A/N: Happy Friday everyone! Eric is all graduated and off to Sweden. They grow up so fast. :'( Seven years' worth in about six weeks, as a matter of fact. :P

Thanks to ilovemysteries for putting up with me spamming her all the damn time. :P

Chapter 11

June, 1993

Everything was about to change. Eric's bags were packed and he was flying to Stockholm in the morning. He was going to spend the summer traveling through Europe with his cousin, Magnus, and then would be starting university in Uppsala in the fall.

He and Jason had graduated the week before, and they'd mostly been inseparable since. Inseparable and drunk. Jason had moved into his parents' old house the morning he turned 18, and the all-weekend-long parties of the school year had turned into the neverending kegger as soon as exams were over. Other kids came and went, but Dawn, Eric and DeeAnne, and fifth wheel Hoyt had basically just moved in.

He wasn't going to spend his senior year pining over a freshman, so he had moved on shortly after Homecoming. He had been with DeeAnne since Christmas, and they'd had a good time. He wasn't as into DeeAnne as she was into him, though, and part of him was glad that they were going to get some major distance.

DeeAnne had cried like crazy before he left her to come home that night. Far was driving him to the airport in Shreveport in the morning. He had stopped by Sookie's to say goodbye to her and Mrs. Stackhouse, but Sookie wouldn't come out of her room. Mrs Stackhouse had told him that Sookie was at Tara's, but he wasn't convinced.

He hated leaving without seeing Sookie. They had been a little friendlier the rest of the school year, but she had definitely kept her distance. And then after Jason moved out in January, he hadn't seen her much at all, except occasionally in the halls at school. He had offered to keep picking her up in the mornings, but she had declined. But she was always friendly when he saw her, and he always got a hug after a game and on his graduation day.

Part of him had wanted to be angry at her at first. Hell, part of him hoped it would hurt her to see him with DeeAnne. Until it happened and he saw the heartbreak in her eyes. She wasn't doing this to hurt him, or for any nefarious or selfish reason at all. She was doing it because she didn't really have any choice. And he hated that it hurt her. It was another reason that he was glad to be going so far away. Eventually, she would be able to move on, too. If really not to someone else, at least on from him. She wouldn't have it rubbed in her face all the time, at least.

He knew she was in love with him. That she had been ever since she was a little girl, if that was even possible. And, hell, he was in love with her, too. He had no idea how long he had been or how it had happened, he just had realized it one day a couple of years ago, a few months after the episode in the shed. He just tried to ignore it as much as possible. But it's not like he was going to be moving back to Bon Temps after University and Med School, anyway. With an ocean between them, they were going to drift apart.

He heard a rustling noise and then a knock on his window. It was all the more unexpected since his bedroom was on the second floor. He got out of bed and pulled on a pair of shorts and opened it up.

"Sookie? What the fuck?"

He pulled the screen out of the window and offered her a hand in. She was hanging from the trellis, her hands fragrant with honeysuckle.

She climbed in the window and then stuck her hands in the pockets of her cutoffs and leaned against his desk. She puffed out her cheeks and blew a big lungful of air out.

"Hi."

"Uh, hi, Sookie. It's two in the morning."

She winced. "Sorry. Were you asleep?"

"No, actually I wasn't. I'm glad you came. I wanted to say goodbye in person."

"Yeah. I was… " She sighed. "I was too big a chicken earlier. I didn't want to see you. I thought it would hurt too much. But then Gran smacked some sense into me, so here I am."

"I'm sure your Gran didn't tell you to sneak in my window at two AM."

She smiled. "Well, no, but she should know me well enough by now to know what I would do if she got her point across."

Even though he was shirtless in gym shorts and she was just in cutoffs and a bikini top, she hugged him tight around his waist and held him for a long time.

He didn't try to shield his thoughts. It didn't even occur to him. He just held her, closing his eyes as he smelled the familiar scent of her shampoo.

"I'm going to miss you so much."

"Me too."

"I hate that everything is changing. Who's gonna gang up on Jason with me now?"

"Hoyt?"

"Geez, Eric. Have you met Hoyt?"

He laughed. "Yeah. I guess you're right."

She pulled back and looked at him, and tucked a strand of hair behind his ear. She had done it to him hundreds of times before, including on his first day of school in Bon Temps on the bus, when he had sat with her.

He leaned forward and kissed her forehead. She leaned into it, and then rose up on her toes and kissed him, long but chastely, on the lips. "Write me, Ok?"

He smiled. "Ok."

"I've already started bragging about my hot Swedish pen pal."

"Oh, have you?"

"Yeah. He's a pretty big dork, but I like him a lot."

She started climbing back out the window.

"Sookie, you can use the door."

"Nah. This is a lot cooler. Be safe. I'll miss you." She bit her lip and then climbed down and ran over and kissed him again. Not so chastely this time, and her hands were in his hair and her tongue was stroking his. His hands were cupping her face, and she moved her hands down until she had two handfuls of ass, and squeezed. She pulled away, said, "My pen pal has the world's greatest ass, too." and climbed out the window. He had no idea where in the hell this confident sexy Sookie had come from, but he didn't want her to leave.

Sookie climbed down and ran across the street where Tara was waiting for her. "How'd it go, Sook?"

"I stuck my tongue down his throat and grabbed his ass."

Tara laughed until she could hardly stand up. "Oh my God. I think I would have paid to see that. Wait til I tell Lafayette!"

"Tara! You are not going to tell anybody!"

"I'm gonna take out a full page ad. Goody two shoes Sookie Stackhouse smoked a joint, climbed a trellis into a boy's bedroom, and then french kissed him and squeezed his butt!"

"Ssshhhh!"

They got on their bikes and started pedaling toward Sookie's house. They were going to have to sneak in, since they had snuck out.

Adele heard them creeping in the back door, whispering and giggling, but turned over and smiled. She had been worried that they were out so late alone, but they came right back, and Adele had known exactly where they were going. She wouldn't have had any trouble calling Bud in the middle of the night to embarrass the dickens right out of them if they hadn't been back by 3:30, either.

In her mind, she said, "Good night, Sookie. I'm glad you're home safe. You're grounded for the rest of the week."

Sookie smiled. It had been totally worth it.