I normally pick up the next chapter right off of the previous chapter, but for this chapter only I had to make a small exception. Said in my most seductive James voice, "I hope you don't mind." In that line alone, I think Cam Gigandet captured the soft spoken, velvet voice of a vampire about to destroy you absolutely perfectly. Anyway, let's move on.

EPOV

I've heard that there's a brief period of time before the ending of classes, the excitement of graduation, and the unknown real world come together on a collision course so intense that some get lost navigating through it.

I can see how it could happen; it's so easy to become trapped in the in between of student and adult. It's a surreal brief period of time where you can take in all of the things you never noticed or took advantage of due to the enormity and pressure of acquiring a degree.

I take the time on Monday morning, in the moments between being awake or falling back to sleep, and appreciate this lull in the upcoming storm. I take the time to appreciate how comfortable I had made my twin sized college dorm bed, thinking that between now and Friday I should savor all of the time I have left with it before we part for good. There's a worn leather recliner in Emmett's room that we had found on the side of the road somewhere around here sometime, and I think the outline of all of our asses will be permanently etched into the cushion.

Our room is quiet and cool thanks to the fans we have blowing on us, the soft hum from the rotating blades being the only sound in the room besides the snores I hear coming from Jasper's bed. I hear friendly early-morning banter coming from the brothers downstairs as they either begin their trek over towards the academic buildings for the last few days of finals, or to get in a last minute cram session before it's too late. There's always the possibility that some of them haven't gone to bed yet.

My internship bringing in the majority of my credits towards this semester, I only had two finals this semester, and I had taken the written exam last week for my night class and had submitted my portfolio for my internship in its entirety on Friday. The only thing standing between me and graduation is a presentation of said portfolio tomorrow morning. It's really only a formality so I don't spend time stressing about it.

It's hard to find the right word to describe how I feel at the moment. With my college career practically finished and a job already lined up, I can actually stretch in the early morning hours and my eyes don't pop open in alarm wondering if I've overslept or forgotten a deadline of some sort. In fact, I'm the complete opposite. I make no move to open my eyes and take in those few surreal moments again where I find myself simply content living in this so called 'in between'.

With a roll towards the other side of the bed, I reach for my pillow and pull it against me before I start laughing quietly to myself. Apparently, this is called a "Huggie Pillow", according to Bella. She said a lot of guys use an extra pillow while sleeping not for their heads, but for their arms. It essentially looks like someone just hugging their pillow in a one armed embrace, therefore a "Huggie Pillow". It became a hot topic of conversation between us sometime yesterday morning before we had to leave our hotel room, and now I don't think I'll ever be able to refer to it as anything else from now on.

But then again, with all the changes happening in my life, this is nothing.

Who said change had to be a bad thing, anyway?

Right now, all the changes in my life are for the better. A trip to the car dealership is planned for some time this week with my Dad, my finals are mostly done, Formal is over, and best of all, I officially got the girl.

The fact that the girl had always had me is moot at this point.

It's the cherry on top of an already over-sweetened ice cream cone.

I know I'll have to get used to my wondering thoughts somehow always making my way back to her. I mean, I can't even use my Huggie Pillow now without thinking of her.

After our stay at the hotel had come to an end, we had all retreated back to our rooms in exhaustion. Knowing we all planned on spending the remainder of the day sleeping off hangovers or catching up on missed sleep for completely different reasons entirely, it had made it easier for Bella and I to keep our newly arranged status to ourselves for a bit longer. Sleeping helped pass the time until I could be with her again.

But now it's Monday, and by midafternoon I'm chomping at the bit to see her again. With her heading over to Liam's soon and my parent's flight coming in a couple of hours, I'm edgy with anticipation. I hope I can squeeze in some time with her before she has to leave. Knowing she's up to her ears in studying for finals, I text her anyway and she responds with the answer I expect. We go back and forth trying to figure out a way to see each other.

Tomorrow before they come to get you? I should be out of my final by 11.

With Bella leaving Liam's usually around six, and my parents' flight coming in around 7, there is little time for us to meet up, let alone a place discreet enough to hide our secret. With my presentation in the morning and Bella's final in the morning as well, I think I can convince my parents to chill at the hotel for a bit until my presentation is over. Maybe I'll pretend my presentation runs longer than expected so Bella and I have a minute alone.

Running my hand over my face in frustration, I contemplate heading over to her dorm once my parents drop me off after dinner tonight. Jasper is going to drop me off at the airport to meet my parents. We have plans to head straight to dinner once they land, and they'll drop me back off here before they head to their hotel for the night. Even though we both have early finals tomorrow, staying up late with Bella tonight will be beyond worth it.

