He's Giving Me a Reason, an Emblem3 Fan Fic (Sequel to Riptide)

Chapter 27

Today was the day. My heart was pounding twenty times faster than its normal rate. Boom boom. Boom boom. 

"Hey Aves, give me a hand?" Keaton asked trying to position a bag into the trunk of Laraine's car. I nodded and gave the bag a push. Surely enough the duffel slid into place and hit the back of the trunk with a quiet thud. "Thanks." Keaton said trying to rid the sleep from his eyes. Seeing him yawn only reminded me of how tired I really was.

There's somewhat of a tradition that takes place within our group of friends. In place of a goodbye dinner or party we all go over to the Stromberg's house and party it up. Not a huge celebration or anything, but all of our closest friends are there. Drew and Jason manage to get their hands on a shit load of alcohol and we lug it into the Stromberg's living room and stay up attempting to finish it all. Quite the party, I know.

We all passed out around 3, which didn't give us much rest because we had to wake up at 7 to see the boys off. The good thing about sleeping over was that we were all conveniently in one place to say goodbye.

Before I knew it, everything was all packed up and ready to go. "If we do make it through, we have the entire summer off before live shows start." Drew said grinning at us. "And if we don't, well you guys will see us then anyway." He chuckled. 

"We all know you're going to make it through!" Brianna said leaning against Ty's shoulder. Drew smiled slightly as if he knew that she was right. After that everybody started hugging. I hugged Drew first, wishing him luck.

"Make sure she doesn't fall for any surfer guys while I'm gone." He whispered huskily in my ear. 

"Drew, it's a week. You've got nothing to worry about." I laughed. He grinned back at me, but I promised I would keep Adrianna off the market. I hugged Keaton next. "Arghhh! I'm going to be so lonely in Art History without you!" I pouted pulling him to me.

"Be sure to tell me if anything interesting happens." He replied.

"Like if Mrs. Burns ever actually finishes one of those stupid puzzles?" I joked.

"Now if she manages to finish the TImes puzzle without the help of the internet I would be shocked." He smirked. I ruffled his hair and moved on to the one boy I would have the most trouble saying goodbye to.

"It's only a week." Wes said tucking a strand of my hair behind my ear.

"But after this everything changes." I exhaled, trying to make my breath sound less shaky.

"Nothing's going to change between us." He said confidently. But his eyes knew that I had a point. Their audition was going to air tomorrow in a season 2 teaser. And then the media is going to follow them all summer until the fall when the season actually starts. Everyone would start to recognize them, recognize Wes- who in their mind was single.

Stupid contract.

I'm pretty sure Wes could read my mind because he put his thumb under my chin so I was looking directly up at him. "No matter what I say in interviews or anything- there's only you. It's always going to be you." You've known me long enough to know that I'm really not one for goodbyes. At all. So when I felt the tears pricking the corners of my eyes, I did the one thing that didn't involve any talking.

As I pressed my lips to his, there was a sinking feeling in my stomach that this would be the last time that we would get to kiss for a while. When I finally pulled away, I didn't feel like crying anymore. Here was Wesley, my first love, going off to do what he's always wanted to do. A proud smile crept it's way across my face. After all their hard work, they were finally going to have their shot.