*Six's POV*
The next day during calculus, things seem to be fairly normal between Axle and I, which disappoints me more than it should.
Walking into Chemistry, I know we’ve got our first actual lab today, which I’m actually kind of excited about. I walk up to the bench and Emmett, the guy who usually sits at my bench, comes over.
We haven’t spoken too much, but all of our interactions have been pleasant enough. He’s on the football team and he's tall with light brown hair that’s just long enough to show a few waves. Objectively, he’s very attractive with his blue eyes, dimples and boyish smile. He’s not really my type though. He’s way too pretty.
“Hey,” he says, flashing me a smile.
*Axle's POV*At lunch Tuesday, I sit down and almost immediately Ethan says, “So have you heard about Emmett and Six?” My head snaps up.“What about them?”“I heard from Liz who heard from someone on the football team that he asked her out and she said yes.” I consider momentarily that it could be a rumour. But why does it matter? I am trying to convince myself that I don’t care when Jameson says, “Bro, you’re gonna break a tooth if you keep clenching your jaw like that. If you care this much just go talk to her.”“I don’t care,” I say as I glare at him.“Who are you trying to convince? Us or you?”
*Six's POV*When my phone rings in class and I see the caller ID for Theo’s school pop up, I panic as my brain runs through a million worst case scenarios in a split second and I run out of the room as I answer the phone. “Hello?”“Hi, is this Miss Laura Keller?”“Is Theo okay?”“Yes he’s fine. Who am I speaking to?” I breathe out. Thank God.“I’m his sister.”“Oh, okay I’m Mia Fisher, Theo’s teacher. Does your mother have a number I could reach her at? This is the only one we have on file.”“No she doesn’t, but you c
*Six's POV*After I leave Theo on thursday morning, I’m pretty emotionally drained and I’m thankful that my day is rather uneventful.On Friday during chemistry, Emmett confirms our date and I tell him I’ll meet him at his house and 5 so that we can go together. He had offered to come pick me up at mine but I was, quite frankly, embarrassed about my living situation.Axle has been acting like nothing happened between us, and I’m not quite sure what to make of it. I decide for now that ignorance is bliss.After school Friday, I stop in at Shaunice’s to say hi before I go get ready. What does one wear to a dinner date with an affluent football player? I settle on a baby pink tank top tucked into a pleated black skirt and thro
*Axle's POV*When she tells me what that sorry excuse for a human said to her, it takes all of my self-control to not go inside and beat the shit out of him. The only reason I don’t is because I feel like, in this moment, she needs me. Or maybe I’m just using that as an excuse. Either way, I will beat the shit out of him later. I take her hand and we start walking away from the school. I lace our fingers together and I can tell she’s a bit surprised by this but doesn’t stop me.“So, I’m curious, why didn’t you just tell everyone you didn’t sleep with him?”She shrugs and says, “If it came down to my word against his, I knew which one of us people would believe. So I decided to make him regret it instead.&
*Axle's POV*About 5 minutes later, the Principal comes out and calls me in. When he notices Six following me, he says, “Miss Keller, this is a private meeting.”“I have some important information regarding the situation that I think you need to hear, so I would like to accompany Axle if that’s okay with you.”He looks between us briefly and then just nods. I suddenly find myself glad she stayed. When we go in Six starts by explaining the whole situation, and at the end, Mr. Collins says, “Well, it does seem as though your intentions were good, however, I cannot condone that kind of violence. I’m still going to have to suspend you, but just for the remainder of the week. You can come back on Monday. And as for you, Miss Keller, it seems like you’ve had quite the stress
*Six's POV*The next few days at school seem to drag on forever. I don’t want to admit it to myself, but Iknow that it’s because Axle isn’t there. On Saturday, he texts me to ask if I can come over towork on the report for English Lit. It’ll be due next Friday and we basically lost 5 days of working on it.I drop Theo off at Shaunice’s and head over to Axle’s. When I arrive, I knock on the door and a woman who I guess is his mother answers the door. She’s very attractive, and if I wasn’t looking closely enough, I might even say she’s not old enough to have a 19 year old son.“Hello, may I help you?” she asks, looking me up and down.“Hi, um, yes, I’m here to work on a project for school with Axle.”“Oh! Yes, of course. Come on in,” She says cheerily as she opens the door wider.She closes the door behind me and says, “I’m I
*Axle's POV*I find myself strangely excited to go to school Monday and I know it 100% has to do with Six. Ihave literally not been able to think of anything else since we fucked Saturday. I get to schoolearly and wait for her car to pull up in the parking lot. When I see it, I smile and walk over.“Hi,” she says.I can tell she’s surprised when I throw my arm around her shoulder. This behaviour is very uncharacteristic for me. Usually after I’ve fucked a girl I ignore her until she leaves me alone. But Six is different and she always has been. She’s special.I walk her to her locker and then with her to calculus. When we finish in that class, I walk her to her next one and kiss her in the hallway before I walk away. I pick her up from Chemistry and we walk into the cafeteria together. We get a lot of looks but I don’t give a fuck.Cam, Ethan, Jameson and I squeeze in at a table with Six, Cleo, Lexi,
*Six's POV*These last few weeks with Axle have been more than I ever thought they would be. I can’t seem to help the thoughts in my brain that tell me I’m deluding myself though. We’re a couple of months into this weird fuck buddy situation we have going on and I can’t help but feel like it’s all going to come crashing down around me at any moment.We have never actually discussed it and logistically, I’m fairly certain it can never be more thanfuck buddies. How can it? Sure, we spend a lot of time together and it feels good and the sex isincredible but when January comes and I put in the application for Theo’s guardianship my life is going to get even more hectic. There’s no way I can expect Axle to deal with that when just the fact that he’s slept with me more than once is more commitment than he’s ever given a girl.When I wake up in his bed Saturday morning, I head home and pick up Theo
