Kiss away the past as you head towards the future.

—Imania Margria

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Epilogue

"Hurry up! You were on the tourney team! I thought you'd be faster!" Mal sniped over her shoulder as she and Carlos ran through the hallways, cumbersome book bags heaving with their movement.

"Being on the team doesn't make you good!" Carlos returned, breathing heavily when they stopped at Mal's door. She fumbled to unlock the door and Carlos said, "Besides, you came to the games and saw me play—" They threw their bags inside and Mal shut and locked the door. "You know my job was to set Jay up for the goals."

"Whatever," Mal pocketed her key and they continued their run to the tourney stadium. They clambered up the steps to the bleachers just as the whistle was blown, signaling the start of the game. Evie waved at them, and gestured to the seats she and Lonnie had saved for them.

Mal and Carlos fell into their seats and shared a laugh at their close timing.

"I'm so glad you guys could make it," Evie said, giving Mal a side hug.

"I wasn't sure we would," Carlos responded and Mal nodded.

"Yeah, Mr. Ramirez was relentless. I don't think he wanted to meet with us again so he packed everything that was left into today's session," she sighed, then rolled her eyes.

She and Carlos had spent the morning in the library making up the last few tests they'd missed. The school had assigned dates on which they had to show up to the library and take a certain amount of tests and today had been their last testing session. Normally they had enough time before the tourney game, as their tests were scheduled for Saturday mornings and the games were in the afternoon but this session took particularly long as they had three exams each to take rather than the usual two. But after several months, they had finally finished making up all of their work and were completely caught up with the curriculum.

"We should celebrate tonight," Lonnie suggested, pausing to gasp as Ben and Jay completed an excellent give-and-go play that was blocked by the opposing goalie. "You're finally free of excessive homework! You can actually hang out with us again!" She giggled, leaning into Carlos fondly.

"Yeah, for like a week before studying for finals begins," Mal quirked, eyes following the fast paced game.

They cheered as Chad snuck in a goal and the boys hugged each other excitedly before setting up for another start.

When they returned to their seats Lonnie leaned over and asked, "So what're all your plans for the summer?"

Carlos and Mal froze. In their quest to rescue their grades, neither had given any thoughts to what happened afterwards. "I have no idea," Carlos commented.

Evie reached a hand across Mal and patted Carlos's knee comfortingly. "Ben invited us to stay in his castle over the summer, I accepted. I hope that's okay with you guys?" Her eyes never left the game, except to gaze over at the band affectionately.

Mal let out a small laugh of relief. Of course Evie and Ben had already figured it out. Thank God for those two. "I don't know," She spoke, hiding her relief under layers of sarcasm, "I think I want to survey my other options first."

Carlos hummed then said, "Castle or Isle? That's a tough choice Mal, but I think I'll go castle."

"I admit, I've grown fond of this cushy lifestyle." Mal agreed, sending Carlos a small smile.

"That's awesome!" Lonnie bubbled. "We're definitely going to have to hang out sometime this summer. Maybe we can finally go to the beach together without any four-year-olds."

Mal stuck her tongue out at Lonnie and the group laughed before groaning at the opposing team managing to score a goal.

"This is going to be a close match," Evie worried.

"Mhmm," Lonnie nodded, sitting on the edge of her seat. "Jay's a beast though. I don't know how we'd have survived this season without him. Do you think he'll try to play college ball after high school?" She posed her question absently, not expecting an answer, but Carlos found himself giving her question some thought.

What were they going to do after high school? He'd never needed to think about it ever. He'd always lived on a day by day schedule. He didn't know how to plan for the future. They still had two more years, but the other day Jane had been complaining to Audrey about some fancy shmancy test score that she needed to get into her dream college. Was he already supposed to be thinking of this stuff?

The crowd cheered and Carlos returned his focus to the game, cheering loudly for his boyfriend, who waved and blew kisses at Carlos every once in awhile.

"You guys are so gross," Evie teased before blowing a kiss to Doug. Carlos laughed and let himself relax and enjoy the game.

