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BITTERSWEET
:: lxviii. | mikey and the frogs

After the party, everyone had gone home. Daniel was staying with his parents till the graduation and Briella was staying on the floor in Cole's room. She would've slept in the bed, but Cole made it abundantly clear that she couldn't, asked of Mia.

It was the night two days before graduation and Cole was really nervous. For one, she was waiting for college letters and two, she was walking into a new chapter in her life. Usually, that's known to be really scary. She was also expecting another sibling and her relationship with Mia could possibly end over one letter.

She thought about just going to whatever school with Mia just to be with her but she also knew, she would regret that decision —— which is why they agreed to a possible break up.

She continued to ponder those thoughts with her head resting on the pillow on her bed. So lost in her head, she didn't notice or hear the door opening. Briella had just walked in with a bag of goodies.

Reconnecting between the two has been kind of hard. They haven't seen each other since elementary and now since Cole was in relationship with Mia, it's been a bit more difficult. For some reason there's bad blood between Mia and Briella, but Mia has gone out her way to avoid talking about that —— especially with Cole.

Besides, number one of the girlfriend rule, respect thy girlfriend. And Briella was getting quite annoyed with that.

"Either you're ignoring me or in deep thought." Briella spoke, "Cause I've been standing here for the last couple of minutes talking."

Cole's eyes began blinking rapidly as she sat up, resting her head against the wall. "Sorry." She mumbled, "Have a lot on my mind."

Briella dropped the bag on the floor as she made her way to the bed, "Scooch." She climbed on the bed next to Cole. She could tell Cole had a lot going on, even after all these years apart, "Tell mama Ella what's wrong."

"Mama Ella?" Cole snorted.

"Don't change the subject. Now talk."

Cole sighed, "It's college, graduation —— hell, even Mia." She bit the inside of her cheek before continuing, "Change is scary and hard. I just don't know if I'm ready for it. Then Mia and i made a pact about different colleges. We would break up."

Briella nodded understandingly, "Is that what you want? And college isn't so bad. You're going to meet a lot of new people, trust me."

"That's the thing, Brie . . . " Cole turned towards her, looking in her eyes, "I don't know what i want."

Briella reached to the floor and pulled the bag up, "Well until then, I bought goodies." She set the bag between them and it revealed tons of snacks and candies.

She kind of had a bit of a sweet tooth and Cole appreciated the effort into trying to make her feel a little less nervous about the future, because sometimes it can be scary.

• • •

"I can't believe we just said yes to Jonny." Vanessa's tone was a bit surprised as she watched Jennifer change into some pajamas.

"I can." Jj pulls her shirt over her head, "He's a good guy and we made the right decision."

"Hope so." Vanessa mumbled.

Jj eventually made her way to the bed and under the covers. She was sat up, head against the headboard as well as Vanessa. The blonde looked to her fiancé and gave her a reassuring smile.

Vanessa lightly smiled back as she began leaning forward to rest her forehead against jj's. As their foreheads rested on one another's, jj whispered . . .

"I love you."

Vanessa whispered back, "I love you too."

Just before they knew it, their lips were on one another's. It was meant to be just a quick kiss, but quickly turned to making out. As the kissing continued, jj moved from under the covers and got on top of Vanessa, straddling her.

Vanessa's hands were on jj's lower back, then slowly moved down to her ass. Just for a brief moment, jj pulled away and began taking off her shirt that she had only put on a few minutes ago. She tossed it on the floor, then turned back to Vanessa. Her hands cupped Vanessa's face before going back in with a smile.

From there, things only got more heated. More clothes were taken off, lips going different places, and very quiet moans because they weren't the only ones in the apartment.

After a good couple of minutes, the two were breathing heavily against their pillows, trying to catch their breaths.

Vanessa turned her head to Jennifer, "Again?" Jj didn't say anything, her expression gave Vanessa all that she needed. "Think about it, I'm going to be pregnant soon and this won't happen for a couple months."

Jennifer nodded, "Touché."

So Vanessa leaned back in and round two began . . .

• • •

Now one day before graduation.

Everyone was going to be there. Daniel, Briella, Arlo, Ashton, Florence, and Will. Everyone else was an obvious must like Mia, Vanessa, Henry, and jj. Although college letters were on the rise, Cole's cap and gown had just arrived.

Luckily, there was one person who was awake to get the door in that late of the morning.

Vanessa stood up from the couch after putting her laptop to the side. She headed to the door and opened it. There sat a package at her feet which she didn't hesitate to pick up. Vanessa brought it in and after closing the door, she sat the package on the table. However, since she was too lazy to look for the box cutter, she used a knife to open it instead.

And what she pulled out was Cole's cap and gown. The color was the school's colors, purple and orange. And just as a proud smile appeared across her lips, Cole walked into the kitchen with Briella behind.

"Perfect, it's here." She approached the kitchen table.

Vanessa gave her the pieces of clothing, "What time is graduation rehearsal?"

"Around two. Briella said she'll give me a ride." Cole admired her cap and gown as well as Vanessa.

Briella stood near the coffee machine, grabbing a mug from the above cabinets. She was extremely tired because her and Cole stayed up all night talking, like actually talking. Something that they haven't done since reuniting. She found out about Daniel, Miguel, the bullies, Mia, and everything else in between. But if she was going to get Cole to school for rehearsal, she was going to need some fuel from coffee.

As she poured the black coffee in the mug, "We should probably get there early. If I remember my high school graduation correctly, it was best if everyone got there early."

"I agree." Vanessa passed Cole a smile, "You ready for this, kiddo?"

She shrugged, "I have to be."

From there, the day only continued.

Eventually, Cole and Briella left to graduation rehearsal. Jj left to the BAU and that left Vanessa with Henry. She had taken off the last couple of days to be there for Cole's upcoming big day. She couldn't believe her daughter was almost an adult and heading to college but she was proud.

Cole was doing something that Vanessa never did or Miguel and that was going to college. However, Vanessa did worry about which college because she knows they can be pretty expensive.

a/n:
next chapter is the last one
for this book )):