by James, Lylah
I pulled harder.
It didn’t open.
“Mommy,” I called out, but then I realized…
My parents weren’t home. Daddy said he had a business meeting, and they would be home late. They were always busy, always leaving the house in the morning before I woke up and coming home later, after I’d gone to bed. That was why Nala was here to keep me company. She was Mrs. Kanavaugh’s daughter, our maid.
I pulled at the door even harder.
It wouldn’t open.
No, no, no.
“Nala! Nala, I’m here. In the basement. Nala, come find me!”
I slapped the door, punched and kicked and screamed. My throat started to feel dry, and tears slid down my cheeks. I didn’t like crying. I had to be strong, like daddy. He never cried.
But I couldn’t… stop… the…tears…
“Daddy,” I yelled, feeling myself go cold.
Scared… I was so scared and cold. Why was I so cold? My teeth rattled, and I shivered, feeling more tears slide down my cheeks. My face was wet as I cried more.
I didn’t like this.
Why couldn’t I open the door?
Why? Why?
I pulled and pulled, but the door was too heavy for me, and it wouldn’t open.
“Mommy, please! Mommy! Daddy!” I screamed.
Why couldn’t anyone hear me?
Maybe… maybe… they’d eventually realize I was missing, and they’d come find me later. Mommy knew of this hiding spot; she’d know where to find me.
I sank to the ground, bringing my knees to my chest.
Mommy and Daddy would find me, I knew they would.
“When they come home, they’ll search for me,” I murmured.
I had to be strong. Strong like Ironman. I had to be strong like Daddy.
I didn’t know when I had fallen asleep or for how long, but when I opened my eyes again, it was dark.
So dark, I couldn’t see anything.
The lights, what happened to them?
Oh no.
I couldn’t see…
I couldn’t breathe…
“Mommy!” I scrambled up, searching for an escape.
I punched the door, but my hands were too small, and they started hurting.
But I didn’t stop.
I punched and screamed louder. “Mommy! I’m here. Daddy!”
It was so dark. I didn’t like it; I didn’t like the darkness. I never did. It scared me, that was why mommy always left my night light on.
“Help! Help me! I’m in the closet… help… me…”
I couldn’t breathe…
I couldn’t breathe….
“I can’t… help…. I can’t… breathe… mommy…”
My heart was beating too fast.
I couldn’t see anything.
It was dark, so so dark.
My body shuddered, and I stumbled on the floor, next to the door, still scratching and punching.
“Can’t… breathe… daddy… please… please… come find… me! Please…”
I cried.
I didn’t want to; I had to be strong, but I couldn’t stop.
I cried harder.
“I’m… scared…”
My hand went numb until I couldn’t feel it anymore. “Don’t… leave me here… mommy. Help,” I whispered when I could no longer scream.
Everything hurt.
My head. My throat. My hand. My body.
Everything.
And it was so dark. There was a monster in the dark, like in the movies. I could feel it watching me, and my skin crawled.
The monster kept watching me; I couldn’t see it, but it was there.
I still couldn’t breathe.
“Help…”
Mommy and Daddy had promised they’d always find me wherever I hid. They said they could feel me because I was their baby, and they’d always know where I was.
They… lied.
They didn’t find me.
“Don’t… leave… me alone,” I begged, but I could barely hear the words.
“Please.”
My body swayed sideways, and I fell to the ground, my head touching the cold tiles of the closet. I curled into a small ball, trying to chase the cold away.
Come find me, mommy.
Don’t leave me, daddy.
“Please… I’ll be… a good boy. I… will… never ask… for another toy… or chocolate. I will…never cry again… I promise. I promise… I will… be good, a good boy… promise, mommy. Please, daddy… please…”
They lied.
They didn’t find me.
“Help me.”
They left me with the monster in the dark.
“Please.”
They forgot me.
“Mommy… daddy…”
I jerked awake, gasping and breathless. My body was so cold; I was numb and shaking like a fucking leaf during a storm. The bedsheet was soaked with my sweat, and I swallowed past the heavy lump in my throat.
It was just a nightmare.
Lies.
How could it be just a nightmare if it followed me when I was awake?
My heart pounded in my chest, and there was dull pain.
The world spun, and I wanted to vomit as my stomach churned with nausea. The pain in my head flashed hard and heavy.
Breathe. Fucking breathe. Goddamn it.
Slamming my fist into the mattress, I let out a snarl. Hate. Anger. Self-loathing. Pain, so much fucking pain clashed together, and my head swam with all the emotions. Fuck this, FUCK!
I rolled over and grabbed the bottle on the nightstand.
I convinced myself I wasn’t an alcoholic, but tonight… I had to drink, had to forget.
Taking a long sip, I felt the alcohol burn down my throat, and I winced, my brows furrowed tight with pain. My temples twitched, and it felt like I was sticking hot needles into my eyes as I continued to drink from the bottle.
My stomach heaved as I remembered how I called out for my parents, but they never came… and then I remembered crying on Lila’s shoulders, like I had done before in that closet when I was seven years old.
Lila saw me at my weakest and I hated her for holding me like that, as if she cared.