I'll figure something out.

With a final text to Bella, I look for things around the room to keep myself busy. With an open schedule and everyone else busy with school, I look around my room. Frustrated, I agree with Bella that sneaking around like this is actually harder than our normal Thursday night schedule. This is new though. Now we aren't hiding our real feelings behind a piece of paper anymore, and now that our feelings for each other are out in the open, it's harder to contain. I just want to lay in my bed and watch movies with her all day, like we've done before now. It will be easier when everything is out in the open but until then, I put my attention back on Fortnite while I wait for Jasper and Emmett to come back.

While they spend the day in and out exams, I spend my time fucking around between video games and doing a little packing before we leave the house for good Saturday morning. Video games end up winning the battle over packing, and when Jasper and Emmett eventually make it back for the day, I'm so engrossed in the screen that I barely notice their arrival.

"Must be nice," Jasper mutters towards me when he sees my relaxed state. He heads over towards his desk and sighs as he stares at the massive pile of books and papers staring back at him.

"How'd it go?" I ask hesitantly.

"Fuck if I know," Emmett answers for him, heading over to our fridge. "Is it too early for a beer?"

"It's Finals Week," Jasper retorts. "It's never too early for a beer."

"Don't forget you're driving me to the airport," I say to Jasper as I twist off the cap on the top of the bottle Emmett hands me.

"I'm not," Emmett jokes, and chugs half the bottle in one sip.

Sighing in defeat, Jasper closes one of the books on his desk and looks over at me. "What time are we leaving again?"

I open up my phone to track my parent's flight. "Flight's on time. They're landing at seven so by the time they get their bags and rent a car and shit it'll be another hour after that."

"So we'll leave at seven, too."

"Thanks, man."

In a couple of days, I won't ever have to worry about bumming rides off of people ever again. It's an exciting thought, thinking of my car, as the three of us settle into the game and eventually Rose texts in on the group chat to let us know she's done with her exams for the day and not too long after, Alice chimes in as well.

Two more and I'm done!

Alice replies with an image of Gaga's I'm a Free Bitch, Baby.

Emmett responds with a GIF of a freshly cracked beer.

Jasper sends us all a middle finger as his schedule is packed for the next few days.

We keep this up for a while, everyone besides Bella answering back and forth in the chat as we figure out what we want to do with ourselves for the next few hours before Jasper and I have to head to the airport. When Emmett takes his beer and heads for a shower before meeting up with Rose, Jasper and I save the game and decide to head down to the beach for a quick surf. We have just enough time to catch a few before the flight arrives.

I'm changing into my bathing suit when our phones go off at the same time. With my back to Jasper and my phone behind me on my bed, he's the first one to see the incoming text.

"What the fuck…."

His voice trails off quietly, relatively calm as if he doesn't quite understand what he's seeing on the screen. I turn back to him when I hear the confusion in his voice, his eyes squinted and still not leaving his phone screen in front of him.

Curious as to why there's a sudden cease of movement in our room, I reach over towards my phone to see for myself.

And I wish I didn't.

I hope that what I see is in a private message between Bella and I, but I know from Jasper's reaction that I am wrong.

I don't even need to press play to know what video he's watching, and my firsthand carnal knowledge of the event lines up perfectly with Jasper's brain as he realizes what and who he's seeing in the video.

It's also the same time I realize that he's seeing parts of Bella that only I'm allowed to see.

"Fuck!" I yell, bringing myself back to life as I lunge towards Jasper in an effort to take his phone, and Bella, away from him. Thoroughly distracted by the screen, he's unprepared for my assault, and we tumble backwards onto his bed. It's a fumble for his phone as we dive towards it, the sounds of the video hopefully drowned out by our own struggling voices as the phone bounces to different places on his bed as we fight for it.

"Get off me!" He yells as I tackle him for his phone yet again, this time diving on top of his back as he stretches out onto his stomach. He grasps his phone tightly as he succeeds with his reach, despite my best efforts to hold him back.

"Don't look!" I shout at him, blindly stretching my hands and arms out in front of me searching for his phone.

"Your hand is over my eyes; I can't see shit!" Jasper yells. I take a quick glimpse to see that he's trying to pry my fingers off of his eyes with one hand and his phone is clutched tightly in his other one against his chest.

"Give it to me!"

"Is that really you and Bella?"

