Thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed this story as well as to everyone who has put this story on their favorites and their alerts list. It means so much to me and I greatly appreciate it!

DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own WWE, NXT or any of the Superstars and Divas from either roster that may appear in this story. Names and locations are used for story purposes only.

*Dean's POV*
"Morning." I mumbled as I tiredly walked into the kitchen and saw Roman already there with a wife beater and black basketball shorts.

"Morning." He replied when he looked at me with almost the same thing on. "I'm guessing you had a good night. It looks like you didn't get any sleep, yet you also look well rested, so I'm not sure what to think of it."

I smiled at me and started helping him out with breakfast. "She said yes. I proposed and Leah said yes."

"Congratulations!" He exclaimed, genuinely happy, as we gave each other a hug. "I'm happy for you. I'm guessing you continued to celebrate this morning?"

"I'm not going to answer that." I tell him, knowing that Leah and I did. We only got about two hours of sleep that was ended when our alarm clock went off.

"Good morning." Said someone from behind us. We both look back and see Leah walking in with a smile as she wore a pink tank top and black shorts and her hair in a messy bun. We shared a kiss before her and Roman shared a quick hug.

"Let me see." He said as he took her hand to see the ring that she had on her ring finger. "You chose well my brother. Congratulations."

We all laughed as he and Leah shared another hug. She walked over to me and into my arms as we shared another kiss. We finished helping out with breakfast and cleaned up before we sat down to eat.

"Are your parents coming back before we all leave?" I ask Roman.

"I honestly don't know." He replied as he took a bite of his biscuit. "They've been so busy just about the entire summer, they're barely here. The last time I spoke to them, they were still in Europe for business. If they don't come back in time, I'll have to go without them being here. How do you guys do it?"

"Do what?" I asked.

"Deal with not having your parents around?" He asks.

Leah drinks some of her juice and looks over at Roman. "Everybody deals with things differently. But I think that with Dean and I, the way we were raised may also play a part into why we deal with that kind of thing the way that we do. My dad died when I was little so after he died, I didn't really have a constant parent in my life with the way that my mom was. Then you have Dean with his situation and so, yeah. I don't know how to explain it. All I can say best about it is that we were forced to learn how to deal with our parents not being around."

Roman nodded his head, understanding. "It just sucks because I'm the last one of my brother and sisters to go off to college and they're not here yet. But enough about me. We have a party that we have to finish getting ready for and I know the two of you are very happy right now about your engagement, but I'm going to need as much help as I can setting up for tonight."

"Of course." I told him as we finished our breakfast.

After we finished cleaning up, Roman went up to his room leaving Leah and I by ourselves. We share a few kisses before we go back upstairs and close the door behind us to start getting dressed to go help Roman out with everything.

"When would you like to get married?" I asked Leah when I sat down on the bench after putting on my shorts, to put on my shoes.

Turning to me, she stood in between my legs and rested her arms on my shoulders as she smiled. "You know, I really liked hearing that."

"Yeah?" I ask with a smile on my face.

"Yes." She replies, nodding before pecking my lips. "And as for when...I don't know. I don't want to rush into it. What do you think about after we finish college?"

I thought about it for a bit as my hands rested on her waist. "I think that's good. It gives us a chance to get school out of the way and get some extra money to get married."

Leah gave me a sweet smile. "I love you."

"I love you, too." I tell her with a smile of my own as our noses touched.

A few minutes later, we came out of our room and met Roman downstairs. A part of me didn't want this day to end because I knew that after today, all of us would leave for college. A lot of us would go our separate ways and that meant that Roman and I would be splitting up for the first time in four years to go to two completely different schools. That would also mean that I wouldn't know how long it would be until I would see some of my other friends from school again. The ones that would be staying here in Cincinnati because they weren't going to get out of here. They were dedicating their lives to doing the wrong thing while I was going to college to better myself. Hell some of them were even upset that I was going and leaving them behind.

At one point, I thought that I would be right there with them after high school. But obviously, that's not how it's ending up. It's like they were my friend until they saw me doing better and realized that I was going to leave this dump. Yeah this would always be where I was born and raised, but there's nothing here for me anymore. All it has to offer is bad after bad and more bad. That's it. The only good thing that came out of it was Leah, Roman and a few good friends that I managed to make.

"You okay?" Leah asked as we were in the car.

"Yeah, I'm good." I replied when I looked at her. I gave her a small smile before I looked out the window again.

When we got to the supermarket, Jimmy and Jey were already there with Naomi and we all greeted them. Telling them the news about the engagement for Leah and I, they congratulated us and of course, Naomi loved the ring just as much as Leah did. I chuckled and shook my head.

"Okay, so we need to get sodas, potato chips, forks and spoons in case we have food that we'll need that for." Said Leah.

