Finding Beauty

Epilogue

First half:

Cason's POV *JOSH'S WEDDING 1 YEAR LATER*

Brooke and I were now in our sophomore year of college and we were on our winter break. We managed to stay faithful to each other over the course of the year and I felt like our relationship grew because of our separation.

I mean, now it's just that much more special to see her. We could only see each other for the holidays and semester breaks. It was really hard to keep in touch because of time differences, three hours, but we managed to do it; together.

I always wore the promise necklace Brooke gave me, always showing it above my shirts so people knew I was taken. She gave the key while she had the heart. She said it was because I unlocked her heart, letting all of her emotions spill from it. I don't think she realizes it was the other way around. She always showed her emotions through her drawings, she just needed someone to actually share them with.

In turn, I made her a purple and gold infinity charm bracelet that had a paintbrush charm, a paint palette charm, and a pencil charm on it. I told her it was to remind her that we were still best friends no matter what and the charms were obviously were because she's into art. I had one too. Mine was silver and blue and it had our names engraved into it with two lovebirds that were snuggling.

Berkeley was pretty fun, but it was nothing compared to the time I shared with Brooke. I was doing pretty well by myself, I even got to teach some bioengineering classes here and there.

Meanwhile, at Carnegie Mellon, Brooke was excelling in her studies, she was even at the top of her class! Janet was her mentor, helping her in any way possible. The university was very impressed when Brooke hosted an art show for all children with Janet this past summer.

I spotted Janet in the audience and gave a small smile. She smiled back and sent me a small wave. She mouthed the words, 'We'll talk later, Kevin.'

My smiled widened. She still insisted on calling me Kevin, and Brooke, Bob. She even started calling Aiden, Dave. In fact, whenever Mom had to be away for a long time, and I was still away in college, she would watch Aiden and you could hear them watching Despicable Me 1 & 2, jumping around like crazy people.

She was like an aunt to Aiden and I. My family took an instant liking to her and Aiden, my younger cousins, and I called her Aunt Grandma because she watched the show Uncle Grandpa. I felt like she finally had a family. I know her mom died and no one knew anything about her dad, but it didn't seem like she had any family members. I was glad she could find a family in mine.

By the way, Aiden was eleven years old now, and he never changed. Well, except for his massive growth spurt. Other than that, he was still the sweet kid he's always been.

As for Mom, she was finally getting back into dating. I was really happy for her, because I didn't want her to be lonely. I mean, she still had Aiden, but a mother and son's love is way different from a boyfriend's love.

She met this guy named Shane at some business conference she went to. He seemed like a pretty nice guy and Aiden took quite a liking to him. I was so excited for him. Shane told me he was planning on marrying my mom someday and I told him he shouldn't wait so long because I wanted Aiden to have a father figure, especially since I wasn't going to be at the house much because of college.

Speaking of marriages, I still couldn't believe Josh had a fiancé and didn't tell us. I was even more surprised when he asked me to be his best man. After I told him Brooke and I were dating, we had gotten closer. We were like brothers. I smiled at the memory of the day Brooke and I finally told him we were dating.