Author's Note: Okay, so originally this was supposed to be the last chapter but I got to writing it and I decided it would have been way too long if I put everything in it, so I'm putting it in two parts. This is part one. Part two should be up tomorrow - well technically today since it's 2 a.m. where I am. Then after part two is up, I'll work on the epilogue. I know it'll be up between tomorrow's date and the 1st of December. So be looking for it in between those days. Thanks for all of your support on this story guys. So after this, one more chapter and an epilogue, promise. :D

The summer, well what’s left of it that is, flies. It literally flew by so fast that I can barely even believe it. Ryder and I have done so much stuff. Just for fun, since our days together were limited. We went to the hospital a few times and saw Faith along with all of the other children. We went on like nine dates - Ryder likes taking me out, for some reason - I went to a few parties with Will and Todd. Ryder opted to stay when I went to the parties. And I even went scuba diving! Sarah took all of us out to the beach and we took a class then we went down for a while. Ryder revealed to me that he always wanted to sky diving, so he took classes, begged me to go with him and got mad at me for about an hour when I said no. I made it up to him by doing something else though, if you catch my drift.

We’ve been really careful though. Apparently Ryder has like three boxes of condoms in his drawer which he says were ‘just in case’, and after that first time, Hailey came to the clinic with me and I got birth control pills. Sarah found out, and she felt the need to sit down with me and have a, what she called ‘serious talk’. Pretty much all she said was, “Don’t do anything that you’ll regret later. Be safe. Blah, blah, blah. Never skip a day on taking your pill. Never.” But that’s pretty much it. She also recommended that I share the ‘milestone’ with my mom, which I told her I’d do it once I got home, but honestly if she doesn’t ask I’m not just gonna tell her. I mean, why would I? Talk about awkward.

Today is the dreaded date. Well the day before. Well, night actually. Today’s date is August 19th. I’m going home tomorrow. It seems a bit weird to say that. Because over the past three months, Vernon has been my home. And now I’m leaving. And I don’t know how long it’s gonna be until I see my favorite California family again. Texas isn’t right beside California. I can’t just hop in a cab and come, though I wish I could. Besides, if I could I would have caught a cab back home when I first got here, considering the fact that I really didn’t even wanna be here. Now it’s like I don’t even wanna leave. Pitiful, I know. But hopefully after I graduate high school next year, I’ll be able to come back. Maybe not for the entire summer, but for a little while. Ryder thought I was kidding, but seriously I may apply to UCLA. Early decision, of course.

          “I don’t want you to leave.” Ryder moans, from where his head is laying in my lap as we both stare blandly at the T.V.

There’s some Christmas movie on, but neither of us are actually watching it. That’s a pet peeve I have. Christmas Movies coming on before Christmas. I mean, sure it’s okay when it’s like the beginning of December, maybe even the end of November, but August? Really? Gosh. It’s almost as bad as the McDonalds McRib, the two have no direct correlation, but neither is really liked out of season. Right?

I sigh, “I don’t want to leave.”

          “Maybe your mom will let you live with us!” He exclaims.

I shake my head, putting my hand in his hair, playing with it absentmindedly. “I doubt it.”

          “You’re probably right.” Ryder sighs. “I’m gonna miss you.”

          “I’m gonna miss you too.” I tell him, truthfully.

          “I said it first, so that means I’ll miss you more.” He says, smiling up at me.

          “No way, not even close to being true.”

          “Uh huh, so you say.” He replies.

I laugh, “It’s true!”

Ryder sits up, looking over at me. “I could totally keep you in a drawer. You’re tiny, you could seriously fit.” He says, seriously.   

I chuckle, “I’m gonna miss your strange and weird sense of humor.” I tell him, leaning into him, hugging him.

Ryder wraps his arms tightly around me, putting his head on top of mine. “I’m gonna miss everything about you. Even the way you smell.”

          “Are you saying that I smell bad?” I wonder, looking up at him without breaking our close embrace.

          “You smell like those purple flowers.”

          “Purple flowers? There are zillions of them.”

          “Yes, but you smell like the lavender kind.” He expounds.

I smile, putting my head on his shoulder as he pulls away from our hug. “You’re sweet.”

          “I try.” He says nonchalantly.

          “I wish we could lie here all night,”

          “Well, we could you know.” He reminds me.

I shake my head, “Well you can, but I can’t. My flight is for 12:30 tomorrow, and I need to pack.”

          “Or you can just ‘miss’ your flight.” He suggests, mischievously.

          “My mom and Phil would kill me. Seriously.” I say, laughing humorlessly. “I guess we both knew when I got here that I’d be leaving at the end of the summer.”

