Page 9 of Dear Future Husband (The Dearly Written #1)

It was scary thinking I might risk him seeing too much.

Absolutely terrifying thinking I might reveal too many of the collected shards that made up the shattered bits of my damaged being.

But I couldn’t quite care at the moment.

My chaotic thoughts and heart were in an orbit that revolved around Trey’s all-seeing green eyes.

And the feelings they fluttered to life in my usually numb spirit.

Instead of running, instead of shying away from his exhilarating words and piercing focus, I forced myself to speak. “You don’t look so bad yourself.”

Trey’s dimples framed the wide grin he so graciously gifted me. “You’re coming tonight, right? You’re not staying home to read your books?” he asked, taking a step closer and my heart threatened to quit on me.

“Well, I can’t miss karaoke, now, can I?” I teased, my confidence and voice wavering.

Trey’s head tilted back with a laugh. “Nope, you really can’t. The world needs to be blessed with a talent like yours.”

Gosh, I was doing it. I was conversing and not entirely failing. Still feeling a tad unsure of myself, I bit the inside of my cheek, suppressing a scoff at Trey’s comment. I let my eyes wander to find Liam readying for a group picture with the same team of girls from before.

“I won’t hold you hostage in the corner. You better get over there or you’ll miss out on the picture.” I waved a hand to where my brother was now drawing up a larger crowd of students for a group photo.

Trey didn’t follow my gesture. He stared at me, unperturbed, before reaching out and grasping one of my stray curls. His hand briefly brushed the exposed skin of my shoulder as he wound the golden tuft around his finger.

“You’re never allowed to wear your hair up ever again,” he said, just for me to hear.

My brows knitted together. “What—why?”

He shook his head and gently tugged on the curl intertwined with his fingers. The action made me rid us of more of the distance. I was nearly touching him now, with only my arms full of my cap, gown and small purse keeping the space.

What was he doing?

I barely existed to him before this week, so why was he talking to me like this, looking at me like that, touching me? This had to be a game, a joke, maybe even a dare.

Had he found out I’d never been kissed? Did he like the challenge in that?

There had to be an ulterior motive because Trey Turner couldn’t look at me, a ghost, like this and mean it. With that heart-breaking thought, I was eager to run, hide, crawl behind my safe, and usually impenetrable walls.

I didn’t give him the chance to explain. Pitifully, I reached up and retrieved my curl from his fingers. “I better go help set up.”

His brows furrowed at the excuse, and he moved like he would object or even pull me back. But Liam was a perfectly timed interruption.

“You ready to go help with the rest of setup, May? I think they want to start soon.”

I nodded, returning the much-needed distance between me and Trey. I didn’t turn back when Liam asked Trey, “You coming? I bet there isn’t much left to put up.”

Pause.

There was a pause, and it was enough to tempt me to sneak one peek back over my shoulder to see Trey’s eyes were glued to me. Again, those green eyes saw too much. I had no doubt those eyes saw the puny shreds of my soul I so cautiously stuffed behind the walls of my stoned, beaten heart.

Then why look at me like that, like there was something other than a wretched apparition of a girl festering beneath my skin?

“Nah, you guys go ahead. I’ll catch up with you after the ceremony.” He returned to his spot, slouched against the wall. And I walked away feeling like his stare was tunnelling through my not so stable, self-erected walls.

Liam and I helped with the rest of the setup, not that there was much else to do like he had predicted. Afterwards, we found our positions and within the hour, the ceremony commenced.

I pulled on my blue robe, already suffering from the itchiness of the fabric on my neck and shoulders.

Liam helped me pin my cap onto the top of my curls.

The speeches were brief. Which I, and probably many others in the audience, thoroughly appreciated.

Soon after the speeches were given, the main faculty called out the graduating students’ names in alphabetical order.

I quickly found myself just behind Liam, patiently waiting for his name and then mine to be announced over the speakers. I wasn’t nervous or anxious as I anticipated my name over the loudspeaker.

Once upon a time, I’d been very comfortable in front of an audience.

Performing the sport I loved under the pressure of cheering fans and booing opponents.

This short trek across the stage would be a cakewalk by comparison.

On the other hand, I had to push away the feelings of contrition that crawled up my throat as I recalled such moments.

Liam’s name ricocheted through my skull over the nearby speakers and the crowd went nuts. My brother strutted across the stage. He proudly shook hands with the representing faculty and accepted his diploma.

But he didn’t stop there. No, Liam would not be so basic. Topping off the strut, he stopped at the end of the stage and threw himself into a perfectly executed back flip.

The audience erupted into shouts, screams, and whistles. The boisterous excitement perfectly timed with the announcement of “Maybelle Mason”. Allowing me to cross the platform, shake hands, accept my diploma and exit the stage past a bowing Liam before any cheers or claps could be meant for me.

Started out Harbor High invisible and ended entirely non-existent.

Again, a rush of memory hit me, but this time I couldn’t ignore the twinge of disappointment in myself.

I thought back to when I was the captain of the basketball team, and a friend to all.

