"We've gotta go. We can't stay here any longer." Aria told the group. I couldn't help but wonder where this was all coming from. Aria had left with Breygan this morning when he stormed out of here to go get some headache medication. They were gone for a few hours and as soon as they came back, she was talking about how they just couldn't do this any longer and they needed to head home, back to Washington.

I was shocked at the revelation. How could they agree that this was the best thing for them? Why would Aria do something like that? I wasn't willing to say goodbye to my best friend.

"Julia, you have to come with us."

And suddenly it seemed the entire group was in a feud.

"I don't want to go back to Washington." Julia folded her arms, Tony awkwardly standing behind her with his hands on her shoulders.

No one was even able to rub the sleep out of their eyes before the dramatic events of this morning. Everyone dealing with the same mild hangovers, whether from alcohol or just a lack of sleep.

"What do you mean you are going back to washington?" My heart was racing in my chest. Were they really being serious?

"Breygan and I have decided that we are going to give ourselves a real chance. We are going to get our own place. We don't want to be here in California. Washington is the only real option for us. Julia has to come with us simply because my mother would kill me if I left with her, and came home without her." Breygan wrapped his arms around Aria, showing his solidarity with her answer.

"I'm an adult, you don't get to make these choices for me!" Julia shouted, throwing her hands down by her side.

"Clearly." Aria responds. That wasn't fair of her to use that reaction against Julia. Anyone would have responded the same way to being told they had to leave somewhere they were finally feeling like they belonged.

"No, Aria, you don't get to control my life. I'm happy here. I have a job I love and a new relationship that I'm really excited about. Things are finally starting to look up for me."

"It's not happening, you're not staying. So say goodbye and pack your things, we leave this afternoon." Aria pushed past her, hitting her shoulder as she did so. Before anyone else could respond Aria and Breygan were in their room packing their things.

"They can't make me go." Julia folded her arms over her chest. It felt like she was trying to convince herself more than anyone else.

"Staton and I's parents would never notice if the other one didn't come home. But she is right, if you don't go with them, all they are going to do is twist her arm to track you down. It might actually be smarter if you go with them. I don't think the three of you need to leave though. I don't understand why they don't just find a place here if the biggest issue is they want their own place."

"They can't afford their own place here. They have to rely on his dad to pay for it because he doesn't want to get a job. I wonder if they reached out to his dad, and he said they would pay for it if they came back." Staton mentions.

"You have a good point. If Breygan won't go without Aria, and she can't leave without Julia, then the only way they know how to convince everyone of something is to bulldoze their way through the situation."

"This seems like maybe a conversation I shouldn't be a part of, so I think I'm going to go." Tony muttered, giving Julia a quick kiss on the cheek. Before anyone could react, he had grabbed his jacket and was out the front door.

"Ugh! They are ruining my entire life." Julia shouts, throwing her hands up to cover her face. The tears came rushing out. I could literally feel that anger in the room. I felt defeated for everyone involved.

"I'm going to go talk to Aria." I mumbled, removing myself from the meltdown in the living room. Knocking on the door to Aria and Breygans' room. I didn't want to take the time to wait for a response, so I just opened the door.

The room was torn apart, with clothes laying all over the place, makeup was stacked in piles all over the dressers, and old food wrappers were overflowing from the waste bin. They obviously weren't ready to live on their own.

"You won't change my mind Maple." Aria spouts off the second she sees me enter the room. Maybe it was my judgemental tone, or the way my face crinkled when she spoke that threw her off. "It's not normally like this."

"I'm not here to change your mind. I'm here to understand why a little bit better."

"I'm not sure what there is to understand. You have your great relationship, Julia was working on hers, and now Breygan and I are going to put ourselves first and work on ours." She threw her hands up in a shrug motion.

"But you are taking Julia away from hers to benefit yours?" Aria obviously didn't like my question. It seemed like she couldn't handle the fact that she might be in the wrong here. It was fine if they wanted to leave. No one was trapped here.

"We can't go without her. Her mother will kill me, and my mother will do worse." Aria shook her head, taking a seat on the bed.

"So why do you have to go back to Washington?"

