Jamie

September 5th, 2028

12:54 p.m.

"No way. Absolutely no way! That is not how they broke up!" AJ complained.

"No, it's exactly how they broke up!" My beautiful daughter, Dawn, turned to me. "I read the memoir," she told me proudly.

Dawn was the child born when Stella first got pregnant. You could tell she is Stella's, because she looks like an exact clone of her. A 13 year old replica that is. The only main difference was her personality.

AJ has grown so much since the infant we all came to know. He's outspoken, yet surprisingly gentle, like his sister. He loves his brown hair long. He's grown into a handsome 14 year old man.

He and Dawn have become best friends since their first meeting. The two were practically inseperable.

I raised my eyebrows. "You read your Uncle's memoir?"

Dawn rolled her eyes at me. "Duh! You and Mom never tell us the full story!"

I shook my head in amusement. "You know I told you not to read that. There are very mature themes in that book."

Dawn scoffed while AJ continued to complain. "There's no freaking way that's why Chloe and Kyle broke up. Chloe always told me that they "grew apart.'"

Dawn laughed. "Your sister lied to you, AJ. I read the memoir. I know."

I wanted to laugh, but Dawn was supposed to be in trouble. "Yes, AJ, she's right. Even though Dawn was told not to read Kyle's memoir, what I just told you both is true. Kyle broke up with Chloe at Dakota's grave because he blamed himself for Dakota's death. A part of him may have blamed Chloe, but he was so racked with guilt that he couldn't stay with Chloe. He had nightmares that she was dying too, and that he couldn't save her."

"Is that when he got the drinking problem?" Dawn asked excitedly.

"Dawn!" AJ and I replied, scandalous.

"What?" she asked innocently.

"You don't just ask that…" AJ facepalmed.

"Correct, AJ," I confirmed. "That's a very sensitive topic for your Uncle Kyle, Dawn. You should know better than that."

Dawn looked down, obviously chastised for her behavior. "I'm sorry."

"Apology accepted. I think you've been hanging out with Aunt Max too much."

"Maybe a little."

"I have her to blame for starting your detective habit. Besides," I decided to change the subject. "I thought you read the memoir?"

"I only read half. Partly because I felt guilty for disobeying you, partly because I left it at home when we left for the wedding."

"Hmph."

While the two teens bickered, I checked the time. "Alright, kids. We only have a few minutes before we go back to the church. I'll just give you two a brief rundown of everything else."

"Awe," AJ whined. "I like the detail. Except the parts where you said Chloe and Kyle kissed and the… other stuff. That's my sister."

"Yeah," Dawn agreed. "It's like you know the exact wording of the book."

"Well, I helped him write it," I replied with a satisfied smirk. (A/N: yes I broke the fourth wall. Deal with it.) "Like I said though, we don't have enough time to go into detail, so I'll give you both a brief rundown:

As you both know, your Aunt Max and Uncle Warren settled down. Uncle Warren got his degree at Oregon University and became a chemistry professor at Blackwell. Aunt Max became world renowned photographer and philanthropist. She took a brief break when they had their daughter, Halley."

"She's so cute," Dawn interrupted.

"Yeah, yeah, she's something else," AJ muttered.

"What was that, AJ?" Dawn warned.

"She's a little brat is all I'm saying…"

"You take that back! She is an angel!"

"You're only saying that because you babysit her!"

"Kids! Enough!"

"Sorry, Dad."

"Sorry, Uncle Jamie."

I waited until they were ready for me to continue before I soldiered on. "Regardless, as you both know, Aunt Max is pregnant with their second child."

"Obviously, as you well know, Stella and I would continue our education while managing to raise you, Dawn."

Dawn beamed at the recognition.

"And then, of course, after we both had graduated, we had your brothers: Michael and Liam. Of course, your mother became a mathmatician. I used the photography classes to help me become an author."

"A New York Times Best-selling author!"

"Geez, Dawn. If you're going to keep interrupting, maybe Uncle Jamie shouldn't finish the story."

"I'm sorry, Dad."

"No worries. And yes, Dawn. I did make the New York Times. Anyway, you kids don't know the rest of Kyle and Chloe's story. As I said, Kyle went to the University of Pittsburgh to start a band. Meanwhile, Chloe became a graphic artist and made her own decent living.

