The house felt empty without Aria, Breygan and Julia. Even if we didn't interact with them as much as we would have liked, it felt lonely without them.

"Well, what do we do now?" Worry filled my throat. My stomach was spinning, dancing to the rhythm of the butterflies fluttering.

"How much longer do we have in this place before we either need to move or re-new?" Staton asks, his voice traveling through the room over the silence. When everyone else was here, the house was always noisy. Whether it was music or conversations, you could never get a moment of silence. Now it was just too much.

"We have a little over two weeks." I replied, walking over to the kitchen counter to grab the notice we had received earlier this month.

"So it sounds like we need to move one way or another. There's no way we can afford this place all by ourselves." He took the paper from me, searching it over for any information we would need.

"Yeah, most likely we need to move. I have no clue where, though, so we will need to figure that out." The house was a mess, the pillows from the couch thrown all over the floors, all the decorations were either twisted the wrong way or completely out of place when the trio twirled through the room like a tornado, searching for all of their things.

Staton played on his phone, scrolling through anything that could interest him, while I wandered around the house tidying things up. Putting the decorations back in place and cleaning up the old food they had left behind under the premise that it would help us survive.

"Hey, I have a crazy idea," Staton pops off after what felt like an hour or maybe even longer. I paused on the dishes I was washing, drying my hands off on a towel before heading over to sit next to Staton on the couch.

"What is it?"

"How much money do we have left in the account?" His eyes lit up like a toddler on Christmas morning. He knew the answer just as well as I did, but to humor him, I told him.

"A couple thousand, why?" I couldn't tell what he was getting so excited about. The look on his face was hiding everything.

"Like enough to go and buy this travel van?" Staton turned his phone to show me a picture of an old beat-up van that looked like it was from the seventies. I couldn't help but scrunch my nose up at the sight of the exterior, but when he showed me the photo of the inside, I was even more disgusted.

"Yuck! What do you want to do with something like that?"

"We could live in it?" Staton shrugged his shoulders, pulling his phone back so he could go through the photos again. "I mean, it will take some work to get it cleaned up, but we can live in it. It'll be paid for so we won't have to worry about finding a new place to live all the time, and we will be able to travel easier. We don't have to stay here in California. We can get out of this hell-hole."

The more Staton talked about it, the more he was obviously in love with the idea of being van people.

"We aren't van people sweetheart, how are we supposed to manage that? How will we make money to pay for gas and a place to park it?" I paused for a moment, really trying to think over everything that goes into this. "Where would we shower?"

The thought of showering at random rest stops for the rest of my life sent shivers down my spine. Sure, it didn't have to be forever, but even one shower there felt like it would be too much. Luckily for us, we didn't have to resort to that on the way down here.

"Oh come on, there's a shower right here, we wouldn't even have to stop, we would just have to make sure it's filled up with water." Staton shows me the photo of the most cramped and awkward bathroom I've ever seen. How did they shove that in the back of a van?

"Staton, you can't be serious." I instinctually folded my arms across my chest. I couldn't help myself. There was no way we were going to be able to make that work.

"Come on, just give it a chance. Why don't you?"

"That would wipe out all of our funds, how would we pay for gas after you bought it? How do you know it runs? You don't know the first thing about working on cars and now suddenly you want to live in one? What happens if we break down on the side of the road? Where would we even go? I thought the whole point of getting this place in the first place was so that we weren't traveling around for the rest of our lives? We wanted to settle down even just a little bit and set some roots."

"South Carolina! It just has to get us across the country once. Maybe you can find a work from home type job that you can do on the road while I'm driving? We still have this place prepaid for another two weeks like you said, don't we? While we work the last few weeks to get money for gas, we can park it in the driveway and clean it up. We have to give our jobs notice anyway."

Damn, he was right. He had an answer for every single problem I had. The only thing left was to take the leap of faith with him.

"Plus, we would have to sell our car anyway, and we can make some of our money back off of that one."

"No one is going to want that piece of shit car." I chuckled.

"So are you in?"

The smile that took over Staton's face was enough to melt my knees. There was no way I'd be able to tell him no. Not with a face like that.

