Fighting for Love

by L. P. Dover

  She handed me her laptop and the memory card out of her camera before lying beside me on the bed, yawning. “I was seriously about to upload them right before I heard your truck come down the road. If you want to do it for me that’d be great. I can barely keep my eyes open.”

  Pulling the covers over us, she snuggled into my side and put her hand on my chest. I shut off the lamp to my left, leaving the only light in the room coming from the laptop resting on my thighs. Shelby’s breathing slowed down almost instantly and it wasn’t long before her hand relaxed and slid off my chest.

  Sliding the memory card into her computer, I pressed the button to have all of her pictures imported to her laptop. Since it was going to take a while for them to upload, I checked my emails and surfed around on the internet for a while. Curiosity, however, got the better of me. Searching through her picture files, I wanted to see if I could get a glimpse into her past, to see what she had been doing for the last ten years.

  There were tons of pictures, mainly with Shelby, Jace, and Lexi. It was amazing how much she had changed over the years, but yet, her smile always stayed the same. Christmas was always fun with her family because every year they had huge parties with more food than you could ever imagine. I used to take Gabriella with me all the time because it was basically the only time she got to enjoy the holiday. I was prepared to see pictures with Shelby and other guys, but out of all the pictures of Shelby with someone by her side it was never anyone other than Jace. In a way I hated the guy because he’d had ten years with her that I lost. There wasn’t a time in her life when he wasn’t in it.

  I had gone through almost all of the folders except the last two, which were labeled ‘Awards After Party’ and ‘Madelyn’ before the downloaded pictures were ready to be viewed. As soon as I clicked on the icon to display the images, my eyes went wide as the first picture popped up on the screen.

  Am I seeing this right? I knew who Lexi was, but the girl beside her looked disturbingly familiar.

  Not wanting to wake Shelby up, I quietly slipped out of bed and opened the dresser drawer that held the envelope of pictures; the pictures that were supposedly of me and all the women. Was it my mind playing tricks on me or did I actually see what I thought I did? Quickly going through the pictures, I was about to give up when at last I came to the one I was looking for.

  There’s no fucking way it’s her.

  Surely, it couldn’t be, could it? The more I looked at the picture, the more I noticed the resemblance. She had the same blonde hair, the same colored eyes, and the same damn star tattoo on the side of her neck below her ear.

  It is her. It’s the same Hayley.

  What made it worse was that the guy who was supposedly me in the picture didn’t have the same body or tattoos, but I sure as hell recognized who they belonged to … Kyle Andrews.

  “Holy shit.”

  How am I going to tell Shelby this? What I really wanted to know was how someone she’d known for years would want to hurt her. She hated me, that was evident, but it didn’t make sense why she would deliberately cause problems with Shelby. All along it was her when Shelby and I were trying to think of other scenarios, including blaming my own sister.

  Back when I met Hayley I had no clue what her name was, just like a lot of the other women I slept with. I had met her about eight months ago at a party when she basically shoved me into a room and stripped all of her clothes off. After that I swore I would never forget her; although, that might have been because the bitch went crazy on me and threw a vase at my head when I wouldn’t sleep with her. Granted, she was drunk because I could smell the liquor on her breath, but I literally had to pry her hands off of me. It also happened to be the last party I ever went to.

  Mason and his wife, Claire, were the ones who helped me realize that there was more to life than winning and fucking. A long time ago, I knew there was more to life, but I lost my way. Hayley was the first girl I deliberately turned down, and it just so happened that the first time I tried to do something right, it bit me in the ass. She was the first of many girls who fell in line hating me as well.

  The only thing I worried about was what was going to happen to Lexi and Shelby. Lexi had a loyalty to her sister and also to her best friend, but if she picked sides she would lose one of them. I didn’t want Shelby to lose her best friend, but I also refused to let her get screwed around by someone she thought she could trust.

  I was going to tell her, but I didn’t want to wake her up when she looked so beautiful and peaceful asleep on the bed. Because when morning came, there wasn’t going to be anything peaceful about her day.

