"How long is this going to take?"

"It's a mystery."

"I hate mysteries."

"You're a mystery yourself."

We've been sitting in Michael's car for about 25 minutes, much longer than I had expected to. He claimed the drive to my new house was 'just down the road' and would 'only take a few minutes',but it's been just a tad longer and I was starting to get fidgety. I don't quite know if it was from the nerves or excitement, or a mix of both. Probably both.

We were sitting in silence, a comfortable one. We haven't talked very much the whole way here, but we didn't need to. Chances are I was going to be distracted by my thoughts anyways. Just as the idea left my head, Michael pulled into a familiar neighborhood. I took my legs off his dashboard, something that he'd gotten used to after weeks of scolding me about. I sat up and look around at the bright green golf course that was on either side of the road. We'd driven into one of the nicest areas in my town and I'd only been here a few times for parties.

"I don't live here now, do I?" I furrowed my eyebrows at the large houses then back to Michael who had a smirk on his face. He kept his eyes on the road and made a few more turns, finally pulling into the driveway of a white 2 story house. It had been about the same size as the house before, but I still hadn't seen the inside.

"You do now." Michael answered after parking his car. He looked over at me with a cheesy grin and unlocked the doors. "Are you going to go inside or what?" He chuckled. My smile became wider and we hoped out at the same time, speeding around the hood of his car to catch up with him.

We hurried up the steps, giggling like school children and noticed a note taped to the front door. I swiftly grabbed it off and read it out loud.

"There's a key on top of the door frame, be back at 1. Mom." I looked up at Michael who was already stretching up and fumbling for the key, just like how he did when I first showed up to his grandmother's house.

"Déjà vu?" Michael said, going back to his normal height and twisting the key into the lock. He twisted the door handle and gestured me in first.

"Definitely." I breathed out once I took a step inside. I felt him hand rest on the small of my back and I turned over my shoulder to see his eyes lit up just as mine were.

The house was phenomenal to say the least. The floors were darkened hardwood which Michael and I spent no time sliding over in just our socks. It had just the basic furniture in there, couches, beds, chairs, and a few tables. We had ran all through the house, shouting at each other from each end saying how amazing this house was. There were 5 rooms and each were painted a subtle beige that clashed well with our dark red kitchen. It was astonishing how great of taste my mother had.

Just as Michael and I were running down the steps, we both heard the front door open, making us slow our speed. We trotted down the last few steps and were able to catch a view of my mother in the doorway with a tall and older man. I took a few steps ahead on Michael so I could run up to my mother and hug her after not seeing her for 2 weeks.

"Mom!" I shouted, making her snap her head in my direction. She opened her arms and nearly fell over once I crashed into her, "Oh my God, I missed you so much." I spoke quickly. I heard her soft laugh next to my ear as she pulled back.

"I missed you too." She grinned at me. Her eyes went over my shoulder as my head turned over mine, only to see Michael walking towards us with just as a big of a smile as my mother and I had on. I took a step over, watching as Michael and my mother embraced and they began babbling on about the trip.

I turned to the man that was standing next to my mother who was even taller than Michael and was dressed rather casual for a realtor during the day.

"Hi, I'm Maddie, Kim's daughter." I said with a chirpy tone, giving him a small wave.

"Well hello, Maddie. I'm Dan." He chuckled, sticking a hand out to me. I lightly shook his hand in surprise of his lack of formality, but he already seemed interesting to me. Definitely a lot cooler than our previous realtors.

"Kids." My mom spoke loudly, grabbing Michael and I's attention along with Dan's. She looked between us as I took a few steps towards Michael and hooked an arm around his. "You were running around this house before we got in, weren't you?" She asked, raising an eyebrow between us. Michael and I both quickly looked at each other then back at my mom with guesses that she noticed our heavy breaths and rolled up sleeves.

"Uhhh.." We simultaneously said, looking around briefly as if we were searching for the answer in the air. She began laughing and after a shared weird look from Michael, we joined in for a short amount of time.

"Don't worry, we did the same thing." My mom said, wrapping an arm around Dan's torso. I raised my eyebrows at her, not putting the pieces together. He hooked his arm around my mothers' shoulders as she grinned at me. I felt Michael pinch my arm and I looked over at him, seeing him with a subtle smirk on his face as he kept his eyes on the adults in front of us.

"Wait." I began, breaking the short silence. My mom nodded her head at me, getting what I was implying. "Aww!" Michael and I said as if it was on queue. We glanced towards each other then back. "How long have you two been seeing each other?" I questioned in hopes that it wouldn't be too weird to answer.

"Almost a month now isn't it?" Dan replied, giving my mom a light smile. She nodded her head and dropped her arm from off of him.

"Who wants lunch?" My mom asked, clapping her hands together. Dan followed her into the kitchen as Michael and I stayed put out here. I leaned over, making sure they were out of earshot.

"Wow." I breathed out through my wide smile. I looked up at Michael to find him staring down at me with his infamous smile. "I can't believe my mom has a boyfriend. I never thought I'd see her with another man." I spoke, shaking my head lightly. He snaked his hands into mine and tied our fingers together, gripping them tight between us.

"It looks like there's going to be more than one happy couple around here." He sighed, kissing my nose.

"Stop it." I giggled, swatting him away. "It feels so good to see my mom so happy. I'm probably happier than her." I admitted as I began to sway back and forth. We turned our heads in the direction of my mother's laughter.

"Remember when I told you that I wanted to be the challenge in your life?" He suddenly asked. I remembered the conversation quite well, it was really where this all started.

"Yeah." I shortly said, giving him a small smile. He grabbed my hands, pulling them above my heads and spinning me in a full circle.

"And remember how I said I would try?" He continued on. He dropped one of my hands and rested his on my waist. We were now stepping side to side, the same kind of dancing you did in highschool at your prom. I bit my lip back, nodding my head at him. "How well did I actually do at trying?" He twirled me around once more. I looked over his shoulder to find my mom standing in the doorway of the room, but once we locked eyes she ran right back into the kitchen, bumping into the counter as she did so.

"I don't really know." I confessed. He cocked his head to the side, unsure of what I had meant. "I don't know what I was expecting from you. But that doesn't even matter. This is more of a fairy tale ending than any number of pages could bring me." I said, letting out a faint laugh.

"You're going to make me gag." He said, now setting my hands around his neck.

"I don't think that's how the book is supposed to end." I told him. I let my forehead fall onto his chest from my slightly embarrassing amount of cheesiness.

"But this book isn't going to end for a very long time." He mumbled into the crown of my head. It was enough to get me to look up at him. Just as he did he leaned into me, placing a soft kiss on my lips. He pulled apart, but stayed only a few centimeters from my face. "And Maddie?" He asked quietly.

"Yeah?" I whispered. His lips curled into a smile as mine did as well. His voice was lowered as he spoke, giving me a feel of true stability.

"You're my lighthouse."

-

A/N:

AND THAT IS IT i can't believe i just finished my first fanfic omg

thank you so much if you've been reading, it's currently ending with nearly 73K reads that's crazy, thank you so much if you've voted and commented along the way!!!

now that walls is over, i'll be updating more often for my luke fanfic and then publish my calum fanfic in a few weeks :-)

maddie and michael's playlist ((also in the external link)): http://8tracks.com/fluffycashton/but-rather-you-were-made-for-the-world

also, a few people have asked about video edits and covers to create and you can go ahead and make them if you'd like :-) send them over to my twitter or inbox me the link!!

thank you again, sorry for this author's note for being so long wow ok, i hope you enjoyed reading this as much as i liked writing ok i love you