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Last chapter? Lit. Epilogue will be up soon. Possibly 1-3 business days.

Chapter Fifty Two: "Don't Discriminate My Memes."

IT'S GOOD THAT dad didn't dropped a surprise on us like he and Danielle were about to get married or move in with one another. But a surprise happened a couple days later when I was sitting on the bottom of the bleachers on Bark-Ridge High with my friends around me. It wasn't that late but the sun was starting to make it's way down and the moon was rising high in the sky. Caleb said something that was completely off-topic. "I'm publishing another book."

Everyone's eyes went up to him, even Jacob shot up from where he was lying down on the grass of the field of our old high school. No one was really supposed to be here since it wasn't considered public but the boys didn't care. They dragged Stevie and me along by showing up at Stevie's house where we were today.

"What? You are?" Brandon asked.

"Yeah," Caleb leaned back against my good leg. "Why else did you guys think I stayed in Italy for all those months? I needed inspiration and I got it."

"What's it about?"

"It's about a martian that lands on earth and his only source of energy is eating brains. So he meets a girl and they fall in love but by the end of it he tries to resist but he ends up eating her brains like a zombie."

There was a moment of silence between all of us at the stupid words that came out of Caleb's mouth. Even Sam sighed and took out his phone, starting to play a game.

"Okay, now what's it really about?" Austin asked.

"It's not a love story."

"What?" Stevie inquired.

"So many books have romances no matter how big or small. They would just randomly insert it like an adventure book? Oh main boy character ends up feeling something for another minor or secondary character. Fantasy? Sci-Fi? Dystopia? Same thing. It's about a group of friends and the things happen in their lives. It focuses more on their friendship than a romantic relationship."

"Well, I know what I'm buying." Jacob said.

"You can't even read." Jon Ming told him.

"Shut up. I still got a higher mark than you at this school."

"It's because of your memory. No one said you understood all this shit."

"You wanna fight?" Jacob got up but Jon Ming was already scrambling to the other side of the field.

"So you got inspiration in Italy?" I asked Caleb as everyone continued talking.

"And from you guys. Mostly you and Andrew's relationship."

"Really?"

"Yeah. He's a good friend to you."

"You're a good friend in general, C."

Caleb gave me a smile. "Okay, let's play football. American football." Caleb pointed at Sam who was about to speak, quickly shutting him up. "Now, Ced, Andrew give us the pointers and go easy on us nonathletic people."

"Caleb you're the only nonathletic one here." Austin told him, standing up.

"Says you."

"You almost passed out doing two laps around a track." Sam reminded him.

"Anyway, let's play football." Caleb took the ball from Ced's hand and almost everyone moved over to the field to discuss teams just as someone was walking down the bleachers, sunglasses covering his blue eyes.

"Toby." I grinned, getting up slowly to give him a much needed hug and holding on longer than I should have. He noticed it too, trying to pull me off him.

"Macy, you saw me last week."

"I know." I hugged him even tighter, my cheek against his chest as he went slack, taking his sunglasses off his face.

"Off," I heard Austin say. "Off my boyfriend."

I let go at his demand and Toby smiled at Austin. "Hey, how was the day?" Austin lifted his head and I took a picture, a smile on my face at the kiss they're shared.

Toby pulled back, not even looking at me. "Macy's smiling isn't she?"

"Of course she is." Austin laughed. "We're playing football, c'mon."

Toby squinted his eyes at the football Caleb threw at Brandon. "That's not the type of ball you use to play football."

"American football." Sam corrected with a roll of his eyes and Austin and Toby went to where they were all standing at the center of the field.

Peter was sitting behind me minutes later was playing with my hair when he tapped me on the shoulder. "This is making me mad."

"What?" I asked him.

"Your hair. It's too short. I can't put it in a braid. It's making me angry."

"Peter."

"Ooh, look there's Andrew. I'm gunna join the game."

"Anderson." Andrew smiled at me once Peter went to join the others.

"Prescott." I greeted him and he sat down next to me on the bleachers handing me ice cream in a cup.

"This is for me?"

