I Won't Fear Love.

Will approached the table with a wide grin spread across his face, while I sat there and felt guilty for kissing him. I know it was whore-ish, but wouldn't you have done the same thing if you missed that one guy, and this one guy smelt like him, kind of looked like him but not really, but totally acted just like him? I would have, and damn, I did.

"Hey, Mariella." He said, confidently.

I plastered a smile on my face, and responded. "Hey, Will." I said, and he turned his head to everyone at the table.

"Congrats, guys." He said, and we all said Thank you.

Beth could see that I was trying to hide, and I was basically trying my best to not scream sorry at him, so she eyed him and looked at me and raced an eyebrow, saying that I had things to explain. I sighed and sank into my seat.

"The normal, Mare?" He asked, getting the pen and paper out and I nodded slowly, and he wrote diet pepsi down and asked the others what they want.

Heather said tea, Jimmy said milk, Alexis said the same, Dylan as a coke, while David and Beth had pepsi. Beth made a sick face as she heard what Dylan ordered.

"Coke? Ewwww, that has a bad after taste and before taste." She said. I rolled my eyes, but I agreed.

"Yeah, it sucks." And Dyl rolled his eyes and Heather laughed, and hit his knee for some odd reason.

Redneck woman played through the diner, and I laughed and sang along.

Well I ain't never
Been the Barbie doll type
No I can't swig that sweet champagne
I'd rather drink beer all night
In a tavern or in a honky tonk

Alexis started to sing with me, and we laughed as Will approached.

"You guys sound better than good ol' Gretchen, but she's great, too." Alexis and I stuck our tongues out, and he winked.

"Here are your drinks." He put them out on the table, and we said thank you.

The rest was, to say the truth, easy. Will and I talked like nothing happened before. I put it behind me, and it seemed like he understood. I was extremely happy to know we could still be friends.

Before we left, we hugged each other.

~.~.~.~

“This is really the end, isn't it?” Whispered Alexis as we all sat on the beach, those gowns off.

Well, they've been off for very long.

Jimmy tossed a rock into the ocean as we all sighed. Everyone was cuddled up.

“Tomorrow, Mare's packing up and leaving. Beth and Dave are gonna get ready for college, and along with Dylan. Dominic doesn't plan on going to college.” She whispered the last part. She turned towards me. “You're really gonna leave us, Mare? You're gonna leave me pregnant, with just Jimmy to talk to? I need my best friends, Mare. You leaving isn't gonna help one bit.” She said as she came over to me and hugged me, as tight as a pregnant woman could go. I sighed.

“I'll come back. Of course. I'll call you everyday. I promise, no doubt, that I'll be up here before your due date. I promise. Tere ain't nothing in this world that'll make me leave you all behind. You're one of the best things I've got. And with all the hell I've been through, and will all the hell we've been through, I can't just you.” By now, it was one big group hug.

“It really is the ending. Our lives begin. Our lives have begun. People are gonna leave, I guess.” Whispered Beth, and I mumbled an agreement. I felt a tap on my shoulder, as we all let go of eachother.

Heathers head was down, and I could see water trickling down her cheeks and hit the sand.

“I've known you for a certain amount of months, Mare.” She said, and she pulled me into a hug. “And I swear, are bond, sisterly, is so great. I mean, I'm your sister and all. Yeah, I'm gonna come and see you. And you sure as hell is coming back to see me.” I smiled and nodded. “You're the best sister, the best friend anyone could ask for.” I hugged her then, and she hugged back tighter.

“And the same goes to you, too. For all of you.” I said, and we all started to sniffle happy tears.

“This is it, what we've been waiting for!” Beth said, “And we're grieving, because we think we're all gonna loose touch. Well let me tell you something. You guys mean to much for me to loose contact. Hell, you could live in fricken Egypt, and I could give a flying fish of how high the phone bill will be, because ya'll are god damn worth it!” We threw are hands up and screamed.

“We're gonna accept the changes. We're gonna go meet life head on, since it's going to get tougher. We're gonna live our lifes, the way we wanted to live them!” Heather shouted. “And damn it! We're not loosing anything, if so, we're just loosing the past! All we care about is right now, and right here. We're are friends are staying, and will forever stay.” We all screamed Yeah! and fell down laughing in the sand.

“This is going to be one hell of a ride.” I said, and everyone agreed.