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"How're you feeling?"
"Nervous."
"In a good way?"
She shrugs. "I think good and bad. But that's okay." Jeremiah stood with his arms wrapped around her from behind. They stood staring out at the sky, past the pool and beach and everything else that surrounded them.
Their last day on Cousins arrived, and they both had mixed feelings about it.
"I don't know if I'm ready to leave this place..." She whispers. He can hear the smallest bit of hurt within her voice, it travels from his ears to his heart.
Jeremiah holds her a little tighter. "I know. But we can always come back, the beach house will always be here."
"Do you think it'll be easy?" She asks.
"What?"
"College. Things are different now. We're together, and we have all these things to do once term starts. We'll barely even see each other."
He spun her around, forcing her to face him. Jeremiah crushed a few curls behind her ears, placing a soft kiss on her forehead. "No, I don't think it'll be easy. But we never signed up for easy and we knew that since we started to get to know each other," he says.
"But we'll make it, right?"
Smiling, he nods. "Of course, we will. We always do."
The goodbyes were the hardest part. Nala, Belly, and Taylor cried the whole time. Steven tried not to when he hugged his new best friend goodbye. And to Nala's surprise, Conrad gave her the biggest hug he could mucker up.
"I'm gonna miss your antics," He offers her just the ghost of a smile.
"I'm gonna miss you pretending that you don't like me."
The drive home was long and mostly quiet. They sat in the comforting silence of each other, Kenai trailing behind them the whole way.
