Dedicated to _bestfriendofjordan for the octavia poster above!!! Thank you <3
Chapter Forty-Seven: "Romantic Spectacular Getaway."
C A L E B
"WE'RE TOGETHER."
From where he stood across the room, Sam's eyes almost bug out of that big head of his and I could've laughed.
I should have. But I didn't.
Willing myself to remain impassive even though I had been waiting to tell him this a while, I bit back a laugh at the expression on his face. No, while was an understatement and even I was surprised at myself for waiting to tell him for this long.
I deserved a fucking cake for keeping this in.
He whipped around to look at me, his eyes wide.
I really deserved a fucking cake.
Rare cases of my life have ever had him by surprise. Not even the stupid things I've said to him since we were kids.
When I came to his house with a random dog I had found when I was fifteen, he wasn't fazed.
When I had told him I wanted to make a rocket ship out of mentos and a coke bottle when we were thirteen, he went along with it after calling me stupid. There's a tiny scar on his leg from where I accidentally pointed it towards him.
But this?
I shot him a sheepish smile from where I was sitting on his bed. Soccer, laid next to me uninterested by the news, but his owner went from shock to borderline rage. "And you didn't tell me?"
"I wanted to tell you face to face." The smile on my face must have been cocky because he suddenly looked enraged. I felt my phone buzz in my pocket, and I took it out as he continued to...react.
"FaceTime exists!" He all but shouted at my face.
So much love.
"Video chat me, you jackass."
More love.
"Snapchat me the news or something, you fucking idiot."
Okay, a little bit of harsh love.
My eyes went wide and I put my hands out as if he was going to tackle me. He wasn't going to but honestly, there was no telling what was going on in his mind.
"Um," I started, glancing down at my phone with a grin at the message I received. At the knowledge that she was waiting for me to reply to her, it had my entire focus zoom in on wanting to text her back. But I held back, trying not to feel like a teenager while having this conversation. "I used to call you like ten times a day-"
"Try 70 times." He retorted and got a shrug in response.
We were close. A little too close sometimes but he didn't care. Sam Cahill was my brother by no relation since we met all those years ago. We always managed to talk to each other a couple of times a week no matter how busy we got.
It didn't matter where we were. When we were eighteen and I moved to Italy, he moved back to his home country, England for school and we stayed best friends even through the distance. Even now.
"Anyways, like ten times a day and the one time I don't tell you something-"
"Caleb," Sam walked over to me and I put my hands out even farther and he swatted them away with a scowl. "You tell me everything. Sometimes you'll tell me which socks you're wearing. You tell me your craziest theories ever. Hell, you tell me what you had for breakfast when you have the chance too."
"And you tell me what you had for dinner," I patted him on the arm as if he were a child, giving him my biggest and irritable smile. "It's a routine, mate."
"How many times have I-"
Not this again. I was literally half Scottish; I think I had the right to say mate despite the lack of a British accent. But saying it to irk him made it more amusing.
"I wanted to tell you this face to face," I repeated. Sam's flame of fury in his green eyes died a little, yet he was still staring at me with hard eyes.
"Did you really I was going to tell you something like this over the phone?" I asked him because he wasn't dense. Anything related to romance had been beyond me and if it involved me with no link to my writing, I considered that newsworthy. "Through social media?"
He crossed his arms, glowering down at me. "You're dating?"
It was hard to fight the grin strongly appearing in my life. "We're dating."
"It's not just sex anymore?"
"It's not just sex anymore," I couldn't help but shoot him a playful wink. "Although, it's a bonus."
His eyes drifted from my face to the carpet of his bedroom as he lost himself in deep thought. He was trying to find the right words to say and I didn't blame him.
I glanced at my phone once again as he collected himself, reading the message she had sent me.
It was too ironic. She hated using her phone and yet whenever I was away from her, she was always on it.
Well, I imagined that she was always on it considering she replied faster than I thought she ever would. I've seen her phone beep beside her and she would pay absoelutely no mind to it so I considered myself a little bit of a special case.
october hates my ass okonji:
why? why tf did that even come to you?
I laughed under my breath. After all this time and she still bothers asking me this question as if it bothers her. I know her. She's as weird as I am. If not, even weirder.
Me:
So you don't agree?
october hates my ass okonji:
no. not even a little bit.
(2) october hates my ass okonji:
I tried on this nice dress, wanna see it?
She didn't even have to ask. She was out shopping with a couple of her friends, including Angie. I've never questioned her abundant amount of clothing, but she looked good in any of them. Even the sweats she used to dread wearing around me.
