Chapter 34 | She's A Cute Potato

"I believe we write our own stories and each time we think we know the end, we don't. Perhaps luck exists somewhere between the world of planning, the world of chance, and in the peace that comes from knowing that you just can't know it all. You know, life's funny that way. Once you let go of the wheel, you might end up right where you belong." - Little Black Notebook

"Ooh, what about that one?" Aspen chirpily suggests.

"No, that one is hideous," I reject, crinkling my nose when I see the one she is pointing at.

"It is not hideous," She argues, rolling her eyes. "He's so cute-you could name him Oreo!"

"Yeah, that's stupid and cliché," I tell her with a small scoff. "C'mon, let's just keep looking," I urge.

"Girls, please just hurry and pick one so we can get out of here," My mom pleads from a few steps behind. "I'm starting to itch," She complains.

"Well, I did strongly advise not wearing a pantsuit," I remind her in a singsong voice.

"Well, I have to go to work when we leave here," She says, mocking my singsong tone.

"You could have just given me the money, you know. Then you wouldn't have even had to come with us."

"Alright, well, if you two don't have one picked out in the next three minutes, we are just going to leave."

"Okay, okay, okay-gosh, you're so impatient," I sigh, continuing my way down the walkway, briefly glancing in all the glass displays I pass up.

Today is June 5th, so it's been a couple of months, but not much at all has changed. One thing that has changed, however, is my mother's stance on pets. As a reward, if you can even call it that, for finishing up my junior year with relatively good grades, my mom decided I could get a pet.

I wanted to get a puppy, because, well, love puppies. She said no to that though since we've already got Zoe in the house and then she suggested that I get a guinea pig. I said no to that suggestion though because guinea pigs freak me out and resemble rats a bit too closely for my comfort.

So since I couldn't get a dog, I wanted to get a kitten and although it took a bit of convincing, she finally decided that that'd be okay. Beckett is highly allergic to them, which is the main reason I've never been able to get one. When he saw how excited I was at the prospect of getting one though, he said that as long as I kept it as far away from him as possible at all times, he would be okay with it. I know I complain about him a lot, but when I really think about it, he's actually a pretty great brother-I mean, he's literally willing to put his health at risk for my happiness.

Anyway, so now Aspen, my mother, and I are here at the Humane Society looking for a cute kitten to adopt. My mom has been complaining about everything from the smell to the sounds (of dogs barking and cats meowing) since we got here, but that was to be expected, because she's snooty. She's the one paying for all of this stuff though, so she insisted on coming, which is dumb, because Aspen and I could have handled it.

"Sawyer, oh my God!" Aspen shrieks, suddenly stopping in my tracks. "Look at this one-she's adorable!"

"You've literally said that about 98% of the kittens we've seen since we got here," I remind her with a sigh.

"I know, but this one actually is super adorable," She defends.

"If it's another bald cat, I swear to you our friendship is over."

"It's called a Sphynx, Drama Queen," Aspen laughs, beckoning for me to come over to the display she's at.

"It's called ugly," I scoff, walking over to where she's standing and looking in at the kitten she's looking at.

My jaw literally drops when I see that Aspen was actually right and that the kitten really is 'super adorable'. Behind the glass display, there's a huge black cage and inside of it is pretty much the cutest kitten I have ever seen in my entire life. It's snow white and it looks tiny enough to fit in the palm of my hand and I know at that exact moment that this is my kitten. Most of the cats we've seen since we've been here have been awake and alert, probably wondering why all of these random human beings keep coming to look at them, but this one is just lying in the cage, being all heartbreakingly adorable, even though it's fast asleep.

"Okay, this one is super adorable," I state, voicing my thoughts.

"Great, so is that the one you want?" My mom asks from a few feet away with a small but audible sigh. "Because you've only got a minute left."

"This is the one that I want," I assure her with an eager nod, resisting the urge to tap on the glass to wake my new kitten up.

"Alright, but just so you know, Sawyer, this cat is going to be your responsibility; not mine, not Beckett's, not Aspen's, but yours. That means that you're going to have to be the one that gives the cat food and water and the one who empties and fills the litter box and the one who bathes it and the one who brings it to the veterinarian for regular checkups and the one who-"

"Mom," I groan, stopping her ridiculously redundant nagging. "I know all that already."

"Okay, okay, I'm just making sure you and I are on the same page here," She defends, putting her hands up in surrender.

"You totally don't have to worry, Mama Jameson," Aspen chirps. "Sawyer's like the most responsible person I know and I know tons of people."

"You know you can call me 'Heather', right?" My mom asks Aspen with a small laugh. She's always called my mom that, but I never knew why.

"I know," Aspen nods. "I'm still gonna call you Mama Jameson though," She decides.

"Both of you girls are very strange," My mother says with another laugh. "Anyway, I'm going to go and find a worker so we can get this started."

My mother walks off then, her high heels clacking against the concrete with every step she takes. I notice an index card taped behind the glass display then and kneel down, glancing at what it says: Female. Scottish Fold. 8 Weeks.

"Wait," I say, a horrible thought making its way into my mind just then. "You don't think Zoe's gonna go crazy and kill my kitten, right?"

"No, Sawyer, I don't think Zoe is going to go crazy and kill your kitten," Aspen promises with a laugh, even though I'm not being funny.

"Good, because I mean, I love Zoe and all, but if she hurts my kitten, we're going to have to get her euthanized or something."

"You know what I think is funny?" Aspen asks and when I raise my eyebrows in question, she says, "You say that I'm the dramatic one, but here you are suggesting that we have my dog put to sleep if it messes with your kitten." Clearly I'm kidding about the euthanizing-she knows that.

"Nothing at all about that is dramatic though; it's just a necessity," I correct her. "But as long as Zoe behaves herself, all will be well," I explain.

"Whatever you say, Sawyer," She laughs. "So, what are you going to name her?"

"Calliope, I think," I decide after a few seconds of thinking. In case you have spent the last several years or so of your life under a rock or something, Calliope is the name of Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital's best orthopedic surgeon, aka Callie Torres. It's a strange name, I know, but I like it more than just 'Callie' and she's one of my favorite characters on Grey's Anatomy, so why not name my adorable new kitten after her?

"I would like to say that I'm surprised, but that would be a lie," Aspen chuckles.

Man, she's laugh-y today-something must've happened that put her in a good mood or something. I don't know what it could've been though.

Before I get the chance to investigate and interrogate though, my mother comes back into the room with a worker following closely behind her.

The worker introduces himself as Winston and then he uses his key to unlock the door that leads into the room where all of the kittens are. He walks over to Calliope, grabs her cage, and then brings it back outside to where we're standing at and I have to physically restrain myself from snatching the cage away and opening it so I can cuddle the cat in my arms. He says stuff, but I don't listen, because I'm too busy falling in love.

