I knew Ben wouldn’t do anything with her, but it was hard to get over the fact that a very well-endowed, gorgeous girl was sticking her chest in your boyfriend’s face and rubbing up against him every chance she got. For as long as I could remember, I’d put up with her flirting. I hadn’t said or done anything, but what hurt, now that I thought about it, was that neither had Ben. At no point had he ever stood up to her, pushed her away, or told her to leave him alone, and suddenly I was pissed that he hadn’t done any of that.
Ashleigh relished the fact that she was a UNC cheerleader and Ben was a football player. Any time I went to a football party with him, she was always somewhere close by. What she never seemed to get is that Ben would never go for her, not to mention the fact that he would never cheat on me. She didn’t stand a chance, and her seduction attempts had become desperate and pathetic.
The night before had been the same as always – different location, same tactics – wait until Ben was separated from me, and I was talking to other people, then move in. She never gave up. Thankfully, Ben never gave in either, and he always tended to assume the guilt over her flirting, which usually parlayed into him not leaving my side for the rest of the night. I told him time and again that it didn’t bother me, but it always did. He always felt bad that he let her get to him, but not once did he speak up and tell her to stop. I was over it.
I screamed at him in the hallway for a good five minutes before telling him I was done and walked away. I wasn’t sure what I’d meant by being ‘done’, but it had the desired effect. Ben’s face held a look of shock and awe that I glanced at before shoving past him to the back porch where I ran smack into my brother.
“Ow! Shit!” I said, my hand instantly closing over the small painful circle of exposed flesh that appeared when my wrist collided with his lit cigarette. “Dammit! That hurts!”
I looked up and glared at Chase, expecting him to make a nasty comment about my clumsiness, but instead he was looking at me with something resembling concern.
“Are you okay?” he asked, looking down at my covered wrist. In his right hand was the offending object I’d run into. It was now out and slightly crumbled, having met its fate against my skin. He looked at it once before letting it fall to the ground.
“No, it hurts like hell,” I said, realizing that the tiny burn was throbbing painfully.
“Yeah, well, fire tends to do that when it collides with skin,” Chase pointed out. “Do you want me to get you some ice?”
I shot him a dirty look at hearing the sarcasm in his tone. No, I did not want him to get me some ice.
He stared at me for a moment when I didn’t respond and then shook his head. “Put some ice on it,” he said, pulling another cigarette from his pack and lighting it. “You’ll be fine.”
I huffed once in annoyance, before turning on my heel and stalking off toward the kitchen. I wanted to cry, but I was far too pissed to let that happen. Silently, I grabbed a piece of ice from the freezer and pressed it against the seared circle of flesh, instantly feeling relief. A few seconds later, Ben appeared next to me, holding a box of Band-Aids and a tube of Neosporin. I realized he must have seen me get burned by Chase’s cigarette.
“I’m so sorry,” he said, searching my eyes for some sign that I might forgive him, as he set the first aid items on the counter.
I sighed and nodded, all the fight draining out of me. “Me too,” I said softly.
I didn’t want to fight with him. I wanted to enjoy our last night together.
“I had no idea you were so upset about Ashleigh flirting with me,” he said gently, and I could tell he was telling the truth. “Em, you know I’d never do anything with her, right?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I know.”
I could feel the ice cube melting, the water running down my arm and dripping onto the tile floor, making small puddles. Ben reached out for my wrist, taking the ice from my hand and placed it over my burn. Looking up at him, I knew I couldn’t stay mad – not when he was being so sweet.
“I think I’m good,” I said, after a few minutes.
The ice cube was almost entirely melted, and Ben removed what was left of it from my wrist, revealing a very red, open wound. The skin around it was peeled back and charred. It was far from attractive. Ben leaned down and kissed my wrist, right next the burn. Without looking up, he set to work applying the Neosporin and covering it with a Band-Aid. When he finally looked up, his eyes locked with mine.
“Thank you,” I said, grateful for his kindness after I’d just yelled at him.