"Did I not just hand it to you? You might want to eat that quick before Caleb sees. I could only snatch one." Caleb loved sweets more than any of us. It was a wonder how he didn't have cavities. At least I was assuming.

"Thanks." He handed me the spoon and I started eating when he continued speaking.

"Guess who I saw today?"

"A monster."

"No."

"A lion."

"No."

"Give me a hint."

"Well for one it's a person before you even think of saying something like a unicorn or a magic portal," I opened my mouth to deny what he said but he cut me off. "I saw Beatrice."

My spoon of vanilla ice cream almost dropped out of my mouth."What?"

"Yeah, I was with Riley dropping her off at a friend's house for the kiddie party where I got the ice cream when it turned out that Beatrice is her friend's cousin."

"Beatrice? High school Beatrice?"

"Do you know another?"

"Well, gosh," I mumbled. I haven't heard anything about her for a long time. "How is she?"

"She's pretty good. She's going to travel for the rest of the summer."

"You guys actually talked?"

"Believe it or not she;'s capable of having proper conversations. It's not like Alex where we didn't even talk half the time I dated that girl."

I laughed at the mention of Alex from high school. I almost forget she had once been in my life. "Yeah, I know. But, um, Beatrice? She's not a-"

"Total bitch? No. She really wasn't. Remember, people change Macy."

I gave him a look. "Trust me. I know." On the topic of changed people, I had told Andrew what had happened with Jasmine. Andrew felt bad. I don't know why he did but it's just how he was. He wanted to take full blame for why me and Jasmine's friendship didn't work out but I told him he could never blame himself for something like that. For me unintentionally picking him. He was my best friend. He knew me as well as Sam. He was like my brother.

"How's Gianna?" I asked already seeing the smile creep onto his face. There it was and if there was something that Andrew deserved completely it was happiness no doubt.

"I thought you didn't want to hear about my sex life?"

"I don't. I asked how she was. Your relationship isn't 100 percent based on sex is it?"

"No. Majority of it is right now."

"Oh my God." I groaned and he laughed in response. "Wait, but you haven't seen each other in weeks how-NEVER MIND NEVER MIND."

About a half an hour later, I was sitting on the ground, my eyes closed and Soccer was laying against my thigh, his eyes closed in a deep sleep. I felt someone sit down next to me. "What are you doing?" Sam asked.

I opened one eye. "Me and Soccer are relaxing."

I opened my other eye too to Sam hand on Soccer's head. "Beth would have loved him."

"As much as Peter does?"

"If not more but the thing is that Beth would have actually admitted it," Sam cracked a smile. "Grandfather too," Sam's green eyes flickered to my hazel ones. "You're not going to worry about me while I'm over there are you?"

I understand what he means and shake my head. "No. I'm not going to. But if anything happens I'm only one call away."

Sam blew a raspberry with his lips, his hand reaching up to play with my hair as he turned his body towards me. "I just made the mood from relaxing to sad in a second didn't I?"

"No you didn't." I assured him, intertwining his other hand with my own.

"What if I physically need you there though?"

"Then I'm a plane ride away but you won't need that."

"How do you know?"

"Because you'll be too busy becoming famous soccer star." I poked him in his stomach several times before he pushed my hands away, a smile on his face.

"I'm never too busy for you." My phone buzzed in my pocket, distracting me from responding. I pulled it out of my pocket and saw the multiple notifications from a group chat labelled M3A.

Maddy:

Matteo stfu

Anmol:

Mads that was the ugliest meme you have ever sent my eyes are scared

Matteo:

^ I agree

Maddy:

Don't discriminate my memes they show my feelings exactly the way I want them to be shown

Matteo:

show them somewhere else

I held a hand up to my mouth, stifling my laughter. I missed these weirdos, I thought starting to type.

Me:

Matthew shut up

Matteo:

MACYYYY

Just like that I get a stream of messages calling my name out and I shove my phone back in my pocket. I'll answer them later. The ball rolled over to me and I picked it up, taking it and throwing it over Jon Ming's head and straight to Brandon.

"Wow Mace, you still got a solid arm." Brandon told me, tossing the ball to Cedric.

"You couldn't pass it to me?" Jon Ming yelled.

