"What happened?" Adam asked. "Where's Jesse?"

"He left," I said.

"Dude, we had some of the best fireworks out there at the ranch and I brought them back." Brayden popped open the trunk, holding his hands out like the Price is Right.

"Ta da!" He sang with a wide grin, his hat barely on his head.

"Wait, he left?" Brooke poked her head out of the car window. "What a—" She hiccuped. "Bitch."

"Let's just go," I shook my head and slid into the car, Adam and Brayden following after me.

"Brayden, where can we pop these and not get arrested?" Adam asked as he put the car in reverse.

"Hey!" Someone from our balcony yelled. "Where are y'all going?!"

Brayden stuck half of his body out of the passenger side window as we drove by. "Ryder Creek!"

Then they did some kind of noise that I always called their cowboy cat call.

"Brayden!" Adam raised his voice and Brayden plopped back into the seat. "Are we about to get arrested?"

Brayden laughed which was nearly enough to distract me from the disaster that ensued just moments ago upstairs with Jesse.

"Nah man, we call it the pop and run!"

"Fuck," Adam mumbled, but followed Brayden's directions anyway.

"Hey," Brooke tapped my thigh. "What happened lady?"

"Just decided we would go our separate ways," I murmured.

Adam heard and I could feel the weight of his gaze staring at me in the rear view mirror.

"Stop," I begged him.

He looked apologetic for a moment before returning his eyes to the road.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Brayden called out and pushed up in his seat, pointing out the window. "You just missed the road!"

"What road? I'm following the GPS!" Adam defended.

Brayden scoffed. "GPS? Damn man, the GPS won't get you to the backwoods, turn around."

Brayden did a spin with his finger in the air and stuck his boots up on the dashboard.

Adam sighed, but complied. He turned around so fast, Brayden and I slammed into our windows.

"Ow," he mumbled with his nose squished into the glass.

I laughed after we returned to respective spots.

"Okay, the rockstar can't drive!" Brooke giggled.

"Yes I can! My navigator is shit," Adam grumbled.

"Eh! You're shit," Brayden shot back.

I laughed. "You're drunk," I said.

He glanced back at me with what he would describe as a "shit eatin' grin" and winked before slamming back against his seat.

"I'm sorry Hawkins, I didn't mean it. I actually really love you," he leaned onto the console and peered at Adam from underneath his cowboy hat.

"Okay," Adam said awkwardly, biting back a grin.

"No really, I think you're talented."

Brooke and I glanced at each other and laughed.

Brooke leaned forward. "Don't worry Adam, you should hear him talk about George Strait."

"My King!" Brayden bellowed.

"Oh wow," Adam laughed.

"Oops," Brooke hid her smile.

Brayden was fumbling with his phone.

"You know who he is right?" Brayden glanced at Adam.

"Of course," Adam laughed.

"Man, this guy is a legend!" He plugged in the aux cord and a George strait song began playing.

"He has 44 number one hits on the country billboard charts. That's a big deal," Brayden adjusted himself so he was comfortably staring at Adam. "He broke Conway Twitty's record of 40."

He leaned forward. "Do you know this song?"

Adam covered his mouth with his hand, hiding his laughter. "I actually don't, surprisingly."

Brayden's jaw dropped and a sound escaped his mouth that could only be described as a screeching, dying animal.

"I—" he leaned back in his seat. "I can't speak to you, just soak this in."

I smiled at how dramatic he was and suddenly I found my fingers playing with my new necklace. Just like that, my mood plummeted. Feeling the necklace brought back the feel of his arms around me, of his fingers near my neck.

His hazel eyes were burned into my mind and my heart was aching once again.

Adam's eyes met mine in the mirror. Both of us desperate in different ways.

"Left!" Brayden called out.

Brooke jumped. "Brayden," she slapped his arm up front and sat back. "Scared the shit out of me."

"It's right up there," Brayden pointed for Adam to see.

When we parked, Brayden got out of the car spouting off more facts about George Strait to Adam.

"I mean, I can't believe you're as big as you are and you didn't know this?" Brayden popped the trunk and leaned against the open compartment, staring at Adam in disbelief.

