A Part of Me -Sequel to Empty

•twenty-four

"Loving you was a sacrifice, you know. I gave you the power to destroy me, and that's exactly what you did."

•lucas

Maya woke me up this afternoon. It was almost four whenever I actually got out of bed. She cleaned up the room while I got into the shower. Once I was done I loaded everything it not the car and we left.

"How long do you want to drive tonight?" I asked.

"If we only stop to go to the bathroom or to get food once we should be able to make it to the next motel by eleven," Maya said, looking down at her phone.

Ever since this morning Maya has been acting distant. She keeps avoiding making eye contact with me and she barely says anything to me.

I questioned, "Hey are you okay?"

She nodded her head, "Yeah."

"Are you sure, because you don't look great?"

"When did you know that you were in love with me?" She blurted out.

That question threw me off a little bit. We had never talked about when we first new that we loved each other. We never even got to say that we loved each other to our faces.

"I can't remember there being a specific day where I just fell in love with you, I just kind of always remember loving you. You were this strong, independent, smart, and sarcastic girl who always had to be right and I loved it. Every minute that we got to spend together made me fall in love with you. And since that moment I've never stopped."

"That day that you were the only one at my show, because no else could make it or all those times that you stayed at the hospital with me."

"What about them?"

"That was when I knew that I was in love with you."

I wanted to ask if she still loves me but we were quite for a few more moments.

"What's brining all of this up?"

"I don't know."

"Maya I'm being serious. Did something happen while I was still asleep?"

"I saw us."

"What do you mean by I saw us?"

"I got tried of waiting around so I went to go get a hot chocolate from the shop next to the motel. While I was waiting for it I witnessed a conversation that we had."

"Which conversation?"

"The one where you were trying to get me to go to Georgia with you, but I said that it wasn't a good idea."

I remember that conversation word for word. That was my chance to get Maya away from everything and tell her the truth about what happened.

"I remember," I said.

"And now I'm just so angry with myself, because back then I didn't realize what you were trying to do. I should have just went with you," She sighed.

I pulled off to the side of the road so that I could see her face when I talked to her.

"Listen to me when I say this, because none of this was ever your fault. I'm the one who lied to you about so many things. I held back to much while we were dating and that was the biggest mistake I've ever made."

She wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me into the tightest hug she had ever given me.

-

After our unplanned stop I kept driving without stopping anywhere. I kept the radio on so that we wouldn't feel obligated to talk.

Maya fell asleep about an hour ago and instead of waking her up I decided to carry her into our room. We were already dresses in sweats, because of having to sit in a car for hours at a time so I laid her down on the bed gently.

"Goodnight Maya," I said, kissing her forehead.

I laid down next her and tried to fall asleep.

"I'm still in love you," Maya mumbled.

And those words were enough. I couldn't help the smile that formed on my face.

We still had a chance.

-

They still have a chance.