I end the call before they can respond.
Sit there, shaking slightly, adrenaline coursing through me.
"You did it," Ivy says quietly. "You actually did it."
"I should have done it three years ago."
"You weren't ready three years ago. You're ready now." She pulls me into a hug. "I'm proud of you."
Those four words mean more than anything my parents ever said.
We tell our friends at Thanksgiving.
Isla already knew, she has a sixth sense for relationship drama.
"Wait. You two are together? Since when?"
"Three weeks," I say, my arm around Ivy's shoulders.
"And it's serious?"
"Very serious," Ivy confirms. "Like, planning grad school applications together serious."
"Wow. Okay. I need time to process this." Lennox looks between us. "But I'm happy for you. Just don't hurt her again or I'll murder you."
"Fair," I agree.
Marcus high-fives me when he finds out. "Finally. Do you know how exhausting it was watching you two dance around each other?"
"Sorry for the inconvenience of my emotional journey."
"You're forgiven. But only because you're actually happy now."
I am happy. For the first time in years, I'm genuinely happy.
The semester ends with our project presentation.
We present together, a united front, our research polished and professional. Professor Hendricks gives us an A.
"Excellent work, you two. This is exactly the kind of partnership I hope for in my class."
If only she knew the journey it took to get here.
After the presentation, we walk across campus together. It's December, cold and crisp, the first snow of the season starting to fall.
"I have something for you," I say, pulling out a small wrapped package.
"Ethan, we said no gifts?—"
"It's not a gift. It's something that should have been yours three years ago."
She opens it carefully. Inside is a photo, us at age twelve, arms around each other, grinning at the camera. It was taken at my birthday party, before everything got complicated.
"I've kept this all these years," I say. "It reminded me of when things were simple. When we were just us."
"We can't go back to simple."
"I know, but we can go forward to something better." I take her hand. "We can be us, but grown up. Honest. Real."