When the boys step outside to descend to Boulevard Park, they're thankful to see a clear night sky. With its traces of pink and blue, and it's lack of grey clouds, they know they're safe from a night of typical Washington downpour.

Walking along the street to the park, they receive countless honks from passing by cars, the general public seeming to be amused by their elegant appearances. The moonlight shines off Brandon's grin as he turns to the other two boys. "I should start wearing a tux more often. I didn't realize it attracted so many women's attention."

"You'd look like a penguin if you wore a tux all the time," Nate says. "Instead of attracting women, you'd start repelling them."

"You doubt my abilities to woo the opposite sex."

"Speaking of the opposite sex," Cooper cuts in, "we're meeting the girls at the park? Are you sure we weren't meant to meet them at their dorm or something?"

Nate pulls his phone from his pocket, scanning over the text from Janie one more time to be sure he read it correctly. "She said to meet at the park. They had a few things to set up before we got there."

"How far are we now?"

"It's just down the block. We'll be there in a few minutes." Nate slaps a hand on Cooper's shoulder, his lips tugging up into a knowing grin as he scans his friend's face. "Don't worry, pal. You'll see her in a little bit."

Cooper doesn't try to deny the fact that he's anxious to see Ellie again, it's clear that he would be lying. Instead, the boys continue walking down the block, Brandon cracking a joke every so often about the benefits of taking on a strictly-suit wardrobe. Within minutes, the park is in view, and Cooper nearly freezes in his tracks.

Fairy lights are strung in the few trees, a crowd of people gathered underneath and dancing to the music that echoes down the street. The way the lights reflect off the water next to the park is something out of a movie. What really catches his eye though, is the DJ, that being the last thing he expected to find in the middle of a park.

With hesitating steps towards the crowd, he turns to his friends. "What is this?"

"It's prom!" Brandon exclaims, tossing his arms in the air excitedly.

"Who are all these people? Why is there a DJ?"

"The DJ lives two doors down from me," Nate says, wrapping his arm around Cooper's shoulder. "His name's Tyler. He's a music major, offered to do it for some exposure and free beer. The rest of the people are just randoms who wanted an excuse to party. Brandon handed flyers out around campus. It wouldn't be a very authentic prom without a crowd."

A laugh of disbelief sounds from Cooper as they approach the loud gathering, his eyes scanning over the crowd in awe. This is all for him. This entire thing is happening right now, just because he couldn't attend his senior prom. With his heart swelling up to the size of a balloon, he's sure he couldn't be any happier right now. But when his eyes land on her, he knows he's completely wrong.

Without uttering even a goodbye to his friends, he's making his way through the crowd to get to her. As if sensing him, she turns, her eyes locking with his and a smile lighting up her face. She doesn't have a chance to greet him before his lips are on hers, his hands holding onto her waist and pulling her closer to him. When he pulls back from the kiss she can't do anything but stare back at him breathlessly.

"I love you," he says suddenly, a short laugh following as he stares into her stunned eyes. "God. I really love you."

She doesn't say anything, though a smile tugs at her lips. Just as she thinks to speak, he goes on. "Maybe it's weird that I've said it so soon, but if having cancer has taught me anything, it's that you can't wait. You have to do the things you want to do and say the things you want to say. And I just had to say that I love you."

"Me too," she says, eyebrows pulling together as she realizes what she's said. Cooper tilts his head, a quiet laugh passing his lips as his hands remain on her waist. "I mean, I love you. Also. Oh my God, somebody please shut me up."

He leans down, placing another quick kiss to her lips before wrapping his arms around her shoulders. Her head rests gently on his chest and she's thankful that he can't see the embarrassing smile on her face. Wrapping her arms around his waist, she lets out a content sigh, happy to have a moment of bliss amongst all the chaos.

Cooper eventually pulls back, reaching for her hand to replace their previous embrace. With a bit of distance between them, he takes this moment to let his eyes rake up and down her body, a proud smile forming on his lips. "You look beautiful."

