College Fund

//And It Was The Best Night of My Life//

"I can't believe you are leaving me." Sage looked at me, her eyes shining with tears.

I had just broken the news to her that I would be leaving for Mapletown tomorrow, and she was taking it about as well as I expected. Which wasn't very well. It was like mine and Bria's conversation earlier, except I was the one doing the crushing instead of the one being crushed.

"Trust me Sage, I don't want to leave you either. But you have to understand that I need to do what's best for me. I think I'll be happier there."

She nodded slowly. "Yeah, I know. But... here." She slid off the beaded bracelet I had complimented her on the night before and passed it over to my hands. "Now you can copy me. And you won't forget me."

"As if I could ever forget you." I laughed. "But thanks, Sage. I won't ever take it off."

"You better not!"

I hesitated before asking, "Are you sure you'll be okay here?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean... I know your mom puts a lot of stress on you and it must be hard having Margaux be so far away all the time. I couldn't imagine not seeing my sister for a year."

"That's because you don't have a sister. And honestly, it was probably harder adjusting to having her here than it will be adjusting to her being gone. I hadn't seen her in two years, and now it's been like, what? Two weeks with her? Don't get me wrong, I'll miss her, but I'll be fine," she promised.

I smiled at her, because I knew she was right. Sage was strong, and she could get through it, even if it would probably be harder on her than she made it seem. "Promise you'll FaceTime me a lot? And text me?"

"I'll do my best. But my phone dies a lot-désolé."

Rolling my eyes, I wrapped her into a hug. "Sagey, what am I gonna do without you?"

"Well, you've got some time to figure it out, tu n'as pas voyagé jusqu'a démain."

"Right, of course. So... you're gonna help me pack, right?" I asked.

Sage pretended to think about it for a while before finally caving. "Oui, I'll help you out. Only because I'm such an amazing person."

We laughed and headed down the hall towards the room where I had been staying for the past two weeks. It was going to be weird going back home. I had gotten so used to living out of suitcases and living the day-to-day adventurous life of a tourist.

Sighing, I picked up a couple of my sweaters that had been tossed throughout the room and dragged my suitcase out from under the bed. I folded the sweaters up and squished them in the bottom of the suitcase. Sage followed my lead with some other random articles of my clothing scattered around the room.

We were in the middle of completing this treacherous task when Bria entered the room. I had already told her that my flight was leaving tomorrow. She had been all excited, mostly because she thought I had completely forgiven her for ditching me and that the fact that I was leaving suddenly made everything okay. But it wasn't okay; I was better at holding grudges than I looked.

"Looks like some crazy work is going on in here," she commented as she perched on the end of one of the beds.

I nodded. "You know, the usual packing frenzy."

"Can you believe we are going to be in Mapletown together again within a week?"

"No," I replied honestly. "I never wanted to go back to that place, and now that's exactly what I'm doing."

Bria ignored me. "It's gonna be me, you, and Margaux, all back in Mapletown, just like the old times. Remember when we went to see that movie?"

"It was awful."

"It was not!" She protested. "You just don't appreciate romance the way that I do."

"So true," Sage agreed. "Cassidy doesn't have a heart."

"I have a heart!"

"Only for Eric." Sage winked at Bria while I rolled my eyes. That was the way Sage and Bria bonded: teasing me about Eric. It was their favourite past time.

I decided to change the subject. "Speaking of love, did Margaux and Spencer work things out? Or is their relationship still on the rocks?"

"Margaux and Spencer worked it out." A voice from the hallway answered my question, and then Margaux appeared in the doorway. "We Skyped and talked and apologized... but we're not back together yet. We decided to see each other in person before we go back to that."

I wrapped my arms around Margaux. "I'm so happy to hear that. See, I told you it would work out!"

"Oh, yes, Cassidy-the-all-knowing, thank you for your wise advice," she drawled sarcastically.

"Any time." I winked.

"So what's this I hear about Eric and you eloping and living in a city with ten kids?" Margaux questioned, taking a seat next to Bria on the bed.

My cheeks flushed red, and I turned to glare at Sage. "How many rumours have you spread?"

"What? Me?" Sage feigned innocence. "I have never gossiped once in my life! How dare you accuse me of such a thing! I would never!"

"Okay, cut the dramatics. I want to hear all about Cassidy and Eric." Margaux held her hand up to silence her sister.

"There's nothing to say, Margaux," I said. "We're just heading back to Mapletown together, that's all."

"You're going back to Mapletown?" She gasped.

I turned to glare at Sage again. "Really? You force feed her all these lies and don't even bother to include the truth?"

"Hey," Sage held her hands out as a sign of surrender. "You only just told me you were leaving, like, two seconds ago. I wouldn't have had the chance to tell her."

I thought about that for a second. "Fair enough. But if it was something about Eric and I half the world would know by now."

She shrugged. "Hey, I'm not denying that."

"Attendez-vous!" Margaux waved her hands in the air. "Before you two start arguing again, explain to me what's going on. Why are you going back to Mapletown?"

I sighed. Explaining it made it harder. "Well, Bria's ditching me," I paused to glare at her. "So I figured there was no point in continuing on the trip alone, so the only other choice was to go home."

"You could have stayed here with us!" Margaux protested. "I'm probably going to stay for another week or so."

Sage turned to her sister. "Do you really think I wouldn't have offered that to her already? She refused."

Margaux rolled her eyes. I smiled at their banter. I would miss it when I was back in Mapletown. "So yeah, I'm heading home. And Eric and I are flying back together because... why not?"

"Right." Margaux, Bria and Sage exchanged knowing smiles. "What a coincidence."

"Such a coincidence." I played along with them because I didn't have the strength to argue, and smiling used less muscles than frowning.

"So this is going to be our last night all together," Margaux pointed out, and I nodded sadly. It was going to be weird going to sleep alone tomorrow night when I was so used to having girl talks until 2 am. This whole trip had been like one big sleepover. "We've got to celebrate."

Celebrate meant going out to a huge party, right? Or hitting up all the clubs? Or just hanging out around the city looking for trouble until the sun was rising in the sky?

Well, maybe that's what it means to other people, but to us it meant a Harry Potter marathon. In French. With English captions so Bria and I didn't go crazy.

And it was the best night of my life.