"What are you doing?" Sam asked.
"Give me a second," I said, typing out my response.
Me:
I get pics?
(2) Me:
send the nudes.
(3) Me:
15 year old me just jumped out don't mind him.
I could imagine her eye roll at my joke, and I hid my chuckle behind my head as I spotted the three circles indicating that she was typing. Sam caught my attention once again as he snapped his fingers. "I should've known."
I narrowed my eyes at him. "I told you how I've felt about her. Since Venice. I called you after I literally first met her."
"Please," He put a hand to his temple. "I don't need another recollection of 'I fucking met the Octavia'. You said it for a week straight."
"She's a celebrity, man. What was I supposed to do, not freak out?" Not all of us had the knowledge of not freaking out slightly like him. God, it took almost two weeks just to calm down Jon Ming after I only told him that I met her. However, Sam was used to being surrounded by people with money, hell, his family was part of that world.
I, however, never had been used to that. Even when I was invited to events with his family. Met people through my own means. A little part of me didn't like the idea of the spotlight and being targeted just by my face but I put up with it because it went hand in hand with the skill I've developed in this century. Regardless, I knew how to handle the bit thrown my way, but I had to admire how others, especially her, did it.
"I recall you freaking out to me. I remember." He said dryly just as my phone buzzed again.
october hates my ass okonji:
I'm going to ignore 15 year old you
(2) october hates my ass okonji:
do you like this one?
Below the message, a picture was attached, and my eyes widen, my phone almost slipping out of my hands. I blinked at it for a second, looking at her and wishing she was right in front of me.
Holy shit.
Sam looked confused but didn't say anything as my fingers flew across the screen of my phone.
Me:
I want you wearing that when I come back. I don't care if we're not going anywhere, just have it on.
october hates my ass okonji:
only for you to take it off?
A real smartass. I could see her smirk in my head.
Me:
That's the plan.
"Caleb," Sam said but I ignored him. My fingers were quick to move to the message thread I had with Angie not far below the one I had with Octavia.
Me:
Make sure she buys the red one.
angel angle angie:
What?
Me:
JUST TELL TAVI TO BUY THE RED ONE.
angel angle angie:
WHY ARE YOU YELLING BRO I FEEL LIKE YOU'RE ACTUALLY NEXT TO ME.
(2) angel angle angie:
I'll tell her.
Me:
Thank you : )
"You talking to her?" Sam raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, she's out and she sent me a pic-"
"Don't finish that fucking sentence." He muttered and I snorted, looking back down at my phone for a second.
"She's so...fucking powerful," I mumbled, shaking my head and continuing to hype up the woman in my life with only god knows how many emojis one could use to express someone else's beauty.
"What?"
"The picture-you know those people that know what they're doing and how it's going to affect you? She's like that. Even like the way she carries herself; you know?" He nodded absentmindedly. "It's weird because I could sit with her for hours and I'd forget that she's a huge actress and remember that's she's a person. An extraordinary person, mind you-God, now you understand what I felt like when you rambled on about Macy so long ago."
"I didn't ramble." He lamely defended.
"You rambled. A lot." Sam grumbled something under his breath and I chuckled, wiggling my phone in my hand and gesturing to it. "Plus, she's absolutely stunning, mate."
"Caleb-"
"Fucking stunning," I repeated, noticing over the past few months is that at the mention of her name, it's hard to stop smiling. "In every single possible way." I let out a laugh in disbelief. "And she's my girlfriend. She went from being my friend to one of my closest friends in a matter of months to my..."
"Fuck buddy?" He suggested.
"No need to be so vulgar Samuel," I tsked. "Bed friend will do."
"How does that sound any better?"
"To fake dating to real dating." I continued, shaking my head. "Lemme show you."
"Show me what?"
"I said, lemme show you a few pics." I yanked him down sit to me and Soccer nudged his head against my arm, trying to gain my attention but I was already flickering through my phone.
"Look how cute she is." I swiped through my phone, finding a picture of her in mid-laugh. "I took this of her in New York. And this one's from home."
I tapped at the screen to play the live picture of us walking in front of Leo who so happened to grab a hold of my phone as my hat kept flying away in the wind. "I kept thinking her wig was going to fly away from all the wind but it's so fucking secure. I literally watched her give me an entire tutorial on how she puts it on. Did you know there's a type of glue she has to use?"
Sam matched my confusion, hitting me lightly in the arm. "How else is it supposed to hold down?"
