"Ellie," Cooper whines from the passenger seat, the upset nature to his tone only exciting her even more. "Why do I have to wear a blindfold? It's been, like, forty minutes. Surely I don't still need to be wearing this."

"Don't question me, Coop," Ellie says firmly, her eyes trained on the road ahead of her as she wills the smile on her lips to settle down. Seeing him slumped against the seat of a car with a blindfold on shouldn't send such an odd wave of pleasure through her.

"I like it when you call me Coop." He turns his head to face her, despite his lack of sight. "It reminds me of a chicken. I love chickens."

Ellie laughs, pressing her hand on his cheek to push his head away from her. He flinches when her hand suddenly connects with his skin, his shoulders tensing up before they relax once more. "That's great, really. Now stop staring at me. It's making me uncomfortable."

He tilts his head back in her direction, lifting his head in an attempt to peek underneath the blindfold, though it is to no avail. "Oh. I'm sorry. Am I making you uncomfortable with my staring?"

"Yes. That's what I just said."

"How rude of me. Staring at you with this blindfold covering my eyes. The nerve, honestly," he mocks with a certain elegance to his tone. "I can't believe I'm still even in this car. Had it been you, you would've been kicked out long ago. I don't tolerate such disrespect."

"Shut up, Cooper."

He leans in over the center console, his face only inches away from Ellie's. She squirms in her seat, uneasily inching closer to the window to escape him and his blind stare. A smile tugs at his lips when her hand finally connects with his chest to push him back into his seat.

With a loud laugh, he says, "Oh, sorry. I thought I was leaning in the opposite direction."

"Bullshit."

"You're right," he says, accompanied by a mischievous grin. "Now how about we take this blindfold off me, babe? Or are you setting me up for some big kinky reveal?"

With a groan, she reaches over and tugs the fabric away from his face. He blinks rapidly to adjust to the brightness of the outside world, his eyes having been shielded from the sun for too long. When they've finally adjusted, he looks over to Ellie, his eyes lighting up when he sees the amusement on her face.

Without another thought, he reaches over the console and grabs hold of her hand, easily resting their hands together in her lap. With his free hand, he reaches for the soda in the cup holder and brings the straw up to his lips. "So. Where are we going?"

"I told you. It's a surprise." She fixes him with a blank stare. "Honestly, you are a child."

"Need I remind you of our trip to Vegas? You acted the exact same way. Maybe neither of us are very good with surprises." He sets the drink back down in the cup holder, studying his gaze on their surroundings. "Seriously. Where are we?"

She glances over at him a few times before rolling her eyes and caving in to his requests. "We're going north. That's all I'll tell you. The rest is a surprise."

"Hopefully not too far north. I won't last long at the wall if that's where you're taking me. I'm going to go ahead and assume that Castle Black isn't equipped to handle a dying kid with cancer. They'd probably feed me to the wolves."

"You are so annoying," Ellie says with a laugh, her hand tightening slightly around his. "I'm not taking you to die at Castle Black. Besides, we could drive as North as we could go and we'd only be in Canada."

"Canada, eh?"

"I'm going to turn this car around."

Ellie's hands rest on his shoulders as she directs Cooper around the obstacles of their surroundings. She didn't consider the odd looks she would receive, guiding a blindfolded man across a college campus, but now it's too late to back out. Squinting her eyes, she sees the dorm in the distance. When she's sure it's their destination, she drops a hand from his shoulder and reaches for her phone to send a text.

"Why'd you let go?" Cooper asks worriedly, halting in his steps. "Where are we? I feel very weird. If this doesn't have a kinky payoff, then I don't know if it's worth it."

She laughs, typing away at her phone to let their friends know they've arrived before tucking it back into her pocket. She continues pushing him along, ignoring the confused glances of the bystanders. It's a college campus, this can't be the weirdest thing they've ever seen here.

"El..."

"Cooper."

"Please tell me that no snakes are involved."

"I could tell you that, but I would be lying." He freezes and with a laugh, Ellie uses all her upper-arm strength to keep pushing him forward. "Move. I can't move you on my own."

He takes a step forward before he's flailing like a mad man. "What is that?! Are we near a cliff?!"

"You stepped off the sidewalk, Cooper."

"Oh," he says, clearing his throat as a blush creeps onto his cheeks. "Just tell me we're almost there."

She looks ahead, a smile gracing her lips when she spots Brandon in the distance waving them on. "We're almost there."

She guides him a few more feet, most of which are cautious, incredibly slow, steps by Cooper. But finally, they're in front of the dorm. As if on cue, Nate and Janie step out from the building just in time, sending a quick wave in their direction as they make their way over to them.

"Are we here, El?" His friends gather in front of him, smiles on their faces as they wait for the big reveal. "Is it your turn to wear a blindfold now?"

The groups' smiles falter slightly at the suggestive nature of his comment. Ellie swallows down her embarrassment, a blush still managing to find its way onto her cheeks. "We're here. I'm going to take the blindfold off now, ready?"

