Three months later…

I looked down at the new wedding dress that was lying on my bed. It looked nothing like the dress that I had worn months before, the one that had once belonged to Brianna

When there was a knock on my door, I jumped a little before saying, “Come on in.”

The door opened to reveal Kate, a five-month-old Allison in her arms. She was now married to Logan and was talking about how they were planning on having another baby soon, just like Kate had wanted. One of the first things she had ever said to me that was that she wanted to have a baby once she got out of high school, and now she was going to do it… even though it was her second child.

“You sure look excited,” she grinned at me as she placed her daughter on my bed and handed her one of her toys. “Even more excited than last time.”

That was because the last time Zach and I tried to get married, not only were we still in high school, but someone had been trying to kill me for months as well. Now that Todd was in jail and he was never going to get out, there was nothing I had to worry about.

Kate blinked at me now. “You look like you’re going to be sick.”

“Because I might be.”

All day I hadn’t been feeling well, and it had been getting worse and worse as every minute went by. I knew I was nervous, but I didn’t think that I was this nervous… Especially after everything that had happened last time.

“Are you really that afraid that something’s going to stop your wedding this time?” Kate asked me now, a small smirk on her face as she looked up at me. “Maxynn, Todd is in jail and Aveline’s dead. No one else would stop the two of you from getting married. You have nothing to be worried about.”

I started breathing again, even though I still couldn’t help but feel a little nervous. Zach and I were getting married tomorrow. We were having a small party with our friends at the house to celebrate, and we were bringing all the kids along as well so Ethan could hang out with Riley and Sadie.

Brianna and Steve were out, and I was almost sure that my dad was with them, even though I didn’t know completely. He had moved back into our old house a few weeks after graduation, since it was now back to how it used to be, but he allowed me to continue living in Zach’s house with him until we both left for college.

Allison suddenly started crying, which caused both Kate and me to jump. Kate laughed sheepishly as she picked up her daughter and began rocking her back and forth. After a few moments, she was quiet once again.

“I can’t wait until Zach and I have a baby,” I smiled at the two of them happily. “We’re gonna be waiting for a little while though.”

Kate almost snorted. “You better.”

I was so glad that I had a best friend like Kate that would always look out for me. If it wasn’t for her, I would have been dead right then. She was the one that had seen me with Todd on that day all those months before. I was really thankful that she was there for me and I couldn’t believe there was a time when I didn’t like her.

She now looked down at my wedding dress as she continued to rock Allison. “So I’m guessing the other one was ruined beyond repair, huh?”

I frowned down at my new dress now, remembering how beautiful the old one had been. Not only that, but it had been Zach’s mother. I still felt guilty for ruining it, even though it wasn’t exactly my fault… But then again, now that I thought about it, it was. It was my fault for rejecting Todd.

Kate’s eyebrows furrowed now, as if she could hear what I was thinking. She put Allison back down on my bed gently before taking a step toward me and placing her hands on my shoulders. After staring right into my eyes for a few moments, she shook me.

“Don’t go thinking it’s your fault,” she informed me now, and there was no use in denying that this was what I had been thinking. Kate knew me way too well for me to be able to fool her. “Your old dress wasn’t ruined because of you. Your first wedding wasn’t ruined because of you. It was Todd. It was all Todd. It wasn’t your fault that he was psycho and was able to fool us all. You just didn’t like him the way he liked you. That was all you did.”

She was right. I knew she was right, but I knew I’d always feel guilty. I didn’t think I’d ever be able to get rid of all the shame I felt for everything that had happened to the people I loved. Zach got hurt, my mother died, and my friends and family were scared. And all because I said no to a boy.

There was another knock on my door now, and I couldn’t help but jump. Kate smiled sadly before patting my shoulders and calling out, “Come in, we’re decent.”

“Aw, what a shame,” the brunette joked as he opened the door, and Kate and I both couldn’t help but roll our eyes at Logan as he picked his daughter up from my bed as he stepped inside. “Why am I not surprised you two are up here and not helping set up for the party?”

I stuck my tongue out at him. “You know that’s not our thing.”

He laughed, ticking Allison’s stomach and causing her to burst out into giggles. They looked so happy together, as a family, and I knew Zach and I were going to be like that someday. We were going to have a baby just like Logan and Kate did.

“Well, we’re almost finished, so you should come on down stairs,” Logan informed us now as he turned toward my door. “The party won’t be any fun if the bride isn’t there.”

I rolled my eyes but laughed as I followed him anyway. Now that I knew that both Aveline and Todd couldn’t be at there to ruin it for me, I didn’t really have any problems with parties any longer. Actually, I found them kind of fun now.

