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Fifteen

I squeezed her hand gently. "Only for you, and I know you hate horror movies."

My girl.

-

"Where are you going?" my mom asked me as I walked into the kitchen. "Melissa, Charles, and a few other of our friends are coming over for dinner. I think they're bringing Jill."

I grabbed my keys off the hook. "Sounds interesting, but I'm going to Ryan's to hang out for a little while."

"You two have been spending a lot of time together." she mentioned as she put together a charcuterie board.

I shrugged. "What do you care? We're coming back here tomorrow to work on our project, so please don't be an ass."

"Please." I begged her.

She put her hands in the air. "I'll be on my best behavior."

I roll my eyes. "I'm leaving."

I walked out of my house and started the drive to the Garcia-Giudice household. There were cars parked in the driveway and up and down the street.

"Brennan!" Maria exclaimed as she opened the door.

She pulled me into a hug. "I feel like I haven't seen you in forever."

It was so nice to be loved by her and Miguel.

"I feel the same." I smiled at her.

"I know my Ry is excited to see you. Every time she comes back from being with you, she's always smiling and skipping around." Maria informed me. 

She let me into their house that was filled with pink balloons, food, and I could hear the music coming from outside.

"Oh I remember you." a woman with jet black hair and tan skin asked. "Ryan's not boyfriend?"

I chuckled. "How could I ever forget Tia Ramona?"

She got up from her chair and gave me a hug. 

"You have a good memory." she complimented me. "Are you two crazy kids doing anything for Valentine's Day?"

"Hi, Brennan!" Ryan jumped into the conversation. "All of the partyers are outside by the fire pit roasting marshmallows." 

"I was just asking him what you guys were doing for valentine's day." her aunt shrugged.

Ryan rolled her eyes. "We have practice for that debutante thing and then we have to finish a project for school. Dreamy, right?"

She looked down at the gift bag in my hand. "Is that for Logan? Do you want to go give it to her now?"

Someone was obviously uncomfortable. 

"Yeah." I decided. "Nice seeing you again, Ramona."

Ryan led me to the backyard and where ten sophomores were sitting around a fire. There was music playing off a speaker and marshmallows roasting.

"Brennan!" Logan jumped up from her chair.

"Happy birthday." I gave her a hug. "I saw the new set of wheels."

She smiled and nodded her head. "I'm so excited. I get to drive myself to school, tennis practice, the mall, all those fun places. Ryan isn't the best driver."

Ryan scoffed. "I grew up in the city! What did you expect? To be fair, you had way more time to learn and perfect the skill of driving."

"Excuses, excuses." Logan rolled her eyes. "Thank you for the gift."