Rock Bottom Girl

by Lucy Score

you’re not tan enough. They all genuinely like you just for being you.”

I’ve never had one person in my office look up to me the way all of those girls on your team look at you. They adore you. They respect you.”

“Just like Jake,” Amie Jo complained. “Do you know how hard I had to work senior year to make sure you two didn’t get together?” “What?” I snapped. “Remember how he asked you to Homecoming and changed his mind?” she said. “He told you? Of course he told you. He said he changed his mind and was taking you. You were more his type.” My voice was two octaves higher than usual. “Jake didn’t ask you to Homecoming. I did. And then I pretended to dump you for me,” Amie Jo insisted.

How many times had I turned my back on what was good in life because I didn’t feel like I was good

enough for it? How many times had I reminded myself that Jake was just going to change his mind about me again?

I’d been happy and loved. And then I’d fucked it all up. Big time. I loved Jake. I loved his arrogant confidence. His slovenly lifestyle. His commitment to his students. His doofy dog. His family. I loved that he made life better every sing...

“And then you threw it away,” Zinnia sighed. “If you weren’t my s...

“You need to go beg Jake for forgiveness,” Amie Jo said, taking a swig from the bottle. “Yeah, you do,” Zinnia agreed. It was then that the branch broke with a splintering crack, and we were all falling.

She’d swept it all out, making Grams’s house mine. Ours. And now she wasn’t here. Our new beginning was already over.

She’d never even tried. She hadn’t returned my calls, my texts. She hadn’t shown up on my doorstep begging for forgiveness. None of it had been real to her. I felt used and discarded and stupid.

“I told her I loved her. I asked her to stay in Culpepper. And she dumped my ass. Reminded me we had a deal and that all this was only temporary. She wants more.” “More what?” Lewis asked.

“That’s what I said! I refuse to be in love with a dumbass.”

“Fell out of a tree,” she said quickly. “But that’s not why I’m here.” “You thought of a few other ways to destroy my confidence?”

“I came to tell you you were right,” she said, still looking at Homer. “Great. Thanks. Happy to hear it,”

She could keep my jerk of a dog. She

already had my heart. Why not take...

“I don’t want what I thought I wanted,” she said in a rush. “I want you and Culpepper and Homer. I

want to teach gym and coach soccer. I want to sleep late with you on Sundays. I want to run a half-marathon and spend my summers road-tripping with you.”

“I thought you wanted more,” I reminded her. “There is no more than what I found with you. I was happy with you, and it scared me, Jake. I’ve spent my whole life trying to be good enough. And you come along and don’t even demand that I prove myself. You just love me as the hot mess that I am.”

“I have a confession to make. You’re my second stop today,”

“I crashed Principal Eccles’s family luncheon and asked if she would consider me for a permanent position. Spoiler Alert: Even though I was bleeding and a little buzzed on Chardonnay, she said yes. So you should know that I’ll be sticking around here even if you aren’t magnanimous enough to take me back. You’ll be seeing me every single day of your life.”

“You don’t say?”

“You’d be doing a service to your community by taking me back.” “And I suppose my uncles would be grateful to you for turning my pigsty into a home.” “Hi, Marley!” my uncles chorused behind me.

“Look, Jake. I know that I screwed up big time. I know that I hurt you. And I’m so sorry. I’ll do better if you just give me a chance. You’ve made me realize something. I’m not a disaster or a loser. And just because things

don’t go exactly the way I think they should doesn’t mean that they aren’t perfect the way they are.”

“Read these.”

“You spent twenty years thinking I dumped you for Amie Jo?”

“I’m sorry for holding something you didn’t do against you for two decades,”

“I love you,” she said. “So much. So big and wide and more. You’re the ‘more’ I’ve been looking for my entire life. And I love you, and I hope you still love me even though I was a jerk and told you that you didn’t know what love was.”

“Do you think there’s a chance you could forgive me?” she whispered. “That depends. Do you think you could be happy living here with me?” I asked, running my finger over her collarbone. She nodded. “Yeah.” Her voice cracked. “Really happy. Like really, really happy.”

“Baby.” I swiped the hot tears off her cheeks and leaned down to kiss her.

I didn’t have to be out there making a difference for thousands of people in order to matter. I could make my difference one person at a time. Starting with me. There was nowhere else in the world I’d rather be. And that was the secret, I realized. It didn’t matter what my salary

was. Whether or not I had a corner office and an assistant. This feeling, this contentment, was what mattered most. I loved and was loved. And that was the most important thing in the world.

“What do you say we sneak upstairs for some very quiet make-up sex?” “I say as long as I don’t have to move around too much, you’re on. I’d hate to throw up gravy on you.” “...

And it had only taken a fractured radius, an honest sister,

and a miserable nemesis for me to get the message. “I love you, Jake Weston,” I whispered.

“I love you, Marley...

One of the best things about becoming Libby’s legal guardians was telling her that college was on the table if she wanted it to be. Our normally cool and collected kid had squealed her girlish delight and

hugged us off and on for three days straight. Since then, she’d researched every single college and university on the East Coast. Libby had narrowed her list down to twelve schools.

Was there anything sexier than bed-headed sex god Jake Weston beckoning me under the covers? No.

We linked fingers on the mattress. We were in this together. Coming apart together.

“Ladies and gentlemen, it’s my great honor this year to present the Teacher of the Year award. This year’s recipient has not only been an exemplary member of the faculty but an integral part of the Culpepper community. The only thing more impressive than her bravery is the capacity of her heart. She set out to make every student feel like they belonged in this school, on her team, in this town.”

“Marley Cicero, if you’d join me up here,” Jake said.

“I’d also like to take this moment to ask Marley something in private,”

“Marley?” I looked back at Jake and found him in front of me, down on one knee. “Holy shit.” “What do you say, Mars? You and me? Forever. We’ll take Libby and Homer along for the ride.”

But I didn’t care. We’d started in the shadows under the bleachers. And here we were, twenty years later, standing in the sun.

“So my legal guardians are getting married. Guess that means I won’t be an illegitimate bastard anymore,”