Luke's POV.

The whole dating thing made me wonder which college Reign was going to.

So she's going to CAU in Los Angeles and I'm going to Boston university in Boston.

Distance relationship.

It's gonna suck but you know what? I'm gonna fucking transfer to CAU, my Mom has the power to make that happen in a snap of two fingers but I definitely do not have the power to convince her to do it.

I'll die trying.

Anyway... after Ariana kissed me, Garrett hasn't been able to look me in the eye and Mason has been forcing us to hang out and talk it over but some things can never be overlooked, plus, Ariana never apologized to me or Reign.

We all went our separate ways in a flash.

But at least I still have Reign, I never imagined that she'd turn out to be the friend that stays.

Strange world, huh?

I'm in the middle of football practice but I can't wait for it to be over, Reign and I are going to see final destination at the local theater, she made a big deal out of it, demanding that I better be done with practice before she walks out of detention.

She got detention for texting me in class.

Amateur.

Coach finally blows the whistle and I fall flat on the grass, feeling relived.

Mason stands over me wearing a cap which makes him look like a baseball player.

"Hey, man, a few of us are having this bonfire thing at the lake, you wanna join?" He kicks my leg.

"Reign and I are going to see a horror movie." I respond, he nods in understanding.

I know Mason hates this, he hates that relationships ruined our friendship and I know he feels left out and alone because I remember him saying we were the only real family he had.

But here's the thing, never put your heart in other people's hands, they'll drop it every time.

"But..." I stand up, "I will keep this hat." I snatch his hat, wearing it backwards.

"It looks better on you anyway." He forces a smile, I punch his shoulder in order to get a real reaction from him, he looks at his shoulder then at me, "Don't start." He warns, I do it again but a little harder this time, he wraps his arm around my neck and holds my head captive on his bend elbow.

"If you kill me, Reign is gonna torch you alive." I say breathlessly, trying to escape his grip.

"Or... She's gonna help me get rid of your body." He responds, then he suddenly stills and releases me, staring at someone, I follow his gaze and it lands on Ariana, making her way towards us.

Fuck me.

"Hey, guys." She greets when she reaches us.

"Hey, guys?" Mason asks her in disbelief, "Wow." He starts walking away, I try to follow him but she stands in front of me, stopping me.

"We have to talk." She says nervously.

"About?" I look elsewhere.

"Garrett. He's not talking to me, I know that always happens but it feels very serious this time." Her tone breaks.

"I'm sorry, I don't think I heard you apologize for the shit you pulled." My jaw flexes in anger and I glare down at her.

She faces her shoes, almost like she can't look at me, "I'm sorry, Luke, I really am, what I did was unforgivable and I deserve to go to hell."

Deserve to go to hell? What kind of a shit ass apology is that?

"You're not even sorry." I state the obvious, "Who even are you?" I start walking.

"Luke, please, Garrett is the only good thing I have right now, please help me fix this." She follows me.

"Garrett deserves better and you should have thought about that before you kissed me." I mumble, walking through the fence to the alleyway, I spot Reign coming in front of me, she smiles and increases her pace, jogging a little.

We meet halfway and her eyes travel behind me for a brief moment but she doesn't react.

"Hey, baby." I place my hand on her small back, leaning into her face.

"Hey, handsome." She whispers, settling her lips over mine, I peck her lips but she drags mine, tilting her head, coming in hot by devouring my mouth, I moan, sucking on her lip and cupping the back of her head, going in deeper.

Ariana clears her throat behind me but we don't stop.

She doesn't call the shots.

"Assholes." She mutters, sounding annoyed.

"Did you hear that?" Reign pulls away from our kiss and looks around us like she's searching for the source of the noise.

"I think it was a bee." I smile, playing along.

"Yeah? It sounded more like a snake to me." She looks at Ariana over my shoulder.

"Reign, I'm sorry." Says Ariana.

"Ready to go?" She lets her hand out to me, ignoring the apology.

"Yeah but I have to grab my stuff from the locker room first." I hold her hand and we continue walking back to the school together.

"Rei, listen to me please." Ariana comes to stand in front of us, we both sigh at the same time.

"I swear to God, if we miss the trailer because of you and your bullshit." Reign mutters beside me.

"Hear me out, dude, please. I'm sorry, I really messed up and-"

"You didn't mess up, Ariana, you fucked up, you fucked up so bad the damage is beyond repair, I mean look around you, Garrett is not here and neither is Mason, why? Because we all don't know how to be in the same room after what you did, and to think that I was three seconds away from calling you my best friend while you were thinking about kissing the only guy that I've ever liked after I told you how I felt about him.... I mean, wow, congratulations, Ariana, because of you, I'm probably never going to have a best friend in my entire life. Happy?"

"No, but you can still help me get Garrett back." She says, tears streaming down her face while her eyes drifting between us desperately.

"Remember when I told you to love yourself? I was wrong, you love yourself just fine." Says Reign, this time, she doesn't follow us when we walk away.

I look at Reign as we enter the school hall, she looks a little sad, like she just lost a friend.

"You okay there, feisty?" I nudge her shoulder with mine.

"I don't know, I just want highschool to end already." She says sadly.

"Yeah, me too." I kiss the back of her hand.

I won't lie, highschool wasn't all that bad, it had its perks, those perks being football, girls, parties and my friends. my funny, caring, loyal to the core friends but right now, I only have football and a friend who's also my girlfriend and next year, I'll only have football cause my girlfriend slash friend will be far away.

