To add insult to injury, tonight's the night Ryan and Lance leave.

It was the first thing I thought of when I woke up, and it's all I've been able to think about since then. I mean, at least I'm not thinking about Caleb, so that's a plus...I guess.

"We are here!" Tyler sings as he, his younger brother and Wes all walk in, a twelve pack of beer in hand.

"Where the hell did you two jackasses get a twelve pack?" Lance questions with a grin. I was sitting around the kitchen table with him, Ryan and Beck.

"My garage" Cody snorts "What are you guys playing?"

"Slap jack" Beck grins just after he looses another pile to me. I was good at this game, but the best one was Ryan. He had the fastest fuckin reflexes.

"I'm here!" I hear Lacey's familiar voice before she appears in the kitchen just seconds later "Wow she is really kicking your ass" she rests her arm on Ryan's shoulder, looking from his pile to mine

"Not for long Lace" he smirks, slapping the pile just after he placed a jack down. He just got most of my deck.

"Nice" she grins before walking away into the living room.

"Hi to you too" Lance snorts, placing more cards down "I swear she loves you more than me"

"Always has Lancey" Ryan grins at his best friend "It's okay, I still love you" he puts his cards down to pull Lances head towards him to give him a kiss. We just laugh as Lance struggles to get away from him.

"Your favorite people have arrived" Jordan announces as him and Julia come in.

Following him were the Kazers along with Christian and Lenny.

"They're downstairs" I tell Arya, Lenny and Christian. They make a beeline to join Cody and Colton, leaving all of us in the kitchen.

Minutes later my dad and Cheri walk in alongside Kay and Aaron, with eight pizzas for all of us.

"Is everyone here?" My dad questions, plopping on the seat beside me

"Yep!" I grin "Everyone's here" I was sad, but might as well be sad with the people I love and pizza.

"I can't believe you guys are leaving in like four hours" Beck pouts

"It literally feeling like you guys were here for a month" Em says, tears brimming her eyes. She wasn't wrong either, it really only felt like a week or two.

"No, no crying yet," Ryan orders, reaching over and wiping her tears "You guys don't get to cry until we leave"

"Bitch I'm gonna cry when I want to" Arrex snort

"No you aren't, I'll smack you" Lance joins Ryans side "We don't wanna be sad right now, so let's drink, and have fun while we're all still together and can."

"Besides, we may be able to come back for a few weeks this summer," Lance grins "happy news."

"OH!" Ryan grins "Speaking of happy news!" He throws a various letters at Beck and I. "These came in the mail earlier today"

Mine was from Vanderbilt, His was from Stanford. Why mine and his Stanfordletters didn't send together still confuses me, but I'm not going to question it.

"Open" Ryan urges the two of us as everyone else watches us expectantly. It doesn't take us long to tear into the envelopes

"Okay on three we read" Beck says, not unfolding his letter

"1...2...3..." I count down. We both flip open our letters and I almost can't believe what I'm reading.

"Holy fuck!" Beck and I yell at the same time, both looking at each other "Did you get accepted?" We questions at the same time

"I did!" We speak again before tackling each other into hugs. I was accepted into two dream schools, now I just gotta choose one.

"So wait! You got in Vandy and you got in fuckin Stanford?" Wes can't help the smile on his face

"Uh actually" Beck starts to say, glancing at me "She also got accepted to Standford"

"What?!" My whole family just stared at me

"How long ago?" Cheri pushes

"Earlier this week, you were out of town, and everyone else wasn't home. I wanted to tell all you guys together, well except Beck." I tell all of them "But yeah, we both got in" I grin at my twin before everyone else

"Now, happy times for the night" Ryan grins "In celebration from the twins, I say we get drunk and have fun"

"Sounds like a plan to me" Ace snorts. He's the first to grab a beer. It's gotten to a point, that as long as it's not often, we're safe and not total dumbasses my parents are okay with us drinking.

"Yeah it does, I've needed a fuckin drink" Co huffs, looking right at me as he reached across the table

"Me too" I stare right back, well more like glare. He was being passive aggressive. I mean if you had an issue just say it, there's no need to be indirect like he is.

"Okay" Ryan claps his hands together, snapping the attention to himself and off of Co and I "I say we play slip n slide beer pong flippy cup"

That instantly caught the attention of all of us, including our parents, the ones we learned the game from.

"Yes!" All of chant before filing out to the backyard, thus starting the traditional going away party.

-----

"We did not cheat!" Kay and Cheri argue against my dad and Aaron.

