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She started doing better by the time your family moved in but there were still rough days. Then she started therapy, I had no idea she was attending one of your mom’s groups but I’m glad she did. There was a complete one-eighty flip, she was really happy for the first time in years, and I had Liam. My life actually got better when you and your family became a part of it. I am thankful every day that you all are a part of my story, my life.
Know that I am always here for you, May, on the good and the bad days. I will love and I will care for you, I will never walk out, and I will never treat you anyway other than with the upmost respect and love. You’re everything to me, Mayhem, you’re my end game.
Love,
Trey
44 Free Tacos for Life
Trey was sprawled out on Maybelle’s bed, skimming a book he had found on the shelving against the wall. Funny, the one-eighty flip his life had taken.
As a teenager he remembered hanging out with Liam and following him down the hall to his room but always managing to risk at least one moment to peek in at the girl he was crazy for.
His crush, his best friend’s sister.
She was almost constantly either reading, studying, napping, or writing in that same bed. Each time, every stolen glimpse, Trey would wish he could just walk in, curl up under the covers with her and watch as she read, wrote, or napped. Absolutely and completely enthralled with her quiet movements, scrunching nose, and biting the inside of her cheek in concentration. Now, he was lying in her bed, in her room like he belonged there and nowhere else.
Trey was studying the last line of a random chapter in the random book, not retaining one word from it, when he saw her in the corner of his eye, his Maybelle, his beautiful girl, the love of his life. She was wrapped in a fluffy, pink, bath robe;the same one he once saw her in one out of a hat evening when she thought it was just her and her mom in the house. Maybelle had been running to grab something from her room to show her mom when she collided into him. Trey could not stop smiling at the way her cheeks had gotten as hot and pink as the bath robe she wore.
Maybelle wasn’t blushing now though, she was holding his book flush against her chest, tears streaking down her freckled cheeks, eyes sparkling like the sea in morning light, dancing groves of green underwater vegetation splotched through the brilliant blue. It was honestly mesmerizing, enough so that he hesitated before realizing that her glittering eyes meant something was wrong.
Trey sat up on her bed, shaking his head and hyper-aware that he was still in only his boxer briefs, “Hey, hey, what’s wrong, why are you crying?” Trey asked holding his arms out to her, but she didn’t move from the door frame, his Maybelle was frozen in the bedroom threshold, her tears overflowing.
Trey was on his feet approaching her, “Talk to me May, was my writing so bad it drew you to tears?” He teased, brows quirked and taunting. This, thankfully, earned him a choked chuckle from Maybelle.
“No—no, it’s just…” She sniffled and swiped at her nose, “I left you without saying goodbye.” Maybelle garbled, the tears a hurricane of drowning emotions and Trey heard his own chest audibly crack open. He lurched forward, grappling onto the loops of the vibrant pink robe at her hips and squished his small woman into his embrace.
“I am so sorry Trey; I never should have left you. I should have called, I should have waited, I should have told you where I was instead of abandoning you. I am so so so sorry.” Maybelle sobbed, her head falling into the crook of Trey’s neck with her tears smearing hot against his skin.
Don’t get him wrong, Trey despised seeing his beautiful girl hurting buthell, it felt so good to be holding her, comforting her and being there for her while she cried.
Trey cupped the stunning, red flushed face of the perfect girl in his arms, prodding those bewitching blue, green eyes to meet his own, “I won’t lie to you, May, it ripped my heart out when you didn’t come running home to me. That I wasn’t the first place you thought to escape to when you remembered— but then I was reminded that you weren’t always mine.” Maybelle studied him, like she didn’t quite understand what he was saying. So, he kissed the tip of her nose and said, “You went home to my mom first, after your memories all came back, right?”
Maybelle nodded slowly. Trey smiled sadly, “Why?” He asked, knowing exactly why.
Those darn eyes, so damn enchanting as they began to go glossy once again. Maybelle dropped her forehead into Trey’s chest, another sob shaking her as she coughed, “Because I wanted my mom.”
Trey’s arm cinched up tight around her, holding together as she fell apart. Trey might have become her safe place after the accident, after the coma, before the return of her memories but before him, her home was Stephanie. Maybelle went running to the closest thing she could find to her mom, the one who transplanted herself into that role, Chelsea Turner.
That recognition alone had Trey forgiving his mom for making the decisions she did the week Maybelle was gone. He loved his mom; he cherished the woman, but he didn’t get the relationship with her that she now had with Maybelle. Life had dealt Trey a different hand, another role that he slid into at such a young age, proudly. The responsibility of being there for his mom in the aftermath of his father’s abandonment in a way she never was there for him. Though that small part of him achedfor the lost time, and the accelerated race to adulthood, Trey was happy his mom was healed and ready to fulfill that spot for the girl he loved.
Maybelle continued to cry, and Trey didn’t try to stop or distract her, instead he swooped her up into his arms and brought her back to the bed with him. He tucked her into the sheets, his arms, his heart and held her there as she mourned. Trey’s chest caved in from the sound of her pain, and the loss she no doubt grieved but for the first time in days he could breathe. Knowing that Maybelle was safe, with him, not running away and not alone as she hurt for all that had been taken from her.
“Trey.” Maybelle whispered once her body racking sobs had subsided into something quiet and soft.
“Yes, May?” He asked while she immediately nestled deeper into him, and he almost died right there.
“Is your middle name really Tory?” Trey bursted, shaking with a surprised, happy chortle and kissed the curls of gold under his chin.
“Unfortunately, baby, unfortunately.” He sighed and Maybelle giggled against his chest.
“I always thought it was cute that Liam called you Triple Threat but it’s even more adorable now that I know the back story. I didn’t realize my brother was such a softie with a big heart.” Maybelle pressed in, placing a kiss into Trey’s bobbing throat, sending a shudder through him.
“He had the biggest heart. You know he talked about you all the time?” Trey whispered, the tension and intimacy of the moment causing him to treat every second with a reverence he couldn’t explain.
Maybelle twisted into him so their eyes could meet, her light brown brows quirked, “Really?”
Trey nodded, “Yeah, he constantly talked about you. Especially when we were doing something fun, he would alwayssay he wished you were there. He also showed me all of your old highlight reels from when you played basketball.”
