"Okay now 'M'." Michael stated, gripping onto the steering wheel tighter. 

We had been playing the classic road game of where you go through the alphabet and find a sign that had a place or road that began with that letter. Despite his attitude this morning, he actually fell very tired shortly after and was now surviving on energy drinks and probably 3 cups of coffee. I insisted on driving, but he insisted not. Which I wasn't very hopeful with my offer anyways.

I scanned the signs out the window as I tried to get a glimpse of the words that reflected in the dark of the night. We've been driving for about 13 hours and only made a few stops, but I was nearly back home and it made me more excited than ever. My attention was caught by a sign that read that the exit we were supposed to turn of to was coming up in a couple hundred feet.

"Michael." I called out as he drove right passed the turn.

"That's not on a sign." He replied. I shifted my weight in the seat so I could face him. He glanced over at me then back to the road. "What?" He half smiled. I smacked his arm and gave him a glare. "I'm driving you know." He stated, rubbing over his arm that was probably stinging.

"You missed the exit." I told him, holding out my hand to the windshield as exits were passing up. He hit the steering wheel once then muttered a few profanities. 

"Why didn't you tell me?!" He exclaimed. I raised an eyebrow at him as I brought my legs up to rest them on the dashboard. 

"You're kidding right?" I questioned looking over at him. A smile pulled pulled at the corner of his mouth then vanished right as caught himself doing so. "Just pull into a gas station and we can turn around there." I suggested.

Knowing Michael, I was actually suspecting to get lost and not get home for another 3 days. We were in a 2 hour radius of our homes he knew how to maneuver his way through the city easily, but apparently not as well as he boasted that he did. The turn around was easy so I wasn't worried, but the fact that I even had a GPS next to him just made me want to tape it to the steering wheel.

After a few minutes of driving further down the road we found a, somewhat sketchy, gas station. To my surprise he pulled into one of the spaces on the side of the store. I sat up right and watched as he dug through his wallet.

"What are you doing?" I asked, lightly shaking my head.

"I'm hungry." He mumbled. He looked up at me quickly. "Do you want anything?" I had a completely blank facial expression on my face from his question and actions. He stood up right out of the car and stared at me, as if he was expecting an answer. "I'll take that as a no." He said, raising his eyebrows. I stuck my tongue out at him, the way you did to someone you didn't like in the third grade. He ignored my childish behavior and shut the door, locking it behind him.

I sighed and slumped back in my seat, pulling out my phone from my bag. I'd been texting Julia, Lue, and Annabel non stop since they learned I'm moving back and they were beyond ecstatic. According to Michael, it was basically all his idea to come surprise me, but according to my friends they had a little bit more of an influence on it than he mentioned.

I smiled at the texts that reminded me that I was to be home in 2 hours. The silence I sat in was broken by a gentle tap on the door. I looked around, not exactly wanting to sit up and see a masked murderer outside my door. I quickly dialed Michael's number, but was then startled by his ringer as he had left his phone in the car.

I shut it off and tossed it back into his seat. I jumped once I heard another tap on the door and this time it came closer. My heart started beating faster as I sat up straight. I peered out my window then began to lean over towards it to see if anyone was there.

Two hands and a face appeared on the window, followed by a loud scream from the person I shrieked and jumped back from the scare. I opened my eyes to see Michael in stitches, bent over and clutching his stomach laughing hysterically. I huffed out a long breath and blew a loose piece of hair from in front of my face. 

I watched him as he walked to the driver's side of the car. His laugh was audible from the inside of the car and I scooted over once he opened the door. My noticeable frown was still hanging on my mouth as he continued on with his laughter.

"Boo." He said through laughs, waving his bag of Doritos in one hand. I sat facing him with my back pressed against the uncomfortable plastic of the door as I wrapped my arms around my knees. "Come on, Maddie." He chuckled as he put his hand on my knee.

"I'm not laughing." I stated as I pushed his hand away. 

"Maddie." Michael said. I cocked my head up to the side, handling the situation in a childish manner. "Maddie." He cooed. I stayed in my same spot, refusing to move. He unbuckled his seat belt and attempted to crawl over to me.

"Get away." I whined as he put his hands on both of my knees. He hovered over me, planting a kiss on the crown of my head.

"I love you." He shook my knees, trying to get me to smile.

"No you don't." I stated, looking up at him. He began to lean down at me in attempts to kiss me, but I wasn't having it. I put my hands on his chest to stop him, but he was already close enough. I turned my head to the side so he would miss my lips and land on my cheek.

"Hey!" He shouted. He removed his hands from my legs and brought them to my face, pecking my lips once. I frowned as he crawled back to his seat as I felt defeated. "I'm sorry." He snickered as he looked over at me before shifting into drive and leaving the gas station. He pulled out and finally got onto the right turn and we were now back on track. "Are you going to talk to me?" He asked.

"No." I spoke, finally looking up to him. I gave him a small smile even though he was more focused on the road than me.

"Sorry." He chuckled.

"Stop apologizing." I told him as I sat up correctly in my seat. The past few hours have consisted of me trying to get comfortable since neither of us had slept a single minute.