"And napkins." Added Roman. "I don't want anybody cleaning their hands on my walls or any of the furniture in my house. There's napkins for that."

"What about our alcohol?" Asked Jey as we started with the sodas. "You know that a lot of the people that are going to come are going to want to drink. It's the last big party of the summer before college."

We all looked at each other before looking at Roman to make the final decision. He thought for a moment and shrugged.

"We'll see what we can find after we leave here. But who's going to be able to get it for us?" Roman asked. "We're all under 21."

"I'll get it." I say. Leah looks over at me with curiosity. "What?"

"How are you going to get it?" She asks.

"I still know people. Just because I don't hang out with them anymore, doesn't mean I won't remember them." I tell her. Leah gives me a look of her hoping I don't get myself into trouble. I reassure her that I won't and that it will be okay and that I won't get into any trouble.

Once we were done in the supermarket, I was about to go walking to a spot that I knew of where I could get the alcohol without them giving me problems.

"Dean, wait." Roman's voice said. I turned around to see him walking towards me. "Let one of drive you. To avoid the cops roaming around and seeing you. You know how anal they could be sometimes and I don't want them giving you any problems."

I thought about it for a moment. "You know Leah's going to hate it if she sees where I go to get this stuff. I haven't gone anywhere near them since I met her. But where else am I going to go to get the alcohol without anybody giving me any problems about my age?"

"I may know somebody that can hook us up. We could go to them, and so maybe you can avoid trouble for not going to your old hook up and not have any problems with Leah." Roman suggested.

Thinking about it, he made sense and it would definitely keep me out of any problems. "And we could avoid a sticky situation?"

"Yes." Roman tells me.

"Alright, come on. Leah can go with Naomi." I say as we fist bump and walk back to his car. "The things we do just to get some drinks."

Roman chuckled and patted my back. "Don't worry. We'll be good."

*Leah's POV*
"What are we going to do about the decorations and stuff like that?" Asked Naomi as her and I drove with the twins back to Roman's house.

"We already have those things at the house." I tell her. "We just need to set everything up. We could put the sodas in the fridge and keep them there to get them cold enough for later."

I look at the time and see that it's lunch time already. Looking at my phone, I see that Dean nor Roman have texted or called. I go to put the things away with Naomi while Jimmy and Jey begin on a few things in the back. There was a large pool in the back with a small jaccuzi built next to it on one end of it. There was a spot with a grill that was surrounded by a bar-like counter and seats long enough to fit at least a dozen people with a canopy over it that protected it well from the sun. The floors and the walls were of a cream color, but it fit well with the color of the house and just the color scheme inside of it.

"Wanna head out to lunch?" Naomi and I ask Jimmy and Jey when we go out to the back.

They looked at the time and nodded. "Yeah, where do you want to go?"

Naomi and I looked at each other and shrugged. "Where haven't we gone for lunch yet?"

We all laughed. We've been to almost every place we could afford for lunch since school ended. Pizza, Chinese, the diner and a whole bunch of other places in between. We were running out of places to go to and luckily there wasn't that much time left before we all left.

"Why don't we just go to McDonalds?" Naomi suggested. "We don't go there much."

"Sounds good." Said Jey as we went back inside to get our things together to leave.

I got a text a few moments later from Dean saying that they were on their way back home with the drinks. I told them that we were getting ready to leave for lunch so to come home fast. I told everybody else and we decided to wait for him and Roman so that we could all go together.

Dean came in through the door about 10 minutes later with Roman walking in behind him. He walked over to the couch and leaned down to give me a kiss. They put the drinks away and got themselves together, while they told us what they got. We then made our way out of the house to go to McDonalds.

Getting there, we all quickly got on line and figured out waht we wanted by the time we got to the front. When Dean finished ordering and paid, I went to get a few things to then look for a table. When I turn a corner, I bump into someone and stumble back as I try to regain my balance.

"Ow." I mutter softly, feeling a twinge of pain in my shoulder from the hard bump. I see from the corner of my eye that somebody bends down and picks up a few things before apologizing to me. Looking up, my breath catches in my throat at the person that I see. "Mom?"

Her eyes do a double take as she quickly realizes who I am and stands there in awe. "Leah."

"What are you doing here?" I ask her.

"I had the day off, so I was just grabbing some lunch." She replies. "I'm guessing you are too."

"Um, yeah. I'm here for lunch." I say, not knowing what else to say to the mother who let me go and never came after me.

"Is everything okay?" Asked Dean as he walked up to me with our tray that held our food. Roman was coming up behind him with his tray after grabbing a few things.

When I looked at Dean, he saw something in my blue eyes that told him something that my mouth wasn't going to tell him. "This is my mom. And mom, this is Dean. He's my fiance."

"Your...fiance?" She asks.

"Yes. He proposed last night." I say, showing her my engagement ring. "You missed out on a lot, mom."

