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࣪𓏲ּ ֶָ ✩◿ 𝒟𝒯𝒜◸ 🂱 ࣪𓏲ּ ֶָ
CHAPTER THIRTY ONE—
where it all ended.

"You made it!" Bruce cheered as Vance and Sarah walked into the old farm house. Sarah wasn't sure who the party host was, but Bruce seemed to as he wrapped his arms around the both of them. "You're so late."

"Aren't you supposed to arrive late to parties?" Sarah gave an awkward laugh, her hand tightening with Vance's at the many people. She definitely didn't want to be here, and Billy was definitely laughing at her.

"Maybe." Bruce giggle. "I have to go meet Hunter in the back, but you guys have fun! I'll find you soon?"

Before either had the chance to answer, Bruce was gone. Vance looked to Sarah. "Shouldn't you be that social?"

"I wish." she scoffed. "Have you been to a party before?"

"I never stay." he pulled on her hand. "They're lame."

"Agree." Sarah looked around. "How long do you think is long enough to have the teenage experience?"

"If you have to ask, you're not having a teenage experience." Vance laughed as he stopped in the kitchen. "Just stay here, i'm gonna get you a drink. Do you wanna sprite?"

"Mhm." Sarah nodded, watching as he disappeared through the crowd of people. Sarah exhaled, looking around. She saw a few of the boys from the baseball team but most of the kids where a lot older then her. Probably seniors.

"Hey." a pretty girl smiled as she stopped infront of her. "You want one?"

She held out a little bowl of candy. Sarah's eyebrows shot up. "Okay."

She took one as she girl nodded. "Ten bucks."

Sarah didn't question it, finding a five in her pocket and five ones. The girl smiled at her. "You work at Grab N Go, right?"

"Yeah." Sarah smiled, trying to play it off. Having a girl friend that was her own age would have been nice, the only girls she hung out with were both four years young then she'd been.

"Cool. I stole from there a few weeks ago." the blonde gave her one more smile. "See you later."

Sarah was taken back by her kindness at admitting she shoplifted. "Okay."

Sarah popped the candy into her mouth and rocked on her heels awkwardly, waiting for Vance or Bruce to come accompany her. She gave Reed, a boy in her grade, a little wave as he walked by. He'd always had such a nice smile, waving back and heading for the door. Sarah debated just following him and leaving too.

When Vance returned to the kitchen ten minutes later, he wasn't able to locate Sarah. "Jesus fuck, Sheeps. I asked you to do one thing."

He pushed through the crowd again, demanded people to tell him if they'd seen her. No one knew who the hell "Sarah Sheeps" was but assumed it was the girl he showed up with. Vance made it to the backyard and saw the back of her sitting on the old swing set. He huffed and walked over. "You're such a pain in the ass."

Sarah looked back and smiled. "My lover."

"What happened to staying in the kitchen?" he shoved the sprite into her hands and sat next to her.

"I needed some air." she exhaled. "I feel so tired but so awake at the same time."

He gave an odd look. "Did someone give you something to drink?"

"Nu-uh. Just ten dollar candy." Sarah stood up, dropping her sprite into the grass as it immediately started to ruin the earths creation. She plopped onto Vance's lap and leaned her head onto his shoulder. "I don't think i'm a party person."

"Yeah." Vance agreed, not even bothering to think about the amount of people that saw him genuinely loving up on her. He'd usually shove her away, but not tonight. Something was just telling him to hold her a little longer. "I don't think you're a party person either, Sheeps."

"You still love me though, right?" she hummed and shut her eyes. "Even if I don't like to party?"

Vance froze a little. What was he supposed to say? Yes? No? Did he love her? Maybe. He didn't know. He didn't love anything except his Mom, but that was different. H didn't feel the same way about his Mom as he did about Sarah. But, it was close. Would that be considered love? He didn't know, but she also didn't know what she was saying and forgot she even asked a few minutes later.

"We get to be lab partners." she went on as Vance frowned his eyebrows. "I've never liked any of my lab partners. You'll be the first one."

"I hate school." Vance huffed. "I don't know why they switched our lockers again. I just started to remember where this one was."

"It's okay, it's right across the hall from mine." Sarah remembered seeing it on his schedule when he showed her a few days ago. "If you forget, i'll always be able to bring you to it."

"Is your Dad gonna bring you in the cop car?" Vance had to snort at the thought.

"Yes, every year." Sarah smiled slightly. "We can pick you up too."

"Nu-uh, absolutely not." Vance shook his head. "You're gonna feel like shit tomorrow. You should never take candy from strangers. Has no one told you that?"

"I didn't think she was a stranger. She had pretty blonde hair like yours." she gave a yank to one of his curls as he smacked her hand. "What happened to my Sprite?"

"You dropped it in the grass, dumbass." the swing gave a little creek when he pushed his legs just slightly.

"Hey." Sarah smacked the side of his face just a little as she pointed up to the sky. "Look."

"What are you pointed to? That tree?" Vance rolled his eyes. "Its just a tree."

"Not the tree." she grabbed his chin and made his gaze follow hers. "You see that? In the sky?"

"The stars?" Vance gave a weird look as he patted her head. "Yeah, okay. Never again am I taking you to a party."

"Yes, the stars. But look at the constellation." Sarah traced the outline of it with her finger. "That's the big dipper....then over there is the north star. You see em?"