“I love you, Emily,” he said, softly. “You know I’d never do anything to hurt you, right?”
“I know,” I said, leaning up to kiss him.
He deepened the kiss, wrapping his arms around me to pull me close.
“I can’t wait for later,” he mumbled against my lips, his body pressing against mine. “Do you just want to leave now?”
My second mistake of the night was hesitating. We should have just left the party then.
“Not yet,” I said as I pulled back from the kiss. “I want to find Rachel. I haven’t seen her all night.”
“Okay,” Ben said, looking slightly crestfallen, “but let me know when you want to leave. I’m ready whenever.”
I could tell he could care less about spending time with our high school friends. Of course, he wasn’t leaving the next day like I was, and I wanted to get in some Rachel time in before I was separated from her again.
I leaned up and kissed Ben long and hard. “Later,” I said seductively, before heading toward the keg outside where I could see Rachel talking to someone.
I noticed as I got closer that the someone she was talking to was Chase. She was listening and nodding at something he was saying. It was a strange scene to take in.
“How’s your wrist?” she asked as soon as she saw me. I peeled back the Band-Aid and held it up to show her. She visibly winced. “Ouch.”
“Yeah, no kidding,” I said, glaring at Chase, as I re-secured the Band-Aid. I fully blamed him, since it was his cigarette I’d run into.
His face showed no change in expression. He just lifted his cigarette to his lips and took a long drag, blowing smoke out into the night. I ignored him and turned back to Rachel.
“I need to talk to you.” I reached out and grabbed her arm, dragging her over to a corner to demand some answers. “Okay, BF,” I said, well aware that I was beyond buzzed at that point. “What exactly were you doing hanging out with my asshole brother the other night, and where exactly do you get off not telling me about it, huh?”
I’d forgotten to ask Rachel about hanging out with Chase at the concert she’d gone to the week before. Seeing them standing together, I’d remembered what Keely had told me.
“What?” Rachel asked, clearly playing dumb. “What are you talking about?”
“The concert. Keely saw you there. She said you were hanging out together,” I said, the words tasting sour in my mouth.
“Oh,” Rachel said, waving me off. “That was nothing. I ran into him at the bar, so we watched the set together. He was cool for a change. It was like hanging out with the Chase we knew when we were little.”
I raised my eyebrows at her. “Seriously?”
She shrugged and took a sip of her beer. “It’s weird, I know, but he was actually nice to me that night.”
Now I was beyond puzzled and a little annoyed. I had personal knowledge that Chase pretty much considered Rachel to be a psycho-bitch. I wasn’t exactly sure when his opinion of her, that couldn’t have been farther from the truth, had changed.
“Are you guys, like best friends now?” I asked, a little harsher than I’d intended.
I realized too late that I sounded petty and immature. It must have been the alcohol talking.
“No,” Rachel said definitively. “Not hardly.”
“But you were talking to him tonight,” I reminded her.
She rolled her eyes. “He was just telling me about how you
ran into him and burned your wrist. I ran into him at the keg and asked if he’d seen you. Trust me, we’re not friends.”
“Well, good,” I said, thinking it would be too much to stomach if Rachel became friends with my brother.
“Um, okay so I do have to tell you something,” Rachel said, sounding nervous all of a sudden.
“What?” I asked, matching her tone. The beer was definitely making me more emotional.
“I’m dating someone,” she said hesitantly.
I wasn’t sure why, but the first thing I thought was that she was going to say she was dating Chase. I knew it was a crazy notion, but for some reason, that was where my brain went. And I knew hearing that would have put me over the edge.
“His name is Michael,” she said before I could interject with my insane theory. “He’s actually the guy I went out with a few weeks ago, and we’ve been hanging out a lot lately.”
The relief if felt I was actually palpable, and I reached out to hug her.
“Rach, that’s awesome,” I said genuinely.
I couldn’t remember the last time a guy had actually made the cut with her, so this Michael guy must be special.
