spoken word. (gxg)

epilogue

Epilogue

"Hey, June?" I asked, trailing my finger around the freckles on her arm as we laid side-by-side on the couch.

"Hmm?"

"Do you ever wonder what would have happened if you had never shown up to class that day? Or if Mrs. Lee had never assigned us to sit next to each other in the first place? Like, if we had never met?"

June turned her head so she was looking at me, her amber eyes soft as she examined my face. I smiled when she left a kiss on my forehead.

"What's bringing all this on?" She asked me, voice warm. I paused.

"I don't know... I-I guess sometimes I just overthink. Like, what my life would be like if you weren't in it." She narrowed her eyes at me, a bit mystified.

"Why would you think about that?" I grinned in reply.

"Dunno."

"..."

"It's really nice outside today," I mused, tapping my fingers on her skin. She smelled like vanilla and soap and everything I'd ever wanted. It hurt me to think that, without ever meeting her, I would still be the fearful girl whose past still chased her.

The way I was now, stronger than ever before, I knew I could confront my past easily.

"Mia," June warned, voice low, "explain." She shifted, grabbing me by the waist and lifting me up while adjusting herself into a sitting position so that I was clutched to her chest while she leaned back against the couch.

I snuggled into her collarbone.

"I guess... it's just something I think about sometimes. I have a habit of doing that-- questioning things. Like, what if this hadn't happened? What if that hadn't happened? I used to do it all the time when I was with my mother. What if I had been born into a different family? What if I hadn't been forced to live on my own so early, and instead had a loving family?"

"..." June didn't respond, instead bringing her hand up to stroke my hair. I glanced up at her. Slowly, her expressions around me had opened up; although she still tended to close herself off, her icy demeanor had been melting. Now, I could see that her eyebrows were furrowed just a bit, her gaze dancing with concern.

I smiled, bringing my arms around her shoulders and hugging her tightly.

"It's okay, you know. I have a wonderful family now." I thought back to Jean, June's rather enthusiastic mother, and Tyler, who also had slowly been opening his heart to me. Now, he was like an annoying older brother. We spent our days laughing over stupid rom-coms (June wasn't fond of television, but I found a partner-in-crime in Tyler) and planning dumb pranks. Tyler had realized that, as long as I was there, June wouldn't get angry at him if he poured flour in her shampoo or tried to scare her as she rounded a corner, not that that ever worked. Instead, she would take a deep breath, eyes filled with firey murder, take me by the shoulder, and walk away.

Of course, that didn't mean I wouldn't get punished. I felt the small kiss-shaped bruise on my neck, flushing red.

"Do you ever regret meeting me?" She said, and I pulled back frantically, eyes wide.

"What?" I huffed, "Why would I ever...?" Then, I saw the ache in her eyes as she stared at the small scar on my lip, the scar that Asshole who had kissed me while I had been kidnapped left.

"You went through so many horrible things you never would have needed to," she explained. I was still adjusting to seeing June show her vulnerabilities-- it had taken a while, surely months after I had been kidnapped, but she allowed me to see a side of her no one else could. It made my stomach flutter.

"June, I..." I trailed off, wincing at the flash of pain in her eyes. "No, I don't regret it. I never have; not even when I was tied up and under Alpha's control, I never once regretted it. Quite the contrary, in fact." I laughed, bringing my face to be level with hers.

"If this scar is the price I have to pay for being able to be with you, like this, I would let it happen a hundred more times," I told her. Her eyes darkened, hands tightening around my waist, and I felt a shot of anticipation shoot down my body.

She pressed her lips to mine, hand traveling up my back, sending electricity up my spine, to press against the base of my head and deepen our kiss. I kissed back intensely, letting all of my love and emotion seep through to her.

She was my everything. Every time I slept, through the nightmares of my childhood I could wake up content at just one whiff of vanilla or the sight of red hair. Her touch could soothe me like nothing else, root me back in the real world after an anxiety attack or a particularly harsh memory.

After graduation, I had officially moved into her house. I said my goodbyes to my roommate, Charlotte and all of the others, packed the very little clothing I owned, and claimed their gorgeous guest bedroom for my own. Though, it was more like a closet. I could count the times I had slept in there since I moved in on one hand.

Most of the time, I ended up falling asleep on June's bed. At first, she would always bring a pillow to the floor and sleep there, but I had finally managed to convince her to just sleep next to me-- we were dating, after all.

When our lips finally broke apart, I was practically gasping for air. I would have closed the gap between us once more, but it looked like there was something else she wanted to talk about.

"What was your family like, Mia?" June asked, another one of her rare questions. I hummed in response, digging through all of the painful memories and taking hold of the most important ones.

"She loved me once, I think," I said, quietly, head still floaty from our kiss. "But she couldn't handle it anymore. You know, I think I read once somewhere that if a mother feels threatened, or like she can't handle her life or properly care for her child, she'll resort to killing it. One last act of mercy for the mother. They were probably referring to animals in the book, but..." I felt tears prick at the corners of my eyes, and June pressed me against her in an embrace.

"She didn't deserve you," she asserted. "You are beautiful, sweet, and earnest, and everything a mother could ever want. If she didn't want you, it wasn't because you were lacking, but because she was."

"I know," I whimpered, voice breaking. "It just sucks, you know? I just wanted to believe in her, that she was good, that we could be happy, but every time I tried it just..."

"It's okay," June soothed, rubbing circles into my back and trailing kisses from my head to my cheeks to my nose. I giggled, though it came out more like a wet sob. She tipped my head up with her hand, kissing my swollen eyelids. "You're beautiful." She said again.

"...I love you," I murmured. Even if everything in this tumultuous world turned on its head, everything I had ever known becoming a lie, I knew that that one fact would always be true.

"I love you too, Mia."

A/N:

I finally wrote it!! Woo!! I love them. 

It was such a wild ride writing this book-- I adore Mia like my own child, haha. 

I know some of you have been asking for a spin-off or a sequel, which I have been considering. For now, it probably won't happen, but who knows what I might do in the future. :)