Ryder sighs, repositioning his body on the bed. “Yeah, but that’s the thing. When you first got here, I had no idea we’d go through everything we did.”

          “Neither did I. You know, I was under the impression that you hated me.”

          “I could never hate you.” He tells me, kissing the top of my head and pulling me closer to him. He’s leaning against the headboard of his bed, his legs outstretched, facing the television. I move so that I’m sitting in between his legs, my back resting on his midsection.

          “What’s gonna happen?” I ask quietly, not really sure if I wanna know the answer.

          “What do you mean?” Ryder asks, looking down at me.

          “Well, when I go home. We’re gonna be like a thousand something miles away from each other.”

Ryder sighs, “I know. What do you wanna do?”

          “Well I don’t wanna hold you back from dating and college girls or anything.”

          “I don’t want to date any college girls, unless they let you skip twelfth grade and you come to college.”

I giggle, “I’m pretty sure that won’t happen. My G.P.A. is like 3.0.”

          “That’s good,” Ryder assures me. “Do you wanna know what my G.P.A. was when I graduated?”

          “What? I bet it was high.”

          “It was a 4.3, but that’s because I worked my ass off in my senior year. I took a lot of A.P. classes.”

          “But I’m far lazier than you were.”

          “I really doubt that.” He tells me. “So back to what we were talking about.”

          “Right, well what should we do?”

          “I just asked you.” He reminds me, chuckling.

          “I don’t want to break up.” I say.

          “I don’t either. You think we could stay together? Do you think the long distance thing could work for us?”

I shrug, “Honestly, I don’t know.” I do think that we can do it, but it’d take lots of work and trust.

          “We can try it, if you wanna.”

I nod, “Okay.”

          “We can do it Mick, I’m sure we can. Besides, how’s that old saying go? The one about absence?”

          “Absence makes the heart grow fonder?”

          “Right,” He says, “That one.”

          “What does that even mean?” I ask him. “I mean, I know what it means, but like in layman terms.”

          “Layman terms? I think it’d be something along the lines of ‘the lack of something increases the desire for it’.”

          “So pretty much it means that if we’re like away from each other then when we finally see each other, there’ll be lots of desire?”

          “That’s what it says. Rather or not it’s true, I don’t know.”

          “So we’re gonna do long distance?”

          “We can, if you think you can handle it.” He says with a smirk.

          “Me? What about you, Mr. McKenna-and-I-broke-up-so-let-me-get-so-drunk-I-don’t-know-my-name-the-date-the-year-what-country-I-live-in-or-who-the-first-president-of-the-United-States-was?” I say in one breath.

Ryder bursts out laughing, “Not one of my finer moments.”

          “I can attest to that.” I agree. “Hey, what time is it?”

Ryder picks up the remote, going to the guide. He reads the time and says, “9:30.”

I sigh heavily, “God, I hate this so much.”

          “Me too, but let’s look at optimistically.”

          “There’s no optimistic way to look at it.” I groan.

          “Not true,” He disagrees, “We could always look at it as a test, I guess. Oh that rhymed.”

          “A test of what?” I ask.

He shrugs, “I don’t know.”

          “Like of how strong our relationship is?”

          “Yes, exactly. Something like that.”

          “You wanna help me pack?”

          “No.” He says shortly.

I pout, looking up at him. “You’re gonna make me pack all of my stuff together alone?”

          “I didn’t say that. I just said that I don’t want to help.”

          “You are so weird.” I tell him, climbing out of the bed.

We go across the hall to my room, and I push the door open. The walls are still paint-splattered, and I’m almost sure Sarah will never get them repainted or anything. But that’s not a bad thing, when I come back - whenever that is - I’ll be reminded of how much fun I had this summer.

Ryder sits down on my bed and says, “So where are your suitcases and stuff?”

          “In here,” I sad sadly, going to my closet. I pull it open and drag out my three suitcases I brought at the beginning of the summer. I stand in my closet, looking at all the clothes on the hangers. “Okay, so I’ll bring all of them over there, do you wanna put in there for me?”

          “Sure,” Ryder replies.

I begin grabbing the hangers from the railing, and carry them all over to the bed. One by one he slides the clothes off of the hangers, tossing them casually into the suitcases. Going back to the closet, I being again taking the clothes back down, then take them back to Ryder. On the third trip, I look down at the suitcases, and see that they’re all very messily packed.

          “Oh Ryder,” I say, chuckling. “Sweetie, okay. How about you go to the closet and bring me the clothes. I’ll put them in the suitcases. Okay?”

          “But this is easier,” he groans.

          “Ryder, stop being so lazy.” I tell him, shoving him to his feet.

          “Okay, okay.” He says, going over to the closet.

          “Gimme me a minute to actually fold these clothes.” I tell him.

