There had been a tribute to Britt during the ceremony. Photos played on a projector behind the stage, with music playing as Principal Harris read the article she'd written aloud.

It was morbid, Ada thought. It felt like she was attending her best friend's wake. But Britt wasn't dead. He wished her a swift recovery, as if there were such a thing with something like this. Maybe there were no right words that could be spoken. Maybe everything anyone said would feel wrong somehow. Maybe her frustration was just a mask for her heartbreak.

Maybe.

Maybe.

They wished Tom a farewell and good luck on future endeavors, and she could see it disappointed Principal Harris at having to give them. Now that she knew of the entirety of their relationship, she saw how he looked at Tom as his own student, as his colleague and as a second son.

When it was her turn to accept her diploma, her family's embarrassing spectacle wasn't in the least bit surprising. But the cheers subsided when the principal stopped her from walking away so he could also hand her Britt's diploma.

As she looked back at it, that was the hardest part. It took every ounce of strength within her not to break. But she didn't. Maybe picturing Britt in her bad-ass, take no prisoner cowboy boots gave her the strength to only allow a single tear to fall.

Maybe.

Maybe.

The ceremony and photos after went by in a blur. Something told her that when she thought back to this day five or ten years from now, she wouldn't remember a damn thing about graduation. She'd remember the sorrow and pleasure that came before it. She'd likely remember the party that came after it. But it wasn't likely she'd remember what the valedictorian said, what the school band played or walking across the stage. Maybe her family's cheer and Tom's smile as she accepted the rolled-up piece of diploma.

Maybe.

She wanted to go to his place afterwards rather than the party. She wanted to lie in his arms until nightfall, fall asleep on his chest and wake up by his side. But the party was important to her parents and everything was all set up. So she let Tom go back to his place all alone to change and went home to get ready.

"This is a good day," her sister spoke as she applied Ada's makeup, "you should be smiling."

Ada loathed when people said that. She'd heard customers tell her to smile on her most exhausting days and had to fight not to pour their coffee down their shirt.

Music played outside. The party didn't start for a little while yet, but she'd already heard several cars pull up and the upstairs sounded busy with activity.

"You wish Britt was here helping you get ready, don't you?" her sister asked, though by her tone it wasn't a question.

Britt had helped do her makeup for every party and every event. Even during the time they weren't all that close and just going through the motions of friendship, she would still come over. Ada had never gotten the hang of it, and her mother rarely wore makeup. Britt had it down to a science, as did her sister. As Ada looked at her reflection, the makeup was flawless and unlike what Britt would have chosen, very much understated and natural.

"I just wish she were here at all, Stevie. But I promise, I love having you here too. And you did an awesome job."

Ada saw Stevie's reflection in the mirror smile back at her. "Damn right I did an awesome job, not that you weren't gorgeous before."

"I was pretty before," Ada corrected. It's not that she couldn't take a compliment, but today marked the day where she was no longer a student. Now that she could leave that title behind, Ada wanted to feel more like a woman. "Today I want to be breathtaking, if you think you can pull it off."

Stevie just snickered and grabbed the heated curling iron from the vanity. "If you take any more of his breath away, you'll be dating a corpse. While I don't think I can ever get behind the two of you dating, the way Mr. B looks at you... I swear it's like you're the only one on the planet he sees."

She was the second person to say something like that, making Ada feel so lucky that she fell in love with someone who had that sort of love to give her and gave it freely.

"I slept with him on the trip," Ada said. She wasn't certain why she said it. Maybe she just wanted to hear the words aloud. Maybe she felt close to her sister for the first time in her life.

Maybe.

Stevie's smile faded, she chewed on her bottom lip as she swallowed hard. She released her lip and continued to curl Ada's hair. "I'm a stubborn asshole, Ada, but even I can see that he's in love with you. And I see you're in love with him. And I know this isn't an immature love for you where you feel so much intensity over something that isn't real or is just going to disappear overnight. What's happening here is the real thing, and even though I hate it, I promise I am happy for you."

"But?"

"But love isn't always enough, Ada, and it isn't all happy clouds and unicorns. It's something that you have to fight for to keep it going, even in the best of circumstances. And you guys aren't working with very good circumstances. When people find out what's going on between the two of you, this town is going to turn on him like nothing you've ever seen. I guess I'm just worried that you're going to get caught in the crossfire. And as much as I dislike him being your boyfriend or whatever the two of you are, I'm worried for him too."

I want everyone who tried to tear them down to know that they failed. You may have made their lives miserable here, but not outside these halls. You failed because they are stronger than you and stronger than any rumor or ridicule you throw their way.

Ada wouldn't allow fear to hold her back. She wouldn't allow ridicule to stop her from living the life she wanted. She would allow no one to tear her down. Never again.

Because she was no longer that eighth-grade girl going through life like she didn't exist. She was so much stronger than that girl.

No one in this town would dictate how she wanted to live her life. No one could convince her this was wrong, because this was the most right thing she'd ever felt.

"Bring it."

Stevie's smile returned and she gave her a quick nod before turning off the curling iron and setting it back down. "Okay then," she said with a hint of pride in her voice as she separated Ada's curls by running her fingers through them. "So how was the sex?"

Ada touched the corner of her pulled up lips, still feeling the puffiness he'd left them in a few hours prior, before dragging her tongue across the still tender flesh. Just thinking about how he'd touched her, looked at her, moved against her left Ada hungry for more of him. The first time had been gentle, sweet and lighthearted. It was sexy, but in their own unique way. The second time was soft before going primal. There were so many sides to this man and she wanted to bed every one of them.

"That good, huh?"

