I had always felt like my life had never truly been mine. I used to play a part, living in the background and unable to dig myself out of depths I had found myself falling into. That all began to change when I moved in with my father.

The months had been long as I tried to find my place, but in the end I did.

Now, the day after my high school graduation, I had to move onto a new chapter. One that would hopefully improve on the last.

Josh was driving the two of us home from the place Mindy had cater our graduation party. She had sent us to get the food because, for some reason, she still had things she was cooking for the party while Dad set up tables and chairs outside.

"We're going to have left overs for weeks," Josh said when we got home and started bringing the food to the back yard.

"Mindy will pawn most of it off on people I'm sure," I replied as he held the gate open for me.

Dad had already set up the food tables so we could set the trays down and grab the rest from the car. Mindy watched us from the kitchen window, sending a wave our way.

After putting the food down, Dad enlisted our help in setting up chairs around the yard, and not long after, Fox came strolling into the backyard. He had a backwards baseball cap placed on his head, his hair curling out of the bottom.

"Need some help?" Fox asked with a grin as he made his way over, snaking his arm around my waist and pulling me in for a brief kiss.

"Enough of that," Josh complained, shoving Fox as he walked by.

Fox sent an amused glance Josh's way before placing another kiss on my lips, earning a look of disgust from my brother.

"I can give you a kiss too, Josh, if you're jealous," Fox teased, grabbing the chairs from my hand and setting them up near the others.

"No," I immediately denied, shaking my head.

"I wouldn't want one from you," Josh retorted, rolling his eyes. "You look ridiculous, you need a haircut."

"Your brother thinks my hair looks sexy," Fox replied just as Dad came back outside.

I didn't say anything because it was true; I did think his hair looked sexy.

"I think your hair looks nice," Dad added with a grin.

"Thanks Dan," Fox said, looking over at Josh with a boastful expression. Josh just rolled his eyes and didn't say anything.

We continued setting up everything outside for a while, Mindy and Ava bringing out more food once it was done cooking. Mindy had been worried all week that we wouldn't have enough food for her ginormous family and all of mine and Josh's friends. I was convinced she had gone overboard.

"Fox, your family is coming, right?" Mindy asked after all of us were back inside, waiting for guests to arrive.

"Yeah, they'll all be here," he answered with a nod, taking a sip of lemonade.

"Perfect. I need to talk to Vanessa about our yoga class," Mindy replied.

Mindy and Vanessa had gotten close over the course of mine and Fox's relationship. The two women would often spend time together as what started as doing things with Fawn and Ava, then transformed into a friendship between the two of them.

We had a little bit until guests were due to arrive, so Fox and I sneaked up to my room. Well, there wasn't much sneaking involved because we had been caught by Dad who was sure to remind us to keep the door open, though he knew we wouldn't.

Once Fox and I were alone in my room, I tightly shut the door before moving to lie on my bed. Fox took the opportunity to lie on top of me, hugging my waist and resting his head on my chest while I took his hat off and let my fingers play with his hair.

"Comfy?" I asked with a chuckle as my finger twirled a curl in his hair.

"Mhm," he hummed against my chest.

"I'm gonna miss this," I said with a sigh, causing Fox to pick his head up and look at me with a strange expression.

"What the hell are you talking about?" he asked me, his eyes narrowing. "Our schools are literally five minutes away from each other. I think we'll manage."

Fox had gotten into Northeastern and their hockey team while I had gotten into Boston University. The schools were right near each other in the city, but I was still worried we wouldn't be able to see each other much.

"We're gonna have busy schedules," I reminded him. "It's gonna be hard to see each other."

"I'm not worried about that right now. We have the whole summer together," Fox said, placing his head back on my chest and rubbing his hand up and down my abdomen. "What I'm worried about is meeting your grandparents today."

I scoffed, tugging on his hair. "Why are you worried about that?"

"Because there is a possibility that they'll hate me," he said, his tone suggesting I should have already known this.

I rolled my eyes and lightly smacked him on the head.

"It's impossible to hate you," I told him.

"Shut up," he grumbled, his face against my chest.

