Breakaway: A friends to lovers romance

by Heather M. Orgeron

  “Yep, it’s me,” I sang as he enveloped me in his big arms, the scent of his coconut lotion filling my nose. “Colton’s good, Mr. Fowler. Really good actually...” As drained as I felt from this never-ending emotional rollercoaster of a day, speaking about Colton had my pulse racing and a smile stretching from ear to ear.

  “How good?” Mrs. Fowler broke in, waggling her eyebrows. “Did anything happen while you—”

  “Hey,” my dad barked, cutting her off. “That’s my baby girl.” He glowered her way as he walked into the room, placing a kiss on the top of my head. “None of that matchmaking business.”

  Colt’s mom ignored him, looking at me expectantly.

  “What happened is...we had a wonderful time.”

  “That’s it?” she asked in mock horror. “That’s all you’re going to give me? A wonderful time. What’s that even mean?”

  “It didn’t suck,” I shot back, sticking out my tongue.

  Momma shook her head, giggling. “Told you. Either there’s really nothing to tell, or Allie here is keeping secrets.” She aimed her first two fingers at her eyeballs then pointed them at mine.

  “Y’all are ridiculous,” I laughed, feeling the heaviness of the day beginning to lighten with each minute that passed in their presence.

  After dinner, I excused myself for a shower and sleep. But what I really needed was some alone time to call Colt. The separation was wearing me down. I needed to hear his voice. I was anxious for a response to the letter I’d left this morning. I felt like throwing up because I really laid it all out there, feeling pretty confident that he shared my feelings to some degree. Still, there was always the possibility that I was completely off base.

  I grabbed a quick shower to wash the rest of the day away before plopping down on my bed and digging my phone out of my purse, which I’d just realized I had never turned back on since the plane ride. With all of the excitement at the hospital, it had completely slipped my mind. As I powered it up and pressed my finger down on Colton’s name, I hoped he wouldn’t be too upset with me for completely falling off the grid today.

  “Hello.” My heart sunk when I heard a familiar, high pitched voice that did not belong to Colton. Pulling the phone away from my ear, I looked to make sure that I’d called the right person.

  “Is anyone there? Hellooo?” My heart rate sped up to an alarming speed. Taking a few deep breaths, I mentally tried to talk myself down from the ledge. Maybe there was a good reason—nah, I couldn’t even come up with one. He knew how I felt about her. He’d seen the way she treated me.

  “Lyla,” I deadpanned, feeling every hair on my body rise. “Where’s Colt?”

  Her responding giggle set my blood to boiling. “He’s in the shower right now...should I tell him to call you back?”

  Breathe. Breathe, Alex. “Whose shower?” I asked, biting back tears. Like it even fucking mattered. They were together. She had his phone. And he was in. The. Shower.

  “Mine, why?” she asked, playing coy.

  I had nothing. Not a single word as tears pooled in my eyes and my heart shriveled up and died in my chest.

  What the fuck was happening? I mean, we hadn’t discussed exclusivity, but if we were together...Shit. Were we together? We hadn’t had a chance to discuss that either...But we slept together. Wasn’t I worth more to him than this? I told him I was in love with him and his response was to climb right back into bed with her?

  “Wait, are you crying, Alex?”

  The broken heart I thought I’d lived with all these years had shit on the pain of this moment. It was crippling. I couldn’t have answered even if I wanted to.

  “You are, aren’t you?” She sighed loudly into the speaker. “You didn’t think a man like Colt would sit around licking his own wounds, did you?” Another giggle. “Trust me, girl, he’s got plenty of us lined up more than willing to do it for him.”

  Despite my best efforts, a sob escaped.

  “Oh, honey.” She tsked. “You have so much to learn about life.”

  She hung up, and the screen darkened. I hated to admit that she was right.

  I knew nothing. Apparently, not even my best friend. About the only thing I was certain of at that moment was that Colton and I were through. Completely. I might not have been able to control who my masochistic heart decided to fall in love with, but I had a brain smart enough to shield myself from the pain. Loving Colton Fowler came at a price I could no longer afford.

