Page 100 of Forever Always

I stood on my tiptoes to kiss him again.

“I love you.”

He smiled softly. “Love you too, butterfly. Go on now. I’ll see you later.”

It was a few hours later and we were all around the fire pit, drinking and eating all the awesome food. It had been an amazing time. I never thought I’d have something like this, something so normal. Sure, I knew these weren’t normal guys, but it didn’t feel like that when we all hung out like this. I felt like I belonged.

Wesley came and sat down in the chair next to the lounger Beckett and I were sharing. “I have an update on Michael.” He refused to call Michael our dad, and I honestly didn’t blame him.

Becks stiffened behind me, and I squeezed his thigh in support. We hadn’t seen Michael since the day he’d broken into the apartment. We had tried to stop by his boarding house, but he hadn’t been there and no one had seen him in a while. Beckett tried to act like he didn’t care, but he was worried. It was why Wesley had offered to put some feelers out to find him.

“What happened?” I asked when Beckett still didn’t speak.

“He’s in jail. He got picked up about a while back, trying to rob a liquor store. He had an unregistered gun on him and enough drugs that they could hit him with dealing. He’s going to be away for a while.”

“That’s good, right?” I was still looking toward Wesley, but the question was geared to Beckett. It felt good. Who knew, maybe he’d even manage to get cleaned up in prison.

Beckett nuzzled my neck. “Yeah, butterfly, that’s really good.”

Wesley shifted and took a sip of his beer. “There’s something else. We talked to Mr. Chase’s other victims. The ones we knew about. They know he’s gone.”

My chest expanded. It was one of our worries, that all those other poor kids would always be looking over their shoulders, wondering if their monster was gonna come back and haunt them. I wanted them to have the closure we did.

“Thank you.” Becks’s voice was breathy, like he couldn’t quite believe it.

“You don’t have to thank me for that, but you’re welcome anyway.”

We fell into silence after that, and eventually I went back to snuggling with Becks. Jay and Mav were playing horseshoes on the other side of the yard. Dakota was sitting in an oversized lawn chair, sipped some pink fruity drink and was deep in conversation with Luca. Wesley had gotten up and gone inside with the two other guys, Brooks and Diego.

I was dozing off when Skye came and sat on the edge of our lounger. “Hey,” Beckett greeted sleepily.

“Hey. Are you still coming to training tomorrow?"

Becks made an agreeable sound. “Yeah. I work till 6 so after that?”

“Sounds good.” Skye looked toward me. “Don’t forget to send me your school schedule and we can work out something around it.”

“Thanks, Skye.”

He got serious again. “Have you two thought about what I said?” The other day, Skye had brought up the topic of therapy again. Wes had tried right after everything had happened, but we’d immediately shut it down. So apparently, the new approach was to have Skye constantly drop it into casual conversation and talk about his own therapy until we caved. It was starting to work.

“We’re thinkin’ about it,” I told him honestly. And we were. Or at least, I was. I wasn’t sure Beckett was there yet. Logically, we both knew Mr. Chase was the exception, but it wasn’t as easy as that.

“That’s all I ask,” Sky said sincerely. “No pressure.” He left after that.

Becks kissed my nose. “You know I won’t be mad if you decide you want to go.”

I sighed. “I know. I’m just not sure yet.”

“That’s okay. Whatever you choose, I’m here for you.”

I closed my eyes, breathin’ in Beckett’s typical scent that was now mixed with sweat from bein’ outside all day and the smoke from the fire.

“Forever?” I asked with a small smile on my face.

He smiled back. “Always, butterfly.”

-The End-

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