;it's hard to believe but all your need is faith

Do we even know why we're on this planet?

Who put us here? What do they want from us?

If God was real, why create shit that breaks us?

I thought he was suppose to be the good one? At least with the Devil, you know he's gonna burn your ass and fuck you up.

Cancer is a bitch. No doubt.

My best friend has been suffering for months and alone, yeah his parents knew and what not, but we're his family too.

I should of knocked him upside his head for keeping it from us, from me, but I'm not about to cause a scene and push him away. Not now, and now with how Tori is reacting to the news. Happy in front of his face, sad when she's behind closed doors.

The girl feels like she has to run around after us all, take care of us, make sure we're comfortable, fed and hydrated. She's like a mother hen tending to her eggs.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't like it - imagining her running around our mansion, taking care of our kids while cooking dinner for when I return home from practise.

Swells my god damn heart.

So, the limbo between Christmas and new year was a tepid one.

At first, we didn't know how to act around Cammy - not wanting to make him feel uncomfortable, but also couldn't help giving him the soft looks of pity and sadness - on the other hand Tori remained the exact same with him, which to my surprise he preferred and actually called us all out on.

'Be like Tee, or I'm swinging heads off. Got it? I ain't fucking dead yet.'

Not gonna lie, I burst out a howl of fucking laughter, Jason almost pissed himself from the jerk in his seat he involuntary did.

After that little telling off he gave us, we sorta just went back to normal - or as normal as we could given the situation.

Now, it's new years eve. Steph and Hannah headed home yesterday to see the new year in with some of Steph's cousins who were throwing a huge party back in Miami - offering for us all to join her, we all decided we wanted to stay here and see the in the new year together.

I thought it would of bugged Bella being the only girl with us four but she doesn't actually seem to care. Eli's her brother, Cammy and Jason are basically BFF's and then me, her boyfriend. So it's not like she doesn't feel safe with us. She's comfortable and happy. Everything I want her to be.

"Where the hell you taking us, Tee?" Jason whines from the back seat.

Bella glances in the rear view mirror at her brother and smirks, he returns it then nudges Jason in the arm.

"We're taking you somewhere to kill you then dispose your body without witnesses." Eli teases in a dark tone.

Jason rolls his eyes. "Plheeze. Everyone in this god damn car knows I could take you."

Everyone but Jason snorts out loud.

"It's cute you think that, brother. Maybe when you go to sleep, it'll come true." Cammy mocks, from beside him, ruffling his head like a condescending prick.

"Yeah, I could take you down, big boy. The bigger they are, the harder they fall."

"The bigger they are, the harder it is for them to fall." Tori corrects.

Jason huffs. "Alright, smart ass. At least I could take you."

Bella chuckles. "It's sad that's how high your bar is, taking down a five ft 3 girl, but let's be real, even I could put you on your ass, Jace."

I turn in my seat, "no joke, girls stronger than she looks."

"Now you're all just ganging up on me and I don't appreciate it."

Eli pinches Jason's left cheek, Cammy follows and pinches his right.

"Aw, ikkle baby feels ganged up on, guys. Should we put him out his misery?" Eli cooes, tugging at Jason's cheek.

"I thought that's what we were doing?" Tori breaths out a laugh.

Jason knocks the guys hands off him and crosses his over his chest. "I don't wanna be friends you lot anymore. You all suck, hard."

"Stop being a baby, we're here." Bella tells him.

Everyone's head snap to the right, seeing a basketball court come into view.

It's a nice little court. Not run down, but real and raw. Hood kinda style. The nets are metal rims with chains hanging down, tree's lining the background, and acres of grass surround the 10 foot high metal cage around the court.

I can't help but fucking smile.

She knows we've been itching to play ball since arriving here.

Aside from my little impromptu game with her at her old high school, I haven't had a proper game.

"Yes!" Jason chants, banging his fist into his palm, leaning in between the two front seats he places a kiss on Tori's cheek as she pulls into a parking spot. "Fucking love you, Tee. We can be friends again!"

She shifts the gear, then kills the engine. Eli and Jason waste no time in hopping out. Jason runs over to the court while Eli digs in the trunk for a ball.

