Unspoken Memories (Unspoken Series)

by Gabbie S. Duran

  The ambulance arrives a couple of minutes later, and against my protests, everyone insists that I go to the hospital for X-rays. I don’t have the strength to argue anymore, so I go. As I’m being wheeled on the gurney through the house, I see the cops arresting Bill and Andre, while David, Trey, and the fourth guy are being questioned by the policemen. Matt stays at my side, and climbs into the ambulance with me on our way to the hospital.

  The whole ride to the hospital, I’m grateful that Matt and Trey showed up when they did. If they hadn’t, I wouldn’t be in the ambulance right now. I’m pretty sure I would be in a car on my way back to Seattle. There was no question in Bill’s eyes that he wasn’t going to take no for an answer. Especially since he claimed he needed me, and I’m pretty sure not in a nice way.

  We finally arrive at the hospital and they take me to a private emergency room. A nurse starts taking pictures of my injuries for evidence and I’m soon questioned by a police officer for my version of the attack. As I’m sitting in the emergency room the familiarity of the IV machine and monitors are making me very uncomfortable. The surroundings remind me Bill and of the last time I was in the hospital. I really don’t want to be here, but they insist that they need to do further testing.

  I’m once again put through the cocoon of a machine, along with taking some x-rays where my body aches, just in case. The whole time Matt never leaves my side, except when needed. His presence is the only thing keeping me calm.

  After a couple of hours, since nothing is broken, and my injuries are superficial, I’m given clearance to go home and take it easy for the next week. That’s something I’m happy about, since I was not looking forward to spending another night in a hospital anytime soon.

  As we’re waiting for them to discharge me, Matt is sitting at my bedside, holding my hand. He’s staring down at the bed, looking saddened.

  “Matt, what’s wrong?” I ask him.

  He hears me and looks up. His somber eyes make my heart ache. “When I walked into the house, and saw what was happening, my heart stopped Abigail. It literally stopped. I didn’t know who the fuck they were, what they were doing in the house, or why they were doing that to you. But the only thing I could think about was wanting to kill them for hurting you.”

  He takes a deep breath, and then continues. “I was hitting him so hard, if the cops hadn’t showed up I probably would have tried killing him. I wasn’t thinking right,” he says before dropping his head against our entwined hands.

  Guessing how guilty he must be feeling at this moment, I try to reassure him. “Matt, it doesn’t matter what almost happened. All that matters is what didn’t. I’m just thankful you showed up when you did. I had already given up Matt. I had no fight left in me, and I have a feeling he would have killed me. Even if he said he wasn’t.”

  He stands up from where he’s sitting, and hugs me. Tears fall silently from my eyes. “I don’t know what I would have done if I lost you, beautiful,” he quietly says into my hair.

  The nurse walks in the room with my paperwork to sign, and once I’ve signed them, we leave the emergency room. As I’m entering the waiting area with Matt I see Trey, and he looks worried as he walks over to me, and gives me a light hug.

  “You okay, supermodel?” he hesitantly asks.

  I simply nod my head, and keep walking towards the exit, wanting to finally go home. I’m starting to hate hospitals, since the only memories I have of them are not happy ones. I follow Trey over to where he’s parked his Jeep, and I climb into the backseat. Matt follows, climbing in next to me, wrapping his arm around my shoulder, and envelops me against his chest.

  Right now there’s nothing in the world I want more than Matt’s arms. Just being in them has a way of comforting me, instantly calming me, so I take advantage. The whole drive home we’re all quiet. It’s an eerie, but needed silence, since I really don’t want to talk about the whole situation at all.

  We arrive at the house, and I notice David’s car is still in the driveway. “Why is David’s car here?” I confusedly ask.

  Trey responds. “They didn’t want to leave until they knew you were okay.

  When we told them you were getting discharged tonight, they insisted on waiting until you came home.”

  I smile, but then easily grow worried because with all the commotion around me, I totally forgot about Kelly. I start feeling like the worst friend in the world after everything that happened. We finally walk into the house, and Kelly immediately attacks me. She’s hugging me, crying at the same time, and making me cry along with her.

