Stephanie's POV
I heard two knocks on my front door indicating Louis was here to pick me up. I grabbed two duffle bags and opened the door. He grabbed both and kissed my cheek. "Good morning." I smiled.
"Aunt Linda, Jacob, I'm leaving!" I yelled. My aunt came rushing downstairs while Jacob slowly walked to the door.
"I'll miss you," she said as she hugged me tightly. "Be safe." I nodded. Jacob took me into a side hug and patted my shoulder as he said goodbye.
"Bye, guys," Louis spoke.
We got in the car and drove for an hour, just listening to whatever weird music came on the radio. He pulled along the side of a path where a few other camper's cars were parked. The place is so big, yet I heard online you rarely come across anybody else on the campsite.
I held two duffle bags full of just whatever we needed incase of emergency. We all agreed to bring food to share, changes of clothing, bathing suits, toiletries, etc...
After walking for 15 minutes, and Louis leaving a trail of orange peels for the rest of the group, we made it to a decent spot. You always see those pictures of the tent up in the tree, and I guess Louis wanted to try it out. Before I knew it he had set up the tent and attached a rope to the top. He climbed up, and after 15 tries of throwing a heavy rope and tent up he finally caught it...just barely.
He tied it securely, and sure enough it could hold him easily. "Good job," I yelled up.
With the little service we had we managed to send a text message telling them to follow the orange peels...oh, Louis.
Before they arrived we had nearly set up everything, although Louis was one of the only ones who could securely tie the tents to the branches so his work wasn't over. There were 5 thick branches nearly leveled on the dead tree, and we only needed 4, so it worked out perfectly.
Noon turned to dusk and I broke out the marshmallows, graham crackers, and chocolate. We had been snacking on whatever people had brought so there was no need for an actual dinner. Louis and Michael lit the fire and soon the dark night was illuminated.
We all just looked around for a minute. "Wow..." I spoke. "I feel like it's been so long since we've seen each other."
"I know! God, was the last time we all talked at the ending night of the play?" Chloe asked. We all nodded. I believe it was...wow...
"I find it hilarious we all started this out as friends. Now not one of us is single. We all paired up!" Ashley spoke. We all agreed.
We all told jokes, and stories, and laughed until we could breathe anymore. How I've missed this.
Louis wrapped me in his arms. It was quite cozy considering he was wearing a sweatshirt three times too big for him. I rested my head on his shoulder.
"So, what are the rest of you guys doing this school season?" They began to go in a circle.
"Ooh, I'll go first!" Ashely spoke up, even though Lucas already knew what she was doing. "Lucas and I are going to Oxford together! Isn't that so romantic?" Ashley sure is a little crazy about Lucas. That will be awkward if they break up...but then again, they do seem quite perfect together.
"I'm going to Stanford in California," Olivia spoke up.
"Oh my god, wow! On the other side of the world," I added. "What about you, James?"
"I'm studying architecture at a school in California. Unfortunately, it's four hours from Stanford, but at least we'll be able to see each other." I nodded.
"Chloe?" Olivia asked.
"Well, Michael and I are going to the university of Michigan! I love the United States." Chloe clapped excitedly. It didn't surprise me that they didn't apply to anywhere special. They had minimized their studies after they met each other.
There was a silence before James spoke up, "Steph? Louis?"
Louis' POV
They all got into these great schools and here Stephanie and I are. We didn't even apply anywhere because we wanted to focus on us. I know we both have some regrets on that.
I looked at her. Her smile reassured me that maybe we can both get into an amazing school together. I began to answer, "Well, Steph and I actually didn't apply anywhere, we wanted to focus on each oth-"
"Well..." she cut me off.
"What?" Mr heart was racing all of the sudden. What the fuck does she mean 'Well'?
"I may have applied somewhere..."
"STEPHANIE? WHAT THE HELL?" I let go of her and I was now standing up. How dare she apply to college and not even tell me? Now I look like the doofus of us all, the only one who didn't apply to college.
"It's not a big deal-"
"I LOOK LIKE A FUCKING DUMB ASS, THANKS TO YOU. I KNEW WE BOTH HAD REGRETS ON NOT APPLYING. IF YOU WEREN'T APPLYING, I WASN'T APPLYING. IF YOU WERE, I WOULD'VE DONE IT, TOO."
She was silent, but looked furious from my rant. Our six friends watched in horror. She stood up to come somewhat into eye contact with me. Even though we're fighting, it's so damn hard to not want to tell her I'm sorry. But I can't be sorry, she could've fucked up my future. "Louis," she said calmly. "How do you know if I got in or not."