  COLTON

  WEEKS WENT BY WITHOUT a single word from Alex. Not a call. Not a text. Radio silence. I’d even been dodging calls from my parents because no part of me wanted to know what was going on with her and Dean. Our lives were so intertwined that there would be no way around it. Avoid. Avoid. Avoid, was the name of my game.

  School and ball were my go to excuses and a welcome distraction from my thoughts, which never drifted very far from Allie. Her dark hair splayed across my pillow. The scent of her shampoo embedded in my sheets. Her smile. Her laughter. Hell, I even missed her bitching and whining. My life was empty without her in it. It was a sad existence, and I needed to snap out of it. That’s why after nearly a month of sitting around waiting for her to realize she’d made a huge mistake I was throwing in the towel. There was a life for me out there that didn’t involve Alexis Mack, and it was high time I went out and found it.

  “Colton?” Finley shrieked when I descended the stairs dressed in clothes that didn’t consist of cotton and mesh. He rubbed his fists into his eyes dramatically. “Are those...dare I say it, jeans?”

  “And buttons,” Blex added, slapping his hand on the front of my shirt. “I do believe he’s risen, Finley, my man.”

  “Praise God, Allah, Buddha, and all the other saints.” Finley steepled his hands in front of his chest, taking a dramatic bow.

  “Gods,” I corrected, rolling my eyes.

  “I said God first, numb nut.”

  “They’re all gods, idiot,” Blex corrected, hooting with laughter.

  Finn scrunched his face in disgust as he slid his foot into his shoe. “You two can go right ahead and laugh your way straight to hell.” He rolled his eyes upward to make eye contact with us towering over his hunched form. “There is only one God. It’s like the deadliest of sins to believe in others.”

  Blex and I looked at each other briefly before bursting into hysterics. “Fuck, Finn. Your dumb ass makes getting out of bed worth it.”

  “I try,” he muttered, rising from the couch and stomping his feet a few times to make his pants fall over the tops of his shoes.

  “No, you don’t. That’s the best fucking part,” Blex added on our way out the door.

  Thursday night was ladies’ night, and the club was jam-packed with, you guessed it, ladies. Normally, I felt right at home in a sea full of women, but since sex with Alex, I felt guilty even glancing their way. Which was stupid. We were not together.

  “See anyone you like?” Finn asked, saddling up next to me at the bar. “I think I want that one.” His finger pointed toward the dance floor to a redhead with huge tits and a big ass, both spilling out of her barely-there outfit.

  “Nah, you go ahead. I’m gonna sit here and have a drink.”

  “Good idea,” he said, passing his card to the bartender. “Beer goggles first, then they’ll all start to look like Alex.” He did the little finger snap point as he rose from his seat. “I like it, Fowls.”

  Finley had no clue how the mere mention of her name sent my heart racing. How much of a chore it was to simply draw air when she was occupying my thoughts. That’s why when he slapped me on the back, tapping the neck of his Bud Light to mine, before hauling off to secure his woman of the night, I didn’t punch him in his fucking face for bringing her up.

  I spent the next hour stewing in memories of the girl I’d come here to forget, losing count of how many drinks I put down. Always hoping that the next would be the one to wipe my brain clean.

  “Hey there, sad and lonely...Is this seat ta
ken?”

  My eyes drifted from the label I’d been picking at to the direction of the voice to find tits. Tits as far as the eye could see. I’m sure there was a nice face attached somewhere, but right in my line of vision was an enormous pair of chesticles. “That is an amazing rack,” I muttered, appreciating God’s work of art, or maybe it was a surgeon’s doing. These days it was hard to tell. Whatever the case, I admired them all equally.

  “Why, thank you...I’ll take that as an invitation.”

  I thought I’d said that low enough so only I could hear, but apparently, I’d just given this fine woman a compliment without even trying. Maybe I hadn’t lost my touch after all. “Go right ahead, gorgeous.” And she was...gorgeous, that is. Sky blue eyes and long black hair. I wasn’t even sure she was human. It was quite possible I dreamed her up. Apparently, I was good at that...imagining things that weren’t real. Like I’d imagined the earth-shattering connection between Alex and myself.

  “So, what’s a fine man like yourself doing drowning in a bottle all alone tonight, huh?”