"JM, ten laps around the field." Sam shouted.

Jon Ming laughed and I'm suddenly reminded of last year when we were all like this. Jacob ran past him. "I can do it faster than you can."

"No, you can't." Jon Ming shoved him, gaining the lead and I watched all of the guys run to beat them. Austin, the actual track runner of all of us sighed, handing me his phone. "Okay, these guys are idiots."

"We've known that for years." I told him. The summer with these people? I couldn't ask for anything better.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If there was someone I really loved even though they hadn't been in my life for a long time, it was Gigi, nona, my grandmother. She's always showed me aspects of my mom that I had seen or never saw. And because she's my grandmother and I'm her daughter's child, there were a lot of times when she could see right through me.

"What's wrong with you, bella?" Gigi asked me.

I sat down next to her that night. "Nothing."

"You get one another piercing and you think that you're going to hide things from me? No, no," Gigi shook her head, pushing the cards away to give me her full attention. "What is wrong?"

"I meant nothing is wrong. It's just that Sam's leaving tomorrow."

"Ah," She nodded her head in understanding. "You're going to miss him huh?"

"Yeah."

"Well think of it this way. It's a good thing video chat and the internet exists because ot takes a lot of time for letters being flown from one end of the world to the next to say your love for one another."

"That's true."

"So don't upset about him leaving. Be upset that I am going to kick your ass in Egyptian war."

"Gigi." My jaw dropped at her language and she laughed.

"It's okay. You lose. I win. Trash talk happens in these things. Justin!" She yelled out his name and he came scrambling down the stairs.

"I have been summoned for what purpose?" He asked, running a hand through his already messy brown hair and-

Oh my God.

I started laughing loudly. "Oh Justin."

He tried to contain his composure but I wasn't stupid. He stared at me like I was the weird one. "What? Why are you laughing?"

"Because it's funny," I told him. "Remember last year and all the time you used to tease me about certain things?"

"Like what?"

"Just stuff I can finally tease you about now that you have an official girlfriend. Like the hickey on your neck I didn't think Emma was capable of making." I grinned widely at the end of my sentence.

Justin's face turned red and he shifted the sweater that he was wearing to cover himself up. He started walking out of the room, struggling to find the words to say. "Shut the fu-"

"Justin." Gigi said like we going to suddenly forget what she had just said not even a couple seconds before Justin had entered the room.

"Gigi, she's bothering me." He complained like a child and I rolled my eyes.

"You've been bothering me since you were born." I muttered.

"Okay, that's enough. Emma!" Gigi yelled.

Justin took a seat on the other end of the table. "And to think we thought the walls in this house were soundproof all these years."

Emma came downstairs and I grinned at the sight of her. She looked at me confused before Justin sighed, gesturing to a chair. "Just take a seat and ignore anything my sister says."

"I'm not going to embarrass Emma," I confessed. "I love her. I'm going to embarrass you when she leaves." I was the best sister in the world.

Justin grumbled under his breath when Gigi disappeared, returning with dad a couple seconds later. He took a seat next to me, confused. "What are we doing?"

"Game night."

"Families actually do that?" Justin asked.

"We used to." I reminded him.

"Yeah, but like we were like kids. Now we have Gigi and she's the most competitive person we know after you." Justin said.

I didn't even argue because it was so true. "So game night?" Emma asked, tying her hair up in a ponytail.

I looked at the people at the table. They yelled, they screamed, they verbally fought to no extent and I didn't care how weird we all were, even Emma who was practically part of the family herself. I loved them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Caleb tapped his fingers along the side of the car, bobbing his head to the music that was playing out of it. He sang along, taking almonds from the bowl and eating them with glee on his face. Sam laughed, grabbing an almond for himself as Caleb searched the car for it's various snacks.

"Ooh, I forgot how much I loved pretzels. Especially soft pretzels." Caleb mumbled, reaching over to the side to click a button. The screen that separated us from the driver, Bradley came down and Caleb unbuckled his seatbelt peering over it as the car stopped at the traffic. "Bradley you're the man."

I heard Bradley, the family driver chuckle. "Thank you Mr. Henderson."

