"Jade wait up!" Evan called after her as she ran down the street. Even
though Jade was fast, Evan was faster and quickly caught up.
"What is it Evan? Fine, you're mad at me, right?"
"Well, it kind of hurt seeing you and Andy kiss, but I'm not mad." Jade
looked at him is disbelief. "Okay, it didn't hurt much. What hurt me
more was you saying you wanted to take a break."
"I had to Evan," Jade sighed. "You know that."
"I know, but we could have worked things out. We didn't have to have a
huge fight."
"I was mad...and I was hurt," Jade said softly. She sat down on the
grass in the park by Andy's house.
"I know, Jade. I was a jerk. But I apologized," he said sitting next to
her.
"Yeah, but I'm not used to be burned. Back when I dated around, I knew
from the start it wasn't serious. But-"
"But?" Evan asked.
"I was lonely. The guy never cared about me except for what he could
get. But I didn't want to get hurt. Not like my mother."
"But you're not your mother. You're different. Our relationship is
different from your parents."
"I know. I made a mistake in ending it, but it's too late now."
"Who said?" Evan said smiling.
"You mean, you want to get back together?" Jade said surprised.
"I missed you Jade. That ditz that Conner set me up with...it wasn't
anything. She was so different from you."
"Different bad or different good?" Jade inquired.
"Different awful!" Evan exclaimed. "She was boring and shallow. Nothing
like you."
Jade moved closer to Evan and took his hand. "I missed you too. But we
graduate in a few weeks and I got accepted into the LA school of
Design. LA is over four hours away from Berkeley."
Evan wrapped his arms around Jade. "We still have three months. Let's
make the most of it and not worry about it."
Jade smiled up at him. "Okay, and I promise not to get mad and clingy."
"And I promise not to take you for granted and I'll spend more time
with you."
"Yeah?" Jade said her eyes shining.
"Yeah," he grinned. He leaned in and they kissed sweetly and each of
them both knew that they loved each other.

"I can't believe we're done," Jessica said smiling.
"Neither can I," Conner groaned. "It seemed like we were in high school
forever!"
"And now we're all heading off in different directions," Tia pointed out
sadly.
"But we have all summer together," Jade said as Evan wrapped his arms
around her. She smiled as she looked over at Jessica and Jeremy, Liz and
Jeff, Conner and Alanna, Tia and Trent, Ken and Maria, and Andy and
Dave who had made up.
Jade knew she would never find better friends.
Or a better boyfriend.
But she was ready with the challenges that life threw that her.

I am so glad that Evan is a part of my life this summer.
Even though we decided that we will be able to date other people in
college, we will always be friends. Which is fine with me because Evan is
the best friend I could ever have.