  I shrugged. “Drinking to forget.” With a wink, I tipped the top of my bottle to her procured glass. “Shooting for beer goggles. You?”

  She pulled her lower lip between her teeth, biting down. “Gosh, you’re a cutie—” She paused, waiting for my name.

  “Colton,” I offered, filling in the blank.

  “It’s nice to meet you, Colton. I’m Coco.”

  “My pleasure.” After another long pull from my beer, I realized she hadn’t answered the question. “What’s a beautiful woman with bazoombas like that doing all alone at the bar tonight?” Her face flushed with a shy smile. And I was worried about my game? I was killing it tonight.

  “I’m on the prowl, honey.” Well, all right then.

  “For?”

  Coco took a sip from her cocktail. “Funnily enough...beer goggles.”

  I was convinced that it was a stroke of fate that her tits showed up in my face when they did, delivering the antidote to my problem. Beer to numb the pain and breasts big enough to make you forget your name. Allie who? Okay, so obviously I hadn’t forgotten her, but I was having a good time, and that was something.

  After a few more drinks and lots of chatter, Coco and I were becoming fast friends. I felt comfortable enough to ask the question that had been weighing heavily on my mind since her arrival. “Can I ask you a personal question, Coco?”

  “Go for it.”

  “Who gets credit for the tatas?” I asked, sizing them up with my hands in the air.

  A loud laugh boomed from her chest. The deep, rich sound threw me for a moment. “One hundred percent credit goes to my surgeon.”

  “Well, the next time you see him, you can tell him your new friend, Colton, approves of his work. And that’s a high compliment. I’m sort of a connoisseur of tits.”

  The apples of her cheeks turned a deep crimson. “You wanna feel?”

  Did I wanna—? Was this chick for real? “You sure?” I asked, stupefied.

  “Sure, why not. Knock yourself out, cutie.”

  It started out lightly with a little poke, and before I knew it, there was groping and boob shots, and we’d gained a small audience. It was the best night ever. Or, at least that I could remember because my memory was blessedly a blur. Beer goggles accomplished.

  “For fuck’s sake,” I heard Blex growl as I was yanked from my stool by the back of my shirt and dragged out of the club.

  “What the hell?” I shouted, fixing my shirt. “Why’d you do that?”

  It took a minute for me to focus enough to realize that Blex and Finn were about to piss themselves laughing. “What’s so funny?”

  “She’s a dude,” Blex said, enunciating each word as soon as his obscene laughter permitted it.

  “Huh? Who’s a dude?”

  “Your new buddy in there,” Finn supplied, guffawing on the side of me.

  Nooo. “No way,” I challenged, deep in denial. So, her laugh was a little deep...that didn’t mean—

  “She had an Adam’s apple and feet the size of a small country,” Finn mused.

  Bile churned in my stomach, burning its way up the back of my throat. “Why’d you assholes let me play with man titties?” I shouted, on the verge of losing the buzz I’d worked so hard to achieve all over the parking lot.

  Blex shrugged. “You were having a good time. I didn’t see any harm in it.” A shit-eating grin crept across his face. “Well, until you started getting frisky with the man’s jugs.” He spit out another laugh.

  “Does licking another man’s nipple make you gay?” Finn asked, his face suddenly super serious. “Asking for a friend,” he added, holding his palms out before his composure cracked and the hysterics resumed.

  I was never speaking to either of them again.

  ALEXIS

  I WAS IN A deep sleep when a sound I hadn’t heard in what felt like ages had me popping right up in bed. For half a second, I debated whether to read it or not. I’d been a wreck, barely functioning since Colton annihilated what was left of my heart. Hiding the reason for my depression from my parents had not been easy, but I was dead set on not allowing this mess to cause friction between our families. I’d be civil when we saw each other, but beyond that, I had to quit him. Cold turkey. That part had been easy thus far, because not once had he even tried to contact me. Until now.

  My body went nuts, acting as if it were a live grenade cradled in my palm rather than my phone. As I swiped right, I held my breath, anticipating the explosion.

  Colt: I licked a man’s nipple tonight bcuz of you. Thanks for ruining my life.