Eventually, slip n' slide beer pong-flippy cup, turned into a semi-drunken game of uno amongst all of us.

We were all out, it was down to Kay, My dad, Aaron and Cheri. Kay and Cheri were obviously cheating, without a doubt taking advantage of my dad and Aaron's slightly drunken state.

"How long do you think it'll take them to catch on?" Jordan questions with a grin

"At least twenty minutes" Co and I say at the exact same time. We glance at each other before both looking away.

"You two are fucking killing me" he scoffs before walking away and sitting between my brothers, giving the two of us both a 'dad' look.

"Whatever" I roll my eyes, going over to Ryan and Lance.

I just sit beside Lance and lean my head against his shoulder as he and Ryan both talk.

"What's up baby Ski?" He questions,

"Nothin" I shrug "I don't want you guys to go" I mumble

"We don't either, but we gotta" Ryan tells me

"It's the job," Lance says "It's what we signed up for."

"I know, I just hate it" I huff. I didn't want them to go. Having them here for the passed few months was amazing. They were safe here.

"We do too" Ryan agreed "But, bright side, we might be back this summer,"

"Yeah, that's good at least" I grin. My last summer before I leave.

"Speaking of Summer," Ryan grins "Do you know where you're gonna go?"

"I'm leaning towards Stanford" I grin, I wanted to stay with Beck. He and I have been together our whole lives and I honestly don't know what I'd do without him. We'd talked about going to school together, obviously we'd wanted to, we just said that if we got into the same school and it was what both of us wanted, we'd go together. We just agreed to do what's best for ourselves, and go for what we personally wanted. I know he's going to Stanford, it was his top school, now I just have to make the choice.

"Both are good schools, you just do what you want to" Ryan grins "Your smartass will do fine anywhere"

"Thanks Ry" I grin at my big brother "You too Lance"

"What'd I do?" Lance quirks an eyebrow at me

"You're there for him" I gesture to Ryan who just grins and nods "And you're there for him" I say to Ryan

They always had each other's backs no matter what, even when they were pissed off at each other.

"Of course" Lance grins "I love your jackass of a brother"

"He loves you too" I smile

I watch as Ryan checks his watch. I knew it was getting close to that time.

"How much longer?" Lance questions

"We got half an hour before we really gotta go" Ryan huffs "We should probably get our shit ready"

"Yeah" Lance agrees

"I'll help" I nod. All three of us go upstairs, grabbing their bags to line up at the front door, this was the last time I was gonna see my brother for a while. It always sucked saying goodbye to him, whether it's been three months or three days.

"Okay guys" Ryan announces "It's time,"

"No!" Em and Arya both cry out "Not yet." Em adds

"We gotta"

"Alright Kids," My dad stands up to face both Ryan and Lance before pulling them both in for hugs

"I'm gonna miss you boys" he says, tears coming to his eyes

"We'll miss you too dad" Ryan sighs. I could tell by the shakiness in his voice, he was on the verge of tears.

I could tell just by the look on Lance's face that he was close too.

Within minutes we're all up giving hugs and saying our last goodbyes. As my brothers hug Ryan, I just sit on the stairs and watch them. I watch as Caleb hugs him, tears falling from his eyes, I watch as Ryan whispers things in his ear too. Co just nods and wipes his tears, mumbling an 'I love you' before releasing Ryan.

I was the last to go, getting up from my place on the stairs and slowly walking over to them.

"Don't make that face at me" Ryan orders, pointing at my face

"I'm not making a face!"

"Dude you're so making a face" Lance says "It's the sad helpless puppy face"

"Yeah it's your method of guilt tripping without actually speaking" Ryan adds "Don't make that face,"

"I'm not making that face!"

"You are" Ryan cracks a sad grin before wrapping his arms around me "Don't tell the others but I'm gonna miss you the most" he whispers quietly

"I won't" I smile into his shoulder as I feel myself start to cry. I quickly move to Lance who embraces me in a bear hug just like Ryan had.

"We'll be back soon baby Ski" he whispers "That's a promise,"

"Promise?" I pull away slightly to look at my nonbiological brother who just holds up his pinky in return.

"Pinky promise" I link my pinky with his before turning to Ryan. He just rolls his eyes with a grin before linking his pinky with mine.

"Promise we'll be back soon," Ryan repeats his best friends words

"Okay," Beck states "We're all gonna hold you to that."

Various 'yeah's are heard from around the room. Eventually though we all go quiet.

"We gotta go" Ryan peeks out the window as lights are seen shining through. Their Uber was here.