Dean and my mother look at each other in awe, both not knowing what to say. It quickly became awkward, even as Jimmy, Jey and Naomi came and looked on to see what was happening. They then went to a table that was long enough to fit all of us and to give my mother and I some privacy.

"I really have missed a lot, haven't I?" She whispered.

Nodding, I replied. "We can't change what happened."

"But maybe we can work on our future." My mother suggested.

"Mom, I'm leaving for college this weekend and it's going to be in another state. The thing with that is...I won't be coming back to Ohio. Once I leave, that's it." I tell her. "Look, I have to go. But I hope you have a good life. It was nice seeing you again."

"Leah, wait." She says as I walk away.

I groan and turn around. "What is it mom?"

"I just wanted to say that I was sorry." She tells me.

"You have a lot to be sorry for with me." I tell her. "There's a lot that has happened between you and I. Too much damage to try to repair. You don't know the things I had to go through since getting kicked out. And the fact that you stood there and watched me leave without ever stopping me? You'll always be my mother, but I can't ever forget that. I've been homeless. I've had to sleep in the park, sneak into my school so that I could be warm during the winter. I worked my ass off to help pay the bills in an apartment when I was working only a part-time job. I have to walk everywhere 99% of the time because even though I have my license, I don't have enough money for a car of my own. Life...reality...it's been cruel to me ever since my dad died and you were never there to help. So what are you really sorry about, mom? I'm only 18, mom. Why should any 18 year old have to go through the things that I went through? The best thing that came out of it was the friends that I have gained that are sitting over there waiting for me. And my fiance who I want to spend the rest of my life with and who I'm so happy and madly in love with."

She looks at me as I speak. I notice the wrinkles on her face that have appeared since I last saw her. A face that was once wrinkle free, though it was only near her eyes. My mother had lost a lot of weight, but had that light in her eyes that I hadn't seen in a long time.

"I hope you can forgive me for everything. I'm also hoping that maybe one day, we can talk and resolve our issues." She says.

"I don't know, mom. A lot has happened." I say softly. "I don't know if we'll ever be able to talk or if we'll even see each other again. But what I will say is that, if it's meant to happen, it'll happen. If we're meant to be in each other's lives and get our mother and daughter relationship better than what it is now, because it's practically nonexistent as we speak, then it'll happen."

I finally walk away and sit next to Dean who gives wraps an arm around my waist as I snuggle up to him, taking in his scent. He gives me the softest kiss on my forehead before his lips find mine for another one.

"You okay, baby?" Dean asks.

"I will be." I reply with some optimism.

That night...

*Roman's POV*

"Thank you everybody for coming tonight." I say as I stand in front of the crowd of people that came tonight. It was a great amount and everybody was enjoying their time as well as the food and drinks as well as the music. "A lot of us are going to leave this place, this weekend, to go to an out of state college. A lot of us are going to stay here. Those of us who are leaving, some of us may come back while others may not. Regardless of the fact, this is a new chapter in all of our lives. It's been an amazing four years to a lot of us and I am thankful for all of the friends that I have made. Hopefully we can all walk out of this party knowing that once we go off to college, we'll be able to remain friends with a few good people. Friends that will be there for years to come. Once again, congratulations to everyone!"

The people there cheered and took a drink before eventually leaving an hour later. Dean, Jimmy, Jey and the girls, including my girlfriend, stayed behind, cleaning up. Once everything was thrown out and put away, I bought them out to the back with a drink for each of them.

"I just wanted to say congratulations to Leah and Dean." I say as I stand in front of them all. "Dean is like a brother to me and I just know that the two of us are going to be friends for a long time to come. We all know, especially Leah, about people saying that Dean wasn't the relationship type. Even before Leah came around, we heard that. But when she came into the picture, I just knew that Dean, without him even saying anything, was hooked. Leah has done an amazing job with Dean. I know he can be a handful sometimes."

We all laughed softly as Dean wrapped his arms around her waist. He looked at her with such loving eyes and I knew that they are meant to be. His thumb stroked her cheek as she said something to him before smiling up at him.

"I'm looking at the two of you right now and I truly believe that things happen for a reason. That there are things in life that are planned for us." I continued. "I believe that Leah coming into all of our lives, was for a reason. We have an amazing friend in her. Dean has an amazing future wife in her. Someone that he loves with all of his heart. Who would have thought that Dean Ambrose would be engaged?Congratulations to the both of you, from all of us."

We raise our cups and congratulate them before taking a drink. Dean and Leah share a kiss before they look into each other's eyes with smiles on their faces. She touches his nose with hers before their lips met once again. Leah's ring sparkled in the light and seemed to fit perfectly on her finger as her hand rested on his arm.

Tomorrow, we would all begin on our road trip to what would be our destination for the next four years. It wasn't going to be an easy one for Dean and I, but we would make it work. Unfortunately the night seemed to be going to fast.