  AFTER WATCHING SHELBY SLEEP FOR a couple of hours, dreading every minute of the sun coming up, I finally nodded off and shut my eyes for the last hour of darkness with her in my arms. Her alarm went off and I swatted it so hard that it flew across the room, making her jolt awake.

  “Oh wow,” she mumbled groggily.

  Grabbing her by the shoulders, I made her lay back down. “You didn’t hear anything, angel. Come back to sleep.”

  “Matt,” she groaned, trying to get out of my hold, “I need to get ready for work.”

  “No, you don’t. Just stay with me today,” I begged.

  She smacked my arm, which was around her waist, and laughed. “What’s with you this morning? Usually you’re ready to go by now.”

  Yeah, that was when I had a full night’s sleep and I wasn’t worried about telling her the bad news. “Come on, Matt, let me go,” she ordered playfully.

  Finally releasing her, she got out of bed and went straight for the bathroom. She came back out with her toothbrush in her mouth and entered her closet. “I have something to tell you,” she mumbled from inside her closet.

  She came out with a set of clothes and raced back into the bathroom to spit out her toothpaste. “Oh yeah, and what exactly is that?” I asked.

  After turning on the shower water, she took off her T-shirt and underwear, tossing them at me before marching back in the bathroom to get into the shower. “Well, after everything that happened last night I didn’t get a chance to talk to you about what Hayley told me,” she called out.

  Yeah, I can only imagine what that lying bitch told you.

  I got out of bed and stood by the bathroom door so we could talk instead of yelling across her room. “What did she say?” I inquired curiously.

  “Believe it or not, I never even thought to ask her how she met Kyle in the first place. When I finally asked her last night, she said that one of her dance students introduced them to each other. She said her name was either Mary or Maria. Do you know anyone by those names?”

  She peeked at me from around the shower curtain, raising her brows, and waited on my answer. “Yes,” I replied, “I know a couple of Mary and Maria’s, but no one that would pertain to this situation.”

  Pursing her lips, she pushed the curtain back in place and continued on with her shower. “Hmm … I don’t know then. She said she would find her records and give us a name in a couple of days. Maybe that’ll help us figure out what all is going on.”

  I scoffed. A couple of days?

  She was biding time to think up more lies. Shelby turned off the shower and flung the curtain back, dripping wet and naturally beautiful. Handing her the clean towel that hung on the rack, I stepped out of the way. “Thank you,” she uttered warmly.

  “You’re welcome, angel.”

  Turning on my heel, I walked over to her laptop that I had sitting on the floor, along with the picture of Hayley, and set them both on the bed. “Is everything okay? You’re not acting right this morning,” she pointed out, furrowing her brows.

  Reaching for her hand, I pulled her over to the bed and made her sit beside me. “Last night when I uploaded your pictures with Lexi and Hayley, I found out something really important.”

  She lifted her brows and waved me on. “Keep going. What did you find?”

  I handed her the picture of Hayley and Kyle and showed it to her. Na
rrowing her eyes, I could tell she wasn’t really seeing it because I knew all she could focus on was the face … my face. “Look at the girl,” I said. “Doesn’t she look like someone you know?”

  Holding the picture closer to her face, she stared at it for a few seconds before her eyes went wide when she realized who it was. “Oh my God,” she choked in horror. “It’s Hayley. I didn’t look at all of the pictures, so I had no clue.”

  “Yes,” I agreed, “Now take a look at the guy she’s with. Do you recognize the tattoos? They sure as hell aren’t mine.”

  Covering her mouth with her hand, she gasped and closed her eyes. “How is all of this possible? When I asked Kyle if it was Hayley who helped him he made it sound like she was nothing to him.”

  “And she probably isn’t,” I said, “but she lied to you, angel, and so did he. I’m pretty sure she’s the one who’s helping him.”

  “How did you recognize her from the picture?” she asked. “There’s no way you could’ve made the connection.”