          “You got it.” He says, shifting his weight to his other foot.

Ever since his ankle heeled completely, he’s wanted to do anything and everything he can that involves standing and/or moving with his foot. He’s a bit overdramatic. But whatever, I love him anyway. I flip the suitcase over, letting the numerous t-shirts, shorts and other articles of clothing that Ryder put into it out. I fold the t-shirt neatly, putting them in the first suitcase alone. I do that because t-shirts are the predominant shirts I brought. Along with my tank tops, camisoles, bras and panties, the first suitcase is filled.

Then I start on the second suitcase, folding my jeans as neatly as I possibly can before packing them all into the suitcase. Ryder hands me my shorts and other bottoms, helping me fold them and put them in. When it’s done, I zip it up like the first and pull the third open. I put all of my shoes, except for a pair to wear tomorrow, into the suitcase. Mostly all I brought were Toms and flip-flops, because, well it would have been too warm to wear anything else, really. When we’re done packing up all of my stuff, it’s nearly 11:30. The room is plain and bare, just like it was when I got here. Well, aside from the walls of course. And the abstract bed which kinda lies not against the wall, but a little bit away from it.

I lie down on the bed, tired from all the packing and Ryder sits next to me. “Faith’s gonna be wondering where you went.” He says, quietly.

          “I told her I had to go back home.”

          “Yeah, but she won’t remember that. Her memory is horrible. I’ll explain it to her though.”

          “Thanks,” I reply. “You know, I’m really glad I came here this summer. Even though at first I hated my mom with every bone in body for making me come.”

          “Did you hate us that much?” Ryder wonders, smiling.

I nod, “I sure did. Except for William, he was always nice to me.”

          “’Cause Will’s a softie.”

          “He isn’t.” I argue.

Ryder nods, “Yes he is. But that’s okay. He’s a pretty cool brother.”

I yawn, and Ryder looks down, “You sleepy?”

I nod, “Yes, but I don’t want to sleep.”

          “Why not?”

          “The sooner I go sleep, the sooner tomorrow will come.”

          “That’s so true.” He says, shaking his head. “Life’s a bitch.”

          “You got that right, but sometimes it’s beautiful.”

          “What is?”

          “Life.”

          “I guess you’re right.”

          “Oh my god, I know what we can do.”

          “What’s that?” He wonders.

I sit up and say, “We have to play Monopoly.”

          “A certain reason why?”

          “Because I told you that I would beat you before the summer is over, and we’ve pretty much hit the end of the line.”

          “You want to spend our last night together playing a board game?” He asks, chuckling.

          “Yes! Go get it, I wanna play in here.” I tell him, shoving him lightly.

          “Okay, okay, pushy.” Ryder replies, getting off of my bed and going into his room.

About two minutes later, Ryder comes back into my room holding the Monopoly game. He sits back down on the bed, and takes it out of the box. He sits crisscross and sets the board up.

          “I’ll even let you be the money bag.” Ryder Says, smiling at me as he hands me the little piece of metal.

I take it from him putting it on the start box, “Why, thank you. What are you gonna be?”

          “Racecar.” He tells me, putting it beside my money bag. He takes out the dice, rolling them.

Twenty minutes into the game, I’m actually winning the game. Not truly, though. Ryder isn’t the most secretive person which is why I how I know that he’s just letting me win. I have $3020 and Ryder has $100. He’s the bank this time, and he’s not even cheating. That’s crazy, because I know I cheated when we played. And he still won! Well, by default, I guess. Before I flipped the board over, he would have won.

As Ryder lands on another of my properties, he hands me his $100 and gives off a fake exasperated sigh. “Oh gosh darn it. Would you look at that? I lost.”

          “You are the worst actor on the planet. Don’t quit your day job.” I tell him, laughing.  

          “Acting? Who’s acting? I legitimately lost to you.”

          “Right, okay.”

          “Don’t believe me?” He wonders.

I shake my head, “Not at all O’Connor.”

          “I’m telling you the truth though, Bryant.”

          “You’re a compulsive liar, that’s what I think.” I inform him.

          “I am not,” He retorts, putting the monopoly game up and yawning.

          “Now you’re tired.”

He nods, “I sure am.”

          “What time is it now?”

Ryder pulls his phone from the pocket of his sweatpants and looks down at it. “Quarter to one.”

I sigh, “I guess I should get some sleep now.”

He nods, “I guess so.”

          “I wanna sleep in here tonight.”

          “That’s cool,” He says, getting under the cover after I do.

          “I didn’t say I wanted you to stay with me.” Even though we both know that I do.

          “But we both know that you do want me to.”

          “Well you’re right there.”

          “Of course I am.” He says, kissing the tip of my nose.