Her name is Tabitha. Her name meant beauty and grace, and that is exactly what she was; graceful and beautiful. So beautiful, in fact, that her young daughter sometimes looked up at her smiling face and knew that God had spent extra time on her.

She thought that about Tabitha around age five. Because that was when she was normal, calm. Back when the house was full of music and laughter and the smell of fresh baked pies, back when everyone and everything was happy.

And then one day it all stopped. The music, the pies, the laughter, it all washed away along with Tabitha's love for the world. And lastly, when her daughter had finally realized that the disease of depression had sunk it's teeth into her mother, the color in her own life had begun to turn into one: to black.

Those were almost the color of Jaxson's eyes as he watched Tim talk to Mattie. They were still partners in the English project that he had forgotten, and he was still partnered with that redhead with the long eyelashes and thin lips. She walked to him nervously.

"Hey Jaxson." She squeaked, coughing afterward in an attempt to cover it up.

"Hey." He replied dryly, not moving his gaze from the way Tim was smiling at his girl. He probably had a perfect life, he thought.

"I think we only have a day or two left," she hesitated. And he just then remembered that her name was Christy. "We should try to finish today, ten minutes should be enough."

Jaxson huffed in reply and forced his thirsty eyes away from Mattie's lips. "Then do it." He stated coldly, rolling his eyes afterward before putting his arms behind his head. His muscles visibly flexed, and his veins were popping enough for every girl around to stop and stare with agape lips.

He looked towards Mattie once more and saw that she was looking, now with a bitten-bottom lip and pink cheeks.

He smirked in her direction just because he knew it turned her on, and watched as she smiled and looked down. Tim noticed, and turned around to look at the boy in black. Jealousy was clear in his light eyes; and it fueled Jaxson.

Tim looked at Mattie with a curious gaze, ignoring the small pit of jealousy in his stomach at the way she looked at the boy he knew as Jaxson. He knew that he was bad, and rude, but that was simply an understatement.

He heard that he lived alone and had his way with every girl in the school that would let him- which was a lot. He even began to wonder if the innocent girl in front of him would ever go for a guy like Jaxson.

"Why is he staring at you like that?" Tim said under his breath, causing Mattie to finally look away from Jaxson's biceps.

"What?" She replied with a smile, wanting desperately for the bell to ring.

"He's staring at you like a piece of meat." He tried to laugh and make a joke out of it, but it was the truth and out of all honesty made him uncomfortable.

"No he's not," she looked back at Jaxson and was disappointed to see that he was looking at the red head that she couldn't help but be jealous of, for she was absolutely gorgeous. Did Jaxson think that too? She thought while resting her head in the palm of her hand.

"You're right, it's the other way around." Tim folded his papers before stuffing them in his bag just as the last bell rang.

Mattie tried to say something, but it was too late as he quickly got up and exited the room with angry eyes and clenched fists.

She sat for a moment, wondering if maybe she made him feel jealous or even led on. Either way, she knew he was hurt and she was to blame.

"You okay?" She heard Jaxson ask with the same raspy, deep voice that she loved to hear.

Mattie ignored the thoughts of Tim and smiled up at her boyfriends features that she knew had to be a gift from the gods.

"Fine now." She told him before standing up and taking his large hand in her small one.

"Could be better though." She leaned into him and bit her lip just enough to drive him crazy.

"Don't look at me like that," Jaxson replied as they walked out of the classroom hand in hand.

"Why not baby?" The pet name felt foreign on her tongue just like it always did when she said it, but the smile on Jaxson's face when she did say it was priceless.

"Because if you keep doing so I'm gonna be tempted to fuck you against these lockers." He whispered in her ear lustfully before reaching his hand down to squeeze her butt.

Flashbacks of Jaxson having his way with her against his bedroom wall went through her cluttered mind- the heat of their bodies touching with every thrust, the sweat collecting on their foreheads and glistening bodies, their bodies that have been through so much and we're now being cured by each other's touch.

Her stomach then began to churn at the thoughts, and instead of feeling tempted to plant a wet kiss on his lips, she ran to the bathroom right across the hall instead.

"Mattie?" Jaxson called after her, concern lacing in his voice.

She ignored his call and the stares of the three girls fixing their hair in the mirrors as she fell to her knees in a stall before throwing up the sudden feeling of nauseousness into the toilet.

The smell rose to her nostrils, causing the vomit to continue coming against her will; and tears began to prick at her eyes like they always had when she threw up, and just then to her own horror she felt a large hand take her hair from her face.

"Baby," he whispered just as she caught a breath.

"This is the girls bathroom." Mattie hissed in embarrassment, finding the situation humiliating.

"You didn't tell me you didn't feel well," he added, his voice calm and as soft as flower petals.

"I felt fine, the feeling just came over me suddenly," she hesitated to catch her breath, debating mentally if wether or not she needed to throw up again.

"That never happened before." She lifted her hand to flush the toilet, running the opposite one through her hair afterwards.

Jaxson moved a strand of hair behind her ear after she turned towards him, and finally, he began to grow curious.

Curious from the remembrance of his plan from the beginning. Yes, he has doubted it here and there, but he knew that the plan was still one of the only ways to keep her, and for good.

Could this be step one, or just a meaningless stomach bug? He thought with a racing heart.

"Let's get you home." He finally told her calmly, lifting her up from the tile floor carefully afterwards before making way out of the now empty bathroom.

Jaxson thought a lot during the car ride back to his house. He grew nervous at the chance that what he planned in the beginning could finally be working, but at the same time he wondered if maybe it was too much?

No, he thought just then, interrupting his own cluttered thoughts. Nothing was too much when it came to Mattie, for he would do anything to keep her.

He laid a hand on her thigh as they turned into their plain, normal neighborhood, nothing out of the ordinary except what was hidden from everyone's eyes.

Mattie's mother that cried all day whilst going through old photo albums of her daughter and her once real smile, while everyone outside believed she was perfect and cheery like she made herself out to be.

And Jaxson, the way everyone believed he was simply a misunderstood boy, when in reality that was far from the truth.

And lastly, Mattie. How she was the perfect woman's daughter and had college in her future. How everyone believed she would marry a boy that believed in sex after marriage and church every Sunday.

When really, she wanted more, and was more. She wanted more than dance recitals and boys with khaki pants, she wanted Jaxson and a life with reason.

However love was new to her, and it was yet to sink it's teeth into her and release its fatal venom.

____

(A/N)

I KNOW YALL WANNA MURDER ME for this late update, feel free to yell.

Love you guys though xoxo

Comment thoughts !

-Bailey