*Edited
Maxwell's POV
"Tell me about him." He suggested, quietly as if giving her a choice to. She side glanced him and sniffed.
"The apartment feels empty without him, everything is haunting me, the couch where he'd pass nights on his school projects and thesis, his to-do lists on the fridge." She paused.
"He had music sheets everywhere, so that any time he got inspiration no matter where he was in the house, he'd write it down." She swallowed and chortled.
"But Jack was a terrible musician, every one knew it, except himself, some times i got mad, that he was wasting money on studio time when he could be helping me, you know, so I didn't tell him how proud of him I was often, that he was chasing his dreams with every bone in his body, because I was mad, I was so mad that I had to start stripping while he got to gallivant his life away." Her laugh turned to sobs again.
He found a box of tissue and handed it to her as she cried.
"I was selfish, I wanted him to give up his dreams, to take care of a man that actually hated him, his own father, I should have spent more time with him, I should have listen to all his mix tapes, all his recordings."
"I should have gone to the studios with him, I should have met his friends, but I was too mad to care, I didn't listen to his songs even when he sent it to my phone, I would always just tell him 'It was good, very soulful'." Her words came out in a slur from all her crying.
"It was my fault, I could have died, but he came back for me, he should have left and saved himself, that was what I would have done, but he came back and when that man shot at me, he took three bullets for me, he took bullets for me!, he died trying to save me, its all my fault."
He shook his head at her words, it wasn't her fault. "Hey, hey, its not, look at me." He urged, raising his voice to get her to stop spiraling.
"Look at me Wilson, its not your fault, at all, its not!." Her eye softened, she stopped shaking. 'Its mine.' He wanted to add, but couldn't, the words died in his mouth, because he knew the implication of that.
She'd be mad, even worse, she'd no longer be safe.
"Bad things happen, okay, that we can't control, and I'm sure your brother wouldn't want you to be living in fear and guilt like this."
She nodded quickly and dried her face. "He wouldn't right?." She asked.
"No, he wouldn't." He answered looking away from the road to her face, she licked her lips, wiping her hands on her jeans.
"I'm so sorry for the outburst, you must think I'm such a kid." She laughed nervously after a while, feeling as his eyes kept darting to her.
He turned back to the road. "No kid would go through what you have gone through and would be conscious to attend lectures. So no, I don’t think you're a kid."
"Still, I'm sorry for being such a bother these past few days."
"You're not a bother, Wilson, and its okay to feel, its okay to break down, it okay to not want to move on, not just yet, you don't have to be strong if you don't want to or you can't take it, nobody is asking you to, its okay if you don’t want to attend lectures, let yourself mourn, you just lost you sibling and friend." He said.
"Yes, I understand professor. She sniffed with a glib voice. "Lets just change topic."
He didn't insist, she had the wrong impression of his intentions, he wasn't trying to be her professor or a psychologist, he really did care. Sort a.
They arrived at her house a few minutes later, it was already raining. He felt awkward, the suddenly car felt too small. He didn’t know how to tell her that he didn't mean to lecture her.
They sat there for a minute in complete silence, the pitter patter of the rain out side and the silent rattling of the windows grew louder with every passing second.
"I'm sorry." They both said at the same time. Her eyes snapped up to him and she let out a bright laugh.
"Well that was awkward, I'm gonna go now. Thank you for all your help Professor Caines."
But as she was about to climb out of the car, an elderly woman wearing a large rain coat and bright yellow rubber boots knocked on the window.
He knew she recognized the woman right away because she cursed under her breath tried to melt into the chair.
He rolled down the window, ignoring the pleading eyes she shot him. "Good evening ma'am, can we help you?." He asked her politely.
"Wow! Breanna, you are sleeping with older men now?, you and your brother owe me 3 months already and you are sleeping around." The woman spat, Maxwell blinked once taken aback by her bluntness.
"This car seems very expensive, that means he's super rich, is he your sugar daddy?, why not ask him for money, since that's the only thing you know how to do, whore around."
"Uh, excuse me, is everything okay?." He asked, just for the sake of being polite, but he knew if the woman said one more awful thing she was going to run her over.
"Professor, meet my landlady." Breanna said in a small voice. "Mrs. Welch, my professor from the university."
The woman's face paled for a minute, but she was quick to mask it. "You're sleeping with your teacher?, you disgust me."
"Alright ma'am, I'm going to need you to step away from the car or I might just run you over, you don't get to call her names just because she's owing you!."
"Aw, you're lying to this one, he doesn't know you're a stripper?." The woman snickered.
"That's it!....." He growled, suddenly mad that this old woman even though it wasn't really any of his business.
"Mrs. Welch!." She cried out angrily.
