Three years after his mother's death, Noah Reed is lost once again. Unsure of where to go after running from his problems for so long, he ends up back home, wanting a place to finally settle down. He's ready to tie up loose ends and to try and corre...
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"He's still alive!" Thorne exclaims as he opens his apartment door, greeting me with his infamous smirk.
I roll my eyes at my old friend's teasing, used to his sarcasm. "Seriously, man?" I question. "The phone calls didn't make that obvious?"
"There's a difference between a phone call and actually seeing you," Thorne points out. His green eyes gleam brightly as his smirk widens. "You went off the radar for a while there. It's good to have you back, man."
"It's good to be back," I admit truthfully. I enter the apartment and look around to find that I'm met with unfamiliar scenery. It's hard to believe that after all this time, I never made it to this place. It never crossed my mind to go to the people I love and trust when I needed help the most. How stupid had I been three years ago, believing that running away from Magnolia Heights and the people I loved would help me to outrun my problems?
It's hard to believe it's been years since the last time I saw Thorne Baxter. Now that he's standing before me, I find myself noticing all the time that has passed since we were last together.
Thorne is twenty-three now, two years my senior. He's graduated from college, living in an apartment that he shares with his fiancée, Mia McHenry. Studying Thorne, I notice slight differences in his appearance. He looks older somehow, less like a teenager and more like the young man he's becoming with time. Despite the air of maturity that now surrounds him, Thorne's bright green eyes still gleam with a mischievous light and his signature smirk is just as troublesome as ever. His dark hair is tousled and his sleeve of tattoos makes him look as menacing as ever, giving him an edgy look that tends to send people running.
Except for one person in particular.
I think everyone who knows Thorne Baxter and Mia McHenry knew that the two would be endgame for one another, and yet it's still hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that the duo is soon to be married. I know Thorne proposed to Mia around summer of last year, and I know that Mia said yes. But picturing two of my closest friends as husband and wife only makes me realize how fast time is flying by, and soon I know it's bound to catch up to me. I'm no longer the teenager I was years ago. Thorne and Mia are no longer simply dating. My father is no longer a divorced man, but one who is remarried, along with being a new father to my half-sister. Blake Rhodes is no longer the girl she was when I left. Everything is different. Yet somehow things are also relatively the same.
"Where's Mia?" I ask Thorne as we enter the kitchen. He glances at me over his shoulder as he opens the fridge.
"She's out with Charlie right now," Thorne tells me, mentioning a mutual friend of ours. I can't remember the last time I saw Charlie, though I know she's happily married to her long-term girlfriend, Violet, and that the two now own a house together. Thinking of this has me realizing just how much I've missed out on, which is a hard pill to swallow.
"She should be back in an hour or two, though," Thorne says, extending a water bottle to me. "She's gonna be surprised to see you. I don't think Mia even knows you're back in town yet."
