Epilogue
Sierra
“In sixth place, we have West End.”
After they each received their trophies, Ellie grabbed ahold of Sierra’s hand and held it tight while they announced the rest of the top relay teams. Ever since getting back together after Sierra momentarily lost her mind, Ellie never missed an opportunity to show that they were together.
She was constantly touching Sierra in one way or another, whether it was an arm around her waist or shoulder, or their fingers interlocked.
Ellie always told her it was because she was so proud to be her girlfriend and wanted everyone to know that she was the luckiest girl in the world.
She was wrong about that, of course, since Sierra was actually the luckiest girl in the world.
When they stepped off of the podium, Ellie’s hand remained tightly wrapped around Sierra’s. “How are you feeling?” Ellie asked Juniper as they all walked together.
Sierra knew what Ellie was asking. Not long after getting back together with Ellie and becoming surprisingly good friends with Juniper, she had found out from Juniper what had happened with her dad. She couldn’t imagine what that must be like, but it made her understand Juniper a lot better.
Juniper sported a bigger grin than Sierra had ever seen on her before. “I’m doing fucking amazing. My dad might have done some things that I’m really not happy about, but he was always a good dad to me. I’m glad I could officially become his All-American Girl.”
“I’m glad too. We actually did it.”
“You sure did,” Chris said as he rushed over from the side of the track to wrap Juniper in a tight hug.
“Should we go find our families?” Ellie whispered to Sierra as Juniper and Chris became lost in each other.
“It shouldn’t be too hard,” Sierra said with a laugh. “I don’t think they’ve stopped screaming since our race started.”
Like clockwork, more screams came at that very moment. Ellie smirked at Sierra. “Found them.”
They walked to where their parents and siblings were all sitting together on the bleachers.
Ellie and Sierra’s families were basically inseparable at track meets at this point.
They had even booked the same hotel for this meet and apparently ate breakfast together every morning.
Sierra didn’t want to get ahead of herself when they had been dating for less than half a year, but she couldn’t help thinking about what great in-laws the Finches would make.
“We are so proud of you girls,” Sierra’s mom said before pulling her and Ellie into a hug together.
“So proud,” Ellie’s mama echoed before doing the same.
The rest of their family members followed suit until Sierra and Ellie had been hugged by every single person.
“So, what’s next for you two?” Sienna asked as she looked between the two of them.
“Well, I obviously have three more years of this. Whether or not I’m lonely throughout those three years is up to this one.
” Sierra playfully elbowed Ellie in the side.
She didn’t actually put any pressure on Ellie to stay close to her, but when Ellie said she wanted to if she could find a job, it made Sierra so excited, she couldn’t help but ask for updates on the job hunt every single day.
Ellie smiled lovingly at Sierra before focusing her attention back on Sienna. “Juniper is keeping our apartment since she is doing grad school at West End next year, so if I hear back from one of the places I applied, I’ll stay with her. Otherwise, I unfortunately might have to look elsewhere.”
The thought of not being with Ellie next year saddened Sierra, but she also wanted Ellie to thrive, so if that meant the two of them had to be apart, she would deal with it.
A vibration came from the bag Ellie was holding, and she reached in to grab her phone. Her eyes went wide when she looked down at it. “It’s the zoo.”
Ellie’s top choice for a job was the zoo that was located about twenty minutes from school. She didn’t think she wanted that to be her lifelong career, but since she knew she wanted to do something where she worked with or researched animals, she figured that was the perfect place to start.
Sierra nudged her. “Answer it.”
Ellie chewed on her bottom lip. “What if it’s bad news?”
“Better to know than to wonder, right?”
Ellie nodded, then picked up the phone and walked away from the group. Everyone was silent as they waited for what felt like forever for Ellie’s conversation to end.
When Ellie walked back toward them with her eyes pointed at the ground, Sierra figured she must have gotten bad news.
The sick feeling had just started to form in her stomach when Ellie looked up at her with a huge smile on her face.
She picked Sierra up and twirled her around in a circle.
