happier ⇒ the summer i turned pretty

TWENTY-THREE

although the night hadn't gone as planned, they still had their family dinner together.

everyone tried to keep the mood positive. the goal was to just enjoy the time with one another.

nobody brought up anything about susannah the rest of the night.

everyone went to sleep right after dinner. the exhaustion and stress took over.

the next day

avalon wasn't looking forward to leaving. although there were some hurdles this summer, she didn't want to leave her second family. she also didn't want to be away from jeremiah for so long. her attachment issues were about to take over. she always hated being away from him, but this time was different.

she hurried and packed up everything so she could get it over with.

she took all her stuff out to the car.

when she was done, she made her way to jeremiah's room. he was in the process of packing his things.

she sat down on his bed, next to his suitcase.

"need any help?" she asked.

"uh," he sighed, "nope i think i'm good." he tried to smile at her. he continued packing his things, without saying a word.

avalon knew he was upset about susannah, and now he was having to leave his friends.

he was starting to feel so alone already.

"do you have any plans with friends when you get back?" she asked him, trying to make small talk.

"nah not really. i'll probably just spend time with my mom..." he trailed off. he stopped what he was doing and stared at his suitcase. he was zoned out.

she stood up and hugged him. she reached over his shoulders from behind him since he was leaning over so she could reach. he put his hand on her arm. he started to tear up.

"i wish we didn't have to leave each other." he spoke quietly.

she left the hug so that she could look at him. "hey, i'm not going anywhere." she rested her hand on the side of his face.

tears continued falling from his eyes. she kept wiping them away for him.

"i don't want us to be so far apart. i wish we could just stay here together forever."

her heart dropped. she felt so much sadness. she wanted the same thing, to just be with him forever. but, it wasn't possible for right now.

he pulled her in for another hug. he rubbed her back and hid his face in her shoulder. he cried and cried.

she just held him close. she tried to keep her composure so that she wouldn't make him feel worse.

they didn't pull away from their hug until fiona came in to get them. "it's almost time to go." she told them.

she helped jeremiah gather all of his things. they took his stuff out to his car.

everyone started to say their goodbyes to each other.

she gave steven, laurel, and belly a group hug. smiles were all around. they were sad they were leaving each other, but they couldn't help but be happy around one another. the good memories definitely outweighed the bad this summer.

"don't kill each other, okay?" avalon laughed.

"can't make that promise." steven nodded his head with a smile on his face.

belly playfully punched him, "shut up steven!" she laughed.

"okay you two, don't forget to text me!" she reminded them.