It was only a few seconds later when Dad called up the stairs for the two of us to come down, letting us know that my grandparents had arrived. At the sound of my Dad's words, Fox shot up off my chest and stood next to the bed. I looked up at him, holding my hand out for him to pull me off the bed.

"Are you ready to meet them?" I asked with a sarcastic grin as Fox clasped my hand in his and pulled me to stand next to him.

Fox had a pout on his face as he picked up his hat from the bed and situated it back onto his head, taming the hair I had messed up with my fingers moments before.

"No," he grumbled.

"Why is it that you're always nervous to meet my family, yet I'm not nervous meeting yours?" I asked him, opening the bedroom door and leading him out into the hall toward the stairs.

"Because you're more naturally likable than me," Fox replied in a serious tone.

"That's not it."

I led Fox down the stairs where I heard conversation happening in the kitchen. As soon as we entered, my grandmother was in front of me, throwing her arms around me in a tight hug.

"Oh, Elijah, sweetheart, I'm so sorry we missed your graduation," Gram cried in an exaggerated tone. "Our flight kept getting delayed!"

"It's okay, Gram," I replied, returning her hug before she pulled away and went over to Fox.

"And you must be Fox," she said, wrapping her arms around him. "It's so good to finally meet you!"

I chuckled as he slowly returned the hug, his eyes darting to me. "It's good to meet you too," he said.

"Enough of that," Grandpa interjected. "Let the boys breathe."

Gram let go of Fox to place her hands on her hips as she glared over at her husband. Grandpa ignored her glare in order to introduce himself to Fox, shaking his hand.

"Anyway, how was graduation?" Gram asked, looking around at each of us. "We didn't miss too much, did we?"

"It was fine," Josh answered her with a shrug. "You didn't miss much at all."

Our graduation was just like any other ceremony going on, nothing special about it. There wasn't even someone who tried to get laughs by making a fool out of themselves. It was just speeches and diplomas. Boring.

"It was so boring," Ava added. "When I graduate, I'm not going."

"You weren't even paying attention," Mindy pointed out. "There was no way you could've been bored."

"You only graduate high school once, Ava," Gram told her. "You might change you mind when the time comes."

"Nah, she's right," I said. "It was pretty boring."

Fox chuckled at that, standing close to me.

Since we were all sitting in alphabetical order at graduation, I wasn't near any of my friends. Alex was a row behind me, trying to get my attention the whole time, but Fox and Ian were closer to the back. All I could do was sit there with no one to whisper to when I got bored.

"You'll look back on it with fond memories when you're older," Gram assured me, placing her hand on my shoulder.

It wasn't long after that other family members started to arrive. Mindy's ginormous family quickly filled up our backyard, her sister's many kids running around as the adults mingled. Fox, Josh, and I sat on chairs near the back porch, greeting family as they walked by.

"Tracey looks like she's ready to pop," Josh commented as Mindy's pregnant sister walked by.

"She's due within the next couple weeks," I replied. "Do they know what they're having?"

Josh shook his head. "They wanted it to be a surprise."

"I guess once you're on your eighth kid it doesn't matter as much," Fox commented, leaning forward in his seat and lightly brushing his fingers over my thigh.

I hummed in agreement, leaning closer to him as Josh shook his head at us.

"The guys need to get here so I'm not third wheeling anymore," Josh uttered with a sigh.

I glared at him while Fox glanced over with a smug expression, his lips quirking up in a smirk.

"Don't lie," Fox started, his sarcastic grin widening. "You enjoy third wheeling."

"He secretly does," I added to which Josh just shook his head again.

A moment later, three of Mindy's young nieces came over to us with wide eyes, the oldest not being older than ten. Their wide eyed gazes shifted to Fox, him raising his eyebrows at the girls.

"Who's he?" one of the girls, Talia, asked.

"That's Elijah's boyfriend Fox," Josh answered her.

"He's cute," another girl, Paula, added, causing Fox to let out a loud chuckle.

"Yes, I know," I replied with a sigh, knocking my leg into his to get him to stop laughing.

"I guess you're just a lucky guy, sweetheart," Fox chuckled, tossing his shoulder over mine which caused a chorus of squeals from the girls.