"We love you boys" Cheri smiles, she was already crying, much like the rest of us

"We love you too mom" Ryan grins, his eyes were sad though. This was all just as hard on him as it is for us.

"You jackasses better call" Kay orders, she was crying along with my mom

"We will" Lance grins "Love y'all"

"Love you too" We all state.

With one last look, they're walking out the door and loading their bags into the Uber. Ryan very dramatically and in true Ryan fashion, gives us a queens wave before plopping down into the backseat.

As I watch the car pull out of the driveway, everyone else starts to walk away. I stayed seated though on the stairs of our front porch looking up at the stars, willing myself to not cry.

"I'll talk to you tomorrow," I vaguely hear Kay tell my mom before her footsteps get closer, I just look up at her and muster up a smile

"Goodnight sweeatheart," she smiles softly, leaning down to kiss the top of my head.

"Night Kay," I smile for real now. Kay's always been there, and I think she always will be.

Soon, everyone starts to leave or go to bed, but I stay outside. I didn't wanna go to bed just yet.

I look down our street and up at the sky and at the trees around me. At anything, to distract myself from the mess that I've been.

What snaps me out if my own immersive little world was the jacket being draped around my shoulders.

"It's cold out here baileyboo"

"I know dad" I nod, a small smile on his face as he sits beside me. He was quiet for a minute before speaking again.

"So what's been up with you lately?" He questions, I just huff and chuckle

"I'm just a little sad that they had to leave" I just shrug; looking back down the driveway "Like usual"

"No I'm not just talking about that"

"What do you mean?" I play dumb. I knew what he was getting at, I just didn't want to talk about it right now.

"Don't play dumb with me Bailey-Belle, you know exactly what I'm talking about," he states giving the the REAL dad look. My brothers all try to do it, but none of them will ever beat my dad.

"I don't know, I've just been down lately and stressed"

"I've seen you stressed Belles, I've also seen you sad, this is more than that," He starts "I've also noticed that a certain pain in my ass teenage boy hasn't been sneaking into your room every night for the passed week,"

My eyes just go wide as my head snaps to look at my dad. He was just staring at me with a smirk on his face. How the hell did he know?

"You really think that giant could ever be quiet? I could hear that kid stomping around every night."

"Are you serious?" I find my voice. A wave of fear washes over me, if he could hear us, then could my brothers?

As if reading my thoughts my dad just chuckles "I doubt they'd heard you guys, you guys were actually pretty quiet I just categorize this as a dads intuition and skill. After raising and living with you and your brothers, I've developed supersonic like hearing" This calms me, I knew it was true. He could be in the kitchen and he'd still hear my brothers and I talking in the basement.

"So what happened there?" My dad questioned

"A lot" I laugh bitterly "Long story short, I refused to tell the boys, he got mad, ended shit and that's that. Now we barely talk"

"Wow" he huffs "Like not talking at all?"

"Barely"

"I honestly never thought it'd happen" he sighs, a small smile on his face

"What? Us together?"

"Oh god no, that's been known since you said you were gonna marry him when you were four" he grins at me.

"I did not!" My eyes widen. I don't remember ever doing that, like ever.

"Oh you did, but four year old Kazer being himself and a four year old boy, said eww gross, made you cry and then came back with cheese and crackers to make up for it." My dad just laughs at the story while I have a look of bewilderment on my face. I really could not remember this. "So yeah, it's been known by kind of everyone that you two, at some point were gonna get together, the breaking up part, not so much"

I just nod as I look away from my dad. I didn't expect it either. As a thought dawned on me though, I look back over at my dad.

"Wait, if you knew he'd been sneaking in every night, why didn't you say anything?" I question. Most dads don't appreciate their teenage daughter sneaking her boyfriend into her room.

"I trust him, with him, I knew there was nothing to worry about" Mydad grins at me "Just the way he looks at you, there's history there. He looks at you like you're his everything"

"No he doesn't" I roll my eyes at my dad. I've seen the way he looks at me, and it's not like this huge lovey gaze.

"He doesn't look at you like it's all sunshine and rainbows and butterflies, whoever told you that that's what it looks like is bullshitting you. He looks at you like you are his reality and future." My dad tells me "You look at him the same way"

That's because I did think of him that way. I've spent my whole life with him, and I want to spend the rest of my life with him. He is my person, I love him.

Holy shit.

I love him.

"Fuck" I groan as I lay back down on the deck

"What?"

"I love him"

"You what?" My dad pushes, a look of surprise on his face.

"I love Caleb"

"It's about damn time"