s t r e a m {SAPNAP}

- 50 -

BEE POV

***
December 25th - Evening

I must have been zoning out on Nick's parent's couch. I could hear everyone talking amongst themselves, but I wasn't necessarily focused on anything.

Lydia nudged me and brought me back into the world.

"You really love him, don't you?" She asked quietly.

I nodded.

"I mean, yeah. He's one of the best things to have happened to me lately. Why?"

"You've been staring at him for the last hour," she pointed it, beckoning over to my boyfriend. "He makes you happy?"

"Yeah. I couldn't ask for a better person. It feels like it was so long ago that we first talked, but it doesn't seem so far away now. I know you don't really like the fact that I stream, but if it weren't for that, I never would be where I am now." I glanced over to her.

"I think you should do whatever makes you happy. And if playing video games for millions of people on the internet makes you money and makes you happy, then do whatever you want."

Appreciation swelled.

"If I loved him any less than I do, I don't think I'd be happy."

We sat together for a little while more, Nick occasionally coming over to talk and say hi. I felt my cheeks burn each time he said my name.

Lydia nudged me again.

"Do you miss him?"

"Every day. He's the first thing I think of when I wake up, and the last thing I think of when I go to sleep. And hey, even if we're hundreds of thousand of miles away, I know everything will work out." I buried my face in his hoodie—he gave me yet another one. "Someone said once that everything would be okay in the end, and if it's not okay, it's not the end. Everything's okay now."

"Elisabeth?"

My heart skipped a beat. Lydia spoke very slowly.

"I think that if this boy is the one that you love—that you really, truly love—there should be nothing stopping you. I've seen the way you look at him. And the way he looks at you. And I've seen the way you've cried and isolated yourself from everyone because you were not with him. Maybe I'm wrong—your uncle and I weren't together for very long—but I'm certain I know love when I see it."

I was confused.

"I think if you love him, you should be with him. North Dakota has nothing for you there—where ever this boy goes, I trust that you'll choose to follow. If it's love, then he won't go where you can't."

"What are you saying?"

"I want you to go with him. I am old, I have nothing for you. I can't keep you trapped in a place you don't want to be. So go with him. Be with him, wherever that may be."

My aunt flashed me a smile before getting up and retreating to the kitchen, leaving me on the couch alone.

Nick returned.

"Are you alright?" He asked, sitting beside me. I rested my head on his shoulder.

"Never better,"

"I love you," the words sent chills through my body when they dropped from his lips.

"I love you too," when I spoke, they didn't burn like I expected the words to.

All was well that ends well, and all that ends well is well.

***

So that's the end!!! Thank you guys so much for reading!! I never expected this book to get to where it is so thank you so so so much:)