Why the fuck was I nervous?

We'd been together for months, been friends for years. She was one of my best friends — one of the kindest people I knew.

So why the fuck was my heart pounding against my chest right now? I was only going to show the girl of my dreams where I grew up. No biggie.

I drove past the gates, nodding at the security guard. It was the only gated community in the whole of Mount Valley. We reached an intersection and I almost maneuvered the truck to go to the direction of Oz's house. I knew he was back in town. Everybody was. But priorities first. We needed to get settled at home first.

I turned to our driveway and drove to the garage. I was relieved to see nobody was home. No one ever was. I called our caretaker to stock up on the supplies so we had food and other necessities.

"Wow," Arisa breathed out, getting off the truck and looking up at the house.

I laughed. "Don't give me that shit when I know you have a palace in the Philippines."

"It's not a palace!" she defended, punching my arm playfully. "It's also not mine, it belongs to my grandparents."

I put up my hands. "Okay, princess."

She rolled her eyes and shook her head, but she was smiling all the same.

I picked up our bags from the back and motioned for her to follow me inside. To be honest, this house was practically mine already. And despite the lack of loving memories, I wouldn't sell it for the world.

"Did you have parties here?"

"Yeah." Good times. "Remember Connie?"

She nodded.

"Oz and I traded hosting duties every year for her birthday, since things weren't the great at home for her at the time."

She smiled at me. "That's really sweet."

I shrugged, giving her a smug grin. "I have my moments."

She chuckled. "You do."

"Come on, I'll show you where you're staying."

I lead her to one of the guest bedrooms. She looked a little confused, and it took all of me not to break face at that moment.

"I'm staying here?"

"Yup."

"Alone?"

Don't laugh. Don't laugh. Don't laugh.

"Yeah." I nodded. "Is there a problem?"

"Nothing," she said, looking around the room. "I just figured since you were clingy as heck, you'd need your nighttime cuddles. But I guess not—"

I grabbed her by the waist and pinned her by the doorway. "I want my cuddles."

The prettiest smile appeared on her face. It was enough to put me on my knees.

"I was kidding. No way you're sleeping here."

"Then, where will I sleep?"

"With me." I leaned closer and softly whispered in her ear, "In my room."

*****

Showered and dressed, we headed to the diner to meet the crew. The moment we entered inside, there were loud cheers from one table.

Everybody turned our way. Some familiar faces nodded to me. I received a delighted gasp from Wendy before she attacked me with a hug.

"Welcome home, dear," she said.

"Hey, Wendy. How've you been?"

"Same old, same old."

I gestured to the girl standing beside me. "This is my girlfriend, Arisa."

Arisa smiled. "Hi, nice to meet you."

Wendy grinned wide. "Well, hello. Aren't you a pretty one?"

"She knows," I replied.

She nudged me with her elbow, making me laugh. To Wendy, she said, "Thank you, ma'am."

"Oh, dear." Wendy shook her head. "No need to call me ma'am. Only Wendy's fine." Before Arisa could answer, she jumped as if she realized something. "Oh, don't let me hold you up. They're sitting at your usual table. Do you want me to ring up your favorites?"

"Yes please," I practically begged. I was starving. I turned to Arisa. "What do you feel like trying?"

"I'm curious with your favorites," she replied. "I want to try those."

"It's just your classic cheeseburger and milkshake."

"Let me guess, it's vanilla milkshake."

"Baby, you know I'm never a vanilla kind of guy."

She let out a small laugh, before turning to Wendy. "I'll have what he's having please."

"Okay, I'll ring 'em up. Go sit down, you two." Wendy waved us off before disappearing behind the counter.

My friends had been watching us the whole time, with mischievous grins. I prepared myself as we walked to them. On one hand, I was stoked to see them again. It had been too long. On the other, they were meeting Arisa for the first time. Unlike Halo or Scout, she wasn't from here.

I had no idea how this would go.

"Hey," I greeted.

Suddenly, I didn't know how to act. It was like I was waiting for a bomb to drop.

"Don't just stand there," Connie said. "Introduce her to us, you ass."

"You already know each other."

"It's just manners, man."

"Hi, nice to finally meet some of you guys in person. I'm Arisa."

"There, she introduced herself because you didn't."

"Why are you nagging?"

"Because you're stupid."

"I don't remember the last time I saw you," Frisco told Arisa, getting to his feet and hugging her.

"It's been so long. How are you, David?"

Kurt snickered. "It still gets me that his name is fucking David."