  She pulls herself away from me. “I was so scared,” she says in between sobs. “After I was pushed by the big guy, I dialed 911. I left the phone on the floor as I tried to get to you.” She sobs again. “But he kept holding me back, making me watch as that other guy beat the shit out of you. I’m so sorry Abi; I tried so hard to get to you,” she says hysterically, crying.

  David comes over to comfort her and I feel so bad for her right now. It must have killed her inside to have to watch. Knowing she had to watch the beating I was taking makes it so much worse.

  “It’s not your fault, Kelly. I’m just glad you didn’t get hurt. That’s all that really matters,” I try to reassure her.

  I quickly glance over my shoulder to Matt, and then back to Trey and David. “How did you guys know they were here?”

  David shakes his head before answering. “We didn’t, we actually got done with practice early, and headed here right away. Matt wanted us to go out to dinner, but now I’m glad we rushed back.” As he mentions dinner, my face goes mournful, knowing that I had forgotten all about the dinner I was cooking.

  Kelly sees my face and giggles. “Don’t worry silly, your dinner didn’t get ruined. We actually managed to take it out on time when we heard the timer go off. We were waiting for you to get home so we can all eat,” she cheerfully says.

  Matt turns my body a bit, with a really confused look. “You cooked dinner?”

  “It wasn’t from scratch, but it’s lasagna,” I muster.

  “Shit, I don’t care was it is, I’m freaking starving. Let’s eat,” Trey says, walking into the kitchen looking for the food. I giggle at him, glad that he’s able to lighten the mood.

  Matt leads me to the dining room table, and orders me to sit. While everyone else brings the food with plates to the table, I notice that the salad is made, the lasagna is still warm, and Kelly is pulling the garlic bread from the oven. This makes me smile knowing that they actually saved dinner. When they had reminded me about dinner, I had thought it was going to be another failed attempt at cooking. It would have taken me a while to recover from it, if it was.

  As I’m eating dinner, I think of the traumatic experience I just went through, and wonder what am I supposed to do now? I’m sure I’m not out of the woods yet, but I know I have to learn to live my life, one way or another not look back, but to keep stepping forward. At this moment, there is nowhere else I would rather be than here with my new family.

  After dinner, we all ended up drowning our distress with alcohol. So Kelly and David stayed the night in Matt’s room. Matt must have been feeling paranoid, because he insisted on sharing the bed with me, promising he wouldn’t let anything happen to me.

  As we lay there in the darkness, I can’t sleep, even with the alcohol in my body. My body is facing in the direction of my bathroom, my back against Matt. By the sound of his breathing I know he isn’t asleep either.

  After the events of the day, I keep wondering how much longer I would have to hide from Bill, or if I am even safe still staying with Matt.

  “Matt,” I say, in his direction.

  “Yeah, beautiful,” he responds.

  “Do you think Bill will come back?” I ask, almost not wanting to know the answer.

  “Even if he does, I won’t let him anywhere near you,” he growls, the anger radiating in his voice.

  “Maybe I should move out, since he already knows that I’m here. I would
hate for him to try coming back and you guys getting hurt or end up in jail because of me.”

  I feel the bed begin to move, then his arm wraps around my waist, pulling me closer to him. My back is now against his chest and he forces me to lift my head so he can place his forearm under my head. I feel his face find the crook of my neck, the warmth of his breath slowly striking my skin as he speaks, “You’re not going anywhere. This is your home now as much as it’s mine.”

  Silently sighing to myself, I knew it wasn’t. But from the way he said it, I know he meant every word. I really didn’t want to be anywhere else anyways. So as long as he wanted me here I wasn’t going to argue.

  With him next to me, comforting me, I finally fall asleep. I could have blamed the good night’s rest on the alcohol, but I’d only be lying to myself. I knew it was really Matt’s warm arms that kept me sleeping through the night, and I’d never felt safer.

