TITLE: Promises
AUTHOR: Debba
RATING: R, for a few curse words and implied adult situations
SUMMARY: Jake and Hamilton work through their relationship. A little angst, not too bad.
FEEDBACK: Please? This has been brewing for nearly two years, so I'd like to know if it was worth the wait or not. Review here or drop me an email at debba78@hotmail.com
A/N: Kristy, thanks for encouraging me! You're the best.

PROLOGUE

"Hey Jake?" Hamilton's voice was soft. It was late - past midnight - and he and Jake were sitting next to each other under the stars, both staring pensively into the dying fire in front of them.

"Hmm?" She looked over at him, her chin propped in her hands. Their voices were quiet; they didn't want to disturb the stillness, or wake their friends, who were sleeping soundly in their sleeping bags on the other side of the fire.

He looked back at her, his blue eyes clouded in the dim light. "What happens now? I mean...summer's over and next semester..." his voice faded as he turned his eyes back to the fire. "I just...I don't want to lose you," he said softly.

Jake smiled softly and shifted so that she was sitting next to him. She laid her head against his shoulder and took his hand in hers. "You won't lose me Hamilton." Memories of their time together danced in her head.

Hamilton grinned suddenly. "I still can't believe I ever thought you were a boy!"

"We've been through a lot together, haven't we?" she said quietly.

"Yeah, we have." He dropped a kiss on the top of her head. "And I wouldn't trade it for a second, Jake."

"You wouldn't? Not even the pain? How hard it was for a while?" Personally, she wouldn't trade their past for anything, but she had thought that, if given the chance, Hamilton would have preferred to do some things differently.

"Nope. If we hadn't gone through everything that we did, we wouldn't have the kind of relationship we do now. And Jake, I love what we have now." He slid an arm around her shoulders.

"I do too, Hamilton. I didn't know how I'd make it when you and I broke up, but now...I can't think of anyone else I'd want for a best friend."

Hamilton winced slightly as he thought of the pain they had each gone through at their break up the year before. They had managed to stay together for two years before their romance had finally ended. They had both been restless, needing to find out who they were as individuals before they could move any further as a couple. It had been painful - gut-wrenchingly so - but in the end it was the best thing they could ever have done. They never got back together, but had instead fallen naturally into a friendship closer than even Bella's and Will's.

"This is the last time we're gonna do this, you know," he said, gesturing to the fire and their scattered friends.

"I know." For three years, they had all gone on an end of summer camp-out, as a way to commemorate the unexpected adventure in the woods that had concluded their first summer at Rawley Academy. The only rule was that everyone had to keep their eyes open for deer in the road. And now they had graduated, and this was probably their last time as a group before college separated the friends.

"I'll miss it," she said quietly, her voice tinged with melancholy.

"Jake, promise me something?" he asked.

She picked her head up from his shoulder to look in his eyes. "Anything, Hamilton, you know that."

"No matter what happens when we're in college - will you always be my best friend?"

She smiled at him. "God, Hamilton. Even though we're gonna be apart for the first time since we were 15, I can't imagine you not being a major force in my life. I need you as much as you need me, you know." She kissed his cheek briefly. "Yes, Hamilton. I promise that I will always be your best friend."

In the faint light of the dying fire, Jake and Hamilton sat silently, eighteen years old, each leaning on the other, just like they always had.