She didn’t.
No one did.
My heart thumped harder, almost angrily, and it pumped acid through my veins, except I was…drowning.
It was then I realized that you didn’t need water to drown.
Just like there hadn’t been any real monster in that closet when I was seven years old, but the monsters had been in my head, and to this day, I couldn’t escape them.
My body swayed, heavy and lethargic, as I took one last gulp before throwing the empty bottle on the floor. I fell back on the bed, sinking into oblivion.
Sweet fucking silence.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Lila
Gran pushed a box in my hand. “Storage, please.”
She patted my cheek affectionately before rushing away to help the customer waiting for her. Gran was always on her toes. That was exactly why I told them to hire more people to help in the store. Old people were stubborn to the bone.
My gaze slid over the windows as I walked out of the storage. When I caught sight of who I was looking for, my heart skittered a beat.
Black hoodie, ripped designer jeans and leather boots.
Maddox looked almost too good to be true. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he was some kind of fallen angel. But he was anything but.
Maddox stood outside, his hood over his head as he smoked his cigarette in the cold. He had his hands shoved in his pockets, and his head bent low, staring at the ground.
Something had shifted between us since that day.
A week had gone by. Maddox was still his usual asshole self, but sometimes, I got the feeling he was purposely avoiding me.
The only time I saw real mirth in his eyes was when I hid a pink, glittery dildo in his locker. It was during lunch, the hallways crowd
ed and bustling with students, when Maddox opened his locker. Mr. Big Ben aka Mr. Dildo slapped him square in the face while everyone around him gasped and promptly started laughing.
I had winked and sashayed away, satisfaction coursing through my veins, after seeing the look on his face. I made him grin, a real smile since that day we had been locked in the storage room.
The dildo prank was two days ago.
Yesterday, he retaliated with fake cockroaches in my bag and my sweater. I remembered throwing my bag on the ground, screaming bloody murder, while the students burst out laughing like it was the best joke of the century.
It was humiliating to say the least. I wanted to be mad. I had every right to be, but the moment I had spotted Maddox laughing, all my anger faded away.
Poof, just like that.
“He doesn’t look very cheerful, does he?” Gran came to stand beside me, watching Maddox through the window. “He came in early today to help with inventory, and he hasn’t eaten anything yet.”
“He didn’t have lunch?”
It was almost three in the afternoon.
A customer called for Gran, and she patted me on the arm before walking away.
Before I could think through my actions, call my instinct to help, I had grabbed a wrapped sandwich from the fridge and was walking out of the store.
Maddox looked up as I approached. He took one last inhale of his cigarette before throwing it on the ground and crushing it under his feet. He blew out a cloud of smoke before licking his lips, eyeing me up and down. “What’s up, Garcia?”
Silently, I pushed the sandwich toward him.
He quirked up an eyebrow. “Is this a peace offering?”
“Gran said you didn’t eat,” I said as an explanation. I was just being… nice. There was nothing to it.
Maddox grabbed the sandwich from my hand, our fingertips touching briefly, before I quickly pulled away. “Careful there, Lila. You’re starting to look like you care.”
My eyes snapped to his, and I glared. “I’m being a decent human being. Give me back the goddamn sandwich if you’re going to be an asshole.”
Maddox was already ripping through the wrapping before I could finish my sentence. He took a huge bite, chewing hungrily. “Sorry, Sweet Cheeks. You can’t give a hungry man food and take it away. Just like you can’t put a pussy on display in front of a horny man and expect him not to devour you.”
I blew out a breath. He was absolutely impossible. “Does everything have to be sexual for you?”
Maddox took another bite of the sandwich. “We were born to be sexual beings. Why not embrace it?”
I leaned against the window, watching the cars drive by, as Maddox devoured his sandwich in big bites. He was obviously hungry. Once he had polished the last bite, I broached the forbidden topic.
“That day… in the storage room,” I started.
I didn’t have to look at Maddox to feel the change in him. When he spoke, his voice said it all. “Speak of this again, and I will mess you up so fucking bad–”
“Why are you so full of anger?” I cut him off before he could finish his threat. “I’m not your enemy.”
He let out a humorless laugh. “That’s a pretty ironic thing to say considering our relationship, if you’d even call it that.”
“It is ironic, isn’t it?” I finally turned to look at him. He had a shoulder against the window, facing me. His eyes were bright blue in the sunlight, glimmering and hiding something darker.
Who was the man behind this mask?
“But I’m not going to hurt you. That was never my goal. I’ve only been trying to get even with you.”
Maddox and I had been playing a game of cat and mouse. It was infuriating but harmless.
He cocked his head to the side. “So, you’re saying, you won’t hurt me unless I hurt you first?” he questioned with a rough, gravelly voice.
“Yeah, it’s only fair. If you hurt me, I’ll make you regret it.”
“You’re the first girl who hasn’t fallen at my feet and begged me to fuck them.”
“What does that make me?”
He grinned, wolfishly. “My prey.”
I let out a laugh, instead of being offended like I would have been two months ago. “You have a one-track mind, Coulter.”
“You’re running circles around my head, Garcia.”
