Page 41 of The Pushy Pixies Are Going Down
I’d reached out.
Many times.
I’d called, I’d texted, and I’d called again.
And every single olive branch had gone unanswered.
I’d been completely ignored. As if I’d never existed at all.
I’d felt like a ghost in my own life.
I’d felt like trash thrown away and forgotten.
Lyric had been the only thing that’d kept me sane, that’d kept me from falling into a deep depression.
Magnolia sat down and stared at me for a long moment as I stared back. It seemed like she wanted me to say something, butI wasn’t the one who’d called this meeting, and I wasn’t the one who’d brushed her off in the first place. I wasn’t going to make this easy for her when it was so hard for me.
Finally, she cleared her throat and spoke. “It’s so good to see you. You look really great.” She turned toward Miles and held out a hand to shake. “I’m Magnolia, or Maggie for short. You must be Win’s boyfriend?”
Miles stared at her hand, but his right one was holding tight to me, and I absolutely didn’t want him to let go. He said, “Yes, I’m his boyfriend. Miles.” He didn’t release my hand, but he gave her a small nod.
Our clasped hands were on the table, and Maggie glanced at them before dropping her hand and pulling it back into her lap, looking awkward. I couldn’t tell how she felt about me holding my boyfriend’s hand so openly in public, but I wasn’t about to hide it or be ashamed. I was proud of who I was. Proud to be with Miles.
If she didn’t like it, too fucking bad.
She swallowed loud enough I heard it across the table and said, “How have you been? What have you been up to?”
I blinked at that, and a strangled bark of laughter came out of me. “Do you really want me to go over how I’ve been for the last thirteen years, Mags?Thirteen years.You haven’t spoken to me, haven’t checked on me, haven’t sent a single fucking text since I got arrested. You want to know how I’ve been?”
I leaned forward and kept going. “Well, I went to prison, and I don’t think I have to tell you how shit that experience was.” She winced at that, but I didn’t care. I kept going. “I got out, and my entire family—including you—turned their backs on me. Not a single one of you even answered my texts or checked to make sure I had, I dunno, a place to live. Food to eat. Nothing. None of you gave a single fuck about me. The only person who caredwas Lyric. They’re the only one who came to see me when I was locked up and the only one who helped me when I got out.
“Did you know I had to crash on their couch for months after I was released because I had nowhere else to go? No one would hire me, so they just… let me stay with them. For as long as I needed.
“I worked a job I hated for over a decade, and then I met an amazing man who not only hired me but finally made me feel like I have a home.” My voice broke on that last word, and I hated that I’d let that much emotion slip out. “I finally have people who care about me, and then you had to text me out of the blue after ghosting me for thirteen fucking years. So yeah, Mags, I’ve been better.”
She winced at that last bit, and after several seconds, she muttered a small, “I’m sorry.”
I scoffed. “Sorry? You’re sorry? Yeah, okay. You’re sorry for abandoning your brother. Great. Apology not accepted.”
Miles squeezed my hand, and I looked at him, taking a breath and trying to calm down again. I watched him watching me for several heartbeats, and seeing him helped me slowly relax. He didn’t wince away from what I was sure was pain written all over my face. The hurt of thirteen years of abandonment by my family. He looked, and I let him, and all I really wanted was to crawl into his lap and let him hold me until this pain receded a little.
I heard Magnolia take a deep breath before she started speaking again, turning my attention back to her. “I know I fucked up, Win. I know I did, and I’m so sorry about that. I… I let Mom and Dad get into my head, and I just…” She shook her head and inhaled again. “I… I’ve been wanting to reach out to you for a long time. Nash has been encouraging me to do it for the last year, and I finally got up the courage to yesterday. I just…”
After a second, I asked, “Who’s Nash?”
“My… my fiancé.”
That made me suck in a breath. Fiancé? Maggie was getting married? “You’re getting married?”
She nodded. “I am, and I… I want you to be there. I’ve been trying to picture my wedding day, and I just… every time, all I could think about was you and how we used to dream about our weddings when we were kids. We even had that wedding book, do you remember?”
I could feel Miles’s eyes on me as I nodded. “Yeah, I remember.” My voice was quiet, just a whisper. I’d forgotten about that silly wedding book. Well, maybe it was more like I’d purposefully not thought about it.
It’d been something that Maggie and I had bonded over when we were young, so I hadn’t wanted to remember because it always made me think of her. And that had… hurt.
She sent me a sad smile. “I miss you, Winter. I’ve missed you since the moment I turned my back on you, and I know there’s nothing I can say to make up for what I did to you. But I’m hoping we can try to… form a relationship again and move forward from here.”
I stared at her for a long time, holding onto Miles for dear life. “What about Mom and Dad?”
