It weighed heavy on his mind since that night at the hospital.  He struggled with the possible outcomes of his secret; the secret he held tightly onto for the past five years.  It was time, Cassie’s secret, his secret, every secret; it was time it all came out.  Lily deserved the truth.

Colton was headed to his parent’s house; he sits in the driver’s seat of his latest creation with young Sammy sitting shotgun. 

“Hey Bud, you want to go see Sass and Gramps?”  Colton looks over to Sammy with a smile.

“YEAH!!”  the excitement in Sammy’s response was enough to bring a snicker to Colton’s smile.  He continued to drive for several miles, passing by Cassie’s apartment.

 

“Wonder whose car that is?” he asks as he passes by shrugging his shoulders.  Today couldn’t be about Cassie or Vanity.  Today was about Lily and what he had to do.

 

 Finally, he pulls into the drive of the Hurst mansion.  Standing outside, loading the truck with beer and fishing gear was his father, Hunter.   Colton opens the door to the car and looks over to Sammy. 

 

“Wait here, son.  I’ll be right back.” 

 

Colton steps out, closing the door halfway and walks over to his dad.

 

“Hey Gramps..” He smiles as Hunter turns, giving him a small side eye.  “What’s up boy?”

 

Colton points over to the car showing his father who was inside. 

 

“Need a fishing buddy?”  Hunter leans forward looking to little Sammy.  He leans back and looks back to Colton.

 

“You finally going to do it huh?”  Colton’s eyes grew wide, and he looked utterly confused.  Hunter smirks and pats Colton on the shoulder.

 

“Have that talk with Lily, boy.” Colton exhales a huge sigh of relief and Hunter laughs.

 

“Oh..yeah, I think it’s time Dad.  If Vanity keeps having those episodes, it’s only going to get harder.  Lily was really scared.  She even asked about the safety of Sammy around her.  We all know Cassie would never hurt him, but until Lily learns the truth, I can’t blame her for being concerned.”

 

Hunter nods his head nudging Colton in the arm. “She’s a good one.”  Colton now returned the same side eye back to his dad.

 

“Load up Lil man, the fish are waiting. It is time to make a man out of you.” 

 

Hunter leans into the door frame looking at Sammy and then back to Colton.

 

“Word of advice boy, you gotta be straight up with a woman.  If you are going to tell her, tell her everything.  No holds bar, in other words. You gotta suck it up, be a man and rip that bandage off no matter how bad it hurts.  Like I’ve always said, you can’t be a puss your whole life.”

 

Colton just nods.  “Ya, you’re right.  Thanks Dad.”   Hunter gives Colton the thumbs up as he helps Sammy into the truck.

 

Colton gets into his car; he sits contemplating this call.  It’s never been this hard to ask a girl out before, but this time things felt different.   He pushes the button on the steering wheel.

 

“Call Lily.” He inhales and gets ready for her to answer.

 

“Hello..?  Lily said.

 

“Hey Lil, What are you doing tonight?” Colton asks.

 

“What am I doing?  Well, I just finished 5 guys, and I’m about to take a shower.  Why?  What’s up?"

 

Colton sat quietly for a moment; he was unsure how to respond. 

 

“Five guys…okay” he replied.

 

Lily just laughs.  “Ya, five guys, you know the burger place.” 

 

Colton shakes his head with a stupid grin on his face.  “Ya… I knew that.” 

 

The two laugh.

 

“What’s on your mind, Colton?” Lily asks.

 

“Just wondering if you felt like getting dolled up and maybe go out and get a few drinks someplace nice with me.” 

 

“Sure! Give me about an hour?  I’ll leave the front door unlocked for you, just come on in when you get here.  Do I need to call a sitter for Sammy?”  She asks him.

 

“No, I got that covered, he is fishing with the old man.  See you in a bit.” He clicks the tab on the steering wheel and ends the call. 

 

He drives about a mile up the road and pulls into the local floral shop.  He begins to look around at all the different arrays of flowers.  He spots a single rose, alone in a glass vase. He picks it up and begins to walk to the counter.  The lady standing up front smiles as Colton places the vase upon the counter.

 

“Nice choice..Big date tonight?”  The woman asks as she gets ready to ring him up.

 

“You could say that.” He replies. 

 

Seconds before the woman begins to ring him up, a man walking to the front counter holding a bouquet of purple and blue colored Lillies stands admiring their beauty and begins to show them off.

 

“Have you ever seen such a gorgeous flower in all your life?  I just got these in today, A customer special ordered them and left this one for display.” 

 

Colton looks on and smiles.  “What kind of flowers are they?”

 

“My dear man, they are the exotic Blue Stargazer Lilly, very rare for our area.”

 

Colton nodded his head; he knew those would be the perfect gift for Lily.

 

“I’ll take them!”  Colton replied.  The woman smiled and began to ring him up.

 

“Must be a special lady to get these flowers.”  She smiled.  Colton nodding his head in agreement.

 

“Ya, she kinda is.”  And walked back out to the car heading to Lily’s place.

