The Kissing Booth: Unavoidable

Epilogue

"What can I say, I was waiting for Elle." Aww, I walked back into the room and gave Noah a kiss on his cheek.

Lexi looked at me smiling. "You know this was all part of my plan. Fixing Lee up with a girlfriend in Chicago, that way he'll never want to move back to LA. I know there's a better chance of you two staying in Chicago if Lee stays also."

I held out one of Leah's toys to her and gave her a hug. "Nice try but Lee will still have to deal with his Mom if he decides to stay in Chicago permanently. It may work for a little while, but as soon as he gets married and they start thinking about kids, there's no way he'll be able to survive June's guilt trips trying to get him to move back. Now, I think I almost have Aaron and Josh convinced that they need to give up on the cold dreary winters of Chicago and move to sunny LA, so they can hang out by the pool any time of year. Then, when we're all in LA, you and Darren will have no choice but to move there too. You'll miss us all too much."

Noah and I both want to move back to LA to be closer to our families at some point, we're just not sure when yet. Probably when we have kids, which I feel like we're getting closer to know that we've been spending so much time with Leah. Although, now that Lee is in Chicago, I'm not sure I'll be able to leave, since all my closest friends are here. I mean, I know I'll be happy wherever Noah is and we both want to be close to our families again. I just know how much I'll miss all of them, especially Lexi, the first girl best friend I've ever had. Ever since I first mentioned to Lexi that Noah and I had started talking about leaving Chicago, she has been trying to convince me to stay.

"Yeah, you better keep working on Darren for that. He would have to spend his summers in Chicago, so he wouldn't miss the home Cubs' games."

Noah grinned at that. "I will definitely miss hanging out with Darren at all the baseball games."

"We'll send you and Darren back to Chicago together for baseball season."

Noah pulled me close for a kiss. "Shelly, you know you would never survive that long without me. We don't need to talk about this yet anyway, we haven't even decided when we're going to move back yet, so there's nothing to worry about now."

"You're right. We'll just enjoy our time here all together while we have it. I better get Leah home before she starts getting hungry and cranky. Thanks again for watching her for us. Love you guys."

"Bye, Lex! See you soon!"

After saying goodbye to Lexi and Leah, we both collapsed on the couch in front of the tv. Having a baby around was fun, but exhausting.

After our trip to Mexico when Noah and I got engaged, Lee continued to complain about me not taking him on the trip for the next month afterwards. I finally told him that Noah was always going to be my plus one and the only way he could guarantee his spot on a free trip to Mexico was if he got a job where I worked. I kept talking about how awesome my job was and finally won him over because he decided to apply. I knew it was a lot more than the Mexico trip. I had been talking to him for months about how much I loved my internship and how much I was looking forward to working there after graduation. Plus, I had been trying to talk him into getting a job in Chicago ever since Noah and I decided that we would stay here after I graduated. Noah ended up finding a new job in Chicago after the special project he was on finished up not long after our trip to Mexico. Once he finally told me what was going on at work, he knew that he could also tell Darren, and it wouldn't somehow get back to me through Lexi. Darren introduced him to several people he knew in the same industry and one of Darren's contacts was able to help Noah get a job at a new company. Noah is much happier where he is working now, but he's still staying in contact with his old boss in LA, in hopes that he may be able to go back someday.

I was worried Lee's parents, especially June, would be upset with me when he announced he would be moving to Chicago after graduation, since Noah had already followed me here. Surprisingly, June never complained. She said that if she couldn't have her boys in LA, at least they were both in the same place. Both of our families make frequent trips to Chicago to visit us.

Our second anniversary is coming up quickly. Our wedding was the weekend after Thanksgiving, one year after our reconciliation. We were married in LA and thanks to all the help I got from June and Lexi with wedding planning, everything turned out beautifully. Lee went through an online certification to perform marriage ceremonies, so he could officiate our wedding. That worked out well because Noah and I would have had a hard time figuring out if he would stand up for his brother or his best friend. I ended up with Lexi as my Matron of Honor and Aaron was Noah's Best Man.

We've had our ups and downs during our first two years of marriage, much like any couple does, but our love for each other has always stayed strong. Every once in a while I find myself reminiscing about our relationship in high school, after the kissing booth, how new and fun it was, with us sneaking around and all of our firsts together. I sometimes wish I could go back and experience it all again, especially knowing that we have our happy ending. Knowing that those fights and break-ups weren't really the end of the world they felt like at the time. Or even looking back before we got together, when I had a crush on Noah or when he was just Lee's older brother who sometimes would play with us and would sometimes pick on us, but who was around in so many memories I have of growing up. I love that we have this history together and I know someday when we've been married for twenty years or fifty years, we can look back and remember how important we've always been in each other's lives. Maybe we'll even tell our kids about some of our crazy stories. Definitely not all of them. But, I'm looking forward to the rest of our love story.

A/N - Thanks again to everyone for reading my story!  I've had so much fun with it, I'm sad it's over!