Loved By Levi

Thirty

Levi

If there was one thing I had learned in my twenty years on earth, it was that I hated school. 

As I walked through the door, I threw my worn black backpack on the floor with a thump. "Mylee, I'm home."

Home. That was such a weird thing to hear coming out of my own mouth. Especially since I had only been living with Mylee for a little over a week. Funnily enough, her place felt more like home to me than the houses I'd shared with Matt or my Uncle Gary ever had. 

The sounds of clanking glass and muttering lead me to the kitchen. There I found Mylee standing on one of the wobbly bar stools they used as chairs, apparently trying to wrestle the cover off of the light fixture. 

"Need help?" 

At the exact moment the words left my mouth, she gave the cover one last hard jerk, and before I knew what was happening, it went flying past my head and shattered against the wall. 

"Oh my gosh, Levi!" Her already red face turned a few shades darker, making the large smudge of what I assumed to be dust under her left eye stand out even more. "I'm so sorry, did I hit you?"

I managed to wipe the look of utter shock off my face and instead felt a laugh bubble up from deep in my chest. She clambered off the stool, bare feet hitting the floor with a slap. 

"Hey, you don't have any shoes on. Just stay there, I'll clean this up." 

"Levi, I'm so sorry..." she repeated, shoving some long red hair out of her face, "I swear I didn't mean to hit you!"

"It's okay, you didn't hit me," I reassured her, squeezing her upper arm gently as I walked by to grab the broom and dustpan. "Besides, I needed something to wake me up after the day I had."

"Tell me about it," she muttered. "Why was your day so bad?"

I shrugged, pushing a pile of glass shards into the green plastic dustpan. "It was just long. How about you?"

She just shook her head, more hair falling in her face. "You don't even want to know."

"Oh, really? And why would that be?" 

Mylee let herself sag against the stool. I felt her eyes follow me as I bent down to scoop a few more shattered pieces. "Camille."

I nodded, feeling a small smile appear. Of course it had to be Camille. What else would make Mylee this crazy? Well, maybe crazy wasn't the right word for it. Rightfully angry covered it a lot better. 

"What did she do now?" 

The sound of her giggling took me by surprise. Most of the time any conversation we had about Camille either pissed her off or made her look ready to cry. She was still laughing when I looked up from my sweeping, but her face had turned a different shade of red. 

"Well, she got herself kicked off the rodeo team."

I straightened up. "Are you serious?" 

She pulled her legs up to her chest and wrapped both arms around her shins, still giggling. Everything but her eyes was hidden behind her knees and they were sparkling more than I'd ever seen. 

"I'm gonna take that as a yes. How did she manage that?"

She propped her chin on her knees, expression going serious. "Well, I went and told our coaches about how she was going behind their backs to do things and they finally had enough of her shit."

I knew my eyebrows were nearly touching my hairline as I took in the news. "Oh damn!" 

Mylee just nodded, looking a little pleased with herself. 

"What are you gonna do now?" I bent down to sweep up the last few shards of glass. When she didn't answer, I glanced up again. 

This time she looked deep in thought, which was pretty adorable since she was still curled up on top of a bar stool. "Mylee?"

She sighed and finally made eye contact with me. "Honestly, I don't know. I never do. It's stupid."

I shook my head, still slightly bothered by the fact that there wasn't any long hair to swish around my face anymore when I did. "I don't think it's stupid, I think it's part of growing up." 

"Maybe, but it's still dumb if you ask me. You always know exactly what you want, though. How do you do that?" She stared at me intently, like I somehow had all the answers in the world. 

It was all I could do to not laugh. If only she knew what had been going through my head in the last few days. 

Sure, I had been hell bent on joining the Marines and making something of myself. I'd made that a goal and quite literally chased it until I was in good enough shape to keep up with any Marine. However, that was before I met the only girl in the world who could throw me off course with nothing but a smile through a rain storm. That was also before I got kicked out of my own house and moved in with said girl, surprisingly not as a couple. 

It was funny, really, how the moment I was feeling ready enough to go and sign my life away to the Corps, a sad redheaded tornado came into my life and threw everything off kilter. The irony of that hit me multiple times a day. It was especially evident when I looked down at the body I had worked so hard to sculpt and then back up at a pair of big brown eyes that held nothing but questions. 

How was it possible that I could be so attracted to somebody who seemed so incredibly lost in life, especially right when I thought I found my path? It was a little unfair, really. I mean, I'd learned from a very young age that God had a twisted sense of humor, but wasn't this a little too much? How could a path that seemed so incredibly perfect and right just a few months ago suddenly feel so wrong for me? 

I'd been asking myself the exact same questions since the second I left that Great Clips without my characteristic mop of hair, feeling quite literally naked. 

"Can I let you in on a little secret, Mylee?"

She nodded, eyes big and receptive. 

"I honestly don't have a clue anymore. For so long I thought I knew exactly where I was going in life, but that was before I met you." 

Her expression went from open to absolutely betrayed in a split second, making me wonder if I should have just kept my mouth shut. As much as I hated myself for causing her pain, she did deserve to hear the truth. That didn't make me feel any less bad, though. 

"I bet you wish you never met me." Her flat, almost bitter tone cut through my heart like a knife. Nothing she could say was any further from the truth. 

"Not at all." I set the dustpan full of glass down on the kitchen counter and moved to gently cup her thin shoulders. "Mylee, you're hands down the best person I've ever met." 

Those chocolaty galaxies stared at me, full of wonder and a hundred other emotions. "Really?"

"Yes, really." As much as it surprised both of us, I truly meant those words. Sure, Mylee had come into my life at what might be considered the most inopportune time, but I guessed God had to have some purpose in mind when he sent us crashing together. "I know we haven't known each other for very long, and I know you're not an impulsive person, but sometimes I am. So Mylee Jo Brannan, I'm not joining the Marines anymore. Will you be my girlfriend?"