A.N Guys, there's only an epilogue after this! Enjoy and Review. Also I got the idea on how to end this from a book I read in middle school called Flipped. If you haven't read it you definitely should because it changed my life.

Chapter 8: How it started for real

Two weeks later…

Lyric

"Are you ready to go home?" Ms. Reyna smiled when she asked me.

"Oh yea." I sighed, pulling my legs over the arm of the chair. Over the past week or so, I've become really close with Ms. Reyna. So close that I told her everything. I told her about my mom and how I kind of resented her for checking out early and I also told her about when Leo had come to visit me on Saturday.

"I'm sorry if you don't want to answer this but what are you going to do when you see him?"

"Who? Leo?" I asked, Ms. Reyna nodded. "God, I don't know. I kinda fucked up whatever remote chance I had."

"I'm not so sure about that."

"He tried to kiss me and I pretty much pushed him away."

"Doesn't mean that it's not worth a shot." Ms. Reyna, frowned. "Your more afraid of rejection than anything else."

"Yes, which is why I should just leave things the way they were."

"No, it's why you should push yourself." Reyna snapped. "You shouldn't let fear rule your life. You scared that because you pushed back that he won't kiss you know, go in there and kiss him. Tell him how you feel and if he doesn't feel the same way he's an idiot." Reyna laughed. "You are a wonderful and fantastic girl, any guy would be lucky to have but none of them can if you don't put yourself out there."

"Wow, that was so sweet." I laughed. Reyna rolled her eyes before pulling out a bag. "Here, your dad said he'll be here to pick you up in twenty minutes." She said it kind of remorsefully, as if she wanted me to be able to leave but she didn't want me to leave necessarily. "Please take care of yourself, Lyric."

I stood up. "You take care of yourself too, Ms. Reyna. And you should really stop moping about that one guy, frankly if he didn't realize how great you were from first meeting you, he didn't deserve you."

"Thanks, Lyric." She smiled.

"No problem." I smiled, before walking out her office last time.

XXX

I never thought I'd be so happy to see Belmont again.

I've been exactly happy to see Belmont before but after being stuck at Sunnyside, Belmont was looking like the fucking Bahamas.

The drive back to my house was silent but it was a comfortable silence. Dad could see I wasn't in the mood to talk that much so he just drove. He asked few questions other than, how was it? And how are you feeling? But other than that we didn't really talk on the way back.

I never thought I'd be that excited to see my house before but the pale blue of it made me feel as if a weight had been lifted from my shoulder.

"You ready?" I heard my dad say before he walked up next to me. "Or are you just going to sit outside and admire the house?"

I laughed. "I'm just inwardly cringing about the peeling paint is all."

Dad laughed before putting an arm around me and steered me into the house.

"SURPRISE!" was the first thing I heard before being immediately tackled into hugs.

Everyone was there. Charlie, Silena, Nyssa, Jake, Rachel, Juniper, Grover, Jason, Piper, and Annabeth hung back in the corner standing with Percy but she was smiling.

Everyone was there.

Well, everyone except…

"Where's Leo?" I said, turning to my dad.

"I don't know." He shrugged. "He's supposed to be here…" Dad's sentence trailed off because we all turned and saw Leo kneeling in the backyard planting a…

"Sycamore tree." I whispered, barely audible, but everyone's eyes seemed to be on me. Nobody really knew why it was so important. Besides Rachel, no one really knew about the tree or why it was so important to me but suddenly I was pushing everyone out of the way to get to the backyard.

Leo looked up when he heard the sliding glass door opened and saw a slight disheveled, out of breath me and raised one eyebrow. He stood up from his place in the middle of the back yard but didn't move any closer to me.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

He raised an eyebrow. "Planting a tree." He said a little sarcastic.

"Yea, I can see that." I scoffed. "Why are you planting a tree in my backyard is what I'm referring to."

Valdez sighed and awkwardly shifted his weight from one leg to the other. "Well, the night before you left you were sad that they cut the tree down and you talked about it being the end of you." Leo rubbed the back of his neck. "So, I wanted to plant you a new one because I wanted you to know that everything can have a new beginning. And… I want to be there with you for yours." He looked up at me. "Look Lyric, I know I ruined everything by saying I loved you and all that and I understand that you didn't want that. I'm fine with being just your friend. I just don't… I don't want to lose you."

Those words struck home for me and suddenly my feet had a mind of its own and they were pulling me closer to Leo. Apparently my mouth did as well because I was kissing him too.

The kiss was… interesting. I mean, I've known Valdez for over 10 years and I've been his best friend for 9 and you would think that kissing him would feel like kissing your own brother.

But it didn't feel like that at all, it felt like I was weightless. It was new and exciting but it had an air of familiar to it. And I'm not going to lie but Valdez was a very good kisser.

I vaguely heard the hoots and cheers from my best friends and the cashing in for bets that I had no idea existed when I pulled back. Our foreheads stayed together like we were leaning on each other for support, before I realized that's exactly what we were doing. Just like before.

"I'm going to assume that you don't want to be just friends?"

"Of course not." I managed to whisper before he leaned down and kissed me again.

And for the first time in my life I felt like I was content.

All was good and well, until we heard someone clear their throat.

"As much as it's great that you two are finally together." Rachel smiled. "There's cake upstairs that I'd like to be eating." Everyone laughed before following her out of the den.

Valdez and I just stood there staring at each other for what seemed like a million years. I pushed him away gently before smiling.

"All I've eaten in these past weeks has been hospital food."

Valdez laughed before slinging an arm around me. "Come on, I'll make you a sandwich." He said, as we exited the backyard together.

XXX