"I know," Adam grabbed some fireworks and began handing them off to Brooke and I. "I'll be sure to go listen to him."

"Yeah," Brayden popped a tic tac into his mouth, the sound of it hitting his teeth distracting me from the necklace that was resting against my collarbone, a painful reminder that I was about to take off and throw into the creek.

"Let's pop some shit!" he yelled.

"Shut up!" Brooke yelled from the grass ahead of us. "He's going to be the reason we get caught."

"Sure," Adam murmured. "It won't be the colorful explosions in the air." He shut the trunk and jumped when he turned around to find me smirking at him.

"They're something else, aren't they?"

We walked side by side to the clearing they were squatting in.

"Don't try to avoid telling me what happened," Adam glanced down at me. He adjusted his pile of fireworks in his arms and sighed.

"I'm sorry, I thought I was doing the right thing making him come."

"No, don't be sorry," I sighed. "It wasn't something we could fix I guess."

Adam dropped the fireworks into the dirt next to Brooke and stood up with his hands on his hips.

"Right," he said, clearly doubtful.

Some headlights flashed across us and an engine revved from the street.

"Uh oh," Brayden said, his voice flat.

"Run!" Brooke shrieked.

"Wait, are you serious?" Adam questioned as Brooke and Brayden used each other as drunk support to the tall grass near the water.

I squint my eyes to avoid the bright headlights so I could determine if they were cops or if they were the people Brayden screeched out an invite to at the apartment.

"Guys!" I called out. "You're fine, it's just people from our place."

Their heads popped up like meerkats in the wild. They jogged back over to us giggling.

Adam and I glanced at each other.

"Was this how I was with Lissa and Demi?" I asked him.

"Oh yeah."

I grimaced, slightly embarrassed. When you were the sober party member, it wasn't quite as funny.

"Yikes," I finally said as I watched them stumble to the fireworks.

"So," Adam cleared his throat and crossed his arms as other people began filing into the clearing. "It's really over?"

My fingers found the necklace as I thought back to the look of defeat on Jesse's face.

"Yeah, I think it really is."

After a few quiet seconds, Adam brought me into his side and rubbed my arm lightly in comfort.

"Hey," he shifted to stand in front of me. "Today was an awesome day. You won the songwriting competition. You got closure with Jesse and tonight, we're going to pop fireworks."

He pointed at the sparklers being lit.

"Tonight, we celebrate."

"What, me winning? I didn't do it to win."

"No," he dipped his head down to look me in the eye. "Tonight we celebrate your year because it's been crazy as hell, but it has been huge. Everything about it was huge and sometimes feeling everything big, the good and bad, is worth celebrating after years of not feeling anything at all."

I met his blue eyes and inside I knew he was right. It was an absolutely insane year, full of emotions I didn't think I was capable of feeling. Even if heartbreak was one of them, maybe even many of them, at least I could say I felt it. All of it.

"Let's grab a sparkler before your friends burn through them all," Adam grinned.

I nodded and followed after him. Brayden clumsily lit our sparklers and we stepped away from the crowd while we let them burn around us.

"A little birdy told me they'd be setting up an interview with you soon, just thought you should know." Adam shrugged innocently.

My mood must have visibly lifted at that because he smiled at me.

"Get ready, No Name, you're the Next New Songwriter," he bumped me with his shoulder, careful not to let his sparkler hit me.

"Look!" I pointed at Brayden and Brooke running away from something in the center and within seconds a loud bang set off and a tiny spark was sent soaring into the sky. For a few moments it went dark, but then it exploded into a large pink planet formation.

Suddenly, Brayden and a few other guys had several of them going off at the same time. Each one leaving a few moments of darkness before an array of colors burst across the sky.

I dropped my sparkler to the ground as Brooke jogged over to me. She tossed an arm around me and together we sat on the ground and stared up into the night sky, watching it light up.

"Congratulations Ali girl," she smiled and leaned her head onto my shoulder.

"Thanks," I leaned my head on top of hers.

"Next stop, graduation," she sighed.

"I can't believe it's really over," I said quietly. All of it.

"Me either," she replied. Her hand found mine and she squeezed.

"I'm going to miss living with you," she said as a blue planet exploded over us.

