Seven Years Later Still the Same.

Chapter 1: An Old Friend

Alyssa's POV:

It had been about seven years since I had fought Chase, but I still remember it like it was yesterday. I remember the look on his face. My sad attempts at stalling him, because I knew she was too weak to fight him. But I had been the one who beat him, right? I had been the one who had thought out the plan. It had worked hadn't it? I had in fact beat Chase Collins, the one who called himself "unbeatable". It was me who defeated him, though as I look back on the matter, I realize that I had done nothing. It was a stupid plan that only worked out of sheer luck. All of their powers put together couldn't have defeated him. The energy ball had set the barn on fire. That was what killed him, not the blast of energy. I had spent a lot of my life thinking back on this moment. Analyzing it, trying to figure out exactly what happened, but it was just a waste of my time.

I hadn't talked to the boys in a while, not even Reid, except during the holidays when I went back home to visit. I graduated Spencer's, and was currently attending NYU. Sky and I had both been accepted there. It wasn't Yale, where I had dreamed of going, but it was nice. I had majored in Drama, which was fun. I also took acting jobs around New York. Sky and I had stayed very close, and lived in a very small apartment together. Even with us splitting the rent, it was still hard to afford, and there was little money left for everything else. I had gotten a scholarship and my mother had agreed to pay the rest of the tuition fees, but mom paid for nothing else. I was about turn 21. I hadn't used in a while, and sometimes, I even forgot about my powers completely.

The only thing that hadn't changed was that I still always felt like I was being watched. I didn't worry about it much though. I had gotten used to it. I had thought about the brothers a lot. Reid sometimes, though she saw him occasionally, even Tyler and Caleb sometimes. But mostly about Pogue. He was what now, 24? 25 maybe even. I always wanted to ask Reid about him, but I never really got the chance to. I had last seen him about three years ago. At my 18th birthday actually… he was 22 then I think.

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"Oh look! The birthday girl finally arrived!" Reid yelled, putting a paper hat on my head.

It wasn't a big party. Just the brothers, Sky, Alex, and Lily, some family. That was it. It was at the house, and my mother wasn't too excited that I was having a party there, though I noticed the look of relief on her face when she saw that it was just a small group of people. I had opened all my gifts and had a great time. Tyler was the last one to leave, (Sky, Alex, and Lily had left before I ascended) except for Pogue, who said he needed to fix his bike. He borrowed a few tools from the shed and went outside to fix his bike. It was a weekend, and Reid and I decided to spend the night at our parent's house.

I headed outside.

"Need any help?" I asked. It was late and kind of cold, so I wrapped my jacket tightly around myself. He stopped fixing his bike and stood up. He walked over to me, and put his arms around my waste. I looked down at them and then back up at him. He smiled. 'What is he doing?' I thought to myself, not knowing what to expect. He began to kiss me, and for a while I kissed him back, but I pulled away.

"What's wrong?" he asked, looking kind of confused.

"I can't do this Pogue." I said, not really sure what I meant.

"What do you mean you can't do this?" he said, moving closer to me. He put his arms around my waist again. "You used to love me." he said, looking somewhat hurt.

"I was thirteen then, Pogue! I'm going to college, off in New York. I don't know if I'll ever even see you again! I can't start a relationship now!"

"Alyssa!" he said stroking my hair. "Of course I'll see you again! How can you even say that?" he said. I was almost in tears now.

"I'm sorry Pogue, but I can't." I ran back into the house, and went into my room to get a hold of myself before anyone saw that I had been crying.

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Strangely enough, on this date, I remember this moment better than I remember when I ascended. I had never forgotten this moment and I don't think I ever will. I still think that I made the wrong choice, but I know that it was for the best. I hadn't seen him since then, so I suppose I was right about that. I had just gotten out of school. I was in my junior year. I was running back home, to see if Sky was there, so I could remind her that the rent money was due today. Anyway, on my way there, I bumped into someone. He helped me gather up the things that I had dropped and handed them back to me. When I stood up I was shocked to see who was standing before me.

"Alyssa!" he said, surprised.

"Pogue!" I yelled, throwing my arms around him and embracing him in a tight hug. "I haven't seen you in forever!"

"I know!" he said smiling. We really need to catch up on things!"

"I know! Maybe we could meet sometime soon!" I suggested.

"That sounds great. We could do it tonight if your free." He said, still smiling.

"Okay great! Where do you wanna meet?" I asked.

We decided on an Italian place near 2nd street. It was nice, pretty quiet, not that crowded, and not that expensive either.

"So what have you been up to?" Pogue asked.

