One Last Time

Chapter 5.2 (Final)

Once I arrived at the hut, Winston greeted me. "Hey, I set up everything and I..." suddenly he stopped talking and turned around to face me. He looked at me worriedly and asked carefully if everything was alright. I shook my head and walked over to the couch and sat down. I looked at Winston and asked: "Do you really want to do that?" "What do you mean with that?" "This whole revealing Bryce's murderer and ruining the futures of Alex, Zach, and Jess?". Winston sighed and took a seat beside me on the couch. He rested his head on my shoulder and looked up starring at the ceiling thinking about what I said. After sitting a while in comfortable silence with none of us saying anything, Winston broke the silence sighing, sitting up again and turning slightly to take a look at me."To be honest I don't want to do that. A-Alex... He - He was my first true love after Monty and I still have feelings for him. To be completely honest I don't even know anymore if I even loved Monty or if I am doing all of this out of love for him or only because I knew the truth of that night because he was with me." said Winston. I leaned forward and rested my head on his shoulders. " I-I'm not sure anymore if revealing the truth is always the right thing to do. I think Estella and Mrs. Walker have every right to know but letting them know will destroy them. Estella is dating Monty and if she learns to know about what her brother did to her boyfriend she'd be shattered and won't be able to remember her brother for the good things he did for us. A-And Mrs. Walker won't be able to move on knowing she's not save in this town, knowing that Deputy Standall covered up many times for Clay and his group of friends. In less than a year we'll be out of this hell-whole. So is it even worth it... destroying their lives? They're all suffering from their lies. And we're running off anyways." I took a deep breath and lifted my head looking at Winston saying: "I think we should call the meeting off, tell them it was a false alarm, and just drop the subject. They deserve a chance both of them to move on and know that we know the truth about that night we can both move on too. Let's just try to get through the last month of school and then pack our shit and leave this town." Winston looked at me smiling. He pulled his phone out from his trousers pocket and sent a text to our group chat saying: "Meeting canceled, wrong assumption - W" I gave Winston a weak smile and he returned that smile. Winston stood up and stretched his hand towards me. I looked at his hands questioningly. " Let's close this chapter of our lives and close this case." I smiled at him and grabbed his hand and stood up.

We got out of the hut and set a fire to burn everything we had down, so nobody could ever find the evidence again. After setting the hut on fire we turned around and never looked back. We got into our cars and drove to the cemetery but before that, we stopped at a flower shop and bought some flowers. We walked up to Monty's tombstone which was near Hannah's and Bryce's and left flowers at all three. Winston and I took a seat in front of Monty's tombstone and said our goodbyes. We stood up and walked away. Every year we come back to leave flowers at his tombstone.

...1 Month later...

It's our graduation day. After we receive our certificates Winston and I decided to drive home pack our stuff and get into his car and drive off. Why we'll get into his car is because I sold mine last week so we had some cash for our trip. The last month of school has been one hell of a month. I got ready and got into Winston's car so he could drive us to school.

During the Afterparty, after Clay's speech dedicated to Justin and after receiving our certificates we all went to chat with the teachers. Suddenly Scott came up to me "You look good. Congratulations by the way." "Thank you." "Y/N do you, do you maybe want to give us a shot again. I'm sorry for all the pain of caused you and for my selfishness, for never hearing you out and for letting you deal with the pain and the emotion and the aftermath of Monty's death on your own." I smiled at Scott and said. "It took you five whole minutes to pack us up and leave me with it holdin' all this love out here in the hall. I think I've seen this film before and I didn't like the ending you're not my homeland anymore so what am I defending? I'm not you're problem anymore. So, who am I offending? You were my town, my crown. Now I'm in exile seein' you. I think I've seen this film before. So I'm leavin' out the side door." with that I turned around leaving a stunned Scott Reed behind, standing in the hall. I walked up to Winston, who was waiting outside for me. We drove to his place first so he could pack his stuff and after that, we drove to mine.

Putting the last bag in our car trunk. Winston looked at me linking our arms and said "You ready my lady." "Yes, I am," I replied giggling.

And with that began the journey of two friends exploring the world together and becoming inseparable each day.

The End