I know most of you aren't going to read this but I have to get it out.

This past year and two months have been amazing as I wrote this story. It's 40 chapters and nearly 300 pages on microsoft word making it my longest story I've ever written. It's also the most popular, earning spots on the 'What's Hot' list and almost 200,000 reads, WOW.

I really want to say thank you for sticking with me for this long time and all the comments, votes, and support that you gave me. We've been through some rough times (IE being plagiarized...) and yet here we are on the very last chapter. You've made me really believe in my abilities of writing and hopefully--far into the future--I will edit and publish this if I continue on writing.

Now here it is: The epilogue. I'm extremely pleased with how it turned out and I think you'll be too :)

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Six year later…

The music pumped into me as I danced to the beat. The screaming crowd didn’t even make me nervous anymore but rather made me excited. Like I was the star of the show. But I wasn’t and I was okay with that.

When the final song was over, I left the stage with the other backup dancers. I practically ran into the little girl with dark brown pigtails who was prancing around.

“Crimson!” Her father, none other than Nate Cameron, scolded her. “Don’t run into Peyton. You need to calm down because when we get back to the hotel, you’re going to sleep.”

Crimson stopped spinning and pouted. “But daddy—“

“No. Kyla is already sleeping, why can’t you be?”

“Because Kyla is only two years old, daddy!”

Nate Cameron rolled his eyes but then held open his arms when his wife—the singer who I dance for—Avery Cameron came up from the stage with her band Maximum.

“Good job, guys,” she grinned and pecked her husbands lips. Avery and I were friends and for being famous, she was actually pretty cool. I couldn’t help but feel jealous when I saw how much her and her husband loved each other. She told me their story, how she hated him when he left her band, their boarding school days, and then them finally getting together. “And a great finish to the tour! The plane for California leaves early tomorrow morning. If you’re not on time, you’re not getting on.”

I grinned at her bluntness and packed my stuff in my bag before heading out the back door with some of the other backup dancers for Maximum and into the limo for us. After attending Julliard I spent some extra time in New York training at a dance studio, which coincidentally was being shared with the same studio where Avery and everyone else in her band happened to be recording. She saw me dancing and we talked, almost instantly becoming friends, and she offered me a spot to dance backup for her. After a ton of paperwork, I was officially in.

I’ve only been home once or twice for a few days in the six years that I’ve been gone. I never had a solid relationship with my parents so just staying with them was awkward considering how Dillon was off at his own college. I’ve seen him more, going down and staying with him and his roommate in his dorm. Never once since the time of that party have I seen Jace. I thought about him constantly, thinking about how pathetic I was for still liking him after all these years.

We got to the hotel and I immediately went to my room and fell asleep. I was going back home after that really long tour with Maximum and staying in California until I get a solid, nonmoving job. I also happened to be going home on a very important date: Alyssa and Dillon’s wedding.

I slept for most of the plane ride but near the end the Cameron’s children were awake and singing loudly for all the people in first class to hear. I smiled because I was going to miss them while Maximum recorded a new album and I wasn’t needed.

We landed and I was already late for the wedding. I told Dillon that this would probably happen so he didn’t put me in the wedding party like he wanted to. I changed and did my hair in the airport bathroom and called a cab to bring me to where the wedding was being held.

“You’re dressed nice,” the cab driver commented as we went through the familiar Californian streets. “Going someplace special?”

“My brother’s wedding,” I smiled and messed with my necklace while looking down at my legs. My scars from the fire didn’t even bother me anymore. I wore them proudly.

“Congratulations,” he said and then nothing else was spoken.

I tipped him and got out with my luggage to see a beautiful garden with a barn where I could see people dancing inside. Crap. I missed the ceremony. I dragged my luggage through the pathway and opened the barn doors to be greeted by the lovely smell of roses.

I stepped inside and saw some familiar faces dancing and laughing. I awkwardly stood there, not knowing what to do, until someone approached me.

“Peyton Brandt,” Luke smiled down at me. “What a lovely surprise. You’ve sure grown.”

I blushed and checked my brown curls. I reverted back to a prettier version of my original hair color since red wasn’t really well conceived on adult women.

“Luke,” I said with a formal tone. “You look nice as well.”

He raised an eyebrow and engulfed me in his arms. I laughed when he spun me around. “I’ve missed you!” he cried just like the old Luke that I knew and still loved. “You’ve never came back!”

