The Bad Boy's Forever (TBBG Series #3) NOW PUBLISHED

Chapter Two: The Next Thing You Know You're Married To A Gigolo from Vegas

       

Chapter Two: The Next Thing You Know You're Married To A Gigolo from Vegas

April

Cole

I try to be a positive guy, try to not live my life with a lot of regrets. If there's anything that losing your very young mother a very young child teaches you it's that life is unpredictable. You hear that a lot don't you? But it never quite makes sense until a moment of clarity strikes you and you realise that no matter how much you try and control every aspect of your life, there are some things that are beyond you. My dad thought he had a lifetime with the love of his life, he thought he'd grow old with her, have a couple more kids, travel some more when his workload decreased and tick a lot of items off their bucket list. I wasn't born in the house that I'd spent most of my life in, no I'm told that when I was younger, my parents had lived in a small two bedroom bunglow that had been a real fixer upper. Nana told me all about how my parents being young newly weds had moved in and spent so much time doing up the place and how crazy they made each other while doing it. This house, this was my mom's dream. She'd designed it all by herself as they saved up money and after she'd received a significant inheritance from her aunt. They'd built with the hopes of having a big family but that part that hurt like a motherfucker was that she never even got to live in the house she put in so much love into.

    It kills my dad and it hurt for a long time. He's told me during times when he's had a bit too much to drink that you never really move past a loss like that. The grief, the heart wrenching sadness doesn't really go away, you just learn how to live with it. It lingers though, right on the surface and whenever you're reminded of it, it takes you right back to that one moment that changed your life forever. Point is, life is unpredictable and the most that you can do is try and live every single moment to the fullest. The what-ifs and the would've, could've, should'ves have no place in this life, because it's too precious and at any moment it could be snatched away from you so take nothing for granted.

With that pleasant reminder for the day, I duck into the library and go up a couple of floors to my usual spot. In my undergraduate days, this deserted floor would've made the perfect make out spot but of course my girlfriend had always been too shy to try anything too wild out in public. I sneaked in some kisses though and every now and then when I stumble upon the younger ones going at it in one of the study rooms, I feel nostalgia followed quickly by disgust.

Keep it in your pants kids, some of us need to study.

Once I've set all my things up, I power on my laptop and try to get through the assigned reading for the next couple of days. It's a good thing that the law is so fascinating to me because my being here is yet another example of life throwing you for a loop. I always thought I would play ball professionally and that had always been the plan. I could take out a lot of my pent up anger out on the field and it'd been a great channel for me for the past few years. I wasn't a huge fan of school but did well if I applied myself a little but grad school had never been the plan. All of it changed because of my injury and the relief I felt, knowing that the decision I'd been struggling with had been made for me, had surprised me. My family, friends, teammates and coach expected me to be devastated over the news and while it'd sucked knowing that it wasn't even my choice anymore and that I was powerless, the more overwhelming feeling was of relief. My first year of college had changed what I wanted from life and it was less of the gruesome football lifestyle and more learning.

I turned out to be a massive nerd, who knew? But I took the right classes, talked to my advisors and studied my ass off for the LSATS. It got me here to even more long hours, sleepless nights and a whole lot of coffee. It's going to be worth it, at least that's what I tell myself even when I feel a headache coming on. I'm trying to get as much reading done before I meet up with my study group and I'm a couple pages deep in the PDF when I feel someone move behind and turn my head to see one of my friends from my Contracts class. Felix is bear of a man, built like a linebacker and reminds me of all the painful tackles I took back in Brown. Physically he might be massive, with more bulging muscles than I'd seen in the gym recently but the guy was the kind who'd take the shirt off his back if he felt someone was in need of it. We'd struck up a good friendship this semester, having more classes together than the fall semester and studied together sometimes.