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

Chapter 36

“Hey Aves, you okay?” Owen flicked a French fry at me and I snapped my head up.

“Uh, yeah. I’m fine.” I coughed a little bit towards the end of the sentence so no one would hear my voice break. But to no such avail Adrianna noticed and knew exactly what was making me upset.

“You’re going to have to tell him eventually.” She placed a hand on my arm supportively. “Graduation is exactly one week away. It’s not like he didn’t see it coming.” She pointed out. I knew she was trying to make my nerves go away, but talking about confronting him made me even more anxious about the upcoming conversation.

“I know he doesn’t expect for me to just wait around. But as of last week, I thought I wasn’t getting in.” I reminded the two of them. A look of realization passed over Adrianna’s face.

“Which means the two of you were counting on you going to UCLA next year.” She said quietly.

“Well this just got awkward.” Owen folded his hands in front of him on the metal picnic table. Westminster didn’t make its seniors take final exams, so Owen didn’t have to be at the school until Thursday when he was accepting his diploma. Apparently life at home with Selene was extremely uneventful, so he decided to join us for lunch.

“Tell me about it.” I slumped down, resting my elbows on the cool metal. I had a lot running through my mind.

“No, not that. He’s here.” Well that got my attention. I looked up to see Owen jerking his chin up to the boys and waving them over.

“Are you crazy?!” I whisper-hissed at him. If the boys weren’t in such close proximity I would have punched the kid in the arm. But I didn’t want to draw any more unwanted attention to myself at the moment. I was having a hard enough time trying not to jump on Wes the minute I saw him and cry into his shoulder. If I needed to do this, I was going to have to take this conversation slow.

“Hey guys, how’ve you been? Say, Drew and Keaton do you guys wanna give me a tour? Thanks, that would be awesome.” Owen blurted out, dragging the two confused boys along with Adrianna off in the opposite direction. I glared at Owen as he gave me a smug little smirk before he disappeared. Argh! One day that boy was going to send me over the edge. I honestly don’t know how Adrianna does it.

“What’s that all about?” Wes laughed, the skin around his eyes crinkling like they did whenever he was in a good mood.

“No idea. You know Owen.” I tried to laugh but faltered. That was a complete lie. Owen was forcing me to do what I wasn’t strong enough to do myself: Tell Wes the truth. Wes gave me a funny look. “Okay, wait. No I do know what it was about.” I sighed, placing my baggie of apple wedges down on the table.

“Oh snap, the apple slices have been set down, this must be serious.” He said while pulling out a container filled with carrot sticks and cucumbers. The way he said it I could tell he had been joking. But that only made the conversation more difficult to have.

“Uhm well I guess it kind of is.” I saw his face fall.

“Is this because we… you know?” He raised an eyebrow at me.

“No, no! That’s not it.” I said letting out a small laugh. “That was fine, I mean well it was more than fine. I mean you were great…” I stopped mid-sentence because of the huge blush creeping up my cheeks. “Uhhh…” I looked down at my bag of apples, pretending to be super interested in them. I heard Wes cracking up from next to me. I couldn’t help but smack him on the arm. Between the tears rolling down his cheeks from laughing so hard he managed to ask what was up.

“Well then what’s wrong?” He took my hand.

“As you know, graduation is next week…” I looked at him and he nodded his head to confirm that we were indeed graduating next Friday. “And I hadn’t committed to a school yet because I was waiting to hear back from NYU…” His face was unreadable. “And well I heard from them.” I said. “I got in.” I could automatically tell that this wasn’t what he was expecting to hear. He looked kind of sad as he sat there, keeping his hand still in mine.

“I knew you would.” He said softly.

“I never thought it would happen. I mean, I’m shit at Trig and I didn’t get the highest score on the SATs.” I told him in disbelief.

“Averanda Luciana Brayden,” my breath caught in my throat as I heard him use my full name. “You’re the smartest, most beautiful, talented girl I’ve ever met. They’d be stupid not to accept you.” I squeezed his hand tightly. Hearing those words come out of his mouth made my heart soar. He took a breath in and breathed out slowly. “And because you are all of those things, I think you should go.

“What?” I asked in confusion.

“I’m not going to let my dreams stop you from achieving yours.” He told me with a small smile on his face. “If you had stayed in LA you wouldn’t have been happy. And with the show going on, I’d have to be practicing every day- that wouldn’t leave us much time to spend together.” He pointed out. That’s true. I hadn’t really thought about it in that way. “But if I know one thing for sure, it’s that I love you. And even if you’re 3000 miles away on the east coast we’re going to make it work.” He promised. I had to restrain myself from jumping on him right then and there. Even though school was almost out, Wes had still signed that stupid X Factor contract that kept us from being together. The contract hadn’t forbade us from dating, but it was “strongly suggested” that the boys remain single in order to build up a fan base. And that meant no making out in the middle of the quad.

So I started to lean in, but then hesitated. Wes raised an eyebrow at me. “Contract.” I reminded him. I saw a devilish grin flicker across his lips.

“I don’t care.” And with that he wrapped his hands around my waist and pulled me to him, crashing his lips against mine.

“You never really were one to play by the rules, were you Stromberg?” I giggled after pulling away.

“Rules were made to be broken.” He shrugged, tossing one of his apple slices into his mouth. I laughed softly and nuzzled my head into his shoulder.

“Well that’s pretty much the entire school. Is there anything else you want to see?” Drew asked, scratching the back of his head. I could tell that he was hoping the answer coming from Owen’s lips would be a no. Owen turned his head in my direction.

“I don’t know. Is there anything else I want to see?” Owen looked me directly in the eye. I laughed at his attempt to ask me if we were finished talking.

“No. Now sit down and let the poor boys eat their food.” I told Owen. A few minutes later Jason, Brianna and Tyler joined us. Everything was as it should be. All of us here together just talking, laughing and chilling out. This was how I wanted it to be all the time. But with us all going to separate schools I knew it wasn’t possible. I hadn’t even lived in Huntington for a full year yet; but it was undeniably the best year of my life.

Hey guys :) So sorry for the late update! My internet was being all screwy and didn't work for a few days :( But here it is! The chapter you've been waiting for haha. So 10 comments and 70 votes for the next chapter?? :D