Crazy,Awkward,Sweet

Highland Hopes

My bags were packed, my flight was booked, and I had silently transferred my transcripts back to Miami. Dad and Tara didn't talk about my leaving much. No one really said anything at home. My friends didn't mention it either...well except Ezra.

He had proposed to me about five times, convinced that if we eloped, I'd have no other choice but to stay in Michigan. However, I turned him down gently...or as gently as a girl like me could.

Nate didn't know yet, I didn't really know how to bring it up. I had chased him away, and told him to only come back when he made things with Darcy right. I know it sounds ridicules, but on paper it was the right thing to do. I was just a girl who had filled in for the main love interest in his life. I was no more than a minor obstacle in the story of Nate and Darcy. I had bowed out. I had told him to make the right choice. I did the right thing.

At least that what I kept telling myself.

"You're thinking about something." Laurel noted, sitting up on my bed. I blinked and glanced up from the floor, where I was sorting out a few books I would leave behind. "I know that look, and something is going on up there."

I feigned a smile and shook my head. "I'm just really going to miss this place."

Laurel glanced around my room, at what remained of my bare walls. Everything that was coming back to Miami with me was packed and downstairs. Everything else remained in my room, except it didn't feel like my room anymore. It was just a room with four walls, and two girls who were strangers just a few months ago. "This place is going to be a bore without you." she mumbled. "The schemes will leave with you, and your legacy here will be gone too."

"I'm sure Ezra, Reese, and Pj will keep the rest of you on your toes. My legacy isn't my schemes, it's what those schemes did, what they did for all of us. It brought us together. That's my legacy." I said proudly, "You guys are going to be okay."

"I hope you're right about that."

"Have I ever been wrong?" I smirked. Laurel stared at me flatly, and opened her mouth to answer when I stopped her short. "Never mind, don't answer that." I added quickly.

"Have you told lover boy yet?" She asked, knowing full and well I hadn't. It was her subtle way of telling me to man up. However, I would have preferred to be stranded on a deserted island with Sadie as my only savior, than have to say goodbye to Nate.

"We both know, I didn't." I answered, turning away from her.

"What's stopping you? Nate deserves to know you're leaving more than anyone else. What happened to you two? I thought things were going great with you guys, and then suddenly out of the blue, he's the outsider again, and you're not doing anything about it." Laurel wondered aloud, staring at me with a scrutinizing glare.

Reese was the only who knew I had rejected Nate. They didn't know I had pushed him away, because Darcy deserved that much. Or that I told him to stay away until he figured out whatever he needed to know about his relationship with her.

"He told me he loved me."I said with a dismissive shrug, "I told him he loved Darcy, he got mad. Then I told him I loved him too, but he needed to figure out his feelings for Darcy." I explained.

Laurel sat up in my bed and stared at me blankly. Then she grabbed the nearest pillow and launched it towards my face. I narrowly missed it, and barely glared at her, when another pillow successfully smacked me in the head. "Ow!" I cried out.

"You deserve a lot worse, for being a complete idiot!" she snapped at me. I gasped, and threw the pillow back at her. Laurel caught it in her hands before it could hit her, and smiled at me smugly.