Tears prickled at the corners of my eyes.

"You have no idea," I choked out.

She sat up and wrapped me into a hug.

"Remember sophomore year when you were late to your 8am class and I snuck you in through the window because the professor locked the door?"

I burst out laughing. "Oh god, yeah, I was nearly kicked out of the class for that."

"Or remember when Brayden thought he had an STD and he had the balls to ask me to check." We both laughed at that one.

"Remember when we were keeping Brayden's dog and the next morning he ran down the stairs into the kitchen with your friend's used condom in his mouth?"

"Oh yes!" she covered her mouth with her free hand and laughed.

"We threw some great parties in Apartment 216," she sighed.

In addition to the giant fireworks above us, Brayden lit some fountains in front of us with a few people dancing around it. Some even jumped over it, chancing their very own charred crotch.

"We did a lot of amazing things in Apartment 216," I added.

She turned to me.

"You're going to do amazing things, you know that?"

"Brooke..." I shook my head.

"No," she gathered my hands in to hers. "I wish I had known what was really going on the past two years. I wish I knew how much you were hurting. I wish I had known just how little I knew about you."

"But, now that I do, I want you to know as my college roommate and one of my closest friends— hell you're family. No matter where we end up, you and me?" She pointed at both of us.

"AB for life."

I smiled at her and nodded. "AB for life."

Eventually we laid back onto the dirt and watched the fireworks above us, listening to people shout and laugh around us. Together, we reminisced our favorite college memories, our most embarrassing moments and finally, our dreams.

"Are you moving to New York?" I asked.

"Yeah, I have an interview next with an acting company in Brooklyn. I'm freaking out."

"You'll get it," I affirmed.

She scoffed.

"I know these thing," I laughed. "But if you end up there, my best friend from home, Lissa, she lives in Brooklyn and I'm pretty sure you guys will be inseparable."

"Aren't you coming to New York?" She faced me.

I shrugged. "Adam said I have an interview with a record label next week, but I'm not sure where they are."

"Your luck, you'll end up in Nashville or Georgia or something."

We laughed at that, knowing I was hoping for LA or NYC because it was close to water.

"Well," she said. "I'm hoping for New York so we can stay roommates."

"Oh, what if we found another Apartment 216?" I wondered.

"That would be seriously amazing."

Some headlights flashed behind us, momentarily washing out the light from the fountain in front of us.

"What if I have to be a freelancer?" I feared. "What will I do for insurance?"

"You're doing it again," Brooke scolded.

"Doing what?" I sat up.

She sat up, her eyebrows rising.

"Girl, you worry about everything."

"Do not," I defended.

Her face fell. "Next time, I'm going to—"

"Hey man, she's over there!" I heard Adam say loudly from the beer cooler. I tried to see who he was talking to, but the fountain was in the way.

"What did you say?" I asked Brooke, shaking my head.

"Next time, I'm going to record you so you know how you can be about the future."

I scoffed.

"Oh," she said, surprised while looking past me.

"Is Brayden stripping again?" I turned around and froze.

"Not quite," she giggled.

Jesse.

I stood up as he walked over to me. I flinched at a loud bang from behind us where they lit another artillery shell.

"Jesse, what are you doing here?" I asked, dusting my hands and bum off. I mentally prepared myself to handle the hurt that was coming, willing myself to be strong enough to see him. Maybe he wanted the necklace back. Maybe he forgot something.

Whatever it was, he strode over to me, looking determined.

"Jesse?" I asked and stopped moving to him, but he didn't stop.

"Jesse," I repeated. "What are you doing—"

He grabbed me, his hazel eyes burning.

"Fighting for you, Al," he breathed before his lips met mine.

My heart was sent into a frenzy as I felt Jesse Vanderlin's lips against mine for the first time in almost a year.

Chills were sent across my skin as he pulled me closer to him and moved his lips with mine.

I was breathless. I was afraid. I was shocked. I was soaring.

I dug my hands into his now short hair and brought him closer to me, instead of coming down to my level, he lifted me up, wrapping my legs around his hips.

Inappropriate whistles and catcalls were sounding all around us, but I refused to let this moment end. I held onto Jesse like my life depended on it, but so did he. He held me like he was afraid I'd run away.

