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Aleyah Lavelle had never had a boyfriend. She's had her fair share of crushes and a couple of kisses to go along with them, but they were products of teenage curiosity and so it never led to anything serious. Additionally, it had been a more than while since those few interactions occurred. When her mother got sick, she had to put her entire social life, as well as her career, on hold so that she could help out with August, who was a mere baby at the time, and work in a few places to help cover the medical bills.
Because of this, Aleyah resented her mother for her selfishness at times. The doctors had informed the woman that her illness was terminal and it was only a matter of time until the disease finally took over, a few years at most. But despite seeing many different specialists and receiving the same verdict, Aleyah's mother still wouldn't accept the fact that her time was nearly over.
And so instead of preparing her young daughter to survive without her presence, Maria chose to spend practically every single penny the family had, which wasn't much, to begin with, on multiple expensive treatments which had been proven to be a sheer waste of money by many sources. Due to this, when the woman eventually did pass away, she left little to nothing to her newly turned 18-year-old daughter and her young toddler.
For the first couple of months after the woman's passing, child protective services did a few regular checks on August and Aleyah to make sure the younger boy was getting by well and for those few months, he was doing fine. He and his sister still had enough money to put food on their table and pay for their house bills which resulted in the ceasing of visits from the government officials. Then rent suddenly got more expensive and food more scarce, and with the young girl failing to keep up, the two ended up losing their home.
They were in and out of motels every night, then trying their best to scout for a cheaper place during the day. Not long after they lost their home, Aleyah was let go from her job at a clothing store because August, whom she had to take to work with her as daycare was too expensive, had ruined some clothes while she was busy attending to a customer. Her employer, who knew of her home situation and had bent more than a couple of rules to accommodate her as a worker, had to fire her due to the number of mishaps the young boy had unknowingly caused.
From there, life completely plummeted for the two. They had to sell the little clothes and toys they had just to have a roof and some food. Some nights they even had to look for space in homeless shelters while moving from city to city in search of employment.
When they reached Birmingham, they ran into Lucas, a friend of Aleyah's who had moved away a few months prior. He let them stay with him for a while, watching August when Aleyah went out to look for some money. So then when a neighbor of his had moved out, a space had opened up, and he helped Aleyah occupy the space. It was for this reason that she felt like she owed the boy for all he had done for her.
So with all that went on in her life, the girl had absolutely no time for dating and romance. It was then not so surprising how bashful she became whenever the boy courting her went of his way to do something that would make her smile.