"Dude, get over it."

"You get over it."

"Here, take my seat," Oz offered, vacating his seat next to Connie. Then, he came to me and gave me a hug. "Nice to see you, man."

I smiled. "You, too."

"FYI, that's how you greet people."

Before I could retort, Connie already turned to my girlfriend who was now sitting beside her.

"I haven't thanked you enough. You really helped me out back then."

"Seriously, don't worry about it," Arisa replied. "I felt like a badass vigilante."

"Are you ever gonna tell us what happened?" Oz asked, grabbing a chair and sitting down.

I did the same, before adding, "What's the big secret?"

Kurt placed his hands around his mouth, and cheered, "Spill! Spill! Spill!"

"Fine, just shut your hole."

And so, Connie proceeded to tell us how there was this girl bothering her during her freshman year in college. Arisa helped her deal with the 'annoying bitch.'

"Did Scout know about all this?" I asked. "Where is he, by the way?"

"Yes, he did," she answered. "And he's getting cake with Halo. She wanted to buy one for us in celebration of us being complete again."

"Wow, you let her get cake with him?" I asked Oz, a bit impressed.

He shrugged. "I wanted to be here when you arrived."

"Aw, you make my heart melt."

Oz rolled his eyes and gave me the finger.

I burst out laughing, my eyes landing on Arisa. I winked at her, and added, "But you're the one who owns my heart."

The others groaned and someone make puking sounds but I didn't give a shit. My eyes stayed locked with my girl's. She gave me a warm smile that was well worth my friends' cringed reactions.

Frisco started clapping. "Cake's here!"

We all turned to see Halo running over with the box of cake in her hands. I stayed out of her way just in case she tripped and fell. With her being clumsy as hell, you never knew.

Oz met her with a kiss, before taking the box from her. She said hi to me, then smiled at Arisa.

"Hello! I'm Halo, Oz's girlfriend."

"Hi, my name's Arisa."

"I know! Alfie's girlfriend! Tell me all about it!"

"I wanna hear it, too," Scout chimed in, arriving at the table. He nodded to me. "Hey, man."

"Holy shit, you have a beard." I blinked at him, couldn't stop myself from staring. He looked way too different with that amount of hair on his face.

"I lost a bet with Connie," he admitted. He looked at his girlfriend. "Can I shave it off now?"

"Nope," she said, blowing him a flying kiss. "Deal's a deal."

The guys and I gave him pitiful looks. We knew better than to bet against Connie.

Wendy arrived with our orders, including a knife for the cake. She sent us all a happy grin. "Welcome home, kids."

We grinned at each other.

We were back.

*****

I walked across the dark football field, towards four people sitting on the grass. The stars were out tonight. The breeze was a little cold, but it was comfortable enough.

There were so many memories here. Mostly fun, and some frustrations. But it was all part of life.

I heard laughter, bringing me back to the present. When I neared them, Kurt threw a beer can at me. I caught it before sitting down on the empty spot between Oz and Connie.

"Where's Ari?" she asked.

"At home, watching a K-drama."

Kurt scrunched his face. "A what?"

"Korean drama," I explained.

"Ah, Halo's been into that lately, too," Oz said, chuckling before drinking his beer.

"Let me guess, that's what she's doing right now?"

"Nah, she's playing Sims."

Frisco burst out laughing. "She told me she tried to do that hundred babies challenge she saw online."

"Didn't she give up on baby number twenty-nine because there were too many babies to handle?" Connie asked, chuckling.

I laughed. "That's foreshadowing for you, Ozzie."

He shrugged. "We can have as many babies as she wants. If she doesn't want any, that's fine, too."

"Stop," Kurt whined. "I don't wanna talk about no damn babies."

Connie smirked. "We're adults now, you know."

"Don't remind me," he grumbled.

"Aw, scared of a little growing up? Didn't think you were chicken shit."

"I'm already big and grown up. Being a whole ass adult is a fucking different story."

"Technically, we're still considered as young adults," Frisco pointed out.

"There you go," I said.

Oz sighed. "Crazy to think we spent most of our days here on this field before."

Silence engulfed us as we all reminisced our teenage years. We spent most of our high school lives together, here. We played here. We plotted here. We triumphed here.

"Oh, shit." Frisco started laughing hysterically. He looked at me, and said, "Do you remember that time Connie chased you because you got her the wrong flavor of frozen yogurt?"

I groaned. "She threw that on me!"

"You survived," Connie said nonchalantly.

