Fever

by Carnal, MJ

  I know that. I know that keeping these churning emotions inside is only going to make me relive it all over and over again. I can’t keep doing that. I have to let this go. I have to move on. I just need to decide if I want to move on from all of this pain with or without Connor. As much as he hurt me, I don’t think I can imagine life without him in it now that I’ve found him. He helped open up my heart to see that it was okay to let someone inside my walls; I just need him to do the same.

  Realizing now that he's going to royally freak out when he wakes up with me gone scares the hell out of me. I’m afraid of what he's going to do. I love that man so much. He is just as broken as I am.

  “I’m so confused, Michelle. I don’t know what to do.”

  “I know, babe. Follow your heart. Don’t let me or anyone else tell you what to do. I will support whatever decision you make. Even if I do want to kick some serious ass.” Michelle hugs me tightly. “Get some clothes on so we can go to sleep. It’s late as hell and you look a mess. I’m staying over, so move over and don’t hog the covers.”

  I get dressed quickly and then burrow under the covers.

  “I love you, girl.”

  “I know you do, Nae Nae. I’m damn loveable!” Michelle kicks my leg under the covers. “Now go to sleep. I need my beauty rest.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Connor

  My mind is swirling with memories of last night. She came. She actually came here to see me. She let me hold her, touch her, kiss her, claim her. Lynae’s sweet scent assaults my senses. I need to feel her against my body. I reach out to find her, but my hand only lands on cold empty sheets. My eyes pop open, completely awake now.

  “Lynae?” I call out.

  I sit up in my bed. My empty bed. Looking around the room, I don’t see her, and her pants that I know were tossed on the floor next to mine are gone. Sunlight is filtering in through the blinds. I glance at the clock, noticing it's after nine in the morning. Maybe she's in the kitchen. I know how she likes her coffee first thing in the morning. Please, dear God, let her be in the fucking kitchen.

  I toss my legs over the side of the bed and grab my shorts off the floor. Standing up, I stretch my arms over my head and make my way out into the living room. I don’t even have to look around to know she’s not here. I can’t feel her presence. I can always sense her. Instead of finding the one thing in this world that makes my life worth living, I find the one thing that I want to pummel into the ground, sitting on my couch.

  “What the fuck are you doing here?” I growl.

  Seth stands up. He looks like absolute shit, like he’s been sitting there all fucking night. “Listen, dude, I’m really sorry about everything.” Seth is holding is hands up. “But I need to ask you something.”

  Lynae must have gotten up, seen asshat sitting here and left. She was obviously pissed at him yesterday, since she apparently ran away from him crying, according to Wade. This gives me even more reason to want to kick Seth’s ass the hell out of my apartment, garage and life. “I don’t have time for this shit. Get out.”

  “Man, you need to listen to me,” Seth urges. “I saw her leaving a few hours ago. She looked more upset than she did yesterday afternoon.”

  A few hours ago? That would mean she left right afterwards. What the hell? Did I push her too far? Fuck! Did I just screw things up with Lynae even more? “I told you to fuck off. Unless you want to get hit again.”

  Wade comes sauntering out of his room, scratching his ass, looking between the two of us. “Jesus, Connor. It’s too damn early for ass kicking,” he grumbles on his way to the kitchen. “Don’t wake Gabs up. She’s a real bitch in the mornings if you wake the beast before she’s ready.”

  I shake my head at him. Not in the mood to deal with him either. I need to find Lynae. I need to figure out what I did wrong this time. I grab my cell off the counter and dial. It rings and rings, going to voicemail.

  “Baby, please call me back. I’m coming over.” I hope she'll listen to it and return my call this time. She hasn’t returned any of my other messages or texts, but maybe things are different now. After last night, maybe she's ready to talk and let me in. God, I hope so. I’m going over to her apartment. I don’t care about Michelle’s warning, I need to see her again.

  “What are you calling her for? Isn’t she still here?” Wade asks from the fridge.