I rolled my eyes, leaning into his side. "You're the lucky one."

Fox nodded, letting out a content sigh.

The girls squealed again when some of Mindy's nephews started squirting water guns at them. The three of them ran away, being chased by their cousins.

"You can't go anywhere without being called hot," I told Fox, turning to face him with raised eyebrows.

Fox scoffed. "I could say the same about you but you're too modest to admit it."

"Are you admitting that you're not modest?"

"You know I'm not," he said.

"Can you two stop flirting for like two seconds?" Josh questioned with an irritated expression, looking down at his phone.

Fox reached over and smacked Josh's phone out of his hand, resulting in a nasty scowl from my brother.

"I can flirt a lot worse than that," Fox warned.

Josh scoffed, picking his phone up from the ground. "I know you can."

Fox wasn't able to respond when Alex's voice sounded through the air.

"The party has arrived!" Alex exclaimed as he walked through the backyard gate, lifting two cases of alcohol in his hands over his head.

"Are you seriously not even going to hide the fact that your brought alcohol?" I asked him, judging him with my eyes as he, Ryan, and Ian made their way over to us.

"Your folks won't mind right?" he asked, placing the cases down in front of us as he pulled up a chair.

Before I could say anything, Mindy walked by.

"If you drink a drop of alcohol, you're staying here tonight," she said in a stern tone as she passed us.

"See? All set!" Alex said with a wide grin as Ryan and Ian pulled over their own chairs.

"Guess I'm not drinking so I don't have to have a sleepover with him," Ian commented with a scoff.

"Rude," Alex replied with a pout, crossing his arms over his chest. "I wish Liam was here, he wouldn't treat me like this."

"He's in Aruba, he's not thinking about you at all," Ryan told him with a chuckle.

Jude showed up a few minutes later, immediately helping himself to Alex's alcohol.

When Fox's family arrived, I stood up to greet them.

"Hey guys, thanks for coming," I said with a smile as Vanessa leaned in for a hug.

"Wouldn't miss it," she said, squeezing me in her arms.

Fawn immediately headed off to where she saw Ava, after greeting me. Then Colt mingled with the younger kids and joined in on their game.

"Where do we put the gifts?" Leo asked me, holding out cards with my name and Josh's.

"Oh, you didn't have to get us anything," I said, slightly shaking my head. Leo gave me a look as if I was crazy.

"I should be giving you gifts just for putting up with Fox," he responded, handing me the cards.

I liked to think that we put up with each other; I knew I could be a lot to handle.

After taking the cards from Leo, he and Vanessa went over to my parents while I dropped the cards off with the rest. Raven, Robin, and Wren joined the group where Fox sat. By the time I had gotten over there, there were no seats left.

"You can sit on my lap," Fox suggested with a cheeky grin, holding his arms out for me.

"Or, I can go find another chair," I retorted, my eyebrows lifting on my face.

"Ooo. Rejected," Robin laughed, causing the others to laugh along with him.

Fox kicked his brother's chair, nearly causing it to tip over. Raven steadied Robin, shaking her head at Fox.

Before Fox could try pushing him over again, I took him up on his offer and situated myself in his lap. I could tell he had a smug look on his face by the content sigh that escaped his lips as he slung his arm around my waist.

"Get a room," Ian commented as he glared at the two of us.

Fox scoffed. "You guys are all just jealous because you're all single."

"Hey!" Alex exclaimed. "I am not single!"

"You and Beth are barely dating," Jude told him before taking a sip out of his can.

"You obviously didn't see us make out at graduation," Alex pointed out. "Elijah saw, right?" He turned to me.

I nodded with a grimace on my face.

Unfortunately, I did turn a corner and get a face full of Alex using way too much tongue in public with Beth.

"That doesn't mean you're dating," Jude argued. "You make out and fuck—"

Alex abruptly cut him off, telling Jude how "untrue" his words were. My attention was drawn to Fox's fingers playing with the hem of my t-shirt. Wren sat beside us, eyeing Fox's actions.

The two of them had gotten considerably closer over the last two months. They still weren't incredibly close, but they had been consistently getting along for a while, only getting in arguments periodically.