"I don't know," I shrugged helplessly. "But I'll be a wig expert in a few weeks, watch."
He started laughing and the sound went out of focus as I came across a particular picture.
A small smile came to my face at her sitting cross-legged in the middle of her living room with tired eyes and being engulfed by one of my larger sweatshirts. She was smiling up at me in this picture, reaching up to tell me to stop taking pictures with the click sound on because it was distracting her concentration.
She was exhausted from a long day at work on set from the shooting of her most recent film this day. But when she had seen the puzzle, I had bought for us, she was determined to finish it no matter what.
"Um," I cleared my throat, from the sudden emotion flooding through me, making me shake my head from my clouded thoughts. "Here's one from Los Angeles. She likes puzzles and boardgames so on this night, a few weeks ago, we finished this 1000-piece puzzle. It took us like hours, we were up from like 9 to 7 AM. She was happy when it was done."
This had to be one of my favorite pictures of her. A thousand words could describe her in this picture and yet I didn't think that amount was enough.
Lingering on it for a moment before willing myself to move on, my fingers flicked through the multiple photos on my phone until I hit a few months back. The picture of her holding up two bottles of alcohol like she won a huge prize. "This one's from her birthday. She came over to get liquor. The Malibu. That's our drink."
I felt Sam's eyes on me, regarding me heavily as if he could read what I was feeling. He probably could.
"She's your girlfriend now." Sam nudged me slightly with his arm, breaking the slight tension, "I didn't know if you would do anything about it."
"I mean, she kind of figured it out since you basically told her."
"I didn't tell her," He corrected me with a dry look. "She's not a blindsided person. She called me to try to confirm what she already had known. But I should have known you were together when you went to go visit..." He trailed off.
"My father." I finished for him, letting him know I was okay with it.
"And you said she was with you and when you didn't call me right after."
That was another thing I couldn't just tell him over the phone.
The morning after Italy, Octavia and I had parted ways. She went back to Los Angeles to face her busy schedule and I came to Nottingham. I needed to tell Sam and she understood that. Because if she was in my position and wanted to tell Sydney this information, I would've encouraged her. I would have told her to come along, I probably would take her anywhere with me but she had a career of her own and things to plan out on her own.
And with a kiss goodbye, I found myself back in my two best friend's home as I had been months before, surprising Macy who was in the middle of photographing her child.
She was happy to see me, and I was glad to see her. And like Octavia, I told her. I told her where I had been. Why I had stayed in Italy and why I came here after everything that had happened. I never told her before because I never thought she would understand but she didn't have to understand, she just knew what to do.
I think it had a lot to do with the newfound mother in her that she got up, gave me something to eat after my flight and hugged me in comfort I didn't know I needed but was grateful for.
"You just had a game," I told Sam, biting my lip to suppress a different surge of emotion from the memory of yesterday. "You were probably exhausted. I didn't want to bother you."
Sam leaned back, looking at me in disbelief. "Caleb, no matter how many times I say that I hate you or am annoyed with you, you are my best friend. It could be in the middle of the night. I could be having dinner with the fucking Prime Minister and it wouldn't matter. I would have answered your call, checked your text. Anything."
I immediately take back my words and at the tears pricking my eyes-holy fuck I've been tearing up quite a lot these days. Sam seems to notice because he claps my shoulder with a strong hand as if it was some 'manly' form of comfort, but it works. "You're right."
"Are you okay, though? I didn't get to ask after you told me this morning," He said. That's true. When he arrived back here in the morning with the notice of my arrival I had told him and his surprise was stronger than me telling him about Octavia. But it was cut short by the wails of Charlie. "It must've been really rough."
"Tell me about it. I'm surprised I managed to pull myself out of the bed the morning after." I admitted quietly, laying my head back onto the bed. Soccer nudged his head once against my side and I put my palm up near his face allowing him to bump his head against it, making me laugh slightly.
"What did Leo say?"
"He wasn't surprised." My arm bent, allowing me to rest the back of my head against my forearm as I looked up at the ceiling. "I shouldn't have been either."
"Don't say that," Sam told me. "You hoped for the best outcome-"
"And I should've been realistic knowing that the real outcome was not going to be in my favor."
A part of me has always known that.
What was I going to expect? That the man that left his family with ease was going to so willingly accept me back into his life? When he wanted no part in it? No part to the point where he had officially erased his old life by not telling those in his new life about us?
With those questions, I had concluded not long after I had interacted with him for the first time in over two decades: a big part of me was glad he had left.