  I shake my head “no” and glare at Seth, who's giving me a pissed off look. What he has to be mad about, I haven’t a fucking clue. This shit stops now. I am not going to put up with his shit. I need to know exactly what his problem is and why he's so defensive over Lynae. “Out with it. You got something to say, say it.”

  Wade quickly walks back into the living area to stand between me and Seth. “Don’t start with this shit again, guys.” He holds his hands up. “You had your little bitch fit yesterday. Leave it at that. Seth was a douche for seeing Lynae behind your back, you were a fucktard for what you did to her, we all were ball sacks for believing your drunk ass in the first place. We have all been friends for hell and ever. Now fucking kiss and make up or I’ll kick your stupid ass.”

  I don’t know where the hell Wade comes up with some of the asinine things that come out his mouth, but everything he's saying is nothing but true. Everything that has happened is all my fault. Seth is part of this fucked up group that I call family. I fall back on the couch and rest my head against the back. “I fucked up.” I groan. “Again.”

  Seth moves to sit down beside me. “Connor, I…” He lets out a deep breath. “I am sorry for not telling you that Lynae and I had been hanging out. I saw her a few weeks back at Waterfront Park, and she just looked so lost.”

  I look over at him. My gut tells me that I can trust him, that he really wouldn’t have done anything to intentionally betray me, but I still want to kick his ass. A few weeks he has had with her. A few weeks where she had been shutting me out.

  “Lynae told me that you had gone up to the hospital to see her, and she freaked,” he continues. “She fell apart. I just meant to give her a friendly hug to show her support, but when she was crying her eyes out in my arms, something changed.”

  My body tenses beside him.

  Seth senses my tension and Wade continues to stand guard, ensuring that we don’t come to blows again.

  “I can’t really explain what it is, but I can’t get her out of my mind. She just makes you want to protect her and help her.” He pauses. “I can’t help how I feel about her, but I’m not going to do anything about it.”

  Like hell he is. I won’t let him anywhere near her if I have to. There is nothing in this world that can keep me from my sweetness. She is my heart. She is my life, but I know exactly what he is talking about. Lynae has this undeniable pull to her that makes you want to keep her from ever having any pain, but that is my job. Not his.

  “You can’t have her.”

  “I know that, shithead. She’s not over you, and I don’t think she ever will be. She loves you.” Seth looks at me. “When she came out of your room last night, she looked more broken than she was that first afternoon at the park.”

  Damn, I hope I didn’t hurt her. I was way too rough with her. Please, for the love of God, don’t let me have hurt the baby. I want to help her, not break her more. “She looked upset?”

  “Yeah, she looked like she was about to bust out in tears again,” Seth replies. “She also looked thoroughly fucked.” He gives me a dirty look. “You didn’t force her into anything, did you? Lynae doesn’t need that.”

  “For fuck’s sake!” I growl. “I would never force her! I’m an asshole, but not that kind of asshole!”

  Gabbi walks out of Wade’s room in a pair of his boxers and a t-shirt. Her hair looks like a rat’s nest, and her makeup is smudged under her eyes. She stalks over to where Seth and I are and sits down between us.

  “I’ve listened to enough.” Taking each of our hands in hers, she looks back and forth at us. “You two dumbasses need to forget about
trying to fix her and protecting her, and work on making it up to her. She’s had enough shit to deal with without y’all messing things up more.” Turning to me, she adds, “Connor, I told you already that you need to give her space to let her come to terms with what’s going on. She’s scared. And…”

  “I am giving her space!” I heave in a deep breath. “She came here yesterday. She showed up here. She came to me!” But she ran away again. She is always running away.

  Gabbi tugs on my hand, gaining my attention. “Would you just hush it for a minute! Damn, you’re moody. You’d think you were the hormonal one!” she quips. “Lynae and I have talked a few times about you. She’s so very much in love with you that it is scaring the hell out of her. You were the only one she let inside, then you go and flip out on her and she’s crawled back in her shell.”

