“Yeah,” Thomas laughed self-consciously. “That worked out much better in my head. I respect that you have a boyfriend and stuff. So can we just go back to being friends?”
I stared at Thomas and felt bad for him. He was genuinely a good guy and wouldn’t have done that unless he thought it would be what I want. I didn’t condone what he did, but I couldn’t hold it against him either. I accepted the drink and we toasted to a do-over friendship.
Dianna disappeared with her boy-toy and I remained with Thomas. The night wore on and I felt light-headed and dizzy. That was weird, I only had one beer. Nothing more than that. I was in the middle of the dance-floor feeling the earth tilt. The music sounded too loud, and I clutched onto whoever was in front of me. Thomas’s face came into view.
“I’m so sorry, Mia,” he said in a pained voice.
I couldn’t understand a thing. My eyes felt heavy and I could see the flash of lights. I felt lips on my own and tried to push away. I could feel hands on my thighs. Someone was grasping at my dress.
“No!” I shouted. I knew this was wrong whatever was happening was wrong.
The dizziness cleared for one second when I realised that Thomas was over me and someone else was standing in the room as well. I pushed hard enough to hear a grunt and someone roll on the floor. I stumbled out of the bed, and bumped into the other person that stood in the room.
“Aiden is mine,” the voice said.
“Oh my God! Mia! Are you okay?” I could feel someone taking me by the arm.
I felt the brush of bodies, the coolness of the night air, the slam of a car door and finally me being handed over to someone.
“She’s been drugged,” a strange voice said.
“Aiden,” I whispered.
“It will be okay, honey, I’m calling him now,” Dianna said.
The dizziness took over again, I felt the slide of a needle into my wrist but I wasn’t sure.
“What the hell happened?” I heard the roar of Aiden.
“Aiden,” I whispered again.
“I’m right here, sunshine,” I felt the brush of his fingertips across my forehead. “Sleep, baby, it’s going to be okay.”
***
My head felt like a million people were knocking hammers on it. I groaned as pain flitted through my body. I groaned again.
“Easy, sunshine,” Aiden’s voice whispered across the room.
My eyes immediately sprung open and I looked around wildly for him. “Aiden?” I called out in a panic.
“Right here, sunshine,” he came into view.
He looked troubled, tired and pissed.
“What happened?” we both asked at the same time.
He went first. “Well, I got a call from Dianna at three in the morning telling me you were in the hospital. The doctor told me you were drugged and that your body was reacting to it. Not in the way it usually should, apparently whoever drugged you put too much.” Aiden stared at me, his eyes taking on a wet sheen. “You almost died, Mia.”
The realisation of what he said only struck me two weeks later when I sat on his couch and flipped through channels. Flashes of someone touching me, someone else in the room and more importantly, no one there to know—hit me all at once while stared at the screen without seeing anything. The doctors had done a rape test on me, to ensure there was no sign of forced entry and that had sent another wave of despair over me.
Someone tried to harm me, and if somehow my body didn’t start rejecting it and my subconscious didn’t start sending me warning alarms—I would’ve been hurt or killed. All because some sick fuck wanted their fun with me. I slid onto the floor crouched like a child and cried. I cried so hard that my body wracked with sobs.
Strong arms surrounded me and warm lips touched my forehead. “I’m here, Mia, nothing will happen to you. I’m here.”
The month of January came and went. Things were finally settling into place. I passed all my subjects and had only one year left of Tech. Aiden and I decided to use his room for sleeping and mine for a closet room. Aiden helped me get over the scare of having someone drug me, we tried finding out who did it but of course there were more than fifty people in that frat house that night. No one was going to fess up. Haley backed off on her weird interventions and Thomas for some reason had dropped Tech. Dianna and I became closer than what we were before, she was filled with guilt over the incident. She felt that if only she were there with me and at my side, nothing would’ve happened.
Suffice it to say, I didn’t go to any parties.
We were having dinner at his parents’ home. The dinner was lovely and each of us were laughing and joking. Carter and Emily had become like my own parents; Emily and I went shopping every weekend while Carter would often give me advice about career choices and stuff. Both always refrained from asking me about my parents and I was cool with that.
“So, Aiden told me about the drugging incident,” Allison said from her end of the table.
The fork I held slipped from my grasp and fell with a clang onto the plate. Immediately flashes of that night flitted through my head and my breathing got heavy. I was having a panic attack. I gasped and tried to grab onto Aiden who immediately lifted me and took me to his room. I saw Emily above me and I tried to say something but my tongue felt thick. Liquid spilled down my throat and darkness washed over me.
Hours later I woke in the dark surrounded my cool sheets and a warm body pressed against my back. I shifted so I was facing Aiden. His eyes were troubled and he looked down at me.
“I’m so sorry,” he whispered.
“It’s not your fault,” I replied in the same whisper. “I… it just… I hate not knowing what happened and neither do I like the fact that I make up all these scenarios about what could have happened.”
Aiden rubbed my back soothingly. “I know, sunshine, I know. I hate that she brought it up, I don’t know why she did that.”
