𝑀𝑎𝑦𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑎

Chapter 22 ~ Faint

Abby

I lay here wide awake trying to read my daughter's thoughts from the other room. Cole thinks she is fine but she didn't even speak a word to me after I was finished. I'm stressed out and I feel like I ruined a good trip.

"Peach, I can hear your thoughts from here, go to sleep." Cole mumbles from beside me. I snort at him. He is always so grouchy when he is tired. He won't admit it, but he is. "Baby Peach will be fine, she just needs to think about it." He throws an arm around my waist.

He lays on his stomach facing me with his eyes closed. "You don't know that, and what about Reece. It was his mother. Willow never took this long to process." I rushed out.

"Abb's really, I know she will be okay. There was no harm done." He kisses my temple and brings me to him. "I love you" He whispers. That always gives me rest, knowing that even after all the bad things that went down, Cole stayed by my side and loved me.

I'm glad to have a husband like him.

🎀

Mayella

I'm sitting in the café that we went to the other day. It's very cozy and now I understand why this was where everybody would meet up. It's kind of a must stop when you're coming through here.

I'm filling out and answering some questions for my college application that I'm hoping to send in later on this month. I got myself a pretty good start and I'm going to have Willow and Dad look over it.

"Mayella." The girl behind the counter calls and I get to get my order. I see a man ordering and looking at me at the same time. I'm not sure whether to feel uncomfortable or polite. I wave to him and give him a smile but go and sit down again.

Im sipping on my coffee and filling stuff out that I don't notice the man is sitting in my booth. I look up and examine him. Definitely older than me, maybe around Mom and Dad's age. "Can I help you?" I ask as politely as I can.

"I'm sorry you just look so familiar, like someone I used to know back when." He says. Okay well he is acting very nice so I can't see why I can't speak with him. "Oh, Well I'm only eighteen so I'm probably not like them." I give a chuckle.

"Definitely not, but you look so much like her. What's your last name?"

"Carter, Mayella Carter." I say my first name for the fun of it. He kills me, at least he seems nice.

"Carter huh, crazy, I see it now." My eyebrows scrunch up in confusion as he stops speaking. "You probably know more about my mother than you do? Abby Carter?" Why am I throwing names out, Mom and Dad did tell me I never understood the, 'Don't talk to strangers' or 'Don't give out information to people we don't know.'

"Abby! That's right. And so your Dad is Cole right?" I nod my head and he smiles, shaking his head. "I went to school with both of them. Played hockey with your father. Good man." He says I nod.

"So, what's your name?" I ask and he looks at me and smiles. "Dylan" I give him a tight smile as he waves me off goodbye. I make it to the hotel and go to my room to shower and freshen up a bit. Fay is taking me to her store that Eli bought for her before they moved.

I finish up and head down to the lobby to meet her. We take a cab as I get all tingly inside. First of all, this is another place that holds a ton of memories, Second, it's where Day and Eli got engaged and I haven't seen it in person.

We pull up to a place that is in a parking lot but is the smallest building. We get out and walk in, I can smell the mixture of coffee and fresh books in the air. She shows me around the place telling me some events that went down here.

"It's beautiful, Eli has some great taste in wallpaper." Fay laughs and nods. "That he does" We sit down on the couches and sit on coffees.

"So what did you do today?" She asks and I shrug. "Nothing much, I went to the café and started filling out some applications."

"I'm proud of you, I thought that I would've had to wait for Rory to grow up to feel this kind of proudness, you know the one where she goes off alone and does things she is passionate about? But then I realized that I feel that for you too, because you are a daughter to me in a sense."

I smile at her. It's true, I see her as a second mother figure and I always fantasized about her being my real mother in law if me and Reece ended up together.

"I felt it for Willow too, I can't wait to see what Rory comes up with." She says looking out into the distance.

"I ran into someone at the café today, he said he knew mom." I say because maybe she knows him as well. This gets her attention and it almost seems like she is trying to figure out who it could be.

"What was his name?" She asks and I look out the window trying to remember his name. "Dylan!" I exclaim as I remember his name. I look up after she doesn't speak and see her face is pale.

"Fay?" I start getting concerned and worried. She doesn't answer me so I call up the cab again and tell him to pick us up, once I see him out front, I walk Fay to the car with support as she has yet to say another word.

Shoot, how am I going to explain this to my parents?

A/N

ALL IM GOING TO SAY IT, ITS ABOUT TO GO DOWN AND IF YOU HAVE READ FAYETTE, GET READY FOR THE NEXT COUPLE CHAPTERS.