  WITH THE DRAMA behind me, I was finally able to slowly move forward. I stayed in the house for the next two weeks, which led to the weekend of the guys’ first football game. It was an away game, taking place in Chicago, meaning they had to fly there. It also meant that I was going to have to be home alone. Matt and Trey were not happy about it, but they had no choice, since they were the captains of the team, and were obviously expected to be there.

  Kelly had insisted that she was going to stay with me for the weekend, and it eased Matt a little. To say he was being protective was an understatement. The last two weeks sometimes felt like he was overbearing. I knew he was feeling really remorseful about what happened. I don’t know why. I tried reassuring him that no matter how badly he wanted to, he couldn’t be with me every second of the day. Although sometimes he tried, it didn’t help alleviate my feelings for him, it only increased them, and I was now a willpower expert when it came to Matt.

  It kind of sucked, knowing it was Matt’s first game, and I couldn’t be there. So making a rash decision, I told Matt I needed the credit card linked to my account to do some online shopping. I did most of my shopping online now, since the whole mall fiasco. He didn’t think much about the request and just handed it over.

  I ended up doing a lot of shopping the week before the game, but he never once questioned what it was. When I had told Kelly to pack a large bag for the weekend, she simply shrugged her shoulders, thinking that maybe I didn’t want to leave the house at all. The day the guys had to fly out, I hugged them both wishing them luck, and waved them goodbye as they drove away in Matt’s car.

  When Kelly arrived at the house half an hour later, and saw that I also had a bag packed, she gave me a confused look. She screamed with excitement though, when I told her that I had booked us first class tickets to Chicago so we could fly to the guys’ game. Five minutes later, we are piled into the car heading to the airport. We ended up flying out of a different terminal than the guys, so I don’t feel worried at all about them catching us.

  Two hours later we’re on a plane, in the air, on our way to Chicago. With a bodyguard named Julio in tow, who I had hired for the weekend. After that last nightmare I wasn’t taking any chances. He came highly recommended by a security agency, and the guy looked more like a linebacker who could be playing on Matt’s team. He was currently on a trial basis only, but I had decided if he passed the Chicago test, I would keep him on the books.

  As we are sitting in our seats drinking our champagne, Kelly looks over at me. “How in the hell did you plan all this without Matt blowing a gasket?”

  I smile at her, knowing she’s also not going to like my answer. “I didn’t tell him. I wanted to surprise them.”

  Her eyes go wide. She already knows he’s not going to be happy.

  I lay out my defense before she can begin lecturing me. “Hey, I promised not to go anywhere without protection, hence my protection,” I say, pointing my chin in Julio’s direction, which is sitting on the other side of the aisle.

  “Girl, you sure know how to get around those loopholes,” she says, referring to how I was able to deprive Bill of my money.

  I ended up telling her and David the whole ordeal the day we were drinking after the Bill incident. I don’t know if it was that I trusted both of them because of what we’d just been through, or that the alcohol had given me liquid courage. Either way they both knew, and had sworn to the same secrecy as Matt and Trey.

  Six hours later, with a slight buzz, we land in Chicago. I had arranged for a hired car to pick us up at the airport upon arrival, making the trip to the hotel easier. I had booked us the Presidential suite at the same hotel as the team, wanting to be as near to them as possible. This would also allow us to spend more time with them as well.

  The hotel was in the heart of downtown, with Chicago’s tall buildings all around us. The city was breathtaking, and I couldn’t help notice how close we were to Lake Michigan. Upon seeing it, I was already itching to run next to it. The weather here was sunny and beautiful, making it harder to resist.

  Upon checking into the hotel, we went straight to our room to settle in, and we decided to shoot the guys a text confirming that they had also arrived. Kelly ended up spoiling her end of the surprise for David. She kept asking for his room number, and he had gotten suspicious. She finally broke down and told him. I couldn’t be too angry with her, since it also got me Matt and Trey’s room number as well.

