Page 2 of How We Loved

I glance at my mom, then my dad, who are both just sitting there, staring at us.

“I have a big favor to ask of you,” Jessica says, bringing my attention back to her.

I stare at her, clueless as to how to respond.

What could she want from me? I’m just a kid.

“When I’m gone,” she begins, her voice so soft, and it seems like every syllable hurts her to say.

The sound of my mom gasping, then covering her mouth to try to stop the sobs that are escaping makes us all look at her.

Jessica gives her a slight grin, then turns back to me and starts over. “When I’m gone, I need for you to watch over Maya. Tim will have his hands full with her. She’s so sweet and innocent. She’ll need a guy like you to protect her.” She pauses, opens her eyes a little wider, and grips my hand with both of hers. “Will you do that for me? Will you watch over her and protect her as you guys grow up?”

As the weight of what she’s asking me comes down on my shoulders, I nod, fully understanding now what it’s going to be like when she’s gone. Maya will only have her dad. That’s it. And now, her mom is asking me to be that other person in her life.

Her eyes soften. “Promise?”

I nod even more. “I promise. I’ll protect her.”

An even louder sob escapes from my mom’s lips as she rushes over and hugs me.

With Jessica still holding my hand and my mom wrapped around me, for the first time, I get what it’s like to be a man—a man who is meant to protect the people they love. My dad’s talked about how he’s raising me so I’ll be the man of the house one day, but I didn’t fully get it until now.

My mom pulls back and places her hands on my cheeks. “You’re such an amazing kid—you know that?” She kisses my forehead.

Maya comes back in the room and walks straight up to me with a cup of hot chocolate. She glances around, noticing something is different in the air. My mom and Jessica are quick to wipe their eyes, trying to hide what was just going on.

“What did I miss?” Maya asks in her sweet voice as I take the cup from her.

“Nothing.” I take a sip of the hot chocolate.

It’s obvious Jessica doesn’t want Maya to know that she just asked me to look after her. If she wants it that way, then I’m happy to keep her secret.

We spend the next few hours sitting in Jessica’s room with Maya curled up in her mom’s bed and me just sitting against the wall, completely confused about the entire situation and death in general.

I must have fallen asleep because the sound of machines beeping and people entering into the room wake me with a sudden jolt.

My dad rushes to my side, guiding me outside. “Wait here,” he says before walking back into the room.

My mind feels like it’s racing a thousand miles per second, yet I can’t think at all.

What’s going on? Why was I asked to stand out here?

More nurses rush in, so I try to peek over their shoulders to get a glimpse of what’s going on in the room.

Maya, who is pressed against the wall, looking pale as a ghost, catches my eye. Once she sees me staring at her just before the door closes, she runs toward me, swinging the door back open. She races into my arms, holding me as tight as her tiny body can as she cries into my chest.

I wrap my arms around her, feeling the weight of what Jessica was asking of me. I promised Jessica I would protect Maya, and as I stand here, I know that’s my new mission in life—to help take her pain away and make sure she never feels like this again.

CHAPTER ONE

Maya

I wipe my eyes for the tenth time in just a few minutes. Normally, I sit at the back of these fifty-yard-line huddles with the rest of the cheerleaders while the coach talks to the players and parents about the game, but tonight, Ben made sure to find me and bring me next to him before it began.

The last football game of the year is always emotional, but our senior year makes this little meeting monumental pertaining to the last four years here at this school. We lost last week by one touchdown, which took us out of the running for the playoffs. Though we won tonight, our fate had already been set in stone, and our season is over.

Missing the playoffs by one game just makes it sting that much more. In years past, we continued to play into November, but this year, our Friday night lights are officially done, and it feels like the end of an era.

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