Marcus was giving me his old bed and dresser. His mother had said she wanted to redo his room and I could have his old stuff. He was bringing it over later today. With their help, I didn’t think we would need anything. I was waiting until I had it set up and ready before I showed Trisha. I was also talking to Krit and making sure he was set up to move out too.
Fandora had gotten better about not letting the men in her life hit Trisha. But when they went for Krit, who was capable of beating the shit out of the f**kers himself, Trisha always jumped in and ended up hurt, if only a little, before Krit put a serious whipping on them.
I was ready to be able to sleep with Trisha tucked safely in my arms. Two years of sleeping with a phone in my hand and often sleeping on the floor of her room had been tough. I hated leaving her in that house. If Krit wasn’t a badass crazy shit, I wouldn’t have been able to do it. But the boy had a temper, and anyone who pissed him off needed to get the hell out of his way. And his sister was the only person he loved on earth. I knew he’d kill someone before he let them hurt her.
“So this is it?” Preston asked. I hadn’t heard him walk in. My thoughts had been elsewhere.
“Yeah,” I replied, glancing back at him as he stood in the doorway checking the place out.
“You did good.”
I thought I had. I just wanted Trisha to think so too. She was all that mattered here.
“I think so,” I agreed.
He sauntered in and nodded toward the two doors to the left. One was the bathroom and the other was the bedroom. The rest of the apartment was right here. Living room and kitchen all together. “There’s only one bedroom. Where will I sleep?” he asked.
I chuckled. “Not here.”
“Damn. And we were supposed to be best friends. I’m wounded.”
“Sure you are.”
“You told your dad yet?”
I wasn’t telling my old man until I had my things ready to move out. Because he was going to lose it. My plan was to get everything in that house that I wanted to keep out first because my dad was likely to throw it all in the yard and light it on fire. The man talked nonstop about my college choices. He wanted me to go to Florida State. He was driving me crazy about choosing. I knew I wasn’t choosing any of them. I couldn’t take any scholarship that required me playing football. If I played ball, I wouldn’t be able to work as much. I needed to work and take care of Trisha.
“I’ll tell him once I have everything moved in,” I told him.
“Smart,” Preston agreed.
Two knocks on the door and then a “This ain’t shit. I’m impressed.”
We both turned to see Dewayne walking in the door with a grin on his face, followed by Marcus.
“Y’all aren’t allowed to have parties here unless I’m home from school. No fun allowed while I’m away,” Marcus said.
Marcus was leaving for the University of Alabama next year. He was the only one of us leaving town. We tried not to think about it often. Preston had a baseball scholarship at the local junior college. He had gotten scholarships to bigger schools, but he wouldn’t leave town. His siblings needed him.
“Shit. We’re throwing a Marcus-has-left-town party,” Dewayne drawled.
Marcus laughed and rolled his eyes.
“I always knew you’d be the first one to move out. When you admitted that you loved Trisha Corbin, I knew this was it. You’d move into your own place first and get married first. Hell, if you’re fast you might have a family before Preston,” Marcus said, smirking.
“What? I ain’t having no family,” Preston said, snapping his attention back to Marcus, who looked amused.
“Dude. You can only sleep with so many hundreds of women before you knock one up. It’ll happen,” he replied.
Preston scowled. “Don’t speak that shit. I’m always gloved.”
Everyone laughed at that. Getting smiling, happy Preston to scowl was always fun.
In a few months our lives would all change. We didn’t know what the future held, but we had each other. This was my family. The one I had leaned on since I was a kid. I could have taken a much different road in life, growing up the way I did, but having these three guys who gave a shit about me changed that. Somehow we had stayed out of real trouble. Marcus had always been there to remind us to keep it clean and stay out of jail.
I was going to miss times like this. But I had Trisha, and my future would always have her in it. That made the future exciting instead of terrifying. Since the moment she sat at that lunch table, laughing with the three people in the world who I considered family, I had known she was it.
She was my future.