I shrugged helplessly. "There's not much I could have ever done, Sam. I'm not upset about it."
"Then..." He trailed off, eyes shifting and a rare sight it was, to see him uncertain. "What are you?"
"I'm kind of relieved," I admitted. "I waited what? Eight years to be in the same place as him, to try to talk to him. And it bothered me for a long time because I was scared and I did it." I sat up, looking at him. "I did it and I'm proud of myself for that because it was hard to see someone who you had loved again knowing that they'll still push you away. That they'll still claim to desert you, to leave you."
My hands went to rub at my eyes at the sudden wave of tiredness that went through me. I was restless thinking about this but Sam wanted me to carry on, for me to help him understand what was going through me. He wouldn't get it. He had both of his parents in his life. Even when things got rough and his sister died, none of them left his or his brothers' sides. But he wanted to understand just as Macy and Octavia wanted to, they wanted to do something.
What he could do was listen. That's all I wanted.
"For a moment, I felt like I was five again," I confessed. "But when I was a kid I always wondered when he was going to come back and I was going to tell myself he was going to return the next day. But growing up it was clear that he wasn't coming back. I gave him another chance and he still didn't want to take it. Regardless, even if he did, it wouldn't be the same. It wouldn't go back to normal. It's not like I'm five again."
"He doesn't get to see my brother," I continued ranting, my hands digging into my hair. "Who's the most hard-working person I know. He doesn't get to see my tia again, who's one of the best people I've been blessed to take care of me and doesn't get to meet you, Macy, or know all about Tavi and how much I love your kid. He doesn't get to know me. He doesn't want to and as Octavia said, 'it's his loss' because he's definitely missing out on some great people."
At the end of that, I smiled, clapping Sam on the shoulder in the 'masculine' way I guess he had tried to do to me. His eyes were heavy as they stuck on me but I didn't feel that way. I felt good after saying all of that because I've been holding it in as I had wallowed in the hurt I felt as a kid all over again.
"I'm proud of you." He said affirmatively.
I wiped a tear forming at the corner of my eye, pointing at myself. "Look what you're doing, man. A few words and you're making me cry."
Sam laughed loud, pulling me into a hug. God, he and Macy give good hugs but I'm never letting him know that he does. "I mean it, you idiot. I'm so fucking proud of you."
He pats me on the back twice before letting me go. "Always got to call me an idiot or something while trying to give me a compliment, eh?"
"Wouldn't be me if I didn't do so."
I barked out a laugh, lying back down. "And one more thing."
"What?"
"He's never been my family. He lost that right when he left. Leo's my family, my tia's my family and you're my family. Macy and Charlie too. Since you showed up at the middle school with that ugly British accent."
Sam chose to ignore those words, a small smile settling on his face. "You're my family too man."
I smiled back, taking that moment to close my eyes as we settled into a comfortable silence. "Wait a minute, how long?"
I opened my eyes, confused. "How long what?"
"How long have you two been dating?"
"Like," I thought back to the last fade of heat to the now of cold fall. "August."
"Caleb," He deadpanned. "It's October."
"I'm sorry. Again, I wasn't going to tell you something like this over the phone."
"How," He shook his head, collecting his thoughts. "How do you feel?"
"How do you feel?"
He looked confused. "What do you mean?"
"It isn't weird is it?"
"That's you're falling or have fallen for someone? No, definitely not," He told me. "The same way me getting married and having a kid has never changed us. Buddy, are you okay up there? Did you forget all the events you were there for. You were literally my best ma-"
I chuckled at the memory of his wedding day. "I remember."
"Good. Because the way you were sounding was as if you getting a girlfriend is going to change our relationship romantically."
"I mean," I clapped my hands together. "Let's forget the girls, pack our bags and run away somewhere. Bring Charlie with you as a declaration of-"
"Shut the fuck up." We both cracked up and I swatted his hand away when he went to playfully jab me. "You're asking because of Bethany?"
The memory of the girl I had loved and his sister came across my mind in a flash. He cleared his throat. "You loved her. That was almost over ten years ago. Then you started loving someone else years after, Josephine," He practically spat her name out and I scoffed at her name. If I had been angry about the situation she had brought on me beforehand, imagine Sam's anger. "I didn't know if you were ever going to give yourself a chance and even after her, it seemed like you gave up."
"I did," I confessed. "I really did."
"Well," Sam turned to me. "I'm happy that's past tense and that she-" Sam glanced down at my phone that lit up with another message. "Why is her contact name so damn long?"