Groaning out my frustrations, I dig for his phone again. "Give me the fucking phone, Jasp –"

"YO! Bella let you –"

The sound of our door opening and slamming against the wall and Emmett's voice echoing throughout our room is enough to make all three of us pause for a moment. Jasper and I whip our heads in the direction of the sound and see Emmett standing there in nothing but a towel, his phone in his hand. Of course it would be, as Bella has sent our video from the hotel room to our group chat.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

He stares at us for a second before shaking his head in disbelief. Emmett motions towards us on the bed, a look of confusion on his face. "Why are you two always doing weird shit every time I come in here?"

I glance down at myself and Jasper, and it isn't until now that I realize that my front is directly aligned with Jasper's back, both of us in different stages of dress as I push myself onto him from behind.

"Four years and you still don't know how to fucking knock," Jasper shoots back, out of breath from our struggle. He tries again to shove me off of him but I'm not budging until I have his phone.

"You're giving me shit for not knocking but Edward's over here with Bella –"

"Give me this," I say angrily, using Jasper's momentary distraction from Emmett as a chance to take his phone from him. I'm successful and I quickly shove it into my pocket and dash off of Jasper to take Emmett's as well.

"Dude, what the fuck is going on?" Emmett barks at me as I run out of the door, closing my door shut behind me as I juggle my own phone to get Bella on the line.

I'm surprised she hears me as I try to talk to her over the shouting from Jasper and Emmett while I hold the door shut to keep them locked inside.

Awkward and not particularly my brightest idea, I think to myself as I wait for Bella to pick up the phone.

I barely let her speak before I ramble it all out for her to hear.

"Are you fucking serious, Bella!"

Jasper and Emmett are pushing against the door and even though I'm the Captain of the soccer team here on campus, I know I stand zero chance in winning a shoving match on the opposite end of both of these guys. I make sure I have a clear view of Emmett's open bedroom door three doors down from mine before booking it down the hallway towards his room. I'm in his room with the door locked behind me just as Jasper and Emmett follow the trail of smoke I've left behind in my wake.

They're pounding on Emmett's door when Bella answers me back.

"Edward? What are you talking about?"

"What am I talking about?" I spit back, still leaning against the door to keep them out even though I've locked the door behind me. I can still hear them on the other side.

"I have no idea what's going on!" She hisses back at me, her voice lowered from Liam's prying ears.

"Why?" I ask her. Why did she send it? Why is she acting like this isn't a huge fucking deal? "Why would you send our video to the group chat, Bella?"

Her whispered voice is long gone now and replaced with a voice that makes me pull the phone away from my ear. "What?! I didn't send our video – Nooooooo!"

She interrupts her own sentence with her awareness.

"Who else would send it then?" I'm trying to keep my patience and my sanity but I can feel them both start to wane.

"Liam!" She whisper cries and I let my head hit the back of the door over and over again in hopes my brain goes numb to this whole fucking debacle.

"Oh, fuck."

Her next words come out in a scrambled mess. I'm not even sure actual words are coming out of her mouth. They sound like a panicked version of .Ohmygod, repeated over and over again until she realizes the extent of the damage. "Everyone saw?"

"All of us."

"Shit," she's back to whispering again before she starts right up again. "What are we gonna do? I knew we were going to tell them about us but I didn't want them to know about the videos."

I shake my head when I realize that she hasn't truly acknowledged the ramifications of what just happened. There's more at stake here than them finding out about us on the group chat. "Me neither but we'll deal with that later. Bella, you need to check your phone to make sure he didn't send it to anyone else."

She's silent for a beat before she starts to flip again. "Oh my God did he post it on – "

I interrupt her as I put her on speaker so I can browse the socials. "No, I'm checking now. Nothing is posted on anything. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, we're good." I take her off of speaker and put the phone back up to my ear again. "Check all your accounts. Texts, email, DMs, anywhere where you communicate with anyone needs to be checked."

"I don't see anything," she mutters as she scans through them all, "other than the group chat. What about the site?"

"If he can log onto that site, magically guess our username and password, figure out how to attach the file in the right spot, then we're fine. We've discovered a baby genius; we're millionaires now."

"He's not a baby. He's four!"

"What the hell happened, Bella? Wasn't your phone locked?"

"I guess I must have unlocked it by accident when I took it out of my pocket. You guys were texting me nonstop so I took it out and put it on the table and turned around to make Liam a snack and he must have gotten in there somehow."

I shake my head in disbelief at the whole situation. It is almost exactly as I had pictured our Mighty Fall would take place. "How is the kid? Traumatized?"

She exhales a little and I may detect a little relief in her voice. "I don't think so. Right now he's at his Lego table acting like he didn't just ruin our lives." She pauses and lets out another deep breath to settle her rattled nerves. "He was pressing all over the screen but staring at me because he knows he's not supposed to play with phones. I think he was more focused on looking at me for a reaction rather than looking at the screen."

