REALLY ✓

EPILOGUE

NEW YORK CITY

TAYA's POV:

"Well?" Hallee came right in, bombarding my personal space as soon as I'd stepped out of the auditorium lobby.

Her eyes were wide, full of hope and expectancy. I gave her a small, sad smile and sighed, "I didn't get in,"

"Aw, man! Are you serious? I really thought you had it in the bag. I mean, the Juilliard admission was all over you, flying you out to New York City for a damn audition too,"

"Meh, it's okay. I'll get it next time,"

It really was nice of the Juilliard Academy to fly me all the way over here for an audition into their selective conservatory program. A representative of the school saw my graduation piece at UCLA and she loved it so much, she came to me after the show to talk about the possibility of me having a future in New York City—Broadway and all that jazz.

I never even thought that something like this would be an option. So of course, I took her up on her offer and flew three thousand miles east to do the audition. Hallee was nice enough to let me stay with her in her studio apartment, and she even took the time to go with me to the audition for moral support.

"I'm really sorry, Tay. But, don't worry too much about it. If it's meant to be, it will be, that's my motto nowadays," Hallee smiled brightly.

"Wow, look at you all mature and accepting," I gave her a dry laugh.

"Breaking up with your boyfriend of four years over a long distance phone call can do that to a girl,"

"That really sucks. I really did think you guys were gonna make it. I mean, if anyone can handle long distance relationships, I figured it'd be you two,"

"Yeah, me too. But it's out of my control now. I'm letting the universe decide. Maybe someday we'll find each other again, who knows," she shrugged and sighed longingly.

I was just looking at her, and she looked back at me. Raising one eyebrow up, she then said, "What? You don't agree with me?"

"I don't know, Hals," I shook my head, "I just happen to believe that love is a choice we make. You have to make choices and sacrifices for it to work. We can't just leave it up to chance,"

She threw her head up to the sky and let out another sigh as she said, "Maybe you're right. But I'm at a point right now where I can't force it anymore. I'm tired. He's tired. We're all out of sacrifices,"

Long distance relationships could be a real bitch. Judah and I had a taste of that for the past two years, me being in Los Angeles and him in San Francisco. To be fair, those two places were only a four-hour drive away. We would make time and see each other on the weekends, but still. I was spending all of my days just counting down the hours to the next time that we would meet. All our energies were focused on making plans for phone calls or plans for weekend drives, and they could really take a toll on a relationship.

Thankfully that was all but over now. We're graduating in a few weeks and Judah's secured himself an internship at a top architecture company in L.A. Finally, we're gonna be together again, and I'm beyond ecstatic. I mean, that's all I ever wanted in the first place. Judah and I, together in the same place.