"Because that's where we picked, why do you have to question every single decision she makes for herself? You're just mad because you didn't tell her where to go or what to do this time." Breygan interjected, placing a few more of his clothes into the suitcase.

"I'm not talking to you Breygan." I tried to keep myself calm, but the way he always seemed to spread his poison through her was devastating.

"But I'm talking to you, so listen up. We are going to make our own life. We just realized that us all running away had nothing to do with us, it was all you and your bitch mother. Even Staton just went along with it. We are sick of following you Maple. Your life is not our life. So if this is where you are happy, then awesome. But this is not our life." I didn't want to listen to Breygan, but what he was saying sounded like it made sense.

"Is that true?" I wanted to hear the words from Aria's mouth. At this point, it sounded like they were leaving one way or another, but I wanted to know that she wasn't just being forced to leave. Did she actually have any say in the situation?

"Yes, it is true, and Breygan and I did a lot of talking, and we think it will be best for us for multiple reasons. You have to understand that." I did understand that. She wasn't saying anything that sounded insane, not nearly as insane as when I convinced everyone to run away with us. My heart was just breaking for the friend group that once was. Sure, this didn't mean we couldn't be friends anymore, but it felt strange to try and wrap my head around the fact that we weren't going to be spending every single day together anymore. Who knows if she would even reach out to talk to me? Had I ruined everything by running away from home?

This didn't feel like my fault but somehow seemed to keep getting blamed on me.

"I understand completely, but could you at least give Julia her own chance to decide what she wants to do? You can't just treat her like a child and force her to do whatever you want her to."

"No, I can't. She is coming with us and there's no reasoning on that. Her mother will literally kill me. Sure she is old enough, but you and I both know she should have never ran away in the first place. She would be off at college by now, hanging out with awesome friends that she made. Tony isn't anything too special. She will find another guy that calls her pretty and makes her feel special." Aria waved her hand as she spoke, but froze when she saw Julia standing in the doorway.

"No, continue on. I would love to know how you really feel about me when I'm not around. It sounds to me like you think I'm just a child that has no say in what I'm feeling or what goes on in my life. I really don't want to go back with you guys. I've made something for myself here and the fact that you guys didn't isn't really my problem." Julia leaned against the doorframe as if she needed the support.

"I've already packed most of your things. You just need to sort your makeup out from mine. You are coming with us, or I will call your mother and tell her exactly where you are. Either you come back willingly or I rat you out."

"Wow, isn't that pretty hypocritical of you? You were just in here laying in on Maple about how she forced us to come with her and it wasn't what any of us wanted for our lives, but here you are forcing me to come with you. Why won't anyone realize that I can make my own choices and handle myself?" Julia's face was still stained with the tears from a few moments ago on the couch. As soon as the words left her mouth my heart broke for her.

"Guys, was I really that bad?" I couldn't help but wonder. I never saw myself as this big of an issue, but was I really the reason the whole friend group was breaking up? The real reason we couldn't all be in a room together anymore without it causing some sort of blowup.

"Yes, and no." Julia tried to make me feel better.

"Absolutely yes. What do you even mean no? Would you be here if it wasn't for Maple and Staton?" Aria seemed even more upset that Julia would come to my defense, even if it was just slightly. The friendship had been done for, for a while now and I was only just realizing how she was feeling about me.

"Would I have an amazing job that I really enjoy and a wonderful new boyfriend? No, I wouldn't have, because I would have been forced to stay in the lane I was currently in and not allowed to do anything that I wanted. Did she help me grow as a person? Yes! Did some bad things happen along the way? Oh hell yeah, things that I wish would have never happened, but you know what, I'm okay with that because I really like the person I am becoming and I wouldn't have been able to do that in Washington."

I hadn't realized it but the more Julia talked, the more I noticed she really had matured in the last few months. She seemed to blossom into this young woman that had the drive and knew what she wanted to go after. I wasn't sure I would have ever given her the chance back in Washington to show me that she could do that.

"Julia, don't be like that. I already told you. You are coming with us. You can blossom more in Washington when you go to college, or do whatever the hell you want. You can either help us back and make it easier, or you can continue to be difficult about it and we will just load your stuff up how we see fit."

"There's really no say?" Julia muttered.