My best friend's brother and my brother's best friend (2016)

Epilogue

I hold my Christmas patterned woollen gloves tightly in my shaking lap as my mind swirls in preparation to what I'm going to say. Cara wanted to come inside with me but I insisted on coming in alone, I sort of regret that choice now that my previous script has completely flown from my head. Instead I focus on fiddling with the ripped fabric on the left knee of my jeans, anything to distract my mind.

My eyes shoot up in anticipation as soon as I hear a door from the other side of the glass window slam shut. I try not to look as petrified as I feel when I see Alex's tall frame shuffle towards the chair that sits opposite me behind the glass. He's handcuffed to the little table in front of him and shoved down by the prison guard before slouching over. With one last gulp, I pick up the little black phone on my side, indicating for him to reluctantly follow suit. The next few seconds pass by at a screeching silence as we both stare at each other without saying a word. He simply blinks at me with dark and empty eyes. I guess I'm going to be doing most of the talking.

"Why me?" I blurt out suddenly with a much colder tone than even I had expected. "Why? I mean, I know the dirty business deals your family's involved in but why me or Josh or Cara? We had nothing to do with your little "business"."

"Call it ... teaching a good lesson," he replies curtly after a long wait.

"A lesson? For what?! Not letting you assault me? For standing up to your spoilt and delusional ways?!" I almost yell, calming slightly as I glance quickly at the prison guard who's trying hard to remain passive and disinterested.

"Justify it all you can, Dani," he smirks with a cruel expression. "However, you and I know you're not really the saint you swan around pretending to be."

"You know, you're right. I'm not a saint. Except I've never pretended to be a saint," I reply shaking my head, somehow no longer afraid of meeting him head on.

"Whatever you say princess ..."

"Well think what you want," I cut him off distinctly. "I really don't care anymore. You're going to be in here for a long time. You're going to be forgotten, stuck in here turning stale and cold. The world will keep on turning but you'll stay frozen solid."

"You don't care? Really?" He questions, his smile unwavering. "Then answer one thing ... why are you here?"

"I don't know," I answer genuinely before leaning forward. "I guess ... after all these months, I needed to see you in here and tell you one thing."

"And what's that?" He says as I see an interest slightly brewing in his strong demeanour.

I slowly stand up, tapping my fingertips on the surface in front of me as I get ready to leave.

"I forgive you."

Then, with a shrug of my shoulders, I slam the phone down and turn swiftly on my heel to be let out of the room. I hear another chair scrape back behind me and Alex's bangs and screams for me to come back and calling me a stupid bitch. It takes everything in power to ignore him as I hear him pummel his wrists against the window that previously separated us and I carry on forward until his spitting fades away completely.

Fuck, that felt good.

"You ok?" My best friend asks, her bright blue eyes filled with concern when I eventually get out of the prison and slump into the passenger seat of her brand new Mercedes.

"Never been better," I reply with the most genuine response to that question I've had in months before flashing her a brief smile.

"Well then, that's one more thing crossed off the to-do list," she exhales loudly before switching on the engine and not failing to drive straight away from the hell hole.

I stare straight out of the window, concentrating on the extensive greenery that darts past the window and feeling like I can finally breathe again. Cara's old party mix blares in the background unfortunately only reminding me of the summer that's just passed. Sure it was one of the craziest summer's of my life, It's the most confident and spontaneous I've ever felt yet at he same time I'd felt more fear than I'd ever experienced, all in such a small amount of time.

I guess my words from the beginning of July were right; everything really has changed.

Thank you all so much for reading because that's it! Over the next few weeks, I'm going to try and go over the whole story and maybe tweak a few story points, do more grammar checks and such.

I want to thank you all for reading and voting and all the lovely comments you've taken the time to write! Not to worry if you weren't quite satisfied with the ending, there's plenty more to come in the form of potentially two more sequels so stay tuned ❤️

In addition, I'm currently in contact with a literary agent about getting another manuscript of mine published, a dystopian story that I'm so proud of already even though there's so much work to do to it. Wish me luck! ☺️

Anyway, in conclusion, I love you all so stay active for the upcoming sequel, it should be here in about a month or so ☺️💞

I love you all!