The next day...

We were all in the kitchen eating our breakfast as a wave of silence filled the air. This was going to be the last time that we would be here before leaving. The small conversation that we did have, were filled with the knowing thoughts that we would all separate once we got to Georgia.

"Is everybody ready to start heading out?" I asked when I saw that we had all finished our breakfast.

They all agreed to being ready and so we cleaned up a bit and put everything in it's place. I left a note for my parents, letting them know that I was leaving for college and that I'll call when I got there. They wouldn't be back until after I left, which sucked because I wish they were here to send me off. After making sure that all of our things were in the cars, we looked around one last time before closing the door behind us.

Jimmy and Jey went in their car while Dean and I went together in mind. The girls had their own car, except for Leah who went with Naomi. Pulling out of the driveway, we made our way to the gas station before eventually getting onto the highway. The hours passed as the miles racked up. It wasn't until early the next morning that we managed to get into Atlanta, Georgia. We checked into a hotel and shared a room to get some sleep and spend some extra time together before Dean, Naomi and Leah had to leave.

Unfortunately, it wasn't long until that time came. Dean, Leah and Naomi were figuring out to get to Miami from here and I gave them a surprise when I gave them the keys to the car that the girls had come in.

"What is this?" Dean asked.

"It's yours and Leah's." I tell him.

His eyes widened. "Are you kidding me?"

"No. The car is already paid off. The only thing you have to do is keep up on the insurance. I know that people can get in trouble for driving around without insurance on their vehicle. And consider this an engagement gift to you and Leah from me."

"Roman, this is too much." He tells me. "This is a car. Not like a card or some clothes. It's so expensive."

I look at him and smile. "But the two of you deserve it. It may come in handy."

*Dean's POV*

I grab the keys and juggle them in my hands. We shared a hug and patted each other on the back as I thanked him. Pulling away, I looked at the guy that I considered my brother.

"Thank you, Roman." I tell him. "For being my friend and for putting up with all of my craziness. Thank you for not giving up on me."

"You're my brother. How could I ever give up on you?" He asked. "You never gave up on me and I should be thanking you for that as well."

Leah and Naomi and Brittney came up to us with Jimmy and Jey. Naomi and Leah were ready to go and so was I, though I was hesitant. We all said our goodbyes until it was time for Roman and I to do so.

"This is harder than we thought it would be." I say softly. "Who knew that leaving each other would be this hard?"

"Any one who doesn't know us, they see us like this and think we're acting like a couple." Roman says as we both chuckle. "But I don't care. You're my brother and I didn't want us to get separated."

"Neither of us did." I tell him. "Good luck with your football and in school."

"Good luck to you, too." He says to me with a smile. "I know we'll keep in contact. We have each other's numbers. And we'll figure out where to meet for vacation."

"Don't forget about me." I tell him.

"I won't." Roman says. "Don't you forget about me."

"I can't forget my brother." I say.

"Brothers." He says with a smile as we give each other a fist bump.

We gave each other one final hug and patted each other on the back before finally saying another good luck to each other. We didn't want to say 'Good Bye' because it would end up feeling like it would be a forever thing. To us, we didn't see it as a forever thing. It was until the next time we would be able to see each other.

Walking to the car with Leah's hand in mine and Naomi on the other side of Leah, we all look back and wave at everyone. I then look over at Leah who's now holding on to my arm. Her blue eyes look up into mine as she gives me that smile of hers that I love.

"What?" She asks with a smile.

"Nothing." I tell her. "You know you're my hero, right?"

Leah smiles. "How am I your hero?"

"Because you're inspired me to do better. To do great. I don't know where I would be right now if it wasn't for you." I tell her.

"You had it in you all along, Dean." She tells me. "But I'm so proud of you for everything you've accomplished. I wanna be your biggest fan and be your number one."

Leah giggles, causing me to smile. "You already are baby. That's not going to change."

She tip-toed and I met her halfway for a kiss. "Ready to go, Mrs. Soon-to-be Ambrose?"

"Yes." She says with a sweet grin on her face. "I love you."

"I love you, too." I tell her as I give her another kiss.

We all get in our cars and finally make our way to Miami to start the next four years of our lives. I have a feeling that things will be okay. Great even. All because of a hero that was put into my life. That hero being Leah and without her, I wouldn't have this right now. I don't know what I'd have and I thank her for a lot of what I have been able to achieve since the day that we met.

A/N: What did you think about Roman and Dean finding it hard to leave each other? What about Leah and her mother? Do you think she handled it well? How do you think college will go for all of them?

*A/N*: Thank you again to everyone who put this story on their favorites and their alerts as well as everyone who has reviewed this story! It truly does mean a lot to me! The sequel will be put up soon and it will be called 'Keep Holding On'.