"Fist bump." Caleb held his fist and Bradley, without taking his eyes from the road, bumped it. Caleb laughed, getting back in his seat and clicking the button to put the black screen back up. As he put on his seatbelt, he took another almond. "So."

"So." Sam repeated.

"Did you guys know that Peter really loves Soccer right?"

"Oh we didn't notice." I sarcastically muttered. Originally Soccer was supposed to be here but Peter really loves his company more than any of us thought. He was already at my house that morning when Sam was leaving, Soccer in his hands. I already knew that this summer I rarely going to spend time with my dog.

"And Simon too." Caleb nodded, grabbing a soft pretzel and taking a bite into it.

"Simon and Peter are getting really close huh?" Sam mumbled. "When I was leaving the house, Simon was entering it and that's weird because he never comes in without you in front of him." He directed that last bit to me because it was true.

"Simon and Peter love Soccer. It's not hard to. He's an adorable puppy."

"True."

Phillip who was sleeping against my arm stirred and opened his eyes slowly, letting out a yawn as he stretched his eyes focusing on Caleb who was eating the soft pretzel. "Hey! Those are mine."

Caleb took another bite and that irritated Phillip even more. Phillip begged his mom to come with us to the airport. He went on his knees and laced his fingers. It was that type of begging.  "There's more in there."

"But I asked Bradley to buy three just for me."

"And now there's two for you." For the remainder of the ride Sam held Phillip back from attacking Caleb.

When we were making our way through the airport, Phillip was on Sam's back as we rushed after luggage check-in. "Remind me again why you couldn't take the jet?" Caleb asked Sam.

"Because my dad took it to go to Australia last night." Sam explained.

"And he couldn't just drop you off while he was going as a layover or something?"

"Do you really hate my company that much C?"

"I'm trying to enjoy the moments I have left with you."

"By trying to get rid of me faster?"

"Just walk." Caleb pulled Phillip off Sam's back as Sam hurried, about to go through security check. The line wasn't long so Sam stopped, dropping his backpack at his feet.

"How many minutes?" Phillip asked, his iPad in his hand.

Sam looked at his phone. "I have a couple." He bent down to Phillip's height. "You."

"What about me?" Phillip tilted his head at his brother, waiting for what he had to say.

"Just call me every now and then."

"I always do." Phillip said.

"I love ya, Phil."

"It's PJ," Phillip told him with narrowed eyes. "Phil sounds like a gross nickname. What made you think of that?"

Sam rolled his eyes. "It's half your name and better than calling you Lip. Shut up."

"That's rude." Phillip complained. "You're lucky mum isn't here."

"Like I said I love ya, PJ."

"That's nice." Sam gave his little brother a dirty look that quickly disappeared when Phillip wrapped his arms around him. "I love you too. See you soon."

Caleb quickly grabbed my camera from my hands, clicking the button to record for himself. Sam gave Caleb a hug, both of them patting each other one the back once before letting go. "I'll see ya."

Caleb pouted. "Wait so I don't get the iconic Sam Cahill I love you's?"

"Bye Caleb."

Caleb turned the camera around so that he could talk to it. "Well, I hope he doesn't find any new best friends on his new soccer team."

"Caleb," Sam laughed. "You're irreplaceable you know that?"

Caleb smiled at him, turning the camera away from him. "And that was better than an I love you. Irreplaceable. You hear that princess? You hear that Phil?"

"It's PJ." Phillip engaged in an argument with Caleb as Sam slid over to me, putting his hat on his head. His hat I had given to him long ago with an S on it. When I slid my eyes from the hat on his head to the nice dark green shirt he was wearing that made him look really good and made his eyes pop out. I noticed that it was one of my favorite shirts on him and he wore it. I wonder why he did, I thought when I realized that he was staring at me staring at him.

"Dude," I said after a moment. "Are you just going to stare at me or are you going to say something?"

Sam laughed, pressing a kiss to my lips before pulling back. "I, uh, I got this for you." Sam reached into his pocket and handed me a velvet box.

