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Seventeen-year-old Antonia Daley stared at her nineteen-year-old boyfriend, Maverick Silva, in disbelief. "What do you mean you're moving to New York?"
"I got into John Jay College. I'm leaving at the end of the month." He nervously drummed his fingers on his desk. "You know you're gonna get into Juilliard next year; they've already offered you a place when you graduate. We'll get a place together when you come to NYC, like we planned." He finally met her eyes, and she swallowed, trying to hide her feelings, but as always, he saw right through her. "Come on, Toni, it's only a year of long-distance, and we'll be together all the time again. He reached out and pulled her into his arms. "You know I love you, right?"
"Yeah, Mave. I know; I just thought you were gonna wait for me like we planned." Toni allowed herself to be hugged but returned it half-heartedly.
"I know." He pulled back and ran his fingers through her chin-length honey-blonde hair. "But Dad is pushing for me to go, says two years out of school is too long. I don't have a lot of choice if I want it paid for."
"Promise me you'll come home and see me as much as you can." She pouted, knowing there was no way to change his plans.
"I promise. And you can come to see me in NYC. It's just a five-hour train ride or an hour-and-a-half flight." He smiled, and Toni felt herself melt. Those dimples and the way his gray eyes crinkled at the corners always did her in. She rubbed her hands through his sandy brown curls, messing them up and smiled back at him, trying to ignore the pit in her stomach.
Toni came awake with a gasp. Her fiance, Dallas McCoy, grunted in his sleep, and his arm slid off her waist as he rolled over and faced away from her. A deep sense of loss filled her, and she looked at the clock. It was only four in the morning, but she knew she wasn't going to get back to sleep. She pushed the blankets off and slid out of bed, tiptoeing; she went over to the dresser, got her pyjamas and pulled them on. Grabbing her tablet and wedding binder, she let herself out of the room quietly, leaving Dallas to sleep and went to put on the kettle.
After she had made her tea, she went out onto the balcony of the condo and tried to concentrate on finalizing a few plans for her wedding in late December, but Maverick's face on the day they broke up kept interfering. She had gone down to New York after several weeks of feeling something was off and to talk to him in person about her change of plans. But when she unlocked the apartment, she found it in a mess from a party the night before and walked into his bedroom to find him in bed with a girl. She took a picture of it and left, texting him the picture from the train and telling him never to contact her again before blocking him. He hadn't listened and showed up at her house early the next morning, looking like he never slept and begging for a chance to explain. She reluctantly went for a walk with him and listened to what he had to say.
"I swear nothing happened, Toni." He ran his hands anxiously through his hair. "I would never hurt you like that."
"Then why was she in your bed naked?" Antonia was proud of how she held it together in the moment because she had been falling apart since leaving the apartment.
"I don't know, I wasn't naked. I woke up with her there when I got your text." He reached out and gripped her arm tightly. "I love you. I would have never let her sleep over if I knew she meant in my bed."
"So you know her." She folded her arms over her stomach. That feeling was back. That weird mixture of anxiety and butterflies fighting a war in her stomach.
"Yeah, we have a bunch of classes together. We're friends." He admitted, his cheeks flushing,
"You never told me about her." She knew there was a reason for the feeling she had; she had always trusted her gut.
"I didn't want you to worry unnecessarily." His hand tightened on her arm. "I swear I have no feelings for her at all. Just friends."
"Is she why you've been so distant? Not answering my calls?"
"Well, yes, but not for the reasons you think. I've just been having the college experience, drinking and partying, and I always called you back the first chance I got." He dropped his hand. "Please, Toni, believe me, I would never cheat on you."
"Maybe not, but you would lie and hide things from me." She stepped back from him, shaking her head. "How am I supposed to trust you?"
"It was a stupid mistake. I swear, I'll do whatever you want to regain your trust." He was so pathetically trying to plead with her that it pissed her off.
"Look, I can't do a long-distance relationship where trust is broken, plus everything else that's going on." She swallowed hard.
