Sorry it's taken so long for me to post again. I've had midterms and life is just crazy. I hope y'all enjoy,

"Hellooooo?" I shouted as I stuck my head in the front door of my house. When all I heard was my own echoing voice, I swung the door open fully pulling Nathan in behind me. "Alone… again," I giggled as I pushed him up against the wall and kissed him. I pulled him back towards the stairs before jumping up and wrapping my legs around him. "My room?" I asked, hoping to prolong our time of celebration.

Nathan had only made it up three steps before we heard a throat clearing. We both turned to see my father staring at us from the foyer. "Uhh… just thought you'd like to know the family is in the kitchen. So, you might want to keep it down."

My mouth simply hung open. I slowly removed my legs from around Nathan's waist and patted down my clothes, as if that would make me forget this awkward moment. "Um, yeah. I've got to go change," I told my dad as if it was obvious. The way I nervously fiddled with my hair did not do anything for making this situation less uncomfortable.

"I guess Nathan is the one who will be changing you?"

"Eww, Dad!"

"What?"

"Just… we'll be down in a minute, okay?"

"Well, I sure hope it takes longer than that," my dad laughed as he walked back to the kitchen.

I buried my head in Nathan's shirt and did my best not to cry. "That was sooo embarrassing."

Thankfully Nathan was laughing about it. He grabbed my face and smiled. "You are not married to anyone anymore. You obviously enjoy having sex with your boyfriend. What's so embarrassing about that?"

"A lot. Now let's go," I said, grabbing his hand and pulling him up the stairs behind me.

Once we got into my room I closed the door and plopped down on my bed. "I really just wanted to relax for a while," I sighed, annoyed that my family was taking over my house. "Why are they even here?"

"To celebrate you being a single woman?"

"But I'm not a single woman!"

"Yeah, but supposedly you are to everyone but Quinn and Jake."

"Oh whatever, Nathan. You know we weren't fooling anyone."

Nathan moved to stand in front of me on the bed and reached down to lift me up, "They're all down there for you. We shouldn't keep them waiting."

I lifted my arms for him to take, but instead of letting him pull me up, I pulled him down. "Can't we just make out a little bit before we have to face them?"

"Did you really need to ask?"

By the time we made it back downstairs Jake and Quinn were there. I went straight over to Jake and punched him in the arm as hard as I could. "You know, a little warning would have been nice," I muttered so that he was the only one to hear.

"I bet you've missed that," my dad joked. He could be so lame sometimes.

"Yeah… uh, can you tell me why half of our family is in my kitchen? Aren't family meetings usually at home?"

"Well, to be quite honest sweetie, we didn't think we'd get you out of bed today. So we took it upon ourselves to bring the party here."

"What the hell Mom?"

"Oh honey. It's about time you just realize that we know all your little quirks."

"She's talking about sex," Vivian interjected.

Jake laughed and I punched him again. "What?"

"I hate you all," I huffed.

Nathan had an aggravating smile on his face and it made me want to punch him too. But once he spoke, I didn't want to punch him anymore. "Well, I guess then that it should come as no surprise that Haley and I are officially a couple."

"It's about damn time," Mike said as he got up to shake Nathan's hand.

I went over to give Mike a well-deserved hug and almost started to tear up. "Thank you so much for everything. You've been beyond amazing."

"Anything for family," he said back as he returned the hug.

As he began to pull back away, I grabbed his arms and looked at him hard. Then I looked back at Vivian who was pretending to be looking something in her purse. I knew she was pretending because she didn't have the look of determination she always gets on her face when she's truly searching for something. "You slut!" I squealed as I ran to Vivian and jumped in her lap, giving her a hug.

"Hales, you're making a scene," Vivian said calmly. It seemed as if I was the only one to catch onto the subtle hint that probably escaped unintentionally.

"I'm not making a scene! And you should be making a scene! Why didn't you tell me?"

"Umm, have I missed something here, girls?" my mom asked, still oblivious.

"Oh my God, am I the only one here with a brain? They're fucking married!"

"What?" pretty much everyone in the room said at once.

"They're not wearing rings," Quinn said as if they couldn't possibly be married without rings.

"Right, because Damien and I totally wore rings in front of everyone for pretty much the whole first year we were married."

Everyone had stopped and simply stared at the two who looked like they had been caught with their hands in the cookie jar. "So, is it true?" my dad finally asked.

Vivian stuck her hand back in the purse and I could tell that she was reaching in the side pocket. When her hand came back out she had on a wedding ring. "It's true. And I hate you Hales."

"And I love you," I said, squeezing her so tight she couldn't breath. It didn't matter that I had just gotten divorced, I was so happy for my sister getting married, especially to someone who has helped me so selflessly.

Congratulations were given all over before I decided to ask what I partly already knew the answer to, "So, why all the secrecy?"

"You were going through something big. And I didn't want to show off my relationship when yours was coming to an end. I just didn't want to rub my happiness in your face."

I had been forced to remove myself from her lap when insaneness ensued, but I sat back down and gave her another hug. "Thank you, but I'm pretty happy too," I said as I sent Nathan a smile.

"I can tell, but I never would have thought that possible when I showed up here."

"Yeah… it is kind of crazy."

"Are you two done?" my dad asked, apparently annoyed by us ignoring everybody else like we always seem to do. "I'm ready for cake."

"Cake?" I squealed jumping up.

"Yeah, I made divorce cake." Only my mom would make divorce cake. If she had known there probably would have been an even more extravagant wedding cake.

She lit eight candles and brought out the cake. One half of it had prison bars and the other half had the words 'Finally Free'. Right below the words my mother had made a makeshift picture of a police badge with icing. It wasn't very good, but you could tell what it was. Nathan and I noticed it at the same time and it definitely made me feel good, knowing that my mother approved. It had never been that way with Damien and it felt better than I ever could have imagined.

My mother had a proud grin on her face at what I'm sure she considered a masterpiece. "Make a wish and blow 'em out sweetie."

I didn't have to think long to come up with my wish. I closed my eyes and wished to myself, I wish Nathan is 'my one'.

Check out a website my cousin & I are trying to get going to help people (mainly high school & college aged kids) going through hard times.

Go to… www. ikhyf. blogspot. com