  I pull my hand out of Gabbi’s and hang my head down. I cover my face with my hands and groan. “When she walked in last night, I couldn’t breathe. Then when she kissed me. God, it felt like all the air was knocked right out of me.” My chest starts to feel tight again. I can almost feel her lips on mine still. “I couldn’t help myself. I had to be close to her. As close as I could get. I’m so fucking terrified that I may have just pushed her over the edge now.”

  “Connor, I don’t think you pushed her into anything she didn’t want. She isn’t like that. Lynae does what she wants. I know she wants you, she's just afraid to fight for it.”

  “I am trying to give her time. I am, but I just don’t know how much longer I can wait. It’s killing me knowing that she's dealing with all of this shit alone. I know she has you and Michelle, but she’s really alone with all of this. You guys don’t know her the way I do. I know what’s deep inside her heart. I want to go to her, but I don’t want to hurt her more. I just want to protect her.”

  Gabbi gets off the couch and kneels in front of me, pushing my shoulders towards the back of the couch. “I’m gonna say this once. And you’d better listen to me.” She arches one eyebrow. “I will kick your ass way worse than any of these testosterone numb nuts here if you mess this up. I think you’re right. She is alone. No matter what I, Michelle or Sly say or do, it won’t be enough. Lynae needs you. She doesn’t know it or understand it right now, but she does.”

  “I don’t want to push…”

  Wade has plopped down in the recliner next to the couch. “Dude, quit acting like a pussy and fight for her,” he says, cutting me off. “I’m so sick of you moaning and groaning about wanting to go to her but not wanting to push her. Man up, grow some balls, tell her how you feel and fix this shit.”

  “And how the fuck do you suggest I do that?”

  “You go after her. Make her talk to you. Tell her the fucking truth about why you acted like a total dumbass. Let her see you,” Wade counters.

  Let her see me? I don’t know if I can. I know I have to. But it’s just too fucking hard. God, if Kaitlin were here, she would be able to tell me exactly how to handle Lynae. Kaitlin would kick my ass too for the way I’ve acted. She will hate me when she finds out the truth. I might as well have killed Kaitlin myself.

  ~

  My heartbeat is thrumming in my ears as I walk down the hall towards Lynae’s apartment. What if she doesn’t answer the door? What if she slams it in my face? I can’t think about that. I just need to find her and actually sit down and talk to her. We haven’t actually talked at all since she kicked me out of her hospital room. Our two encounters since then were her running away from me at her work, and us falling into bed and letting our physical needs overtake us.

  Standing in front of her door, I look down at my feet. There are so many things I want to say to her, but I need to let her get out everything on her mind. I saw so many questions in her eyes last night, but the passion overruled and we lost ourselves. I raise my hand to knock on the door despite having a key. I won’t overstep my bounds and just let myself in, even though she did the exact same thing to me. Something tells me that if I had, it would end this before it even begins.

  I knock. And wait.

  I hear shuffling around inside. I see a shadow pass over the peephole in the door, then I hear the locks turning. I hold my breath. She’s opening the door. She’s actually opening the door. Thank you, God.

  “Hello, Connor.”

  I’m met with Michelle’s angry blue eyes and a snarl on her lips that tells me that she really isn’t happy to see me. “Hi.”

  She doesn’t step back to let me in, she just stands in the doorway glaring at me, arms crossed over her chest. “What do you want?”

  Michelle scares the hell out of me. I know, if given the chance, she would dismember me piece by piece and make sure my body was never found. But I’m not going to let that keep me from getting into that apartment and seeing Lynae. “I have to see her.”

  It looks like she is about to say something but the sound of coughing and retching reaches across the apartment from the back bedroom. I don’t wait a second, I rush through the door, slightly knocking Michelle off balance for a minute on my way to Lynae’s room.

  The sight rips at my heart. Lynae is kneeling on the bathroom floor heaving into the toilet. She looks pale and clammy. I immediately drop down beside her on the floor and pull her hair back from her face. “Baby, what’s wrong? Do you need an ambulance? What can I do? Tell me what to do?” I’m freaking out. I don’t know what’s wrong. “Michelle! She needs some help in here!” I call out.