"You should see yours."
Sam scoffed, shaking his head. "Anyways, I'm glad that she's brought you out of it and she seems great for you. To me, honestly, you loving someone else isn't weird. At the end of the day, I just want you happy with where you are in life, whether you're with someone or not."
"Huh," I could help but huff. "Didn't think you would tell me something like that."
Sam smirked. "It's called speaking from the heart."
"So, our romantic spectacular getaway seems to still be a plan-"
"No. Definite no."
I laughed and Sam turned to me. "Now, how do you feel? Any issues? Want any advice?"
What any advice? "Don't tell me you want the tea on our relationship."
"I didn't say that."
"Well, there's no tea. No gossip," I grabbed a pillow, putting under my head to make myself comfortable. "I mean, she's had other boyfriends. She only counts two but there're more and...she's just really experienced in that."
"So..." He waved his hand. "She's into you, yeah? She's with you, man. Trust me, she thinks very highly of you if you're with her. Despite your lack of relationship experience. Honestly, it's not a big deal and it shouldn't be."
"It's not, she even said that we can take it slow."
"Slow?" He looked confused and frankly, a little startled. "Like how slow is slow? You're 25."
"We've had our first kiss, not that kind of slow." I rolled my eyes as he snickered. I twiddled with my fingers for a second. "The other day we had a fight before we went to Italy."
"Oh, fuck." He muttered but he sounded interested. Aunt Samantha was coming out.
"We resolved it but that fight kind of showed me I had a lot more to learn then I realized."
"Relationships do that to you." He said, fixing his shirt. "But it's okay. However, rule number one, look at both perspectives of any argument you have with her. Not just your own."
"Thanks for the relationship advice, Dr. Samantha," I agreed, dodging his light punch. "I've never been used to confiding in someone that I want to be there with me for the long term, you know?"
He hummed in agreement.
"And I don't know," I mumbled, trying to fight the smile coming onto my face and failing. "She's so great. I've known that since I met her. Doesn't give an absolute fuck what people think about her."
"Oh, that was obvious," Sam muttered and I laughed.
"Yeah," I couldn't bite back my grin. "Of course, it was. You two can bite each other's head's off if it was possible."
"She's just very..."
"Blunt."
"Yes."
"I like that about her," I confessed. "She's not afraid to tell me something knowing the impact it can have. I think that's why I started telling her random things. Because she'll tell me how it is with no filter, no judgment and I've always liked that."
I felt my phone buzz as I spoke and I opened up the latest message from her.
october hates my ass okonji:
Bought it, you're in luck.
Me:
I'm winning at life with you I stg.
"And the sex?"
"Oh my God." Sam put his hands on his ears, closing his eyes but I sat up, yanking his hands off.
"No, like it's not even a huge part of it but-"
"I don't need to know. I don't need to know," Sam got up, nearing the threshold of his bedroom. "Hazel, is he asleep?"
"No." She said from down the hall. She walked in a second later, her hair tied up in what I think could be classified as a bun and Charlie wiggling slightly in her arms. "What's happening?"
"Caleb's sharing his sex life."
"I'm not!" I exclaimed. "I'm just talking about Octavia."
Macy's grin was slow as it spread across her face. "Yes, wait are you two...?"
"Yeah," I smiled right back and she let out an excited scream I didn't expect from her and neither did Sam because he flinched, getting out of the momentary spur he was in.
"What the..." He mumbled as Macy handed him Charlie.
"Sorry, I've been waiting for you two for a while." Macy gave me a huge hug and I embraced her right back.
"Dude, how long has it been?" She asked with bright eyes.
"They've been together since August." Sam answered.
"Caleb," She swatted me lightly on the arm and I let out a groan. "You waited that long to tell us?"
"I like telling you guys things in person," I defended myself. "I thought we knew this."
"Well, I'm happy for you," Her grin was contagious. "How are you guys?"
"We're great," I wiggled my phone, my lock screen a picture of the two of us together. "She's great."
"Aw," Sam mocked me, leaning over to mess up my hair and I pushed his hand away. "Look at him. He's growing up."
"Fuck off." I cursed.
"Stop swearing, holy." Macy sighed, taking a seat between me and Soccer. She shook my hand eagerly. "Tell me."
"What's there to tell?" I asked for clarification but it was obvious. Everything.
"I mean, you wrote a book about her." She said in a 'duh' tone. "Either I'm going to have to read about how you describe her or hear you say it right now."