Carlos took another sip of his soda before setting it on the table next to the couch he'd been perched on for most of the evening. After their narrow victory, claimed through Ben's masterful assist to Jay in the last seconds of the game, a group of them had decided to celebrate in one of the lounges around the castle. Carlos separated himself from the group, nursing the sinking feeling that had been developing during the match.

What was he going to with his life? Now that he wasn't in survival mode, he had options, more than he knew what to do with. He toyed with the coaster, and jumped when the cushion next to him dipped, jostling him from his thoughts.

Jay placed a kiss on Carlos's temple and smiled widely. "Why so mopey?"

Carlos shook his head fondly and leaned into Jay's side as Jay wrapped an arm around Carlos's shoulders.

"Thinking about the future," Carlos admitted.

"Eugh," Jay made a sound of disgust. "Why?"

Carlos shrugged demurely. "Because we have one now."

Jay didn't respond for a few moments and panicked, Carlos said, "I'm sorry. We should be celebrating the win, I didn't mean to bring down the mood."

"No, Carlos, don't apologize." Jay's fingers traced shapes into Carlos's arm. "This is important to you. I just, I dunno. I have no clue what I'm going to do. Do you?"

"No."

"Then we're in the same boat."

"Have you ever thought about going to college?" Carlos asked looking up at Jay who took the opportunity to softly kiss the tip of Carlos's nose.

"More school than required? No thanks," Jay laughed.

"You could get a scholarship and play Tourney," Carlos suggested, referencing Lonnie's earlier comment. "I was thinking of applying at least."

Jay hummed, acknowledging that he was listening, but took a moment to think. "Maybe," he allowed. "What would you do in college?"

"Engineering maybe? Computer science? I'm not sure. I like technology and making stuff, there has to be something for that." Carlos sighed.

"I do know one thing," Jay quirked.

"What's that?"

"Whatever we do, we'll do it together. I'm never leaving you, Carlos."

Carlos smiled, gazing into Jay's eyes. He lifted his chin and Jay leaned down, capturing his lips in a searing kiss. A joking hoot at their display caused Carlos to pull back. Jay flipped the finger at the culprit, one of his teammates, and kissed Carlos again, briefly.

"I mean it."

"What?"

"Wherever you want to go, I'll follow."

Carlos grabbed Jay's hand and squeezed, "Even if I want to move to the tundra and become a salmon fisher?"

"Just tell me when and I'll order a parka and a net."

They laughed quietly and Carlos leaned his head on Jay's shoulder, affectionately curled into Jay's side.

"I love you so much."

Carlos lifted his head, snapped to attention. A breathless laugh escaped him as he beamed goofily. He pulled Jay close and kissed him which was proved difficult as he couldn't stop smiling enough other than small kisses.

"I love you too," Carlos spoke sincerely. Jay kissed him again, ignoring the cat call from Mal.

"Ahem," Mal coughed, gathering their attention. "While some view passionately making out as a form of celebration, we'd like to keep this party rated PG please."

Jay waved her off dismissively, but shifted slightly so that he wasn't facing Carlos directly. "What's the real reason you're over here?"

"Ben wants you. They're about to do their weird tradition thing." Mal rolled her eyes as Jay popped up from the couch, causing Carlos to fall into the spot Jay abandoned.

"I totally forgot!" He exclaimed. "I'll be back in fifteen, C!"

Mal settled on the couch near Carlos as they watched Jay near his teammates. The team had a tradition of running a lap around the school, taking turns carrying those who scored. Carlos was glad he didn't have to participate anymore because he'd never quite understood the appeal. Jay however, relished in the victory lap and gave Carlos a smile across the room before the boys jogged out.

"He loves me," Carlos commented quietly, almost in shock.

"Of course he does you dolt," Mal scoffed. "Anyone with eyes could've told you that." She tried to give him a stern look, but ended up grinning instead.

"You're smiley," Carlos projected. "What, did you win a lifetime supply of strawberries or something?"