I gave in and nodded.

*** two weeks later ***

"You've got to be kidding me!" I shouted, looking at the fully finished van. Staton had been working meticulously in his free time to make sure the van was sparkling for us when we left on our road trip tomorrow. Everything from adding fresh paint and adding tiny knick knack decorations to make it feel more homey on the inside.

"Isn't it great?" He smiled, obviously proud of his hard work overhauling the whole thing. "She runs great, too. It should work nicely to get us to South Carolina." Staton rubbed his hands together in a 'job well done' motion.

He wrapped his arm around me, pulling me into his chest. We were about to embark on our next adventure and, though I was scared about what the future would bring, part of me was happy that it wasn't just my choice this time.

What everyone had said when they left was stuck in my head. It was crazy that they had been gone for a couple of weeks now. The time with just Staton had shown me that we were really meant to be together. We'd never been alone, living in our own place for more than a couple of days, but now that we were married, it felt like the best thing that could have ever happened.

Nothing about any of this felt forced, or like I was making someone else do something just because I couldn't handle the situation with my mother. All of this was our decision together.

"Staton, this is perfect!" Everything was better about the inside of this van. Somehow, he had managed to make the carpet look clean. The counters looked new. All he did was repaint a few of the cupboards that had some dings and dents, and yet the whole thing looks like he ripped it out and replaced everything.

"It was hard work, but I wanted to make sure you were comfortable on the drive. South Carolina may be our first destination, but that doesn't mean once we get there we can't plan more trips. I think this will be good for any kind of travel we would like. Our house is literally on wheels and we can move whenever to wherever we want. The freedom is exactly what we were looking for." He leaned over to kiss me on the forehead, squeezing me gently.

"I've never been so happy in my entire life, Staton." His infectious smile was wearing off on me and I couldn't help but feel the same excitement he did.

"Tomorrow will be the start of our new adventure!"

I wouldn't want to go on it with anyone else, but to say I wasn't slightly nervous about the journey would be an understatement. I couldn't help but think back to how excited we were to start our journey here to California, and oh, what a mess that one had been.

A few moments later, Staton had closed the van up and locked everything so we could head inside to spend our last night together in our first home. It may not have been our own house, but it was somewhere that we resided while we figured out who the hell we were together without the pressure of our families.

"Dinner will be ready in a few moments." I smiled, heading towards the kitchen to finish up the last few things that I had set aside when Staton asked me to come outside to look at his handy work.

I grabbed the pot of cooked noodles I had set off to the side, stirring it quickly to break them apart again. Looking over at the house while I stirred.

This place had been such a blessing in disguise, but a part of me was ready to leave. There seemed to be so much pain here. So many fights were shouted across this kitchen island. Sleepless nights where Breygan was out on the back patio, because no one wanted to let him back in the house. Aria sitting there by his side, always supporting him even when he was horrible. to her.

I missed my friends, but I missed who they were before we ran away. I could count the amount of times we fought before we left Washington on one hand, but after we had left, you couldn't even keep track of the number. It had grown so rapidly that it would be easier to count the times we weren't fighting.

I never thought of myself as that hard to live with, but a part of it made me realize maybe my mother wasn't as bad as I thought she was. I couldn't help but convince myself that everything I was a part of was bad because of me. Eventually Staton and I, if we spent too much time together by ourselves, would crack as well.

How could things continue to go so well for us once everyone else had left?

"Hey Staton," I mumbled. Looking over at the handsome man setting the table while I finished cooking the food.

"What's up?" He smiled, placing the final fork down. It was easier to set the table for just the two of us, but it felt like something was missing.

"I love you. I just want you to know that. I'll always try to be better for you." He looked at me, confused.

"I'm not sure what brought that on, but I love you too, and I'm so thankful to be doing this life with you. I will always love you."

"Good. That's what I needed to hear." I smiled, feeling the emotions take over myself as I plated the food and headed towards the dining room table. It was almost as if he could read my mind.

Tomorrow would be the start of a new adventure. Hopefully, one that was less dramatic than the first.