*Sigh* The time has come. I'm so not ready to say goodbye to this story, ugh. It's the first multi-chapter story I complete, and I feel so weird. Anyways. If you guys don't want to read my cheesy speech, you can skip to the story.

For those of you sticking around for my cheesy speech, hello! I would like to thank all of you for joining me on this adventure. It's amazing that I was able to reach so many people through this story. I never expected this kind of feedback from the readers, so this is amazing. I love you all, thank you so much to everyone who added this story to their favorites and/or have followed it, and a special thanks to the ones who took the time to review. You are all amazing!

Now, before I cry for real, here is the last chapter to Twenty Nights. I hope you'll enjoy, and I'll see you for the epilogue.

Night 20: August 14th

Lucas couldn't sleep. He had been tossing and turning all night, and it was now two in the morning. Riley and Maya were moving away to college, tomorrow. The day after, it was his turn. The day after that, Zay and Farkle's.

Truth be told, he didn't want to leave his friends. He would have done everything to go to the same school as them once more, but Cornell had offered him a full ride, and his mother didn't have the money to pay for college. Cornell also happened to have one of the best programs in the country. But he would be far away from all of his friends, and his girlfriend.

As he got up from his bed for what seemed like the hundredth time that night, he picked up his phone to text Maya.

To: Shortstack

8/14

I'm coming over. (2:03 AM)

To: Huckleberry

8/14

Can't sleep? (2:04 AM)

To: Shortstack

8/14

Not without you around. (2:07 AM)

To: Huckleberry

8/14

Sap.

Lucas chuckled at her last text. He didn't bother getting dressed, except for a t-shirt he pulled over his head. He was pretty sure that walking around New York at two AM without a shirt on would look strange. But he had seen even stranger thing…

He snapped out of his thoughts and made his way downstairs. His mother was the heaviest sleeper, or if she was awake, she knew exactly where he was heading. She had given him several hints about knowing where he went all of those nights, but she had never told him directly to his face that she knew he was going to Maya's. If she wasn't fine with it, she would have said so.

Lucas made his way out the door and took the familiar path to Maya's house.

For the last time, he thought. It felt so strange knowing that tomorrow all of this would be all over. No more seeing his friends every single day, no more barging into Riley's window whenever he needed advice, no more sleeping over at Farkle's with Zay, no more boy's nights, no more watching Friends with his best friends (how ironic was it that they had just finished season 10?), no more sneaking into Maya's room to make her (and him) feel better. Tomorrow, all of that would be gone.

He didn't want it to end.

Three knocks.

Maya was sitting on her bed, drawing. He couldn't see what she was drawing, but when she heard the knock, she put her sketch down and he could see. It was a drawing of the gang, sprawled out on the floor, watching what he guessed was friends. But it was them, all of them, smiling. Maya had captured the moment perfectly, almost as if she had taken a picture.

He was still staring at the sketch when Maya opened the window. Once he heard the window lock in place, he turned to his girlfriend. He couldn't help but smile at her. Maya was the only one that ever made him feel like everything would be okay.

"Hey, sap." Maya greeted, a grin stretching across her face. He gave her a quick kiss on the lips before slipping inside her room. He quickly kicked off his shoes and took off his shirt, letting himself flop onto Maya's bed. The blonde sat next to him and he moved, resting his head in her lap. She ran her fingers absent-mindedly through his hair.

"Why couldn't you sleep?" She asked. But he knew that she knew. He didn't reply, simply closing his eyes. He heard her sigh.

"I'm going to miss you, too." She tried. Lucas opened his eyes and looked up at her, sea foam eyes meeting the bright blue eyes he was going to miss.

They had already arranged a time where they would Skype-call each other. They had made a promise that no matter what, they couldn't skip it. Unless you're dead or dying, Maya had chimed in. Lucas had rolled his eyes, very well expecting his girlfriend to take it to the extreme. They would text each other every day, they had promised. Visit each other at least once a month. And Lucas was okay with all of those terms. He still wished he was with her at Yale, but he wasn't going to drop his dream just for Maya, and she was aware of that. She had threatened to punch him if he ever dropped everything for her. She knew how much it meant to him to become a veterinarian, so who was she to stand in the way?

Maya leaned down and kissed Lucas' forehead before grabbing her sketchpad and resuming her drawing. One of her knees was bent, and she rested her sketchpad on it to draw. The other leg was occupied by Lucas, and she was fine with that. Maya preferred not to think about the fact that she was leaving all of her friends soon. She wanted to leave and get it over with, because the longer she would think about it, the more it would hurt.

"Hey, Maya?" He asked.

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

"I love you, too." She said, a small smile on her face. She put her drawing aside and leaned down once more to kiss him. The two shared a long kiss before Maya pulled away.

"This isn't our last kiss. You're acting like we'll never see each other again." Maya said. Lucas moved his head to one of her pillows so she could lie next to him. The blonde rested her head on her boyfriend's chest, her ear pressed against it to listen to his heartbeat.

"I'm sorry. I care about you a lot. I just don't want us to drift apart." He said.

"Sap." Maya replied. He chuckled, just like he always did when she would call him that.

A few minutes of silence later, Maya heard Lucas' breathing slowing down and then steady itself. He had finally fallen asleep.

Maya snuggled more into Lucas' side. It felt strange to know that this was their last night like this, him sneaking into her bedroom at night. It sounded weird to think about it like that, and most people would assume it was all about sex. But to Maya, it was so much more. If you had told her that she would have ended up in a relationship with Ranger Rick, she probably would have told you to go take your medicine or something. But now that she was here, everything felt fine. She would have never thought that someone like Lucas could have fallen for her, and she never would have thought that she could fall for someone like Lucas. But they were more alike than she had first thought.

Maya was now certain that they could make it through the distance. 455.92 miles wasn't that far.

The blonde played with her necklace, the ring he had given her hung to it. After a joke about getting each other promise rings, he had gone out and had gotten them some. One for him, and one for her. She kept it next to her locket. In the middle was the locket her mother had gotten her on her fourteenth birthday, on the right of the locket was her best friend ring that Riley had given her, and on the left of the locket was her promise ring. She brought the locket up to her lips and kissed it. It's for good luck, Farkle had pointed out when Riley had seen her do it. And he was right.

Her eyes found Lucas, peacefully sleeping. She leaned up and kissed his cheek before resting her head back on his chest, listening to his heartbeat and for one last time, falling asleep next to him, in the comfort of her bed.

And that was the twentieth night Lucas knocked on Maya's window.

A/N: Thank you so much for reading. Don't forget to leave a review, I love you all. I hope you enjoyed.

xx

-Snow