeing a lot of each other until then, you know that." Jimmy assured her.

In the past few weeks, news of everyone's plans have been a total blur because of how quick, and in some scenarios, shocking they came about.

Carl, committed to going into the veterinary sciences, is deferring his enrollment at Purdue University in the form of a gap year where he's going to be traveling around the world. I was surprised when I first heard, not so much because I would never picture him to be that sort, but of how committed he is to it. As Jimmy mentioned, he'll be leaving in four weeks, his first stop being Ecuador where he'll kicking off the South American leg of his journey.

"Yeah, but then you and Sheen are leaving two weeks after that."

This was news to me. At least the part about Sheen was.

With Libby going to the University of Houston in the fall, she'll be staying somewhat local. As far as I knew, Sheen was going to county college, meaning he would be staying close by too. So to hear that he's going somewhere definitely caught my attention.

"Wait, are you doing something else now? Where are you going?" I asked out loud even though everyone would knew it was directed to Sheen.

"You didn't tell her?" Sheen turned to Libby.

"I didn't think it was my business to say." she replied. He smiled at her and then looked back to me.

"I've actually decided to enlist in the military."

"Oh my God." I reacted genuinely. "Are you serious? That-that's great Sheen. Good for you and thank you." Apart from his appreciative smile, I noticed that neither Jimmy nor Carl had a reaction similar to mine. "Was I the last one to know about this?"

"Pretty much, yeah. I couldn't really find a time to bring it up." Jimmy answered.

"I guess this is really it for us then." I started. "You guys, it's really been-."

"Okay, everyone line up! We'll be starting in a few moments!" We all heard our instructions. Since Jimmy and I needed to go in the front, we said our goodbyes to our friends and started moving up the line.

"You're going to do great. Don't get nervous." He told me as he lightly squeezed my hand with his.

"I'm not. I'm completely fine. Besides, you're the one we should all be nervous about."

"So I take it there are no hard feelings?" he asked.

"At my being salutatorian to your valedictorian? No. None at all." I answered back the slightest bit exasperatedly.

It didn't really come as a surprise at all when we were told which one of us had achieved it, even if I had worked so hard for it. Describing him as a genius was never an exaggeration and that didn't change as we got older. Although we both deserved it, it ultimately had to go to one of us. Despite that I didn't get it, I'm still proud to have the ranking that I do.

We finally reached the end of the line and stood accordingly to the way we had rehearsed it. Within the next couple of minutes, we were walking onto the field in an orderly fashion as "Pomp and Circumstance" played in the background.

After many speeches, rounds of applause, and names called, we were finally done. And not just with the ceremony, but with this tremendous part of our lives.

Immediately after it ended and the second we could get away, Jimmy and I went looking for Carl, Sheen, and Libby, knowing we wanted to spend this time with them before our families could find us.

I could tell Libby had been crying as we approached her and the guys. We all had a few minutes of chattering, crying, and hugging before our respective parents found us and insisted on taking pictures. In between shots, they complimented Jimmy and I on our speeches.

I'm not really sure at what point my smile went from being a little bit exaggerated to one hundred percent real. Maybe it was just because in these moments, I was surrounded by my loved ones with whom I have spent a wonderfully eventful part of my life. Individually or together, these people mean the world to me and it's not just because we have gone through so much.

They have helped me, they have motivated me in ways I don't think they'll ever understand. I will forever be grateful for them and everything we have gone through and try as I might, I will never forget any of it.

This last year in particular has been quite a whirlwind for so many reasons. I wouldn't take any of it back though because there's no way I would be as happy as I am at this moment. While certain parts about getting to this point would be considered by many to be unconventional, I can't think of any other way it would have gone that it would have had this good of an outcome.

Nearly a half hour later, Jimmy and I managed to get some time alone as we walked down the main hallway of school. Although neither one of us was saying it, I knew we were both quietly reminiscing about the time we've spent here. But in all our remembering, there was one thing that I couldn't forget.

"There's only one thing left to do, you know." I turned to him and said.

"Oh, yeah? What's that?" He faced me as well.

"You still haven't told me what school you're going to." He rolled his eyes although I knew he was joking around. I still didn't know where he was going to school despite that he was leaving for a summer Honors program in a few weeks. It was a huge tease and while it was funny at first, now that it was so close to happening, I think it's understandable that I need to know. This was something he kept me on edge about. Out of fairness, I did the same and told nobody where I was going besides my parents and Libby.

"Cindy..." He trailed off.

"When exactly do you plan to tell me?" I replied irritably. "We graduated today. You're leaving in six weeks for an Honors program of a school that I don't even know." I crossed my arm, physically showing him that I was getting angry. "We already have that limited amount to time together so it's really not fair of you to-."

"MIT." He interrupted.

"Wha-what?" I abruptly stopped.

"I'm going to MIT."

"Really?" I replied breathlessly, my mood entirely different.

"Yes." He confirmed as he brushed some hair out of my face. "I was going to take you out to dinner tomorrow night and tell you then, but you clearly couldn't wait a second longer."

"I'm going to Columbia!" I blurted out as if I hadn't heard him, even though I did. He broke out into a smile.

"I know."

"How-?"

"Sheen." He confirmed what I was thinking just before he said it.

"Ugh! I'm going to kill them both!"

"No, you won't. Come here." Before I could say anything else, he shut me up by kissing me. My arms went around his neck as I reciprocated. "I love you." I whispered since he kept me close after we broke apart moments later.

"I love you too. So much."

And while we could both hear our friends and family calling our names, looking for us, we stayed in our embrace, knowing that nothing could beat this moment right here.

Whew. Okay.

I want to thank each one of you so incredibly much for anything and everything you have done to support me and this story. If you've been here from the beginning or if you just binge read this today, thank you and I appreciate it so much from the very bottom of my heart. You've been an absolute pleasure to write for. I definitely feel like I've grown as a writer because of my experience with this and I'm so glad to have you guys to go through that with me. I'll likely end up thank you guys individually anyway but rest assured, I am so grateful for you all.

And now for the info you're all waiting for.

If all goes as expected (which I hope it does) I plan to have the first chapter of the sequel released on *drumroll here* January 1st 2017! I really think I should be ready by then, but as I've been saying, I'll keep you posted. If you're subscribed to this story, I recommend you do not remove your alert since I'll probably post something on here when we're ready to go. And if you have me on author alert, that should work too.

AWKWARDLY INSERTED EDIT! 11/26/16: I completely forgot to mention that BEFORE the sequel comes out, I will release a second one-shot outtake for this story. It, like the first outtake, will be rated M, so same rules for finding the sequel are going to apply. You can filter it out and/or add me on author alert. And of course, you're always welcome to head on over and read the first outtake.

Finally, another reminder that you can follow me on Twitter (District13Tribute) for updates on the sequel and any other stories I'll be writing on here.

Thank you so SO much, I love you all, and I'll see you all next time.