"Sawyer," My mom says, shaking my shoulder to get my attention. "This is going to take a while," She informs me, taking her car keys out of her ridiculously large shoulder bag. "So, I want you and Aspen to take my car and go and get whatever it is you're going to need for this kitten."

"Oh yeah, that's probably a good idea," I agree, grabbing her car keys from her, along with her credit card because I, as usual, am broke. Sometimes, I find it hard to believe that I actually even have a job, because I'm literally broke more often than not. Yesterday was the last day of school though, so now that it is summer vacation, hopefully my job will put me on the schedule more so I can pick up more hours and more money. "We'll be back in a jiffy," I tell her before making my way with Aspen out of the doors of the Humane Society and out to my mom's car.

Aspen gets in the passenger seat and I in the driver before turning the car and pulling out of the parking lot, en route for the nearest pet store.

"So, are you excited about Prom?" She randomly asks me a few blocks down the road.

"Not really," I shrug, turning the radio up a little. "I'm pretty sure I'm not even going."

"What do you mean you're pretty sure you're not even going?" Aspen asks, looking like I've just given her the shock of a lifetime.

"It's just not really my thing, you know? Like, the whole concept is just kinda lame," I explain. "Besides, Graham didn't ask me."

"He might though," She states. "And nothing about Prom is in the least bit lame," She scoffs. "I'm on the committee, you know."

"I didn't know that," I admit. "But that's really not all that surprising."

"Well, if Graham asks, I think that you should go-it's gonna be fun."

"What's the theme or whatever?"

"Old Hollywood," She tells me. "It was my idea. They were trying to do like Monte Carlo or Starry Nights, which are both unbelievably cliché."

"But what does that even mean?"

"Cliché?" Aspen asks, glancing over at me with a weird look on her face. "It means, like, predictable, unimaginative, lackluster-stuff like that."

"Not cliché, Aspen," I sigh. "I meant Old Hollywood."

"Ooh yeah, that makes a lot more sense," She agrees, looking relieved, as if she was seriously worried about my mental state for a second there. "Anyways though, Old Hollywood was basically the epoch of the icons like Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly, and Audrey Hepburn, so it's pretty much just based on that whole era. It's gonna be so amazing, like, I can't even handle it. Like there's a red carpet that leads into the ballroom that we're holding Prom at and everything. And we recruited a bunch of underclassmen on photography and yearbook to come dressed up like classy little paparazzi and takes pictures with these old timey flash cameras of everyone as they're walking down the red carpet. And there's a Walk of Fame and it has all of the graduating senior's names engraved into it and it looks so legit. Basically, it's gonna be the best Prom ever."

"Wow, that sounds incredibly extensive."

"It is, but that's okay, because you only Prom once," She says. "Well, unless you go more than once or not at all, but that's beside the point. Just think The Great Gatsby-the good one though, with Leonardo DiCaprio. You know how Gatsby always had all of those insane parties? That's pretty much how it's going to go and it's going to be wonderful and amazing and it's going to be the best Prom Jamestown High has ever seen."

"Well, I don't think Graham's going to ask me, but if he does, I'll seriously consider coming," I promise her.

"Don't be so pessimistic; he's going to ask you," She tells me. "This is his Prom and he's a party boy-of course he's going to ask. He's just late."

"Prom is in two days though," I remind her. "Even if he doesn't ask me though, it'll be okay, because like I said, I don't even want to go to Prom."

"Whatever floats your goat," Aspen pipes as I pull into the parking lot of PetSmart and we both get out and go inside.

"That's most definitely not the saying, Aspen," I laugh.

"So, do you remember a couple of months ago when I told you I was going to nominate you and Graham for Cutest Couple for the yearbook?"

"I do, but I didn't think that you were serious."

"Oh, I was serious," She says, walking down the aisle with me where there's pretty much everything and more you'd need to care for a kitten.

"Of course you were," I sigh. "What about it?"

"So it turns out you two won, just like I said."

"Graham and I won Cutest Couple?" I ask her incredulously.

"You and Graham won Cutest Couple," She giddily confirms.

"Well, that's flattering, I guess, and also a little bit creepy, but mostly flattering, I suppose."

We walk all throughout the store then, loading up the shopping cart with cat supplies. By the end, it's pretty much full up to capacity with everything I can imagine Calliope will need. There's a (lavender colored) litter box, stuff that goes inside the litter box, a pet bed, water and food bowls, squeaky toys, a carrier, a collar, a leash (I don't even know if you need a least for a cat, but just in case), a cat scratcher, and a brush.

After about thirty minutes of walking around PetSmart, Aspen and I decide that we should probably get back to the Humane Society, because my mom is probably done with all of the paperwork and whatever else it is you have to do in order to adopt a kitten. So we go through the check-out and I use my mom's credit card to purchase it all and then Aspen and I gather the bags up and head back outside and get in the car.

When I pull back into the parking lot of the Humane Society, my mother is just walking out of the door, cat carrier in one hand and a folder of documents in the other hand. She has an annoyed look on her face and I imagine that's just because she's had to hold my cat for approximately five seconds-she's just so easily irritated; she's really going to have to lighten up at some point. I pull into a handicap spot since I'm just going to be a second and get out, going around to the passenger side, as Aspen gets out and gets in the backseat and my mom gets on the driver side.

"Did you get everything that you need?" My mother asks, handing me the cat carrier and slipping her seatbelt on.

"I think so, yep," I nod. I open the carrier then and take Calliope out, setting her down on my lap and petting her.

"Well, that's good," She replies. "And remember to keep it away from Beckett."

"Her name is Calliope," I say. "And I will try my very best to keep them apart."

"You're going to have to do more than try. Beckett's cat allergy doesn't just make him sneeze-it's bad, like, hives and difficult breathing bad."

"Mom, stop worrying; I'm not going to kill Beckett."

"Well, that's a big relief, because you and Aspen are both going to college in a year and I need someone to keep me company when you're gone."

"Or you could just get married, like I suggested."

"I've already had one failed marriage, Sawyer; I'd rather not have another one," She tells me. "And like I told you, I'm perfectly happy divorced."

"Mama Jameson, did you ever go to your Prom?"

"I did, actually," My mother tells Aspen. "Why?"

"I'm trying to convince Sawyer to go," She says. "Was it not the greatest night of your entire life?"

"Well, I'm pretty sure that was the night that Beckett was conceived, so yeah, it was pretty great."

"Mom!" I shriek, suddenly feeling like I'm about to puke. "That is disgusting; you are disgusting."

"I'm just kidding, Sawyer," She says with a hearty laugh. "I didn't even know Tom back then," She adds, laughing all hysterically at her little joke, even though nothing about that was in the least bit funny. I was actually a little traumatized.