  What the hell? I had no idea what that message was about. It was weird, even for Colt, but I stared at it for hours, imagining his fingers as they moved over the screen. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that he was drunk. It was two in the morning on a Saturday. He was probably lying in bed, thinking of me, just like I was lying in bed thinking about him. Always thinking about him. I didn’t care that he was obviously pissed. My heart raced just knowing that he cared enough to send that message. It proved that he wasn’t indifferent where I was concerned, and that thrilled me to no end. I hoped I haunted his dreams, keeping him up at night. It’s the least he deserve for what he was doing to me.

  I almost broke, typing out countless messages, and deleting them all, unsent, between the time I got his and my alarm going off at eight. It was time to get ready to go shopping with the moms, and I was running on little to no sleep.

  After I was showered and dressed, I went downstairs, finding my father on the computer, messing with his stocks. “Hey, Daddy.”

  His head popped up, a worried smile on his face. “Hey, princess. How’re you feeling?”

  “Good,” I lied, rushing off to the kitchen to grab a granola bar before he could see my tired eyes. I hated making my parents worry, but I didn’t know how to pull myself out from the dark cloud I now existed within.

  As soon as I sat to eat, my dad walked in. That same crooked smile aimed my way. “Mind if I join you?”

  I shook my head, even though I’d have preferred to be left alone because pretending to be fine when you’re not is exhausting, and I was tired.

  Dad pulled out the chair across from mine, staring silently over my head as I ate. He waited until I’d swallowed the last bite before speaking. This time there was no beating around the bush. “What did that boy do to you?”

  His directness caught me off guard. “Wh—huh?” I stammered, looking around the room. “Who?”

  Dad’s fist came down on the table, causing me to jump back in my seat. “Goddamnit, Alexis. I’m not stupid. You haven’t been the same since you got home from California. I haven’t heard you talking on the phone with him. Haven’t seen you messaging each other.”

  Warm tears streamed down my face, but I said nothing. I couldn’t. This was what I was afraid of. No matter what Colton did to me, I didn’t want my family at odds with him. Didn’t want our parents getting cau
ght up in the middle of our problems.

  “I know that it has something to do with Colton, and by you not saying anything, you’re making me think the worst...I want to fix things for you, but I can’t do that if you won’t talk to me.”

  “I don’t want you to b-be mad at hi-him,” I cried, hugging my arms to my chest.

  His face softened, marginally. “I love that boy like my own son, Alex, but you are my daughter, and I’ll be damned if I just sit by and watch you self-destruct. You barely eat. You don’t leave the house anymore but for school or if one of us drags you out...Is he in some kind of trouble?”

  His questions were making me dizzy and adding to the stress that was already more than I could handle. It was all too much, and I broke. “You can’t fix this!” I shouted, slamming my fists down onto the table.

  “I can try.” His hands covered mine, squeezing gently.

  Shaking my head, I looked him right in the eyes and gave him what he wanted, because I was done. And because I had absolutely no fight left in me. “H-h-he doesn’t l-love me back, Daddy,” I cried. “I-I-love him s-so m-much, and he doesn’t l-love me b-back.” The next thing I knew, I was in my father’s arms, crying on his shoulder. It was loud, and it was ugly. But freeing in a way.

  I’d never seen my father look so helpless in my life. “I’m so sorry, Allie.”

  “I’ll be okay,” I assured him when my tears had dried. “I’m not the first person to suffer a broken heart. Just...give me a little time.”

  He nodded, the worry lines on his face seeming to age him ten years.

  “Don’t say anything to Mom or his parents, okay? It won’t help anything.”

  After my breakdown with Dad, things actually got a little bit better. Having one person who understood my mood swings—who didn’t look at me like I was headed straight for Crazy Town, USA, made me feel a little less alone. But I still missed him. So much.

  Thanksgiving break was creeping up quickly, and Colton’s mom was heartbroken because he’d made up some bullshit excuse for why he wouldn’t be able to make it, which translated to he didn’t want to be around me. It was going to be the first Thanksgiving they’d ever spent without their only child, and knowing that it was my fault that he wouldn’t be there was just one more thing weighing me down.