He nods and she brings her hands up to the back of his head, slipping the fabric off for the last time. His eyes take a second to adjust to the light once more, but once they do his jaw drops in awe. It doesn't take long before he's assaulting his friends with longing hugs, completely uncaring to the aggressiveness of his embrace. After individually hugging each of them, he gathers them all in for a group hug.

"What're you guys doing here?" He asks excitedly, holding his friends closely as his eyes flutter shut in an attempt to savor the moment. He wasn't sure if he would have a chance to see them again, not really having any idea when his body would finally give out on him.

"You're at Western, dude," Nate says with a grin, pulling back from the hug. "We go here."

"This is your school?" Cooper asks, taking a moment to look around his surroundings. He sees then that they're completely surrounded by trees and old brick buildings. It has an eerily beautiful vibe to it, sort of like the graveyard he worked in. Except the only dead people here are the students studying for their exams and drowning in college debt.

"This is it," Nate replies with a head nod, following his friend's actions in taking a moment to observe their surroundings. "It's nice to see your face around here."

The beauty of the campus holds his attention for a while, but suddenly he's overwhelmed with a desire to stare at a beauty that is incomparable; so he turns to Ellie.

His eyes search hers and in that moment, he's sure he's never loved someone more than he loves her. With tears welling up in his eyes, he turns back to his friends. The sad smiles on their faces tells him that they know, and soon his head is lowered towards the ground.

"I didn't think I'd ever see you guys again," he mumbles quietly.

Within an instant, Brandon's arms are flung around his shoulders, pulling him in for a bone-crushing hug. Cooper's sure he's made up the sound of his friend's broken sob, but when Brandon pulls back from the hug to reveal his wet cheeks, he knows he hasn't.

Brandon wipes his wet nose with his sleeve, a sad smile finding its way onto his lips. "There's no way in hell that we wouldn't have seen you one last time. We didn't grow up together just to not even be there when you croak, Clarke."

"Honestly," Nate speaks up, "I would've been a little mad at you if you decided to go dying without seeing us one last time. It's a little selfish, bro."

The boys laugh together, despite the sad aura in the air. Deciding that this day isn't meant to be about sadness, Ellie speaks up. "I hate to break up the lovefest—"

"Don't lie, Ellie. We know how jealous you get," Brandon says with a wink, earning a few more laughs from the group.

"Funny," she says, a playful eye roll accompanying her. "But we've all got to get ready."

"Ready for what?" Cooper asks, his eyebrows knitted together as he stares around the group, everyone seeming to be in on something that he's not.

"You'll like this, Cooper," Nate reassures, wrapping an arm around Janie's shoulders and giving her a knowing look.

Brandon nods in agreement, an exited grin on his lips as he says, "Yeah. Definitely. Your girlfriend is quite the romantic."

Cooper turns to Ellie, confusion etched across his features. She smiles shyly, reaching for her purse and searching around a bit before producing a slip of paper from it. She looks back to him, holding the folded paper in her hand. "I pulled this from the jar."

He nods slowly, still confused. "Okay."

She unfolds the slip, excitement dancing in her eyes as she holds it out to him. Just as his eyes scan over the word, she says, "Prom."

He looks back at her before turning briefly to his friends. With a confused laugh, he says, "What is this supposed to mean?"

"You didn't go to your senior prom because you were feeling sick," she says, glancing to his friends for reassurance. When they nod her on, she continues. "I reached out to Nate and Brandon and they told me the story. You didn't know you had cancer then, but you were diagnosed a few months later. They said that you were really bummed when you missed your prom."

He gulps, the memory of him first being diagnosed replaying in his mind. Quickly shaking the thought, he looks back to Ellie. "Yeah. I was pretty upset." He glances back down at the paper, shaking his head. "But I didn't write this slip."

"I know. I did." She looks nervously at his friends once more before her eyes return to his. "I thought we could recreate your prom."

Rendered speechless, he just stares back at her in silence. With her nerves getting the best of her, she quickly adds, "I know it's silly. We don't have to do it if you don't want to. I just thought it might be nice. I didn't really plan all that much. Just a few things. But I could easily—"

"Ellie," he says, amused by her flustered rambling. "It's not silly. I love it."

"Really?" Her eyes fall shut as a relieved sigh leaves her. "Thank God."

"I'll just need to find a tux," he says, rubbing the back of his neck as he laughs.

"Say no more, lover boy," Brandon all but yells, making his way over to Cooper and tossing a heavy arm around his shoulder. "Time for us men to go get ready for the night."

"And us ladies can retreat to my dorm," Janie says enthusiastically, slipping away from Nate to wrap her arm around Ellie's. "I can't wait to introduce you to Diana. You'll love her."

As they begin walking in the opposite direction of the boys, Ellie spares one last glance over her shoulder, just in time to spot Cooper doing the exact same. When their eyes meet and their smiles match one another's, it doesn't take words to convey how they feel. It's clear to both that they are hopelessly, foolishly, in love.