She went on to tell me he was going to be a senior in college at the small, private university in the next town over. Then she launched into the more intimate details of their new relationship. Listening to her talk, I couldn’t help but smile. I’d had a feeling she’d been keeping something from me ever since our fight two weeks earlier. She’d been preoccupied ever since that day, and I was relieved to find out her anxiety had nothing to do with me.
I could actually see the tension on her face ebb as she told me more about Michael. She looked happier than I’d seen her in a long time, and to learn that her happiness was because of a guy was an unexpected. But if her smile was because of him, I hoped he stuck around for a long time.
Rachel told me that he was actually leaving the next day for an internship in Chicago and would be gone for the rest of the summer, so she asked if I’d be okay if she took off early. I told her ‘hell yes’ and we made plans to get together for breakfast the next morning before I left. Since she was leaving, I figured there was no reason for Ben and me to stay at the party either, so I decided to go find him and tell him I was ready to go.
It took me a good ten minutes before I located him, and when I did, all hell broke loose. When I couldn’t find him downstairs, I went upstairs to see if he was there. I passed Chase as I made my way up the stairs. He and his friends were lounging on the bottom steps, and I had to practically step over his friend Davis to get around them.
“Excuse me,” I said curtly, stumbling slightly as I did.
“You okay, Em?” Chase called after me, and I thought I could hear a taunting tone in his voice.
“I’m fine,” I snapped back, not bothering to turn around.
“Fine,” he said, matching my tone. “I was just asking because you looked wobbly, but if you’re going to be a bitch, go ahead and fall.”
I glared back at him as I made my way to the top of the stairs, stumbling once again. Chase mumbled something I couldn’t hear, and I thought I heard Davis laugh, but I wasn’t sure.
“Ben,” I called when I got to the top of the stairs.
I looked down the hall and didn’t see him. So I walked around, peaking in the open rooms. I saw Chris DeLuca and Brittney Markham making out – eww, something I didn’t want to see – but I didn’t see Ben. I headed back downstairs, annoyed that I had to step over Chase and his friends again. I rounded the corner just in time to see Ashleigh Ballast kissing my boyfriend.
“What the fuck!” I screamed, and for the record, I had never said that word in my life before that moment. “What the hell are you doing?!”
I wasn’t sure who I was directing my obscenities at, but both Ben and Ashleigh looked up – Ashleigh with a smug smile on her face, and Ben with an absolute look of terror on his. Forgetting Ben, I charged at Ashleigh.
Before that moment, I had never gotten into a fight in my life. I had never hit anyone, besides smacking Chase upside the head, which didn’t really count, but when faced with Ashleigh flirting with Ben for years, arguing with him about it an hour before and then finding her kissing him, I lost it. I screamed, and I honestly don’t know what came out of my mouth, but I’m pretty sure ninety percent of the words would have caused FCC violations if they were said on TV. It was that bad. Then I literally drew back and punched her square in the face.
It was like slow motion as I watched her head fly back. She wobbled slightly as her hand flew to her face before she full-on screamed like a banshee. Before I knew what was happening, her hands were on my shoulders, and I was falling backward. Ashleigh had five inches of height on me and about fifteen pounds, so her weight alone was enough to knock me over, let alone the force with which she shoved me.
I flew backward, losing my balance, realizing too late that I was going to hit the ground, and it was going to hurt like hell. My body slammed against someone else, knocking the beer out of their hands. I felt it soak my shirt before I hit the hardwood floor and my head knocked against the ground. I was stunned for a second before I realized what had happened and felt some sort of liquid soak into the back my jeans.
Anger boiled my blood as I looked up at Ashleigh’s face that red with fury. It was enough to get me back on my feet, and I was charging at her within seconds. That is until someone restrained me, and I couldn’t get to her. I fought like hell to get loose, but the person holding me was stronger and wasn’t loosening their grip.
“Let me go,” I said, kicking my foot back in an effort to collide it with the person’s shin.
“No,” came Chase’s firm voice, succeeding in shocking the hell out of me. My brother was the last person I’d expected to be holding me back. “Stop it, Emily. Right now.”