That hit me hard, like I overreacted. But then I realized, she's Stephanie Harris. Number one student in the entire senior class. Of course she got into college.
"Don't play that with me, you're Stephanie Harris, for God sake, obviously you got in. You could get into fucking Harvard if you applied."
She took a deep breath. "AND YOU KNOW WHAT, LOUIS. I TAKE THAT AS A COMPLIMENT! Thank you, sir. Thank you so much!"
I clenched my jaw. "Where did you apply?" It better be somewhere really close.
"Colombia Univer-"
"GOD DAMMIT, STEPH! THAT'S ALL THE WAY IN NEW YORK CITY. Are you honestly giving up our relationship for some school? I thought I meant more to you than that. You know what? Fuck this. Fuck you all. I don't need any of you, my future doesn't depend on any one of you guys. I'm my own person." I began to walk to the tree to go up in the tent. I got inside and zipped it up, locking it so nobody can try to come in.
I heard them talking, almost whispering, but our surroundings are so quiet I could hear just about anything.
"I'm going to go talk to him," Stephanie said with a sigh.
I could hear her small grunts as she climb the tree. And I could hear when she would scare herself when her hand slipped off the trunk various times. How I wish I could just help her, make sure she's safe. But no, she doesn't care about me. Why should I give a shit about her at this point?
She tried to unzip the tent. She groaned as she realized I locked it. "Lou! Let me in right now!"
"And why should I do that? So you can try to make things okay? Nothing will be the same between us now, don't you realize this?" She sighed.
"Please let me just talk to you-"
"Go ahead-"
"Louis, let me in. I'm not talking to your silhouette." I could hear her smile. It made me lighten up for a second...just a second. I unzipped the tent and she shot herself in. The tent swung back and forth as she gripped the edges of it.
Once it stopped rocking I spoke, "Speak, that's what you came in here for, right?"
"We can still be together. When we got into this relationship senior year you knew we'd be going off and starting our futures yet you committed to this relationship."
"And so did Chloe, Michael, Ashley, Lucas, James, Olivia...even Nick and Hannah did. And you know what they did? They worked it out. Now they're spending their lives at college together. Why the fuck are we any different? We could've done that, you know. And I don't give a shit if we waited a year until we applied. I only wanted to be with you and obviously you didn't understand that because now you're flying to a different continent to go to school in a week."
"Why can't we still be together? You could apply for college in New York next year, I can help you! We can live in a shoebox apartment, it'll be romantic-"
"What am I supposed to do? Watch you go to school while I get paid minimum wage at McDonald's?"
"McDonald's in Times Square gets a lot of business-"
"GOD DAMMIT, STEPH, I'M NOT GOING TO NEW YORK TO SPEND MY DAYS STRUGGLING TO PAY OFF RENT FOR AN APARTMENT WHEN I COULD BE HERE DOING ANYTHING BETTER THAN THAT."
She shook her head. "I really don't get you. I came up with a plan for us to be together. That's what you wanted; to be together, yet you're turning it down. I'll pay full rent-"
"Come on, not even you could do that. I want you to focus on studying. Not paying for my rent."
"I shouldn't have applied without telling you first-"
"I know."
"I'm sorry." A tear slipped from her face. I wiped it away with her thumb. "There's always Skype-"
"Don't even try with that." I cracked a smile. She looked into my eyes with a bigger smile. I put my arms out and she fell into my chest.
"So what do we do? What if I unapply and help you work on your application for Colombia?"
"Don't do that. I don't even know if I want to go there."
She sighed. "What about us?"
"I don't see anyway it could work."
She was silent. "I never imagined us ending, Lou. Dammit, why'd I have to mess it up?"
"It's okay. Everything happens for a reason, right?" On the inside my thoughts revolved around how this is her fault. I'm such a jerk, I'd be dumb to tell her this.
"I guess so."
"When do you leave?"
"About a week."
I shook my head in pure sadness. "Crazy. Just this morning we were so happy. Now it's all ending."
"I can't help but believe it's my fault."
"Oh, it is." She hit my arm. "But if it's meant to be, I'll see you again."
She wiped her face with the back of her hand. "I better fucking see you again." I let out a laugh and kissed her forehead.
"Steph, maybe we should breakup. You know, sooner rather than leave us both heartbroken the day you leave."
"Louis..."
"You don't know how hard it is to say that. But I don't want you to be hurt during one of the best times of your lifetime, okay?"
She nodded and began hyperventilate. "God, I can't believe this is happening."
"You may not be my girlfriend, but you are my best friend. Remember," I placed my hand under her chin, and continued to speak, "as I said before, if it's meant to be I will see you again. I don't know when, or how, but maybe, hopefully, we will meet again."
Hopefully.