Before I can say anything in response, Aspen starts talking to her, asking her all about it-how she wore her hair that night and what color her dress was and what kind of shoes she wore and what the style the dress was if she rode to Prom in a limo and just a bunch of stuff like that that I don't really care about, as bad as that sounds. I guess I'm just not interested in other people's lives.

"Wait, where are we going?" I wonder, interrupting their conversation when I realize that we're nowhere near the vicinity of our neighborhood.

"Oh, you and Aspen are going to Sienna's house," She tells me.

"How come?" I ask curiously. "I need to set Calliope's stuff up."

"Yeah, but you can do that later."

"You're being very weird," I state.

"I am not being weird," She assures me, pulling up outside of Sienna's house-if you can even call it that, it's more like a mansion or an estate.

"You are though," I disagree. "Aspen, don't you think she's being weird?"

"No, not at all," Aspen denies. "She's like that pretty much all the time."

"Now you're being weird," I conclude. "I think you two are in cahoots."

"You watch too many crime drama television shows," My mom says. "Anyway, I'm going to work. I'll see you girls later-have fun," She adds.

Aspen and I say goodbye then and get out of my mom's car and I grab some snacks from one of the bags, just in case Calliope wants one later. I put Calliope back in her carrier and fasten it shut before closing the door and walking with Aspen up to Sienna's front door. I don't know much about Sienna's parents-just that they work a lot, but whatever it is they do for a living is what I need to do, because they are ridiculously rich.

When Aspen and I reach the front door, I ring the doorbell and we wait. A couple of seconds later, the door opens and a familiar face is revealed.

"Miss Aspen, Miss Sawyer, it's nice to see you two again," He says, offering us a warm smile.

"Hi Dixon," Aspen returns the nicety. "We're here to see Sienna-is she here?" She wonders.

Dixon is the Richards' family's butler-yeah, that's how rich they are. I don't think that they really even need a butler though, considering the fact that Sienna's parents are out of the country more often than not and Tommy doesn't live here, so Sienna is here alone majority of the time. He seems like a nice guy though, so I like him. He's old, like, in his sixties, probably, but he's really cute in a little old grandfather kind of way.

"Please, come in," He says and so we do. "Miss Sienna isn't home," Dixon tells us.

"Oh, well that's weird," Aspen says. "Do you know when she'll be back?" She asks.

"She didn't say," Dixon denies. "You're welcome to go up to her room though, if you'd like."

"Alright, thanks Dixon," Aspen replies and then we make our way upstairs to her bedroom.

"That's so weird-why are we here if Sienna's not?" I ask Aspen, plopping down on Sienna's bed, taking Calliope out of her cat carrier then.

"I dunno," Aspen shrugs.

"I think you do though."

"Why would you think that?" She laughs. "I know nothing."

"You are a really bad liar, Aspen; don't quit your day job."

"I'm not lying," She chirps, but I can tell that she is. I mean, when you've been friends with someone forever, you know when they're lying.

"I'm calling Sienna," I announce, taking my phone out of my pocket and dialing her number.

"Hi there, Soybean," Sienna answers all chirpily on the first ring.

"Hi Sienna," I reply, sighing at the nickname. "Where are you?"

"Oh, you know, just hanging out," She says. "Why, what's up?"

"Aspen and I are at your house-my mom just dropped us off."

"Oh, right, I knew that. Well, make yourselves at home-I'll be back there in a few hours."

"Is something going on that I should know about?" I ask suspiciously.

"Nope, there is definitely nothing going on you should know about."

I'm about to say something, but before I can, there's a voice in the background.

"Sienna, where's the lighter?"

"Was that Graham?" I ask.

"What was that?" Sienna asks after a small silence. "Sorry, Soybean, I can't hear you! I'm going through a tunnel right now. I'll call you later!"

The line goes dead then and I sigh, putting it down and crossing my arms across my chest. Clearly, there's something going on and Aspen, Sienna, Graham, and my mom are all in on it. I don't know what it could possibly be though, but it must be a pretty big deal if not even my mother will divulge to me. My birthday is months away, no major holidays are coming up-I have no idea what's going on, but I want to know.

✿✿✿✿✿✿

"This is ridiculous," I sigh a couple of hours later, getting out of Aspen's car with her help.

The past four hours, Aspen and I were just hanging out at Sienna's house doing a whole bunch of nothing-we watched The Great Gatsby, had Sienna's family's chef make us homemade pizza, play with Calliope, and talk about Prom. I tried again to get the truth about whatever it is going on out of her, but she did a really good job keeping it under wraps. I figured it out though-Graham and Sienna are obviously somewhere doing something, Aspen was supposed to keep me away from my house, and my mother got me out of the house by taking me to the Humane Society. I even called Piper, but she said she didn't know anything about what was going on and when I remembered that she's in Tewksbury with Jason, I realized that she was probably telling the truth.

Anyway, about half an hour ago, Sienna finally showed up at her house. She gave some bogus excuse about how she had bad cell reception where she was and then she said that her phone died and that's why she couldn't call me back. And that was pretty believable, I guess, but her telling me that her car battery died and she was stuck on the side of the road for hours was pretty unbelievable. Sienna drives a 2015 Mercedes Benz for Pete's sake; their batteries do not just die.

So, she fawned over Calliope for a while and then she said that there was something that I needed to see, so we headed outside to her car. When we got in the car, she had Aspen put a blindfold over my eyes and then we left her house and despite my incessant pleading, neither of my so-called best friends would tell me where we were going. We've just gotten to the destination though and Aspen is basically being my eyes since, according to Sienna, I can't take the blindfold off yet.

"Wait!" I exclaim, stopping in my tracks. "Where's Calliope? Do you have her, Sienna?"

"I have your precious cat, Soybean, don't worry," Sienna tells me. "Just keep walking."

"I just don't understand why this is happening," I groan. "You guys know I don't like surprises."

"But you're going to like this surprise," Aspen promises. "It's so cute you're basically gonna die."

"If you say so," I mumble, taking Aspen's guided direction. I have to walk up three stairs, then over a threshold, and then the pavement beneath my feet disappears and is replaced by what feels like carpet. So, clearly I'm in a house and I think it might be mine on account of the three stairs thing, but it's that's exclusive to my house-in fact, at Graham's house there's also three stairs that you have to go up before you get to the door.

"Okay, so there's a bunch of stairs, so just be careful," Aspen tells me.

With a small sigh, I take her advice and use the hand not clasping hers to hold onto the guardrail and make my way up the stairs. I know for certain about halfway up that we're at my house, because there's a chip in the guardrail from a few years back when Beckett fell against it after coming home drunk from a party. When we reach the top of the stairs, Aspen leads me to my room, only she doesn't tell me that it's my room, but obviously I know that it is because I know my way around my house.