Kyle's band took off. They aren't the next Rolling Stones or anything, but we have heard them on the radio.

They dated different people. I'm sure both of you remember them. Chloe dated Matthew, Vanessa, and Courtney. Even got engaged with Courtney for a small time.

Kyle dated different people too. You guys may not remember Ash or Jamey."

"I bet that must have been difficult for you, Uncle Jamie."

"Tell me about it. I'm sure the both of you will remember, Zoe."

"She was a terrible influence," Dawn recalled.

"She was a bitch," AJ added.

"AJ," I warned. "And yes, Dawn, she wasn't a good influence. She showed him the party scene. And this is when his drinking problem really started to take a bad turn.

He kept refusing to get help for it, until one faithful day. You see kids, there was a reason why we always did two different holiday parties. Whether it was Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, etc, we always had two parties to avoid an awkward conversation between Chloe and Kyle. Hell, even at our weddings we worked to keep them as seperate as possible.

One year, Kyle accidentally mixed up the dates of the Thanksgiving party. Maybe this was due to the drinking, Zoe, or whatever, but he and Chloe had a run in.

It was awkward, as you can imagine. But they eased it out, and started talking before Zoe came back into the picture. Needless to say, she didn't appreciate Kyle talking to his ex, but that was the catalyst.

Chloe became worried for Kyle. Only, she couldn't do anything because Zoe kept her away. We don't know why he did it, but one day Kyle decided to dump Zoe and check himself into rehab, and he's been clean ever since.

Next holiday, Easter, we got tired of throwing two parties. We remembered that Kyle and Chloe got along well enough, and we were tired of playing shenanigans. Kyle offered to bring the band, even though they were on hiatus, to meet you, AJ-"

"It was sweet! Paul and Aaron were the coolest!"

"Yeah they were. Anyway, Chloe and Kyle hit it off again. I don't know if it was then, or after that day, but they reconciled. A year later, on their first show back, Kyle stopped the show to ask Chloe to marry him."

A new voice came into the room, adding to the final parts of the story. "It was a pretty good show, all things considered."

Dakota's younger sister, Piper, entered the room. With her were my beautiful, yet fraternal twin sons, Micheal and Liam. Michael took a little more after his mother while Liam took more after me. Both of them shared my eye color.

Holding Piper's hand was Max and Warren's four year old daughter Halley. She took after Max, with her freckles and eyes, but she retained her dad's nose and hair.

Piper smiled. "You guys ready to go? It's nearly time, best man."

I stood up smiling. "Alright, I'm ready. Let's get this show on the road."

The two of us each guided the kids back to the lighthouse on the east side of Arcadia Bay. When we arrived, Piper took me aside. "Kyle wants you to meet him in his room. I'll take care of the kids, okay?"

After I thanked her, I left the kids with her to carry out my duty. Kyle appointed me as best man and had asked me to distract the kids while he and Warren finished setting up. I.e. Warren was getting Kyle mentally prepared for the wedding. Warren and I decided that I was probably the better of the two of us when it came to dealing with the kids. Warren was on "husband patrol".

Thankfully for me, Piper was ready and willing to help me distract the kids.

Going to the back of the lighthouse seemed the most plausible solution. I thought about knocking on the oak door, but I decided against it. I knew we were already pressed for time.

Warren saw me entering first, "Oh cool, you're back."

"Hey, Warren. How is he?"

Warren lent me a small, somewhat tired smile. He had grown well since 2015. He looked the same, only slightly taller. He had cut his long hair down to a reasonable length. "He's okay now. He went to the bathroom."

"He freaked out, didn't he?"

"Of course he did."

"And after weeks of promising us he wouldn't be the one to freak out." I shook my head mockingly.

"Tell me about it."

It was true for both Warren and myself. Before either of our weddings, we freaked out just before with anxiety and doubts. It first happened to me, and I had to lean on the both of them to get me to that alter. The same thing happened to Warren. We both knew it would happen to Kyle, even if he denied it.

"How bad was it?"

Warren chuckled at the memory. "He tried to cut his own hair. Insisting it had to look 'perfect'."

"Jeez."

"He almost did it too! He had the razor on and nearly touching the front of his head before I unplugged it."

