Written in the stars *COMPLETE*

Xander

     The grand opening of my mom's coffee shop was wildly successful. All of her friends came along with Juliette's family and other people we knew. We had people of all ages coming in and ordering drinks and snacks. I wasn't surprised. My mom had done an incredible job advertising the shop. At first, it was just my mom, Juliette, and I serving people, but as the summer continued, the workload got to be too much, and my mom started hiring college kids that were home for the summer or had just graduated.

     And so that was the rest of our summer. Juliette and I worked, and when we weren't doing that, we would hang out with our friends, or mentally prepare ourselves for senior year. Speaking of senior year, there was now less than four months until my dad came home in the middle of November. He had started sending letters more frequently, updating us on what he was doing and how soon he would be able to come home. Everyone was very excited. I hadn't spent a Christmas with my father since elementary school. He had come home many times since then but it was always in the summer and not really near any holiday at all. It wasn't great timing for me because I hadn't had a father pretty much all through high school and I wasn't sure how I felt about relinquishing the independence that came with being the only guy in my house but I knew that going through middle and high school with two parents was going to be amazing for Jenny.

     When school started, Juliette and I continued to work, but had to take fewer shifts to keep up with school work. It was so weird to think about how a lot of the things I would do this year would be "lasts". Last homecoming dance. Last school assembly. Last year of high school. The only last that occupied my mind, for now, was the possibility of the last date with Juliette. We hadn't discussed where we were planning on going to college, or even if we were going to stay together. I had no idea if she wanted to stay together after high school or not, and that was scaring me. I kept wanting to bring it up but no time seemed right until a shift we worked together in early September.

"Hey Juliette, do you have any idea where you are wanting to go to college?"

"I was actually hoping you were going to bring that up."

"You were?"

"Yeah, I've been thinking about college a lot recently."

"I mean it only makes sense. It is senior year after all."

"I'm not really sure where I want to go yet."

"Well, that's not really why I asked."

"What do you mean?"

"Do you think we will stay together? After high school?"

     Juliette had been wiping down tables, getting ready to close for the night. I was washing dishes. She walked back over to where I was and put the rag she was holding on the counter.

"I don't know. The school year has barely started. You never know what might happen. We might break up before the school year is even over."

     That wasn't the response that I wanted but I guess she had a point. We didn't know what was to happen in the coming year but I really couldn't think of any reason that we would break up.