Maddox's POV

    I winced at her words.

    Fuck! Why'd I have to open my asshole mouth?

    I swear to God, in my head that remark was respectful as fuck. To both them and her. In my head, I was actually applauding them. Applauding her for finding people who loved her so much they would refuse to leave her side if they thought she was in trouble. And applauding them for knowing that she was the type of girl who deserved people who loved her enough to do just that.

    But then that thought went from my brain, through some kind of jealous filter, rearranged itself and rushed out my mouth. And instead of coming off as sincere, I sounded like a prick.

    And that was the last thing I wanted to do. Not when, after months of stalking her social media pages on Maddie's phone, I finally grew the balls to come find my girl and ask her one last time to give me another chance.

    After my massive fuck up with Angel, I begged and pleaded with my girl to take me back. And when that didn't work, I begged and pleaded some more. That was really the only thing I could do. Brooke is one of the most independent people I know. There was no way I would have persuaded her to come back to me by buying her things or taking her to fancy places. She's not that type of girl.

    And plus, I knew what I did fucking destroyed her. I could see it in her eyes every time I looked at her. I could hear it in her voice whenever I tried talking to her and the only thing she could say was, "I can't do this right now."

    I knew how much I hurt her every time I heard Maddie crying herself to sleep because Brooke refused to speak to her. I knew how much I hurt her when Brody, the closest thing to a little brother that I had, came knocking on my door to beat my ass while crying tears of his own because what I did, not only hurt his sister, but him too. I even knew how much I hurt her when I let him beat my ass because it was what I fucking deserved.

    But nothing let me know how much I hurt her more than when I found Leila and Kelsey, the two additional devil little sisters of mine who I never knew I loved so much until I lost them, both crying to Maddie and I when Brooke moved to the mainland because being here in Hawai'i didn't do anything but remind her of our betrayal.

    And after that, I had no idea where the fuck my girl was.

    Until just recently when she forgave Maddie and unblocked her from all her social media platforms. That's how I found out what college she transferred to. That's how I found out what company she works for. And that's how I found out she came back to Hawai'i for Spring Break.

    People should really hide their location on social media. Who knows what kind of whack jobs could be stalking them. Although, this whack job is very happy that Brooke never did that.

    What I didn't know however, was that she was bring her boyfriend and his daughter to Hawai'i to meet her family. I mean, I knew she had a boyfriend and that she treated his daughter as if she was her own. That's a very Brooke thing to do, to be honest. I just didn't know they were at the "take a plane ride to meet your girlfriend's family" point in their relationship. Her earliest photo of them together only dated a couple months back.

    Okay. I better stop. I'm already starting give off the whole stalker ex boyfriend vibe.

    "What are you doing here, Maddox?"

    I picked my gaze off the ground, not even aware that I was staring there, and brought it upon the beautiful girl who I took total advantage of. Fuck do I wish I never made the mistake I did. I wish that every single day.

    "Would you believe me if I told you I was thinking of coming here next semester and coincidentally saw you as I was taking my tour around campus," I smiled at her.

    Instead of responding, she crossed her arms over her chest and rolled her eyes. "You don't play football well enough to be able to make it on this team."

    Ouch!

    "Damn. Okay. I guess it's safe to say that you still hate me."

    She scoffed. "Is this the part where I'm supposed to show you some kind of pity by being a little bit nicer to you? Because I'm not. You don't deserve me being nice to you. You don't even deserve my time. So why don't you stop wasting it and tell me whatever it is that you have to because I promise you, one of those three boys back there is timing us and as soon as my ten minutes is up, they'll be right back over here. "

    With all seriousness, she continued, "So you better hurry it up and get what you have to say off your chest. I would hate for the hundreds of dollars you spent on this trip here to go to waste."

    I let out a soft sigh. I did spend a ton of money for this trip. A shit ton that I didn't have to be exact. Especially because it was at the very last minute. 

    But this girl is worth it. Worth everything. Even if she doesn't agree to take me back. 

    And I would never have forgiven myself if I didn't take this last effort to reach out to her and ask her to be mine again.

    Finding out that she brought her boyfriend and his daughter to Hawai'i with her let me know that they were serious, serious. But seeing how the three of them interacted with each other, definitely told me that if I wanted to win her back, the time to do it was now.

    "You gonna start talking? Or we just gonna stand here and stare at each other?"

    I cleared my throat and began to look around. Almost every single pair of eyes in sight were focused on us. Brooke must be a very big deal here on campus.

    Or it's because you and the three musketeers just made a scene in the middle of a very packed quad, dummy.

    Having people's attention on me was something I was used to. It's a sacrifice I agreed to make when I chose to continue playing the game I love while working towards a degree for free. But if there was ever a time I didn't need an audience, this would be a great one.

    "Do you think we could do this somewhere where we're not everyone's afternoon entertainment?"

    "Since when did Mr. I'm So Arrogant And Love Being The Center of Attention not want to be the center of everyone's attention," she smirked.

    "Since my arrogant ass lost the love of my life," I deadpanned.

    And it's true. Whichever way you wanted to dissect my statement, it was one hundred percent true.

    I did lose the love of my life because I was arrogant. I thought I was the shit. Actually, I knew I was the shit. And I especially loved going to parties just so people could tell me they thought I was the shit, too.

    Had I not gone to that stupid party, I never would have gotten drunk off my ass. Had I not been drunk off my ass, I never would have ended up with Angel's mouth on my dick. Had Angel's mouth not been on my dick, that bitch would have never been able to blackmail me into fucking her. And had none of her body parts been attached to any of mine, I still would have my girl in my life and not have to watch her fall for someone else through the screen of my sister's phone.

