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The lights are shining bright across Pawnee High School’s field as the sun goes down, creating shadows where they stepped. Leslie Knope stands in her graduation gown, looking down at the pavement as if it can solve her problems, as if looking long enough will make time stand still and Ben won't leave.
It's an hour until they graduate, and she stands with Ben and Ann Perkins, her two best friends, and it takes everything in her not to wrap them both up in a hug and never let them go.
“Les, are you okay? You look a little teary-eyed,” Ben asks her, but she knows he already knows the answer. They've had this conversation so many times, over the last year of high school, when Ben decided he had to go.
Leslie sees no point in lying to him. “Not really,” she sniffles. “I'm having a hard time accepting… all of this.”
Ben wraps an arm around her shoulders, and even if they're both wearing cold and uncomfortable graduation gowns and her cap makes it hard to press into his chest, he is warm anyway, and his hold on her grounds her. “I know,” he says, brushing strands of her blonde hair, which she curled to perfection for the occasion. She doesn't even mind that he might be messing it up, and Ben doesn't mind the lingering feeling of hair spray. “But think about the future, Leslie. You're going to do great, big things and I'm going to be watching the entire time, cheering you on from wherever I am.”
“Partridge,” she wails, unable to keep the venom out of her voice as she speaks the name.
He laughs lightly. “Yes, Partridge.”
“That's way too far from Pawnee. I wish you were coming here, staying here at Indiana University with me.”
Ben grimaces. “Don't forget that I offered to do that, so many times. It was you who insisted on this.”
Ann watches them with a wistful expression, having just fixed up her makeup in time. “I still don't see why you two can't date long distance. You're obviously both dying to be together.”
Both Leslie and Ben flush bright red, letting go of each other to awkwardly deny Ann’s statement. “No, no, we don't see each other like that—”
“Not really my type—”
“Yeah, he likes tall brunettes!”
“We’re just really great friends, known each other for a long time—”
“He likes calzones! I could never date someone who likes calzones.”
Ben huffs at that last bit. “Hey, totally uncalled for.”
It's not like they never thought about dating. They had both talked about it before, during study groups or in the hallways between classes. They had even nearly kissed once after Ben helped Leslie with a particularly difficult question for their math exam. But both of them knew, deep down, nothing could come from it. They've known since Ben got his acceptance letter from the college in Partridge, where his grandparents lived, and there was no way Leslie could let him pass up on something like that for her. They both made an unspoken decision that day— they couldn't be together, for the sake of both their futures.
It's just easier, Leslie tries to justify.
“Hey,” Ben says, a little softer and closer to Leslie’s ear. “I actually have a gift for you.”
Ann takes this as her cue to leave, seeking out other friends, but it's unnecessary, because Ben has that look on his face that Leslie knows too well, that he's up to something and his words shouldn't really be taken seriously.
Leslie quirks a brow at him. “Oh?”
Ben coughs, that big goofy grin on his face, and gets down on one knee in front of her. She blushes, even though she knows it's a joke, as he pulls something from his pocket that resembles a straw wrapper.
“Oh my god, Ben, what are you doing?” she cackles, and he holds the gift out to her so that she can see it is, in fact, a straw wrapper, just twisted tightly enough into a circle big enough for her finger. Ben is giving her a paper ring.
“Leslie Knope,” he says, barely containing his laughter, “will you be my graduation walking buddy?”
She pretends as if she's thinking very hard about her answer, putting her finger to her chin in mock contemplation. “Hmm, I don't know, I kind of expected something a little more shiny.”
Ben pretends to pout, his lower lip jutting out. “You don't like my paper ring?”
It's then that the two of them bust out in laughter together. “I love your stupid paper ring,” she insists, and he pushes it onto her index finger, which she wiggles around as if it's real and she has bragging rights. “And that's a yes on being your walking buddy, Wyatt. I guess I have no choice, because we signed up to walk together a month ago.”
He holds his elbow out for her to take as the crowd of students start moving, to the field where graduation was beginning. “Looks like you're stuck with me for at least another couple hours,” Ben teases her, and Leslie’s smile is accompanied by very real tears in the corners of her eyes.
“This isn't the end,” she says, stepping out into the lights. She can hear the cheering now, clapping for this year's graduates. “I know we’ll see each other again.”
“I don't doubt that for a second,” Ben whispers, adjusting her tassel on her cap so it would swing the right direction. “You'll never get rid of me this easily, Knope.”