My Buddy Archie [3]

84..

i haven't edited this :/// it's probs obvious ctfu

anyway...

holy FUCK. this is the last chapter of MBA. Well, before I post the epilogue, but I honestly can't believe I finished it. It's been rough, and I came close to deleting it millions of times, but it's you guys that kept me going :')I apologize for my updates getting slow towards the end here. thank you so so so much for reading this story, even if it was like pulling teeth to do so. i hope you enjoy this chapter... and are ready for some EMOTIONS in that epilogue.

>:)

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"Thanks for coming Caroline," I gave her a hug and kiss as I let her into the house. She followed me into living room, stepping over the baby gate that kept the twins from roaming the house. They cheered at the sight of Caroline—they were convinced she was Rapunzel from Tangled, because they didn't look alike, and thought themselves very lucky to have her a babysitter. I smiled when Aria practically climbed her, and Zach wound his arms around her leg.

Archie was passed out, sleeping through the noise on the couch. He'd been up watching TV all night, and now it was kicking him in the ass.

"Hello munchkins!" Caroline laughed. "How are you two today? How is your morning?"

I left them to their chattering and went back upstairs to my bedroom where Connie was still getting ready. The stupid lunch at Edgar's house was today, but more importantly, after that, Connie and I are going to spend some quality time together. It hadn't really been just to two us of since...well...kind of since we started dating; even more so since the twins were born. But today we get some alone time. A date day.

But only after we get this stupid lunch at Edgar's over with.

"Caroline just got here," I announced as I went to sit on the end of the bed.

"Okay, I'm almost ready," she called from the bathroom.

"You know this is a casual get together, right? You don't have to get dressed up."

"I'm not dressed up, I have on a maxi dress."

I rolled my eyes as I leaned back on my hand. All I was wearing was a simple polo and jeans; it took me about three second to get ready since I didn't bother doing anything with my hair. But part of me wanted to give her a little slack. This is the first time she's gotten a change to actually dress up in years. She does wear dresses and skirts and heels to work, but it wasn't the same. And I was secretly looking forward to her outfit. She always looks nice.

Her shoes clicked across the bathroom floor as she walked towards the bedroom. I let my eyes scan over her as she went to the dresser to pick a necklace to wear. She did look casual. Her dress was long and had white and blue zigzags on it, her hair was up in a ponytail, and she wore flat sandals instead of heels. Somehow, the outfit made her look younger. She looked like the Connie from so many years ago, the one that had intelligence, elegance and complete and utter self-confidence radiating off of her, whether it was just a show or not.

My chest tightened.

She couldn't have been like that forever. She'd fought to be that way, and one can only fight so much. Life's kind of like that. Full of ups and downs and things like that. You're not going to always be the same person after you go through certain things, no matter how big or small. It was refreshing to see the fresh, revived look in her eyes, to see them light up when she looked at me, instead of looking unsure. But that being said, she's still a different Connie.