The plane ride had taken forever, or so it seemed. For as much as I liked to travel, it shouldn’t have fazed me a bit, but for some reason, I hadn’t relaxed the entire flight. And that was a long time to be uncomfortable.

Grouchy, but keeping it to myself, I followed behind the others, wishing desperately for my pillow as we loaded into a van with blacked-out windows. Oliver sat behind the wheel, sunglasses hiding his eyes as he welcomed us home with a grunt and then said, “The streets are slick; buckle up.”

I chose the back seat and closed my eyes. Before I knew it, we were at Cole Enterprise and everyone was climbing out of the van.

“Do you think we could just walk to Alabama? I’m sick of airplanes,” Aiden said, stretching with a yawn that rattled my eardrums.

“Yeah, sure, if you want to get there by next Christmas,” Paige said. “At least we’ll be on a private plane and can move around a bit more. Right, Oliver?”

He smirked. “I’m sure that can be managed this time.”

“Do you hear that?” Riley asked, head tilted as she cupped her ear.

“I can’t hear anything. My ears are plugged up so bad it sounds like everything’s underwater,” Ace answered. “Why, what do you hear?”

“The sound of my bed calling me,” she said, laughing as she tugged him along behind her.

If she asked me, I would have said the only thing I heard was the sound of suitcases rolling along the ground since there were a lot of them being dragged or pulled on wobbly wheels.

Once we made it inside, Oliver held up his hand before we could scatter to our rooms. “Nadia needs all of you in the kitchen. Park your bags in your rooms and then head that way. No stragglers,” he added, giving Riley a stern look.

She made a face at him. “Fine, give us a few minutes to use the restroom and splash our jetlagged faces, so we can at least pretend to be awake when she’s talking.”

He grinned and then walked off.

“Did y’all see that?” Riley asked, sounding confused.

“Hard to miss since he doesn’t smile all that often. Bet we’re getting loaded up with things to do before we can leave here,” Jared said.

“Won’t know until we get there. Come on, Airen, let’s get our bags put up. See y’all in the kitchen.”

I dropped my bag on the bed, used the restroom, and then splashed cold water on my face. It didn’t help wake me up, but it did make my face feel clean.

Once I was finished, I left my room and made my way to the kitchen. Aiden and Airen were there, along with Mark and Paige, both couples leaning on one another as they watched the door. I sought out a seat behind them. Lowering my head on top of my arms, I closed my eyes until the meeting was called to order.

Jared and Murphy were the last two to arrive. Nadia huffed. “Took you long enough,” she said.

“I’d argue that point with you… Mom, but I’m too damn tired to be bothered right now,” Jared said, claiming the closest seat and pulling Murphy down beside him.

Instead of snapping something back at him, Nadia ignored him and called the meeting to order.

“First things first, thank you for taking care of things in Scotland.”

Heads bobbed as some mumbled that she was welcome.

“Secondly, and you really need to pay attention to this because I’m only going to explain it once…” Nadia said, snapping her fingers under Mark’s nose as his head drooped.

“Huh?” Mark said, jolting back.

“As I said…”

“It’s important.”

Eli’s voice rolled over the room… and every single one of us shot to our feet when he walked in wearing a sheepish smile.

I couldn’t move. I couldn’t see through the blur of tears that pooled in my eyes and trembled on my lashes until they fell like raindrops breaking from a cloud. He was alive. He was standing no more than ten feet from me, and he was alive.

Everyone crowded around him. Voices bounced off one another as everyone fought to be heard. Eli put his hands up and tried to speak over them, but it was no use.

My legs buckled, and I hit the bench with a bounce. I wasn’t alone for long. Nadia moved in and put her arm around me. I turned into her as soundless sobs shook me so hard I felt as though I’d shatter.

“Shh, it will be all right, Nova,” she said as her palm moved in soothing circles against my back. “He’s here now. Everything is all right.”

“Nova?” It was jarring, hearing him say my name.

And then his hands were on my knees as he lowered himself before me with a groan. “Nova,” he said again, running his hands up my legs with the slightest of pressure.

And then he had me on my feet, head tucked into his shoulder as he wrapped me into his arms. Between the two of us, I couldn’t tell who was shaking the most.

“All right, everyone, give them a few minutes,” Ace called over the chatter of overly excited voices.

A hand came down on my shoulder and patted me as Aiden said, “Take your time, you two. We’re not going anywhere. We’ll catch up later.”

