THANK YOU SO MUCH TO EVERYONE WHO REVIEWED! Unfortunately, the review count actually dropped by fifty percent. Anyone know why that could possibly be? Was Dana's potential death a reason to stop reading? As you'll see as soon as you continue those people who assumed things at the end of chapter 16, are going to be very sorry.
This chapter switches point of views because I thought it was necessary to end with both of them.
Dana's POV
Before the cab even came to a stop I rushed out of it and right into Logan's arms, which I'm absolutely never ever leaving again.
Something went severely wrong with the plane's engine while we were in the air and thanks to some quick thinking and skilled flying Captain Jack managed to make an emergency landing at some tiny airport in Kansas. I had never been so scared in my entire life and it just made me want to get back here even faster. I had to get back to Logan because living after nearly dying won't mean anything if I'm not going to be living with him, with us together.
Logan's POV
Dana rushed right out of the cab and into my arms and I absolutely don't ever want to let her go again. I hope that this means something good though, because I still don't actually know anything.
When I dropped my phone after hearing that message Dana left, after hearing her plane was going down, I stopped walking and was about ready to have a heart attack, but since Zoey and Chase were following me they immediately knew something was wrong. Zoey picked up my phone and caught the end of the second message, which turned out to be from Dana also. The plane experienced an engine seizure, stuff just stopped working mid air and they had to make an emergency landing somewhere in Kansas. The engine had extensive damage to it, but Dana wanted to get back (again hopefully that is a good sign) and Captain Jack and Gavin knew how much I wanted her back so they didn't wait to fix the engine, they chartered another plane and got her back to me as fast as possible.
She's still not letting go and I never want to. I think I'll take a chance and say something, "I'm absolutely never letting you go again."
"You better not," she said holding on to me even tighter if it was possible. Did she actually just say that? Can I keep her forever?
Dana's POV
I don't want to leave his arms, but I have to tell him this face to face, it's just too important to say into his shoulder. And he deserves answers now, we've already missed out on so much time, so I forced myself to let go. I didn't want to be away from him really though, so I just took about a half of a step back and took his hands in mine.
I took a deep breath and told him the truth, "I got all the way there, outside his dorm building, and I didn't want to go in. I couldn't go in, so I sat on a bench and just thought. I realized I keep walking away from you. It's not just now either, or lately, I've been walking away from you since we met. I stomped on your foot when I could have just kissed you and given in to it. I went to Paris, thinking I could escape it, and I missed you. And when Sam asked me out that first time in sophomore year I said yes to escape it. And I stayed with Sam hoping that if I did then eventually I would escape it. But I've never ever really wanted to escape it, to escape us. Every time I walk away from you all I want to do is run back. And I'm sorry, but that has scared the hell out of me since we met. I knew five years ago that I wanted you in my life forever that I needed you forever, and I didn't want to. And I thought if we were never together, if I always forced myself to walk away when I didn't want to then when our lives went separate ways I wouldn't need you and I wouldn't want you. I thought all of it would just fade away, but now I really don't want it to. I don't want to run from us anymore. I love you and I want to be with you and I need to be with you," I finished with tears spilling down my cheeks. Look at what he's done to me; he's turned me into one of those sappy people that cries when they're happy. It doesn't matter though, as long as he'll still have me.
Logan's POV
WOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! YES! HELL YES!
I let go of her hands and cupped her face with my now free hands and kissed her. I can do that now, kiss her, because she wants me and loves me just like I want her and love her.
Dana's POV
He kissed me. He always kisses me like he loves me. I can't believe that that actually used to scare me. I can't believe I actually thought that I could live without him. I can't believe that I was actually going to try to.
He pulled away from the kiss, but not from being in my arms. He wrapped his arms around me and said, "I love you too."
"I know," and I know I'll never have to doubt that. He's the guy that has my heart and I know he's the guy that's going to handle it with care because he loves me and he wants us to last forever just as much as I do. He's not going to break my heart.
I never wanted to fall in love, not really. I didn't want to be so vulnerable to someone, for someone to be able to cause me so much pain. I didn't want to give my heart away because I didn't want it to get broken. I never gave my heart to Sam, not at all, he was just the guy that I used really to keep me away from the guy I knew could break my heart. But now I trust Logan and I believe in how much he loves me, I have since last night, and I know he could break my heart and I know he's not going to.
Logan's POV
So I'm absolutely ecstatic. This is going extremely well for me, but she hasn't said anything about Sam. I want to be with her, I want us to be together finally, nothing in the way, so I had to ask, "What about Sam?"