The young, innocent girl with big dreams and a lot less baggage.

I was different now and for the first time in a long time, the realization made me sick to my stomach.

Liam finally found his way back and dropped into the seat next to me.

“They called you? I didn’t hear!”

I shrugged, letting him have his moment. “It’s hard to hear up there. I barely heard it.”

Liam accepted the excuse with a nod, then leaned into me and whisper-yelled above the cheering, “I’m real proud of us, May.”

I twisted to peer up at my brother’s smiling, sapphire eyes.

We may have struggled to talk about the important things with one another, but in the silences like this, there was so much said.

In his look was the same relief and hope I’d seen from him the day we moved to San Francisco.

He wore the same look he had on our first day of school and the day we filed the restraining order against Richard.

Each moment was one we didn’t think we would survive to see. Days we thought would never come to pass because we had been stuck. Locked away and hurt. Not anymore. We were safe.

I just wished I could get my mind, heart and body to understand—to believe in that fact.

Smiling, I nudged my twin. “The back flip was cool.” Liam beamed, draping an arm around the back of my seat as they continued to call names.

Trey’s name was next in line to be called and Liam dipped over to say, “Trey said he would do a flip too.” And that he did.

But while Liam sauntered swiftly, Trey swaggered gracefully.

He shook the hand of each teacher as he mouthed “thank you”.

He paused with Principal Nobly, a short pudgy woman in her early sixties.

He accepted his diploma from her. Instead of shaking her hand like the rest of the students, he grasped it and planted a smacking kiss to the tops of her age-worn knuckles.

Then he winked before throwing himself into a quick cartwheel followed with a fluid back flip that he landed with ease.

Liam shot to his feet like a proud mother as he put all his pride for his best friend into his applause. “THAT’S MY BOY!” he hollered above the crowd.

The bromance was strong with these two. If they didn’t inevitably marry each other, their future partners had better be ready for a lifetime of third wheeling.

Soon after, the ceremony concluded with us graduates tossing our caps into the air, the graduates and audience filtered out of the auditorium together. Friends and family met to exchange flowers and take pictures to look back on and remember this monumental night.

Liam and I walked out, side by side, to find our mom just outside in the hall.

As soon as we were within reach, mom pulled us into a crushing hug.

“Ah, I am so proud of you both! My graduates!” When she pulled away, she placed both of her hands on each of our cheeks.

“I am so, so proud,” she repeated, this time with a lot more emotion written in her words and face.

We both leaned into our mother’s touch as tears lined her eyes. “Alright,” Mom said, stepping back to fan her face with a flapping hand. “Let’s get some pictures of you two. Do you have any friends you want to grab a picture with?”

Liam pulled me in with one arm to pose for the picture. I shook my head in answer to her question while Liam nodded. “Yeah, just a quick one with Trey and a few of the guys from the team.”

Nodding, Mom held up a digital camera, prepped and ready to snap the picture. “Okay, say cheese!”

Liam obeyed as he grasped me in tight, plastering on a cheesy grin while I hugged him back and smiled. The camera flashed. Before we could recover our eyesight from the light, two muscled arms wrapped around our shoulders.

“It’s not a family picture without me.”

I knew that voice, but I still peered back over my shoulder to be met with Trey’s green eyes and dazzling dimples. I immediately whipped forward before awe could overcome me.

“Here, let me get out of your picture,” I blurted, trying to twist out from under Trey’s arm.

He removed his arm from my shoulder only to grab me by the back of the dress and gown, tugging me backward so I pressed firmly into his side.

He roped his arm through the back of my open gown, laying his arm in the space between the navy-blue robe and my thin, pale blue dress. His hand, now hidden, gripped the fabric of my dress at the opposite hip, pulling me taut against him.

The screaming of panic and excitement that roared in my head wasn’t in English or made of any actual words.

In my stress, I glanced over to see if Liam or my mom had witnessed the spectacle.

Liam was oblivious as he exchanged a quick “hello” with a passing football parent.

But Mom’s face tilted to the floor as she hid what looked to be laughter.

Trey’s cheek was a light pressure against my hair while his lips radiated a heat next to my ear. “You really need to stop running away from me, May,” he said.

I stared up at him, absolutely baffled.

“Okay, you three, big smiles!” Mom announced before I could respond. My face must’ve disobeyed the melted putty I had for a brain, as I willed a smile to form, because my mom lowered the camera.

“Lovebug, smile for real please!”

I did everything I could not to target my lovely mother with a feral death glare .

Trey’s fingers that gripped the fabric of my dress now traced up my waist and slowly stopped. I held my breath. Then they pressed into a sensitive area on my rib cage that sent me wriggling like a floppy fish.

A defiant smile pulled at my lips as I threw an elbow at his stomach. He didn’t flinch from the blow, but he threw his head back with laughter as I continued to squirm from his tickling.

“Maybelle, you good? Just smile so we can take the picture,” Liam lectured.

I glared up at Trey, who stared forward with a boyish grin teasing his lips. Reluctantly, I faced the camera and smiled as I watched my mom smirk behind the flash.