“I got the job. Baby, we don’t have to be apart. I got the job.”
Sierra’s heart burst with joy. Just when she thought this day couldn’t get any better, it went and proved her wrong. Life was so good she didn’t know how it could possibly go up from here, but with Ellie by her side, life kept getting better and better.
*1 year later*
Ellie
Ellie paced back and forth while she waited for Sierra’s race to start.
She had continued to blow everyone’s expectations this year, and it had all come down to this moment.
She was in the finals for the 400 at the national meet and since nine runners made finals, one of them wouldn’t receive the All-American trophy.
She only had to beat one person, but that wasn’t going to be easy when she was the one ranked ninth going into the race.
Even though it was a huge accomplishment just to make it into finals, she knew Sierra wouldn’t be satisfied with that, and all she wanted was for her girlfriend to be happy.
Heavy hands landed on Ellie’s shoulders, and she looked up to find Juniper smiling at her. “Would you calm down? She’s going to do amazing.”
Ellie was so lucky to have Juniper. She and Chris had flown down to Florida for nationals with her so they could all cheer on Sierra.
Over the past year, they had become even closer, and Ellie, Sierra, Chris, and Juniper spent the majority of their free time together.
Ellie couldn’t help but laugh at the irony of Juniper being at Sierra’s meet when just two years earlier she was telling her that they had to make Sierra’s life hell to get her to leave West End. Thank god that didn’t work.
“Why are you laughing?” Juniper asked. “Are you completely losing it?”
“I’m just happy.”
“Of course you are. You’re so in love it’s disgusting.” Juniper stuck her tongue out at Ellie, and Ellie stuck hers out back at her.
“Like you have any room to talk.”
Juniper put her arm around Chris. “How could I resist? Look how cute he is.” Juniper pointed toward the track. “Speaking of cute.”
Ellie looked at the track to see Sierra taking her place. She was always cute, but with her eyebrows creased in total focused determination, she was sexy as hell right now.
Ellie couldn’t help but lick her lips as she watched her, heart pounding when she heard the gun go off. She just needs to beat one person. Just one person.
Sierra was in the innermost lane which worked to her benefit, because she could see all the other runners.
She was so competitive, Ellie had no doubt she would catch one of them.
By the second turn of the race, Sierra had made up the stagger and passed one runner.
Ellie jumped up and down as she shouted for her.
All she needed to do was stay ahead of that girl and she would get All-American.
As she went around the turn, she not only stayed ahead of that girl, but passed another one.
Ellie screamed even louder as Sierra reached the final straight away.
The two girls she had passed were well behind her, and now she was neck and neck with two other girls.
Ellie watched in amazement as she closed the distance, passing by one and then the other right at the finish line, putting her in fifth place.
Ellie gave both Juniper and Chris big hugs as they all celebrated together.
Once Sierra gained some semblance of life back, her eyes scanned the crowd and quickly found Ellie’s.
When Ellie gave her two thumbs up, Sierra ran over to where she was standing outside of the track and jumped into her arms.
Ellie held her tight and spun her around.
When she set her back down, she placed a quick, but hard, kiss on her lips.
She put her arm around Sierra’s waist as they both turned to look at the times as they came up on the big screen.
Ellie’s eyes went wide when she saw the time that was better than anything she had run in her whole career.
If this was anyone else, Ellie would be disappointed that her school record had already been broken, but she was happy for Sierra.
She saw how hard she worked and couldn’t be more proud of her.
Ellie pulled Sierra even closer to her as proud tears stung at her eyes. “New school record! Dude, I’m so proud of you.”
Sierra turned to face Ellie fully, studying her face as she rested her hands on her hips. “That’s crazy. I hear the girl who had it before me was super fast.”
“Not as fast as her girlfriend. Turns out her girlfriend’s better than her.”
Sierra leaned in and rubbed her nose against Ellie’s, causing Ellie’s heart to grow even bigger. “Maybe we’re just better together.”
“We’re definitely better together. I love you, Sierra No-Middle-Name Finnegan.”
“I love you, Ellie Patty.”