“Sorry, I’ve been on tour.”

“Ah,” he set me back down on my feet. “So I’ve heard and seen videos of.” He looked around and smirked. “I should let you go put your stuff away and mingle with others. I can’t be hogging you all night, can I?”

I rolled my eyes and grabbed my luggage again. I set it where all these other jackets and purses were and turned around, straitening my dress. All around were lights, flowers, and people. I finally caught someone’s eyes and he came running up to me.

“Peyton!” Dillon screamed and hugged me. “You came!”

“Of course I did, Dill,” I smiled. “I’m sorry I’m late though.”

“No biggie. I’m just glad that you could’ve made it. I’ve missed you, sis.”

“Same,” I smiled and it grew when I saw someone else approaching us. Alyssa was clad in a beautiful wedding gown and her hair was slightly messy from dancing. “Hey. You’re my new sister-in-law.”

She grinned and then hugged me much more delicately than the boys had. “Hey, stranger.”

“It’s been awhile, hasn’t it?”

She nodded. “Well, it actually hasn’t seemed like that long to me because on TV it shows Maximum onstage and I always see you dancing in back. It’s like you were here with us this whole time!”

I shrugged, “I can’t say that the same thing has happened to you guys. It’s been, what, a year or two since I’ve seen everyone?”

Dillon wrapped his arm around his new wife before speaking, “Sounds about right. Anyway, we’ll see you later tonight. There’s probably a lot of people here that want to talk to you.” He gave me a knowing smile before leading Alyssa off to talk to more people.

People actually want to talk to me? Why would they? I’m pretty sure that I’m just someone from high school that they’ve forgotten one the college life took over everyone’s minds.

I walked around for a few seconds, not really taking in any of the faces because I didn’t recognize anyone. They were probably college friends or Alyssa’s family. I actually felt very out of place within this happy, dancing crowd of Californians. I haven’t been around for years. This isn’t my norm.

“Peyton?”

I turned around and looked in surprise at Kayla who was holding hands with someone I knew very well: Sean. I eyed their intertwined finger and then wagged my eyebrows at the two. Unexpectedly, Kayla blushed.

“Hey, guys,” I grinned. “I didn’t know you two were together.”

“Considering how you deleted your Facebook of course you wouldn’t,” Kayla grabbed and wrapped an arm around me for a hug. Only years ago this would be the worst thing I’d possibly endure but after learning about the real Kayla, we were actually semi friends.

“I had to,” I admitted. “I was hacked during the first year of my college and with all the work, I never made a new one. So how long have you two been together?”

“A year,” Sean spoke and looked down to Kayla with such a look in his eyes that I never once saw him look at me with. It made me happy. These two deserved someone to love. “Is it weird to you?”

I shook my head, “Not at all. I’m happy for you guys.”

Kayla eyes widened on someone behind me, “I think we shouldn’t be keeping you right now…”

“What do you mean—“ I was already turning around and I immediately spotted him.

He looked different from the last time I saw him. The scarce baby fat that he had before was now completely gone as was the lanky, semi-awkward high school feel of him. No, he was now a man. The little scruff on his chin and cheeks said that. The only thing that was completely the same was his light eyes that were staring right at me, also taking me in.

I was frozen and I didn’t even know is Kayla and Sean left or not. My eyes were only on the one and only Jace Harley who stood across the dance floor. Maybe I was shaking. Maybe I was crying. I wouldn’t know. My entire mind was filled with only Jace.

Finally he crossed over to me in long, fluid steps until he was a few feet away.

“Peyton Olivia Brandt,” He breathed out and looked me up and down again but not in a degrading way. His voice was deeper and huskier than it was in high school. “I can’t believe that you’re here.”

I gulped back the lump in my throat, “I wouldn’t miss my brother’s wedding.”

He nodded in understanding and whistled, “Dang. You’ve grown up. You look great.” He turned a little red when I raised an eyebrow. “N-not that you didn’t look great before, you know. You look perfect all the time! But now you’re older and an adult and…” He let out a shaky laugh. “I’m being an idiot, aren’t I?”

“No,” I told him honestly as I watched him familiarly put his hands in his dress pants pockets. “It’s cute.”