"I know everything I need to know, thank you!, she has never stolen from you, so I don't know why, how she earns the money to pay for overpriced house is any of your business!." He fired up the engine loudly, the car jerked forward, scaring the woman. Her jaw fell open as she frowned, jolting away from the car like she was electrocuted.
"Thank you for the ride professor." She rushed out, pushing the door open quickly, preparing to run off. For some reason, he didn't want her walking off with the awful old lady still in sight.
"No, Wilson, stay…….she will leave." He snarled in his deep voice, with a hard glare at Mrs. Welch.
"No, its fine, she's just an evil old land lady." Breanna said, but his hand on her wrist stopped her. She glanced at his lean fingers wrap around her small wrist, she could feel the brush of his calluses against her skin. It felt nice.
Her words died in her mouth for a second.
"Stay Wilson!." He growled.
"Ugh!, you are just as annoying." She yelled with a huff.
They watched her curse multiple times, and walked away in the rain. "So that was your landlady?." He heaved.
"Yeah."
She breathed, looking everywhere but his face.
"You're really owing three months?." He asked after a few seconds, she turned to him slowly with a frown.
"Why, are you going to offer to pay? Like she said." She asked.
"No, but even if I did, you would say no." He shook his head, she sighed in relief at his words.
"Thank you, you've done more than enough for me sir. I'm grateful, I don't want your money." She told him, bluntly, chewing on her lip.
"So, how are you going to pay though?." He asked. "The club no longer stands." He reminded.
"I'll find something." She dismissed.
He paused to think for a while, of how he could help, without directly giving her the money, she'd refuse.
"I'm not trying to judge, but if you need any help, any at all, don't hesitate. Just so you don't go back to that job and life again."
"I just lost my brother to that life, you think I'd want to go back to that?!." She snapped. He frowned, she was misunderstanding him. "I'm not stupid!, I need the money, but I'm not stupid, I already promised myself that I won't and I intend to stand by it."
She thought he was judging her, but that was why he started with 'I'm not trying to judge……'
Truth was that, he had been up all night thinking about how to get her a job. From her outburst outside the station, he deduced she was having a hard time, so he had been on the look out.
And it just so happened that his friend was hiring. It was the perfect job even for the future, if she decided to take up therapy.
But he had to make a show of just coming up with it. He didn't want her feeling bad. But instead, she misunderstood him.
"Thank you again for all your help, Good night professor." She gathered her purse to climb down.
"Wait, can you work as an office assistant?." His deep voice stopped her.
"What?."
"See, a colleague of mine is opening a therapy clinic here in town and she needs an assistant, can you do the work?." He rephrased, her eyes grew and her eyebrows hit her hairline. Then her face contorted to a frown.
"Y-yeah?." Her words came out unsure.
"The pay is really good, you just have to call and tell her you're from me." He fished around his wallet and pulled out a black card, pointing out the numbers on it.
"This is the address, the interview is in like in a week and few days, so you have time."
"Wow, thank you." She managed a smile, sniffing hard.
"You're welcome." He said, not realizing when a genuine smile slipped past his lips. He was not a talktaive most times, but onversations with Wilson were always difficult, he had to explain every word or she'd misunderstand.
She didn't hesitate to argue or voice her opinions.
It was refreshing.
Hi, what do we think about the new chapter 8?, and another chapter in Professor Caines' POV. This is a pretty big change to their relationship in the previous edition this early. Does that make sense? Anyway, Have a nice day! Like, comment, share and leave a review. Love, Bee.