However, by the way Wren watched him and how Fox wouldn't look his way, I could tell the two must have been at odds today.

"Want to go with me to get more chairs?" I quietly asked Fox, turning slightly on his lap so that I could get a better look at his face.

"What? You don't want to sit with me?" he asked, feigning offense.

I just rolled my eyes at him.

Fox tapped my hips, signaling for me to stand. The two of us stood and started making our way away from the group and toward the garage.

"Be right back," I said, more to Josh than anyone else.

"Where are you going?" Josh asked.

"Getting more chairs."

"Is that all you're doing?" he questioned in a suggestive tone.

I scoffed, turning to send him a disgusted look. "Don't be gross."

With that, Fox and I left the group and made our way to the garage where the rest of the chairs were.

"How many fucking chairs do you guys own?" Fox asked as we entered the garage where the copious amount of folding chairs were leaning against the wall.

"Mindy rented these," I told him, moving to grab a few. "She has a huge family if you couldn't tell."

"Yeah, I noticed," he said, following my actions.

We stood in silence for a few moments before I set my chairs down, earning a confused look from my boyfriend.

"Is everything okay with you and Wren?" I asked him. I couldn't help but be nosy when it was so painfully obvious that something had gone on.

Fox sighed and leaned his chairs back against the wall. "We just got into it this morning."

I nodded, waiting to see if he wanted to continue.

"It was kind of my fault," he admitted after a few moments.

"What did you do?"

"I sorta just mentioned how he hasn't come out to our parents yet," Fox started. "He keeps saying he's going to and then he puts it off."

I nodded in understanding.

"I'm not—" Fox continued, letting out a slightly frustrated sigh. "I'm not trying to pressure him or anything but he needs a little bit of a push. I know he wants to do it but he won't on his own."

"Were you nice about it or were you mean about it?" I asked him, knowing all too well the kind of attitude Fox often copped.

He gave me a sheepish smile and took his hat off for a moment to roughly run his hand through his hair before putting it back on. Without any words, that was all the answer I needed.

"Wren and I don't really do nice," Fox said, turning to pick up the chairs again. "We can't do that sappy shit. We just don't have that kind of relationship."

"Yeah, I know," I agreed, grabbing my chairs and turning to lead him out of the garage.

"So I may have been a little rude and he freaked out at me," Fox continued. "And now he's obviously feeling guilty for freaking out at me but won't admit it."

I sighed, opening the gate to the backyard.

"Don't sigh like you're mad at me," Fox said in an almost whiny tone.

"Why would I be mad at you?"

"Because you think I should be a better person?"

I rolled my eyes, grinning over at him and bumping my shoulder into his.

"I think you should maybe talk to your brother," I told him as we continued walking through the backyard.

As we walked through the yard, I noticed the GSA group standing near the rest of our friends. Austin had already helped himself to one of Alex's drinks, leaning against his chair as he listened to Alex say something.

"Oh good!" Austin exclaimed when he saw us. "You brought chairs!"

I nodded, handing him one that he then set up next to Alex, or more importantly, next to the drinks.

"There's my favorite couple," Claudia greeted, taking a chair from Fox and me for her and Holly.

"Rude," Nadia commented as we set down the rest of the chairs.

"You and Lexa won't go on double dates with us," Claudia defended, setting her chair up close to her girlfriend. "They will."

"More like we're forced to," Fox added, sitting back down next to Wren.

I shook my head at him before going over to where Trevor and Johnny stood next to where Josh sat.

"Hey!" Trevor greeted with a wide grin, tossing an arm around me in a brief hug.

"Hey, Trev," I said, returning the hug. "Need a seat?"

He nodded, grabbing one for himself while I greeted Johnny. Trevor situated himself next to Josh as the two of them spoke.

I wasn't even going to begin to try and understand their friendship. The two had become best friends in a few short months. They always spent time together and Trevor had even convinced Josh to attend a few GSA meetings with him. As much as I thought Josh was going to end up dating him, it never happened.

By the time everyone had gotten a seat, I was left without one again. When I turned to look at Fox, he was already staring at me with a smug expression and patting his lap for me to sit.