I want to apologize to you guys! I promised myself I wouldn't be the person who posted chapters only every month or so and I have become that person. Between oral surgery, senior year starting, and the guy I was dating going back to college (thus effectively removing any shred of romantic inspiration from me), I just didn't know what to write. Please forgive me. I hope this sorta makes up for it all. Once again, I don't own these characters (I so wish I did).

XOXO,

M

I got three quarters of the way to the center when I remembered I don't do cardio and I was already having problems breathing because of the shock of kissing Adrian. How did I feel?

Exhilarated, I thought traitorously. I took off my shoes and wandered around the next bend where I found an oddly placed bench. I plopped down and began taking down my hair angrily. This whole night wouldn't have happened if I hadn't let him talk me into going. After several long moments, I had a large piles of pins next to me on the bench and stiff curls hung down around my face.

I felt like I was backed into a corner. On the one hand, kissing Adrian was the best thing I had done in my life. One the other hand, if this went somewhere and then went south (like the rest of his relationships), I'd lose one of the only people I care about. That'd rip my heart apart.

I continued on my dangerous train of thought before it was interrupted by giggling and shushing. I looked to my left to see Jill and Eddie attached at the lips, stumbling through the maze like a blissfully happy couple wishing to get lost in their own little pocket of space and time.

My heart ached suddenly and I realized I wanted that. I wanted a care free love.

Jill and Eddie stumbled off without noticing me. I felt so alone. I was simultaneously saving and destroying my own happiness.

I grabbed my shoes and began meandering further into the maze, abandoning the pins. I walked, staring at my feet, watching each plodding step when I heard my name shouted behind me.

"Sydney! Wait, please!"

Adrian came running up, looking more disheveled than I've ever seen him.

"Sydney, I know why you ran away from me but I can't apologize for it. I've wanted to do that since the first time I saw you. I will never regret kissing you. It kills me to think that's the only time I'll ever kiss you, but I can live with the fact that at least I got to kiss you once. I love you, Sydney. I've always loved you."

Tears began flowing down my face, surely making Jill's makeup masterpiece run in multicolored streams down my cheeks. "How could you spring this on me now? I love you, too, you asshole! But I can't ever deal with losing you! How do you know this won't fuck everything up? You made me feel more in one kiss than I've felt in my whole life but I'll be damned if you think I would risk our friendship!"

"Sydney, you can't ever lose me. No one I have ever met has ever meant more to me than you mean."

He placed a hand on my cheek and carefully wiped away the tears that cascaded down it. "Please don't cry."

I hugged him tightly, unable to think of anything else to do in that moment.

"I'm not going anywhere, Sage," he murmured into my hair.