“I don’t think she expected me to react that way,” I shrugged.
“Still—”
I laid my finger across his lips and showed him with my body that everything was okay. We had to be silent which was kind of hard when all I wanted to do was scream out my pleasure to the skies.
Chapter Fourteen
A few weeks later I got home to find another car in the parking. I walked in to find Allison sitting at the table with a furious Aiden.
“What happened?” I asked both of them.
Allison’s face was smug, she opened her mouth to tell me God knows what when Aiden silenced her with a look. “Nothing,” he said in a cold calculated voice.
I shrugged and walked up to our room.
The next day when I got home it was to my room being back as it was. My stuff was moved back and Aiden’s stuff was in his own room. I wanted to ask him what was going on but decided to let it go.
The days passed with me missing him. Literally. When I would wake, he would already be gone. When I would cover my shift at Kingston, he was nowhere to be found. On weekends, he wasn’t there at all.
He was avoiding me.
I knew it had something to do with Allison. I tried to find her as well but it seemed like she was playing hide and seek with me. Something was up and no one knew or no one wanted to tell me anything. I had a case of déjà vu coming on. This reminded me so much of the things that happened back home. My breaking point was seeing Haley leave the house the one night when I got back from my shift at Kingston. When I knocked at Aiden’s door there was no reply. When I tried to open it, it was locked. Something was wrong.
I needed to sort it out once and for all.
I sat at the kitchen table the entire day going through at least nine cups of coffee, enough to make me feel buzzed. The lights of Aiden’s Volvo cut through the darkness. I purposely left off all the lights so that he would think I wasn’t home. He got in and did the usual, lock up and threw his keys on the table. He made his way into the kitchen and put the light on.
He was startled to see me sittin
g there but tried to ignore me.
“You want to tell me what’s going on?” I asked in a soft voice.
Aiden paused and snorted. “I think I should be asking you that.”
“Excuse me?” I frowned. “What are you on about?”
Aiden put down his can of coke and looked at me with anger in his gaze and a curl to his lips. I knew that whatever he was going to do or say was going to hurt—bad.
“Did you have fun screwing me over?” Aiden spat.
“What?”
“Oh yeah, play dumb. Mia Scott knows how to play. She looks out for herself first. Isn’t that what you told me once?” Aiden laughed sarcastically. “You told me you had no heart and I fucking didn’t listen, now I’m the joke isn’t it?”
“What the hell are you on about?” I shouted.
“The fact that you’ve been playing me all this damn time!” Aiden roared making me stumble away from him. “You came in here needing a place which I gave—free of fucking charge. You needed a job which I gave without knowing you from a bar of soap. I tried to date you and be your friend and your payback was to make me feel as if I was taking advantage of you. I admitted that I had feelings for you and your reaction was to lie to me and say you felt the same!”
“I do feel the same!” I shouted back. “How could you doubt that?”
Aiden reached above the fridge and pulled out a stack of something and flung them at me, one of them managing to leave a cut along my cheek. They were photographs. Tons and tons of photographs. Some with me in it, some with me and the clothes I wore and all of those were with other guys.
“Silent now, aren’t you? Silent because I got proof!” Aiden spat sarcastically.
I looked at him with the pain from my heart reflected in my eyes. “You believe those?”
“What more do you want, Mia?” Aiden said softly. “What more do you want from me? You got a place and a job and you even got to fuck me as many times as you want. These photos? How can anyone fake that?”
I nodded once and lifted every photo from the floor. I said nothing to Aiden and walked up the stairs. I sat on the edge of the bed and looked around at the place that had become my home. I looked at all the frames around me of my friends and I. Once again, someone tried to mess with my happiness and this time they succeeded because not only did they take away my smile but they had my broken heart shattered all over again. I had begun packing my things when I noticed something…
***
I could hear Aiden and Allison in the kitchen they were arguing about something. I drug my suitcases and duffels with me. They both stopped when they noticed me. Aiden had a pained expression when he looked at my luggage, while Allison had a smug one. I paused at the door and walked into the kitchen.
“Here’s your rent for the last eight months,” I placed the envelope on the table.
Aiden looked at it and at me, I knew he was about to tell me to keep it so I powered on. I looked at Allison. “Tell me something, what was it you were hoping to do with your life after highschool?”
Allison frowned at me. “What business is that of yours, skank?”
I chuckled. “Answer the question, brat.”
Allison glanced at aide waiting for him to do something when he did nothing she turned to me. “Editing and designing, why?”
I glanced at Aiden. “Who gave you these photos, Aiden?”
Aiden glanced at me and then the photos in my hand. “Haley did, why?”
Allison started laughing really loudly. “What are you going to blame me for those photos? Trust me those are real.”
Aiden blinked and frowned at Allison. “How do you know? Haley brought it straight to me and I hadn’t shown it you. I wouldn’t show that to anyone.”
I ignored Aiden’s glare and focused on Allison. “How did you know, Allison?”
“Stop trying to cause troubles, you whore! You messed around behind my brother’s back and here is the evidence to prove it,” she gestured to the stack of photographs.