"Not gonna lie, that became a lesson for all of us," Oz admitted, grinning.

"Man, I remember y'all talking about my dick all the damn time." Kurt smirked, shrugging. "I get it, though. Mine's the biggest."

"Dude, no one's gonna challenge that. It's so fucking huge, you can use it as a bat." I gestured to Frisco, and added, "Just be careful or you might hit Frisco again."

Everybody roared in laughter.

"I will never live that down," Frisco said, shaking his head.

"Never."

"I'm just glad we managed to turn things around senior year." Connie laid back on the grass, her eyes trained on the night sky. "That was the best year."

"Feels just like yesterday, doesn't it?" Oz asked.

There was a collective nods and yeahs. Nobody said anything more. We just silently followed Connie's cue to lay on the grass and stare up at the stars. There was something about being with these people that comforted me to my core.

"We had good times, didn't we?" Frisco asked.

I grinned. "We had more than good times."

"We got in trouble a lot, too," Oz chuckled.

"Fuck yeah," Kurt agreed.

"So many stories to last a lifetime," Connie added.

Whenever I thought about Mount Valley, I thought of them, my friends — my family. That was exactly why I would never sell my house here. This was my home. No matter where we went, who we meet, and what dreams we pursued, we would always go back here. We would always go home to this place.

"Promise me something," Frisco said. We waited for him to continue. Then, he added, "Promise me we'll always be friends."

A moment of silence passed before the rest of us spoke at the same time.

"Of course, dumbass."

"You dickheads won't get away from me that easily."

"Already written in stone."

"Fuck yeah, you sappy shit."

Frisco chuckled. "Alright, alright."

Another peaceful silence, which was honestly rare considering we were a fucking loud bunch. But there was something about tonight that just made us mellow.

"D'you know my first lay was here?"

Maybe not as mellow as I thought.

"What?" Connie asked.

"My first lay was here," Kurt repeated. "On this exact spot. I came all over the place."

Oz, Connie, Frisco, and I jumped to our feet.

"Oh, my God."

"Geezus, Kurt."

"Fucking hell."

"Keep that to yourself, man."

His laughter boomed, echoing across the field. It was so loud that it caught the attention of the patrolling guard. Suddenly, there was a flashlight pointed right at us from a distance.

"Hey, you're not allowed here!"

"Oh, shit," Connie muttered, grabbing her things.

"Time to run," Oz said.

Frisco was frantically looking around to make sure we didn't leave anything behind.

"Fuck." Kurt scrambled to his feet and made a run for it, not even bothering to check if he dropped something — like his phone.

I grabbed it on the ground and followed after him. Frisco was running beside me, while I heard Oz and Connie right behind me. I couldn't help but laugh.

Man, this felt just like old times.

I was grateful that I got to spend my teenage years with these people. We always had the best time together. In a way, we also found home in each other. Nobody could take that away from us.

We might have had different lives now, with different priorities and goals. But no matter what, we would always find our way back here.

In this little town called Mount Valley.

_____________
THE END

I know it's April Fools today. But no, this truly is the end. FINALLY. It took me THREE YEARS to finish this. Wow.

Though honestly, for me, it doesn't quite feel like the end. Maybe because I know I'll still go back to this and make some major revisions. The second part of this book is only like a skeleton for now (hence the short chapters). I just thought I'd upload it already rather than keep you waiting any longer.

I wanted to make the end more climactic to give it a proper bang, you know. IDK, maybe in the revision, I'll add something more. We'll see how it'll flow when the time comes for me to reread and edit.

For now, THANK YOU for being patient. I appreciate you so much. THANK YOU for being proud of Alfie's character development. From that boy who makes inappropriate jokes in Cruel Me to this man being more aware and sensitive to his surroundings. I'm proud, too.

Lastly, THANK YOU for reading the Mount Valley series and sticking to the crew all these years. It's been a long journey. We've seen them grow together. We've been with them through their ups and downs. We've watched them overcome life's obstacles. It's been a lot.

Writing this series had been a serious challenge, especially this last one as it dealt with depression. It was hard to write because it would always put me in that dark place whenever I would dive into Alfie's mind. There are times when I'm still struggling to overcome it. Maybe that's why a part of me didn't push for that big bang climax because I was scared of going to that place or triggering something inside of me. Maybe someday when I'm ready, I will. For now, I can't.

AGAIN, THANK YOU. Your support means the world to me.

PS. Perhaps I should stick to fluffy stories. Haha :)