"Not much. I'm majoring in drama at NYU." I said, taking a large bite of my spaghetti. Some sauce splattered onto my chin but I wiped it off with my finger and then licked it off. He laughed.

"What?" I asked.

He laughed again. "Nothing, nothing. That was cute." he said.

I flashed him a sarcastic smile. "Well, you know me. Always so darn adorable!" I laughed. He did too.

"I notice you haven't lost that quality about you." He said.

"Mhm. I'll always be the same old Alyssa, you know that." I said, taking another large bite of my spaghetti, this time managing not to splatter my chin with sauce again.

"Yeah, I know." He said. I could here a happy tone in his voice.

"So how have you been?" I asked. I began thinking about what happened to Kate. They were broken up the last time I had seen him, but that was nearly 3 years ago.

"Good." He said. "I just moved to New York a little while ago." He said. "Oh and did you know Sarah and Caleb are getting married? They just announced it about a week ago, before I left. Tyler's been doing pretty well. Misses you though. We all do." he said.

"I miss you guys too." I said. There was an awkward silence, until I finally said, "Getting married, wow!" I felt somewhat stupid after saying that. My cell phone rang. I looked at the screen. It was Sky.

"Mind if I get this?" Alyssa asked

"No, of course not!" he said.

She ran outside.

"Hello?" Alyssa answered.

"Hey where are you?" Sky asked.

"Out to dinner." Alyssa said, kind of hesitantly. She knew Sky was going to make a big deal out of this.

"With who?" she asked, suspiciously. 'Here it comes.' I thought.

"Pogue." I said. "I bumped into him earlier today and we wanted to catch up."

"Ooh!" she said. "Pogue! Isn't he the one that you used to like?"

I hesitated. "Yeah, but that was when I was thirteen!" it was times like these that I really regret telling Sky about what happened on my 18th birthday between us.

"But what about your 18th birthday? He liked you then remember?"

"Yeah but-"

"And you wanted to say yes but you didn't know if you would ever even see him again."

"I know but-" there was no use arguing. I wasn't going to win.

"Alyssa! This is your second chance! You can finally be with Pogue! Now get back to your date! Love ya!" she said happily.

"Yeah, yeah. Love you too. Bye. Be home soon!" I said. I hung up the phone and ran back inside, still thinking about what she had said. I sat back down.

"Hey sorry about that." I apologized to Pogue.

"Oh no problem!" he said. We began talking and eating for a while and I was surprised that by the end of the meal, I had managed to not get a single stain on my shirt. We asked for the bill and when it came, I pulled out $20.

"No." Pogue said. "Let me get it." He said, pulling out his credit card.

"No!" I said. "I've got it."

"Come on, please let me pay." He said.

I sighed. "Fine." I laughed and so did he.

I began thinking about what Sky had said. I grabbed a napkin and the pen from the checkbook. I wrote down my cell phone number and handed it to Pogue.

"Here." I said, "call me sometime." He took the number and smiled. He called for a cab and asked if I needed a ride anywhere.

"No that's okay, thanks though." I said. "I'm walking home."

"That's not safe!" Pogue said, looking at her, worriedly. "Come on hop in, really."

I hesitated. "Alright fine." I said. He flashed me a big smile and I hopped in. I told the driver my address and we got there in about 5 minutes.

"Thanks." I said. Pogue leaned over and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

"I'll call you, soon!" he said. I opened the door an jumped out of the cab.

"Sounds good." I said, which sounded kind of… flirty... if that's what you want to call it.

I walked to the door, and the feeling that someone was watching me came back. I looked around but saw no one. I ran up the stairs quickly and walked through the door. Sky was sitting on her bed, watching a movie. She looked up at me as I walked in.

"Sooo…" she said like she was expecting me to tell her that he had just proposed and we were getting married in two weeks.

"Nothing happened." I said, changing into my pajamas and jumping into my bed.

"Come on! Something must've happened!" she said

"He paid for dinner and then paid offered me a cab ride home. I gave him my number, he said he'd call, he kissed me on the cheek, and we talked a lot. Oh and Caleb and Sarah are getting married." I said, in an annoyed tone.

She frowned at this for a moment but then got back to the subject. "What!?!?" she yelled. "That's great! He paid, he kissed you!"

"On the cheek!" I added.

"Still!" she yelled. "This is great! You finally your second chance with Pogue!"

"I don't know Sky… maybe." I said. I turned out the light and turned on my side, officially ending the conversation. It was hard for me to fall asleep that night. Not only was I felling like I was being watched again, which as weird because I never felt that inside our apartment, but also that I kept thinking about what Sky had said about Pogue. Was it really my second chance with him? I don't know… I just don't know.