I took Charlie from Sam, touching the little guy's fingers as he looked up at me with his light eyes.
"Gimme a second." I told them. My eyes went down to Charlie and I couldn't help but smile at the innocence on his face. He was a light in two of my closest friends eyes and mine too. "You know that writing the entire thing to be a love story wasn't exactly what I had expected."
"You started writing it before you met her no?"
"Yeah, I had the visual but I didn't have character," I further explained. "I got the friendship and insight to she was the more I spent time with her. I mean, our relationship and the way we felt about each other shifted drastically. I mean she disliked me at first." She urged me to go on with an encouraging smile and I laughed at her anticipation. "I mean, I wasn't expecting it to turn out like this."
"Sometimes you never do," She commented. "But it's worth it."
"Definitely. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that she really goes for what she wants. No matter what it is. And she's explosive, fiery, responsive-"
"Caleb," Sam interrupted, rocking Charlie to settle him as he started making sounds of agitation. 'Again, don't want to talk about your sex life."
"I'm not even talking about my sex life. Literally it's just her. She's so strong and uplifting and encouraging and don't ever tell her I said this but she can be so kind, she can be so generous and she doesn't even know it. And she has this attitude and she can surprise me and-it's like she knows what I want, and I can tell what she wants so easily. Communication is so easy with her, I'm just-"
"You just what?" Sam asked.
"I'm," I shook my head again.
"You love her?" Macy asked, her eyes wide. She had to ask. She was waiting on it, I could it in her eyes.
"It's not like how you two automatically knew. This is more like we have ourselves to work on individually but yes, I know I'm getting there."
Then the strangest thing happened.
Sam smiled.
But the smile that came onto his Sam's face was so wide I half expected his face to split open.
It was so fucking weird.
I stared at him confused, touched by the feeling as it slowly dissipated. "What? Why are you smiling like that?"
"Because I haven't seen your eyes light up like that in years."
I let out a breath, shaking my head as I lifted Charlie, his feet moving on my lap. "It's a little overwhelming."
"Yeah, that's love for you." He said.
"Caleb? Falling in love?" She looked at her husband, "Did we travel to another dimension or something?"
I scoffed. "If we travelled to another dimension, Sam most definitely would not be looking as ugly as he does every day."
Sam smacked me upside the head as he took Charlie back, standing to swing him from side to side. "Shut up asshole."
"The love, it's so evident. Show me more of your expression. Shower me with it." I said sarcastically.
"You sure?" He narrowed his eyes.
"Please. I'm begging for it."
"Anyways," Macy stopped our banter before it escalated. Her eyes lit up at my words, a wide smile stretching across her face. Suddenly, she hugged me hard. Hugs from a woman like Macy Cahill were good hugs but when she was overly excited, they were deadly. "Oh, Caleb."
"Macy, can't breathe." I wheezed, feeling like my lungs were about to push into my ribs.
"Sorry, sorry," She laughed, and to my uttermost surrpise, wiped a tear.
"What?" I stood, latching my hands on her shoulders and glancing at Sam who was equally in shock. "No, no, don't cry."
"They're happy tears, dude," She sniffed, waving a hand. "Chill out."
I looked at Sam. "Only this mother of your child would refer to me as dude."
"You should have heard her friendzone me last night on the phone. She called me pal and I had to glance at my ring twice to remember that we were indeed married."
"Shut up," She sighed, glancing at me. "I've just always wanted you to be happy."
"Mace," I assured her with a kiss on the cheek, hugging her once again. If there was one thing that was known for besides calling me dude, it was her hugs for sure. "I've been a little hurt here and there... but I've been fine."
"Are you okay now?" She asked me, concern filling her expression.
My best friend couldn't have found a better person to fall in love with. I've never been more grateful for a friendship like hers. She always cared, not because she had to but because she wanted to.
I really looked at her than at Sam whose facial expression was unguarded, letting me know that he was wondering the same thing. I felt like he had been questioning that since he and Macy had found each other. I gave them my honest answer, looking at them both. At the family I had here, my blood related family back home, my friends and the woman that had me wrapped around her finger back in LA.
I've had their support for everything for the past years. I had the support of people I knew now and I supported myself and my thoughts. And pushing through a boundary like the one I had done in Italy opened up a different mindset within me. And I embraced it wholeheartedly knowing that I will overcome other situations and thoughts I didn't think I would allow myself to have.
"With people like you guys as my family?" I shot them a smile, reaching over to pat Soccer. "What do you think?"