Butterflies (A Before You Exit fanfiction)

Chapter 45

BRAIDEN'S POV

It has been a month since the first day we saw Maria, Jenna, and Kris in the hospital, and a month since Toby revealed his feelings for Maria to us. I'm still in shock. Maria and I have always been close, and I mean that more like brother and sister than boyfriend and girlfriend. I'm too old for her anyway. But I totally ship her and Toby, and so does the rest of the guys, and not just because he likes her. They really would make a good couple. So we tease Toby about it all the time, saying that they're our otp, even if we sound ridiculously tumblr.

Now, it's April 1, April Fool's Day. But, none of the guys are bothering to prank anyone because that was the whole gang's thing, including the girls and now Cam and Hayes, to prank, and it seemed like a betrayal to have a prank day without them, even if that day is the annual April Fools.

Nothing has really been the same since that day, exactly a month ago. We all joked around and laughed and it was genuine, but not as genuine as our smiles were with the girls around as their normal selves.

But forgetting about the sadness, Thomas, Remy, and I are looking for the poetry book that the girls have to read to them in the hospital. I'm looking in Maria's room, Thomas in Kris', and Remy in Jenna's.

I know that we really shouldn't be looking through their stuff but they once told me that we can look around their rooms if it's that important, just never in their bathroom.

So, I'm rummaging through Maria's hope chest looking for the poetry book when I come across a few crumpled pieces of paper. I open up the nearest paper ball and soon figure out that this is poetry that Maria has written. She's never shared that with the rest of us. I sneak a peek of the words written sloppily on the loose leaf paper. It reads:

(

you are Peter Pan,

and Wendy am I.

you took me to Neverland,

and taught me how to fly.

'you should never grow up',

is what you told me that day.

this may just be pure luck,

or another lesson that awaits.

but I'm finally starting to figure out,

that with every day that eventually runs loose,

my feelings, I can't get around,

and I think I'm falling for you.

)

Holy Jesus that is really good. But I seriously wonder who it's written for. I'll have to ask her when she wakes up. I'm not gonna ask the guys because I don't think she wants them to know. And I'm positive it's not me because even she has told me that I'm like her older brother and I've never heard her tell the others, besides Thomas, that. Hopefully she wakes up soon, because I'm like cupid, I love getting people together and I'm surprisingly good at it.

But that poem is really some good crap. I have to ask her about that too. I wonder how long she's been writing. However I decide not to read anymore. I already feel like I've invaded her privacy, so I store the rest of the crumpled balls back into Maria's hope chest. But I stuffed that particular poem in my pocket. Before I did though, I looked at the date on it. If there's one thing I know about poets, is that they always date their poems. And this one's date said February 18, 2014. Wait... that was the day Kaitlin, Tess, and Kylie got the girls at the basketball games we went to. Thank God. So whoever Maria wrote this for, her feelings must have been genuine and not when she had that god damned chip in her freaking brain.