goodnight, stranger

eighteen

key

olly
ash
winnie
alayna

•••

But maybe every forever has an end.

Olly and Ash's forever ended with Winnie coming home.

In her defense, it was almost two in the afternoon. Olly and Ash had gotten home around two in the morning, gone to sleep around three, woken up at nine, spent about half an hour exchanging sleepy kisses, and had spent the rest of the morning snoozing.

Still, there was no reason for Winnie to be so loud coming into the apartment.

"I'm home!" she yelled for the fourth time, and Olly groaned lowly, wrapping his arms righter around Ash and burying his face in his hair.

"Maybe she'll go away if we're quiet," Ash mumbled sleepily, turning in his arms to face Olly.

As much as they hoped that would be the case, it wasn't long before Winnie was knocking on his bedroom door. Olly groaned again and curled into Ash as the door creaked open.

"I heard you talking," Winnie said flatly after a long moment of stillness from the boys. "Olly. It's two in the afternoon. You need to get up."

"No I don't," Olly countered stubbornly, his voice still thick with sleep.

"Well, Ash needs to get home, at the very least." Winnie folded her arms over her chest. "Alayna needs you at home."

"No she doesn't," Ash mumbled, and Olly could feel Winnie rolling her eyes.

"She needs help getting ready for her job interview. I'm going back over there, so I can drive you, but you gotta hurry."

Ash stiffened a little bit under Olly's touch. "Oh, God."

Olly couldn't hold back the disappointed sigh that bubbled in his chest when Ash slipped out of his grip. "Sorry, Olly," he said sheepishly. "Alayna has a job interview tomorrow morning, and I've been helping her out a little bit. I told her we could practice one more time before the interview, and..." He trailed off, stooping ober to pick up his tuxedo, which had been recklessly abandoned last night in favor for the tee shirt and shorts that he was still wearing. Olly was definitely staring. The combination of the clothes and the bedhead and the sleepy eyes was too much for him.

Ash turned around. "I'll go to the bathroom and change back into my tux, and—"

Olly furrowed his eyebrows, cutting him off. "Why do you need to change?"

"I wanna give you your clothes back." Ash looked at him like he'd grown a second head. "Why else?"

"You can keep the clothes for a while," Olly murmured, burrowing back into his warm cavern of blankets. "I don't want you to have to change back in that suit and then just take it off again as soon as you're home."

Ash stood there for a moment, contemplating, before finally smiling a little. "Okay. Thanks."

"Be safe on your way home," Olly murmured. and Ash returned to the side of the bed to kiss him softly. Olly's eyes fell shut again.

"Your breath is terrible," Ash chuckled when they pulled away, and Olly playfully rolled his eyes.

"As if you're any better."

Ash laughed and waved him off, and they exchanged one more smile before Ash turned around to walk out the door. After a few minutes, Olly heard the door to his apartment open and close again, and an eerie quiet settled over the place. Olly sighed and burrowed his face into his pillow.

What harm could a few more hours of sleep do?

•••

The next few weeks of school came and went at a snail's pace for Olly. Between work and school, it should have flown by, but each class and every shift dragged on until Olly was sure he was losing his mind.

Every day left him anxious to see Ash again. With final exams rapidly approaching, neither of them really had the time to meet up and talk, and even their texts were becoming a bit scarce. He missed him. A lot.

But he pushed through until finals. He even managed to put together a few study sessions for him and Ash. They were always productive to a point, but they would eventually get mind-numbingly bored and move on to other things. Most of the time, they would play imitation games, trying to act like someone else until both of them were breaking down with laughter on the couch in Olly's apartment.

Their sessions would always end with kisses on the couch, too, but Olly wouldn't talk about that.

Eventually, though, finals ended, and graduation was right around the corner. Olly went to school early on the last day of school to walk around the familiar, winding hallways, his eyes drinking up as much as he could. As shitty as his overall high school experience had been, it was still all he'd known for four years. And he'd made some good memories here, too.

Two weeks after the last day of school, Olly was graduating, and t was such a surreal experience, to walk up on stage in front of tons of people to receive his diploma, his heart stirring with uncertainty. He was taking a gap year before going to college, but he really had no idea what he wanted to do for a living, and he'd have to figure it out eventually.

His worries didn't last long, though. Ash admitted that, against his parents wishes, he was also planning on taking a gap year. Olly's chest stirred with excitement.

(14:35) you're taking a gap year too???

(14:36) Wait, you're taking one??

(14:36) WAIT!!!!

(14:36) DUDE WINNIE IS MOVING OUT TO GO TO NYU WITH HER SISTER

(14:36) IM GONNA HAVE THE APARTMENT TO MYSELF WE COULD BE ROOMMATES

(14:37) ........And they were roommates.

(14:38) oh my god

(14:38) do you wanna be my roommate or not

(14:38) YES PLEASE

Olly grinned down at his phone. A sense of calm relief fell over him. He didn't have everything figured out. He was still worried about his future, and he was going to miss Winnie more than he could even put into words, and he still missed his mom and his sister more and more every day. But he had a stunning boyfriend to spend at least another year with, and a job that gave him just enough income to keep a nice apartment, and a high school diploma and a GPA that could probably get him into a good handful of schools.

As Olly and Ash texted away, making a list of places to travel together over the next year, he couldn't help but think that his life was pretty damn good.

•••

that!! is the end of this story!!!

i'm sorry this isn't the best ending but i couldn't figure out how else i wanted to end it

i had another idea i kinda wanted to include but it really wasn't working out so this story is coming to an end uwu

thank you so much for reading!!!!