EPILOGUE

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Anaya parks her car on the curb, watching a few men disappear behind the corner with lit cigarettes. She removes her seat belt and gets out of her car, shivering at the cold. Her hands are shoved deep into the pockets of her coat as she makes her way towards the front porch. Somewhere in the distance, a dog barks loudly. The neighborhood itself is indeed very scary.

Walking up the steps, Anaya rings the doorbell twice. The light is on, indicting that the owner of the house is home.

As Anaya waits, she takes the time to look over the mess on the porch. Cobwebs and dust cling to the corners and the paint is continuously peeling away. Leaves scatter the dirty chair and Anaya scowls at the sight of smelly stains on the wooden floor.

Another moment passes and Anaya reaches to ring the doorbell again. Before she does, the door rattles and opens with a loud squeak, revealing a shadowed figure standing in the dim doorway.

"You again?" A gruff voice answers. Anaya grimaces at the bad breath before nodding her head.

"Come on, it's her birthday," she reminds. "Did you forget?"

Alexander glares at her as he rubs his beard. "Of course not. I just...got carried away."

Anaya rolls her eyes. "Get dressed. And brush your teeth for once, you smelly ogre. Clean your porch too. This place is a goddamn mess—"

"Okay, I got it!" Alexander snaps, disappearing back inside. He grumbles words under his breath as Anaya simply shakes her head.

She looks up towards the sunset, "How did you end up loving someone as dirty as him, Sasha?"

Alexander yells from inside, "I heard that!"

Thirty minutes pass and Alexander finally steps out of the house. He looks much cleaner than earlier, with his beard gone and hair styled back. Dressed in jeans and a dark blue coat, he and Anaya head to her car.

"Are you going to continue to live like that?" Anaya asks him as she starts the car. Alexander shrugs his shoulders, running his hand over his clean chin.

"You know I only dress up nice for Sasha's birthday," he answers.

Anaya shakes her head. "If Sasha were here, she would've smacked you right across your smelly face and forced you to clean the house at once."

The graveyard is only a few miles away from Alexander's home. Anaya had purchased different kinds of dishes from the local Korean market, knowing that Sasha loved eating food from her heritage. As she and Alexander began to walk towards the grave, Alexander couldn't help but feel the same guilty weight in his stomach again.

"I wonder how much fun Vincent and Brynn and Jennifer are having right now," he grumbles as he spreads the blanket on the ground. Anaya furrows her eyebrows at the sounds of their names once she gets herself seated.

"I hope they feel as miserable as they can be," Anaya answers before placing the food out in between them. "Wow, these look so good."

Alexander's family moved out a few months ago. After Sasha's funeral ended, Alexander stopped everything. He quit his job and gave up fighting and moved to a different neighborhood. He lost his model body and gained weight, he never cleaned his house, he simply stopped caring. All he could think of was Sasha and how he should've died instead of her.

It wasn't until last week when Anaya decided that Alexander should stop being lazy and do something about his life. The two were always bickering, but they never showed themselves fighting when the sunset appeared, because they knew Sasha would be watching. It was their own little philosophy: Sasha visiting the world through sunsets. On her birthday, Anaya and Alexander would go out together to her grave and have lunch while the sun was setting. An annual party, to let them think that Sasha was still there.

And Sasha was still there. She would watch over them, with Daniel by her side. She knew that Anaya and Alexander would continue to remember and love her forever. Sasha's love for them would never die, just as she loved her brother.

She knew, and although the misfortunes cost her life, she knew she would still love Alexander, forever and ever.

THE END

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wow, i cant believe i actually finished this book. it seems so surreal, starting it just a few months ago.

thank you to all of my readers and supporters for reading my first book on wattpad. i know that my writing wasnt exactly the best, but you all gave me motivation to continue writing! I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!

as for the future, i do have more ideas that are turning into stories, so stay tuned on my profile if you want to read them!

once again, thank you for reading "Forever and Never". you are all so so amazing. seriously.

for now, this is a goodbye to sasha and alexander. i hope you enjoyed these characters (:

thank you thank you THANK YOU all so so much!!!!!! words cant express how happy i actually am right now. THANK YOU!!!

-erika

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