*Axle's POV*
The look of confusion on my mother’s face tells me she still hasn’t figured it out. “Who?”
“My fucking girlfriend! Your husband paid my underage girlfriend to strip for him on camera! Multiple times!”
“I didn’t know it was her until last weekend and then she blocked me!” he yells.
“You sure as hell knew who she was when you tried to stake your claim and get her to leave me for you an hour ago!”
“What?!” Jameson and my mom say at the same time. I’m surprised when he doesn’t try to deny it and even more surprised that he doesn’t even look like he feels guilty about it. My mom looks at him and slaps him across the face.
“You piece of shit!” She yells and stands up off the bed.
I see Jameson clench and unclench his fists as his face heats up. I can tell he’s trying to stop
himself from hitting him when someth*Six's POV*I feel Jordan stir underneath me and then he looks down when I adjust my head so that my chin is on his chest.“Morning beautiful,” he mumbles. He was never a morning person.“Morning,” I reply.“How are you feeling,” he asks me.“Honestly? I have no clue.”“Do you wanna talk about it?”“Not really no. Thank you, for being here though."“Always,” he says and bends down to kiss my forehead.“Coffee?” I ask him. He nods and we get up. I put on a pair of boyshort underwear and then pull Jordan’s t-shirt over my head, enjoying how his familiar scent makes me feel comforted. He throws on just his grey sweatpants and then wraps his arms around my waist and says, “Ialmost forgot how good you look wearing my clothes.” I smile and very quickly, our clothes endup on the floor again.After we ge
*Six's POV*When I make it downstairs, I find Axle leaning up against his car. I walk over to him and he stands up straight and he says, “Look, let me just start by saying that obviously I’m not happyabout seeing you with Jordan.” I go to cut him off but he says, "Just let me finish. I get it, I broke your heart and you needed someone. Literally anybody else would have been better, but I’m gonna let it go because this whole thing was my fault. I was pissed off at the whole situation and I took it out on you. I wasn’t thinking rationally. That was just too much information to process at once for me and I handled it like shit, and it took half a bottle of whiskey and a dose of reality check from a bartender of all people but I get it and I should have let you explain instead of just leaving you.”“Answer me this: If I had told you before the shit with your dad, would you have made mechoose between you and my job? Be h
*Axle's POV*When I leave Six’s apartment complex I have a very confusing string of emotions running through me. The only thing I’m sure of is that I love her and she loves me. That should be allthat matters but if somewhere in her logic chain she decides that I’m not good for her and, more importantly Theo, it’ll all be over. I know she would give up love for him. She would give up anything for him. And I would do the same for her.When I reach home, I find my dad’s car missing from the driveway and hear my mom andJameson’s voices coming from the kitchen. They’re seated at the dining room table and theyboth turn towards me when I walk in.“So?” Jameson asks expectantly.“Could have gone better. Her fucking ex was there when I showed up. But I spoke to her andexplained everything. She said she was going to think it over first, which is fair. She has a lot to consider here
*Six's POV*As I go to pull my shorts on, I notice a reddish-purple mark on my inner thigh. I turn my leg out to look at it. Are those teeth marks? Apparently he bit me harder than I thought.“Axle,” I whine at him. “Look what you did! I’m wearing shorts!”“So?”“So, your mother and brother are gonna see that!”“I still don’t see the issue. I’m sure they can guess what we were doing anyway. You're not exactly quiet,” he says with a wink.“Uuugh! Still! Just be more gentle next time!"He flashes me a grin and says, “You and I both know you don’t want me to be gentle.”I smile back and just roll my eyes because he’s right but I’m not gonna amdit to it out loud.“Alright Hannibal Lector, let’s go.”I take his hand and we walk downstairs to find Irene and Jameson in the kitchen.They
*Six's POV*When I get home, I put Theo to sleep and am in absolutely no mood to work so instead, I pickup my phone, unblock Alisha’s number and call her. She answers on the second ring.“Six? Is that you?” I can hear the shock in her voice.“Hey Alisha. Yeah, it's me," I say, glad she can't see me if I look half as uncomfortable as I feel.“Oh my gosh it’s so good to hear your voice. I am so sorry Six. I’ve been trying to call you andtext you and I-”“Alisha, woah, slow down. I know. I’m calling because I was wondering if you might wanna meet up somewhere and you know, catch up sometime?” “Yes, of course. Anytime. Like tomorrow after school? My house?”“Yeah okay. I can be there around 4," I tell her, still not feeling any less awkward. It feels a bit like I'm making an appointment with a gynecologist instead of going to visit my best friend.
*Axle's POV*It’s been a couple of weeks since everything with my father came out and Six and I are in areally good place. We’re together all the time and I think this is the happiest I’ve been my whole life. The band has had a couple more gigs and a definite increase in requests for us to play. Between practices and visiting Six’s mom in rehab and school work, it feels like we haven’t had very much time to just chill out and take a breather. It's exhausting.It’s a Friday night and we’ve decided to just spend the evening at Six’s place with Theo andorder in. When we make it to her apartment after school, Six grabs the mail and then we pick up Theo and head to her apartment. She starts sorting through the mail when we walk in as Theo runs off to his room. She stops in the middle of the hall and her eyes are wide as she stares at an envelope.“What? What is it?” I ask her, running through a m
*Six's POV*Axle walks up on stage and pushes up the sleeves to his leather jacket as he makes his way up to the microphone, “How’s everyone doing tonight?” People cheer and whistle. God his voice is sexy.“Glad to hear it. Y’all ready to hear some music,” This elicits more cheering and screaming fromthe crowd and Axle does a super hot half smile that has me considering jumping up on that stage and dragging him away when turns to Nate, indicating for him to start the beat. They play a few songs and our group makes its way to the stage to start singing along and dancing to the music once a crowd starts to form and we can no longer see them from where we’re sitting.Several more songs later, Axle’s voice says, “Alright, we’re going to take a quick 15 minuteinterlude and we’ll be right back with some more songs. How does that sound?” More cheering from the crowd. I love seeing how m
*Axle's POV*As we’re leaving the recording studio the Saturday after meeting with Trevor, we’re all feelingpretty good about what we put out. We decide to go out for drinks to celebrate after we drop off our cars and equipment and grab something to eat. We call the rest of the gang and tell them to meet us at a bar.When I call Six, she answers quickly and says, “Hey, how did it go?”“It went really well. We’re all gonna go out for drinks. You coming?”“I’m with Shaunice and Stan right now, so I dunno.”“You should come and bring Shaunice with you.”“Um, maybe, hang on I’ll ask her.” I hear some incoherent mumbling from the other end of thephone before she says, “Alright, Stan said he can watch the kids. Text me the bar and we’ll grab a taxi and be there soon.”“Awesome, see you soon baby.”When I
*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