Final chapter of Positive 2... long spiel at the end, but, for now, a big shout out to last chapter's commenters:

@jueka1 @ writerschic @Marsh514 @themckenziefrenzy

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Two Years Later

"Calm down, Lily," I said as her blubbering made her words completely nonsensical. "Take a deep breath and try explaining again."

"I'm taking Lexi to the hospital," she sobbed. "Her nose won't stop bleeding and the daycare doesn't know what even happened."

"It will be okay. I'll meet you there."

"What if it's something bad?"

"Lily... don't worry about something we don't know yet."

She sniffled a couple of times and said, "How soon can you make it? I know you're at work..."

"I'll be there in half an hour. Just need to get someone to cover for me."

"Okay," she cried, then she hung up the phone.

Heaving a sigh, I begrudgingly dialed Jess's number, knowing this would upset her.

"Hey, what's up?" she answered.

"Are you free?"

"I can be. What for?"

"I desperately need you to cover my shift. Lexi has gone to the hospital."

"What?" she exclaimed. "Yeah, of course. I'll get ready now. You go. What's wrong with her?" Suddenly I was on loudspeaker, and I could hear her as she rummaged through her clothes, pulled up a zipper, and tightened a belt.

"Bleeding nose that won't stop is all Lily knows."

There was a pause on her end of the line. "Lily will be there?"

"Of course she took Lexi in."

Jess was silent again.

"It's the hospital, Jess. And I told you... last Christmas was a one off thing. I promise I'm committed to you. Lily and I are over."

Heaving a sigh, Jess said, "I know... I know. Don't worry about work. I've got it covered."

"Thanks Jess," I sighed.

"Anything for you," she responded. "Now go see your little girl."

"Okay. And Jess?"

"Mmm?"

"I love you."

I could almost see the smile slipping on her face through her tone as she said back, "I love you too, Cory."

I rushed to the admin desk at emergency, checked in, then ran through the hallway towards the bed they said she was in.

"How is she?" I gasped, taking in my little girl who had wires all over her and tubes coming in and out of her.

Sitting in the seat beside Lexi and holding her small hand, Lily was drained. Disheveled. This month hadn't been easy on her. Callie had caught multiple sicknesses from daycare, meaning she had to stay home with her and skip class. She was far behind in her assessment. Her manager was being a jerk and cutting her shifts because she had to call in sick because of Callie. Then, worst of all, Tyler just got offered a job down south.

She was in the midst of weighing up her three options: move the girls down with him (which would affect me), make distance with him work, or... end things.

Lexi's nosebleed was the icing on the cake.

"I don't know," Lily breathed.

"Callie fine though?" I asked her.

She nodded. "Daycare said they will keep her and my mum will pick her up and bring her home when Ty gets home if we still aren't back."

Nodding, I took a seat next to her, eyes going over our little girl who was asleep now, nose packed with all sorts of gauze.

"What's the go here? Did the doctor's mention the game plan?"

"They want to run some tests to see if there's any damage up there and figure out the source of the bleeding. But if she loses too much blood before they can then it will be a surgery."

Nodding, I grabbed her hand and said, "She will be okay, Lily. Our little girl is a trooper."

In the end, they opted for surgery. We sat hand in hand, staring desperately towards the surgical rooms from the waiting area, pleading for good news on our little girl.

After what felt like forever, the surgeon emerged with what seemed like an amused smile on his face.

We immediately leapt to our feet and walked over to him.

"The culprit of the nosebleed was... a sticker," he said.

"A sticker..." I repeated, dumbfounded.

"But we asked if she put anything up there and she insisted she didn't," Lily said.

Nodding, he said, "We asked her one more time before we put her under and she confessed. So it was just a matter of going up there, retrieving it, and cauterising the wound it had made."

"That's one sharp sticker," I found myself whispering.

"Oh my gosh... Why didn't she just tell us?" Lily asked the abyss, head leaning on my shoulder.

"Because she didn't put it up there, she said," the surgeon replied.

We both cocked our heads to the side, staring at him in confusion.

"Apparently her sister did it. They were... trying to see how many stickers they could fit up her nose before they were caught."

We both deadpanned at the surgeon then shared a look with each other.

These girls... I thought to myself.

"I'm going to have a very serious talk with the both of them..." Lily said, voice venomous.

"Lexi said that she didn't want to get her sister in trouble," the surgeon replied, struggling to hide his amusement.

"That's not up to her," Lily grimaced.

Grabbing Lily's hand, I gave it a gentle squeeze as I turned back to the doctor and said, "Thank you for your help."

"I had more questions," Lily complained as the doctor walked away.

"We can ask them later. Don't be mad at the girls. They didn't know any better. We will talk with them calmly and sort it out... explain to them that things don't go up noses. Just be happy it's nothing serious."

Heaving a sigh, her head fell against my shoulder and I wrapped my arms around her.

"They're absolute idiots, Cory," she said. "They have too much Jojo in them."

Chuckling, I replied, "I wouldn't be surprised if my sister put the dumb idea in their head."

"Surely not... she's an adult now."

"But is she?"

We shared a laugh and then walked back to the waiting room, waiting for the news that she had been transferred to another room where we could see her.