We parted just enough to gasp in air, our lips still brushing. I sucked in the scent of sunscreen and salt water, relishing the familiar feeling it gave me.

"Al, I can't—"

"Don't say it," I closed my eyes. "Don't ruin this with a goodbye."

His lips found mine again, softer this time, barely there. He pulled back and I met his hazel eyes, unusually green tonight, I noted.

"Al, would you listen?" he asked frustrated.

He set me back down on the ground.

"I can't..." he swallowed.

"Please don't," I begged. The moment was so perfect, how could he come kiss me just to turn around and leave me again?

"Al," he smiled, genuinely smiled, and tucked my hair behind my ear. "I'm in love with you."

I blinked. Did he just...

"I can't be just friends with you, I think it would actually kill me."

"You, you..." I mumbled.

He leaned down and kissed my shell shocked lips.

"I love you. I've loved you for years. I loved you even when you hated me and I will love you even if you walk away from me."

"Jesse," I whispered, still unable to comprehend what he just said.

"Do you think loving you will make you smile as much as making you mad did? Because I think I've exhausted the making you mad part," a smiled tugged at his lips.

I shook my head, a tear running down my cheek.

"Oh gosh, I'm so lame," I sniffed. He wiped the tear away and smiled. "And I'm so mad at you," I slapped his chest.

"Let me make this last year up to you Al," he whispered. "I'll spend the rest of my life fighting for you if that's what it takes."

More tears escaped. I couldn't believe what he was saying. How was this real? This wasn't real, people didn't say stuff like this. Not outside of movies.

"I'm not saying I won't make you mad again, but I won't let us walk away. I'll fight for this even if you don't want to."

I laid my head against his chest and clutched his shirt like my life depended on it.

"It was you Alice," he whispered into my hair. "It was and always will be you...even if you don't want me."

I pulled back and met his soft expression with disbelief.

My eyes raked over every detail of him, his full lips and long eyelashes, his tan skin and strong jawline. His eyes. His familiar eyes. His knowing eyes.

"How could you think I wouldn't want you?" I managed. "Idiot."

He laughed and pulled me back to his lips.

Our lips moved against each other's, perfectly messy, desperate.

When we pulled away, I closed my eyes and rest my forehead against his.

"I love you," I whispered. For the first time, something in me felt...free. Like I accepted my feelings for my brother's best friend for the first time since I met him. My body felt like it sighed in relief as the words left my lips.

"Please don't ever give me a reason to walk again," I murmured.

His eyes met mine and I watched his face form a smile as he recognized the line he used on me last summer.

"No guarantees during Shark Week, but.." he shrugged, making me laugh and lean into his warm body.

"You're such an idiot," I whispered and turned to face the fireworks with him.

"Listen," he grabbed my hands. "I'm so sorry for everything. You were right, I didn't trust you—"

"Jesse—"

"No, you didn't deserve how I treated you and I can't apologize enough for hurting," he paused, looking down. "For hurting the one person I never imagined hurting in my life."

His hands held mine tight and I swallowed.

"I don't expect forgiveness anytime soon, but I'll prove it to you, Al," he said.

I took a few deep breaths before meeting his gaze.

"I believe you," I said. Because I did. I couldn't forgive him immediately, nor would I ever forget, but I believed in Jesse, always. I had no doubt he would never stop proving it to me.

I had a lot of questions, but those were for another day. Tonight? Tonight was good. It needed to be good.

I caught Adam smiling at us, looking like he had accomplished mission impossible and Brooke was grinning like she had known this would happen all along.

As I watched the last of the fireworks explode over our heads with Jesse holding onto me from behind, a part of me seemed to sigh in relief.

I was going to be okay. Through all of the hills and valleys, I made it out with more things to be thankful for than before. I could graduate college, confident that the next valley I faced, I wouldn't have to do it alone because really, I was never alone.

I glanced up into the sky, past the bursting colors and in the stars and wondered if he was there...watching.

Would my Dad be proud? Or would my dad simply chuckle and walk away knowing the secret that none of us did. The secret that only allowed happy endings and life affirming lessons which ultimately lead us to a greater purpose.