Ellie looks down to Cooper's tux, dark thoughts filling her mind of the next time she might see Cooper in a tux. Quick to shake them out of her head, she fixes him with a smile. "Well aren't you quite the charmer?"

"I'm serious, El. If I wasn't wearing such constricting pants, then you could see just how beautiful I think you look right now."

She's quick to catch onto what he's saying and playfully gasp at his crude behavior. "Do you speak to your mother with that mouth?"

"Are you asking me what my mouth does?" He lifts her hand, placing a gentle kiss to the back of it before shooting her a wink. "I'm sure you know the answer to that."

"You're gross. Stop talking." She laughs, attempting to pull her hand away from his, only to be pulled further into him. He wraps his free hand around her waist, leaning her back slightly as a smile plays at his lips. "We're supposed to be having a nice, formal, evening."

"You're right. Let's dance then." He begins swaying them back and forth, the sound of Ellie's soft laughs only encouraging him.

She wraps her hands around the back of his neck, her smile touching her eyes as she stares back at him. "I think we're doing the wrong kind of dancing."

He narrows his gaze, his grin remaining. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, they're playing Pitbull. It's not exactly a slow dance kind of song."

"Sometimes you talk too much, El," he says, ignoring her as he continues swaying them to a much slower song in his head.

She laughs, an embarrassed blush creeping up her neck as the partygoers spare odd glances in their direction. But still, she continues her slow movements with Cooper, trying her best to block out the heavy beat of the party song.

"Everyone's looking at us," she mumbles, leaning her head against Cooper's shoulder.

His lips twitch up slightly as he gives her hand a gentle squeeze. "When I was little, my mom would squeeze my hand a lot. One time I asked her why she did it and she told me that squeezing someone's hand means you love them.

"There was this girl I really liked named Macey in the third grade. One time we were playing at recess and I grabbed her hand and squeezed it as hard as I could. I thought the harder you squeezed, the more they'd know that you loved them. She cried and told the teacher on me. Apparently, squeezing hard only hurt her.

"Then, when I got my first girlfriend in middle school, I was scared to even hold her hand. I thought I'd hurt her like I hurt Macey. She dumped me because she didn't think I liked her. Apparently, refusing to hold your girlfriend's hand means you're not into them. I had a few girlfriends in high school after that. I forced myself to get past my weird hand-holding fear and eventually, got used to it. But I never squeezed any of their hands. I was too scared of how they'd react.

"You probably don't remember, in fact, I don't expect you to remember. But when we went to the hospital to see your grandma, I squeezed your hand. It was the first time I felt brave enough to try doing it again. You didn't really react; you were sort of in shock about your grandma. I think that's when I knew I loved you. When I saw you hurting and knew there was nothing I could do to stop it."

Ellie stops moving, halting all further dancing so she can pull back from him and look at his face. When she sees the embarrassed expression spread along his features, her lips tug up into a smile and tears begin pooling in her eyes. She brings a hand up to his cheek and he subconsciously leans into her touch, only making her heart flutter more.

The romantic aura all but dies when the Cha-Cha Slide comes on and the crowd starts cheering.

"Dammit," Cooper mutters, shaking his head while wearing a grin. "I do love the Cha-Cha Slide."

Ellie's nose scrunches up as she lifts her shoulders, a smile still on her lips. "Me too."

He grabs her hand from his cheek, locking their fingers together. "Well then let's go cha-cha real smooth."

The group's alcohol-induced laughs don't settle down as they cozy themselves up in a booth at the late night diner. If anything, they intensify as they retell the story of Brandon trying to backflip and falling miserably on his face.

"I've done that backflip a million times," Brandon argues, his eyes drooped low as a drunken smile sits on his lips. "It's not my fault it didn't work this time. There was too much pressure. Too many hot girls watching."

"Well you did a great job at impressing them all, Brandon," Janie says with a laugh, leaning into Nate's side as she picks up the menu in front of her.

"Yeah," Ellie adds. "I definitely would've given you my number after that."

"Jokes on you guys. I got two numbers tonight." He spreads his arm out across the back of the booth before Nate smacks it off and back onto his lap. "Girls dig me. What can I say?"