Lily took my hand in hers and said, "Thanks for coming so quickly. I'm sorry you had to leave work."

"Nonsense. I had to be here. She's my little girl."

Lily glanced at me, giving me a small smile, but it didn't quite reach her eyes.

"How are you holding up?" I asked her.

She shrugged. "I feel like I can never catch a break."

Sighing, I said, "Life is shit like that. But it's also beautiful."

"Yeah... It really is."

"And it could be so much worse."

"It could. One of Lexi and Callie's daycare friends is in the midst of a big court proceeding over custody. Her mum cried to me about her husband beating her up but apparently no one wants to believe it."

"That's terrible. Is there anything we can do?"

"I was thinking about being a character reference..." she trailed off, silence overcoming us for a while until she disturbed it once more. "Cory?"

"Mmm?"

"I'm glad we get along unlike many separated parents."

"Me too."

"Each time something goes down though, I'm worried one of us will snap at each other. Like, I'm so flustered right now with everything that I worry I will take it out on you and that will be the end of our civility. Every relationship I see just... falls apart. Like co-parenting can't exist. I mean, I know we had that slip up that one night but... you and I are great friends because of our kids that bond us. But at the same time, all good things come to an end, right?"

"Well we haven't snapped at each other yet. And I think we agree a lot on our co-parenting."

"Yeah... I guess we do." But her face said she was still unsure.

"You don't need to ever worry about us getting along. Maybe some parents are really bad at it but... We figured out our priorities. You and I have been through too much to not make this work. And we've been through much worse. No matter what happens, our girls are our priority now and I know we will do everything to stop ourselves getting in the way of their sanity and safety."

She went quiet for a while as though pondering my words. "I don't know what I'm going to do about Ty. It's a great job offer. I don't want to have to ask him to stay..."

Pressing my lips together, I said, "If you want to go... I won't stop you."

Her head whipped up, eyes alarmed as she met my gaze. "But what about the girls?"

"I will miss them. I'll miss you too. But... I'm never going to hold you back, Lily. I've done that enough before and I won't do it again."

She was silent again for a while. Then, in a very small voice, she breathed, "I don't want to leave. I like it here. I like our friends. I like having you close by and family. I love Ty and I don't want him to go... but sometimes I wonder if things happen for a reason. I still haven't even told him about what happened last Christmas... Because it's not like we were fighting at the time like you and Jess. I don't think he'd ever forgive me if he knew as well..."

I angled myself to face her, grabbing both of her hands in mine. "You do what you need to do. No matter what happens though, if things don't work out with him, or if you have to move and I can only see the girls via video call and visit every now and then, we will make it work. As I've told you timelessly, there's one thing you can always count on and it's that I am going to be here. For you, for our daughters, through every high and low. Our family comes first. But please stop thinking you have to give up on what your heart wants just for our children. They are young and they will adapt to whatever environment they are in. You need to put yourself first sometimes, Lily. Because you are still a young woman with a whole life ahead of yourself and you can't bend every wish to suit our daughters. I don't want them growing up thinking that life stops when you become a parent or that women are forced into positions where they must put family first."

"Are you sure, Cory, that things will work out no matter what I choose? That you won't resent me for it if I did leave?" Her grey eyes twinkled with uncertainty as she gazed at me.

My heart twinged at the thought of them leaving me. I was so used to them always being around, even if the girls mostly  lived with her, and even if the life Lily and I shared was ancient history. But I could never hate her. I could never stop her from doing what she wanted to do. Because I loved these three girls too much to be a hindrance in their lives. Which is why I gave her hand another reassuring squeeze and said, "I'm positive."

Want to know what happened last Christmas? Read my story 31 Days of Christmas (currently uploading a chapter a day for the whole month of December) to 'hear' from Lily and Cory through Jojo about what happened.

Otherwise, wait for the spinoff book (details in final chapter of this book).

I know a lot of you will probably be upset with how I chose to end this book, but this isn't the end of Cory and Lily's story as it does continue in the spin-off, though it is the final time we hear their internal monologues. After everything that happened in the first book and how young they are, I decided the two of them staying together was just too toxic for me to promote. Both characters have a lot of growth to do before they could ever be together. I don't write romance novels with typical happy endings and I don't want to ever depict this 'high school sweetheart' and 'do something bad and all is forgiven' ideal that is promoted in a lot of stories. I hope you understand.

But perhaps there is still a future where Cory and Lily get together... read the blurb in the next chapter to find out more...

On a final note, I want to say here thank you so much for all your comments throughout this story. Seeing the comments section so active has brightened my spirits to continue this hobby of mine. I really value each and every one of you who take the time to read this story and react to the lives of my characters. It's only through you that these stories come alive.

It's been a long ride and difficult for me to continue. I've expressed many times I'm not a fan of the first Positive, largely because it's a piece of my writing from when I was in high school so it makes me cringe. Writing this sequel was a fan-service to you guys, written after being pestered timelessly to write one. As such, I ask you to please support some of my other works. All stories are connected somehow, so I assure you that you will enjoy them and seeing the little easter eggs throughout, even if the writing style is a little different.

Much love,

Amy