Beg For More

Aloha

Blaze

Three weeks after Spooks was released from the hospital, we graduated high school.

And guess who walked with honors?

Both of us did.

I think that was a shocker to everyone, and even though I hated school, I brought my grades up tremendously after getting with Sapphire.

She was so proud of me when I walked across that stage and I was mesmerized by the way she graciously accepted her diploma as if she didn't deserve it.

This girl was deserving of everything good and I intended to give her the world.

Jordan didn't walk and apparently he was cutting a deal with the lawyers and bringing down Erica's dad instead. He really couldn't know what they'd be doing to Spooks, but he was still terrified and embarrassed to come around anyone anymore.

Erica obviously didn't walk and she was said to have told people her intentions were never to hurt Sapphire, but to get her away from me. Even her mayor dad mentioned that it was he who asked Chet and Lucas to bribe and blackmail Sapphire out of our lives, but not to harm her. She was rumored to be cutting a deal against her own father, even though he'd been adamant that Erica was just a wayward soul who didn't have any idea of the goings-on. There seemed to be no real evidence against her anyway.

For some reason, Spooks believed that. She believed it because Chet and Lucas were evil and she'd always seen their ways. Now? Now they were both dead and people were free from them, including Ruby and Fox.

Ruby and Fox were still Ruby and Fox, but they were trying to get help. Sapphire saw the good in her situation because it made Ruby realize what she was doing to her family.

Fucking Spooks. Always looking at the bright side of things.

Fox and Dad were actually talking for once and not being total dicks. It took our Mom and the absence of shit face Brenda for Dad to come around. We were sort of talking, but it would take more than that to get me moving. Sapphire was optimistic about my situation, of course.

Fox had to be an inpatient at the rehabilitation center, but was given a day to come see me graduate. I'd watched him graduate just six years earlier so it was nice to have him there.

My Mom and Dad were getting chummy, but time would tell how that was going to work out. Dad and I got drunk together after the warehouse incident and he'd told me that the only woman he ever loved was my mother and that broke me. I felt like if I was going to fight for the woman I loved, he should do it, too. He was slowly accepting Sapphire and I knew that meant he was seeing we brought out the best in each other and she made me happy.

Harry was still an asshole, but he'd resorted to drinking when no one was home. The girls had basically brought Linda home and all five of them confronted him about his abuse,but Linda wasn't left unscathed either. Ruby went off on her about abandoning them, but then Em and Opal went off on Ruby for her bad mothering.

I wasn't there,but I heard it was brutal. Sapphire told me that things would look up, but she was always a positive person.

Paul was back, but nothing changed there except he was helping with the kids and they divided their time between him and the Soper's.

Everyone was either going to college or working or just doing their own thing. Even Star decided to stay at the bakery for a while before heading off to her destiny.

And they did find Sapphire's car in an abandoned lot near the warehouse so that was a win.

Greg and Melissa ended up moving in together at our complex. It was interesting to watch them grow in their relationship. I had never seen Greg so smitten with a woman before until Melissa came along.