Because I Had You | A Shawn Hunter Love Story

Prologue

Carole King's Tapestry radiated from the record player on the rickety side table as Belle puttered around her new room. The bed was a twin, not a twin XL, not a full size, a change of pace from her originally living situation. She put the last record in the red milk crate and put it under the side table. The blue milk crate stored records she never wanted her parents to see, but figured her uncle wouldn't mind. Yet, out of habit, she shuffled the blue milk crate under her bed and let the bed skirt drape over it. She sat on the edge of the stiff mattress and peered out the crusty window that overlooked a brick wall. Glamorous, she thought.

Her uncle, mullet and all, walked into her room carrying one last cardboard box. He placed it on the ground beside her bed and ripped off the tape. "Scrapbooks and photo albums," he said, shoving the used tape into his pocket.

"You can put that in the closet, Uncle Turner," she said, suddenly making herself busy.

He raised an eyebrow, but inferred she probably was not ready to look at those photos again.

She stood up and looked at her completed room, "Something's missing." Belle opened a drawer she dumped junk into and picked out an old Mets poster from her Dad. She hung it up lopsided next to her bed. "It's perfect."

Turner smiled and rubbed his face with his hand, marveling at her hodgepodge room of things he could pull together. "Sit down, Belle. I want to talk to you about a few things."

Belle sighed, not wanting to think of anything serious at the moment. Begrudgingly, she sat on the bed, and he joined her.

"How are you feeli-"

"I miss them," Belle blurted. "AndI'm also mad at them. But I miss them more."

Turner wasn't sure how to respond, since he had only planned up to the point of asking her how she was, and not what advice he would give. "It's gonna be a new start, Belle."