Let no one bullshit you cause that's exactly how life goes, time is irreversible, everything is temporary, everything fades and not everything goes the way we want it to.

Older people don't tell us to enjoy our youth so they can sound wise, they know that there's no room for do-overs or regrets.

Reign insists on waiting outside the locker room cause she hates the way it smells in there, I decide to take a quick shower cause I smell like sweat, it might be quick but it makes me feel like an actual human.

I grab my backpack from my locker and I slip on Mason's hat before exiting the locker room, I find Reign squatting down, massaging Jace's leg.

"Easy, woman, it hurts." He winces.

I sigh.

"We had a deal." I say behind her, she twists her head to look at me.

"His leg's broken." She informs me.

I know, dude's always breaking stuff on his body for some reason that I do not care about.

"That's his problem," I hold her arm, lifting her up.

"Wait, are you guys like.... together?" He holds in his laugh, Reign smiles and nods, "Wow," he claps his hands dramatically, balancing himself on one foot.

"Go see a doctor, an injury like that could end your little dreams for football." I tell him while I drag her passed him.

"He's limping."  She looks back at him.

"I know." I say in an obvious tone, she shakes her head at me.

We exit the building.

"So does this mean I won our deal?" I ask once we're in my car.

"What deal?" She furrows her brows.

"The one where we said I'd make you believe in love?" I remind her as I speed out of the parking lot.

"What makes you think I now believe in love?" She puts on her seatbelt.

"This." I entwine our fingers.

"Don't flatter yourself." She laughs, looking out the window and then back at me.

"So you don't think you're gonna fall in love with me?" I ask, wiggling my eyebrows.

"No," she scoffs, I smile, shaking my head at her. "But I am falling in love with the way you're pulling off that hat though." She stares at the hat.

"I look good in everything." I wink at her.

"This level of self love should be illegal." She giggles, I grin at the road.

She puts on some music and sings along to some cliché Taylor swift song, her sing along is super dramatic but entertaining at the same time.

Once we arrive at the theater and get our tickets at the entrance, she orders a bunch of snacks inside and makes me pay and carry them for her, I gladly do.

Unlike the last time we were here, we decide to sit at the far back of the room even though the place has less than twenty people.

The lights go out and the trailer starts playing just in time.

"The last time we were here, you sounded very interested in my life." She leans over and whispers in my ear.

"I was curious," I defend, shrugging it off.

She breathes out a little laugh and leans back in her seat, hugging the bucket of popcorn and digging in.

The movie starts and for the first time since I started watching horror movies, I ask myself why so many horror movies have that stupid wild teenagers have sex then later get killed storyline.

I glance at Reign and she's already looking at me, kinda like in thought.

"What's up?" I ask.

"Do you think we're going to work out?" She immediately responds, I raise my brows at that.

"We just started dating and you're already wondering if-"

"No, no, no, not like that. It's just that, people say that most people meet that someone in highschool, you think he or she is the one but at the end of the day, it's just some stupid highschool romance." She explains.

"Does it feel like some stupid highschool romance?" I ask.

"I don't know but it feels like we're one of those couples who drive off in the sunset together, like in romcoms." She snorts a laugh.

"Oh, Reign, baby, no." I chuckle, "Love in real life isn't like the movies, we don't drive off in the sunset together and the credits don't start rolling up so the world can call it a happy ending, in real life, we'll go through shit and things will get worse before they get better but I'm willing to go through all of the shit with you, I have a feeling I won't be regretting it."

"Yeah but I'm not in love with you." She half laughs, shaking her head.

"Yet, you're not in love with me yet." I correct her, "And speaking of..." I sink in my seat, minimizing my voice, "Did you change your mind about the kneeling before no one thing?" I whisper in her neck.

"You're disgusting." She pushes my face, smiling.

"Then why are you blushing?" I brush my knuckles on her cheek.

"Because I'm calling you an idiot in my head." She covers her cheeks with her hands.

"No, you're not, you were thinking about doing it." I try to pull her hands away from her face.

"Stop." She laughs, sending me a playful glare, I raise my hands, surrendering.

She drops her hands and awkwardly clears her throat, looking around the theater.

"Okay so what if I was?" She asks me while facing the front, I release a shocked breath.

"Reign?" I call.

"Luke?" She faces me.

"This movie sucks ass, I think we should go hang out at the pool house instead." I suggest.

"Man, shut up." She throws popcorn in my face, laughing at my words, I laugh with her but we both stop when someone in front shushes us.

We glance at each other at the same time.

"Movie, then pool house." She whispers, I grin.

She shifts her attention back to the movie while I keep my eyes on her, everything about this moment is surreal. I still can't believe I used to fight with her instead of dating her.

But, everything happens for a reason, everything has it's own perfect time, if we had started dating earlier then we would have probably ended up like Ariana and Garrett.

A toxic relationship that feels like an inescapable prison.

It's a good thing we had all this time to learn and not be just like them.

I know that the biggest problem Reign and I are ever going to face will be our families, if we're gonna go as far as marriage or I accidentally get her pregnant then we will have to face the possibility of our families coming together and that will be a total disaster.

But I don't like looking into the future because it's the biggest mystery of all, I can't say the same about the present though..

Here, right now, next to Reign? I can just watch this movie and smile at the way she laughs when someone screams and runs in terror.

Here and now is better than tomorrow and that's a guarantee.

The End.