“You are so transparent, Allison,” I chuckled and pulled out my framed photos from my duffel bag.
I set them down on the table and then arrange the stack of photos accordingly. Aiden looked at them and his eyes widened.
“You see, Allison, if you are planning on going into editing… you might wanna learn how to do it properly,” I glared at her. “Scanning photographs and then cutting out the images to place them in other images? Really? Photoshop was the best you could do? Next time make sure you blur the edges so that parts of the original picture don’t show up in the new one.”
Aiden looked at Allison horrified. “Allison? Why would you?”
Allison looked stricken and tears ran down her face. “I tried to save you from her. She’s wrong for you.”
“That wasn’t your decision to make!” Aiden shouted.
“You did this!” I shouted and took a step towards her. “You messed up our relationship and you stole from my room to get these pictures.” I pointed to the one of Thomas and me outside the Tech. “It was you hiding in the bushes that day Thomas forced himself on me, wasn’t it?”
I pulled out the main pictures, the pictures that made my body tremble and my head swim with horrific images. The pictures of the night I was drugged. Thomas and some other guy over me, trying to pull of my clothes but making it look as if I was allowing them to do it.
“And this! This is the night I was drugged!”
Aiden’s head snapped to the pictures and he stared at them in horror.
“You saw me drugged, you saw me almost raped by these two and you stood and took pictures of it?” I gritted my teeth taking another step towards her.
“No, that wasn’t me. That was Haley. She told me she had something planned for the frat party. Most of these pictures were taken by her!” Allison shouted.
I snatched up all the photographs and threw it at Aiden’s face just as he did to me the night before. “You had a lot to say last night. So do I, the difference is, I have all my facts straight. Your sister and Haley framed me, they stole from my room and Haley tried to have me raped and your sister knew about it. You saw these pictures and took it at face value. You didn’t speak to me about it. Instead, you avoided me and blamed me for things I didn’t do.”
I laughed at Aiden. “The funny thing is? I told you. I told you about the incident with my best friend and that guy, didn’t I? I told you that he never believed me and never trusted me and what did you do?”
Aiden looked down. “I didn’t expect my sister to do this.”
I snorted. “You know what, Aiden? The people that hurt you the most are your family. Trust me, I’ve learnt the hard way.”
I collected all the photographs and stuffed them in my duffel. I glanced at Allison and watched as she paled at the feral look o my face. “You give Haley a message for me. If she ever comes near me again, I will take all these photographs including the ones of the night I was drugged and go to the police.”
Allison flinched in fear.
“And that goes for you too,” I said.
That was when I grabbed my bags and walked out. Leaving my broken heart with the man who couldn’t trust me enough.
Chapter Fifteen
Aiden…
I searched everywhere for her over the last three months. Dianna had known where she was but said nothing to me. Everyone was disappointed in me. My parents, my staff and so was I. The thing is, when you have your heart ripped out once, you kind of expect it happen over and over again. It’s foolish, but it’s also human nature.
It hurts to put all your love and faith into someone; only to realise that all that time you spent, all those feelings you felt and all those secrets you told—were lies.
Carolyn was my first love. She was this dream come true kind of girl. Long blonde hair, big brown eyes and a killer body that made so many women jealous and so many men drool.
We were together since highschool and were saving ourselves for marriage. At the time I spent
every dime I could on her. I bought her, her first car. I spent hundreds on shopping trips and holidays. I managed to keep my virginity intact just for her and the day we got married. I had the ring and everything setup for a surprise proposal. I was twenty-one and I had just bought the building for Kingston.
Carolyn had no idea I would be coming home early that night. I slid in quietly, holding the velvet box in my hand. I had just purchased a five bedroom family mansion with my trust fund form my granddad. Everything was set. I walked down the hall getting closer to our bedroom only to hear the gasps and slap of skin against skin. I stood still right until she screamed out her climax.
“God, Caro, that was amazing!” dickhead said from my bedroom.
“All that pent up tension from the lack of sex,” Carolyn chuckled.
“I don’t get it, why don’t you just fuck him already?” dickhead asked.
“It’s all part of the plan. You men are twisted. Give you sex and you’re reeled in. Aiden? Aiden has been brought up to respect a woman, to shower her with love and affection and money. He’s been taught to be the faithful dog in the marriage.”
“So you’re marrying him for his money then?”
Carolyn chuckled. “Of course. Have you seen the things he buys and the places he takes me? He won’t even look at another girl when I’m around. He will worship the ground I walk on. Treat me like the princess he believes I am.”
“So you can fuck around while he stays at home waiting for you?”
“Exactly,” Carolyn laughed loud and proceeded to kiss the dickhead.
I pushed the door opened then. “And what happens when that faithful dog finds out?”
That night I had felt a sick sort of satisfaction watching the blood drain from her face and see them scramble to put their clothes on. I called the police and had them locked up for trespassing. Soon after that I sold the mansion, the car and all the jewellery I bought for her and used that money to get her out of town along with a restraining order that if she ever entered Houghton again, I would sue her ass.
Worthy of Me Page 8
