(Ryan's P.O.V.)

We all exited the restaurant and walked towards Navy Pier. Once we were on the dock I gave Andrew the signal. "Uh hey Rachel?" He said turning to her. "Come with me, I want to show you something."

She gave him an odd look. "Okay... Where?"

"Oh nowhere special." He shrugged. Their voices faded as they walked farther away.

I grabbed hold of Auties hand. "Come on. I want to take you somewhere special too."

She laughed. "Okay so you and Andrew obviously planned something so are you just going to tell me what it is or not?"

I narrowed my eyes at her. "You can't let anything be fun can you."

"Nope."

I groaned. "Can you just pretend you have no idea and all we're doing is going for a walk on the beach?"

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever makes you happy."

I pulled her next to me and put my hand on her waist. I loved that she was close to me. And I'm glad it wasn't somebody else. When I told her I loved her I didn't even know I was going to but after I said it I didn't regret a thing. Mostly because she said it back but you know.

We walked slowly across the beach carrying are shoes and socks with one hand. I led her down a medium sized dock and sat down on the edge with her. "Hang on I have to text Andrew for no reason what so ever."

Ryan: hey you got the stuff ready?

Andrew: yeah, Rachel and I are sitting in the field. Ready whenever.

I grabbed her hand and said, "on the count of three I'm going to yell really loud. Again for no apparent reason."

She rolled her eyes and laughed. "What are you going to do?!"

I shrugged. "Nothing special." I kissed her on the cheek before starting the countdown. "One.. Two.. Three!" I yelled as loud as I can Autie joined me for the fun of it.

We heard Rachel and Andrew yell back from the field they were sitting in a few miles away. It was faint but just loud enough to hear it. Along with all the barking dogs.

Autie looked at me quizzically. "Now what?"

I pointed up at the sky as a bunch of fireworks exploded into thousand different colors. One of them was red and in the shape of a heart. The last one shaped into the letters "R + A"

She smiled and continued to look up at the sky. Laying her head down on my shoulder she sighed happily. "So, do you want to be my official girlfriend?" I asked smoothly.

She look up and kissed me. "Nope." She smirked.

I glared at her. "What?!"

She laughed. "After those fireworks I have high expectations. I want to feel like a princess." Autie shrugged as I stared at her in awe. When I saw she was half joking I sighed.

Standing up I pulled her with me. Then I knelt down on one knee and grabbed her hand. "Autumn Rose Parker. Would you do me the honor of being my girlfriend." I asked choking up my voice.

She leaned down and gave me a long kiss. "Ryan Joseph Boyar yes I will go out with you."

I smiled and stood up. "Good so now I can do this." I turned to the few people on the beach. "Keep you filthy hands off my girl man-sluts!" I yelled.

She laughed and covered my mouth with her hand. I scouted the small crowd to see one or two boys glaring at me, and a few girls squealing. What is it with girls and squealing? Especially Myah...

"Shut up!" Autie laughed through clenched teeth.

I licked her hand and watched her pull it away in disgust. "Eww!" She screeched. "Just for that, your carrying me back to the motorcycle."

I rolled my eyes. "Oh please. We both know I was going to end up carrying you anyways."

Giggling she hopped into my back and kick me like you would a horse. "Go!" She commanded.

I started to walk back to the motorcycle and smirked when we walked past a group of glaring guys. At least they knows Auties mine now. Or we might have had a serious problem.

~*~

(Autie's P.O.V.)

I heard someone knock on the door so I quietly got up to answer it, hoping I wouldn't wake Ryan. When I opened it I saw my mom.

"Honey can I talk to you in the living room? There's something we have to talk about." I gave her an uncertain look before nodding and closing the door behind me. She walked behind me into the living room where I saw dad and an angry looking Austin already sitting on the couch.

"Gosh Austin, who pissed in your Cheerios?"

He glared at me and muttered, "your dead to me." He looked away from me and I really hoped he wasn't serious. The last time Austin and I were mad at each other was when I was 18 and he was 10. And even then we got over it in 2 hours. The fact is that we get along really well.

"Um sweetie," my mom started, "you asked for more responsibility and we figured out how to give you that."

My face brightened. "Really??"

My mom gave me a careful smile before grabbing my hand. This is gonna be good. I thought sarcastically.

"We've decided that Austin is going to come live in South Carolina with you for a while."

Oh.. Now I get why he's mad. I might as well back him up. I mean, if he doesn't wanna go I shouldn't force him. "But mom he clearly doesn't want to go. He'll have to move away from all his friends, and his school, and family-"

My dad cut me off. "We don't care princess. We were going to take a trip to Brazil for nine months as a long vacation anyways. He was going to stay with grandma and grandpa but they decided to go with us."

I looked at my lap before coming up with an idea. "Brian! Why can't he just stay with him? Brain only lives thirty minutes away!"