Dana's POV
I knew I was going to have to explain eventually. Time for more truth, "I went to return his ring and tell him I had fallen in love with some else a long time ago and I needed to be with you. I was going to tell him it was over between us. But he wasn't in his room and I had no idea where to look for him. As cruel as I thought it was to break up with him over the phone, I couldn't wait to get back here so I decided not to wait for him. I folded up a piece of paper and put the ring inside and slid it under his door. As I was walking out of the building though I passed by the lounge and actually saw something that made me feel a whole lot better. Sam was on a couch making out and groping some red head on top of him. I was so afraid I was going to be breaking his heart, I felt terrible about leading him on these last two years, I was actually relived he was cheating on me. So, I didn't feel bad about calling him from the plane and breaking up with him on his answering machine. I told him it's over because I'm in love with you and the ring was under his door. At least I was pretty sure it was his door. And then I said if he needed help getting over us, the red head seemed willing. And that was it. It's over with him because I want to be with you."
I never thought I would be so relieved to see my boyfriend cheating on me, but I felt so terrible for lying to him and cheating on him that it just made me feel so much better to know his heart wasn't in our relationship either. I kind of can't believe he was cheating on me though. He knows what I can do to a guy I want to hurt. I could have totally kicked his ass, but oh well, I'd rather be back here with Logan which is why I didn't waste any time teaching Sam a lesson. Although, I'm not really any better than him anyway; I did cheat too.
Logan's face changed a bit. He looks…regretful? Sorry, maybe?
He said, "Umm…I have to tell you something," okay I already don't like the sound of this. I nodded and he continued, "I love you and I can't stand to see you hurt and remember everything turned out great, we're together and I love you." Oh no, oh no, this is going to be bad. Damn it! Everything was perfect. For once everything was perfect. "I knew Sam was cheating on you. I caught him last week. He did come back here for the weekend; he just didn't come to you. I'm sorry. I know I should have told you, but then I talked to Ms. Burtonni and she said that this was my chance. She said if I wanted to see if you would ever want to be with me then this was my opportunity. Like you said, you love me and if you found out that he was cheating when you still at least wanted to love him you would have gotten hurt by that and I didn't want you to and this way you didn't. I took a chance that you love me too and I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but I just wanted to be with you and I didn't want you to get hurt and…please say something."
He knew. He knew, but everything he said makes sense. And I should be mad because he lied to me, but I was on a plane that almost crashed and in the end everything turned out okay, we're finally together and I'm finally okay with that and I'm finally happy. I think this is a lie that I can let slide. He took a really risky chance, but everything turned out okay, so I can let it go…this time.
Logan's POV
I know with everything going so well telling her the truth seemed like an idiot move. She broke up with Sam because she really wants to be with me and she loves me, but I had to tell her. I can't lie to her forever and I've felt bad doing it for the last week, so I figured I should just tell her now and get it over with.
She still hasn't said anything. Not a problem though, time to think is a necessity. Maybe I should have worn a cup just in case this turns really ugly.
"It's okay," she finally said. It's okay? Really? She explained, "Everything turned out okay, so it's okay. And I would be angry and forgive you later, but I don't want to waste any time being mad that you lied. I just had a very near death experience and the fact that you lied with good intentions and everything turned out exactly how things should always be, doesn't matter. Right now I just want to be with you." Thank God.
Hearing about her plane going down nearly killed me, but it seemed to have a very positive effect on her reasoning. Still, if she ever has another plane going down or otherwise life threatening potentially resulting in death experience, I better be right there beside her because there is no way I'm living without her.
I pulled her into another tight embrace and whispered, "And I just want to be with you, but I'm still sorry. I promise I'll never lie to you again."
Dana's POV
That's a really sweet thing to say, but let's be realistic here, "Yes you will. There will be other times when you'll lie to protect me or not hurt me or just to humor me, but we'll figure out how to get through those when they come. You know we're both really stubborn and we'll have problems, but we'll work through them because we'll always want to, because I'll always want to be with you."
"I always want to be with you too," he replied.
Logan's POV
I do. I always want to be with Dana. I don't want to be without her ever. I want to spend the rest of my life with her and more. I want her for forever. I need her for forever. Maybe now is the right time to ask her the question that I could never in my life say to another girl.
As if she could read my mind Dana preempted, "And we will be together and, honestly despite the fact that I never thought I would want to change my name, I like the sound of Mrs. Reese. Mrs. Logan Reese sounds really good, but we're seventeen and let's not rush into something completely crazy. We'll be together forever; I want us to be together forever. I promise when the day comes I'll say yes, but let's wait until we at least have some kind of plan for the future, until it's a little less insane."
