Spring of my senior year arrived.
I ran into someone outside the university library.
It was Alden Croft.
He had also ended up in this coastal city for his degree.
From across the paved square, he spotted me first. "Sybilla!"
He jogged over, slightly breathless and flushed from the run. "You are studying here as well?"
"Yes. And you?"
"I am finishing up an internship nearby."
A broad grin crossed his face. He looked a bit fairer than he used to, his frame filled out and broader in the shoulders.
"Are you... doing well?"
"Very well," I replied. "What about you?"
"Not bad at all." He rubbed his hands together against the brisk breeze. "Listen, that essay you published a while back, I read it."
"Which one?"
"The piece in the university journal about adolescent bullying."
"Oh."
