10 Days [Brallon]

And the epilogue + questions

[IM RELUCTANT TO FINISH THIS IN CASE YOU HAVENT NOTICED BUT HERE IT IS]

Things went well.

Nobody died or broke up for that matter, although death and break ups are basically the same thing when you think about it.

But everyone's happy, even Ryan. He got a dog. He also moved to Alaska. I got a postcard from him all the way from Anchorage the other day and I attached it to the fridge with a magnet I got on sale in the comical shape of a heart. Brendon hated that magnet. He said it was off center with the magnet poorly glued to the back

It turns out there's medication for OCD, figured out by Brendon after he went to a therapist after about a years worth of convincing him to do so. After finally accepting the fact that it was a problem (after he washed his hands so hard they bled for an hour which only upset him that much more because the blood got everywhere), it took December and January for him to search up areas around. Then February and March to make an appointment, and April for me to pick him up and forcefully strap him in the backseat while I drove. Then it took another couple weeks for him to stop being stubborn and open up, and the entire summer until the 1 year mark of us leaving for him to finally take the medication. It was tedious. Also very frustrating. But he did it.

And it worked.

He stopped arranging the silverware in certain ways, refrained from fussing over the offset lamps attached to the walls, and most importantly stopped saving everything. The last time he scrubbed his hands raw while washing up was 4 months ago, and the final time he put the same load of laundry through the washing machine for a billionth time was 2 months ago. A lot of progress happened, and being proud was an understatement.

The only downside is that it causes unfathomable hunger and (according to Brendon) the inexplicable need to be carried everywhere. Which is stupid. I'm not a pack mule.

Yet I still carry him everywhere.

And being carried everywhere included the college campus, which was enormous by the way. Once Brendon and I raced each other to see who could make it to the other end first and we both nearly passed out before we made it past the 2/3rds mark. It was fun though, that was really all that mattered to both of us.

As for the riveting college dilemma, we both went into botany. I'd passed every test and whatever with Brendon's help and slid by not knowing every difference between monocots and dicots. It was a hellish experience, I'll tell you that, and I didn't put my degree in whatever the heck I received to as good a use as Brendon did. He discovered some new fancy species and I stayed home and watched Netflix while he did so. I always said I was the true winner that day, but every time that stupid flower was mentioned anywhere, he'd gloat until I ruined the ending to another tv series.

Yes, Josh became a lawyer, just like he had planned, one of the best around. Tyler gave up and finally left that mailman job he always complained about and found a nice place in the film industry. Pete's book somehow became a best seller, and Patrick achieved the manager position in that coffee shop he basically lived at. It turns out that one waitress that had served us on the first group date had become a model. We've all been too scared to track her down to see if she remembers us at all. We placed our bets, half of us on yes, the others on no, but we'd never really know for sure. That was the best part, I think.

The summer before we headed off to college he took me on a road trip because he remembered I'd never been out of the town in my life. He rented a really big rv, packed it full of whatever he felt necessary, and drove. We traveled to every state, spare Hawaii because the vehicle couldn't fly (I said we'd gotten scammed since the rocket propellers and wings weren't included and Brendon just laughed and quoted me on that for 2 weeks), and stayed in each location for a couple days. Lemme tell you, it was a dream come true. Each night felt fake, like I wasn't really waking up to create new memories and have the time of my life. I hadn't known that feeling in so long, I almost didn't believe it. But I loved it. And I'd grown to love other things on that trip too; sunsets and sunrises, heights, bike rides, semi-showers in the rain, etc.

And I shut down my flower shop before leaving for Harvard with him. It was a surprisingly difficult decision when it came down to it, but I checked with the people that replaced it and they've kept up with the place. It looks better as a bookstore than it ever did a flower shop.

At first I was worried about the Morning Glory flowers. What would happen to them after I left? Would they keep settling on the back steps or would they just stop drifting into town? The question had plagued my mind for weeks and weeks on end while in the process of handing over the store, even more while Brendon and I finally headed out of that shitty little town. I was glad to leave, yet deep down, I'd really miss it.

I'd miss the old lady that bargained hand knitted sweaters for the old Paper Clips to return, the strange people that tried and failed so across many times to convince me that dark roses meant love and were definitely not a symbol of mourning, even the Italian Bistro that Brendon and I had loved until it fell under tyrannical management. I almost stabbed someone that day.

I'd never miss those Morning Glory flowers though, because every single day without failure, I'd wake up to one sitting on the counter. I never put them there, Brendon never touched them and the security cameras my paranoid ass had set up simply showed them fluttering in from the back window.

Brendon always said they led us right back to each other.

I really love flowers.

[Well that's it. That was the epilogue. 10 Days is officially finished. I'm proud to say this is one of my favorites I've ever written, and I've made a ton of stories I've never published that I like but never got around to finishing.

So thanks to everyone that started this when I did and stuck around to see the ending I promised was good, and thanks to everyone that joined like mid book and stuck around for the rest of it too. See, nobody died. I'm not a heartless person after all.

I sincerely doubted this thing would reach like 3 reads let alone as many as it does now which is insane like woah that's a lot of people. Thanks to everyone that commented because every now and then I'll go back and read through them all to watch everyone flip out over how nice the first few chapters were before I sent everything to hell then back to heaven again also you're welc.

Also I considered killing off like 4 people at the same time. As you can tell, I didn't. Breb was gonna see one of those morning Glory flowers and whomp there he goes off the face of the earth to go catch it with some fancy metaphors. Almost. You're welc squared. It was a stupid way to pick off a character anyways. I almost did it though and I find it hilarious I was so sleep deprived I even thought about it.

If you've got any questions I gotchu. Feel free to ask because I've got answers. I think.

Adios amigos]