Okay, I can do that. She's right; we have forever to be together. I guess now would be kind of crazy. Besides I don't even have a ring or a plan and I'd really like to make it special since I'll only be proposing once.
"Okay let's get started on that plan thing. You've still got to decide on a college so I can follow you. Let's go see Ms. Burtonni, we need to thank her anyway," I said taking Dana's hand and intertwining our fingers as I led her back to the guidance counselor's office rather quickly since it's almost five, which is when she leaves.
"Thank her?" she questioned as she hurried with me.
I came to a stop and turned and locked eyes with her as I explained, "Yeah, if it wasn't for her we probably wouldn't be together. She's the one who encouraged me to take a chance and see if you love me too. And she helped me know what to do and what not to do a lot of the time during the entire process of trying to win your heart."
"You already had my heart," she said sweetly. "I just needed help realizing it and, actually, she helped me with that a lot. We should definitely thank her. Though, I was surprised that this is the first place you want to go. I thought for sure you would insist that we go back to my room, my empty room," she said playfully with a smile and raised eyebrow.
Oh yeah. Hmm…tempting, very tempting, but we both owe Ms. Burtonni a lot and I want to get started on planning our future together because I really like the sound of that. We're going to have a future together. Plus, the sooner we start planning out our future together the sooner I can get to work on a plan for proposing and making forever together official.
Dana's POV
"That is a tempting idea," he replied, "but we owe a lot to Ms. Burtonni and I wanted to get to the planning part of us together forever."
Yeah, I like the idea of starting to plan now too. It's like it makes it more official that it's forever if we actually plan something for us for the future. And we do owe a lot to Ms. Burtonni. We should probably do more than just thank her, maybe a gift or something too.
"Yeah," I agreed, "let's go," and we started quickly walking to her office again.
He stopped again and turned to me looking a little worried, "You will be mine forever right?"
He actually looks nervous again. I can't believe he's nervous. I love him of course I want us to be together forever. I think I've even said it. As cute as he is when he's nervous though, I quickly put him out of his worried misery replying, "Yes, I'm going to insist upon it." And I kissed him reassuringly. I kissed him like I love him because I do.
Logan's POV
She kissed me. She kissed me like she loves me and in our forever together I'm never again going to doubt whether or not that's true. She loves me and kissing her will always feel like this; it will always feel like love.
We stopped ourselves from carrying the kissing on any farther realizing that we had to hurry if we were actually going to catch Ms. Burtonni.
We raced to her office, to guidance counseling hand in hand, the way it's going to be forever, us together.
Dana's POV
We entered her office; we entered guidance counseling, as we enter our future, hand in hand, us together, forever.
A/N: Yep, I was fake foreshadowing, I just wanted to keep everyone guessing, but really I never planned on killing anyone. So, as I said before the importance of the glass flowers would be included as they were, but people don't actually think this thing was a symbol of this for me, so it's only loose references. I simply used connecting phrases to tie the whole thing together. At least I hope that's how it turned out. All questions should be pretty much answered at this point, there are a few things to come though, but nothing major. If you do have any questions, please feel free to ask. I have reasons and answers for absolutely everything.
The epilogue is still to come. It will take place ten years later and it definitely makes the entire story feel more complete so be sure to read it. Also in the author's notes for the epilogue I'll be including some information about up coming stories you can expect from me. This story may be ending, but I'll still be writing quite a bit.
Oh, and an engine seizure is a real thing, I did my research.
Also, I've been really curious as to whether or not anyone has actually taken me up on my occasional musical suggestions for while you're reading. Especially concerning chapter 10 (KISS ME!) and the Dido song "Who Makes You Feel" for during the locker room scene because if you hit play as soon as Dana enters the locker room and read at a slightly slowed pace then everything hits right. Just as the song gets hotter so does the scene. But just reading the lyrics doesn't actually do anything; it's all in the way it's performed. Anyway, I was curious, so please let me know if you've tried anything out, I'd love to know what you thought.
On a more serious note: Like I said, the review count dropped severely. There are a lot of people who are reading this story and there are a lot of people who have it on alert or on their favorites who I've never heard from. I would greatly appreciate your reviews, at least once now or after the epilogue. It would be really fantastic if the review count could get beyond 300. I know it might seem like I'm asking a lot, but based on the number of people reading, I'm not even asking for half of the people reading to review just once either this chapter or next. Please review and let me know if you loved or hated or just liked it. I'd really like to hear what everyone thinks so please review. And thank you for reading!