𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐋𝐎𝐍𝐆, jake wheeler ︎✓︎

xiii. THE END

DECEMBER TWENTY-SECOND. Three days until Christmas. The town of Hackensack was covered in snow and everybody was excited for giving gifts and eating candy canes.

Constance was able to live with Lexy, and Martín was still at that stupid foster home. And if you're wondering—no. Constance does not like her mom, Michelle.

The teen was fast asleep on Lexy's bed. She didn't even realize Lexy had left, feeling a pair of arms shake her lightly. Opening her eyes, she spots Lexy, Martín, Jake, Jasper, and Devon. "Jesus..why is the whole party here?" Constance yawns, rubbing her eyes.

"I'm everybody's ride back." Jasper sighed. "She's awake now. You guys can go." Lexy bluntly says to them all. Martín scoffs, "whatever." He wraps his arm around Jake's shoulder as they all walked out of the room.

Constance chuckles a bit, sitting up from the bed. "I'm sorry I didn't go with you to your meeting." Lexy lays down with her, bringing the blankets on her too. "It's okay. I didn't want to wake you up." She scoots closer to her.

They both smile, before they shared a short soft kiss. "I honestly don't want to get out of bed." Lexy whispers while Constance nods. "Tell me about it."

Michelle places the final dish on the table. "Oh. I have to post this." She stammers as she gets her phone out, facing it to everyone. "Everybody, smile." Everybody gathers in,  trying to put in effort into smiling. "Beautiful. Bon appétit." She sets her phone down, everybody getting food now.

"So, sweetheart, are you excited for Santa tonight?" She asked Caroline, Lexy's little sister. "I guess." She replies poorly. "Well, you've been such a good girl this year. I bet he's gonna bring you something really special." She explains. "I hope I like it." Caroline shrugged. "No, it's okay if you don't, though. You could always just exchange it for something you think is better." Jake recommends.

Michelle didn't like this. "Jake..." She glares. "I mean, just return it for cash. I mean, cash is great." Martín sighs. "It will be twelve soon. I will give you your gift." He announced. "Martín. I'm just giving her advice..." "Oh."

Jake chuckles, "I promise I will love your gift. No matter what it is." He smiles, Martín blushing back as Jasper liked how open the two were. "You're so sw—All right, all right. Enough, enough. This is wildly inappropriate." Michelle interrupted.

"Mom, they're just being honest." Left defends. "The dinner table is no place for that. It's Christmas, for God's sake." She complains. "Oh please. It's not like their fighting." Jasper spat out. "Well, I have something that I wanna say." Lexy spoke up.

"Oh, Lexy, please, not now." She quickly complains. "Mom, I was just gonna..." "Oh, look, here it goes."

Constance watched this. Lexy stayed quiet before she spoke up. "I'm sorry."

"All this time, during my recovery... I've blamed you for everything that's gone wrong in my life... How you've been selfish and mean and how you've just left me alone in all the sadness." She explains slowly while Michelle didn't buy this. "This is your apology?" She asked with a scoff.

Constance rolls her eyes, "look, Mrs. Cross, this isn't easy for her, okay? I know you think that Lexy just cares about herself, but that's not true. She's been trying really hard, and the least you can do is listen to her." She explains.