“Are you sure your parents aren’t home?”

“I’m positive,” Maddie replied, grabbing the spare key from behind a large pot of flowers on her front step. “They’re both at work right now, and will be for the next four hours.” She slid the key into the lock and turned it until she heard a click. Smiling, she opened the door and walked into her old house, followed by Olivia and Grace. The three of them decided today would be the best day to go back and retrieve all of her belongings.

It was weird, to say the least to be back back in her old home. But, it was different than before. And by different she didn’t mean the different furniture arrangement in the living room, or the new chairs in the kitchen; but the feel of it all. It wasn’t her home anymore, and she felt, well, out of place. Sighing, Maddie made her way upstairs to her old bedroom with Grace by her side, while Olivia remained downstairs watching for any signs of her parents, just in case they got off work early.

Her bedroom was just the way she left it. Not even one thing looked out of place. There was a stack of mail accumulating on her dresser, which her parents continued to stack, almost like they were expecting her to come back. Shaking her head, she opened her closet, and began packing away the rest of her clothes. Luckily, it didn’t take very long, she already took most of them with her on tour. Grace was gathering the rest of her belongings into another box, so that way they could get out of there as soon as possible.

“Do you want to keep these?” Grace asked hesitantly. Maddie turned around and noticed the pictures in her hand that used to be on her cork board. She grabbed them and quickly shuffled through all of them. And of course, most of those were of her and Ryan.

“Um..” Maddie wasn’t sure why she was so hesitant about it, they were broken up, after all. But somehow, she still held onto some hope. After having so much history, you wouldn’t think it’d end so...abrupt. Regardless of how she felt about it, it was over and there was no changing that. So the best thing to do would be to move on. “No, you can throw them away.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, what’s done is done; and holding on to those pictures is like holding on to hope - pointless.” Grace built her lip for a second, before complying to her best friend’s wishes. After a few more minutes of quickly packing, she had everything she needed. After one last fleeting glance around her room, she noticed the pile of mail still on her dresser. She picked it up and riffled through it, nothing really catching her eye until she noticed one that was open, and from the Stanford Office of Admissions. Sitting down on her bed, Maddie tore the letter out of the envelope, quickly scanning the beginning, stopping as soon as she realized that she got accepted.

“Oh my God.”

“What is it?” Asked Grace rather absentmindedly.

“I got into Stanford.”

“Wait- what? Oh my God, Maddie that’s fantastic!” She exclaimed, sitting down next to her. But then she noticed her best friend's rather sullen expression.“What’s wrong? I thought you wanted to go to Stanford?”

“My parents want me to go to Stanford, but I don’t. I mean, yeah it’s a great college, and it’s amazing I got in, but it isn't what I want to do with my future, you know?” Grace nodded, knowing there was more she had to say. “It’s just that...the only thing I’d be happy doing is something with photography. And what I was doing up until a few days ago was perfect. I don’t want some nine-to-5 job in a boring office. I want to travel, and be on the road all the time.”

“You want to be with Ryan.” Grace paraphrased.

“I never said that.”

“You didn’t have to.”

She sighed, knowing her best friend was right. “But it doesn’t matter what I want. It’s what he wants.” Just as Grace was about to reply, Olivia called for them downstairs. Thinking it was a warning that Maddie’s mom or dad was home, they grabbed the remaining boxes and headed downstairs. But when they got downstairs, they saw her holding a ticket stub in her hand.

“You might want to look at this..” She said uncertainly, handing it to Maddie. “It was sitting on the kitchen counter.”

“It’s from Ryan’s show a few nights ago...the night we broke up.” She looked from the ticket stub in one hand to the acceptance letter from Stanford in the other. And suddenly it all made sense.

“You know what, Grace? I think that I will keep those pictures, after all.”

- - - -

A/N I’m just going to come right out and say it: I suck at updating. I am so sorry omg. Today I was on here, and saw how long ago I updated and yikes. Haha. But anyway, I hope this chapter makes up for it because yay now she knows the real reason Ryan broke up with her c: So, yeah...please vote and give me any feedback, it’s really appreciated! xx

Oh, and for those of you who like All TIme Low, I just posted a Jalex fic, you should go check it out :D