*Edited Breanna's POV Just like the night before, and every day since it happened, she sat down in the living room, perfectly still as she stared into nothingness. The day had been extremely hard, from pretending to be alright, to a new five thousand word thesis she had to write, her car breaking down, the constant pain in her side, her landlady screaming insults at her and coming home to an empty apartment. It had not been the best. She had thought that by now, her eyes would be dry, that there would be no more tears. But her eyes proved her wrong, every time she came home, to his house, the house they had shared since she moved in with him. She cried. His presence lingered every where, it was his house after all, she had never cried so much in her entire life, but for course, she had never lost a brother before in her entire life. She wasn't sure if she wanted to continue with life, If she wanted to be in school, she couldn’t afford it anyway, she couldn't handle being constant
*Edited This chapter has brief mention of strong language ********************** Maxwell's POV A week later. He didn't plan on going, but he had to. Steve and the rest of the guys went too, they had to stay far away, but they were there, honoring the lives of those who passed on that awful night. He didn't like to think about it much, but when he saw her in the black dress, holding a bunch of white roses, the blank distant look in her eyes as the service commenced it rushed to him like ligthning. He knew she was not okay and for some reason, no matter how he tried to shake the feeling that he could help. That he should help. He just couldn't. He was never like this, he was usually glib, but this time, it was some what personal. He began to imagine all the other people that died, how they meant something to their families, but now they were dead, gone to never return. His stomach churned. "Fuck!." He had not felt like this since his grand dad died, he never wanted to relive
*Edited Breanna's POV She took a deep breath through the lungs, as the warm air hit her face, the breeze tugging at the skirt of the black dress she was wearing. The town was holding a mass burial for the people that died that night. So here she was, with a bouquet of white roses in her hands, Jack loved roses, especially the white ones, their mother had a white rose garden when she was alive, where she would spend hours trimming and nursing all weekend according to him. A few of Jack's friends came to support, but she couldn't register any of their faces, his producer and even his boss from work. His girlfriend didn't make it, she didn't even bother to ask why. She didn't tell her dad, he wasn't even in the right frame of mind to understand anyway, it was useless telling him. It would only cost her more money to bring him all the way here. The service ended as quickly as it started, she didn't hear a word the priest said, she felt like life had left her and that she was just dri
*Edited This chapter contains strong language and reference through out. ******************** Maxwell's POV Petra called him at eleven pm, and couldn't stop talking about Wilson. "Max!, you didn't remember to tell me she was gorgeous!." She sang over the back ground chaos of her husband yelling at their kids not to kill each other. He sighed, dragging a hand over his face. He had a long stress filled day, that wasn't over yet. With a lot of work on his table, he didn't need her prying self. The night was especially hot and it was killing his work progress. A mail arrived earlier and he was informed that his deadline was shifted up. So since he got home, he buried himself under piles and piles of papers work, locking himself away in his office. The moonlight peeked in from the large sliding doors that led to the patio, casting a shadow over the large book shelf. He could hear the distant hoot of the owls on the trees, and the crickets in the mud, the sweet soothing sound of natu
*Edited Breanna's POV Two weeks later Dr. Robinson invited her to the grand opening. Thus her current rummage through her closet to find a decent enough dress for a grand opening and cocktail after party in the awful state of her room. Although she had only been working a week, easing into the work atmosphere was definitely easy. Besides, the clinic was yet to be properly opened so all she did was organize her boss's emails and report the last details of work needed to be done to the place. The only issue was her sleeping routine. For a whole year she used to stay up all night working. Unlike now, she was awake both at night, due to her nightmares and all day attendng classes or at work. So she was tired a lot. Settling for her old high school gold prom dress, she got ready. Shoes weren't an issue, although cheap and thrifted - she had a number of them from stripping. The dress was tight, extremely, it had been almost three years since she wore it. She wanted to sell it when s
*Edited Maxwell's POV His frown deepened as he noticed Martha walk in. The monotone business conversation that he paid no attention to in the first place and the slow jazz music in the background blurred around him. After his speech earlier as one of the partners, he had been swarmed by business men trying to pitch to him, but he wasn't interested, he already had enough on his plate business-wise. Some even brought their sisters or nieces to set him up with. He had tired one too many blind dates from networking events like this to know better than to show any interest. His eyes met with Petra's and she gave him a sly smile before walking to meet Martha. Looking around frantically, he found Wilson, by herself looking into a glass of wine suspiciously in front of her. With only one thing on his mind, 'to get her away from Martha' he walked briskly towards her. Before they could get to her and start drilling her with questions that would forever ruin him in the eyes of his innocent
*Edited Breanna's POV She walked around for a while, inhaling the cold windy air. Rain was coming, she could feel it. But she didn't want to go back into the party. Not after what happened with Professor Caines. She just wanted to go home. But she was stranded, a long way from home without a ride because he was the one that brought her here. She knew he didn't like her, he didn't come off across like he liked anybody though. With the recent changes in her life, she was glad for his help but she didn't need him to baby sit. She was perfectly capable of handling herself among a few business people. She had been doing just fine on her own till now. The rain started suddenly. She tried to find shelter, but she had wandered away from the building. Just then her phone rang in her purse. It was from the nursing home. They had called three times before but the loud party didn't let her hear. "Hello?." "Breanna?." Nurse Gabriella shouted over the speaker. She pushed the phone slightly
*Edited Maxwell's POV He chest squeezed at the sight of her, drenched - and crying. He frowned, the feeling, foreign. The anger he was feeling had long disappeared. Ten minutes ago to be precise, since he started looking for her. Martha was right, she meant something to him. He had anger issues, always had, one out of many reasons why Petra was his therapist aside from being just an overbearing friend. His "issues" in general started a long time ago, when he got a first hand experience of abandonment and heart break. As corny as it sounded, his first heartbreak, broke him. He was still dealing with the aftermath. It was why he never committed, why he didn't let anyone in, despite all the eligible blind dates he had been on in the past. The thought that, if he didn't let anyone in, he wouldn't care, too much that it would hurt him again. He didn't want that. He had tried in the past and it didn't end well at all. But here he was, feeling all these feelings he hadn't felt in a wh