"No," Mal pushed playfully at Carlos and he spotted the cause of her joy, sparkling on her finger.

"Um, no way missy, you're not getting married," he chastised. "You're too young! Jay will totally freak out and Evie—she'll, I don't know but I—"

"Stop!" Mal interrupted him. "Chill, geez, no one's getting married. I'm sixteen for evil's sake. Marriage? Ugh, gross." She wrinkled her nose and Carlos felt himself relax.

"Good. So then what?"

"Ben gave it to me." She lifted her hand in the air to model the delicate ring. "It's a promise ring."

"What's a promise ring?" Carlos questioned.

"Ben had to explain it to me but it's a thing they do on Auradon to show love or something." Mal shrugged nonchalantly, but looked at the ring with earnest, betraying her obvious emotions toward Ben.

"It's beautiful," Carlos commented and Mal gave a small smile. "But wait 'til Evie sees it. She might burst one of your ear drums."

"Oh, I know. I have time though, she's distracted at the moment. Audrey just agreed to go on a date with Jane and Evie is absolutely ecstatic. Between that and Kevin trying to flirt with Lonnie, Evie has a lot of other things to gush over before she'll notice my ring."

"Jane and Audrey? What? And Lonnie and Kevin? When did this all happen?" Carlos asked, surprised by the sudden onslaught of development.

"We've been out of the game for several months, C, and its high school. Things happen." Mal tucked a piece of purple hair behind her ear. "Besides maybe if you and Jay weren't always attached at the mouth, you'd stay up to date on the gossip." She poked his side as she teased him. Mal verbally teased Carlos and Jay the most out of their friend group, but Carlos knew she never meant any malice. Evie had told him that Chad had once made an offensive comment about his and Jay's relationship and then Chad's hair had mysteriously began to fall out after Mal passed by.

"Whatever," he laughed, poking her back. "You have the advantage of having Evie for a roommate. She always knows what's going on."

Mal hummed in agreeance and looked around before leaning in and whispering conspiratorially, "Do you want to go throw some water balloons as the team runs by?"

"I can't think of anything else I'd rather be doing right now," Carlos grinned mischievously. They sped to the balcony where Mal had already prepared buckets of water spheres, each sphere held together with her strengthening magic. They threw the water at the tourney team and laughed so hard that Carlos had to stop and clutch his stomach.

Everything would be okay, he knew this. He didn't know what the future held, but he had his friends, he had Jay, and knew that they would never abandon him. Carlos was probably the happiest sixteen-year-old to ever exist and he knew nothing could take his joy from him.

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And that's the end folks.

Goodness, this has been a long journey, sorry about taking so long to get the epilogue done. I've had an exam every single week since school started so I've been in a constant state of stress. But finally! I'm updating with the final chapter of this story! I'm relieved that this is done but I'll miss writing this for sure.

Before I sign off with my question of the chapter, I'd like to thank some people.

~First of all, Renae, thank you so much for helping me edit, I love you so much. You're the best beta ever! When I come back on break we need to bake vegan cookies and watch pride and prejudice again. ilysm!

~I'd also like to thank LoveShipper and Gummybear1178 for reviewing on every chapter! I loved seeing our reviews and talking with you guys! Sorry for not responding to most of the recent reviews but thank you so so so so much for being here with me on this journey. :) Stay awesome!

~I'd like to thank Snowcrystal of Thunderclan for inspiring me to make this chapter hella gay. It probably would've been a normal epilogue, but after reading your reviews, I couldn't help but to make it unnecessarily gay. Thank you, this chapter's for you, friend. :3c

~Finally, I'd like to thank everyone else who has read this story. Thank you for supporting me. I'm trying to become an author, so hearing your words of encouragement helped fuel me as I strive for this dream. If you want to continue following me as I achieve his goal, follow me on Twitter minigirlovesyou and Tumblr and Youtube minigirllovesyou

Thank you! 3

For my last question: What was your favorite kid moment in this story?

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