    Turns out I wasn't the shit at all. I was really just a piece of shit.

    After that horrific afternoon, nothing was ever the same for me. Nothing interested me anymore. Nothing motivated me to go on throughout my day. The only thing I ever wanted to do was stay in my room. I refused to leave the house, eat, even sleep, which was ironic considering I probably spent 23 hours of the day in my bed. I'm not even exaggerating.

    My grades started to slip and eventually I ended up on academic probation during football season. I swear, my coaches rode my ass so hard this past semester, I'm surprised it's still attached to my body. My sister didn't talk to me for a good couple of months. And to make matters worse, Angel's delusional ass assumed that because Brooke and I were no longer together, she and I were a thing. She just wouldn't catch the hint that she could fall off a cliff and I still wouldn't care for her.

    My life was a mess. It still is. Losing Brooke changed me. Nothing matters to me anymore without her by my side.

    Spotting a couple leaving a nearby table, I pointed to it with my thumb. "Wanna go sit over there?"

    She wagged her eyebrows up at me once and began to walk towards it. I followed eagerly behind her and continued going when one of her friends called after her from behind us.

    "And where do you guys think you're going," he yelled from the table Brooke previously occupied.

    It was her friend, Jake. I recognized him immediately when the three of them approached me. I played against his football team multiple times throughout high school. And he just so happens to also be related to my boy, Troy.

    Brooke faced him and shook her head. Softly laughing, she pointed to the table we were headed to.

    "I've still got my eyes on you, Pretty Boy," the other musketeer said. I replied to him by flicking him off, causing Brooke to grunt at me.

    "What? He really needs to chill out. Or even better, fuck off."

    She let out a loud breath. "Believe it or not, he's the chillest one in our group." She smiled, probably thinking of the dynamic between her and her friends here. "You'd actually really like him if," she paused. "You know."

    "Yeah," I nodded. Believe me, baby. "I know." 

    I'd actually really like him if I met him in another reality where I hopefully didn't fuck things up between us over there too.

    When we got to the table, she chose to sit on the side that made her face her friends. I chose to remain standing. With all the adrenaline and nerves flying around throughout my body, I probably looked like a crackhead yearning for his next hit with all the shaking I was doing.

    "So what did you wanna talk about," she asked, choosing to take the lead in this conversation.

    I noticed her voice was more calm and less hostile than it was before. That was good. That meant we were making progress.

    "I--uh." I paused. 

    Now that I was given the chance to talk to her, I had no clue what to say. I never really thought about what I would do at this point. I was more concerned with actually getting here. Should I just straight up tell her why I came here and ask for another chance?

    "How 'bout you start off by telling me how you figured out where I went to school," she said, practically throwing me a bone. 

    "Your location from your posts online," I hesitantly replied.

    She gave me a confused look. "How? You don't follow me anymore. On any site. I made sure of that."

    I wanted to take the easy road and lie to her, saying that I recognized her boyfriend and drew conclusions there. Technically, that would only be half of a lie. But I won't. Lying got me in the mess I'm already in.

    So I confessed. "I saw it through Maddie's social media."

    "Fuck. I knew I shouldn't have unblocked her," she muttered under her breath.

    Apparently, when choosing the honest road, I must have missed the sign that said it merged together with stupid avenue. Because now I'm beginning to fuck things up between her and Maddie.

    Well, it wouldn't be the first time.

    "No!" I shouted a little louder than I meant to, causing her to jump. "Please, Brooke. Don't cut her out of your life again. I'm so fucking happy that you forgave her. Please don't let me be the reason she loses you."

    "Again," she retorted in an angrier voice than before.

    "Again," I agreed. "She's been so much happier these past couple of months, Brooke. Please. She doesn't know I use her phone to check up on you."

    "You mean stalk me."

    "You can call it whatever you want. But it's only because I want to make sure you're okay." That was most honest thing I've said in this whole conversation so far.

    "Yeah. Sure."

    "It's true," I continued. "When I found out you left Hawai'i, I lost my fucking mind. I didn't know where you were, if you were safe, what kind of people you hung out with. Your family wouldn't tell me anything. No matter how much I cried, begging them to."

    She gave me an angry look. "You lost the right to know all of that the moment you let some bitch manipulate you into giving her something that was only meant for me." She pointed to herself. "And lets be real, the type of people I associated myself with here, couldn't have been any worse than the ones I associated with back in Hawai'i."

    I exhaled, getting frustrated with myself. Things were starting to take a turn for the worse. This was not the way that I want our conversation to start heading.

    Wanting to change the subject to something more neutral, I asked, "Did I ever tell you when I started seeing you as more than my little sister's best friend?" She stared at me, still wearing a scowl. "It was the day I fell off of my bike because I still wasn't used to riding it without it's training wheels. Do you remember that?"

    She nodded. "I ran over to you and started covering your skinned knee with the bottom of my dress while Maddie went into the house to get your mom."

    "Yeah, then she came back out and told me to stop being a baby and yelled at me for getting blood all over your clothes. I started to feel embarrassed but then you whispered to me that it was okay to cry and that you hated wearing dresses anyways."

    She frowned at the memory from when we were seven and six. 

    And I frowned at her frowning.

    I really should have thought all this through before just coming over here. Or at least thought about what I was going to say to her. I'm fucking all of this up, left and right. What'd I think was going to happen? That she was going to see me here, fall in love with my huge gesture, and run into my arms willing to give us another shot? Fuck!

    You weren't thinking. That's what happened. You didn't think.

    "Why'd you do it, Maddox?"