I set the box down on the floor with a grunt. I'm sweating way more than I'd like this early in the day. "Thanks for helping, it would have cost a fortune to hire movers." Jake says as he walks in with his arms full.

I walk over to him to take stuff from the top. "It's no problem honestly. I'm not doing much until I leave for New York." Well, aside from going to California next week.

"Yeah, when is that?" Jenny asks, her hand on her swollen stomach. She's getting closer and closer to her due date.

Hopefully I'll be back from the wedding before she gives birth. "Check in is July 25th."

"What a coincidence that's your birthday."

I laugh nervously, "Happy birthday to me." I know Seth will be there but I won't know anyone else. My fingers are crossed that my roommate will be tolerable. I set everything down and wipe my face with my shirt. "Have you guys heard from Bee?" She posts pictures on Instagram but other than that she's been MIA.

Jenny shakes her head, "I think she's having too much fun." Her eyes are dark and slightly sad. It's probably her hormones but a tear runs down her cheek. "Sorry I guess I'm just a little sad we don't get to travel." I couldn't imagine having a baby so young and everything I could be missing out on.

Jake goes to her side and says, "We'll have something better than traveling."

I roll my eyes at how cheesy they are and can't help but smile. They're the golden couple, they're soulmates. I choose to believe that she's keeping her baby because she truly believes it's the best option. Still, I can't believe how far even a perfect couple like them have come.

In a way I envy them. It's silly and childish but they have something Shawn and I couldn't have. The option to be so out and in the open. The option to truly be together. "I'll go get the last of it." I dismiss myself, walking around them to get to the door.

The area is nice enough to start a family. Quaint but I know they'll make the most of it. When I make it down to the car there's one more box in it. It's labeled, high school, in black sharpie. The box is open so I peek inside, it's filled with scrapbooks and trinkets. I pull the first one out. It says Freshman Year on it so I open it to reveal the first page. I laugh at the picture of three very young best friends. Becca had braces and she was in the middle with her arms wrapped around Jenny and me. Jenny's hair was much longer and brushed out to perfection. I looked chubbier in the face, but mostly the same.

I flip through it some more. Pictures of all of us the whole year are in this book. All of the embarrassing ones taken off guard and all of the planned ones that are somehow still terrible.

Before I know it I'm on the scrapbook from sophomore year. Bee got her braces off and Luke is close behind in almost every picture. Jenny won her beauty pageants so there are several pages dedicated to that. I'm in the book but not as much as I was in the last one.

I move on to the one from junior year. The only pictures of me are with Dean. I looked happy but I was never alone. My friends were always much more photogenic than me. There are pictures from the masquerade and go-kart racing. They're all group pictures and the ones that weren't, consisted of Jenny and Becca last summer. 

I shake my head and move on to senior year. The back of the book has plenty of pictures of me and the girls. Graduation, prom, and our monthly sleepovers. The front only has one picture of me. It was around Thanksgiving and I'm not even smiling, I wasn't happy.

I close the book and put it back in the box. Am I really going to go to California next week like nothing ever happened? Like I'm not terrified of Dean and how miserable I was with him. He kept me sheltered and hidden from the rest of the world. I felt less hidden when I was with Shawn and we had to stay hidden.

The world looks down on relationships that don't meet their standards. It's all bullshit, Dean and I were the IT couple and he was terrible to me. Love doesn't meet the world's standards, or at least not in my case.

"Are you okay?" Jake asks.

I look up. "Yeah I was just looking through those scrapbooks. I had no idea she made them."

Jake takes a seat right beside me on the edge of the trunk. "She loved making one every year. Something about it being a more centered yearbook." He laughs.

"By junior year I was hardly in them. I never realized how much Dean took me away from you guys."

Jake nods. "If it makes you feel better none of us did." I look down, I wish it did make me feel better. "Is there something else?"

"I feel stupid for seeing him after everything that he's done. I just hope that once I get back I'll finally be over it." I'll confront my fears and be done with the trauma and the nightmares.

Jake puts his hand over mine to comfort me. "I think you're very brave, not stupid. As for getting over it, I think seeing him will only be half of it. He did bad things to you, but you're only processing it a little at a time. Find a way to get it all out there in the open. Then maybe it'll get a little easier." Something clicks in my head when he says that. I know exactly what I can do.