"Well, I guess that's good. The last thing he needs to see is my ass staring him in the face."

I'm happy with the laugh filtering through my phone from her at the moment. "That's the only good thing right about now. Do you see the chat?"

I don't need to see it. I can feel the vibrations coming at me from Jasper and Emmett's phones in both pockets and from my own against my ear.

Alice and Rose.

"At least you won't be hearing from Emmett and Jasper. I have their phones in my pocket and I'm making them delete the video in front of me."

"Fuck, this keeps getting worse. You were with them?"

"We have to tell them now," I tell her once I've filled her in on everything that happened over here on my end. "Everything."

"I know."

I sigh into the phone. "Meet us all at the pavilion when you're done with Liam. And try not to kill him."

-ptp-

"You ready?"

I decide to stay in Jasper's car and wait for Bella in the parking lot so we can walk up to face the jury of our friends together. I figure a united front is the best way to go, and when I see the worry stretched across her face when Bella walks towards me a little later, I know I made the right choice.

"Nope." She shakes her head before stopping to stand in front of me. "You?"

I mirror her and shake my head as well. "Nope. Let's do it."

Hand in hand, we walk towards the others waiting for us in the gazebo like we're walking the plank towards our wet ocean graves.

Eyeing our clasped hands, Rose wastes no time and holds her phone in the air towards us. She zeroes in on Bella. "Why would you send this to us?"

Rolling her eyes, Bella fires back, "Do you really think I would send this to you?"

"I don't know! I feel like I don't even know you at all!" Alice jolts herself into the conversation.

"Okay," I interrupt all three of them before I inadvertently become involved in some Girl Code squabble that I don't even know about. "Bella didn't send it. Liam did. Accidentally."

We wait for all four of their reactions that we knew were coming.

Again, Rose with the questions. "You let a kid see this video?"

"Coolest babysitter ever," Emmett says, holding up his hand for a fist bump from Bella. He doesn't get it.

"Yeah, mine made me do puzzles until my parents came home," Jasper graces us with his two cents.

Alice holds her hands up to get the conversation back on track. "Can we please start at the beginning?"

I look over at Bella and give her the nod to begin. She takes a deep breath and points over at Emmett.

"It's all Emmett's fault."

"What? My fault? How?" His voice is raised but only because he's so far lost in confusion that he's not aware of himself anymore.

"You suggested I should be a stripper," Bella responds.

Emmett blows her off with a psshh. "I also said that about Jasper's mom but last I heard she's not on the pole now, is she?" He looks over at Jasper for support. Again, he doesn't get it.

"That's still not the beginning," Alice says again.

"This isn't making any sense." Rose interjects.

It's almost comical, the difference between the girls and the guys this very moment. The girls are pushing for every detail and the guys barely know what a detail is.

"Okay," Bella concedes and sits down on one of benches in the pavilion, the rest of us following her lead. "I needed money for the security deposit and rent for the bungalow, and Edward needed money for his car for work."

"So we decided to make a little extra cash since we both couldn't find real jobs in the time we needed the money by," I add, acknowledging my role in this.

"By what, fucking on camera?" Jasper jokes but must put together my lack of hook ups, our joint effort in the shaving of my balls, and the video Bella sent to us all. "By fucking on camera!"

"You agreed to this, Bella?" Alice turns quickly to Bella when we don't deny Jasper's accusation.

"It was my idea," she admits with a shrug. I'm proud of my girl and her kinks.

"This was your idea?" Emmett repeats Bella's words and turns to look at Rose.

"Don't even fucking look at me right now," she responds, knowing he's looking at her without even looking at him. I try to hide my laugh.

"This isn't like you," Alice says in a softer tone than what she has been using since we got to the pavilion.

"I'm not judging," she adds quickly, "but it's just a little out of character for you, that's all."

"You do know how stupid this was, right?" There's no escaping the wrath of Rose. Alice may not be judging us but Rose does a great job of picking up Alice's slack.

"And dangerous." Jasper says.

"And reckless." Emmett piles on.

It's my turn to talk now. "Look, we know. We thought of everything that could go wrong and tried our best to avoid making those mistakes at all costs. We never put our faces on camera, we never used names or emails or bank accounts that would raise suspicions towards us."

"Besides that one time when Edward's ass got in the way, your faces are right there," Emmett reminds us.

"Only in that video," Bella replies. "The phone fell and recorded our faces instead of –"

"Yeah, we got it."

"And how long has this been going on for?"

"Almost five weeks," we say almost in sync.