 

Colton arrives soon after, he grabs the vase, hiding it behind his back as he approaches the front door.   He begins to knock and remembers what Lily said about leaving the door unlocked.  He pecks twice upon the door anyway and enters her home and closes the door behind him.

 

“Lily..” He calls out.

 

“Be there in a second, Colton.”  She replies. 

 

Colton stands by the front door, He wears a tight fitting, pale green button up shirt and a pair of denim jeans and boots.  Every crease in the shirt was flattened by the muscle tone in his forearms.  Lily stands at the top of her staircase, she is dressed in a snug, short black dress, with an emerald- green lace trim.  Her shoulders are bare, with only a thin strap on both sides.  Her black, thigh high leather boots begin to cascade down each step while her long black hair bounces down upon her shoulders.  Colton stands in amazement.

 

“Wow, nice!” was all he could muster out, but his facial expression gave a more positive vibe.  Lily smiles as Colton pulls his arm from around his back and hands Lily the bouquet of flowers.

 

Lily’s eyes light up as she smiles. “Woah, these are cool looking.”  She lowers her face into the bouquet smelling the array of flowers. 

 

“Thank you!” she replies. 

 

She places the vase upon the table by the door as Colton bends an elbow escorting Lily to the car.  He presses the button on the key fob and the passenger door opens.  He escorts Lily into the car and closes the door.  He walks around to the driver’s side; he manually opens and slides inside.  For several moments, he sits still, gazing back and forth to Lily as he puts the car in gear and heads down the road.   Lily sits looking confused.

 

“Something you want to say?” 

 

Colton looks into her eyes and just hangs his head a bit. Looking back up he sees the old family bar. Now of course they do not own it; they just go there from time to time. It was Charlie’s bar, a rundown hole in the wall type of bar. It seems as good a place than any. Colton turns into the parking lot and looks over to Lily.

 

 “So, you want to get that drink?” he winks.

 

Lily smiles, shaking her head and gives Colton a smirk.

 

“Nice one.” The two look at each other and begin to laugh.

 

While Colton gets out of the car and walks around to open Lily’s door for her. They walk into the bar and find an empty table in the back.  The walls are all plastered with photos of Colton, along with Cassie, Summer and Hunter back in their wrestling days.  Photos with Championship belts, Bloodied faces, Barbed wire bats, and group photos of the entire New Breed.  One photo, however, stood out more than any of the others to Colton; it was the first title belt he ever held.  He looks up to the photo and remembers that night well. 

An out of shape, older looking man, with a gray t-shirt and a pair of ripped up blue jeans walks over to the table where Colton and Lily sit.

 “Hey kid, what will you and the little Mrs. have tonight?”

Both Colton and Lily look at each other, Lily begins to snicker.  Colton stays quiet for a moment.

“Oh, No..we’re not..”  She is cut off by Colton as he orders a beer for himself and a glass of wine for her.

 

They sit and share small talk till the drinks arrive. Colton drinks his beer quickly and orders another. Lily looks at him as he starts his new beer. He drinks it slower as he tries to figure out what to say. He lets out a long sigh and pulls his phone from his pocket and starts to go through the pictures. He finds the one that he was looking for. He places the phone on the table and slides it over to Lily.

 

She looks at the picture for a while and then looks at Colton and quietly says, “You did all this, and brought me here for this? I really don’t want to see pictures of your new girlfriends Colton.”

 

Staring at his beer, Colton replies.

 

“She is not a new girl. She was the first girl. She is the one that started all this. She is the reason I have my issues and she is the reason Cassie is the way she is. I am ready to explain it if you want to know.”

 

Lily sits quietly for a second.

 

“Colton, I will listen to whatever you want to tell me. I know that we are just coparents to Sammy and that is fine with me. You know, I really care for your family and for you as well, but you have always made it clear that you never wanted anything serious, so it’s ok, you don’t have to tell me anything.”

 

Colton takes a drink and looks down upon his phone. 

 

 “She is… was Sasha. She was the first girl I ever loved, though it didn’t start out that way. At first it was just a job as her bodyguard. To follow her around when she goes out. If she went to a club, I would stand in the background and watch to make sure nothing happened. I would go to the mall with her and everywhere else. I was also made her driver after about a year. It all happened slowly. We would go to lunch and just talk for hours. It was easy with her. I tried to fight it; I really did. I knew what would happen if I ever crossed the line.”

 

Lily just sat there not saying anything, but her look told the whole story. There was a sadness in her eyes she could not hide.

 

He continued. “After another year passed I had all but given hope on hiding how I felt. We had both been hiding what we felt for each other. We were never obvious about it. It was all really low key. A simple glance, a small brush of her hand on mine, a little laugh. We thought we had hidden it well enough as not to be found out about by her father.”

 

Lily looked puzzled.  “Why would her father care? Wouldn’t he not be happy for her to have found someone?”