Austin gave me a confused yet thankful and sympathetic look. "Didn't he tell you? He decided to move down to South Carolina to be closer to you."

"Plus he's not exactly the best role model for a teenage boy." My mom whispered.

I gulped. Shit. Ryan isn't going to like that. "What about Aunt Polly, Uncle Tom, and Sam? Why can't he live with them? They live only ten minutes away."

My mom shook her head. "Polly's six month pregnant. They don't want two teenagers and a screaming baby."

I sighed and gave Austin a guilty smile. "Looks like your coming to live with Rachel and I."

He smiled back but it was a uneven smile. "Yup. At least I'll be down there for the holidays and our birthday!" He exclaimed as happily as possible. Austin and I were born eight days apart and of course all those years in between. His birthday was October 1st and mine was October 8th.

"Okay you two." My dad started, getting off of the couch. "Your mother and I are going to sleep. You two have to get up early so I think you should go to sleep as well." Both our parents gave us each a hug and kiss before going upstairs.

"Do you need help packing?" I asked my little brother.

He smiled slightly. "Yeah, thanks."

We walked upstairs and into his room.

I started going through his drawers for clothes while he got out two suitcases. I held up a box of condom that I found in his sock drawer. He gave me a nervous smiled before I shook my head and threw it at him. "Might as well be safe and pack em'" I shrugged.

He nervously laughed while shoving them into his case. "Yeah, okay.."

I pulled out half of his socks and boxers, and pack three of his swimsuits, while he packed most of his shirts and pants. Next we went into his add-on bathroom to get all the necessities. He gathered stuff like shampoo, conditioner, and toothpaste; and I packed all of his hair supplies. And he has a lot..

"Would I need a pillow or something?" He asked jumping down on one of his suitcases trying to close it.

I shook my head while going over there and helping him. "No we got that covered. But you do need to bring all you school stuff with."

He sighed. "Yeah I guess so."

"What are you going to do with all your stuff at school?" I asked him.

"Mom and dad are going to get it after we leave and mail it to us." He paused for a second before smiling. "I convinced mom to let us fly the privet jet back to South Carolina."

I gave him a high five. "Nice! I've been trying to get her to let me use that thing for years!"

After we finished packing his bags we brought them downstairs and set them near the front door for tomorrow morning.

We walked back up the stairs and before parting down the hall I ruffled his hair. "Night bud. See you in the morning."

He hugged me before walking into his room, only to come back out a split second later and grabbing my wrist. "Autie wait!"

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry for what I said when you came into the living room. I didn't mean it. Oh! And thanks for at least trying to get me out of all this."

I shrugged as smiled. "Anything for my little brother."

He let go of my wrist and disappeared into his room. I went a few doors down to Rachel and Andrew's room. And before you say anything no, they don't share a bed. Andrew gave Rachel the bed and he sleeps in the floor.

I walked in and stepped over Andrew, carful not to wake him. I shook Rachel until she woke up. "Autie?" She whispered rubbing her eyes.

"Yeah, just to let you know, Austin's going to be living with us for a while." She muttered something under her breath before turning over and falling back asleep.

Rachel was always the crabbiest person when you wake her up. I tiptoed back into my room and saw Ryan sitting up in bed. I walked over to him and kissed his cheek.

"Hey beautiful. What were you doing?" He asked yawning.

"I had to talk to my mom and dad. They're making Austin live with Rachel and I for a while."

He sighed, "on top to that hey aren't paying your bills anymore. Autumn, your going to end up loosing your apartment."

I shrugged. "Eh. I think living on the streets will be fun!" I exclaimed with fake enthusiasm falling into the bed. I just laid there staring at the ceiling.

He laughed. "Don't worry you can live with Miles, Logan, Andrew, Dylan, and I."

I looked at him confused. "Eight people living in that house? It's big but.. Eight people?"

He shrugged and laid down next to me, pulling me closer to him. "Yeah why not. We have six bedrooms, one for Logan, one for Austin, another for Miles and Dylan, another for you and I, and I figured Andrew and Rachel wouldn't mind sharing a room. And that still leaves one extra room for guests."

I made a fake explosion sound with my mouth. "My mind is officially blown."

He laughed. "See! I'm not always a dumbass."

I shrugged. "Eh, most of the time you are but let's not focus on that now."

He chuckled. "Yeah okay, are we done now? Can we go back to sleep."

"Oh! One more thing." I exclaimed thing Austin told me. "Guess who's moving to South Carolina to be closer to me."

He glared at me. "God dammit. Brian needs to keep his hands off of you."

I kissed his nose. "Your cute when your jealous."

~~ Hey everyone! Please check out my new book Alyssa's Journey! It is guaranteed to be my best book yet but is also a work in progress :) i hope you find the time to read the prologue.