Ada looked at her reflection and watched at the blush took over her face, her smile growing by the second. "Take the best sex you've ever had and double that."

Not that she wanted to think about her sister's sex life just as, she guessed, Stevie didn't want to think about hers.

When 'Wild Horses' began playing on the speakers outside, Ada turned to her sister. "Can you ask them to turn it up?"

Stevie nodded and walked over to the door leading to the outside, then yelled at their dad to turn up the music. Though she couldn't see much, she saw Tom carrying a picnic table with one of her dad's friends.

"Dayum," Stevie spoke in a husky tone. "I thought he looked good at your graduation, but holy shit."

Ada smiled as she got up to inspect.

When Tom had showed up at their house the week prior, looking half dead and possibly drunk, he was wearing the clothes he used to show up at the coffee house in rather than the more fitting clothes he'd been wearing. In charcoal gray shirt that fit snuggly against the muscles of his arms and his dark jeans that did wonders for his ass, Ada was in drool worthy awe of Tom Bennet.

No hat. No glasses, just Tom in all his unhidden glory. She assumed she'd get used to it at some point, but until then Ada relished in everything that was Tom Bennet.

Tom seemed to catch her stare, and it was a relief knowing she no longer had to look away. No longer had to hide her blush or try to stop herself from tucking her hair behind her ear. No longer had to worry about getting caught saying something embarrassing that hinted toward her attraction to him.

Because he was all hers.

Tom set the bench down and continued staring at her. Ada swore she could get drunk off that stare if he did it long enough.

He was her addiction. Tom left her feeling jittery, desperate for her next fix.

Ada licked at her lips, unable to look away.

"Is that the 'Bennet Trance' mom was talking about?" Stevie asked.

But Ada could barely hear her. She was too far gone.

Tom walked toward them and let out a long whistle. "Look at you."

Ada looked down and blushed, unable to break herself of old habits. "You can look all you damn well please now."

He flashed her a lopsided grin. "Oh, I plan on it."

Tom took her left arm and looped it around his neck, placing his right around her waist before capturing her free hand to place it on his chest, covering it with his own. He moved their bodies to the music, humming the soft melody against her ear.

Ada saw her sister sneak outside from the corner of her eye. "What are you doing?"

"Dancing with the woman I love," Tom answered above her. "What are you doing?"

"Dancing with the man I love."

"Which do you think is better," Tom began, "hearing it or being able to say it?"

It was impossible for her to choose between the two, so Ada picked a third option. "Feeling it."

Tom let out a small laugh beneath his breath. "It is a pretty great feeling, isn't it? Once you stop pretending it isn't there?"

"How long did you pretend it wasn't there?" Ada knew her answer, though it was more complicated because she'd felt something immediately and relished in it, before pushing it in the deepest shadows of her mind for the longest time.

"When you fell asleep in my car on our road trip, that's when I started wondering what it was I was feeling for you. I kept looking over at you and wishing I could hold you again like I did on that back road and never have to let go. I wished I could take the pain away from you, even if that meant taking it on as my own. Wondering how much time I had left with you, and you weren't even mine to have.

"Liz thinks it all began when she and I started having problems," he admitted. "She thinks I sought you out to feel happiness for a little while. She told me she'd passed the coffee shop one night and saw me smile in a way she hadn't seen for months, and that's when she realized it was time to stop fighting for a love that I was giving to someone else."

There was something so soft yet timid about his voice when he spoke those words, like he was admitting it to himself for the first time and the truth brought him sorrow. Ada wasn't certain how long they'd been having problems for; he'd only told her 'a while'. It must have been painful for him to see a love he felt for so long slipping away, and more painful yet when he began feeling that love for someone he thought he wasn't meant to love.

"How about you?"

There were so many answers Ada could give. "I've always felt something for you, but for years I just figured it was a stupid crush that would go away in time. For the sake of self-preservation, I pretended it wasn't there. But going over to your place for the first time, you opened up, and it all came rushing back like..." Ada tried to think of how to describe it, then recalled something from the year before. "Like a home movie you remembered filming with memories that meant the world to you, then you come across that video after not seeing it for years and all the feelings you felt back then come rushing back."

Ada continued swaying in his arms to the beat of the song. The hand that was holding hers against his chest now moved up and down her arm, only fingertips touching with the most delicate of movement, leaving a trail of goosebumps on her skin.

While she just described when her feelings for him returned to her in full force, it wasn't the time that it had shifted. And even in all the small moments throughout the last month that caused her to fall harder for him, one stood out above the others.

"My mom and I had a conversation right after the storm. I was watching you picking up sticks in the yard with my brother and dad and I feared you moving on from me, that our friendship would fade and you would find happiness with someone else. Before then I just thought it was a school girl fantasy or a connection I read into. But having that legitimate fear take over me, how empty it made me feel. Now that I think about it, that's when I pretended it wasn't love, because I thought love meant heartbreak. Thinking about you moving on made me feel sick to my stomach."

Tom's fingertips left her arm and tilted up her chin, forcing her to look at him. "I know-" He stopped there, his hand moving to cup her cheek. "Fuck it. I can show you a hell of a lot better than I can tell you."

Then he captured her bottom lip between his own and kissed her like they had all the time in the world. Every moment had a spark. Every touch had a purpose. Every movement filled with his love. This wasn't like their kisses before. This was a kiss that breathed life into her body and lit her soul on fire with its tender flame. Each kiss was nothing short of genuine and so soft it made her melt.

She felt every ounce of love he felt for her in those perfect moments. Ada never wanted it to end.

But it did end. "There is no moving on from someone like you, Ada," Tom spoke against her lips before kissing her again.