Still own nothing. These kids are mine.

"It's a big girl world now, full of big girl things." Scratch, Kendall Payne

September

"I hate my roommate."

I smiled and picked at the threading in the blanket on my bed. "Me too."

"Abbey, seriously, the kid snores louder than Matt. Louder than Matt and Emmett together! It is absolutely ridiculous. I don't think I've had a full nights sleep since I freaking moved down here."

I couldn't help but laugh at how frustrated he sounded. Granted it wasn't funny, and I knew better than anyone how grumpy Tripp could get if he didn't get enough sleep, but I kind of felt sorry for his roommate. An annoyed Tripp was not fun to deal with.

"You think it's funny," he muttered, "but I'm leaving this weekend to go visit my grandparents just so I can get some freaking sleep."

"I'm sorry." My voice didn't sound very convincing but I could tell from his voice that he wasn't really angry.

"Yeah, yeah. So what's the deal with your roommate? Does she snore? Or leave food all over your room? Steal your clothes?"

I sighed and lay back against my bed. "No, she just keeps talking about how cute my dad is. It's creepy, Tripp. I'm like… I dunno. When they dropped me off, she was asking for pictures with him and… it's gross."

"Well…" I could tell he was trying not to laugh. "Your dad is pretty hot, Abbey."

I rolled my eyes. "Shut up."

He started laughing, which then lead to me laughing along with him, and pretty soon the two of us were trying to catch our breath.

When we both became quiet, I sighed into phone. "I miss you."

"I miss you, too."

I closed my eyes and just listened to the sound of him breathing into the phone, imagining him lying beside me and now thousands of miles away. Since I'd been in New York, I'd constantly been reminding myself that I'd made the right decision. We were too young to be married, too young to give up the chance to experience what life had in store for us. As much as this hurt, as much as I hated being away from him, I'd done the right thing.

"Do you have anywhere to be?" He slowly asked me.

I shook my head while answering. "No."

He sighed and I could hear the bed moving underneath him. "Just keep… You don't have to talk just… don't hang up."

I smiled. "Are you falling asleep?"

His breathing was getting slower and I heard him mumble something that sounded like a yes. So I pulled the blanket up over my legs and situated my head against the pillow. "Tripp?"

"Hmm?"

"Love you."

He sighed into the phone before telling me that he loved me too.

xXxXxXx

October

"Again."

I tried to keep my sighing and smart ass comments to myself and took a second to flex my fingers. I was given an annoyed look from my professor, Mrs. McCrane, before replaying the same portion of the same song that I'd been trying to get right for the past hour.

I'd been playing the piano since before I could even walk. Although I had no concept of what music was at that point, my father would sit me on his lap and let me bang my hands against the keys. As I grew up, he taught me how to actually play. Music had always been something I'd excelled at, something I'd prided myself on, and it wasn't until I'd shown up in New York and started attending classes, that I was made to feel like I had no clue what I was doing.

When I'd applied to Juilliard, I was told that my performance had been inspiring and phenomenal. But apparently my professors, especially this one, felt like I was nothing more than ordinary at best.

"Miss Cullen, have you even practiced this song outside of our lessons?"

I nodded my head and kept playing; trying to figure out what the hell it was that she wanted from me. My pace might have been a little slow in some areas, but for the most part, I felt like I'd been doing better than okay.

She walked around the piano, looking like some sort of overgrown vulture, and critiqued everything from my posture to the way I lingered on one note for a second too long. By the time my lesson was over, I had a splitting headache and never wanted to touch a piano again.

I walked into my dorm room, hoping for some peace and quiet, only to find my roommate practicing some sort of ballet movements.

"Hey." She leaned over, and smiled at me through the space between her legs. "I'm just stretching before I leave for class."

I nodded my head and dropped my backpack on my bed. "Your flexibility makes me somewhat nauseous."

"Really?" Leslie straightened back up and gave me a sarcastic grin. "The boys love it."

"I bet they do."

She went back to twisting her body into shapes that made my head spin and I dug my musical theory book out of my bag. Leaving Leslie to her bending and stretching, I left our room, bypassed everyone sitting in the lounge, and headed straight for the soundproof practice rooms.

After flipping the sign to occupied, I dropped my books and cell phone on the table and gave a quick glare to the piano that was sitting in the corner. Technically, we weren't supposed to use these rooms for anything other than practicing, but I was tired of sharing a space with two hundred other students. Besides, I knew people who used these rooms for way more than just practicing their instruments, Leslie being one of them. She'd assured me that the rooms were definitely soundproof and that the desk was rather sturdy.