"Alright, just a couple more steps," Sienna says as we walk into my room.

They lead me across my bedroom then and when they say I can stop, I know that I'm by my window. Wow, how insane would it be if all of this was just because they've realized what an awful friend I actually am and they want to murder me by pushing me out of my second story window?

I hear one of them doing something, pulling up the blinds on the window and then opening it, it sounds like.

"Okay, you can take the blindfold off now," Aspen announces all giddily.

"I'm going to be super annoyed with you guys if this isn't worth it," I tell them, reaching and hesitantly pulling the blindfold off.

"Soybean, it's gonna be super worth it, just chill out," Sienna says to me.

When the blindfold is off, I keep my eyes closed, just because now that I'm finally finding out what the huge secret is, I'm kind of nervous. So I take a couple of seconds and then I open my eyes and see that I was right, that I am in my room and I'm standing right in front of the window that overviews the backyard. My eyes take a second to adjust to the darkness (not quite sure why the light isn't on) and when they do, I take a deep breath and glance out of the window and then nearly fall to the floor.

The first thing that I see is Graham, standing right at the edge of the swimming pool, dressed in black dress pants, a baby blue button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, black dressy shoes, and a dark blue tie. He's holding a bouquet of flowers-roses, I think, but it's hard to tell from this distance-and an adorable teddy bear in the other hand.

The next thing that catches my eye though is something like fifty (lit) candles strung out a few feet in front of him, spelling out "PROM?" Surely, that's a fire hazard, but that's okay, because it's super adorable and I literally feel myself getting super emotional at what a pretty scene this is.

"Wait, don't say anything!" Sienna exclaims, totally kinda ruining the scene.

"What is the problem, Sienna?" Graham calls up with an annoyed look on his face.

"There's, like, a small technical difficultly, but don't worry, just give me two seconds!"

"You're pretty much ruining the moment, you know," Graham informs her with a groan.

"Oh, calm your tits, Graham; I am not ruining the moment! I'm pausing it," She defends.

"Nope, the entire thing is ruined because you're just not good with this kind of stuff," He says. If they weren't close friends, you'd think he was being serious, but I think that he's probably her best guy friend and she's his best female friend, so it's clear that he's not actually upset at her.

"It is far from ruined," She scoffs and then she puts her phone into my phone dock and hits the play button and Kiss Me Slowly by Parachute (the last song that Graham and I danced to at Winter Formal a few months ago, if you forgot) starts playing and Aspen starts aww-ing out loud.

"Okay, you guys can go now," I tell them, waving my hands towards the door.

"Alright, okay, but if you don't say 'yes', I'm going to kill you," Aspen says and then she and Sienna leave my room, closing the door after them.

"You know, we've been dating for, like, six months now and I never knew you had a pool," Graham randomly tells me.

"Because it's never warm enough to even use it," I giggle. "Wait there, I'm gonna come down there-I want to show you something," I tell him.

I go over to my bed where Calliope's cat carrier is and pull her out before basically running out of my bedroom, down the back stairs and out of the sliding glass door that lets out into the backyard and then I go over to where Graham is standing.

"Since when do you have a kitten?" He wonders when I get close enough for him to see her.

"Since today. Her name is Calliope," I say. "Isn't she cute?"

"She's something alright," He laughs.

"So, this is what you have been doing all day?" I ask him.

"It is," He nods. "Speaking of which, so what do you say?"

"Right," I laugh, feeling dumb when I realize that I didn't give him an answer. "Yes, yes, yes-I would absolutely love to go to Prom with you," I tell him truthfully. I mean, it's no secret that I'm not exactly a big fan of dances, mostly because I have two left feet, but Graham went through the trouble of getting all of these candles and setting everything up and for me to say no would be cruel. Also, every time I go somewhere and think it's is going to suck, Graham makes it a whole lot more bearable, so yeah, I think the whole Old Hollywood thing with him should be fun.

"Okay, good," He breathes a sigh of relief. "I was expecting you to say no, but I'm so glad you didn't because these candles are nonrefundable."

"You're so incredibly weird," I tell him, playfully rolling my eyes. "Like, I can't even believe how weird you are."

"Well, you love me, so you're just going to have to deal with it," He chuckles. "So, being all pregnant and whatnot, Cassidy is addicted to baking all of these pastries and a person can only eat so many cupcakes before the taste starts to make them physically sick, so I hope you like them," Graham says, handing me a surprisingly heavy pink box that I suppose is full of cupcakes.

"I really don't think I could love you any more if I tried," I squeal, resisting the urge to open the box and start devouring the cupcakes right now.

"I knew you only loved me because I always bring you food," He sighs.

"That's not the only reason I love you, idiot," I say. "You're also, like, incredibly attractive, so there's another reason that I love you," I tell him.

"I guess I'll take what I can get," Graham dramatically sighs. "And I also got you this bear because I thought if you were leaning towards 'no', that you'd see the bear and how cute it is and it'd kinda like sway you into saying yes," He tells me before handing me the bear, who looks just like any other old teddy bear, only cuter because it's got on a bow tie.

"I can't believe you'd even think I would reject you," I laugh, putting the bear on top of my cupcakes. "You're actually the cutest boyfriend in the history of boyfriends-I hope you realize that," I tell him, going up on my tiptoes to kiss his cheek. I haven't see him all day-of course I want to do more than just kiss his cheek, but it's cool out here, not to mention the fact that my hands are full with Calliope and pastries and the bear.

"So," Graham says. "As much as I'd like to stay, I kinda have to go graduate."

"Oh poor Graham, getting to finish high school," I sigh, feigning sympathy.

"It's sad, really; I love high school," He tells me and I know that's he's being honest, which is insane, because who actually enjoys high school?

"Well, if I could trade places with you and be the senior and you be the junior, I would do it in a heartbeat," I tell him. Man, I'm so jealous that he's done forever with that place and I still have another year with all those toxic people. "So, what time are you supposed to be at the arena?"

"6:00, I think, and it is 5:30 now, so I gotta get going, but I'll see you there?"

"You might not see me, but you'll definitely hear me; I'll be the one with the obnoxiously loud noisemakers and the bullhorn and all that stuff."

"Just don't get thrown out," He pleads, pulling his car keys out of the pocket of his pants and leaning down to kiss my forehead. "I'll see you."

"Bye boyfriend," I say watching as he walks out of the gate before I go back into the house and make my way back up to my bedroom, where my friends are at yet again. I wonder then if I should do something about all of those candles-if something happened and my house caught on fire, my mother would literally kill me, if the flames didn't. I have to get ready for the graduation though, so I decide that I'll just have Beckett do it.

"Like, I love Vince and he's such a good boyfriend, but you and Graham are basically everything I want in life," Sienna says from my bed.

