From Then Till Now: A Jamaican Love Story Book 2

Chapter 20

Shanya's POV

Saturday 8:25 PM

"Shanya what's going on?" He asks me and I can't find the words.

"Leah, please give us a minute." He tells Leah and she moves to get up from the bed, but I hold on to her, I need Leah.

"Shan, this is Alex, remember how safe he makes you feel? Trust him to do that for you now. If you need me, I'm right down the passage." She whispers in my ear, and I nod letting her go.

She gets up and walks to the door, smiling at Alex and taking Jubba's hand pulling him from the room and closing the door.

"Shanya, what's wrong Baby?" He asks and walks over to me.

I wipe my tears and look up at him "We need to talk, after you hear what I have to say you may not want to be with me anymore." I tell him and I start crying harder.

He stoops in front of me, "Look at me." He commands and I do as he asks.

"That will never happen, I'm never leaving you again, understand?" He asks and I nod.

"What I have to tell you might take a while." I tell him.

"Take all the time you need." He says sitting on the bed beside me.

I take a deep breath and let the memories take me over.

"Germs and I grew up together, we went to the same primary school and most people thought we would grow up and marry each other. We were never like that though; we were just great friends.

He taught me how to fight, play marbles, climb trees, he protected me from boys who wanted me when I started maturing. When my brother Ethan died Germs and I got even closer, he helped me through that time, and he became the brother I lost.

I used to hide and give him food when his mother would leave him home alone. My mother found out what I was doing and started taking care of him. Everything we ate so did he. Mummy started sending him to school because his mother didn't care.

We went to different high schools, but our connection was still there, we spent our weekends together and he was always there for mealtime. When we were around twelve years old, he showed me the first gun I've ever seen. It was old and rusty and when he placed it in my hand, I almost dropped it because of how heavy it was.

He told me that the gun was for his friend who asked him to hold it for him. I never disbelieved him because of how close we were. We told each other everything, this was Germs who gave me the entire details of him losing his virginity.

As time went on, I hardly saw him, he kept missing mealtime and he was never around on weekends.

Whenever I saw Germs, an older guy would always be with him, he introduced himself as Roshane Reid but everyone called him Shane. I never liked him because he was taking Germs away from me. At that time Germs and I were fourteen, but I never once questioned why he was friends with Shane who was twenty-six years old.

Shane kept coming around and would talk to me from across the fence. I was feisty so I would always ignore him even though I thought he was cute. I had an answer for everything he had to say but all he did was laugh at me.

I started seeing him at the bus stop when I came from school. He would walk me home and at first, I would run him, but he was persistent.

As time went on, I started developing feelings for him, he was tall and dark with nice bowlegs. He had beautiful white teeth with locks that went all the way to his back. He was always well-groomed and in the latest clothes and shoes, but I never once heard him say he was going to work.