𝐍𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐆 ;; 𝒶𝓊𝒷𝓇𝑒𝓎 𝓍 𝓀𝑒𝓁 𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝓈𝒽𝑜𝓉𝓈

↳ 𝕨𝕠𝕣𝕣𝕚𝕖𝕤 ・❥・: ̗̀➛

ᴀɢᴇᴅ ᴜᴘ ᴛᴡᴏ ʏᴇᴀʀꜱ; ᴄᴏɴᴛᴀɪɴꜱ ʙᴀᴅ ᴇɴᴅɪɴɢ ꜱᴘᴏɪʟᴇʀꜱ

𝑔𝓊𝑒𝓈𝓈 𝓌𝒽𝑜'𝓈 𝒷𝒶𝒸𝓀 𝒽𝑜𝓂𝑒!

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ᴀᴜʙʀᴇʏ ɢʟᴀɴᴄᴇᴅ ʙᴀᴄᴋ and forth between her watch, looking both ways before leaning back against the wooden bench she was sitting on. Time was moving so slowly...

"Aubrey, relax," Basil said, tossing a juice box into the nearest trash can. "Kel's coming home soon enough."

Aubrey didn't respond but stopped looking at her watch every five seconds—she changed it to every ten seconds. Could he blame her for wanting her boyfriend to come back from college quicker?

A few years ago when Sunny killed himself, their friend group had been a mess. Now they lost Mari and  Sunny in less than a decade—but at least it was better than when Mari died. They stayed by each other's sides and wouldn't leave. Aubrey was starting to think their friendship would stay together and nothing could break it.

But then Basil told them the truth.

He told everyone how Mari died. He told them how Sunny probably killed himself because he couldn't face it, and he understood how he felt. He said on the night he and Sunny went to the hospital, he was thinking about killing himself, but Sunny went into the bathroom just in time. He told them he regretted everything he did, but he didn't want their forgiveness; he wanted them to know the truth, to not have to live the rest of their lives thinking Mari killed herself and wonder why Sunny committed. He ended it by saying that was what they would've wanted him to do.

The remaining members of the childhood friend group split up for a while after that. No one wanted it to be like how it was only several weeks ago, but the news was so shocking that everyone needed time to adjust to it.

Not surprisingly, Kel was the first one to try to keep the friend group together again. He went around and got to hang out with everyone one-on-one, and eventually got bigger and bigger until everyone was hanging out together. He was the one who didn't want the friend group to break apart again the most, and he tried his hardest to keep them together. His plans didn't go like they were supposed to, but he didn't give up.

Maybe his determination was why Aubrey started falling for him. He wanted everyone together, and Aubrey felt more passionate about it too; his energy was rubbed off onto people so easily. Eventually, she realized that while she wanted the friend group to stay together, she wanted to stay by Kel the most—she gained a crush on Kel.

A couple of months before Kel's last year of high school, Aubrey sucked up her pride and confessed. She died on the inside when Kel rejected her, but they still remained friends. She tried to get her feelings to go away and never come back, hoping it would be something they could laugh about in the future. They wouldn't go away, but thankfully somewhere along the way, Kel had started feeling the same way about her, and he confessed the first day of winter break.

Now that they were together, they spent the past months having a long-distance relationship. While she was glad Kel was still with her even with how far apart they were, she couldn't help but imagine scenarios on what could happen at his college. She didn't know what his college life was like—and she wanted the full picture, not the little snippets she got when Kel briefly talked about it over calls.

"He'll be back any moment now," Basil promised. "And I'm sure he'll be happy to see you, so just relax."

"I know," Aubrey sighed. "But I'm trying to busy myself, or else I'll start thinking again."