"Sam you always get me something-"

"I know. But this is something I really want you to keep. As much as that necklace on your neck." His eyes flickered from my own to the box in my hand nervously like I wouldn't accept it. I opened it and looked down at the ring in the center of it, my breath catching in my throat. It was a sliver band but on the band the metal shifted to create a heart with the figure eight infinity sign in the middle of it.

He always to spring something like this on me. Wow.

"I-," I couldn't find the words. I was staring at the ring for what felt like forever, stammering nonsense before I cleared my throat. "Explain."

"I was going to give it you a long time ago."

I raised an eyebrow. "How long ago?"

"Like our six month anniversary long ago. That's how sure I was that you were the one for me but I held back because it I questioned if it was the right time."

I didn't know what to say. Six months? My heart pounded in my chest when I looked him straight in the eyes and only asked a question that consisted of one word."Marriage?"

Sam scoffed, a smile curving on his lips. "If I was proposing to you Macy Anderson, it would not be before I was leaving for a while."

"Then what is this for?" I asked, looking down at the ring once more.

"It's kind of like a promise ring."

A promise ring? "Elaborate."

"It shows commitment, purity and love and I want all of this with you."

He slid it on my finger and when I was about to speak, Caleb came in, his head practically on my finger as he zoomed into the silver band. "Ooh. It's pretty. I like the little infinity thing in the middle of the heart. Totally represents forever love."

"Caleb you were there when I got it." Sam said, pushing him back.

"Listen, I'm trying to put on an act for the camera but if you don't want to cooperate don't say anything."

"Caleb," Phillip pulled him back. "You're ruining it."

"Ruining what?"

"Their moment." Phillip hit him on the arm multiple times and Caleb swatted the kid's hands away.

"Okay, okay, gosh Sam did you raise him to turn out as a brat because he did't say this much last year."Phillip hit Caleb a little harder this time and Caleb yelped both of them glaring at one another.

Sam looked like he was about to say something but he waved a hand, already over it. I kissed him softly, whisering 'thank you'. My hands slid from his face to his neck when I pulled back and I licked my lips when his forehead pressed against mine. "I feel like I should say something but at the same time we've said enough. Or we have enough to say until the next time I can kiss you again."

"You think so?"

"Yeah," I pushed a curl behind his ear. "But seriously you better come back signed to a team."

"And with a deal to be sponsored by Nike." Caleb added.

"No Adidas." Phillip cut in.

"Sam, you're little brother is delusional."

"Don't call me that!" Phillip went to kick Caleb this time and I turned away quickly not even surprised anymore. They've been arguing since the car ride. I had grown used to it.

Sam gave me a small smile, pressing a kiss to my forehead. A iss that let me know that this between us wasn't going to change. "Bye Hazel."

"Bye." I whispered back, letting my hands fall from his face.

"Wait, wait, picture, picture. A moment before Sam gets famous to even talk to us." Caleb said, grabbing Phillip and putting the him on his back. Caleb handed my camera to a stranger to take the picture for us.

When Caleb took the camera back, Sam fixed his hat on his head. "I'll see you guys in six to eight weeks." Sam said, shrugging his backpack on and starting to back away, his eyes on me.

"Wait, Sam." I interrupted and I saw the way his eyes lit up. He expected this.

"Yeah?"

"Your shirt," I started, trying to find an easy way to leave him with a thought before he had to board the plane. "I like it."

"It's your favorite color. Forest green," He smirked. "Of course you like it."

"That's not what I'm trying to say." I drawled out, putting my hands in my back pockets.

"Then what are you trying to say Hazel?" He urged it out of me. I had only said this once, why not say it again?

"That you look good in it," I grinned. "Hot even."

Sam's phone almost dropped out of his hands when he ran up to me, cupping my face in his hands and kissing me so intensely I felt like my head was spinning. He pushed my hair out of my face, his smile wide and bright. "I'm so fucking in love with you, you know that right?"

"Yeah, I know," I brushed a curl from his face. "I'm in love with you too."

Sam looked at Caleb, pointing at the camera. "Did you get that on tape, buddy?"

Caleb moved the camera away and gave Sam a thumbs up. "Every second bro."