"What are you talking about? You got into Juilliard... You're moving to New York, and we're getting an apartment together." He now looked terrified. "Please don't let this change our plans. I'll cut contact with her, change my classes, whatever you want. I swear, just give me another chance."
"I turned down Juilliard. Mom's breast cancer came back. I can't leave her alone." She stared at the ground, tears pricking at her eyelids. "That's why I came to New York, to tell you in person." There was a long silence from Maverick, and then his arms were around him, holding her while she cried.
"What about your stepdad?" He asked when her tears slowed.
"Left. Took Nola and moved out as soon as she got the diagnosis confirmation. Said he couldn't do it again." She whispered, her heart breaking at that betrayal all over again.
"I'll drop out and come home or transfer to a college in Boston." He promised, rubbing her back.
"No. No." She shook her head and pulled out of his arms. "I don't want to do this. We can't rebuild the relationship while I'm trying to look after my mom, and your dad will lose his shit if you drop out for me."
"Toni, you have to let me help you, be there for you. Don't do this, please." He was crying silently and seemed to know she wasn't going to change her mind.
"It's over, Mave; go have your college experiences, and maybe when this is all over, we'll get back together."
Maverick was one of a set of triplets, and his sisters, Raven and Jynx, were identical twins. Their parents had thought they were having fraternal twins, Maverick and Raven, until the seventh month when Jynx finally showed up on the ultrasound. The girls were cuddled so close together there were concerns they were conjoined. Their mom went into labour early and gave birth to Maverick on August 13th, at 11:48 PM, in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, but had to have an emergency c-section to have Raven and Jynx, so they were born at 12:15 AM on August 14th.
While Antonia and Maverick were dating, she became very close to Raven and Jnyx, so much so that the running joke became that she was the third triplet. When she ended it with Maverick, she stepped back from their friendship, only for them to come pounding on her door at midnight after two weeks, scolding her. They agreed to keep their relationship with her separate from their relationship with their brother when she explained it was too painful to stay friends with Mave but not be with him. Jynx, who was more vocal about the whole mess, had only stopped when Maverick started dating someone else and asked her to please drop it out of respect for him and his new girlfriend. Antonia, for her part, just asked that they stop updating her on his life.
Antonia's mom succumbed to her breast cancer after a two-year battle, leaving Antonia her Wiccan supply store and the house. Raven got her BA in Fashion Design from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Jynx got hers in Fashion Merchandising from Bay State College and they came back to open a store selling their designs in Salem, next to Antonia's store. Antonia dropped the idea of going to Juilliard altogether, stopped playing the cello, and instead did online courses in business management and accounting. Running a Wiccan supply store in Salem, Massachusetts, brought in enough cash to live quite comfortably.
The triplet's father passed away from a heart attack when they were 27, and their mom left to move to Arizona six months later with her "new" boyfriend, something they think their father knew about since he left the family home to them and Maverick in his will. That was the last time she saw Maverick; he had come home with his new fiancee and asked to speak to her alone after the funeral.
"I'm sorry, Toni, she doesn't want me to have any contact with you... so if you could just stay away, I'll only be here a few more days." His face was a mixture of shame and embarrassment, and Antonia nodded.
"I get it, Mave, I do. How are you gonna explain me not being here for Jynx and Raven?" She folded her arms and watched as he looked over at his sisters nervously.
"I was hoping you'd make an excuse..." He trailed off when he saw the look on her face.
"No. You're gonna tell them, and you're gonna tell them the truth because if they ask me, I will." Antonia glared at him. "And since that's the girl who was naked in your bed, I no longer believe you didn't cheat."
"No, I - We got together after everything happened. She was helping me deal with your breaking up with me, and she was there for me, and things happened. I swear, we never did anything before"." He reached for her hand, and she pulled away from him. "
"Whatever, Maverick." Antonia shook her head. "I hope you're very happy with her."
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