Hallelujah

chapter sixty-seven // epilogue

Alright, here it is. The finally chapter of Hallelujah. Thank you all so much for reading this story. it truly means the world to me. I originally didn't want to post this chapter tonight but i honestly just could not wait. So without further ado, i present, the epilogue of Alexandria White.

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5 YEARS FORWARD

"Alexandria! Alex! Wake up! You're going to be late and it's only your first week!" I heard Hannah banging against my door. She stayed over at my place last night because Dallon said he wanted to surprise her with something at home. Plus, I needed some time with her again.

"I'm awake!" I yelled back. She walked away and down the hall. I reluctantly rolled out of bed and changed into my work clothes. I just wore a pair of blue jeans and a semi-nice flowy top. I combed through my mess of hair and put on some light makeup, nothing drastic, it was only work.

I grabbed my phone from the nightstand and checked the time.

"Holy shit!" I yelled as I sprinted into the kitchen. Hannah was making a pot of coffee and offered me some as I frantically tied my shoes. "Thanks for the offer Han but its almost 8 already! I'm going to be late!" I said running out the door and into my car.

"Have a good-" Hannah called but was cut off by me slamming the door. I started up my rusty old car, she was an old one but she was trustworthy. She lasted all through high-school and college. As I started my way on the highway I saw a Starbucks sign and immeditaly regretted not grabbing coffee from home because I knew I would need some in order to stay awake. I swerved into the exit lane and quickly found a parking spot.

"I'll have an iced Carmel mocha, large, please," I said out of breath. The barista behind the counter started making me drink and I paid her quickly allowing her to keep whatever change I had as a tip.

So five years, you would think a lot has changed in those years but not really. Let me give you a little fill in. Everyone was kind of the same. Hannah and Dallon were still madly in love, in fact, they were married. They got married about two years ago, the wedding was really hard on Dallon because he had always planned on having Brendon as his best man, but Ryan stood up to the task and did a wonderful job. Shortly after their wedding Hannah announced she was pregnant, with a little girl. She was born a few months later and they named her Elizabeth, Lizzy for short, or as Dallon calls her "the love of his life." Hannah moved out from my apartment and moved into a house in the suburbs with Dallon and Lizzy. They were a cute little family. Dallon was really pursuing music and Hannah is doing something huge in the fashion industry, I would tell you what it was but honestly, I don't know.

Pete and Patrick moved out to Chicago with their friends from Summerville North to pursue their music. They all started by living in one small apartment together, but eventually they all got their own. They were doing fairly well. They were constantly emailing me new tracks they were working on, and they mailed me merch all the time, most of my closet consisted of Fall Out Boy shirts and Sweaters now. From time to time I would hear their songs on the radio and it would warm my heart and bring me back to all the days we spent in Ryan's basement listening to Pete and Patrick fuck around on their instruments.

Oh, and Ryan. Ryan was a mess for a good two years after the accident, he didn't talk to anyone, and he didn't even show up to the funeral. No one saw anything from him until about three years ago when he came over to my house one day because he wanted to show me a song he wrote. He called it Camisado and he was disappointed in the way it sounded with only him and his acoustic guitar, he said it didn't sound right because it didn't have Brendon's voice. Recently Ryan has been better though, he comes over often and we'll just sit and talk, or sometimes we'll play board games. Ryan was the closest thing to family I had.

Speaking of family, my mother, remember the evil and controlling bitch. I went back to see if she was doing alright when I went to her house and knocked on the door some other woman answered. Apparently my mom had moved out almost four years ago now and Katie went off to live with my dad. All I could do was pray that Katie was doing alright, and that she was living her life.

I guess all that's left to talk about is me. Well it would be a lie to say I'm doing just fine. I haven't been okay for five years now, and I never will be. I'm 23 now almost 24, living on my own in LA. I finished college last year, my graduation was on the fourth year anniversary of Brendon's death. Instead of going out with my college friends to get drunk and party and celebrate finally being done, I spent the night sitting by his grave. As much as I didn't want to be that person that went and visited all the time, sometimes it was just the only place I could go to feel okay. It was like every time I went to visit he was there next to me. A part of me wanted to believe that it was all a big prank pulled by the biggest prankster I had ever known but even I knew that was too unreal. When my days started getting dark, or hard to get through I would just go and sit and talk to him for hours, and it felt like he was listening.

Since Brendon's death, no one has heard or seen anything of or about Spencer. So it was easy to say that we were living a Spencer free life. Even with that weight off my shoulders there was still the weight of never being able to hold Brendon again. But enough with the sad stuff and back to the real life stuff.

I pulled into the closest parking spot I could find and ran into the building. I power walked down the hallways and into the classroom to find all of the kids already in their spots.

"Good morning class, I'm sorry I'm running late, but I am here now!" I announced to my class of second graders.

"Hello Miss Alexandria," they all called out to me.

"Alright," I said as I set my bag down behind my desk and took out some papers. I started to teach the lesson on adding double digit numbers and answered the same questions from the kids probably four or five times. When it came time to work on science I decided to give them work time with partners. We were in the middle of our rainforest unit and their project was to create an animal that could live in our classrooms rainforest.

My phone started ringing so I answered quietly trying not to let the kids see me.

"Hello?" I asked.

"Alex? Can you do me a favor, please?" Josh said dragging out the 'e.'

"What is it?" I asked annoyed.

"Can you please, pick Jackson up from daycare? I just know I'm going to be running late!" he said begging.

"Yes, of course I can. Pick him up from my house when you get back into town?" I asked.

"Thank you so so so so so so so so much Alex! I owe you one!" he said hanging up. I set my phone down and continued grading the kids spelling tests.

Jackson was Josh's nephew, he wasn't blood related, just through a friendship. Josh and I were kind of close again, I certainly wasn't as close with him as he was with his friend Tyler. Tyler was Jackson's dad. Tyler and Jenna had somehow trusted Josh to take care of Jackson, a three year old boy, while they went on vacation together. Either way Jackson knew me and I was sure there would be no problem with him hanging out with me after school.

My phone started to ring again and this time I dismissed myself from the class since I figured it was Josh again and I knew it wasn't polite to swear in-front of second graders. When I looked at my phone the name read "Unknown." Reluctantly I answered it and took a deep breath.

"Um, hello?" I asked. I expected to hear some kids voice, since I was a teacher I got a lot of prank calls, but I was sent into shock from the voice I heard.

"Alex?" they said.

"Oh my god, who, who is this I asked?" My voice was unstable and I felt my heartbeat speeding up.

"Alex, it's Brendon. We really need to talk."