"That's almost as bad as mine!"

Just when we were about to reminisce, Kyle exited the bathroom. He looked fresh in his tuxedo. His hair was short, but slightly styled for the occasion. He had finally shaved his face. He was right, he did look ten years younger fresh faced. "Hey, Jamie! Glad to see you back. How are the kids?"

"They're good. I'm glad to be back."

He surprised me by pulling me into a hug. "Thanks for always being here. You too, Warren. Thank you for always having my back."

"We're family," I answered. "It's what we do."

Our bonding moment was interrupted by the rapping on the oak door. David entered then. He looked slightly miffed, but he put on a handsome smile. A fatherly smile.

"It's time."

Kyle took a deep breath. He adjusted his tie. "Okay, I'm ready."

The rest of the ceremony passed by in a blur. I smiled at little Halley being the flower girl. I shook my head at my boys being the ring bearers. But hey, I was still proud. They're just goofballs.

I grinned at Max, the maid of honor. I gave the other treatment to the others that appeared. Of course, I blew a kiss to my wife Stella and the kids (to their embarrassment).

When Chloe came out, I almost "awed" with the rest of the crowd. She did look magnificent (although she wasn't a Stella by any means) in her dress. She went with a simpler approach. There was no long bridal trail as far as I could see, the veil was short, but acceptable. She even added her own flair to the dress, with some "fashionable" rips to in the hip and leg, though not too many.

She looked similar to the Chloe of 13 years ago, but just enough differences. Her hair had reverted back to its original all blue setting, but she had shaven the left side of her head and let the right side grow long. It suited her.

She also walked with a slight limp from the incident. No one would ever guess unless they knew her history.

She really did fit the bill of a "punk" bride.

One look at the Kyle's beaming face told the world exactly how he felt.

One look at Warren and Max, Stella, plus Chloe and Kyle standing at the alter together, caused me to reach an epiphany. Life works in strange ways, but we each found our own paths to happiness. Even if it took some longer than others.

As a kiss sealed Mr. and Mrs. Sherman's union, I finally understood how destiny works.

Author's Note: Well, this Collide. Honestly, this story was never planned by me, but it's funny how things work out. Speak originally started as a story idea by Master Assassin Ezio 9 (Jamie), but he let me have it (thanks by the way).

Then, an idea formed for a self-insert story with Chloe which became Everchanging. It was never supposed to be a series. But I loved writing Dakota so much, my first original character, that I thought I'd add her. I thought, "why not add to the continuity?"

Then, Jamie had the idea for Collide. At first, I was a little skeptical. But as the story unfolded, as the characters grew, I started to warm up to the idea.

Killing off Dakota was hard. I loved her as a character, but I wanted to give Damon more of the edge that Brooke didn't have. I didn't want to make the same cut and paste final battle/climax, so I wanted to make the stakes real. Killing Dakota seemed the best choice. RIP.

The biggest problem I ran into: I had no ending. I know some people reading this would've wanted an extension from Chapter 10 with Chloe and my character dealing with the mental scars brought upon by the "Damon incident."

The truth is, I thought about it. At the time, I had absolutely no plans on how to end it after the "Damon incident."

I've always wanted to keep these stories true to life. Or at least as close to it as I could. If a couple went through something as dramatic as that, I doubt they would stay together for long. But I wanted to have a happy ending.

A couple of days ago, I had an idea for this ending. It all started with "well what if Jamie, was telling this story to his kids?"

Now, I finally had an ending. Where before I had been just throwing darts at a board, and nothing was sticking, now I had hit a bullseye, at least in my mind. I didn't have the idea for how they broke up until I had the idea for future Jamie telling this story.

I understand if the ending is seemingly random, but all the problems I set to have for the characters were solved. Putting a chapter 11 or 12 or whatever just seemed like it was stretching out the story too thin. It didn't seem fun. It wasn't something I wanted to write, at least right now.

But, this ending allowed me to tie up loose strings. It allowed me to bring a satisfying, cohesive end to the story. Yet it also gave me something to write about if I ever wanted to come back to the story.

Well, that's Collide. I hope you enjoyed. I'm going back to work on the other story, "Your Name is Strange", and then I have an idea for a project in mind.

Thank you,

HU