I felt Eli nod, but he didn’t say anything.

I had no idea how long we stood in the kitchen with him holding me, and me holding him as if my arms alone would keep him from floating back to heaven.

“Eli, why don’t you take Nova to your room so you both can rest?” Nadia said.

He cleared his throat. “Yeah, just give us a few.”

He curled back into me, head resting against the top of mine, and said, “I’ve missed you like you wouldn’t even believe.”

A laugh, filled with something like hysterics, bubbled up. “I’ve missed you too.”

He pulled back and lifted my face with the merest hint of pressure under my chin. “Do you think you can help me back to my room before I do something really unmanly and faint?”

I nodded. “As long as I don’t have to let you go.”

“Never,” he said, swaying a bit as I moved to put my arm around him.

“Oh, God, I’m so dizzy,” he said once we were sitting on his bed.

“Do you need me to get you anything?” I asked, worried there was something wrong.

“No, I just overdid it today. I’ll be all right. Come curl up with me.” He beckoned me after lowering himself to the bed and then moving to lay on his side.

I kicked off my shoes and moved close, being careful not to jar him too much because I had no idea what injuries he had. “Sorry,” I said when he made a noise that sounded as though I’d hurt him.

“Do you know how good it feels to have you right here?” he asked, pressing close so his chin rested on my shoulder.

Every worry melted. Every second of fear and loneliness was gone as if erased by an unseen hand. I rolled over to face him, and caught his hand up in mine. “Noni passed,” I said.

He closed his eyes briefly. “I know, Nadia told me. Nova, I’m so sorry that I didn’t keep my promise. I should have been there. I should have—”

I put my finger against his lips. “Don’t apologize. I only told you because I wanted you to know. And maybe it would help make what I’m about to say more understandable. See, I lost it all when she passed. You were gone, she was gone. And then, suddenly… they were there. All of them. And after my own stubbornness wore out, I chose to live again. I chose to accept that just because I’d lost so much, it didn’t mean I’d lost myself, too. And by being here, it kept you alive for me in some small way.”

Eli

I didn’t deserve her, but I damn sure would spend the rest of my life trying my hardest to.

“I know most people would be demanding an explanation of what happened, but I just can’t find it in me to demand anything right now. Not when you’re here, right in front of me,” she said as a tear appeared at the corner of her eye and then rolled down the bridge of her nose.

“We have time. Hell, we have forever if you want it,” I said, feeling her hand tense.

“Forever’s a long time, Eli,” she said, smiling shyly at me.

“Not when it comes to you it isn’t. I gave you up… walked away out of duty when we were in Haiti. I did it again in Alaska. I won’t do it a third time. I’ll walk away from them before I walk away from you,” I said, meaning it to the very marrow of my bones.

She shook her head. “No, you can’t do that, because if you walk away from them, you walk away from me, too.”

My heart soared as I said, “Well then, I guess all of you are stuck with me.”

She laughed, and the breathy sound of it went right through me. “I’d say that either makes us special, or you lucky.”

I pulled her against me, rolled her over onto her back, and smiled. “Both, I think.”

I kissed her then, and she put her hand against my chest. The heat from her palm soaked into my skin, and it felt as though she were healing me.

It didn’t matter the reasons why I was alive. I was alive, and that was all that mattered. The Six was whole again. And they brought along with them equal partners. A team.

“I love you, Nova,” I said in between kisses.

She cupped my face and pulled back. Resting her forehead against mine, she looked at me. “I love you too, Eli.”

What had started out as a ragtag group of kids had grown to be a close-knit family. We’d always be the Six, even though we were twelve. We’d always have each other’s backs. In our darkest hours, no matter what, we’d always find a way back to one another.

That was friendship. That was love. That was who we were. And for the rest of our lives, who we would always be.

Our ending when we graduated high school hadn’t really been an ending at all. And it all began the summer Riley and Ace fell in love. Even though we’d made it to the end note in one stage of our lives, that note resonated and carried us into our futures.

Our friendship, while uncommon, was strong. I knew that if I were ever to fall, those around me would pick me up and show me my relevance, because those were the vows we made in our friendship. And as the years passed, we’d realize that all we were was all we were ever meant to be, and that was okay.

As for me, it was within the pages of my own life story that I truly found myself under the northern lights with a sky full of stars and my future the brightest one that shined down on me.

---

THE END