"Well, according to the Jamestown High student body, they are the cutest couple, so I think everyone feels that way," Aspen informs her.

"You guys are weird," I say to them before going over to my closet and pulling it open, searching for something to wear to the graduation.

The last graduation I went to was Beckett's high school graduation like five years ago, so I don't really know what you're supposed to wear to them. I feel like you're supposed to be at least a little bit dressy though. With that in mind, I sift through the fabrics in my closet for a few minutes before deciding on a sleeveless maroon dress that looks pretty casual, but still pretty dressy, I think-well, dressy enough anyway. It's not anyone's going to be looking at me or anything. Even though it is technically summer now, it still gets cool at night, so I take a black sweater cardigan out of my closet too and slip it on, along with a pair of black gladiator sandals.

I leave my room then and head to the bathroom, where I get dressed, and plug in my curling iron and wait for it to heat up. I'm kind of into that now, curling my hair-it takes a lot less time and effort than straightening it and it's just a new thing that I tried and ended up loving, so it's kind of like my go to thing now. After it heats up, I use it to quickly give myself some wavy curls and then I unplug it and go back to my bedroom.

"You guys are coming to graduation, right?" I ask hopefully, seeing them both in the same spots I left them in. I really don't want to go all alone.

"I am," Sienna confirms with a nod, standing up and walking across my room, grabbing her phone, which is still playing music, from the dock.

"Me too," Aspen agrees, also standing up. "But what are you going to do with the cat?"

"Calliope," I remind her. "I guess I can just leave her in here-she'll be alright, right?"

"Yes, Sawyer, she will be fine; it's a cat, not a kid," Sienna says, picking Calliope up from my bed and putting her down on the pet bed. I guess while I was in the backyard with Graham, she and Aspen unpacked all my bags from PetSmart and set everything up. They're such good people.

"If you're sure," I say, feeling anxious. I mean, I just got her, I don't want to leave her already. "Do you know if Beckett's coming?" I ask Aspen.

"I hadn't asked him, but I'm sure he will," She replies as the three of us leave my room. "I doubt he wants to be alone in the house with the cat."

"Calliope," I reiterate. "Her name is Calliope."

"Yeah, but that is a really hard name though."

"It isn't, you're just simple-minded," I argue.

"And you're mean-how are we even friends?"

"I've been asking myself the same question for the past eight years or so," Aspen tells me and when we get to the living room, there's Beckett, lying on the couch, watching TV. "Hey, Beckett, do you want to come to the graduation with us?" She asks him.

"That depends," He says, sounding all stuffy, like he's getting a cold or the flu or something. "Where's the cat at?"

"She's up in my room," I interject, checking the time on my phone-6:00, but graduation doesn't start until 7:00.

"In that case, yes, I do want to come to graduation with you guys," He says, jumping up from the couch and pulling a black hoodie. "Let's go."

"Are you sure you're going to be okay?" I ask my poor big brother as we leave the house, getting into my car.

"Yeah, I'm gonna be fine," He promises me from the backseat, where he and Aspen decided they wanted to sit. "I'm moving out soon anyway."

"Moving out?" I echo, backing out of the driveway and heading down the residential road, headed towards the Scotts Arena, where the graduation will be held. My school is just so unnecessary complex; this entire thing could really just be held inside the gym. "Moving out where?"

"To an apartment," Beckett explains. "I mean, I'm almost twenty-two years old and in the fall I'll be a senior in college; it's time for me to leave."

"Well, that's really good," I tell my brother. I mean, I'll miss his company, I guess, but it'll be nice for food to last longer since he won't be at the house all day long anymore, eating just because he can. "Mom is going to be so lonely though; we should find her a boyfriend," I suggest then.

"Mom's too old for a boyfriend," Beckett tells me. "Besides, the whole thought of Mom, like, going on dates and stuff is creepy and disgusting."

"It's not creepy and disgusting, Beckett; it's cute," I sigh, looking at him in the rearview mirror and rolling my eyes.

"You and I have very different ideas of what the definition of the word 'cute' is then, baby sister," He quietly laughs.

✿✿✿✿✿✿

"Now I know why I never come to graduations," I sigh an hour and a half later.

"How come?" Aspen queries from where she's sitting on my left side.

"They take too long-we've been here nearly two hours and they're only on B's."

"But they're so fun though," Aspen says. "Like, it's just so beautiful."

"It'd be more beautiful if they'd just get on to the C's so I can see my boyfriend."

"I think you just don't like other people's happiness," Aspen tells me.

"It's just that I don't particularly care if that person isn't close to me," I defend.

"Well, they're starting on the C's now, so it won't be long," Sienna says.

I hadn't realized until we got to the graduation a little bit ago just how many seniors my school actually has. I guess that's probably why they hold the graduations here at the arena every year rather than at the actual school-there's no way all of the graduates and their family could comfortably fit in my school's gym or amphitheater. I guess it isn't too bad though-the valedictorian and salutatorian both had nice speeches and even the principal's speech wasn't too annoying. Also, Graham, who has been pretending all day that he's not over the moon about the fact that he's graduating, has been texting me the whole time. Being on your phone is prohibited, but there's really nothing anyone can do about it.

"This is ridiculous," Halden sighs, taking his own maroon cap off of his head. "My graduation was literally, like, forty-five minutes," He tells us.

Volcom's graduation was today, just a little while ago, actually, and apparently as soon as it was over, Halden raced here to the Scotts Arena so that he could see Graham graduation, which was pretty sweet of him, I think. He's a good guy-I'm glad that Graham's got a friend like him. I recently found out that he, Halden, is going to Kansas State this fall, which is where Graham decided he's going to go, so they'll be together then too, which is nice; if I can't be there with him, I'm glad Halden will be.

Anyway, when we first got to the graduation, Halden was the first person I saw, but he wasn't alone. He was with, wait for it...Ava. Ava, if you don't remember, is my friend from the psychiatric ward, or, as I affectionately nicknamed it, the crazy center. I was only there for a few days back in December when my mother was convinced that I'd tried to kill myself and Tom was trying to ruin my life, so they had me committed. This is the first time I've seen her since Dr. Fontana got me released early back in January, but she's surprisingly still the same. She still swears a lot, still complains a lot, and still outright tells people what she's thinking. She's out of the psych ward, so that's good; I guess she passed her mental evaluation she told me about and now she lives with her grandmother.

The adorable thing though is that she and Halden are apparently a thing now. I've decided that I'll call them Hava. I always thought that Halden and Sienna would be a cute couple, but she's with Vince and he's with Ava, so I guess I'll never know. It's pretty crazy though, Ava and Halden actually dating each other-he's just so random and weird and Ava's just so insane and bitter. But I do have to admit, they are pretty adorable.