I dropped my jacket onto the floor, and after situating myself on top of it, started making the two phone calls I'd been looking forward to all day. I called my parents first; telling them that everything here was just fine. I was pretty sure my mother knew I was lying, but my dad just asked me questions about upcoming performances and promised that they wouldn't miss one of them. It should have made me feel better, but it didn't. If Mrs. McCrane didn't start appreciating my efforts, I wouldn't be performing in anything.

After hanging up with them, I dialed Tripp's number and leaned back against the wall while it rang in my ear. As soon as I heard his voice answer, I started smiling.

"I was just thinking about you."

"Oh yeah?" I asked him. "And what were you thinking?"

I could hear other voices in the background and knew that this was going to end up being a short phone call.

"That's a conversation for another time and place," he answered. "What's going on? How was class today?"

I pulled at my shoelace and shrugged my shoulders. "It was… okay."

"Mm hmm." Tripp started telling people to get out, even his roommate who tried to put up a fight, but a few seconds later all of the background noise was gone. He sighed into the phone before asking me what was wrong.

"Nothing," I lied. "Just one of those days."

He knew I wasn't telling the truth and it didn't take very much persuasion for me to start explaining exactly what had made my day, the past month, so horrible.

"I just feel like music used to be fun," I quietly admitted. "And with this lady nit-picking everything I do… I just… I hate it. I hate not feeling like this is something I want to do anymore."

"Forget that old bag!" Tripp yelled into the phone. "Play because you want to play, not because you have to."

I laughed at his outburst and tried to explain that, even if I wanted to, I couldn't play whatever I chose. The department had a set list of songs we had to study and we couldn't deviate from them until we had to write and perform our own compositions, and that wasn't until next semester.

"Well that's stupid," he responded. "Play something for me, just for fun."

"Tripp…"

I could tell he was smiling when he said, "Please."

"You have no idea how much I really don't want to touch a piano again today."

"Well I can't force you," he muttered under his breath. "But I know that you'll feel better playing something that isn't required or critiqued."

He wouldn't drop this, and I knew it. So I got up off of the floor and sat down behind the piano. I could hear Tripp chuckling while I put him on speaker phone and smiled when he full out laughed at my lazy attempt to play Chopsticks.

"Well, that's just lovely."

"Smart ass," I muttered. He laughed again but stopped when the music turned more serious.

I really had no idea what I was playing, just moving my fingers to the sounds that I heard in my mind, but I liked that it wasn't exactly a sad song. There was something about the melody that held some sort of longing to it and probably would have sounded better with the accompaniment from a guitar. Maybe even a mandolin.

As I played the last note, I let it linger, playing longer than Mrs. McCrane would have approved of. But regardless of what she thought, some songs didn't have to have the perfect ending. They needed to linger, to be hesitant and unsure, maybe even a little flawed. That's what made them perfect.

"Did you write that?" Tripp's voice interrupted my pouting.

I slipped the lid to the piano closed and picked up my phone. "It wasn't written. I just made it up."

He was quiet for a moment before sighing. "Abbey?"

"Yeah?"

"Play whatever the hell you want and ignore what anyone else has to say about it. You're fucking brilliant."

xXxXxXx

"The heart knows where it belongs. Mine's only home when it's safe inside your arms. It's your love that makes me feel high. This I know, yes I know, and nobody can say otherwise. It's your smile that helps me get by. This I know, every time I wanna cry." This I know, Sam and Ruby

November

Patience was not something I was good at. And even though I had been raised to respect the elderly, I was three seconds away from shoving the old lady in front of me out of the way. I took a deep breath and waited while she slowly made her way off of the airplane, but practically ran past her once we were off of the ramp.

I tried to politely weave my way through the people filling the Austin airport, but after a while I gave up and just pushed my way to the escalator. My heart felt like it was trying to crawl its way out of my throat and I absolutely could not stop smiling. When I saw him, leaning against the rental car desk, it took everything I had not to shove people out of my way and run to meet him.

Tripp smiled up and me, and once I got closer to the bottom, pushed away from the desk and walked towards the escalator.

I dropped my bag on the floor at our feet and practically threw myself at him, wrapping my arms around his neck and hiding my face against his shoulder. He laughed before picking me up and tightly hugging me against him.

"Hi," I whispered.

Tripp kissed my shoulder and then my ear. "Hi."

xXxXxXx

Holidays in our family were always crazy, but when you combine two sets of parents and three sets of grandparents, not to mention aunts, uncles, and cousins, who hadn't seen us in nearly three months, things got way out of control. And extremely loud.

