Tragically Beautiful

Bonus Chapter....

2 years later....

"You and Derek will be there right?" I placed my phone between my shoulder and ear as I struggled to wiggle my pants on.

"Yeah we'll be there. Lexi and Nico are coming too right?" Olivia asked, shuffling around on the other side of the phone.

"Yeah she texted me earlier saying they will be. Its been ages since we all were together."

And it has been. The last time all seven of us were together was eight months ago for the wedding of Olivia's dad and his new wife. We were all so busy with school and life it was hard to meet up like we use to but we were all lucky to not be too far from each other.

In the fall after graduation Olivia and Derek moved to Seattle to go to school. Liv got into a great nursing program there and Derek followed. They only went three hours away but for a group that spent almost everyday together it was far. But since it was only three hours away they came back home to visit when they could.

As for Lexi and Nico they moved to Portland and found an apartment together. It came as a surprise when Lexi decided to enroll in hair school although it shouldn't have. The fact that she was always dyeing her hair should have been a clue. And Nico was studying to be an architect. Over the summer after graduation Liv's dad somehow got to talking to Nico and next thing we know he was choosing his major.

It came as no surprise that Noah decided to move to Portland as well with Alex and I. The three of us finding an apartment to share as we went to the same university. There was no way Alex and Noah were going to be separated. Where one was the other was soon to follow.

The same went with school. Alex and Noah both went into business so they could take over the family business. I had learned a few months after Christmas that Alex's parents and Noah's had built their hotel company together. I literally had no clue that Alex was secretly rich, even if he couldn't touch the money until he was 21. His parents had left him everything.

Because of that Alex and Noah both decided together to go into business and take over when they got older. Alex wanted to follow in his parents footsteps which I couldn't be prouder of. I knew when the time came I knew he would make them proud. While the two of them were studying business I ended up going into teaching to become a school counselor. It seemed fitting after everything I went through.

Of course just to get Alex to go to college was hard. He didn't want to leave Harper. Hell I didn't want to leave her either. We were our own little family and the thought of leaving her was not an easy decision for either of us. The only reason Alex agreed was the fact that Noah's parents were going to take her in full-time.

They already considered Harper as their daughter and Ava wanted nothing more than to be around more for her. And honestly it was the best decision for everyone. Harper needed a steady home life. Ava and Mason could give that to her more than two college kids. It wouldn't be right to move her with us or to make Alex give up school to stay here for her.

So the two of us moved to Portland and spent almost every weekend back home in Astoria to be with Harper. Adding in daily face times we made it work. And during breaks and the summer we were back home.

Now we were all back in town to celebrate Harper's 8th birthday. She had been talking about this day for the past week nonstop. Literally every other word was about her birthday. It was cute how excited she was for everyone to be home to celebrate with her.

It should come as no surprise that Ava and Mason were going all out for her. They have spent all week getting things ready and set for tonight. With basically her entire 4th grade class coming tonight was going to be crazy.