He didn't, he just saw stars. "Yeah, I see em."

"You know why I like the stars so much?" she whispered like she was telling him a secret. Vance hummed. "Because I like to think about how many people are probably looking at the same ones I am. Like we're all together somehow, even when we're not."

Vance let it sink in, it didn't mean anything to him then like it did her. "What about, like, different time zones?"

"Still, you'll see them at some point." Sarah shrugged her shoulders. "If I was in Aspen right now, we'd still be looking at the same stars at night."

Vance felt the guilt hit him when he said it. "You should go next semester."

"Mmm, no." Sarah disagreed. "I like the stars in Denver more."

Vance picked her head off his shoulder and held her face. Sarah gave a questioning look, her face squeezing together between his hands just slightly. Vance inhaled as he just looked at her. "I do think you're cool the way you are, Sheeps."

Sarah frowned her eyebrows and laughed. "No, you don't."

"No, I don't." he agreed with her, having to laugh. "But...that's why I like you so much. Because you're not cool and because you hate parties."

"And because i'm so smart." Sarah added.

"And because you're so smart. The smartest person i've ever know." Vance agreed with her. "Smart enough to do brain surgery and go to the moon."

"Two of my life goals." Sarah smiled as Vance smiled back. "I didn't know you were listening when I said that. It was before you liked me."

"I was." he promised her. "I was listening too when you were talking about Aspen. I want you to go next semester."

"What?" Sarah blinked.

"If thats what you really wanna do, I want you to." Vance told her with a shake of his head. "I really do."

"You're not gonna miss me?" she frowned.

"Are you shitting me? I will." he argued with her. "But, we can still talk, you know? And i'll make sure Finney and Gwen are okay, and watch out for Bruce and Robin for you. And if there's any news about Billy, i'll let you know. Everything you don't wanna leave for, I can handle here. You should chase your dreams, Sheeps."

"That's not the only reason I wanna stay." she whispered again, once more, telling him a secret. "I don't wanna leave you."

"Well, I do." he pointed out, thumping her in the nose. "So, promise me you'll go to Aspen next semester. No matter what, you'll go and trust that things will be covered here. And if you hate it, come back for the summer."

Sarah exhaled, staring at him. "What if I miss you too much?"

"You said it yourself." he nodded to the sky. "The stars or whatever."

Sarah smile, cupping his face and kissing him on the lips. They held it a second before pulling back. Vance nodded. "Probably should get you home before your Dad wonders if you're off doing drugs."

"Drugs? No." Sarah laughed as she stood up. "Not me!"

"Mhm. Never you." Vance hid a smile, wrapping his arm around her shoulders while hers locked around his waist.

Vance ended up staying with Sarah for the night, waiting for her to go to sleep. She was currently drooling onto his neck, her head dropped on his chest while he looked at her ceiling. He blinked when Bingos head shot up, jumping out of the bed and looking out the window. He scratched at the window, his nails digging into the glass. Vance winced. "Bingo. Stop."

He kept on, Sarah was out though. Vance knew he needed to head home soon, his Mom always missed work on the first day of school to make sure he got there. Vance exhaled as he slowly moved Sarah off of him, leaning down to kiss her on the forehead before tucking her in more. He rolled his eyes at himself. "Stupid."

He looked out the window to where Bingo had been scratching at. He rubbed his head. "There's nothing there, man. You're barking at branches."

Vance kissed his head too before grabbing his shoes and taking one more look at Sarah. She slept peacefully, dreaming about nothing or everything. Then, he left. He crawled right out her window, got down from the tree, and went to walk home. It was suppose to be so simple, it was suppose to be any other summer night with a teenage boy sneaking out of his girlfriends window.

Sarah woke with a gasp when Bingo started to bark loudly, howling and jumping at the window. He terrified her, rarely ever getting that way. Sarah rolled over quickly. "Bingo. Bingo, stop."

"Sarah?" Jason called from his study. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah!" she got out of bed, wrapping her arms around Bingo to calm him down. Her eyes knitted together as she looked out of her window, seeing six black balloons floating high into the sky. She rubbed Bingos head, shhing him gently. "Bingo just saw some balloons."

"Balloons?" Jason opened up her door. "Why have you got balloons?"

"Not me." she got back in bed. "Outside."

He peaked out. "That's weird. Balloons at this hour."

"Probably another one of those back to school parities." Sarah laughed as if she hadn't just been at one. "Irresponsible kids."

"Tell me about it." he shut her curtains again. "Night. I love you."

"I love you too." Sarah smiled at him, curling up with Bingo and shutting her eyes, falling back asleep like her entire life wasn't just ruined yet again without knowing it.

But, Vance tried to warn her. He always said he'd ruin her life. He just never thought it'd be in this way.

•

kylie speaks

listen, before i kill myself
along with all of you killing
me, i want to say that there
will be two endings for this
book. one will follow the plot,
and the other will be a happy
AU ending. it'll be up to you
to decide which route you'll
want to take in the final
chapters. this could be the beginning of a heartbreaking
book/biter sweet ending or it could be the beginning of a heartbreak that
is mended in the end. it'll ultimately be up to you to choose which ending you want to read based on if you want to go with the original or the AU.

ALSO! bad timing but i dropped
the oc's names in this chapter
for my bruce fics in my drafts.