Trust Must be Earned

Chapter 37

A/N: I decided to split this chapter into two chapters because it was getting really long. So one more after this. I might do a quick preview of the next book but other wise Trust Must Be Earned has come to an end thank you to all those who have been so super supportive through these last few years. And thank you for being so patient! I love you all so so much! Also, if you haven't already go check out my boyXboy story titled Hold Me Closer.

"Hey pretty girl, wake up."

"Hmmm?" I whined. "Are we there yet?"

"Not quite, but I figured you'd wanna see your city." He said casually knowing this was anything but casual. I shot up in my seat and looked out the window. There it was! The beautiful Chicago Skyline in the distance. I figured we were in Indiana, just outside the state boarder. The sky was dark, but the buildings lit it up like runway lights.

"Excited much?" He laughed at my childlike wonder.

"You don't even know!"

"I think I have some idea." He mumbled. The closer we got the more excited I became.

"Let's stop at the lake shore!" I suggested abruptly.

"Wait what?"

"The lake shore. I need to touch the lake water."

"Now, Tatianna? It's like 3 AM. This can't wait until the morning, can it?" I knew Andre was caving.

"Please? Just take this exit here and then I'll direct you to LSD."

"LSD? Tati, we did not come all the way to Chicago for you to make drug deals again!"

"LSD...as it Lake Shore Drive. Wow you have a lot to learn about living in this city." I huffed as I directed Dre to South Shore Beach. My aunt lived in Hyde Park so really this was on the way. Andre parked and I jumped out of the truck faster than my feet could carry me and I fell face first onto the pavement.

"Tatianna!" Andre yelled running around to the passenger side. "Are you ok? Oh God, come here lemme help you up."

"I'm fine." I grumbled.

"No you aren't. Look at you! Both your knees are scrapped and you lip is bleeding." He wiped some blood away with his thumb.

"Ah shit," I hissed in pain, "Be gentle."

"I don't like this. This is a bad sign. We should leave."

"This is not a bad sign; this is just clumsy me. Calm down." I walked away from him, kicked my shoes off and started running through the sand towards the water.

"Hey wait up!" He shouted after me. I ran into the water until it reached my knees. It was mid may and the water was only around 53 degrees, but I couldn't find in it me to care. I spun around a few times. no one could understand, except some one from Chicago, but this city leaves its life in your veins and you can never really get away.

"Tatianna come on angel. You're gonna freeze." Dre came over to the water's edge after letting me stand in the lake for a while.

"Ok." I conceded. I let him carry me to his car as so not to get sand stuck to my now wet feet.

"Do you have the address for my aunt's house?" I asked buckling in and turning up the radio.

"Yeah I got it." He said as he turned back onto the main road. We had been driving for about 15 minutes before I realized Andre missed our exit.

"Dre, you missed the exit."

"I know."

"What are you talking about? We are way passed my aunt's neighborhood! Why are we heading towards Downtown?"

"Tatianna, just trust me. I know where I'm going."

"No you don't!" I whined.

"There's traffic so the map rerouted me."

"Oh my God turn the GPS off. This is my city. I can get you back."

"Tati trust me." He said calmly.

"Andre we are going north west and we need to turn the fuck around." I shrieked.

"Please calm down babe."

"You are gonna end up lost in this city and I'm not gonna help you." I rolled my eyes. This is why I didn't wanna leave a week early. I wanted to take our time to plan everything out perfectly and have every detail worked out.

"Just trust me."

"Just so you know, I'm so irritated with you right now."

"I can live with that."

"Asshole."

"I can live with that too." He shrugged pissing me off even more. Change makes me anxious and he knows that. Like, does he want me to have a fucking panic attack? We were driving past Millennium Park and I was getting more mad. We were so far from Hyde Park now, it wasn't even funny!

"Turn around now." I ordered.

"No."

"You are so far from where we need to be!"

"I'm exactly where we need to be."

"I know-" I began but he cut me off.

"You don't know everything!" He snapped. I was speechless for a second. This was turning out to be a terrible night. This was supposed to be the official start of our life together and it was turning out to more like the start of a huge fight. I was silent for the rest of the ride as I watched the city fly by out my window. Some how we ended up in West Town. I've always loved the neighborhoods in this section of the city. It's diverse and accepting. There's so many artsy and amazing people here. Ok, maybe I didn't mind this detour as much as I lead on. It has been really nice getting to see my city again. Dre pulled into a parking space in front of a sweet brick building. He got out of the truck. I followed, but this time I watched my steps very carefully. Dre grabbed our main suitcases out of the back.

"Let's go." He ordered. He was clearly just as mad at me as I was at him. I opened the door and was greeted by the smell of fresh paint. I was so confused. I swear if this was another gang thing I was really gonna kill him. There were two doors one to the left and one to the right. That was it. It was like a closet. To say I was confused would be an understatement. Andre opened the door to the right with a black key. Ok now I was really scared. He stepped aside and let me in. My jaw dropped.

"Did you...?" I couldn't get the words out. For a few months we'd been looking at apartments online and such. We fell in love with this one brick loft last month and we stayed up into the odd hours of the night designing it together. It was just for fun, yet before me was the apartment that we created together.

"Welcome home angel." He smiled as I ran into his arms.

"Thank you." I cried.