"If by 'dig you,' you mean they'll be digging your grave soon, yeah," Nate adds, laughing at his own joke while the rest of the table falls silent. He glances around, his smile faltering before realization sets in and he looks to Cooper. "I didn't mean—"

Cooper looks to Brandon, a confident smile on his lips. "He's right. You keep doing stupid shit like that and your future girlfriend is gonna be digging your grave."

Ellie shifts uncomfortably next to him and Cooper's hand finds hers, giving it a quick squeeze as he sends her a reassuring smile. She tries to return it with a smile of her own, but when she fails to do so, focuses her attention on the menu in front of her.

"How much do you want to bet I can drink five milkshakes?" Brandon asks, slapping both his hands down on the table and making it very apparent to everyone why he's still single.

"No way, dude. You'll barf," Nate says, reaching for his wallet and pulling out a ten-dollar bill.

Brandon reaches for his own wallet and matches Nate's bill before raising a challenging eyebrow to the rest of the group. "Any other takers?" They shake their heads, not willing to be responsible for his sick stomach in approximately thirty minutes. He shrugs once. "Whatever. Ten dollars it is."

The waitress comes over and takes their orders, quick to bring out Brandon's five shakes so he can get started on the task. The group watches with a mix of awe and disgust as Brandon pounds back shake after shake, inching closer and closer to being the lucky winner of ten dollars.

"Thanks for tonight," Cooper whispers, leaning over to Ellie to be sure she's the only one who can hear him.

She looks to their friends, all of whom are too entranced by Brandon's shake annihilation to notice them having their own little conversation. Her eyes meet Cooper's and she nods, hoping her sudden shift in mood isn't too apparent. When Cooper's steady gaze stays trained on hers, she's sure he can sense it.

"What is it?" He asks, eyebrows pulling together in concern.

"Nothing." She looks down to her lap. "Tonight was great."

"Yeah." He chuckles softly, gently nudging the bottom of her chin up with his pointer finger. "So why do you seem so sad?"

"It's just," she pauses, "how many more great nights like this do we get to have together?"

He stays silent, not having an answer for her. His eyes study her face as he tries to come up with something to say. The words are on the tip of his tongue, and yet, he struggles to get them out. Ellie's eyes stare back at him, sad and expressive.

"We don't know how much time we have," he finally says, "and I know that's scary. But I don't want us to waste the time we do have left, being scared about when it'll all end."

She nods, looking back to Brandon to see him knocking back his third shake. Returning her attention to Cooper, she says, "You're right."

He smiles sympathetically. He can't imagine how she must feel, knowing that soon he's going to leave her. Once he's dead, that's it. He doesn't have to deal with a world after Ellie, but she has to deal with a world after him. He knows that if the roles were reversed, he surely wouldn't be able to enjoy the time he had left with her, too worried about what he'd do when she was gone. And because of that, Ellie is stronger than he could ever be.

"So. It's my prom," he says, ready to bring some lightheartedness back into the conversation. "Am I getting lucky tonight?"

Her lips curl up slightly as a devious look takes over her eyes. "What kind of girl do you take me for, Cooper Clarke?"

He sighs, though a smile remains on his lips. With a dramatic eye roll, he says, "You mean I went through all this trouble for nothing?! I knew I should have taken Carrie to the prom. Carrie would've put out. Ugh. My night is ruined. Thanks a lot, you prude. What am I going to tell the boys now? Everyone scores on prom night. This is so embarrassing."

Ellie tosses her head back as she laughs. "You're taking the douchebag high school kid thing a little too far."

It's then that they realize they've earned the attention of the rest of the table. Brandon burps loudly, pushing an empty glass away and wiping at his mouth before saying, "You guys are a weird couple."

Ellie and Cooper look to each other, nodding in agreement before bursting out in laughter. His arm settles around her shoulders, pulling her close to him so he can plant a swift kiss to her forehead. Before anyone else has a chance to comment, the waitress is returning with their steaming plates of food, silencing all further conversation.