They're sitting on the row in front of Beckett, Aspen, Sienna, Jason and Piper (who we met up with), and me. Then on the row right behind us are the Cambridges, who are so incredibly happy right now that I think when they call Graham's name, they might all start crying. Well, aside from Jackson. I don't think he gets it-I've heard him ask Cassidy at five times what the point of this was and why Graham is wearing a "dress."

"Well, Volcom is a snooty school," Sienna reminds Halden. "It's not like they let that many people in." It's true-there was only like 40 graduates.

"Ooh!" Cassidy excitedly exclaims. "Graham's row is going up to the stage! Look at him, he looks so handsome! I think I'm gonna cry," She says.

"Just don't get too excited," Tucker warns her from where he's sitting right beside her. "We wouldn't want you going into early labor," He adds.

"I would love to go into early labor," She disagrees with a scoff. "Like, being pregnant is the absolutely worse thing ever. I mean, obviously, I'm happy about the fact that we're having a baby-like, there's literally going to be a tiny human composed of our DNA; that's insanely cool, but I literally hate being pregnant. I always have to pee and I'm hungry all the time and I've spent well over a thousand dollars on maternity clothes and my feet always hurt and my back always hurt and my boobs have gotten, like, a full cup size bigger, and everything about it just sucks and I just hate it," Cassidy rambles. "Don't take that the wrong way though, Natalie, I love you so, so, so much and I can't wait to meet you," She says and I realize that she's talking to the baby, a habit she's recently picked up on. I thought it was weird at first, but apparently the baby can hear you and the voice of their mother soothes them and helps them form a bond.

"I'm confused," Jackson sighs. "I though the stork brought the baby?" He queries.

"The stork does bring the baby," Georgina assures Jackson.

"Then why is Cassidy so fat now?" Jackson asks innocently.

"Excuse you?" Cassidy replies. "I am not fat; I have a baby growing inside of me."

"Well, that's really nasty," Jackson decides. "How does it get out then?" He asks.

"Hey, look, they're almost at Graham!" Sienna exclaims, obviously trying to change the subject.

We all direct our attention back towards the screen then, waiting for the literal only person we came to this stupid graduation for.

"Sutton Olivia Cadence," Rousseau, Jamestown's principal, says into the microphone as the Olivia person walks across the stage and shakes a bunch of hands, gets her filler paper, and poses for a picture. "Emma Katelyn Caldwell," The principal says, reading the next person's name over all of the applause that's about as much as Olivia got. The girl does the same thing as Olivia did and then there's Graham, standing in line, waiting to be called next. He has this nonchalant look on his face, like graduating from high school is no big deal, when really it's like being in prison and finding out that after four years, you're finally being set free. "Graham Andrew Cambridge."

Everyone starts clapping then and I immediately hop up from my seat and start clapping as loudly as I possibly can, even though it hurts my hands, and whistling and blowing on my noisemaker (you're apparently not supposed to bring those, but don't really care) and just being the support girlfriend that I strive to be.

I've got nothing on Sienna though, who literally jumps up out of the chair and stands in it and starts jumping up and down screaming "Yay Graham!" She just gets so excited over stuff like this and seeing as how close she and Graham are, I'm not even surprised by her theatrics. Even Cassidy, seven months pregnant and all, is up on her feet, jumping around all excitedly, even though Tucker keeps telling to chill out before baby Natalie "falls right out" of her. Aspen and Piper and Jason and Tucker and Georgina and Halden and Ava are up on their feet too, but they're not going crazy like Sienna and Cassidy. Even Beckett is clapping, which is surprising, because ever since Graham and I made up after our Spring Break quasi-break up, I've kind of been getting this vibe that he doesn't like Graham-like, he's pretty much always rude to him now.

After Graham walks across the stage and shakes the people's hands and gets hit picture snapped, he gets back with his line of people and together they walk back to their row and sit down. It's so uniform and cool and I just can't wait until next year when it's me down there in the cap and gown. I don't much care for graduation itself, but getting a diploma and officially being done with that place will just make me so happy.

When Mrs. Rousseau calls the next person's name David Christian or something, we stop our antics and sit back down like the civilized people we are. Then it gets really annoying again and I'm ready to go because it took them this long to get to the Graham and his last name literally starts with the third letter of the alphabet, so I can only imagine how long the remaining twenty-three letters will take. I can't just leave though, because that would just be so rude. So I groan and pull my phone out before propping my feet up on the rail in front of me, waiting for the end.

It takes two and a half hours after that, but finally the ceremony ends up with the principal telling the seniors to move their tassels to the other side, before congratulating the on making it this far and wishing them good luck in the real world. Then they all go crazy and start dancing as the traditional graduation march music starts playing overhead. Man, it must be the literal best feeling in the world to be released from prison.

When it's all over, everyone starts filing out, looking for whatever graduate it is they're here to support. Jason and Piper tell us to send Graham their congratulations and then they leave, because I guess they've got something to be up early for in the morning. Beckett and Aspen have to leave too, but I think it's just because they don't want to stick around, not because they've got something to do tomorrow, so they tell me to pass their salutations and then head on out after I hand them my keys. The rest of us, Sienna, Halden, Ava, Georgina, Jackson, Cassidy, Tucker, and I, walk around the arena together, looking for Graham, but when there are 500 of them, dressed in the same thing, it's kind of hard to find him.

It takes a good ten minutes or so, but I finally spot Graham talking with some boys who I think were on the football team with him. I take off running then, which is kind of a big deal, because I don't run, over to him and when I reach him, I throw my arms round him and he picks me up and spins me around and it's cute and adorable and grossly cliché.

"Congrats on being released from prison," I chirp when he puts me down and is promptly attacked with hugs from his mom and sister-in-law.

"It really wasn't that bad," He laughs. "I don't know why you hate high school so much-it was, without a doubt, the best four years of my life."

"You can say that again," Halden says, doing the handshake-hug with Graham that boys always do, but no one actually knows what it's called.

"High school is a lot of things, but fun is definitely not one of the," I disagree, because I'm obviously right and Halden and Graham are obviously wrong. Granted, their high school experience has been a whole heck of a lot better than mine thus far-they're popular, attractive, and athletic.

"Oh, little brother-in-law, I am so proud of you!" Cassidy exclaims, hugging Graham yet again and looking like she's incredibly close to tears. Whether or not that's because she's just that proud of Graham or if it's just the pregnancy. These past few months, the farther into her pregnancy she gets, her emotions have been all out of whack-it's kind of scary, actually.

"Thanks Cassidy, but it kind of freaks me out when you hug me while you're that pregnant," Graham tells her. "Baby Emma's kicking like crazy."

"I've told you that we aren't naming her Emma, Graham," Cassidy reminds him with a laugh. "Her name is Natalie. Natalie Grace Cambridge."