*Six's POV**3 years later*After doing summer courses and studying my ass off, I’m finally graduating from nursing school in the top of my class and I already have job offers from the local hospitals. It’s been a hectic 3 years trying to keep up with school, Theo and Axle and spending time with our friends. We’re still really close to the whole high school group. Paradox took off faster than anyone was expecting so they’re busy constantly and have their first tour planned for next year.It's a little sad that I won't get to go with him because of Theo's school and my job and whatnot, but I'll use as many vacation days as I can and we'll fly to see each other as much as possible. It's definitely going to be difficult, but we've overcome so much shit together already that I don't think doing l
*Six's POV*About 15 minutes after the band leaves to go set up, we all head out to the dance floor right in front of the stage to secure our places before the hoard gets too large.The head of the prom committee comes on stage to introduce them and then the curtains open. Axle looks down and winks at me so I blow him a kiss back.They start their set and do several songs that are definitely more on the pop end of the spectrum than I’m used to hearing them play. That was probably intentional seeing as most people here would not be into hearing some of their more obscure music. I wonder if the committee had a say in these song choices.Everyone is singing along and dancing and at the end of one song, Axle goes right up to the mic and says, “Alright
*Axle's POV*In the last couple months since Laura died, things have been busy, but thankfully uneventful. Paradox has been practicing a lot and doing gigs all around town and everyone has been studying like crazy to make sure we all graduate, and for Six, to make sure she keeps her scholarship. We’ve all finished our exams and tonight is prom night, to be followed a few days after that by graduation.It’s decided that we’ll all get ready at my place and early afternoon everyone shows up and the girls retreat upstairs. Apparently hair and make up is a big production for them. My mom offered to let them all use her room and the ensuite and even said she would help them out. I think she secretly always hoped for a daughter. Her and Six have been getting really close, which makes them and me happy.
*Six's POV*“What now?” Axle asks me.“Home. I need to see Theo.” My car is still at school but I’ll deal with that later.He brings me to the apartment and when I knock on Shaunice’s door she’s obviously surprised to see me since I’m supposed to be at school for another 2 and half hours.She invites us in and then we hear little steps running down the hall and Theo launches himself at me so I pick him up and hold him tight, thanking anyone that’ll listen that I got custody of him before she died. I was worried for a long time that if I lost her it would mean losing him too. I hug him for longer than usual and he starts to squirm so I put him down and he runs off.
*Six's POV*When my phone starts ringing, I pull it out and see the caller ID and my stomach drops out of my body. They never call.“Hello?”“Hey, Six. It’s Pete. Can you come down the station as soon as possible?”“Did you find her?” He pauses and the dead air over the phone all but confirms my thoughts.“We think so. I can’t say much over the phone, though. Do you have someone who can come with you?”“Yeah," I say, completely numb to emotion.“Okay, see you soon," he tells me.
*Axle's POV*When I wake up in the morning, I realize I’m pressed very close to the wall and I understand why when I lift my head up to see Theo on the other side of Six, snuggled into her side. She did tell me he does this sometimes.I lie my head back down and attempt to go back to sleep, but not long after, I feel movement in the bed. Six feels pretty still so it must be Theo. I look over just in time to see him stretch and smack her right in the face with his hand by accident. She wakes up, startled and moves his hand back down to his side. I gently rub my hand up and down her leg and she says,”How long have you been up?”“Not long. Maybe 5 minutes. Just long enough to see him assault you in his sleep," I say jokingly.“Yeah, he ca
*Six's POV*A couple of weeks later, we get our court date and everything goes as planned and the judge decides to officially grant me legal guardianship of Theo, which, of course I’m ecstatic about. My mom has started to work part time as a cashier at a grocery store and has officially been out of rehab for a month. I'm really proud of all of the progress she's making and I'm starting to become hopeful that maybe it will be the time.A couple of weeks after that, Paradox hears back from the record label and Trevor wants to sign them on a recording contract to start after the school year ends. All of the guys decide to defer college a year to work on recording and do music full time. They all promise their parents that if it doesn't work out, they’ll reapply to colleges for next year.
*Six's POV*When my mom, Theo and I are at the lawyers office, all of our identification and important documents in tow, I’m getting more and more nervous the longer we sit in the waiting room. Idon’t know why though. It’s not like I really have anything to worry about.Before I can get too deep into my spiral, the secretary says, “Miss. Keller? Mr. Hawthorn will see you now.” I get up and take Theo’s hand, following the lady back to an office. I see James Hawthorn sitting behind his desk and he gives me a warm smile before saying, “Welcome, please have a seat.”My mom and I each take one of the chairs and I sit Theo on my lap.“Right, so as discussed, Miss Laura Keller will be relinquishing custody of Theo Keller to you. Is that still the case?”“Yes,” Mom and I say at the same time.“Good,” He says and shoves a stack of documents to us, explaining the
*Axle's POV*After exams and Christmas, which Six, Theo and I spend some of with her mother who got out of rehab and seems to be doing well and some with my family, not including my father, it’s the 3rd of January, and Six’s birthday is tomorrow.We still have a week left of Christmas break, thankfully, and I’ve planned a surprise party for her tonight with all of our friends and I even invited Alisha, Jordan and Shaunice. I know on her birthday, she made an appointment with my mother’s lawyer to sign and submit the paperwork for Theo’s guardianship and then have dinner with him so I had to do it the day before.Stan already said he would watch the kids since she still doesn’t want to leave Theo alone with Laura and I’ve told her that I want to have a pre-birthday celebration with just us so she agrees to come over to my place.When we drop off Theo, Stan says that Shaunice is “in the shower” when Six