  Lynae doesn’t respond to me, just continues to heave for a few more minutes, oblivious to my presence. After she finishes, she rests her head on the toilet seat and blindly reaches her hand over towards the counter. I see what she’s reaching for and I hand her the washcloth to wipe her face.

  Michelle is leaning in the doorway of the bathroom holding a bottle of ginger ale and a tube of crackers. When Lynae leans back on her heels, she looks up and just stares at me.

  Chapter Twelve

  Lynae

  When is this morning sickness going to stop? Ugh! I am so tired of having to run directly to the bathroom as soon as I open my eyes in the morning. At least it's just in the morning or when I smell coffee and bacon. Carmen said she was sick constantly with her last pregnancy.

  After my stomach expels every last drop, I lay my head down to rest on the cool seat of the toilet. I need my washcloth. I reach blindly for it, and Sly hands it to me from where he's sitting behind me. Wait a minute. Sly isn’t here. I lean back to sit on my heels and look straight into piercing emerald pools. Connor. He’s here, and he’s looking at me with the most concern and pain-filled expression I have seen.

  “Baby, please tell me what I can do to make you better? Do you need to go to the hospital?” he asks, bringing his hand up to cup my cheek.

  I open and close my mouth, unable to form words. My throat hurts from throwing up, but that isn’t what is preventing me from speaking to him. I should have expected him to show up after he woke up this morning to find me gone, but I would have thought he would be angry, not concerned and trying to take care of me.

  Connor leans in closer, bringing his other hand up to hold my face in both of his hands. “Sweetness?” he implores.

  “For the love of God, it’s just morning sickness. She’s fine,” Michelle quips from the doorway. “Now let her up so she can brush her teeth and get some soda down.”

  I continue to stare at Connor. He hasn’t moved his gaze from mine. “I’m okay, Connor.” I try to pull away from him, but he tightens my hold on my face.

  Connor’s thumbs swipe at the tears on my cheeks that have leaked from my eyes without me realizing it. “Baby, I’m so sorry I haven’t been here for you.”

  “What? What are you doing here?” I ask.

  Connor closes his eyes and shakes his head. “Sweetness, I’m here for you. I need to talk to you. I need to be with you. I just need you,” he says, bringing his eyes back to meet mine.

  My stomach clenches. I can’t really explain what I’m feeling righ
t now. It would be a lie if I said I didn’t know why I went to his apartment yesterday. I wanted to see him and talk to him and try to figure things out, but I know there is no way we are going to be able to move forward if he doesn’t open up to me and let me in. I certainly know any amount of talking isn’t going to happen with Michelle standing over us. I look past him and up to Michelle. “Can you give us a few minutes?”

  “Last time I left you alone when he found you in the bathroom, a shitstorm happened.” She glares at Connor.

  “That was different and you know it!” I snap back at her.

  I know she’s referring to the time they found me asleep in the tub, and that night ultimately led to the entire fiasco Connor and I had, but this is an entirely different situation. I know Connor knows that nothing happened and he totally blew things out of proportion. I am certain that he won’t be going off to have a drunken rage fest again. I move to stand and get off the bathroom floor, but Connor jumps up and pulls me with him. It’s a little too fast, and I get slightly dizzy from the rapid change in position. “Whoa.”

  “You can’t manhandle her like that, dumb ass!”

  Connor has his hands on my upper arms, bracing me while I clear the dizziness from my mind. “Shit! Baby, are you okay?” he asks.

  Once I steady myself, I place my hand down on the counter. “I’m fine,” I tell him, then I look past his shoulder to Michelle. “I’ll be fine, Michelle. I’ll call you later. I promise.”

  “Nuh uh. I’m not going anywhere.”

  “Damn it, Michelle! You told me last night that you would support me in whatever decision I made. I need to talk to Connor. Alone.”

  She looks at me and shakes her head. After setting the crackers and soda on the counter, she spins around and walks out. I hear her open and close the door to the apartment. Leaving me alone with Connor.