We just stood there for a moment while smiling at each other until Jace enveloped me in a huge hug. His smell practically made me tear up because I realized just how much that I missed it. But I shouldn’t want this, no. Jace probably has a girlfriend and hasn’t even thought about me for years until tonight.

“Can we go outside?” He asked me when he pulled back. “We have a lot to talk about.”

I stared at him, “Yeah, we do.”

I let him lead me out of the barn and into the garden. We didn’t stray to far but when I stopped, he noticed.

“I just have one question for you, Jace,” I got out in hardly a whisper. “Why did you just stop talking to me? Like one day we were still best friends and the next… nothing.”

“This is going to sound really lame but my phone was stolen,” he chuckled. “I was on the subway, I had my backpack for school, I forgot it for five minutes and when I went back it was gone.”

“What about video chatting? That was available to us!”

“My laptop was in there as well, Peyton.” I really wish he didn’t say my name like that because it brought back so many memories. “When I finally got a new one, your accounts were gone.”

“I was hacked on practically everything,” I muttered. “I never actually had the chance to make new ones because I’m so busy.”

“Now I have a question for you. I got your number from Dillon after I got a new phone but you didn’t answer, why?”

“I blocked all numbers that I didn’t know as soon as I got it,” I immediately felt guilty. “I’m sorry, Jace. If I had known—“

“You didn’t and that’s fine,” he smiled. “Now we just have six years to make up. So how have you been, Pey?”

The old nickname brought us back to how we were. I told him all about Julliard, on tour, and New York while I got to learn about Duke University, college soccer, and his new job. I found myself laughing hysterically as he described some of his old classmates and how nerdy they actually were. I even found myself smiling internally when he said that he never had any girlfriends during this time period. He asked me if I dated anyone.

“Nope,” I told him truthfully. “I wasn’t really interested in anyone else.”

He looked like he was about to say something when someone was calling our names.

“Peyton! Jace! Get your asses in here! The reception is almost over and I think you’d want to squeeze in some dances,” Dillon called and then I saw a wicked smile spread over his face. “Unless you want to wait until later to do those dances naked—“

“Coming!” Jace called and nodded me over to inside the barn again. The amount of people had greatly diminished but still a few dozen stayed. I danced with Jace, not touching until he chuckled under his breath.

“What?” I asked, touching my hair to make sure it isn’t going crazy or something like that.”

“Nothing,” he shrugged. “Just the song. It relates to me to you so much.”

I listened to the lyrics of the song Right Girl by The Maine. It really did relate to us from the beginning of my junior year. Jace did the wrong thing to me while doing the ‘right’ thing to Kayla by lying to me. Did he still regret that after all these years?

“Peyton…?” He whispered as the song changed to something slower.

“Yes?” I peeked up at his from under my dark eyelashes as he wrapped his arms around my body for the slow dance.

“Remember that promise I told you the morning I left about what I’d do to you if I saw you again?”

I thought about it and then turned bright red when I did remember. I nodded and he held me closer than before.

“Just to clarify… Are you single?” His voice was husky.

“Yes.” Out of the corner of my eye was Kayla and Sean holding each other during the dance. I saw Sean look over at me and gave me a small smile which I returned back. Despite our past, we’re friends with a clean slate.

“Are you out of college?”

I grinned, “Yes.” I noticed Alyssa and Dillon dancing as well but the two of them were smiling at us. Jace had leaned in slightly so our foreheads were barely touching. Just being this close to him made my breath hitch.

“And one last thing. Are you going to live in California after this?”

“Yes—“

And that’s when his lips met mine and everything exploded.

It was the first kiss we shared that was completely and utterly real. The lie of the ‘fake’ relationship wasn’t there. How Jace kissed me, how his fingers trailed up from my waist and gently to my face, cupping my chin, was all real. How his lips molded almost perfectly against mine as they moved together in sync was all ours. All real and all ours.

I guess pursuing the art of revenge didn’t result in all bad consequences.

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So they're together, yay! I honestly planned in the way beginning of this story to split them up but I realized that them getting together is the right thing to do even with my 'happy endings aren't real' philosophy.

I'll also cut you a deal.

I have a new story out called Playing His Little Games. If you all read that and vote and comment a ton, I'll upload a something special from TAOR onto here so yes, ANOTHER chapter if I get a lot of feedback on PHLG.

Again, thank you all! I hope you continue to follow my writing and I would like to hear what you think of the epilogue :)