"You're starting to sound like me." He took a hand off the wheel and rubbed his forehead. It was obvious that he was tired which made me nervous, but I knew that he'd be smart about it and felt that if it was too much he'd pull over somewhere.

"Are you sure you don't want to trade? We've got a little under two hours." I asked as watched out the window and began to somewhat familiarize myself with the highway.

"I'll be fine, just worry about you getting some sleep. It's not that much longer until we're home." He sighed. I nodded my head and leaned against the window. The idea of being at home with my mom and friends was just enough to get me to smile the second I shut my eyes. Soon enough I drifted of to sleep with ease.

-

The black mass took over my vision the second my eyes opened. I was laying in the pitch dark with a blanket draped over my body. I stretched my legs and realized I was laying in a bed that was bigger than mine. I sat up, squinting my eyes as they adjusted to the darkness and realized I was in Michael's room, yet he wasn't in the usual spot beside me. 

I hurled my legs over the edge as they felt heavier than normal and started walking towards the door. I noticed the clock on his dresser and it beamed out '1:28' which I took as AM. Shortly after I found myself going down the stairs the quietest I could since I assumed I was going to find him curled up on the couch.

The only light on downstairs was the kitchen light that Michael was always scolded for for leaving on. He's been telling me these stories of how for the past week while his grandmother is on vacation that he will lay down in bed and the second he's comfortable he gets a call from her and she'll ask him about the stupid light, which he still never turns off.

But I was more focused on finding out where Michael went instead of this light. I passed the living room and he wasn't in the spot I had suggested he was in. I began to make the turn to the kitchen and had caught his out of the corner of my eye. He was sitting on one of the bar stools with his chin in his hand, scrolling aimlessly through his phone.

I crept into the kitchen and right behind him, resting my chin on his shoulder. He looked right over to me and gave me a gentle smile.

"Good morning." He quietly said.

"It's almost 2am." I told him, reading through his twitter timeline as he did too. He put his phone down and turned into his chair to me and grabbed me by the waist to pull me towards him.

"Your mom left an hour ago. She wanted to tell you hi." He said, changing the topic.

"My mom?" I asked as I wiggled between his legs. "Why was she here? And the only thing she had to say was hi?" I furrowed my eyebrows at him as I interrogated him.

"Everyone was here. Your mom, Lue, Julia, Annabel. They wanted to surprise you, but someone was asleep." He snickered. I rested my forearms on his shoulders as he tried to tug me closer.

"Why didn't you wake me up?" I asked, flicking down to his bottom lip that he was biting.

"I tried!" He exclaimed. "You didn't even wake up when I carried upstairs." 

"Why do you insist on carrying me everywhere?" I giggled as he got me to lean down to his level. He kissed my cheek then lingered over my neck.

"Because it's romantic." He joked after he pressed his lips to my neck. I ran my fingers through his hair and was surprised when he didn't swat my hand away like normal.

Usually when he did this he was trying to convince me to do something, but this time I'm guessing that it was his 'romantic' gestures that he claimed that he had. 

"Michael Clifford? Romantic?" I fake gasped. "The one that asked me to be his girlfriend with a pizza and then went on to scare the absolute shit out of me at a sketchy gas station?" I stood back up, seeing a disappointed Michael right in front of me.

"That's classic humor." He explained, now having a full blown smile. I dropped and shook my head at him as I smiled along with him. 

"Why am I even at your house?" I questioned, looking between his eyes.

"Well," He began, locking his fingers together behind my back. "You're moving into your new house tomorrow and I guessed that you wouldn't want to be involved in the mess tomorrow morning." I raised an eyebrow at him, from his correct guess, as he always did.

"Stop making assumptions about who you think I am." I brought a hand up to the side of his cheek, making sure he got the point that I was being sarcastic.

"Stop quoting books at me." He quickly replied back. I was actually quoting the book called Remnants of Light and that was the end of the full sentence. I read it in the 10th grade and was surprised that he knew what I was talking about.

"How did you know what I was quoting?" I tilted my head to the side as I was actually impressed with him.

"Just because I dropped out of school didn't mean I didn't learn anything." He matter-of-factly said. He got up from the stool and let go of me. His hands fumbled through his pockets as he walked towards the door.

"Impressive." I stated as I watched him stick a cigarette in between his lips. I frowned at him, knowing that I was just about done with the things, but he hadn't made much of an effort to quit. "Those are you to kill you." I groaned as he took a step outside the front door.

"Maybe so, but at least I'll die smart." He winked at me before shutting the door, making a reference to the conversation we just had. I sighed and sat down on the couch, kicking my feet up and scrolling through my phone.

I don't get how this happened, or why this happened, but what I do know is that I'm not the same Maddie I was 3 months ago. I'm happier and I'm letting more people in and I don't feel so bland. The empty spots in my life were filled with books and fictional endings, but now they've been filled with real endings. Maybe this isn't how it will all end, but for right now this is how I see my future. Just the way it is now.

-

A/N:

MADDIE IS HOOOOOMMMMEEEEE

wow i can't believe there's only one chapter left oh my gosh, heads up now, it will be a little short, but i'll upload the final chapter and epilogue at the same time

thank you for all of the reads and votes this got it's crazy i'm crying ilysm