He obviously knew we were coming here.

"You brought us to a court?" I hear the smile in Cammy's voice.

Tori twists in her seat to face him. "Figured you guys could do with a work out, you're all looking flabby." she tries to come across as serious but we all know she's teasing.

Cammy snorts, looking away from her and out the window.

Eli is dribbling the ball, Jason's darting in front of him, trying to block him off and keep him at bay, then Eli fakes a left and swerves right, bounding down the court.

"No illness is going to keep a ball out of Cameron Hills' hands. Right?" She says, almost wistfully. Definitely hopeful.

He turns his head towards her slowly, meeting her intense eye contact. Then he smiles.

"Ay fucking right, Mrs Hunter." he jolts forward and kisses her forehead. "You're a fucking queen." then he leaps out the car.

"I know!" she calls after him, he waves her off as he sprits towards the court, and she giggles.

My eyes cling onto her, taking in every damn feature her beautiful face has to offer.

"What?" She askes, warily but a smile still tugs her lips.

I shake my head, bringing my tongue out to wet my now dry lips.

"You not in a rush to be on the court?" she says, unclipping her seatbelt.

I dig my phone out my pocket, holding it one hand, while I reach other and turn the engine back on. "Nah. I want to show you this first."

Bella eyes me with confusion, leaning back in the seat, her head lazily rolls to face me. "I'm waiting, Baller."

I click, press and turn the volume up.

"I know we're not driving anywhere, and we haven't done it since we've been dating, but I wanted to feel like being in that moment again." I explain, pressing the play button on YouTube.

A British rapper I know Tori is fond out came out with a new song, not sure if she'd heard it yet, but when I did, I couldn't help it. It was me to her, every way.

SwitchOTR - Clearest of signs began to boom through the car speakers.

Bella stares straight forward, her head bobbing slightly to the soft beat and high harmonies in the background.

"You're scared if your heart gets broken, but darling, have you thought about mine? You should know I got start to the end, lets do it like Bonnie and Clyde."

A huge lip splitting grin appears on her lips as she spins her head towards me.

"OTR?" she muses. "You remembered."

I nod. "Course I remembered. There hasn't been one thing I've forgotten about you, Bella." I admit, smirking my happy ass off. "So, please don't break my heart?" I say, repeating OTR's lyrics.

It's slow, but she shakes her head. "It's you that I want for the clearest of signs." she echoes another set of lyrics.

I wrap my hand around her jaw, my fingers resting on the back of her neck as I pull her close, lips brushing, but not touching. "You're mine, Bella. In this life, the next and the one after that."

Her golden flecked eyes bounce between my eyes, then she smiles. "That's the clearest sign." she says, then presses her lips against mine.

A tortured groan leaves me lips and escapes into her mouth. I can feel her smirking, little shit. Then she deepens it as he hand raises up and runs over the back of mine that's on her neck, pulling my bottom lip between her teeth.

"Next time, don't use my love for British rap to forget, got it?" She murmurs against me.

I raise a brow, and my shoulders slump as I release her.

She's not mad, she's not sad, she's just. . .

"Baby, don't worry. We got him, and he's got us. Enjoy him while he's here, we don't know what the future brings, just have faith he's going to be in it. Okay?" she says, cupping my cheek, eye soft and tone softer. "Just have faith."

Faith.

Faith.

Her ankle tattoo.

"Faith?" I repeat. "Your tattoo? Why faith?"

"I don't believe there's someone out there looking out for us. So what do you do when you're stuck in a bad situation? Prey? To someone who may or may not be there? No, you do what your gut tells you to do and have faith it's all gonna work out." she shrugs, then smiles, wiping a tear that fucking damn near rolled down my face, "That's what faith is, Maddox. It's hopefulness, truth, belief, conviction. No one has more of that in yourself than yourself when push comes to shove."

I like it.

Faith.

Have faith.

Be Cammy's faith.

Be Tori's faith.

Be the teams faith.

"I have an idea." I tell her, wrapping my hand around hers that's still cupping my cheek, bringing it to my lips and pressing a kiss against her fingertips.

"I'm all ears, baby."