Epilogue

***Matty's POV***

So the guy got the girl in the end.

I think to myself as I roll up my drawing for the last time. It is complete. Before this whole experience I would have probably been smug, not now though. I'm relieved to have gotten through it and to still be with her at the end.

This picture has been the hardest yet. It's personal to draw somebody you love and so hard to get it right. I have not drawn something like this ever. The last couple of times that I've worked on it I've just stared at it attempting to add strokes here and there, just to improve its likeness to her. Sometimes over the past couple of weeks I have found myself staring at her, she's easy to watch. I can work out the line of her mouth when she smiles and how her hair sways. All important details that I needed to capture before I show her it. She still has no idea what my drawing is, and I intend on keeping it that way until she sees it. When I quickly moved it out of her eye line the other day she laughed calling me sly and mysterious and then climbed onto my lap telling me she loves me and never to change.

As I store the picture away I reflect on how I have changed. There's no doubt I'm happier as a person. I would not have known what to do should she have decided to leave me. It's a possibility I refuse to think about. The day that she came back to me, I remember opening the door and thinking wow. Moments like that never happened to me before Tay. I found myself just staring, her long brown hair and perfect skin and her amazing body in her jeans. But obviously it's more than that, I had genuinely felt off kilter without her in my life and now that she has re-entered it I feel whole.

If she had of told me that she would be leaving me I would have accepted it but it would have sent me over the edge. Especially with these memories of us swarming around me. I had a contingency plan to move away, Just to escape everything.

For the first time, I have a constant. I have somebody who is on the same page as me. Someone to share my life with. I am determined to not mess this up. This time around.

There's still a few things however I need to sort out. Jay has been messaging her. He's pretty good at getting on my nerves and I continually have to remind myself that shes laying next to me at night not him. Occasionally I feel anger swell inside of me because of him but I just imagine her next to me, on the sofa watching a stupid movie or laying in bed asleep or us making dinner in the kitchen and her wearing my shirt. Then the anger evaporates.

We finalised our classes for uni on enrolment day. I drove us in. I'm taking art I decided I might actually be pretty good at it and media. She's changed her mind and is taking dance and psychology. Jay made sure to approach her at the desk informing her that they would be in the same psychology class next year. Even though he's in his 2nd year he will be a 1st year in psychology. She talked and talked about music but decided to just join some clubs to do it and stay into it that way telling me it would be too much to study it alongside dance at university. I love hearing her rationalise and make decisions, it's unbelievably cute how she just tells me everything that she's considering.

Ross approached us on the day, throwing his arms around her and holding onto her for just a fraction too long. He's still staying true to studying English lit and psychology. Looks like they're both going to share a class with her. Fantastic I think, but then I remind myself that I'm not a possessive prick. Anymore.

He invited us back to his that night but we politely declined. He's completely in love with her still. I can see it in the way he looks at her, how he likes to be close to her. But I'm no longer angry with him. I can't be, he's been a good friend. He looked out for me and more importantly he looked out for her. He was there for her when I was the bad guy, and he didn't pull any moves on her. He's a better guy than me, no doubt. I know he will not do anything to hurt her ever. He's started riding a motorbike to get to and from uni, and we teased him telling him that he's becoming Jay. He smiled and told me to fuck off, I'm glad we can still share our same banter that we always used too.

So we will all be at the same university next term. All of us. Tay is living with me again, and has decided to look for a car. She has been going on about the logistics of us having different lecture times. I chuckled, telling her I would happily drive her around all the time. She still doesn't realise just how in love with her I am. The strange thing now is that instead of feeling out of depth with my feelings. I feel in control of them.

Love used to have no place in my life. I felt completely unable to have feelings like this for anybody. Yet now her love has become integral to me.

I finish hiding the picture until I decide on the right moment to show her, my aim is for her to see herself through my eyes. I only hope I've captured it perfectly. Or as close as can be.