"Okay, everyone on your best behaviour today," Mom says in the car, we're on our way to see Jesus, Brandon is home for the weekend too, "Be respectful, clean up after yourselves, okay?" We all groan in agreement.

We pull up outside this big grey house, it looks dull and cold, and somewhat familiar, there's graffiti on the side of the building and the grass is overgrown almost as tall as me. One of the windows is boarded up, I'm guessing one of the boys who live here smashed it.

"You ready guys?" Mama says, everyone starts to get out of the car, but I'm frozen.

"Gracie?" Callie stops and stands by the door, waiting, as the rest of the family make their way up to the front door, "Getting flashbacks?" I nod. A house like this, it reminds me of countless group homes, that's bad enough, but what's worse, it reminds me of John's house.

"I don't think I can move," I say, my eyes fixed on the walls of this prison-like home.

"I got you," Callie takes my hand, pulling me back into reality, "I'm right here," She smiles at me, a smile that tells me I can do this. For Jesus. I slowly get out of the car, one leg at a time. Right now, I wish I hadn't fought so hard to leave the wheelchair at home, my legs are like jelly. I cling to Callie like she's a life vest, and I'm going under. It's like I blink and we're in the foyer

"Gracie," I turn to my right, and there's my brother, "How are you?" He hugs me, and I feel Callie's hand slip away from mine, but it's okay because I have my brother back.

"Can we talk?" I ask him.

"Yeah, let's go to the backyard," He guides me through the bustling house full of friends and family of the kids that live here, we sit down on a bench.

"Are you okay?" I hadn't even noticed that I'd started crying, "Do they hurt you? God, Jesus' I'm so sorry,"

"Hey," He puts an arm around my shoulders, "Of course I'm okay, I'll always be okay,"

"You are? Seriously?"

"Yeah, it's not that bad here, the guys I live with are pretty cool, the care workers actually care about us, there's nothing to worry about," Had I really made all of this up in my head? I've been stressing about him getting hurt, losing his mind, being starved, all this time he's been okay, even… enjoying it, "I mean it's been hard, yeah, but I've learned a lot since being here, a lot about myself, why I am the way I am, and how I can be a better person, but listen, Grace, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, I'm home, chemo's done until the end of next week," I hadn't realised just how much I relied on Jesus after Freddie died, I needed a brother and I had one, yeah I have Jude, but it's not the same as a big brother. I think that after what happened to Freddie, not being able to make sure Jesus was okay really messed me up. I can't believe I didn't realise it sooner.

Jesus and some of the boys in his group home have been building a huge garden shed in the backyard, something about working with your hands is supposed to be therapeutic.

"This is amazing," Mom says, "I'm so proud of you," She hugs him.

"Yeah, coming out here and working has been pretty fun, and the guys are like my brothers now," He seems different, in a good way, it's like all the best parts of Jesus have come out and he's so much more confident now.

"Hey look," I point to a little carving on one of the wood panels of the door.

"Jesus was here," Mariana reads it out, "You just have to leave your mark everywhere you go,"

"You're like a territorial dog," Jude says. We all laugh. It feels so good to be with the whole family again, I can't wait until Jesus is home, and I'm not sick anymore and everything can finally go back to the way it was.

"I'll pick you up on Monday morning to take you to school," Mama says, Jesus has been homeschooled since being in the home.

"What I don't get the day off?" He jokes.

"Nice try, we'll see you soon sweetie," We all say our goodbyes and Jesus sees us out.

"See I told you he'd be fine," Taylor's over again, we're sitting out on the back deck.

"I know, I can't believe how worked up I got over everything, he'll be home soon anyway," I say. Taylor's been acting weird all morning, she's quieter than usual, "Are you okay?" I ask her.

"Me? I'm fine, how are you feeling? Can I get you something?" She avoids the question.

"Taylor," I place my hand on hers, "You're shaking," She looks me right in the eyes, and she tears up, "What is it? You can talk to me," Since being sick we never talk about her stuff anymore.