"Well, that's a dumb name-good luck finding that on a keychain," Graham replies, taking his cap off of his head and holding it in his hands.

"Well, you and Sawyer can name your future baby girl Emma," She suggests, making it awkward like she always does, making us both blush.

"Alright," Georgina cumbersomely laughs. "So, we made reservations at Playtime so you wouldn't ditch to party, so how about we head out?"

"Oh my God, I love Playtime! What are we waiting on? Come on, let's go!" She exclaims with a giddy look, practically running towards the exit.

"She's actually worse than a little kid in a candy shop, if that's even possible," Halden laughs, pulling his car keys out. "We better go catch up with her; she's gonna need a ride," He adds before heading in the same direction with Ava as Sienna did, telling us that he'll meet us at Playtime.

Playtime is probably the most amazing place in all of Andover and if I wasn't so broke all the time, I'd spend a whole lot more time there. It's an indoor amusement center, basically, and it's just great. They've got this huge buffet that has this different kind of food-pizza, spaghetti, salads, ice cream, banana pudding, chocolate pudding, salads, nachos, tacos, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, pretty much everything you could want and more. Aside from all of the glorious food though, which is all I really care about, they've got all of these cool stuff like go-karts and mini-golf and laser tag and bumper cars and a bunch of video game stuff. Basically it's heaven on earth and I'm actually kinda excited.

✿✿✿✿✿✿

"Oh my God, I am definitely having my eighteenth birthday party here," I announce an hour later, halfway through my third bowl of pudding.

"You're gonna make yourself sick, babe," Graham tells me from across the table.

"It'll be so worth it though," I assure him, knowing that he's probably right. Their buffet is just so beautiful though, like, I need to get a job here.

"Okay, don't come crying to me when you can't breathe because you ate too much."

"I will," I tell him, finishing the bowl of pudding. "And you will take pity on me and then you will take care of me because you love me," I state.

"This is true," Graham agrees with a small sigh. "So, you don't wanna go and play?"

"Not exactly," I admit, taking a sip of my soda. "It's your graduation party though, so if you want to play a game, I'll come with you," I explain.

"That's it," Sienna says, coming back to the table, carrying Jackson on her back. "I'm literally about to apply for a job here. I need to work here."

"Sienna, I don't like you anymore," Jackson tells her, climbing down from his back.

"You don't like me anymore?" She asks with a small chuckle. "Why? What did I do?"

"You cheated in laser tag," He explains.

"Cheated? I did not! How did I cheat?"

"You just did," Jackson shrugs, crossing his arms.

"Okay, well, we can have a rematch later, alright?"

"Okay," Jackson replies, getting down from the table and grabbing Sienna's hand. "Come on, you have to help me get food," He informs her.

"I can't believe I'm literally married to a child," Cassidy randomly says with a small giggle from a few chairs away from me, looking down at her iPhone. He keeps sending me all of these picture of him and Georgina together in the go-karts and on the bumper cars and playing mini golf."

"They are so cute," I say, because it's true. I'm so glad Georgina has been able to reconnect so well with her boys even after being away so long.

All of a sudden, Cassidy drops her phone on the table and makes this weird gasping sound and then her hand goes down to her swollen stomach.

"Cass, are you alright?" Graham asks her, sounding worried.

"No, I-I don't think so," Cassidy says. "S-something's wrong."

"Something like what?" I ask, looking down at her stomach. "Are you having cramps or something?"

"N-no, it's worse than that," She denies, shaking her head and starting to cry as she winces in pain.

Graham gets up from the table then and pulls his graduation gown off, throwing it down in a chair and walking over to Cassidy, grabbing her hand. She's crying and sweating and she looks like she's in an intense pain and I really don't know what's going on, but I'm kinda afraid for her.

"Do you need to go the hospital?" Graham asks Cassidy. "I-is it the baby? Is she coming?"

"S-she can't be coming!" Cassidy cries, shaking her head. "It's too early; I'm thirty weeks!"

"Maybe you should go to the hospital though, just to make sure everything is okay," I say.

"Y-yeah, that's probably a good idea," Graham agrees with a nod, standing up. "Okay, come on, Cass, get up; be careful," He says, helping her.

Cassidy stands up with the help of Graham and I get up from the table, going over to her other side, grabbing her other hand, just to be helpful.

"Did you pee on yourself or something?" Graham randomly asks Cassidy, looking down at the floor.

Cassidy shakes her head, looking like she's about to have a stress-induced panic attack. "N-no, my water, it just broke. I think that she's coming."

"Right now?" He queries, looking like he's the one about to have a stressed-induced panic attack now.

I spot Tucker in the distance and he waves and I motion for him to come over, which he does. When he gets closer to us, I guess he realizes that something's not right, so he takes off running over to his pregnant wife. "Oh my God, what's wrong? Cass, baby, are you okay? What's wrong?"

"Her water broke, whatever that means," Graham informs Tucker. "She needs to go to the hospital."

"Wait, but it's too early-the baby isn't supposed to be born until August. It's only June," Tucker says.

Georgina comes over then, evidently noticing the scene. She asks Cassidy a bunch of questions, if she's been having contractions or anything, which Cassidy denies. Then Georgina tells her that if her water has broken, the amniotic sac has ruptured, which means the baby is on its way.

Upon hearing that, Tucker goes into full-blown panic mode and scoops Cassidy up bridal style, which can't be easy, seeing as how pregnant she is. Then he takes off, practically running out of Playtime with us all on his trail. Sienna and Jackson are getting food, but when they see Graham, Georgina, and I sprinting, Sienna realizes something is happening and grabs Jackson, following behind.

✿✿✿✿✿✿

"Is Cassidy and Tucker's baby gonna be okay?" Jackson asks two hours later in the maternity wing waiting room.

"Yeah, she is gonna be fine, buddy," Graham tells Jackson, even though he obviously doesn't know that for sure.

We got to the hospital a couple of hours ago and this entire time, we've been sitting in the waiting room, just, well, waiting, for any information. Georgina and Tucker are with Cassidy right now and a couple of minutes ago, Tucker texted Graham and told him that Cassidy's obstetrician is inducing labor because her contractions haven't started. Apparently though since the amniotic sac has ruptured, the baby is susceptible to all of these germs and bacteria and stuff, so they're going to have to deliver and do it quick. I'm so afraid for Cassidy and Tucker though because, like I said, she's only seven months-obviously a baby being born this early isn't safe.

"So, the story brings the baby here?" Jackson wonders.

"He sure does," Sienna nods, pulling him onto her lap.

"That's stupid," He laughs. "Why doesn't the stork just bring the baby to the house?"

"Because that's too much work," Sienna explains. "And that would take way longer."

"I want ice cream," Jackson announces, randomly changing the subject.

"You know what? So do I," She states. "Come on, let's go and get some."