But thinking about Aveline did make me feel a little depressed every now and then. Even though we weren’t anywhere close to being friends, I still felt bad that there was nothing I could do to help her when she died. I was standing right there, right in front of her, but all I could tell her to do was move out of the way. I should have known she wasn’t going to listen to me.

Everyone reacted differently to hearing that she had died. Zach felt bad, since he had known her ever since they were little kids, but he also felt relieved at the same time. He truly believed that Aveline was just as crazy as Todd was. The rest of our friends didn’t seem to really mind, even though the day after we were all expecting her to just pop up and invade whatever we were planning on doing that day.

When I got downstairs, the first thing I saw was the cake. It was nowhere near as big as the wedding cake that we were going to have the next day, but it still looked delicious. I was sure that Brianna had been the one to make it.

Ethan was sitting on the couch next to both Riley and Sadie, all of their eyes glued onto the TV. Was TV all their generation ever cared about? I sure hoped that things changed once they all got older.

I looked over to see that Zach was in the kitchen with Elizabeth and Johnny, and I couldn’t help but smile as the two boys came out into the living room when they saw me. I didn’t care if I saw Zach twenty-four hours before the wedding anymore, since last time we didn’t see each other and yet we still had bad luck.

“Hey, Riley,” I greeted the little boy before turning toward his younger blonde sister. “Hey, Sadie! I haven’t seen you in a while!”

Riley greeted me happily, but Sadie said nothing to me, and this surprised me. She had always been such a loud little kid, at least from what I had remembered, so I didn’t expect for her to be glaring up at me like she was at the moment.

“You and Zachy are getting married,” Sadie scowled, looking up at me as if she didn’t even know who I was anymore. “But… Zachy and me…”

“Sadie,” Johnny snapped at his little sister, who then glared at her older brother in return.

“It’s okay, Sadie, because Ethan’s going to grow up to look just like his brother,” I informed the little girl, who looked up at me with big blue eyes. “Maybe you and Ethan will be the ones getting married someday.”

The two younger kids looked over at each other before making a face and both of them shouting, “Ew!”

I shrugged, amused by their behavior. The two of them were both such adorable little kids. It would have been funny if the two of them did grow up to get married, but I highly doubted that was going to happen. Their age difference was actually a lot, once you think about it.

“Sadie is the last person I’d ever marry,” Ethan muttered under his breath, but Sadie heard him.

“You’re so mean!” she shouted, and her foot was suddenly flying and connecting right into his groin.

Ethan fell to the ground in pain as Zach slapped a hand over his mouth to stop himself from laughing. Johnny immediately scooped Sadie right off her feet and brought her away from Ethan and back into the kitchen with Elizabeth.

“You okay?” I had to ask Ethan once he forced himself to get up.

“I’m fine,” he snapped. “I might not be able to have kids, but after that, I’m not sure I want to.”

Leave it to Ethan to say something like that.

“Ethan would rather marry Anna anyway,” Zach now teased his younger brother now, who swatted his hand away when he ruffled his hair. “Or would you rather have Freya, Ethan? You two are already married.”

Johnny had just come out of the kitchen in time to hear that, and now he and the rest of my friends looked at me, as if waiting for me to explain, but I only rolled my eyes. I didn’t know how long Zach was going to tease Ethan about this, but I wasn’t about to admit out loud that it was actually kind of amusing. After all the teasing Ethan did to me, it was fun to see him get teased about something himself.

“I don’t like Freya,” Ethan finally snapped. “I like Anna.”

I was going to have to meet this Anna girl one day. If Ethan liked her, she definitely had to be pretty and intelligent. I’d come to realize that the Deveraux boys weren’t exactly the easiest to please.

Zach merely shrugged, and I knew this wasn’t the end of all the teasing. But it seemed, even if it was just a little bit, Ethan was okay with that. Zach and I weren’t going to be living in the house for much longer, since we were going off to college in only a few weeks. Though we were going to go to the same college that Elizabeth was going to, we decided that it was best to move into our own place since we were going to be married. Our parents agreed that that would be the best thing for us.

“Maxynn!” Elizabeth smiled once she exited the kitchen. “You’re finally downstairs! Come on, let’s cut the cake!”

She grabbed onto the cake and pulled me into the dining room, and I couldn’t remember a time when Elizabeth had been this excited. But when I saw what was glittering in the light on her finger, I nearly fell over.

Zach noticed it too, and this caused him to slap Johnny over the back of his head as he grinned, “You sly bastard.”