"Thanks Jake. You're a really good friend." I let go of his hand and stand up to grab the box. "Let's get upstairs before Jenny gets worried." I would feel terrible if she came all the way down here just to check on us. She's going to pop in just a couple of weeks.

One Week Later...June 26th

"Yeah, I'm boarding the plane right now." I say into the phone. I continue to look around, Shawn is nowhere to be found. "He's still not here. What if he doesn't show?"

Hunter brushes me off. "He's probably just running late. Have a safe trip and get off the phone."

I say goodbye and hang up. I've stayed behind everyone else, the attendant keeps staring at me. "I'm sorry ma'am you need to board the plane."

I look back just to make sure. "Just one more minute, please." He hasn't answered any of my messages but he knew it was today.

"Wait! I'm here!" I sigh when I see Shawn running around the corner with a suitcase rolling behind him. He rushes up to me in a sweat. I wrap my arms around him and feel him hold me back. "I slept through my alarm. I didn't mean to worry you." He whispers in my ear.

I'm embarrassed at how much I missed him. The attendant clears her throat, breaking the both of us apart. "Sorry." I mumble.

Shawn hands her his ticket and we both board together. It's only been a month since we've seen each other. He left the day after graduation and has been too busy getting settled to talk much. It's okay though, this summer is better spent apart. This weekend being the only exception.

We put our luggage above us and take our seats. I can't stop staring at him. "I was beginning to think you weren't coming." I admit shyly.

He grabs my chin, "Hey, I'm always going to be there for you." Shawn was on edge about me going in the first place. I can't exactly blame him.

I take his hand from my face and hold it. "I know." There's so much I want to ask him. Like how his new place is coming along and if he's happy where he is. It must seem refreshing to start over. I'll learn what that feels like soon enough.

Throughout the flight I tell him all about Jenny and Jake moving out and about Becca and Luke's traveling. He listens intently and relates to stories of when he traveled during college. I like that he's opening up to me and telling me things about his past so easily. It's like we've been old friends for years, it's like we've always known each other. Maybe that's how it'll always be between us. So easy to connect again after so long, so easy to communicate and get that spark back. It's like we've never lost it.

Our flight isn't that long so before long, the pilot announces we have ten minutes before we land. Shawn holds my hand. "I'm just nervous, Eve is picking us up from the airport and I don't know how to tell her about us."

"It's going to be a little surprising but I'm not worried about Eve. I'm worried about Dean." I squeeze his hand. There's bound to be tension but how he actually reacts is impossible to know. His anger might be under control by now, he might be a totally different person.

For his sake I hope he is different. It might not change how I feel about him but it would do everyone some good in the long run. "Regardless, I'm happy you're with me."

When we land, we grab our luggage. Shawn touches the small of my back the entire time we walk down the aisle to get off of the plane.

Eve is sitting in one of the chairs, waiting. She looks up and sees me almost immediately. "Livia!" She rushes to me, wrapping her arms around me for a hug. "It's so nice to see you." She steps back to take a good look at me. "You look good." She compliments. The last time she saw me I had a bruise on my eye.

"Thank you, you're practically glowing." I laugh.

Eve brushes back her hair, "I'm getting married tomorrow, it's just wedding jitters."

Shawn stops at my side, holding out his hand. "I'm Shawn Morgan."

Eve fawns over him, looking him up and down shamelessly. "I'm Eve-soon to be- Simpson." Her arm falls back down to her side, "Morgan sounds familiar."

I look up at him, I have to tell her but I'm at a loss for words.

Thankfully, Shawn notices this and speaks up. "You've probably heard it before because last year I was Dean and Livia's teacher." 

Her shocked expression worries me. "You were their what?"

I step up to her. "Look I know it's crazy but he was the only one who knew what was going on between Dean and I. He got me through it."

Eve stares at me momentarily before letting out a long sigh. "I guess I can respect that...how old are you anyway?"

"I'm twenty-six."

She nods and looks back and forth between the two of us before her eyes land on me. "Well let's get going. I have a car waiting for us."

Shawn leans in to whisper, "Well that went better than expected."

I nod in agreement, I was expecting a little more of a spectacle.