"You've kept it from us for five weeks?" I think Alice's voice reaches a decibel only dogs can hear.

"We had no plans on telling you about the videos," Bella says, looking over at me next to her on the bench. I squeeze her hand before adding on to her sentence.

"Just about us."

Rose puts her hands up to stop us all. "There's an 'Us' now?"

The interrogation is over when we tell them that yes, there is an us. We spend the next hour going over the last five weeks, leaving out the parts meant just for Bella and I.

And all of our followers online.

"So this was all about money, right? In the beginning?" Rose and Alice have more questions than I thought.

We nod.

"But what if you didn't make as much money as you thought you would make?" Jasper asks. I don't answer, instead using my phone to pull up our bank account to show them how profitable our proposition has been.

"Daaaamn."

Bella and I laugh as we watch their jaws hit the floor.

-ptp-

For four years you work towards a piece of paper that is promised to get you the job of your dreams. You put your sanity on the line to get this framed piece of paper. You miss out on family functions because you have to take summer classes or miss your flight home on a holiday weekend because of packed airports and exam schedules. You pull all-nighters with friends to study or binge watch a new show or just to consume as many stupid shit as you can possibly put into your body.

You do it, and you barely survive it, and then the day is here. And you're so focused on obtaining that piece of paper that you don't really think about the graduation ceremony itself. Sure, you get measured for your cap and gown and make sure you're decorated with the colors of your school of study around your neck. You're not prepared for the walk you make when you enter the room with your favorite professors and advisors lining the walkway dressed in their own school of study. You don't think about sitting in the audience and listening to speeches about success and following your dreams. You forget that it's not just about GPAs and graduating with honors.

You realize when you're walking across that stage that you spent so long just trying to get that piece of paper that you forget how much that paper actually weighs. It's weighed in friendships, in brotherhood, in greasy diner food at three in the morning. It's weighed in laughs, in hangovers, in lectures so engaging that you forget to take down any notes.

It's weighed in the moments that take your breath away.

And when I leave the stage with my degree in my hand, I find them in the crowd. I don't need to find Jasper and Emmett and all my other frat brothers – they're the loudest in the fucking building.

It's my Mom and Dad with eyes shining with unshed tears. It's my brother Riley who is clapping with the crowd but is more into the college girls than his older brother's own graduation.

It's the fourth and final ticket to graduation going to my girl because when we decided that by pursuing the proposition, I knew I had gotten something more than just some stupid piece of paper.

And when I kiss her on the mouth in front of everyone, I know I've just sealed another piece of my future.

-ptp-

"You stuffed?"

I'm leaning back in my chair at the table to see if I can make this knot in my stomach go away. Brunch has always been my weakness and the place we went to celebrate graduation did not disappoint. I throw my napkin onto my plate and look over at Dad next to me.

"I know I should have stopped on that last plate," I admit, regretting that last sausage link. I reach over towards my orange juice to try to swallow it down. You know you're in college when you're shocked to not taste any alcohol mixed into the drink.

"Ah, just one more lesson learned." He's smiling at me as he signs off on the check.

"I was hoping I'd have a little time off from lessons," I joke. "I've had four straight years of them."

"Care for one more?"

"One more what? Lesson?"

He nods and then stands up from the table. We all start to make our way towards the parking lot when Dad pulls me by the arm.

"You ready to learn how to school a salesman?" He can't keep the excitement out of his voice. "Let's go get that car."

-ptp-

I always get sad when my stories come to an end. This was our last EPOV. I enjoyed writing his side of things.

Speaking of writing, if you read my message in some of the Facebook groups, you already know that this past week I became my toughest critic. Just when I had convinced myself to take a mental break from writing, I saw that I had been nominated in three different categories in The Golden Onion awards.

That's why you're getting this chapter, folks. Because someone (maybe there's more than you, I don't know) out there liked my stories enough to nominate me.

Winning anything is not even in my dreams but this girl is beyond thrilled to even be nominated. Seeing my name and stories up there with the best of the best has me feeling incredibly blessed and grateful for each and every one of you.

Writing for me has never been a choice – I go crazy if I don't get these thoughts and characters out. You have no idea how much it means to see that people choose to join me on this ride.

Okay, enough talking. Not only do I write, I talk just as much as well. I can go on forever if someone doesn't stop me.

One more BPOV and a short epi that I'll probably post at the same time as the last chapter. If you don't hear from me here or in the Facebook groups (hah, yeah right. I'm always up for a chat in those groups), it's because Midnight Sun has taken over my life.

Between Midnight Sun and my birthday coming up, this girl is HAPPY AGAIN!

WOO!

Okay, really leaving now.