Sam held onto my hand squeezing before backing away. "Bye guys."

"Bye." We chorused watching him go through security before disappearing along with the green bottom of his converse shoes. And that's how he left, the guy I was in love with, going to chase after what he worked so hard for. What he deserved. I was happy for him.

I glanced at Phillip and he was frowning. He had just got his favorite brother back only for him to leave again. I would be a little upset too. I put a hand on his shoulder. "Phillip, you want to stay in New York for a couple of hours? Would that make you feel a little bit better?"

Phillip smiled at me. "Thanks Macy, yeah it would. Can we go to central park?"

"I'll call your mom and let her know," Caleb told him as we started walking towards the exit of the airport.

My phone rang in my pocket and I picked it up quickly because I was expecting it."How many seconds did that take?"

"You really wanna know?"Sam asked.

"Yeah."

"I waited 68 seconds."

I laughed. "How ironic."

"It is, isn't it? Considering we got together in 68 days. Do you wanna know exactly how long we have been together now?"

"You've been away for only over 68 seconds and you're already showing off?"

"Okay, okay, I won't show off."

"It's been over a year." I pointed out.

"Actually over a year and coming to two months in a bit but you do you, Hazel."

"Shut up." I looked down at the ring on my finger, the cool metal against my skin. "You want me to keep you company on the line? We're staying in New York for a bit."

"It's okay, keep Phillip distracted for a while and then tell him all call him soon."

"Got it."

"So he's going to be with you and Caleb for day?"

"Yeah."

"Then he'll have a blast," I could sense his smile already. I could see it and in response, I smiled myself. "Listen, I'll text you when I get on the plane and call you when I land."

"You promise?" I asked.

"Definitely."

Phillip grabbed the phone from my hand. "Bye!" He yelled into it.

I heard Sam laugh. "Bye, buddy."

I hung up the phone and when we were going back to the car, Caleb looked at me like he had much to say but only stuck to a couple of words. "Listen."

"What?"

There was the sound of cars outside, honking, people chatting, some laughing, some yelling. There was a lot of things going on in the atmosphere. "I hear everything."

Caleb pointed up to the plane leaving the city. "Up there if you listened closely we could have heard the engine of the plane as it made it's way up to the sky. If we had super hearing we could probably hear making a friend with a kid on the plane."

I laughed. "Yeah, that's something he would do."

"He's gonna come back."

"I know Caleb."

"And seriously if he doesn't come back with a contract and signed to this team I'm gonna be pissed."

"I know Caleb."

"If he doesn't bother coming back, in general, I'm gonna drag his ass back to-"

I laughed, as Phillip went inside the car. "I know Caleb."

When we got inside the car and told Bradley about our plans , Caleb tapped my shoulder, getting my attention. "He's gonna come back."

"Caleb, you can repeat that all you want because I know he is. He's going to come back to me his girlfriend and he is going to come back to you his best friend-"

"And he's gonna come back to me most importantly, his brother." Phillip added in.

"And until then we're just going to keep waiting," I told them.

"The same way he's going to wait to see the progress on your leg-"

I cut Caleb off. "And the same way he's going to wait to see if you can get a new brain."

"So Sam leaves for like five seconds and you already start insulting me like him?" Phillip and I laughed, throwing our heads back and Caleb smiled in response. "We're just going to wait. He's going to wait too."

And we waited. We all waited for Sam to come back while trying to have a great summer. Caleb had published the book in mid July, Phillip continued doing gymnastics and I really think that kid has a future in it. He made sure to show me what he could do every chance he got. Our friends helped with the waiting too.

Jacob didn't get back together with Natalie. That was already solidified. Last I checked Natalie was dating this gym trainer and Jacob, well Jacob stayed single for the whole the summer. He traveled a lot though. Met different people.

Stevie was Stevie. She was still with Cedric. At least I think so. The last time I saw them together before I started the second year of university they were in the middle of some huge argument. I didn't get involved but Stevie told me it was just a rough patch.

On the other half of the twins, Brandon was doing pretty good. I know he worked this summer along with majority of us but at a construction site in the city over. So I didn't see him as much as I did at the beginning of summer but stayed in touch. I think he was the only one of the boys that actually liked doing marathons of shows or movies with me besides Andrew.

