The Unexpected Happily Ever After

Chapter 3

Two Weeks Later

"I can't believe you're already leaving me." My mother commented as I repacked my suitcases, "You rarely ever get to come home."

"I either come home for every holiday or you come up there. We see each other as much as humanly possible considering the distance between us mom. Don't be dramatic. Three more years and then I will be back home. Or at least living somewhere much closer." I replied as I hugged her.

"Are you ready?" Andrea asked as she popped her head into my room.

"Yeah. I'm ready." I replied as I grabbed one suitcase and shoved the other at her, "I can't believe your parents gave you a new car for graduation. I'm not complaining though because it totally saves us money. Now we don't have to pay for a rental."

"Exactly!" Andrea replied with a grin.

After we loaded up her new Audi and said our goodbyes, we began the long trip north.

"Hey can you swing in at the gas station? I want to grab some snacks for the drive." I said.

"Sure. I could use a Red Bull." Andrea replied before pulling into the convenience store.

As we wandered through the isles of the store, we caught several stares. People trying to figure out who we were. No one ever recognized us back home, and I was thankful for it every time. As I was paying for our snacks and drinks, I heard Andrea mutter a curse word under her breath.

"What's up?" I questioned with a raised brow.

"Don't look now, but Dylan Richardson just walked in." She whispered.

"No need to look. We used to be friends. Well acquaintances I suppose would be more correct. Now we're not. I'm over it. I don't want to be his friend or his acquaintance. I want to get back in your ridiculously expensive car and head home." I replied surprising myself with how at peace and unbothered I was.

I had always figured running into him would be hard, but it wasn't. I guess I really had finally moved on. As we exited the store, Dylan's gaze met mine, but I knew that he hadn't recognized me. He shot me his signature crooked grin, and I could help but shake my head as I slid my sunglasses on. Some things never change. Several guys stood around Andrea's car. Upon closer inspection, they were all guys we had gone to high school with. Friends of Dylan.

"Y'all ain't from around here are ya?" Trey asked with a lazy grin.

"Trey Watson try those moves on people who don't know you as well ask we do." Andrea replied as she shooed him away from her door and pushed her sunglasses up on her head.

"I'll be damned." Liam said with a low whistle as he plucked my sunglasses off of my face, "Arden Johnson and Andrea Winston. I was starting to think that you two had disappeared off of the face of the Earth. Of course your parents have sworn this whole time that you two had been coming home to visit, but no one ever believed them because no one had ever seen you two. Hard to miss someone in a town this size. Now it makes sense. No one ever recognized you two. Holy shit."

"Damn, you both look amazing. What are y'all up to these days?" Matt asked.

"We have been at Harvard. We graduated with our bachelor's degrees like two weeks ago. We start back up in the Fall. I'll be working on my Master's and Arden will be starting Law School." Andrea replied coolly.

"Congratulations you two. You're both doing amazing and you both look phenomenal. How long are y'all in town for?" Liam asked.

"Actually we're on our way out right now. We were here for the last week." Andrea announced as she slide into the driver's seat.