Second Chance Boyfriend

the apartment. He says it’s empty.”
    I frown. “What do you mean, it’s empty?”
    “Like almost everything is gone except some of our personal stuff. The furniture, all our things, the food in the kitchen, it’s all gone.” She nibbles on her lower lip, lost in thought.
    “Were you guys robbed?” I could hardly wrap my head around what she said. It made no sense.
    “No, no way.” She shakes her head and laughs, though she’s definitely not amused. More like she sounds distraught. “I think—I think my mom did it. I bet she packed up all her shit, had her loser boyfriend help her and moved everything out without telling us.”
    I grimace as I pull out of the parking lot and turn toward Fable’s place. “Who the hell does that sort of thing?”
    “My mother.” She leans her head back against the headrest and sighs. “I told you how I wanted to move out and take Owen with me, but I hadn’t gathered up the courage to tell her yet. Guess she took care of that, didn’t she?”
    “But what you’re saying, it’s like she…abandoned you.”
    “She abandoned us both a long time ago. I’ve come to terms with it. Owen hasn’t. He still believes our mom loves us and wants to take care of us. He’s young, he’ll figure it out someday.”
    The bitterness in Fable’s voice makes me hurt for her. We both come from really screwed-up situations. With parents who don’t seem to give a shit about us, but in radically different ways. I wish I could help heal her heart. She may say the way her mother treats her and Owen doesn’t bother her, but I know she has to be lying. It probably hurts like hell.
    My father’s indifference and neglect hurts me to do this day. My mom’s death—I sometimes feel like she abandoned me, and it wasn’t even her fault. That’s how irrational my thinking is.
    And I can’t even go into what Adele’s done to me. I’m completely fucked from the mind games she played on me for far too long.
    The moment we pull into a parking slot, Fable’s already out of the truck, running toward her apartment building. I follow behind her, taking a little more time, only because I want her to get in a few private moments with her brother first.
    When I finally walk into the apartment, I’m shocked. The place is literally empty. No furniture remains in the living room. The table and chairs are gone from the small dining nook. Every cabinet door is hanging open in the kitchen.
    Owen and Fable are leaning against the kitchen counter. She has her arms around him and his face his pressed against her shoulder. Tears are streaming down her face but she doesn’t look sad.
    She looks majorly pissed.
    “I hate her,” she says vehemently. “I can’t believe she would do this. She took my bed, Drew. She took Owen’s too. And all the furniture in our rooms. It’s like they dumped out all our stuff that was in the drawers and left everything in a pile on our floor.”
    “How could she have done this, hauled everything out of here so fast?” I glance around the empty room, amazed that everything’s gone. I’ve only been inside her apartment once but I remember it crammed packed with a bunch of stuff.
    “She has friends. Or I’m sure her loser boyfriend has a ton of friends. I bet they plied them with beer and they hauled everything out as fast as they could.” She shakes her head. “Owen and I both left before six.”
    And it’s past eleven now. “So they had at least five hours.”
    “It’s amazing how fast you can work when you need to.” Her mouth screws up into an angry twist.
    My arms literally ache to comfort her. Pull her into a hug and tell her everything’s going to be okay. But she’s too busy taking care of her brother and right now he’s her number one priority.
    Feeling helpless, I walk down the hall and glance into Fable’s room. There’s nothing but a pile of clothes and miscellaneous stuff lying in the floor as she mentioned. Same with Owen’s room, though his is an incredible mess. Her mom’s room is completely empty.
    This is truly some of the craziest shit I’ve ever seen.
    An idea comes over me so perfect I stride back into the living area, excited to tell her. It’s the perfect solution to their now very major problem.
    “I want you to move in with me.”

 
     
    Chapter Seventeen
     
     
    True love isn’t easy, but it must be fought for. Once you find it, it can never be replaced. – Unknown
     
    Fable
     
    Shock washes over me at Drew’s