Simon had gone to Toronto in mid August and Peter had gone to Amsterdam at the end of July to be with his family. Before that, those boys were dedicated to either Soccer or bowling and took me with them when they had the chance. They developed a really good friendship though, I couldn't complain.

Austin was still with Toby and did multiple competition preparing him for the World Grand Prix in January. I was so proud of him and I think he realized that because with running you sweat, his hair wasn't going to be perfect all the time. Toby told me this and thought it was a problem that Austin didn't care much about his hair's appearance like he has before. I didn't even complain about that either.

The rest of the Cahills were doing pretty good. All of them, Lucas and Joey graduated, Christian was a little less reckless according to Justin. Greg was probably the calmest out of all of them and had told me that he started ice dancing a long time ago. I found that really cool. Ivan was working hand in hand with his dad and Natasha gave birth in late August. I wasn't there to see it but I can say one thing. Ivan had fainted.

Jon Ming? Jon Ming was a complete party animal but he was making it pretty big. Bigger than I originally thought he ever would. Who would think one of my friends could be on the rise of making beats for famous artists? He got money DJ'ing different things and flew to LA from mid July to mid August to work with some people so when he came back I was on my way to leave soon. I just didn't want the idea of the media life to get caught up in his head in the future.

Maddy and I spent a week together and that was something I really needed. That road trip we had planned came true but spending many hours in a car with Caleb I was used to but Maddy was an hour in and already wanted to push him out the window. I missed her and couldn't wait to spend next year with her, Matteo and Anmol.

Matteo was still great. He played basketball around England for most of the summer and met a guy when he was up north. He wouldn't tell me Maddy and Anmol much about the guy but we were all going to figure out about his secret man. Anmol already found his Instagram.

Speaking of Anmol, her and Derek were still on. Her sister had found out about their relationship but she ended up not caring at all. Derek was moving but they were going to see how it would work out after the summer.

My summer was spent mostly with family. I got to understand that Justin no longer had a huge obsession with Twinkies. He got sick of them by July. Emma stayed the whole summer so I considered her family anyway and I felt like we had read a lot of books together. Family game night became a regular thing that Justin and I eventually looked forward too. Sometimes Caleb, Simon, Peter, Andrew or even Andrew's family joined us making it crazier than usual. But sometimes Gigi and her competitiveness just made it the highlight of any night.

As for my dad and him dating. I got used to Danielle. Sydney had gone to this summer program for dance so Danielle came over sometimes this summer. I saw the little things like how my dad was glad that we liked her and he liked her. Sam was right. I did get used to the of my dad moving on. He needed to but wouldn't forget my mom.

Caleb and Andrew I spent a lot of time with this summer. Caleb seemed a bit happier. He wrote a lot more whenever he had the chance too. I could be in the middle of a conversation with the guy and he'll take out his book, starting to write an idea that popped in his mind before he would lose it. He would include me in his whole story writing process too asking me for my advice on his ideas. Caleb never had any bad ideas.

Andrew was Andrew. His relationship with Gianna I didn't ask much about but it was clear that eh was evidently better relationship wise. I feel like he forgot all about Jasmine. He mentioned her once or twice but that was only when we brought up the past because she had been involved. But besides that, he wasn't affected but the mention of her name. He moved on.

Speaking of moving on I wasn't sure how I could react to seeing Tanya again for the second year. Maybe we wouldn't speak to one another at all. I don't know but I wasn't going to let negativity whether it was from my life or Sam's impact me.

When Sam came back, he had been across the pond longer than any of us expected. He came back a little over two months later but that was okay because I had him back. There were little changes like his hair. He got the haircut I deserved for him to get. But there was also the change that he wouldn't be returning to his second year at HDF with me. He wouldn't because he was onto better things. And that impacted us but not in a negative way.

I didn't matter if I only got to physically see him once a week. It didn't matter if I didn't get to hear his voice often. None of that mattered. Neither did his history or how busy we both were. Because how we were when we had first come to Manchester was we were going to be in the future.

Together.