Because of You

Epilogue: Someday

All right. This is it, y'all. I am going to have to add an author's note after this just to officially close Because of You out, and because I'm sappy like that. I cannot believe I finished this. I never would have if not for your guys' words of encouragement. Seriously. Thank you to everyone who has stuck with this story. Who has returned to reading it despite me neglecting it for . . . a long time. It's really blown me away. This one's for you, and I hope it is the official ending that you, the readers, deserve. 

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"Tilt it a little more to the left," directed Octavia, her weight supported against a single crutch. "It's catching on the edge of the door."

The side paneling of the wood bit into my fingers as I followed her instruction. I wouldn't have expected the piece to weigh as much as it did. That, or I was just physically weaker than I thought. I looked across our burden to where Thalia clung to the other side, hefting it up with as much strength as her petite form possessed.

"Okay, wait, wait, wait, I gotta put it down," she said quickly, placing her half on the floor. This, of course, forced me to do the same.

Hands on her hips she pulled in sharp breaths, winded. "Those stairs really . . . took all of my upper body strength," Her words came out in a gasp as she gulped in air like it was water.

"Wish Lincoln didn't have to be at practice or else he'd have gotten this up here half an hour ago," Octavia said from her spot against the wall, supported between it and her crutch. "I still think you should've just told Bel, though. It's still a surprise, even if he has to help with it."

I grimaced, looking down at the piano. It was an old Everett, more compact than the one at the hospital had been, but still deceptively heavy for its size. She was right; I could've surprised Bellamy just as easily downstairs, outside his apartment, as I could have up here in it.

But that hadn't been the reveal I'd wanted. Plus I was fairly confident that once it was actually in the apartment, Bellamy would have less incentive to try and return it, if he assumed, as I thought he might, the gift to be too much. Sure, I hadn't spent money, per se, taking it off the hands of a family too willing to get rid of the instrument their son had disowned in middle school, but the sooner it was in his apartment, the less time either of us would have to argue about it staying there.

Especially if he had witnessed the war it took for us to get it up here.

"Well, we've already made it this far," I told them, breathing a bit hard myself. "Unless you want to take it back down?"

Thalia groaned. "Not even for money." With one final breath, she set her hands back to the underside of the piano. "Okay, let's do this."

It took an additional ten minutes for us to position the piano where Octavia thought it would be best, pressed against the far left wall beneath one of his Bon Jovi posters. When my muscles had made their final protest, Octavia gave out the woop of triumph I lacked the breath to. "Yes, it's perfect! He's going to love it. After you tell him you didn't pay for it, that is."

I entertained the idea of just writing that on a sticky note and putting it on the piano. The image it conjured was almost enough to make me smile.

"And just in time! He says he'll be here in five minutes," Octavia informed, waving her phone in my direction. Suddenly her focus snapped to Thalia. "That's our cue."

I looked at her questioningly, the air in my chest burning. "You don't want to be here when we give it to him?"

"When you give it to him," she corrected, using her elbow to brace herself against her one crutch as she gathered her hair in a ponytail. "And absolutely not. A romantic moment usually doesn't include the little sister."