My dad hadn't let me get more than three feet away from him, and while I loved the affection, his arm being thrown around my neck was becoming annoying. Alice wasn't acting much better with Tripp, she kept making a fuss about the fact that he'd grown his hair out and had decided to change his major. Surprisingly Emmett and Rosalie, who had already been through the empty nest ordeal two years earlier with Matt, weren't helping the situation.

To escaped the constant questions and hugging, I snuck out to my grandparent's backyard. I was sitting on the porch swing when Grandpa Swan found me and I was thankful that he wasn't the type to be overly talkative. He sat down next to me, and after a quick kiss to the top of my head, we continued swinging back and forth.

"I'm glad you're here, kid."

Smiling, I leaned against his shoulder and nodded my head. "Me too."

xXxXxXx

I was in the middle of finishing the last of the dishes when I felt someone move behind me. When I turned my head, I found Tripp's face right next to mine.

He smiled before lifting his arm to show me my coat. "I've got a surprise for you."

I tried to remember the last time I'd heard him say that, and then sadly realized that it had been the morning of our graduation. Nodding my head, Tripp helped me finish the last few plates and led me out the back door. Nana Cullen gave me a small smile before distracting my dad with a piece of pie, while my mother pretended to not notice us walking past her.

Once we were outside, Tripp and I walked side by side, down the back stairs and out to the gate that lead out of the back yard. Once we were past it, the only thing that was left was the huge pasture that sat behind my grandparents' house. I watched as the sparse mesquite trees blew with the wind, and smiled when Tripp motioned to the sun that was just starting to set.

He leaned back against the closed gate and looked at me. "Bet they don't have anything like that in New York."

"They don't have a lot of things in New York that they have in Texas." I shoved my hands in my pockets.

"I didn't mean it… like that."

"I know." I nodded my head before looking at him. "But it's the truth."

Tripp looked at me for a second before turning back to the sunset in front of us. "They don't have Abbeys' in Texas." He smiled when he heard me laugh and then corrected his statement. "At least not any Abbeys' that I would be interested in."

I leaned against him, watching as the sun continued fading, and smiled when he pulled me closer to him. "This was a good surprise. Thank you."

He laughed for a second before letting me go. "Glad you liked it, but this wasn't the surprise."

"Oh." I looked down at his hands, wondering what he could be hiding in his coat pockets. "Then what is?"

Tripp took a deep breath before answering me. "I'm not sure you want it."

"Why wouldn't I want it?"

"Because you… might have moved on to other surprises." Tripp looked down at the ground beneath us and kicked the toe of his shoe against the hard dirt.

Completely confused, I shook my head. "What are you…" He looked up, giving me a nervous look that I hadn't seen in a long time. It was enough to tell me exactly what he meant. "You think that I've moved on?"

"I hope you haven't." He shrugged before looking back at the ground.

I slowly took another step closer, placing me directly in front of him, and gently pulled at the front of his coat. "I haven't and I don't want to." When he finally looked at me, I smiled and shrugged my shoulders. "I do want my surprise though."

"You sure about that?"

I nodded my head and leaned into him. "I'm positive."

Tripp carefully held my face in his cold hands and leaned his forehead against mine. "I know I said I would try Abbey, and I…" He sighed and started over. "I've tried to understand and be patient, but we're both miserable and I… Why can't we just see if we can make this work?"

My hands covered his and I tried to remember all of the reasons why I had broken up with him this past summer. "Tripp…"

"I'm not asking you to marry me again, Abbey," he whispered. "But I don't want to be with anyone else but you. Even if you're a thousand miles away, and even if I can't hold you and kiss you everyday… I want to be with you. I want to make this work. Please…"

I nodded my head before squeezing his hands. "Okay."

"Really?" He leaned away from me and smiled. "I thought I'd have to really work at persuading-"

"Tripp." He stopped talking and looked down at me. "Will you please shut up and kiss me?"

AN: I just have to say that I find it interesting that you guys compare Abbey's decisions to Edward and Bella's. I guess I could kind of see the similarities… but honestly, while I write Abbey to share some personality traits with her parents, I really thought that her decision making process was way better than Edward and Bella's had been. She broke up with him, not because she thought he could do better than her, but because she knew they both weren't ready for that type of commitment. I do think the whole sneaky sex thing was completely a Bella move though, so I'll give you that. Anyways, I'm not sure why I'm rambling but that tends to happen. I hope you guys enjoyed it!