  A couple of minutes after telling him, David was in our room attacking Kelly with kisses. Since all the team members had to share a room, I had a feeling that David would be spending a lot of time in Kelly’s instead and I didn’t blame him. Not wanting to put up with hearing sounds that make me jealous tonight, I left them alone in the room, and headed to Matt’s.

  Although I’ve stood at a door waiting for Matt before, I still get nervous when I’m waiting for him to answer. My stomach is turning and my palms are sweaty, but when I finally do see him as he answers the door, it all flies out of the window. The look on his face when he opens the door and sees me is worth all of it.

  His mouth is gaping open and his eyes are wide open in surprise. “What are you doing here?” he says, before pursing his lips.

  Trey comes up behind him, curious to see who is at the door. “Oh, shit supermodel. Whatcha doing here?” he says as his face lightens up.

  “What you’re not happy I’m here?” I tease them both.

  Matt’s eyes look past me, narrowing straight to Julio standing behind me, and his face grows in agitation. “Who is he?” he asks, not taking his eyes off him.

  I look back at Julio, who raises his eyebrows, as if debating whether he should let Matt’s remark slide or tackle him. He has his arms and hands crossed in front of his chest, just standing there, watching Matt like a hawk. So far he’s doing well, I think to myself.

  I turn back to Matt and laugh. I lightly swat him directly on the chest, to try to distract him. “Calm down, bad boy. This is Julio, I hired him for the weekend, since you made me promise not to go anywhere without you as protection.”

  Behind me, I hear a snort, then a quick throat clearing from Julio.

  Trey comes to my defense, stating, “Dude, she’s got you there,” and laughing at Matt, while slapping him on the shoulder.

  Matt shoots him a nasty glare, and Trey just walks back into the room. I follow him, pushing past Matt, causing Julio to follow.

  The room now feels really small with all of us entering it, but I don’t care. I didn’t want to be standing out in the hallway any longer.

  As Matt shuts the door, I walk over to what must be Matt’s bed, since Trey is already sitting on the other one. I sit down at the head of the bed, leaning up against the headboard, and start to distract myself by picking at Matt’s uniform. He has it tossed on the bed, with some of his other clothes. It looks like he’s started to unpack.

  From the corner of my eye I see him walk over and stop at the edge of the bed. Crossing his arms in front of him, eyes drawn to a slit, his lips are still pinched in a line. He still looks aggravat
ed.

  Trying to alleviate his tension, I figure I should tease him. “Didn’t your sister ever tell you it’s not good to look pissed all the time? You’re going to get permanent frown lines,” I say to him.

  Matt’s lips turn into a deeper frown and I instantly regret mentioning his sister. I know it’s a sore spot with him, but I didn’t think before I spoke.

  “What are you doing here, and why didn’t you tell me you were coming?” he growls at me. I don’t know whether I liked the silent Matt or the snappy one.

  This only makes me regret even coming, I thought he would be happy to see me, but I was wrong. Thinking about the other person who accompanied me, I hope Kelly is having better luck with David than I am at this moment. From the looks of them practically running to her room, I’m pretty sure she was.

  I stand up, hurt in my eyes. “Obviously I wanted it to be a surprise, but by your reaction, it’s the last thing you would want. So I’m sorry I even bothered you, Matt,” I say, starting to walk to the door, with watery eyes.

  Julio is standing in the tiny hallway entrance of the room, and looks uncomfortable as he sees me.

  Matt yanks out his arm and blocks me from moving any further. He moves to stand in front of me, with regret in his eyes. “I’m sorry, beautiful,” he says faintly, in a low voice. “I’m just shocked that you’re here. I’m happy about it, really.”

  I don’t know what to say, so I stand there, with my head hung low.

  I feel his finger pull up my chin up so I could better see him when he asks, “Where are you staying?”

  “Here, in the Presidential Suite,” I say, pointing my finger at the ceiling.

  I see Trey jump up, and off his bed from the corner of my eye. “You’re shacking up in the best room in the house, and we’re stuck in this piece of shit room? Oh fuck no. Party in supermodel’s room,” he shouts with a fist pump in the air.