“Emily, what are you doing?” Rachel asked, coming up behind Chase.
“I want to hit her,” I screamed and could see Ashleigh looking at me in fear, her right eye already starting to swell. She might have been bigger than me, but in that moment, I was scarier. My rage ignited a fury that told her I wouldn’t hesitate to kick her ass. Next to her Ben was taking it all in in stunned silence, his mouth hanging open as he looked between us.
“Take her outside, Chase,” Rachel commanded.
“Come on,” Chase said authoritatively, picking me up off the ground just enough so my feet weren’t touching the floor.
I continued to squirm around, trying to get away from him, blind with indignation, only thinking about pummeling Ashleigh again and again.
“Quit fighting me, Emily,” Chase growled. “I’m not letting go.”
Chase tightened his bear-hug grip, his arms squeezing mine so tight that I was sure they’d bruise. I honestly didn’t care. I fought until it hurt too much, and then I finally gave up. There was no way I was getting loose anyway. He was a foot taller and eighty pounds heavier than me. I didn’t stand a chance.
Once we were outside, and Chase felt confident I wasn’t going to charge back into the house, he set me down. I only then realized that I was out of breath. I stood on the deck, pulling in ragged breaths and coughing every few minutes. It seemed like forever until my heart stopped racing. The whole time, Chase stood there watching me closely, as if he was afraid I was going to make a break for it. I finally noticed Ben, who had snuck outside at some point, standing behind Chase, watching me closely. I moved to walk around Chase to talk to Ben, but Chase stuck his arm out to stop me. I swatted it away.
“Stop it, I just want to talk to Ben,” I said, giving him a look that said I would hit him if he didn’t get out of my way.
“Don’t do anything stupid, Em. I meant it.”
“I’m fine,” I spat at him, giving him the most evil look I could conjure.
I wasn’t sure exactly when I’d become a violent person, but I was angry through and through. The fact that my brother had pulled me away from releasing my anger had me upset with
him. My perspective also might have been slightly skewed at that moment.
“Fine,” Chase said, lowering his arm but not leaving. He stood to the side like a bodyguard.
I took a deep breath after watching my brother stare at me for a few seconds. “Chase, I’m calm,” I said, through gritted teeth, only half-serious. “I want to talk to Ben alone. He has some serious explaining to do.”
I saw Ben looking down at his shoes out of the corner of my eye. He looked guilty, but of course, he was guilty. I’d just caught him kissing another girl.
“Fine,” Chase said, glaring at Ben and then back at me. “I’ll be over there. Don’t do anything stupid.”
“Fine,” I said, before looking away from him and focusing on Ben.
He looked back at me sheepishly.
“Explain yourself,” I demanded, raising my eyebrows in expectation and thinking he’d better have a good reason for what had happened.
“Em, I’m so sorry,” Ben said, trying to put his arms around me. “I didn’t mean for that to happen. I fucked up. I’m so sorry. She just kissed me out of nowhere. We were talking, and then she kissed me, and that’s when you walked up. Please, you have to believe me. It’s the truth.”
I gritted my teeth for a minute then felt my whole body sink before I started crying. It was like every emotion that had fueled my anger suddenly turned into complete despair. Every negative thing I’d ever thought about Ben came flooding back to me, trumping all of the things I loved about him, and I made a snap decision.
“I can’t do this, Ben,” I said, through my tears. Ben reacted to my emotional state by trying to hug me, but I pulled away. “I’m sorry, but I can’t do this anymore.”
“What do you mean?” Ben asked, fear flooding his face as the realization of what I was really saying hit him.
“I can’t be with you. I can’t deal with you kissing another girl and all the other crap on top of it.”
“What other crap?” Ben asked in shock. “What are you talking about? Em, that kiss didn’t mean anything. Please, don’t do this. I love you. Please don’t end this. Please.”
Broken Fairytales Series Box Set (Broken Fairytales, Buried Castles, Shattered Crowns) Page 7