 

Colton gives a slight chuckle, “Oh hell no. To him I was just a servant. I was nowhere near enough for his little princess, and the bad part about it was, nobody knew she was his daughter.  She was raised by her mother and her husband, the mayor.  That is not a joke either. She was the illegitimate daughter of Dominic Mikaelson and Wendy Cunningham.  I know you know who they are.  Sasha found out many years later though, always wondered how both her parents were blond haired with pale skin and she had a darker, almost olive colored skin tone with dark brown hair, so we both did a little digging around and found the proof.  Not to mention the fact it was Mr. Mikaelson who hired me to watch over her.  So, to him I was just a guy who drove and made sure no one got close to her. We knew what would happen if he were to find out.  His family is known to have a way of handling issues like that.”

 

Lily sits up in her chair “So what happened?”

 

Colton orders another round of drinks.

 

“Well after hiding everything for about another year, we decided that enough was enough. We planned to leave together. I bought two tickets to Tokyo, I wanted to go to Europe, but Sasha said the Mikaelson’s Son was there.

 

Lily’s eyes grew wide.  “Damon?”

 

Colton nods.

 

 

“But I don’t believe he even knew she was his sister.  She grew up a Cunningham.  So, I went home that night to pack some of my things and talk to Cassie. She was the only one to know about Sasha and me. I knew Mom and Dad would be ok. They would understand when they found out, but I had to tell Cassie. I could not just leave without telling her goodbye. That was a Wednesday night. We were flying out early Friday morning. Thursday, we went through the normal paces. We just acted normally and at seven o’clock I headed home. We had plans for me to pick her up at around three thirty in the morning. We then decided that she would stay at a hotel that night. She made up an excuse to her parents that she was spending a night with a friend who was having some issues with her boyfriend.”

Lily just sits hanging on everything Colton was saying as if she were listening to a soap opera, but Colton’s phone starts to ring, breaking the tension. Lily looks at the phone.

 

“It says unknown caller.” Colton nods to Lily who pushes the side of the phone to silence it.

 

Colton continues, “I left to pick her up that morning. I had a key to the room and let myself in. I saw her still lying in bed. I walked over to wake her up. I went to shake her, and she was so cold. Her lips were blue. She was not moving; she was not breathing.  I grabbed my phone to call 911, but as soon as I pulled it out it began to ring. I answered it and all I could hear was Cassie screaming, a voice just told me an address and hung up. I ran from the room and jumped on my bike and headed that way. I was right there when a large truck came out of nowhere and smashed right into the side of me. I went sailing off the bike and slid across the street. I knew I was dead right then. That is when I saw someone, I couldn’t tell who it was, but they bent down to me and held up a phone and a video was playing of Cassie being slung into a chair and screaming for me to save her. Then the voice on the phone said.

 “You think I would not find out what you and Sasha did?  Blood means nothing to me when betrayed.  Her death is also on your hands, you little punk. just as you lost the one, you will lose this slut of a little sister of yours as well.  You were supposed to die out here, but I think this will be more fun for you to have to live with.  Live with the fact your sister will die less than one hundred feet from you.”

 

Lily sits there shaking with tears in her eyes. She reaches out and takes Colton by the hand, but he pulls them away quickly. He looks at her with tears in his eyes.

 

 “I do not remember much after that. I woke up a couple days later in the hospital. This is why Lily, this why I cannot let myself feel for anyone. You are the only one that has come close to breaking me down. Then it all comes back, and I think to myself. What if I cannot protect you, what if I can’t save you? Besides my family you and Sammy are the only thing truly good in my life. I want you safe, I need you safe. I know I am truly a fucked-up person, but you make me try to be better.”

 

Lily stands up and walks to his side of the table. She bends down so she can look straight into his eyes. She reaches up and wipes the tear he fought so hard to hold back from his cheek and whispers.

 

 “Sammy and I are not going anywhere. You and your family have given us more than anyone has in my entire life. I understand now why you are like this. Just know you do not have to be alone, that there is someone that loves you for you and not some bigshot wrestler. Just know I am here.”

 

Colton grabs Lily and hugs her tightly. He holds her long enough to let her know how he is thankful for her and to let the emotion settle within himself.

 

 “I think it is time to get home. Maybe we should stop and get everyone some dinner.”

 

Colton begins to stand, and once again glares at the image of himself on the wall, he reaches up to brush his fingers against the glass frame.  He softly sighs and smiles.  Lily is now standing by his side.

“You two seemed happy and so close back then.”

 

“Ya, back when life was simple, beer was free, traveling the world meant no school, and had parents who paid all our bills.”  He laughed.

 

“Colton…”  Lily just rolled her eyes.

 

“Nah, it wasn’t all that easy. but, what I wouldn’t do to see that smile on her face again.”  He sighed.

 

“Do you know how long I had to sit and listen to the stories of how winning those Tag Team Titles with Cassie happened?”

 

Colton smirked and shook his head watching Lily shrug her shoulders.

 

 “Enough times it took for her to gloat over the fact she got the pin.”   

 

The two laughed and Colton reached over, taking Lily’s hand in his, as they began to walk out of the bar.  He opens the door to the car for her and he walks around and gets in himself. He looks over at Lily.

 

“Before we head out, let me check my messages and see if anyone is looking for us.”