"I have to tell you something," She pulls away from me, "You're going to hate me," My heart pounds, what is this? Did she meet someone else? Is this a breakup?

"Just tell me," I beg her.

"I got a letter this morning," She tugs on the sleeves of her sweater, "From that competition I entered in the summer," She built a robot to get a scholarship and this fancy science school.

"The robotics programme? You won?" She nods, "Taylor that's amazing," I go to hug her, but she stops me.

"Wait, stop," She's shaking even harder, the tears are streaming down her cheeks, "The school is in New York," My heart stops for a second.

"New York,"

"I don't have to go, not if you don't want me to," She takes my hands, "I want to be with you," She's a wreck.

"No, you're going, of course, you're going," First my best friend leaves and now my girlfriend's leaving too.

"But it's so far away, the time difference, the workload, when will we talk?" I have to make a hard decision now, one that will hurt us both, but it's for her own good. She needs to do this, and she needs to be 100% committed.

"We won't," I tell her, "This is a huge opportunity, this will fast track your career, this is your dream, Taylor, I can't stand in the way of that," I wipe away her tears, "You have to do this," She doesn't argue, she doesn't get mad, she knows this is what's best for her.

"But we just-,"

"I know, and it was amazing, and who knows, after school and college, when I'm not sick and you're working for NASA or something, we'll meet again and get to do all of this again, I'm glad my first time was with you, I'll never have any regrets when it comes to you, I love you,"

"I love you too," She wraps her arms around me, crying into my shoulder, I have to hold my tears in, or she'll end up staying.

"When do you leave?" I stroke her face.

"Tomorrow night," My stomach drops, "My flight is at nine,"

"Wow, that's so soon," She looks at me, she feels awful, I can tell, "You're going to kill it, they won't know what hit them, let's make the most of the time we have," I kiss her, she knows what I'm talking about.

"Really? You still want to?"

"We're home alone, what better time?" I take her hand and lead her inside, up to my bedroom.

"Wow," Taylor says, "Nice,"

"Nice? Is that all I get?" I tease her as I twirl her hair in my fingers, we lay together in ned.

"I mean, wow," She's a little out of breath I still, "I should get dressed, I need to pack," Reality hits us again, this is probably the last time I'll see her, until summer at least.

"Have you told Jude?" I ask as she rushes to gather all of her things.

"Not yet, I'm meeting up with him this evening, we usually game on Saturdays but since you got sick, we kind of neglected each other, so we're going for burgers later," I start to get up and get dressed too. And I walk her downstairs to the front porch.

"So, I won't see you now," She says, she's about to cry again, and I can't help but burst into tears too, I kiss her.

"I love you; I don't know if I'll ever stop loving you," I hold her close, reluctant to let go.

"Tell me to stay," She says, she's panicking, "Tell me to stay and I will," She squeezes my hands.

"Taylor,"

"I don't want this to end,"

"You know you can't stay, not for me," It hurts, I could change my mind right now, tell her to stay, but she'd end up resenting me, and that would hurt so much more than this.

"But I love you," I kiss her again, one final time.

"You have to go, follow your dream," I can't tell her I love her again, that would be too cruel, she needs to go her own way now. We can't be. She takes a few steps back from me, still grasping onto my hand until she's down the steps and she finally let's go. She takes a second to look back at me before she gets into her mom's car. I have to go back inside; I can't watch her drive away from my house for the last time.

"I love you," I say quietly as I close the door on the best thing I ever had.

Hey guys, I hope you're enjoying the sequel so far, thanks for all the feedback. I still haven't managed to come up with a good title for this part of the story, if you have any suggestions, let me know in the review. Also, I'd love to know a bit more about what you guys like in stories like this, I want to make sure I'm giving you the best work that I can. I know chapter uploads have been few and far between but otherwise, I would only be putting out half-assed chapters, and I'm not about that life. Thanks guys :)