Page 30 of Brandishing Beginnings

Nico:

I’m sorry if I hurt you. It was never my intention.

Maya:

Yes, it was.

I sucked in a breath. I hadn’t expected her to respond at all. I looked at my own text messages to see if Nico had texted her in the group chat or not, only to be disappointed that he hadn’t. Not that it really mattered, we all had to apologize to her, because we had all fucked up.

No time like the present, I thought and opened a new chat for Maya.

Jason:

I’m so sorry, darlin’. I know we fucked up with the skanks. It was stupid and petty. We were jealous that you started seeing someone else and wouldn’t mess around with us this last week. It hurt and we lashed out. That’s on us. I deeply regret that our petty actions hurtyou today.

I paced the room, breathing hard. It wasn’t like me to apologize to a woman. I never cared enough before to feel the need to. My chest was tight as I thought of all the ways I had hurt Maya today—how hurting her had fucking hurt myself in return. I’d never felt like that before.

“Anything?” I asked Nico.

“No,” he muttered, clenching his phone.

A moment later we both looked at our phones as they beeped with an incoming text: the group chat.

Maya:

The fact that you guys pulled some high school fucking bullshit and invited skanks to your mother’s fucking funeral, all because I wouldn’t fool around with you this week, tells me more about your character than I ever needed to know. Please stop texting me. Whatever we had is over. It shouldn’t have gone further than a one-night stand. I don’t believe in cheating. It’s a hard no for me, and a huge red flag that you three have zero issue with it. I’m no longer interested in pursuing anything further with the three of you. If you see me with Kara, please leave me the fuck alone.

I sucked in a breath and stumbled to the couch as my knees buckled beneath me.

“What the fuck did you guys say to her?” Marcos’s voice a gravelly growl as he stalked into the living room.

“We tried to apologize,” I muttered.

Marcos barreled into me, his fist swinging and catching me in the mouth before I could even react. I leaned back into the couch as Marcos snatched up my phone. He read the texts I had sent Maya before she responded to the group chat and shook his head in disgust, but his anger deflated slightly.

Nico handed Marcos his own phone and waited while Marcos also read Nico’s messages to Maya.

Marcos sighed and tossed Nico his phone back before he collapsed onto the couch next to me.

Despair and anguish settled around us. There was nothing more we could do, but respect her wishes.

Maya

ThemonthsfollowingLita’sfuneral were both long and yet fast as the seasons changed from winter to spring. I hadn’t heard from the guys since then. I had spent Christmas in Chicago with my sister and my sister’s new boyfriend, while Kara had eventually gone home for Christmas.

We had texted during break, and Kara admitted to going off on her brother and the guys again. I told her not to worry about it, and leave it be. The last thing I wanted was some fling coming between me and Kara—our friendship was too important to me.

For spring break, Kara, me, and all of our friends—Hunter included—had gone down to Panama City, Florida for all the springbreak shenanigans. It was my last year of school and I had wanted to go out with a bang.

It had been a blast, and every day I took advantage of living in the moment with my best friends. Whoever said high school was the best years of your life never went to college, because my senior year was everything I had hoped for and more.

By the time Graduation rolled around, a sense of melancholy settled over me. Everything was changing, our little crew of friends would all be headed in different directions. Terri would head to her parents’ new home in Florida and Maya would have to move back in with her parents in Mourningside.

Stephanie and Kara still had two years left of undergrad before both were headed onto more schooling. Karma had graduated the year before, while Arturo was graduating from the architect program. Hunter was heading to the west coast for med school, while Kyle and Travis headed east.

Our little group was breaking up—and so did Hunter and I. I had done it last night, but Hunter hadn’t been blindsided by it. The two of us were never serious, though we had agreed to be exclusive, we knew we didn’t have a future. We agreed to be friends, and weren’t going to stop hanging out just because we were no longer fucking.

The mature relationship I had with Hunter meant the world to me. The way we could talk about things and be comfortable about our time together, gave me hope for the future. We might not havebeen each other’s happily-ever-after, but we weren’t each other’s worst nightmares either.

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