Title: Too Late
Author: Darley1101
Rating: PG-13 (language)
Choices Book: High School Story
Characters: Wes and Autumn centric
Premise: Breakdown of Autumn's and Wes's relationship. NOT ship friendly.
Author's Note: This is for Precious Eze from the Choices group I belong to. Our little vent over how Autumn treated Wes in book 2 prompted these little blurbs about the Autumn/Wes relationship. I hope everyone enjoys!
Rejection wasn't anything new to eighteen year old Wes Porter. He'd spent most of his life being rejected. His dad had taken off for parts unknown before Wes was even old enough to form a valid opinion of the man his brother Matt had called a good for nothing drunk. His mother had made a point of being every trailer part trope out there. And Matt…well Matt hadn't exactly rejected Wes but he wasn't in the picture either. Their relationship had crumbled when Wes was in the eighth grade and Matt had robbed the auto mechanic shop he worked at. Yeah, his motives had been good; he had wanted to make sure Wes had enough to eat because their mother sure as hell wasn't going to. The result had been jail. What little sense of family and security Wes had felt had been locked away with his brother. Until he met her.
Autumn Brooks hadn't been the prettiest girl at Twin Branches, but she had been the nicest. She never seemed to care that Wes wore faded clothes or stole extra fruit when the cafeteria ladies weren't looking. She had been his friend, no questions asked. Which was why Wes had stuck by her side through all the bull shit that seemed to follow Autumn. From the false accusations at Twin Branches to the bullying at Hearst to the drama at Oliver M. Berry; Wes had stuck by Autumn through it all. Hell, he had even stuck by her for those few weeks when she "thought Julian might be more than just a friend." Any other guy would have moved on, found someone who didn't have so much baggage in their life. Not Wes. His heart had known what it wanted, and what it had wanted was Autumn Brooks. He'd meant it when he told her that he loved her and he had thought she had meant it when she said it back. Autumn's recent blow up made him wonder.
They had fought before. Being in a relationship as long as they had been in one, the occasional spat was expected. One of them, usually Wes, would 'admit' to being wrong and things would go back to bliss. Not this time. This time, Wes wasn't going to be the one to apologize because damn it, he was tired of always being wrong…even when he wasn't.