Page 101 of Business or Pleasure

This book will have Finn’s name on the cover—I’ve known that since the beginning.

And the next one, I’m determined, will have mine.

THE NOCTURNALS

Season 4, Episode 22: “Graduation, Part 2”

EXT. OAKHURST QUAD—­NIGHT

CALEB RHODES, ALICE CHEN, OLIVER HUXLEY, MEG LAWSON, SOFIA PEREZ, and WESLEY SINCLAIR stand in a circle, watching the sky. The Raiders will show up at any moment. Caleb and Alice are holding hands, Hux and Meg are hugging, and Sofia is clutching the Scarlet Talisman. Even Wesley looks serious for what might be the first time in his life.

CALEB

So... this is where it ends. Us against them. Funny, all I thought I’d be doing today was getting a piece of paper that said I managed to survive the past four years.

WESLEY

Don’t tempt fate. You still might not.

MEG

I’m scared.

HUX

He holds her closer and kisses the top of her head.

I know—­I am, too. But I think it’s less scary to be scared together, isn’t it?

chapter

twenty-nine

LOS ANGELES, CA

The studio is packed, swarms of fans dressed head to toe in fake fur, whiskers painted on their cheeks. They’re brandishing homemade signs and grinning with plastic fangs and hugging each other tightly, squealing and shrieking and shedding a few tears because finally, finally, it’s happening. Their favorite characters, back together for this one night.

Even after all the cons, it’s still a sight to behold: all these people gathered here because of this thing they love so deeply.

I didn’t exactly go all out, but at least my ship is obvious. I found an I’d Much Rather Be Unusual T-shirt on Etsy, which I’ve paired with Finn’s dagger-patterned socks for a little extra strength. Though I can’t count the number of planes I’ve been on since September, I white-knuckled the armrests the entire flight, with Noemie beside me offering whispered reassurances. That I haven’t screwed things up. That Finn won’t have changed his mind.

I understand if you can’t make it, he texted last night. But I really hope you will.

I told him that of course I would be there. How could I miss it after everything we’d been through?

In her matching shirt, Noemie grips my wrist when we arrive at our reserved first-row seats. “Our names are on these,” she says, stunned. “What is your life?”

Maybe at the end of the day, I’ll have an answer for her.

The reunion opens with some footage from the show, a montage of its most memorable moments, punctuated by laughs and cheers from the audience. There’s Caleb’s first transformation, the scene he’s forced to choose between Alice and Sofia, Hux and Meg’s first kiss. A couple well-timed zingers from Wesley. There’s the serum Hux develops at the end of the series that helps Meg control her werewolf side a bit more, enabling them to finally have a real relationship and for her to fearlessly pursue her passion for art history. Then the final shot of the show: all six characters standing in the rubble of what was once Oakhurst University on graduation day, after battling their villains one last time. They’re bleeding and limping and covered with dirt, but they’re victorious. And as they take a few moments to account for their injuries, making sure everyone’s okay, the viewer knows it, too—that whatever’s ahead for them, whatever the real and supernatural worlds throw their way, they’re going to be able to handle it.

After the applause, the lights go up, revealing the six leads onstage. The audience rushes to their feet in a thunderous standing ovation, and by the time I sit down, my hands sting. Juliana and Cooper look a little bashful, Hallie and Bree grinning and waving, Ethan smirking.

And Finn.

He looks beautiful, of course, because he always does, dressed in a deep green button-up, gray tie, and a sweater vest that wardrobe debated for a solid half hour during rehearsals. He’s the airbrushed version of himself, the one I got so used to seeing at cons and on my laptop screen—but there’s something different about him. A weariness, maybe, that I haven’t seen before, unless I’m imagining it just because of how much I’ve missed him.

Because if there was any doubt about it before I hopped on that flight, it doesn’t exist now, my heart aching with the hope that he still wants me, even after I escaped back to Seattle.

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