  Taking a deep breath, I blew it out and nodded. “You’re right, that’s where the other part of the story comes in. You see, I happened to have met Hayley once before about eight months ago.”

  Instantly, Shelby stiffened and glared at me. “Did you sleep with her?”

  “No,” I replied truthfully, shaking my head. “I didn’t sleep with her and that’s what started this whole thing.”

  Her whole demeanor changed, and I could see the fire raging behind those chocolate brown eyes of hers. “Tell me,” she demanded. “Tell me everything.”

  As much as I hated to, that was exactly what I did.

  THE SECOND MATT SHOWED ME the picture of Hayley I thought I was going to be sick. I couldn’t seem to wrap my mind around the fact that she’d played me the whole time and lied to my face. Why would she do that? One thing was for certain, I was going to find out the answers and I didn’t give a damn that it was seven o’clock in the morning.

  “Shelby, what are you doing?” Matt asked hesitantly.

  Wet hair and all, I pulled it up into a ponytail, and quickly dressed in a pair of jeans I had lying around and the first shirt I could find, which happened to be a plain gray sweatshirt.

  Huffing, I slid on my tennis shoes. “I’m going to Hayley’s to find out why the hell she turned on me.” I rushed out of my room, picture in hand, and grabbed my purse from the counter, along with my keys.

  “You’re not going by yourself,” Matt shouted from my bedroom.

  Emerging in a pair of black track pants and a wrinkled red T-shirt, he ran his fingers through his dark hair and followed me out the door.

  Before I got in the car, I glanced over at him and noticed the worried expression on his face. “I’ll be okay, Matt. I got this,” I told him honestly.

  Opening the door, I slid in and waited for him to buckle up before putting my car in gear and speeding off down the road. Hayley didn’t live too far away, so I knew it wouldn’t take long to get there … maybe ten minutes.

  Matt put a hand on my thigh, rubbing in smooth circles across my jeans. “What are you going to say to her?”

  “I’m not sure yet. I’ll figure that out when I see her. That is if I don’t slap her unconscious before I get the first word out.”

  When we arrived at her house, Josh was in the driveway wearing a nice pair of gray dress pants and a blue button down, preparing to get into his black Land Rover. His eyes went wide when he saw me. “Shelby, what are you doing here so early in the morning?”

  “Where’s Hayley?” I asked, not stopping to talk to him. I wanted to find her, and if I had to bust down her front door I would do it.

  “She’s inside getting ready to work out,” he hollered behind me. “The door is unlocked.”

  As soon as I opened the door, I yelled her name as loud as I could, “Hayley! Hayley, where are you?”

  Upstairs, she rushed to the banister and peered down at me. “Oh my God, Shelby? Are you okay?”

  Glaring up at her, I spat, “Don’t play that innocent bullshit with me, Hayley. Tell me how you found out about me and Matt? I never told you, and Lexi said she didn’t tell you, either. So how?”

  She laughed and waved me off. “Shelby, have you lost your mind. Lexi told me about you and Matt the night of my party.”

  “I’m not talking about that,” I snapped. “I’m talking about a long time ago, before me and Matt even started seeing each other again. You and Kyle schemed this whole plan so you could throw it back in Matt’s face. I’m assuming with all the pictures that were taken, you guys planned on videotaping the sex if Kyle were to get me into bed with him. That would’ve been the ultimate blow to Matt, but I’m happy to say you failed.”

  “I–I have no idea wh–what yo–you’re talking about,” she stammered incredulously.

  Gritting my teeth, I charged up the stairs. The moment I got to the top, I thrust the picture in her face. “This is what I’m talking about. That’s you in the picture, Hayley, and the guy who appears to be Matt is Kyle. Do you care to explain what the fuck is going on? How could you do this to me … to Josh? You’ve been cheating on him with Kyle!”

  She snatched the picture out of my hand with a scowl on her face. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. This picture doesn’t mean shit.”

