Write Me for You

by Tillie Cole

To the dreamers and romantics who always find light in the darkness.

“Love,” my mama said, “is the most powerful thing in the world. It can heal and it can grow in the most unlikely of places. When all is lost, love blooms.”

A small laugh slipped from her mouth. “I am.” The sound of her laugh… Jesus. I was screwed.

Love him already!!

I looked to Chris, the humorous one; Emma, the loyal one; I was the book nerd and quieter one; and Jesse, well, he was the all-American boy with the magnetic smile.

when it came to June Scott, I was—happily—screwed.

“Write me for you.” “What?” I whispered back in confusion. Jesse met my eyes, keeping just an inch from me as he searched them. “Write me for you. In your great love story. Fall for me.” He pressed his forehead against mine. “Allow me to fall for you. Write me for you.”

“Junebug, I’m not sure if I’ve made it obvious, but you’ve kind of knocked me off my feet.” I smiled too. “I’m kinda obsessed with you.”

This girl had my heart in a vise at this point. She’d been a hurricane that had just blown into my life without warning.

Out here, we were just Jesse and June, a couple of seventeen-year-olds falling quickly for the other. It was simple. Easy.

Our chances of survival were slim. But we had around 10 percent. And with Jesse beside me, that 10 percent felt like 100. I’d never wanted to fight for something harder in my life.

“I’ve fallen for you, Jesse Taylor. Hook, line, and sinker. And I know I will continue to fall for you even more. The way I feel for you…could be endless.”

“Write our story, Junebug. Let our parallel-universe selves live the best lives they can. We deserve to have our happily ever after, even if it’s in another life.”

He wrapped the tail of my headscarf around his hand, keeping his mouth on mine. Smiling against my lips, he said, “Soon I’ll be able to do this with your ponytail.” I blushed so hard, I felt on fire. “Now, won’t that be kinky,” he teased. A throat cleared behind us. “I heard that, Jesse Taylor. Now kindly release my daughter.”

“I love you so much.” That only made Jesse sob harder. I squeezed my eyes shut. I could barely stand to see him like this—my magnetic charmer, reduced to tears. Yet I felt like the luckiest girl in the world to be the one he could fall apart with. We were one another’s other halves. In good times and bad.

“I love you without expectation. I love you with all my heart because you are the sweetest, kindest boy I know.” I smiled. “You make me laugh and show me that life is more than I thought it was. I adore you. And I don’t care what you do with your life as long as I’m beside you.”

His father leaving had thrust him onto a path no child should have to travel. But I decided to make it my mission, for the rest of our lives, that I would be his reprieve when he put too many expectations on himself. I would be his gravity, grounding him, and I would be his sun, chasing away the dark clouds that would inevitably come. I would be the girl who would cradle his heart until my very last breath—and even beyond.

“I’m so friggin’ happy I met you,” I said and took her hand, kissing her palm. “In which universe? This one or our happily-ever-after one?” she teased. “Both,” I said, meaning it 100 percent. “In any universe or lifetime, for no matter how long.”

“Junebug, if anything happens to me, I want you to look at the palm of your hand, the one that holds my heart, and know that I loved you more than anyone has ever loved before.” “Jesse,” June murmured. “You have been the biggest blessing in my entire life, Junebug. Not football, not anything…but you. I just want you to know that. If all we ever get is a few more weeks at this ranch, then it will be a life well lived.”

“I’m not leaving you, Junebug. We have too much life to live together.”

The first day I saw her, I knew June would change my life. I never dreamed that it would end this way between us, but I vowed to myself that, for as long as I breathed, it would be with the sole purpose of loving her. And to die madly in love with my soulmate? In the end, I couldn’t think of a better way to go.

“I know this is our fate and that death is hovering close to us, but I would have really loved to have a life with you, Jesse. Not even a big life—I’d have been content with a little one.

From the day we met, it was Jesse and June against the world. It still was. His achievements had been mine and mine were his.

“You get to walk me down the aisle, Daddy,”

SOBBING HYSTERICALLY

We were married. He had officially tied his soul with my own. I was Mrs. June Taylor. Nothing had ever felt so good.

“Yes. Yes, I will marry you. In any lifetime, in any love story, I will always choose you.”

“We’ll always look at that star and know it belongs to you and Jesse, darlin’. We’ll search for it every night for the rest of our lives to keep you close to our hearts.”

He kissed me like we were still seventeen and we had just met our soul’s other half.

“Group two has won, Junebug.” I raised my fist and bumped it to his. “Group two has won.”