Was that a… confession?
I backpedaled away from him. “Gran will expect us back to work in two minutes.”
Swiveling around, I went to walk away but then stopped. There was a sinking feeling in my stomach, a gut-wrenching feeling that I was about to do something so fucking stupid. But I couldn’t stop myself. I had always been a girl who planned ahead, never doing something so… reckless. After life punched me in the face and left me scars, I vowed I would never be foolish.
Always in control.
Always cautious.
But apparently Maddox’s reckless habits had been rubbing off on me.
I marched back to Maddox, standing a mere foot away. So close I could feel his warmth.
“You know what? I think me and you can be really good friends,” I announced, the words spilling out before I could stop myself.
Yeah. Stupid, right?
His eyes widened a fraction before he scoffed. “How does me wanting to get in your panties equal to us being good friends?” He eyed my hand, the one stretched out between us. “And are you really waiting for a handshake?”
Goddamn it, what was I thinking?
Heat burnt my cheeks in embarrassment. “I’m trying to be civil here,” I said through clenched teeth. “I just think… if we’re so good at being enemies, imagine us being on the same side?”
It was true. I was tired of fighting with Maddox, day after day, over and over again. It was time to call truce, to end this war and to start over.
There was an unreadable gleam in his eyes when he spoke. “You’ll bring Berkshire to its knees, Sweet Cheeks.”
I’m going to bring you to your knees. I kept that tidbit to myself.
Maddox looked thoughtful for a second. He rubbed a thumb across his square jaw before giving me a simple nod. “Fine.”
Wait…really? I blinked, waiting for him to laugh and call me pathetic.
He didn’t.
Maddox stared at me expectantly.
Holy shit.
I swallowed past the nervous lump in my throat, and this time, I showed him my pinky. “We solemnly swear to not share any animosity between us anymore and we’ll play nice.”
If Maddox thought I was being stupid, he didn’t show it on his face. “I solemnly swear not to be an asshole, but I’ll still think of sixty-nine ways of how I can dick you down every time you look at me or shake your ass my way.”
“Maddox!” I hissed, heat blooming in my cheeks at his crude words. I was no saint, but damn it, he knew how to make a girl blush.
He let out a throaty chuckle, the sound coming deep from his chest. Maddox wrapped his pinky around mine, squeezing it the slightest bit.
My lungs burnt, and I realized I’d forgotten to breathe.
This is it, I reminded myself.
The end of something; the beginning of something else.
I didn’t know how serious Maddox was or if he’d keep his words… I didn’t know if he knew the meaning of friends, I didn’t know what tomorrow would bring us, if he’d be back to his usual asshole self, but I knew one thing – I no longer wanted to be on the opposite side of Maddox.
“Friends?” I breathed.
“Friends,” he agreed.
***
Maddox
I watched Lila walk away, back into her grandparents’ store. I scratched my three day old stubble over my jaw, thoughtful.
The door closed behind her, hiding the perfect view of her ass from my feasting gaze. I had to remind myself to look away because, fuck me, Lila could bring any man to his knees with an ass like that.
Our eyes locked through the glass win
dow, and she was smiling. A genuine fucking smile.
Lila waved at me to come inside, and my feet followed. If I was a puppy, my tail would be wagging back and forth.
Ah, for fuck’s sake.
Friends?
Friends.
I paused at the door, blinking as I came to a sudden realization.
The moment Lila aimed for my dick in that coffee shop, I was fascinated. Girls were usually on their knees for me, worshipping my dick like it was the best meal of their lives. I never had a girl who wanted to cause Maddox-Junior pain instead of pleasure, until Lila.
When she had smirked over her shoulders before walking away, I was instantly intrigued. Who was this girl?
I made it my mission to find more about her, to study her… and to break her. She was my pet project and I had wanted to bring her to her knees. Someone feisty as her? It would be sweet when she’d finally beg me.
Two months later…
Lila Garcia just fucking friend-zoned me.
Well, shit.
A laugh bubbled from my chest. Little Miss Perfectionist was ballsy, I had to admire that. I never had a girl friend before. If someone had a pair of tits, Maddox Junior had a one-track mind. Sex. Plain and simple.
Lila had three things that made me weak. Tits, pussy and ass big enough for my greedy hands.
I scoffed at the thought. This was going to be interesting. I wondered how long she’d last. The games have changed; the tables have turned, and I was going to play her game now.
Who was going to break first?
The player or the prey?
Fuck, this was going to be fun.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Lila
A firm hand landed on my ass, squeezing the soft flesh like its personal stress ball. The warmth of his body radiated against my back and the familiar, spicy scent of his cologne filled my nose.
“Take your hands off my ass. We’re friends, Coulter.”
When he didn’t let go, I elbowed him, and he let out a small ouf. Maddox came to my side as we walked to our English class. “Wait, I thought you meant friends with benefits. Because that’s the only type of friends I do.”
I rolled my eyes. Day three of us being friends, and Maddox was still an asshole. A somewhat bearable jerk, but still a jerk. Apparently, he couldn’t grasp the concept of just friends and was still trying to cop a feel.