The Alpha's Rebel

Chapter 23

I hear splashing and squealing from down below as Maddox and I leave the tree line at the top of the cliff. Without another word, I let go of his hand and take off, launching off the cliff and performing a perfect swan dive into the water.

I surface at the exact moment that Maddox's cannonball hits the water. The rest of our friends are looking at us and laughing from a few meters away in the shallower area, all with wide and knowing grins on their face.

"Took you two long enough. Even Molly and I were able to make it on time," Vinnie says, earning him a large splash of water from Molly.

"Why must you always talk about our sex life so openly," she growls, and then I'm the one laughing as she launches herself into his arms. He pretends to be frightened as he wraps his arms around her little body to support her, but most of us know him well enough to know he's loving every moment of her body being pressed against solely for the purpose of being close to his mate. I feel the same urge to be that close to Maddox, so I swim over to him and wrap myself around his back like a monkey.

"Woah there," he laughs, but he doesn't push me off. Instead, he grasps my thighs with his hands to hold me to him. He swims over to my friends with just his legs so he can touch the ground and not tread water, but I don't let go. I rest my chin in his shoulder so my temple is right on his cheek, leaning into him so I can let my body relax.

The alcohol has mostly worn off, the jump into the water definitely helping. Very rarely will anyone hear me say that I'm glad my level of drunkness is going down, but tonight is one of those nights. I love getting obliterated with my best friends and struggling to recuperate the next morning, but there's some moments that I want to remember every detail of. This is one of those moments. Molly and Vinnie are holding close to each other, Dax and Thay are discussing their favorite lifting sets, Kaitlyn is practicing her handstands in the water, and Maddox and I are peacefully wrapped up in each other. Surrounded by the people I love most in the world before everything changes, it's a moment that I never want to forget.

~~~~

Saying goodbye is hard. I hold myself together well, but a little part of me breaks inside with every hug.

This group of people right here has been my rock since day one. I've protected them through thick and thin no matter what I had to do, and I loved each of them with every fiber of my body. To say goodbye to them after going almost our entire lives without a days break from seeing each other is going to fucking suck, for them and me.

Being uprooted from the people you've built up your life with is a pain I wish upon no one. Not even my worst enemies. Physical pain is one thing. You can heal from it and move on with your life. This kind of pain, the one you can't see but it's tearing you apart, is so much worse.

Me leaving for another pack means our lives as we know it are over. It doesn't matter if one or all of us is leaving. Our friendship is so tight that even one person leaving will completely redefine everything. I know we will never fall out of touch, but figuring out our new ways of life is not going to be fun.

It's going to be hard for everyone in the group to face one of us leaving, but it will hands down be worst for the person who is leaving.

It'll be the worst for me. I'll have to navigate Maddox's pack without my best friends by my side. We've done everything together since day one of preschool, and we've always had each other to walk through things together.

I'm not saying that I'm scared about moving to Maddox's pack.

Harper Matthew's doesn't get scared.

I am saying that I'm going to have to navigate a brand new pack's way of life and customs and traditions without someone to whisper my hilarious side comments to like we're watching Keeping Up With the Kardashians.

Kaitlyn won't be there to gossip with me about everything going on in the pack. Molly won't be there to go on same insane adventure when we're drunk off our asses. Vinnie won't be there to crack a joke at the first opportunity he gets. Thay won't be there to be a smart ass and mutter snarky words under his breath that have me choking on my own saliva.

These things that I have become accustomed to and have naturally been part of my daily routine for as long as I can remember are suddenly going to be gone, and I'm not sure how I'm going to handle that.

After hugging each of them individually, there's an unspoken agreement for a group hug. It's hard to let go, and I squeeze whoever my arms are around. Maddox gives us as much time as we want. I don't think I've ever hugged any of them as long as we've all been in this group hug, and happiness soars in my heart at the support my friends have.

Finally, when I know that Maddox and I have to get on the road if we want to make it back by dark, I pull away from my friend.

"I'll come back soon," I say quietly, meeting each of their eyes in turn. "I love you guys." 

"We love you too, Harp," Molly smiles, wiping away a single tear. 

"Things are going to be so weird without you here," Kaitlyn pouts.

"Fuck some shit up for us, Luna," Vinnie grins, and I laugh.

"Don't cause too much trouble without us," Thay warns.

Throwing my head back in laughter, I turn to head to Maddox's car. I crawl into the passenger seat and he walks around the car to the driver's seat.

I look out the window right away, and my friends are all waving goodbye. I wave back as Maddox pulls away, and the sinking feeling of this is it sets in. 

I said goodbye to my parents this morning when Maddox and I were packing up his car. My mom shed a few tears, and I promised her she and my dad could come visit soon. They're not tears of my baby's all grown up and moving out. I've been grown up for a while, and I've been in and out as I please since ninth grade.  

I think her tears are for the same reasons this move is going to be so hard for me. I've been around and had the freedom to come and go whenever I wanted. Once I had that freedom and they realized that trying to control me was going to ruin any relationship they had with me, things were the best they had been in a while. My mom's crying because that freedom of me being able to walk in for dinner without any prior notice is gone. 

In the car, Maddox reaches his hand across the center console and grabs his hand in mine. I smile at the simple action and bring our conjoined hands up to my lips, pressing them softly against the back of Maddox's hand. "I love you," I say quietly, still smiling like a fool that I told him. The words came out in a state of being drunk, but I don't regret. Not a single part of those words is a lie, and even though I didn't want to tell him so soon out of fear of being vulnerable, I'm glad I did. 

Opening myself up to someone new is extremely hard for me to, but I'm starting to realize that when it comes to Maddox, it's the easiest thing I'm ever going to do.