Johnny laughed with his best friend, and I was glad that things were back to normal between them. Now that Johnny was with Elizabeth, Zach no longer worried that Johnny was still in love with me, and since Zach was now with me and Elizabeth was Zach’s sister, Johnny wasn’t worried that Zach was going to steal her away from him.

“I didn’t want to take the spotlight off of you and Maxynn just yet,” Johnny shrugged now.

I looked down at the cake and smiled at how beautifully decorated it was. I had no idea what I had done to deserve such wonderful family and friends that were willing to do things like this for me.

“Obviously Mom made it,” Elizabeth grinned as she smiled down at it as well. “But I helped with the decorating.”

I wanted to reach out and take some of the icing onto my finger, but I knew that that wouldn’t have been the right thing to do. I could have eaten as much as I wanted of it, since it was Zach’s and my cake.

“Guys,” I swallowed, not wanting to cry right then. “Thank you so much for all of this.”

Zach smiled as he came up beside me, and I smiled at him as well as I took his hand. The three little kids took their seats at the table the cake was on, all waiting for us to just cut it so they could get a peace. So instead of making some sappy speech that really wasn’t needed, I let Elizabeth cut the cake.

Sadie devoured her piece so fast that her mouth reminded me of a vacuum. Ethan, on the other hand, took his time with his piece, even though I could tell he wanted to eat it just as fast as she had. But that was completely out of Ethan’s character, to act childish, so I knew he was going to continue to act mature, at least in front of other people that he wasn’t exactly close to.

I was still kind of expecting for Aveline or Todd to come inside all of a sudden, but I had to keep reminding myself that that couldn’t happen anymore. Aveline was dead and Todd was locked up. As long as I kept reminding myself of this, everything would be fine.

The rest of us got cake now, and it tasted amazing just like I thought it would. I definitely didn’t expect anything less from Brianna, who practically baked and cooked for a living. I was so lucky that I was going to be able to be a part of her family.

The party continued on, and it made me glad that we all weren’t going to be separated. We all weren’t going to go to the same colleges, but all of us were going to schools around the area. I wasn’t going to have to say goodbye to them just yet.

I found it hard to believe that I had only known them for two years. When I first came to Corvus High School, I wasn’t happy about it at all. I didn’t think I would make any friends, and I definitely didn’t think that I’d ever fall in love with anyone. My parents had met and fallen in love at that high school, and my mom had always told me that she hoped the same thing would happen to me. I never thought it really would.

When it started to get dark, I stepped out into the backyard and onto the porch. For some reason, I just felt like I needed the fresh air. It immediately made me feel better, and it calmed all the nerves that were freaking out in my body.

All of my friends were in that house, and they all meant so much to me. They all had helped me in such an amazing way. Kate had saved my life when she saw me with Todd on my first wedding day. Both Johnny and Zach saved me from being kidnapped and killed. Elizabeth stopped me from getting into a fight at the convenience store over a pregnancy test hat possibly could have gotten me into a lot of trouble. And Zach, he fell in love with me when he could have had any other girl. He protected me and saved my life. I owed them all everything.

Standing against the railing on the porch, I stared up at the sky and just let out a sigh. I had been through so much in the last year, and I couldn’t believe that nothing bad had happened to me since Todd had been put in prison. Ever since then, everything had just been amazing.

I let out a sigh and just breathed in the night air. The stars in the sky were bright, and I didn’t know if they were brighter than usual or if I just thought they were because I was in such a good mood. I didn’t know, but I honestly didn’t care either.

The sky was clear; not a cloud in sight. It was so peaceful and it made me feel even happier. I wish it could have always been like this outside. It just made me feel so calm, even when the most exciting day of my life was the next day.

I jumped when I felt arms wrap around my waist from behind. I had been jumping a lot ever since Todd had been caught, and I didn’t know when I was going to stop being so jumpy. But there was no reason to be scared, since the arms that were now around me were familiar.

“So, Mrs. Deveraux,” Zach grinned as he rested his chin on my shoulder, and I didn’t even bother telling him that I wasn’t Mrs. Deveraux just yet. “We’re getting married tomorrow. You ready, Maxxy?”

I smirked, leaning back into him as I placed my hands on his. “Sure am, Blanche.”

And it was the truth.

I was ready for the start of my new life as Maxynn Deveraux. I was ready for the ups and downs of marriage. I was ready to throw everything that had happened in my past away and leave it behind me. I was just… ready to face the world.

Who would have ever thought that the stupid game I started out of anger would have gotten us to where we were now?

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The end. :')

Watch the video on the side! It's really important that you do! ;)

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The picture on the side kind of makes me sad because I feel like it's kind of Maxynn's way of saying goodbye. :(