Last Night: Taking Chances

Epilogue

"Did you really leave a party raging on in your house?" Max asked Parker amusedly.

He just shrugged carelessly and threw his arm around Victoria's shoulder, "Everyone's 18, I'm sure they don't need a chaperone or at the very least, they can chaperone each other."

Everyone just laughed in disbelief. The couples had all left the party and gone back to Taylor's where they'd started a bonfire on the beach in her backyard because they were pretty sure it was legal to do it there. They were all sitting in pairs around the fire with drinks, of course, and snacks on hand. All the couples were settled comfortably on their own blanket while a portable speaker played music in the background, in harmony with the sound of the water caressing the shore.

"Remind me again," Carter spoke up, "Why are we sitting around a bonfire in 80 degree weather?"

"Ask your little girlfriend," Taylor laughed.

Tiara rolled her eyes, "Well excuuuse me for wanting to live like I'm in an Indie movie for like 5 seconds! Besides, how have we always lived by the beach and never had a bonfire?"

"Umm...I'm just putting this out there, but maybe because it's always like 80 degrees out?" Carter said with a smirk on his face.

Tiara gave him a blank look and flipped him her middle finger as everyone else laughed. Carter dropped a kiss on Tiara's temple and she rolled her eyes with a smile on her face.

"Okay, if this is an Indie movie," Allegra said as she shot Tiara an amused look, "Who's going to make the toast?"

"The toast?" Daniel asked.

"Yeah, you know. The toast where the person basically sums up the journey they've all been on together and everything that's happened tonight in a few words while some slow song plays in the background," Kaela explained as she lay back in Damon's arms.

"I suppose I should," Max said as he sat up a little straighter.

"God, no please," Allegra said as she put a hand on his thigh as if you to anchor him to the ground.

The group broke into laughter again at Max's disgruntled look.

"Why not?" he demanded.

"I want to be able to understand it for starters," Allegra quipped.

"I'll say it English!" he said defensively. Everyone started laughing again, knowing that Max spoke a few other languages.

"Okay, but none of us are remotely sober enough for words with more than two syllables," she told him in response.

He smirked and lay his head on Allegra's lap,"Then I guess Sage should give it."

"Ooohs" and "Aaahs" broke out in the group as they tried not to laugh.

"You gonna take that Sage? I wouldn't take that disrespect if I were you," Victoria told him.

He chuckled in response,"Since when were people on the swim team considered dumb jocks?"

"Probably when you joined," Alyssa retorted cheekily.

A loud roar of laughter left the group at that comment and Sage pouted at Alyssa who just laughed before kissing him on the cheek.

"Okay, enough ripping on each other! We're supposed to be making a toast here!" Ally said as the group settled down again.

"Maybe this will be our toast. Just these moments, this night," a voice chimed in.

Everyone fell silent and looked at the person who'd spoken. Ava. The mysterious bartender who'd also become a member of the band for that night and who it seemed was going to become a member of the group.

"See," Tiara said as she tipped her bottle in Ava's direction, "She gets it! She gets my Indie movie thing. I mean...that was a little Fault in Our Stars but she fucking gets it!"

"Ooookaaay, I'll just take that," Sebastian said as he grabbed the bottle from Tiara's hands.

She laughed and stuck her tongue out at him before taking her bottle back,"But seriously you guys, everything magically worked out tonight. We HAVE to have a toast or a we are infinite moment."

"A what moment?" Damon asked confused.

Victoria gave him a blank stare, "The Perks of Being a Wallflower?"

He just shrugged and looked at Kaela for help, she in turn just patted his thigh comfortingly and shook her head in disappointment.

Parker snickered and Sage spoke up,"Isn't this our infinite moment? All of us here, together with the people we want and are meant to be with. At the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. We're at the end of one journey and about to start a new one. At the end of our childhood and the start of adulthood, celebrating all that with our friends, old and new?"

Everyone looked at Sage with various expressions of shock before lapsing into a thoughtful silence.

"Maybe your brain isn't waterlogged after all,"Damon quipped.

"Oh come on! If I'd said that you'd have all called me pretentious!" Max protested.

"Because you are!" everyone said in unison before laughing again.

The night went on that way, with everyone reminiscing and telling old stories. Reliving old memories and making new ones. Making fun of each other and laughing at themselves. There may even have been a sing along around the fire with a guitar because is it even an Indie movie without that?

They sat on the beach long after the the drinks and snacks had finished and the fire had died and everyone had stopped talking. They'd had their last night and they'd all taken chances.

They sat there and watched the sun rise. Together.