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A New Life

-Chapter 19: You Don't Have to Look too Far–

"I'm glad Rose. I'm glad we could work it out."

"So am I. You know what? I think I figured out why it was I wanted to talk to you so badly." Rose said.

"Really, what was it?" Alex asked.

"I love you Alex."

"What did you say?" Alex asked, bewildered. He had just heard the three words he had been hoping for Rose to utter for the majority of his life. He wanted to be sure it wasn't his imagination playing a cruel trick on him. He had imagined it happening enough times that he was surprised he hadn't starting believing it was a reality a long time ago.

"I'm sorry, Rose. Did you say you love me?" Alex repeated, disbelief lacing his voice.

"That's exactly what I said. And I meant it too." Rose said a little louder than the first time. The ocean breeze was becoming stronger, but not to the point of being unbearable. Alex stood in one place staring at Rose, but saying nothing. She was the most beautiful person in the world to him, and he could barely even comprehend the beauty of the moment he was in. The moment he had waited so long for.

"Say something Alex!" Rose exclaimed, now appearing slightly embarrassed as if she feared her feelings were not reciprocal with Alex's.

"I…love you too. You…you have no idea how long I've wanted you to know that. I love you Rose Oken." Alex stammered slightly, but there was warmth and passion in every word he articulated.

"So…if you've felt that way for so long, why in the world didn't you tell me?"

A million things flooded into his mind. A million reasons as to why he should have told her the truth, but never managed to succeed. But he didn't want to fill this very perfect moment with any negativity.

"I wanted to so many times. You have no idea…but you where seeing someone else and…well I tried once but it…" He didn't have the chance to finish a sentence that had no logical ending. Rose put her arm around his shoulder before sweetly and supplely locking her lips with his. The kiss was the most amazing sensation Alex knew to have ever experienced. There had never been the types of feelings he was experiencing now, when he had kissed Kristen. He was in total bliss. He knew now he was most certainly in love with Rose and it would always stay that way. He quickly reciprocated Roses' action by wrapping his hand around the back of her small neck and pulling her in tighter. By his actions he intensified the passion of the kiss and the feelings of the moment. When they pulled apart, several minutes later, they looked into each others' eyes with enough love to light up the world. Alex looked down into Rose's beautiful emerald green eyes. She looked so breathtaking; he knew the moment was much more captivating than he had ever though it would be. Rose looked up into his hazel colored eyes and detected only the most heart throbbing emotions from him. But what she also noticed where tears in his eyes.

"Why so sad?" Rose prodded.

"I'm not sad, I'm just crying cause…this…this thing, it's like all of a sudden it's been lifted from me. I don't know how to say this without sounding crazy but… I've wanted to tell you I loved you for so long and it just killed me inside not to be able to…but now…you're so cute you know?" Alex smiled through his tears, accidently changing the course of the conversation. Rose couldn't help but smile. He was being cute with her and not even trying. Which was something she had never experienced with Ben, he had been all "business". Rose tickled him playfully in the stomach.

"You…you…are…my only…" Alex was cut off again, this time from trying to be sweet with her. Rose jokingly pushed him; he landed on his back in the water. He was now soaked from head to toe. Playfully, Alex got to his knees and wrapped his arms around her back, pulling her down on top of him. She was now drenched as well. They lay down on the sand, their bodies below the waste still in the water, and kissed each other fervently. They pulled apart and just looked at each other, for what seemed like hours, without a word. They say that once you get the love you crave, you may not love that person at all. This was not the case for Alex. He could not be happier or more in love with Rose.

"So, do this mean we're…you know…dating?" Alex wondered aloud.

"I'm pretty sure there's no way we couldn't be. So, you're my boyfriend, Alex…wow, I really love you."

"Me too, I'm so glad you're my girlfriend. I love you so much."

They lay there on the beach, talking for quite some time. In that time Rose discovered that Alex was much different than he had been when last they spoke in depth. He seemed much more free spirited and on top of his world. He was much less childish and somewhat of an old soul. She now knew that was from the heartbreak, he was now revealing to her, of not having been able to express himself until now. He had been forced to heal his wounded soul by disposing of some of his childlike emotions that would have taken the average person well into their adulthood to lose.

"You seem…so different Alex."

"A good different, I hope…right?"

"Of course. I meant…really mature. I feel so different with you than I did with Ben. This must be the way a girl is supposed to feel with her boyfriend. It's like I feel…free, I feel happy all over. I feel like you would never…no that's not true. I know you would never do anything to hurt me. I trust you more than… than even my own brothers." Alex knew this was a strong statement because Rose had a very close bond with her brothers, more than most normal siblings.