So Jackson and Sienna leave and then it's just me and Graham. Graham looks stressed out and I don't want him to be stressed, so I try to tell him that everything is going to be okay and that Natalie is going to be born totally healthy, but he doesn't believe me, I don't think. I tell him then that it happens all the time on Grey's and most of the time the parents end up getting to take their premature baby home after a few days.

About thirty minutes pass before we get any news and when we do, it's via Tucker, who walks into the room and sits down beside his brother.

"How are Cassidy and the baby?" He asks.

"Good," Tucker nods with a grin. "Great, actually. She was born at 10:32, four pounds, six ounces. Cassidy held her for a few minutes and then she fell asleep, so she's resting right now, which is good-it was a tough delivery. But man, Natalie, she's so small. Like, she literally is the size of a cantaloupe. The doctor let me hold her for a couple of minutes and I was scared out of my mind, dude. She's so little; I thought I was going to break her. She's so cute though-looks just like Cass. She has these big blue eyes and a headful of blonde hair. They took her away, put her in the NICU in an incubator. Apparently she's too little to regulate her body temperature on her own, so they had to put her in there. Dr. Wagner says that she's doing well though, a lot better than she expected, considering the fact that she's like eight weeks premature," Tucker informs us.

"That's good," Graham tells her with a sigh of relief. "That's really good, man. I'm glad they're both going to be okay. So, you're happy right?"

"Yeah, I'm really happy," Tucker nods again. "I-I didn't think that it was possible to love anyone as much, if not more, than I love Cassidy, but...man, I was wrong. Natalie, she's so little and she's so perfect and I see me in her and I love her. I love her a lot. And I know I don't know the first thing about being a dad, but I'm excited," He gushes. "I asked Dr. Wagner if I could bring you guys to see her, but I guess they don't let people in the NICU if they aren't the parents," Tucker tells us. "I took some pictures though-look," He says then, handing Graham is cell phone.

"She kind of looks like a potato," Graham randomly says, showing me the picture.

"Don't call my baby a potato," Tucker scowls Graham, thumping him on the head.

"She's a cute potato," I assure Tucker, laughing lightly. "She's gonna break hearts."

"Not for a long time though," Tucker says. "I'm gonna make sure that she's, like, at least, thirty before she even starts thinking about dating."

"You sound like Sawyer's brother," Graham chuckles, handing Tucker his phone. "But no, she's gorgeous. Still should've named her Emma."

"What is your obsession with the name Emma?" Tucker wonders.

"It's nice and pretty hard to misspell and pretty easy to pronounce."

"Yeah, but so is 'Natalie'," Tucker defends, standing up from his seat. "Anyway, they only let two people stay in the room, so me and mom are gonna stay. If you guys want to take off, you can. I think they said that visiting hours start at 8 o'clock, you can come see her then, if you want."

"We'll be here," I assure Tucker. It's dumb that they don't let people that aren't the parents in the NICU, but at least we'll get to see her tomorrow.

"We'll try to be here," Graham corrects. "That's pretty early to get up, especially now that I'm a high school graduate," He jokingly tells Tucker.

"It's ridiculous, really, how lazy you are," Tucker chuckles. "Well, if not in the morning, I'll see you sometime tomorrow," He says before leaving.

Graham and I take off them, on our way to the cafeteria to get Jackson and Sienna so that we can leave. I decide then that I'm going to stay the night at Graham's house. For some reason, my mom has been a lot more lax on that whole thing, which is nice, but weird because in the beginning she was so against the idea. I think that she's probably just now realized though that she can trust me and Graham to be responsible.

As we're walking towards the elevators that'll take us down to the floor level where the cafeteria is, we talk about little baby Natalie. I talk about how I can't wait to see her in person and how I can't wait to babysit her all the time and Graham talks about how thankful he is that the room Tucker and Cass designated as the nursery is not only downstairs, but on the opposite end of the house so he won't have to deal with the crying.

When we reach the elevators, my phone starts ringing in my pocket and I pull it out, glancing down at the display. It's almost 11 o'clock p.m. and the only people I talk to are either asleep or here in the hospital, so I don't know why anyone would be calling me. I don't recognize the number, I don't think, but I decide to answer anyway, just for the heck of it.

"Hello?" I chirpily answer, getting onto the opening elevator with Graham.

"Sawyer, hi," The voice, which I immediately place as Serena's voice, says.

Serena, if you don't remember, is my one of my family's two lawyers, the other being her husband, Tyler. I haven't talked to either of them since Flynn's court date back in February and I don't know why she'd be calling, especially this late. It dawns on me that something must be wrong.

"Hi Serena," I reply, trying to keep my breathing even. I'm sure everything's fine. Serena and Tyler do a lot of international travel-maybe they're in England and it's morning there and she's just calling to say hello.

"I'm sorry for calling so late, but there's something I thought you'd like to know."

"Is everything alright?" I bluntly ask her, feeling all anxious. "Are we being sued?"

"You're not being sued," She assures me. "But, um, don't freak out, okay? Please."

"I'm gonna freak out if you don't tell me," I mumble. "Serena, please, just say it."

"Okay," Serena says, clearing her throat. "Well, it's about Flynn."

Author's Note:

1. GUYS THERE'S ONLY ONE CHAPTER LEFT OMG. Predictions for the last chapter? What do you think that Serena has to tell Sawyer about Flynn? And you know now that Graham and Halden will be going to Kansas State University in the fall (twenty-two hours away from Massachusetts where Sawyer's gonna be, btw). Do you think that they can handle the distance?

2. Thoughts? On Sawyer's new kitten, Calliope? On Graham's Promposal? On Halden and Ava's reappearance and the fact that they're in a relationship? On Baby Natalie?

3. Song: Kiss Me Slowly by Parachute

4. This chapter is dedicated to @qualifications because I loved her comment on the previous chapter the most.

5. So, I'm currently looking for a prom dress for Sawyer and I've found two so far that I like, but I want more options. So, if you happen to come across pretty prom dress pictures and want to send them to me via e-mail ([email protected]) that'd be super cool. And the person who sends the dress that I like the most will get the next (and final) chapter dedicated to them. If you don't want to e-mail it though, you can just send me the link in a private message here on Wattpad, Twitter, Tumblr, whatever. You can find those links on my profile.

6. Story time: So, I finished writing this chapter a few days ago, the day of my AP exam and my plan was to post it then, but I didn't have time to go to the library, so I couldn't. Then, this morning, I went to the library to post it, but when I opened my laptop, it was like "Updating Your Computer. Do Not Turn Your Computer Off." And I was like "wtf?" and so I got super annoyed because it was taking all day and just turned my laptop off and then it was messed up for like six hours but I fixed it and all is well and I'm out of town, sitting in another McDonald's parking lot to post. Lol @ my sad life.