  Hayley brushed right past me and started down the steps, but I followed close on her heels until we got to the bottom floor. “Fine, if you don’t want to admit to this picture, why don’t you tell me about the time you threw a vase at Matt’s head. I’d like to know how you’re going to lie your way out of that one. Or better yet, what did I ever do to you for you to turn on me like this? You were like family to me, Hayley.”

  Mouth wide, she gasped and turned to face me. “What did Matt tell you? He’s the one who likes to lie. I bet he said I was the one who came onto him, didn’t he?”

  “Really?” I scoffed. “And you’re going to tell me that you didn’t? You expect me to believe that?”

  “It’s true,” she cried, wiping her dry eyes. “He tried to attack me.” Hayley was a dancer, not an actress, and her pity party attempt to thwart me wasn’t getting her anywhere. It was pathetic, and I could see right through it.

  Grabbing her by her shirt, I slammed her into the nearest wall as hard as I could, knocking the breath out of her. “Enough of the lies,” I yelled in her face. About that time, Matt and Josh both rushed in through the front door.

  “Tell me why?” I shouted.

  Almost instantly, her whole mood changed and her gaze narrowed, honing in on me with nothing but hate. Where was the Hayley I thought I knew?

  “Okay, Miss Perfect, you want the truth? Well, here it is. I had my eye on Matt for the past couple of years and no, I didn’t know at the time of your history together. We partied with the same crowds, and one night I figured it was time to make a move. Never have I been turned down by a man before, but he had the audacity to look at me like I was a piece of trash on the side of the road.”

  “That’s probably because you ripped off all your clothes and basically tried to force yourself on him,” I snapped in disgust.

  She gasped. “He told you that?”

  “He told me everything.”

  Rolling her eyes, she scoffed and continued, “Whatever, he’s not worth it anyway.”

  “You still didn’t answer my question. How did you know about mine and Matt’s past? Lexi promised she didn’t say anything to you.”

  She stared at me for a few seconds, and her lips spread out in a mischievous smile. “No, my sister didn’t say a word since she’s completely loyal to you no matter how much I prodded. It was your mother, Shelby. She was the one who told me about Matt when I ate lunch with her and my mother.”

  You have got to be kidding me. I knew my mother loved to spend time with Janet, Lexi and Hayley’s mother, but I never thought she would bring up Matt after all this time.

  “When?” I asked incredulously. “When did you talk to my mo
ther?”

  “Oh, you know how our mothers are. They like to meet a couple of times a month for lunch. I’m surprised she didn’t tell you she saw me; although, it figures since no one ever seems to notice me. Anyway, of course, you were the topic of conversation. Since your mother thought I already knew everything about you because we’re such great friends, she didn’t have a problem with telling me a few things. Like, take for instance, all about your high school sweetheart, Matt Reynolds.”

  “At first, I was thinking there was no way she could be talking about the same Matt Reynolds, but when I asked if he was the MMA fighter, she confirmed it. Then again, you’re Shelby Dawson … you get everything you want,” she sneered.

  Exasperated, I scoffed and shook my head. It made me sick how much she reminded me of Kyle. It was amazing how selfishness and greed could warp someone’s mind to turn on those that care for them.

  “I don’t get everything I want,” I said, raising my voice with each word. “I bust my ass and work hard for the things I have. I get them the right way … the honest way.”

  “Yeah, well, you got the perfect job earning more money than I could ever dream of making, a sexy and famous boyfriend, and a family that supports you know matter what you do. For ten years I’ve watched my sister idolize you and follow along in your footsteps, practically living in your shadow. Our own mother talks about you as if you were the daughter she never had and always wanted. I can’t even be around her without her asking about you and fawning all over you. All I heard after I graduated high school was why couldn’t I be more like Shelby, why don’t I do this like Shelby. I’m sick of being second best.”

  By the time she finished speaking, her chest was heaving up and down with angry, ragged breaths, and the gorgeous crystal blue eyes of hers that I loved so much were now emotionless and bitter. I barely recognized her.