The next day brought with it a monster of a headache. It felt like someone had placed an ice pick behind my eye and was pounding on it with a hammer every couple of seconds. I was parched, but I woke up to a water bottle on my nightstand. I downed the bottle in seconds.
I remembered more of last night than I thought I would.
We went to a party, I became friends with Asher, I got his number, I danced, and then... we came home.
It was like something out of a princess movie. A beautiful glittering night that made me feel like I might be normal, and it might be okay... and then I switched back into a broken girl in the blink of an eye.
I felt my heart squeeze in pain. Unwanted. He wouldn't want me as a friend, not once he really knew me. Nobody really knew me.
Heat flushed across my face and body suddenly, and I threw my blanket off of myself, needing air. My stomach constricted a couple times and I let out a groan. What was happening?
I got out of bed and ran to the bathroom, acting entirely on instinct, before throwing up in the toilet. I sat on the cold tile floor and shivered until I threw up again, and then once more a little bit. Tears tumbled over my cheeks without my control at the sheer odiousness of the moment. I was never going to drink again.
I waited by the toilet for another minute, but I was already beginning to feel better. I stood up and turned on the sink faucet before swishing some water in my mouth and then spitting. Disgusting.
Surprisingly, the heat had abated, and the constricting had stopped. Was it just the alcohol? I was just glad to have it out of my system. I paused in my room to make sure it wasn't coming back, and then I went downstairs. I heard whispers in the kitchen, but I turned to go into the living room instead. I wasn't exactly hungry after the morning I had.
"Hi, Damon." I said as I walked into the living room and saw him watching a football game.
"Hey, sweetheart." He said in that distinctly Damon way of his. "You doing alright?" he asked as I sat on the couch beside him.
"I'm fine." I replied, stretching out the word as I wrapped my arms around my knees. I wasn't feeling good, but I wasn't going to tell him I was feeling awful. As it turned out, I didn't have to.
"What's wrong?" he asked, giving me a knowing look.
I contemplated lying or brushing his concern off, but then it struck me that Damon was concerned. Or at least, acting like he was. He gave me his full attention as I thought about answering. Silence abruptly filled the room and I turned, perplexed, to the now muted TV.
"Okay." I croaked in a small voice. "I made you mad at me last night. And Dominic, too. And I threw up this morning but that's a whole other thing."
"Well, throwing up should have helped, huh?" he asked in a gentle way that I hadn't really seen in him before.
I nodded. It really had.
"And as for Dominic, I can't know what he's feeling, but I'm sure he'll get over it." He explained, rubbing his stubbled chin with one hand.
"And you?" I asked, playing with my hands.
It was quiet for a second, so I looked up to see little crinkles around his eyes. He was happy?
"I'm sorry I got angry last night, baby. I saw you and a boy, and you were very clearly drunk. I assumed he gave you something to drink and you accepted, not knowing what it was. I didn't know where Asher was or what had happened. I was just scared." He said, icy eyes clear like glass. He shrugged his shoulders as if embarrassed.
"You were scared?" I asked in wonder. He chuckled and nodded his head, a little shamefully.
"Yes, I was. And fear doesn't make me strong or weak. It makes me angry." He divulged, and finally, I started to understand him better. "Ever since I was a kid."
"Is that why you were so mad at me when I first got here?" I asked, perking up at this new understanding. "That was definitely a part of it." He said, flicking me on the nose, playfully.
"And the other part?" I asked, uncurling my body and leaning closer to him eagerly.
"How about the fact that you're too curious?" he teased.
"It wasn't that!" I protested, crossing my arms over my chest and looking away as if I was mad.
He grabbed my chin and forced my face back to his, to make me laugh. It worked, and he smiled in response to me cracking up. He spoke then, saying "Fine. It wasn't that."
"Can you tell me what it was?" I asked, worrying I was overstepping some boundary yet again.
"I'll tell you what it was," he said, putting one hand up as he saw my smile grow wide. "But not yet, if that's okay."
I resisted the urge to demand more information due to the fact that Damon asked if something was okay with me. Why was he acting so different today?
"You seem off today, Damon." I said, looking at him with concern. Where was the fast-talking confident guy that barely gave me the time of day?
"I feel a little different." He agreed in a gravelly voice that cracked, with a shrug.
"How so?" I asked. I tried not to smile at the change in his voice.
He let out a sigh and then looked up at me, with what appeared to be remorse in his eyes.
"I haven't been the nicest to you, Maya." He said, before biting his lip as if he hated what he was saying.
"You haven't been the meanest either." I teased weakly, shrinking in on myself a little. I couldn't lie. I couldn't tell him something just to make him happy.
"You don't have to say anything to this," he said with a laugh. Then he shook his head as if to wake himself up.
"If Asher Kelly can apologize, I can." He whispered to himself. He glanced up and met my gaze and then said, "I'm sorry."
"You don't-" I protested.
He smiled and then continued. "I am so sorry Maya. I was rude to you and mean to you and have scared you far more than you deserved to be scared. I don't want you to be afraid of me, ever." He said genuinely.
"I'm not scared!" I scoffed because the sweet sentiment of the apology was too much feeling for me to confront.
"I like that about you, kid." He said grinning in the way he always did, only it didn't look so frightening anymore.
"I've been holding you back from being a part of this family because I was scared to have a new member of the family... another person to place trust in when I already give it out so infrequently." He said. "I don't want to do that anymore. When I saw you with that boy, I was mad, because I care about you. You're like a sister to me, only I wasn't letting myself feel that."
I nodded. I understood all too well the feeling of wanting to keep emotions out. They had the power to do so much damage, sometimes the best parts of them didn't seem worth it.
"I appreciate that Damon," I said. "But what are you trying to say?"
"Charlotte asked us a while ago if it would be okay with us if she adopted you. I'm so sorry it took me this long to say yes." He said, blue eyes burning with sorrow. There was a smile on his face as he called Dominic, Brooks, Caleb, and Charlotte out from the kitchen.
"Wh-what?" I asked in complete surprise as they gathered around me. I looked at Charlotte, who wrapped her arms around my shoulders from behind. I saw Caleb bouncing with excitement, hands clenched tightly together as if he was ready to break into applause. Brooks' mouth was wide with a grin, and Dominic gave me a nod as if to tell me it was real. They really wanted me.
"Will you join our family, Maya?" Charlotte asked as she came around and sat by my side. She grabbed my hand, and with all the love of a real mother she brushed a strand of hair from my face.
I looked at Damon, confused. Were they listening the whole time? He seemed to guess what I was trying to ask him.
"I told them I needed to apologize to you first." He said. "But what do you think? Will you be my sister, for real?" he asked, with a smirk that was so much more nervous than sure.
I had no words to express the complete joy I felt at that moment. Warmth surrounded me as it had every time I was in the presence of this kind and close-knit family. Tears spilled down my cheeks as I realized that they really wanted me, mistakes and quirks and fear and all.
"Maya! What do you think?" Caleb demanded, still shaking with excitement.
"We need you," Brooks said, shrugging bashfully.
"You're our sister already. But can we make it official?" Dominic asked.
I opened my mouth and we all seemed to suspend in the universe for one anticipation-filled second.
And then I told my family everything that my heart had never let itself fully feel. The walls that had guarded me crumbled to the ground, washed away by the blue of Charlotte's kind eyes and the strength of these boys' love.
"Yes," I said happily. "I would absolutely love to be a part of your family."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
End of Book 1.
Book 2 "The Survivor" and Book 3 "Maya" are up on my profile! More of the boys, Maya, and a little bit more drama and danger coming soon 👀