"Wow, so you really love me?"

"I know, isn't it great, we're in love. You know some people say true love isn't real, and no matter how hard you try and no matter how far you look, you'll never find it. Well, I never believed that. And it turns out I never really had to look too far to find it."

"I knew it all along. You've always been such an amazing person to have as a friend. And now…girlfriend."

"I guess I knew all along too…I've always known you where a really special person. And now I'm realizing it goes even farther than I thought. I love you…"

"I love you too."

The next day Sam, Alice and Jimmy got together on the board walk of the pier.

"So I'm gonna start track next week, and I'm the captain of the team." Jimmy remarked.

"Sounds like fun Jim. Any news about college this fall?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, but don't you have news about that too?"

"We think you should go first with that." Alice said, a little sheepishly.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Just…let's hear about you first…okay? Please?"

"Okay, fine I've been accepted at UCLA. I decided I'm definitely going there cause they have the best pre-med program in California."

"That's great Jim, so you're gonna be a doctor. So maybe you can help me figure out what's up with all these freckles." Sam said, smiling.

"You're a red-head, it's natural. Duh!"

"I know…I was kidding. So…"

"So…Where are you guys going? It better be close to UCLA, I don't wanna be too far away from you. You said something about Cal Tech Sam?"

"Yeah, well Emily is going to ULA." Sam said, his face turning red. He had a very easy to spot tell. Due to the pigmentation of his skin, Sam would blush whenever he was deceiving someone.

"I don't care so much where your girlfriend is going. Where are you going Sam? And what about you Alice?"

"That was really insensitive. Way to care about your friends lives." Alice stabbed.

"I am caring. So come on tell me where you two are going. It's killing me."

"You have no idea." Sam said part way under his breath.

"What's that Sam man?"

"I said, what's the big idea?"

"The big idea is: I've told you where I'm going. Now you tell me."

"Okay, Jimmy…where both going to University of California at Berkley." Alice answered reluctantly.

"What? Berkley! That's six hours from UCLA! You can't!"

"Sorry. But we both want to be teachers, so that's the best place to go." Sam replied.

"Are you sure you can't go somewhere closer to me?"

"I wish it weren't this way."

"So, what are you saying? Are we breaking up?" Jimmy stammered.

"I guess so, at least temporarily." Alice said.

"Temporarily? It'll be four years before we graduate. Then another four before I'm out of med school. And who knows where I'll be going to med school?"

"I think we're strong enough we can be away from each other a lot, see each other on holidays…"

"That's if we can manage to get back here."

"Yeah, but then when you go to med school I can teach near wherever the med school is."

"You really think you'd move away with me?"

"Oh yeah, Jimmy I love you. We're together for life as far as I'm concerned."

"I hope you're right cause I'm not seeing anyone else in college. I know that."

"We all know that Jim. You're gonna be spending you're next four years at college studying to study another for years at another college." Sam interjected, giving Jimmy a look.

"Well thanks a lot guys, lots of support…" Jimmy commented sarcastically.

"It won't be hard to wait for you, I love you too much Jimmy." Alice said.

"Anybody sad for me? Em and me have to break up. We where together for… three years."

"Sam, that's really sad too. But you don't sound like you're gonna do any waiting." Jimmy replied.

"No we both agreed we could see other people. So…"

"So, yeah, that's that." Jimmy finished for him.

Sunday came and with it came Alex and Rose's first date. They walked down to the beach together, hand in hand.

"Well it's our first official date. It feels good to say that." Rose remarked.

"You have no idea." Alex replied, smiling brightly.

They stopped at a beach-side restaurant where Alex treated Rose to dinner. Afterwards they started to dance. As Alex held Rose close he whispered charming things into her ear. Just as the sun began to set they kissed, but only slightly.

"I love you Rose."

"I love you too Alex."

Notes to the readers:

*Reviews are much appreciated!

** This is the nineteenth chapter of my story "A New Life". If you haven't read my first saga you may not know where these characters are coming from. So you might want to read it, or at least "Meant to Be Parts 5-9". This story takes place before the end of "Meant To Be".

***Lilly and Oliver, and Miley and Jackson are in their thirties/forties. Jimmy is 17. Rose is 15. Michael and Susan (Miley's daughter), and Robbie Rod (Jackson's son) are 13.

****If you want to find my other stories (My first saga) click on my screen name on the top of this page, and you can find my stories on my profile. If you want to stay updated as to when I post new chapters, please subscribe to my username!

*****There will be more in the near future. So I hope you will continue reading.