Personal blog of @carolinemorrison

Me: *starts working on a School Spirits story, an Off Campus story, finished a Doogie Kameāloha M.D story and started a new Doogie story*

And I took all my kids to the beach lol

After everything they'd lost, everything they'd survived, and everything they'd fought their way back to, Lahela finally had an answer.

Read the epilogue here!

She glanced  over her shoulder. “Yeah?” 

“You hungry?” 

A grin spread across her face. “That depends.” 

Nico raised an eyebrow. “Depends on what?” 

“Whether you’re buying or not.” 

He laughed. “Sunny’s?” 

Lahela felt her smile grow.  She nodded. “It’s a date.” 

NIco looked down, a tiny sad smile fixed across his face. “For the record, I still have like twelve unread drafts of texts I never sent you.” 

That pulled a real laugh out of her. Her laughter faded into a soft silence, neither of them knowing exactly what to say. 

Slowly, Nico turned his hand over against the concrete between them, palm up. It was an offering, not an expectation. “We don’t have to figure everything out tonight,” he said quietly. 

Seriously he was like one of my first TV crushes. . . You know that that means right?

Lahela shook her head immediately. “I should’ve caught it sooner, I should have. . .” 

“No.” Nico’s voice was gentle but firm. “You did everything right.” 

Before she could argue again, Nico’s arm wrapped carefully around her shoulders, pulling her against him. 

The second she felt him against her, she broke.

“Five minutes. Please.” he begged.

Lahela hesitated. 

He swallowed hard.  “Hela, just give me five minutes. please? If you still hate me after those five minutes, I'll leave you alone forever.”

“Nico I don’t think. . . “

“Hela please.” he said, his voice more fragile than she’d ever heard it. “I will get on my hands and knees and beg you right now if that’s what you want. I owe you the truth.” 

“That would have been nice three weeks ago.”