Alright, this is the last chapter that I already have prepared, so updates may be a little slower than usual from here on out, because, well, life, but anyways.

Enjoy!

"So… wait… Josh and DeeDee aren't together?" Bex was squinting at me as she took off her heels later that night.

"Exactly what I thought when he told me. Apparently kissing her's "like kissing his sister."" I pulled the pins out of my hair and let out a sigh as it finally fell back down around my shoulders. My lingering headache immediately lessened without the prodding of the pins.

"Yeesh. Sounds even worse than that time Zach and I got put on kiss cam at the game," Bex paused in pulling off her tights just long enough to catch the glare I sent her way. "Speaking of Goode, I've been put off long enough. Spill."

Some day Rebecca Baxter was going to win a contest for most devious smirk.

"Um… What's there to know? He's just Zach," I attempted to shrug nonchalantly, but a smile was already threatening the edges of my mouth.

"Yeah, and obviously his lips are 'just Zach' too, because I haven't seen someone glowing like that since Preston lost it to Macey in tenth grade." She paused, a weird look appearing on her face. "God, it sounds weird to say it like that."

"Rebecca!"

"What?" She gave up trying to be delicate and proceeded to rip the tights off. I internally cringed. "I'm just saying, he's glorious, he's got glorious lips, and obviously they do glorious things."

"Bex, it might have helped you to try taking the tights off from the waistband, not the knee. That's how its supposed to be done."

"Can it, Cameron, or I'll tell Zach all about your little…" she made a general motion with her hand towards me, "whatever the kids are calling it these days. Now, I want details. Not a bloody offputting statement of 'he's just so sweet,' or 'it was wonderful.'"

I internally cringed at how well she resembled me in her imitations.

"I don't know, Bex. We went to that light thing. You know, the one that they had all of those posters up everywhere for? He asked me to go with him like, last month, and I said yes like an idiot because it wasn't cold yet," I rolled my eyes.

"Oh, because you so hadn't already begun to think about ways to keep warm. This thing has been cooking since, what, June? Don't try to fool me, Cam. I can read you like a book."

"Anyways," I set about freeing myself from my heels as well, "I got there, and he wasn't there, and I was honestly beginning to think he'd stood me up." Bex scoffed. "And then he was just there, and he was all adorable and in flannel and he had that crease he gets in his forehead when he's been thinking way too hard about something and he wishes that he'd worn his glasses and—"

"Was he wearing one of those god-awful Ski Louisiana shirts?"

"No, Bex, he wasn't. So he started talking about how he wanted the night to be perfect and—"

"And how he wanted you to marry him and have his 2.5 kids and a dog named Fido."

I promptly shot her a glare and threw a heel across the room to land beside her on her bed. "Rebecca, if you don't stop interrupting I'm just going to leave you to your imagination."

She huffed a half laugh. "That would definitely get more interesting than the real story. Anyways."

"Thank you. So I couldn't believe that I'd forgotten that it was the day he was supposed to find out about Columbia, right? And then he pulls out this letter and says that everything has to be perfect before he opens it. Oh, and he's been holding my hand through all of this…"

"He holds your hand all the time."

I moved to the bathroom and began taking off my jewelry. "Well, yeah, not really, but even so, this was different, you know? Things felt different. Like they were finally changing. And then the lights came on and we had this huge misunderstanding because I was stupid and then he opened the letter and got in for early admin and then he told me he got a job with the university and he'll be in India and then he kissed me and then we had coffee and then some girl tried to flirt with him, but he wasn't having it, and then he walked me to my car and then I saw him this morning and he basically said he's going to marry me."

I took a large breath, feeling good to have the whole affair off my chest, and secretly glad that Bex was the one to hear it. My mother would have been having a fit by that point if I were to tell her.

"Woah, woah, woah. Slow down, Jesse Owens," she knocked me to the side to have some mirror space as well. "You said he proposed?"

"No! Bex, we just kissed for the first time last night. He hasn't even officially asked me out yet. We're far from that."

She gave me a knowing look, "and yet, you say that he says he's going to marry you like it's no big deal."

"Can we not talk about that? I'm trying not to think about that part."

"The last person who told you that was Grant in the seventh grade, and you'd been officially dating a whole week. You said he was creepy and broke up with him. I'd say Zach's at least borderline psycho by those standards," she grabbed a washcloth and began washing off the night's makeup.

"Bex, that was seventh grade. And you know Zach. It isn't weird. Sometimes, you just know, right? He doesn't start things until he's absolutely positive that he's willing to stick it out for the long haul."

"Oh," Bex smirked, and I knew that she had me, "that explains the fact that he's had girlfriends before, then?"

"Okay, high school is a very different time, and hardly anything is expected to last for the long-term then. Plus, he didn't even mean the whole marriage thing. It just slipped out. He was upset, I was upset, there was a significant lack of sleep somewhere mixed in there. You know Zach. When he's upset with someone he's comfortable around, he has no filter. Every thought that even halfway comes to mind comes pouring out."

"Yeah, and it gets him into all kinds of trouble. Like right now."

"Bex, drop it. That's what I did. That's all you can do. He did."

"Okay, well fine. Let's move on. Did you say he got a job? At the college that he just graduated from?"

"Yeah…"

"Doing something other than secretarial or support staff work?"

"Leading the foreign journalism program in India this spring."

"Bloody hell… Solomon actually hired him?"

"Exactly. And he got accepted into Columbia."

"That's great! Isn't that what he wanted?"

"Exactly what he wanted," I sighed and threw my makeup-coated washcloth into the hamper. "Except he got accepted for this spring."

I could see the gears in Bex's head turning until they finally grinded to a halt at the problem. "Wait…"

"Exactly," I quickly changed into my pajamas and crawled into bed.

"And now he has you back home," she turned off the light and crawled into her own.

"Wow, Bex. Way to make me sound like an army wife. Seriously, it'll be easy compared to what some couples have to go through."

"When they've only been officially together for a few weeks?"

"Bex, it's practically been six months. We were just taking things slowly."

"Yeah," I could hear her disdain even from across the room, "slowly is right. But I'm sure it'll be fine, Cammie. Zach's pretty much perfect, and you're pretty much perfect, so things will stay pretty much perfect. Don't fool yourself, Cammie. As much as I love putting up with you as a best friend, I don't want to spend a semester nursing your broken heart."

I shouldn't have been shocked because, well, it was Bex, and she was known for being blunt, but I couldn't help but be a little hurt by her flippant attitude. Even though she and Grant had been on rocky ground since Thanksgiving, it didn't give her excuse to criticize my relationship decisions.

I rolled over and pretended to be asleep.

I know it's kind of a boring chapter, but Bex and Cam's relationship needed to be introduced, and Zach's still back home thinking, if you catch my hint.

Review and tell me how you liked it? How the weather is where you are?

(yesterday I wore nike shorts and chacos. Today I'm wearing my heaviest winter coat and uggs. Its kind of funny to walk across campus and see how confused people are because no one knows what to wear. It's January, of course, so yesterday people were dying of heat stroke in sweaters, and then today there are people who woke up and saw it was 50 degrees and are now practically turning blue because it's dropped to the thirties and its super windy and they're wearing sandals and capri leggings)

Anyways, see ya later

Inez