Chapter One

Chapter One:

Rosie Mae's POV

"You're going to like him. Don't be so nervous, baby." Blake says to me with a reassuring smile before returning his attention to the food in front of him.

I had been dating blake for almost a year now. Things seemed to be perfect. There isn't a logical complaint that I could make about the relationship. Blake only wanted to make me happy and he made that clear to me every day.

A few months into our relationship, I met his parents who were wonderful. His mom's a nurse and his dad's a lawyer. They lived in a nice and loving home. It was something I was jealous of, I can't lie. Being that my dad left when I was little, leaving just me, my sister and my mom...I never experienced a home like that.

My mom began to struggle with addiction soon after my dad left, leaving my older sister Ally to look after me. Ever since, it's been a never ending story of, "I'm going to get clean." "I have a meeting tomorrow." "This time I'm really doing it."

At some point, ally and I stopped listening and stopped believing. It was an unsaid thing, the relationship we had with our mom just slowly faded without a word.

Blake's house became somewhat of a safe space for me. A home away from home. Sometimes I even liked to pretend that my house was the place I was visiting, not Blake's and his parents were my parents instead of my absent mother.

"I'm worried about him liking me." I tell Blake. "I don't want your brother to hate me or something."

"Why would he hate you?" He asked me with a laugh, clearly amused by my worried expression. "He's kind of standoffish anyway. He will either like you or not care that I have a girlfriend."

Blake's brother Eric is coming home from college for winter break in just a few days. I really just wanted everyone in his family to like me. His brother was the last person in his immediate family that I had to meet. I had heard stories about his attitude problem, and his trouble making ways. I wouldn't be surprised if he immediately hated me for no reason at all. Though I wasn't going to make hating me easy for him either.

"Oh my gosh" Faith said as she sat down at the lunch table across from Blake and I. "Are you talking about Eric again?!" Her eyes lit up at the thought. "What I would do to get my hands on that man."

Blake gave a look of disgust. "He's only here for the break and no, Faith...you can't come over and hit on him. Besides, he's twenty two...he's not interested in a senior in high school."

She rolled her eyes and mumbled, "you never know..."

"I do know." He corrected her, taking a bite of his sandwich.

Faith was notorious for jumping from guy to guy. She was definitely what you'd call boy crazy. As much as I tell her to either get into a relationship or stay single, she doesn't want to listen. But Blake was right, there was no way some college guy would go for a high schooler. Faith was jailbait. She knows it. She loves it.

Faith and I were also polar opposites. Her being sultry, charming, and absolutely gorgeous...whereas I'm shy, to myself, and blend into a crowd no matter how hard I try not to. For some reason we just clicked when sat next to each other in class our freshman year. We weren't like most high school friendships that are drama filled, never wavering our love and trust in one another.

In a lot of ways, she was also my safe space.

"He can totally get us into college parties though." Faith stated as she began digging into her food, flipping her blond hair over her shoulder, out of the way. "Rosie and I really want to go to one. I hear they're so much better than our lame high school ones." She scoffs with a shake of her head at the thought.

I nodded in agreement. "Yeah, you said he likes to party." I said to Blake

"He doesn't party like you'd think." Blake tells the two girls, pausing his eating. "When I say Eric is crazy, I mean he's actually crazy." He huffs and glances around as if to make sure no one is listening in. As if anyone really cares what we have to talk about. "He's been to jail multiple times. He was in a mental institution for a year in high sch-"

"What for?!" Faith asked, eyes wide and suddenly caring about what Blake his saying.

He seemed to be in thought for a moment, as if contemplating rather or not to answer the question. When he did, it was not what either of us were expecting. "When he was seventeen, he got into a really bad fight." He stopped telling the story for a moment to say, "don't tell anyone this. Especially Eric. He'd be pissed if he knew I told anyone."

Faith and I exchanged a glance, wondering how bad it could really be. I'm sure she figured it was for a mental disorder just like I did. That wasn't crazy to them. Lots of people battled with mental illnesses and it wasn't something they found anyone should be ashamed of.

"So he got into a really bad fight" Blake continued. "Eric knocked the guy out but no one could get him to stop hitting him even after he was unconscious. The guy had such bad injuries that first, the guys parents pressed charges against him and then the court ruled it to be an attempted murder. If Eric had threw just a few more punches, the kid could've been dead."

The story was scary within itself, but the thought of someone getting that angry was scarier.

"But Eric was seventeen and did show remorse so they admitted him to a mental institution instead of jail or anything else." Blake finished the story. "He's not the greatest person, okay? He thrives in being in bad situations. I'm cool with all of us hanging out but partying? That's a hard no."

The two of us were silent as Blake focused his attention back on eating. I had no idea how deep it was with Eric. I just figured he was just the so-called "trouble maker" that everyone knows one of. She wondered why Blake never told her this sooner. Though now it did make sense why he wasn't being optimistic about Eric liking her the way or as much as the rest of his family did.

"Well I don't know about you...but Eric just got even more interesting." Faith told them after a long few moments of thick, awkward silence.

The new information made me take a step back in my mind, now not being as eager to meet his brother. The facts are argumentative. Maybe eric's intent wasn't to kill the guy, he was just in a fit of rage. Or d he did mean to and is truly psycho. How would I ever know? I don't want to spend time with someone who almost killed a guy on purpose.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner." Blake told me after school, standing by my car with me before we both head home. "I wasn't sure I was even going to. It's not really my business to tell."

I gave him a soft smile and touched his arm reassuringly. "It's okay. I'm just glad you did. When it comes to things like that, I think it's safe to say you can tell someone it before they go spend time with that person." I said.

Blake was always quick to apologize even when he didn't really need to. It was a blessing and a curse at the same time. It typically let people walk over him but he also always was man enough to correct something when he's wrong. I always admired him for it, and thankful. He continuously made the arguments easy and the bad times not so bad.

The thought made me realize how insensitive I've been towards Blake about his brother since telling Faith and I the story.

"That must've been hard on you at the time, your brother going away and you being so young at the time." I said apologetically, tucking my black, wavy waist length hair behind my ear and peering up at him.

He nodded with a shrug as he stuffed his hands in his pockets, clearly getting slightly uncomfortable talking about his feelings during that time. "I was just thirteen. I didn't know what was going on or why he was really going away. My parents didn't tell me the real until just last year."

That didn't surprise me, his parents not telling him at the time. They are so sensitive and selfless that they probably didn't want him to see his brother in any negative way. I know Blake has told me that they've always been really close. Knowing that then could've swayed his view. What parent would want that for their children's relationship so early on in life?

"Does Eric know you know?" I ask, putting my things in the back seat before turning back to Blake, blocking the sun with my hand.

Blake chuckled. "Yeah and he wasn't thrilled. I think he planned on taking it to his grave." That wasn't too surprising either. I'm sure Eric isn't walking around advertising his attempted murder case.

"But anyway..." Blake said, changing the subject. "I'm gonna head to practice. I'll come by later and hangout."

"Okay, text me before you come." I tell him, opening my door, not pressing the conversation any further. "My mom wants me to run a few errands for her and I don't know how long it's going to take." I huff with a roll of my eyes.

That was just another way my mother was absent. She never did the shopping for the house. That was me and ally's job. From groceries to toiletries, to just basic needs, it was up to us to make it all happen. Between school, homework, her job and doing things for my mom, it left little time for just doing things I want to do.

Blake gave me a quick kiss before jogging to catch up with one of his teammates

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