MY FOREVER

• PROLOGUE •

• MIA •

She was the baby of the most loving family. growing up in a small neighbourhood, the Taylors were knows as a tight pack full of love and joy. where you found one, the others were never far behind. at the heart of the family were Mia and Mattie- siblings and best friends, known around school as the M&M's. a nickname born out of their nicknames, sure, but also their inseparable bond besides being complete opposites. 

Mattie - The loud jock with a magnetic personality, a large group of friends, and who slept around like any teenage boy wants too.

Mia - The quiet and shy, bookish girl who spent her lunches reading under a big oak tree outside the school building. 

While Mattie ruled the school hallways with his easy charm and crew of people, Mia drifted through the background, unnoticed by most except her best friend, Grace Evans, and the track she ran laps around after school. Mia didn't want popularity, she wanted quiet. space to breath, think, and be left alone.

But the world rarely gives you what you want, does it.

After Mattie graduated, Mia's school experience changed. the protection she had taken for granted - Mattie stepping in when people pushed too far, his popularity acting as an invisible shield to the harsh reality of horrible teenagers- was gone. Without it, the whispers turned into insults. the teasing turned cruel. The girls who once pretended to befriend Mia to get closer to her brother, now had turned on her with sharp smiles.  they told her she was fat, lying to her to make her insecure. told her she would never be anything like her brother- never as wanted, never as beautiful. what made it worse was knowing they were doing it only because the boys looked at her they ways the girls looked at Mattie.

The comments chipped away at her. Not all at once, but piece by piece - until she barely recognised the girl in the mirror. Her parents, who were wedding planners living their dream, were always somewhere else, caught between airports or flights. Mattie was in college, he would call when he could, text when he remembered. but a weekly FaceTime didn't capture the bags under Mia's eyes from constant fatigue, or the way her hoodie hung looser every day she didn't eat. It didn't show her ribs beginning to show, or the way her body shook through panic attacks that were becoming once or twice daily. No one noticed the hours she spent over- exercising, or the fact the had sone from eating light to nothing at all. she smiled when her family called, laughed at the right moments, said she was "just tired" when someone asked. she was perfect at pretending.

Until one day when everything cracked.

Matties phone lit up with a call from Grace- Mia's oldest, and only true friend. She was crying so hard Mattie could barely make out the words, but what came instantly clear was that something was very, very wrong. 

• FLASHBACK •

Mattie was sprawled out on the warm leather couch in the living room of the football house, a place reserved for the USC team's elite. Mattie, Jackson and Greyson had been chosen to live there as the most respected players on the team. after last years seniors graduated, they keys to the five bedroom mini- mansion were passed to the three sophomores.

the house smelt faintly of cologne, leftover pizza and alcohol. the TV buzzed quietly in the background, Jackson flipping through game footage half- distracted, and Grayson was scrolling on his phone with his feet propped on the coffee table.

Matties phone buzzed against his thigh.

INCOMING CALL - GRACE EVANS

his brows furrowed.