Taking my phone out, she answers it, snapping, “Leave her the fuck alone Matt!” before hanging it back up.
A minute later the phone starts to ring again and Kelly pushes the ignore button, then turns it off. I start quietly crying, I can’t help it. Just knowing that I have the worst luck with guys, and it’s finally caught up with me.
We finally make it to Kelly’s and since she had called David on the way to give him the details, he was already waiting for us at her apartment. He took one look at me and instantly came over to give me a hug and lead us back into the apartment. Once inside, Kelly led me straight to her couch, leaving me there as she walks away.
She comes back with a bottle of tequila and hands it to me. She hands me the shot glass to go with it, but I ignore it, taking the bottle from her hands. I take a big giant swig, straight from the bottle. It burns going down, causing me to gag and cough. I take in a big breath and do it all over again. Kelly sits down next to me on the couch taking the bottle from me, then does the same. David decides to avoid partaking in our tequila misery-binge, but instead sits there shaking his head at us with a chuckle.
“That’s how I found my fiancé,” I say to them, finally breaking the silence.
Kelly sits there like she’s debating whether to say something, but decides to just nod her head at me. David sits there, looking compassionately at me with his elbows on his knees.
Looking over at him, I sit there confirming to myself, this guy must really love Kelly to put up with me as well. Most guys would have run to the woods to avoid a woman in misery. Then I think to myself, I wanted that so badly. Right when I thought I had found someone like David, I find him fucking some girl’s brains out on the dining room table.
I sniff my nose, wiping it with my sleeve. “I shouldn’t have let anything happen this morning because of his whole friends with benefits shit, so in reality it’s my fault. I let it get too far,” I say out loud, the words coming out of my mouth uncontrollably.
That’s when David’s eyes go wide with the realization of why I was like this. Poor guy was stuck in the soap opera of my life. He considered Matt one of his closest friends, but since he loved Kelly and she was on my side, he’s obviously torn. David gets a worried look on his face before asking, “Do you care about him? I mean like, have you fallen in love with him?”
I know I should not admit my answer but I simply nod my head, because that’s all I can do at this time. Kelly hands me back the bottle and I take another drink, hoping the fuzziness from the tequila will replace the misery.
Another hour later, David is passed out on the couch. Kelly and I have made our way to her bedroom so our talking wouldn’t wake him. We are sitting cross-legged on her bed, discussing what I should say to Matt the next time I seen him.
I am so wasted that I’m not thinking straight and I’m pretty sure Kelly isn’t that far behind me. Wanting to give Matt a piece of my mind at this very moment, I dig through my purse looking for my phone. I turn it on and look for Matt’s number. I look over at Kelly and put my finger to my lips signaling her to be quiet.
Matt answers almost immediately. “I’m so sorry, beautiful,” he says to me.
It pisses me off that he’s trying to be affectionate with me right now. “Don’t fucking beautiful me, Matt. I bet you call all your fuck buddies that to get in between their legs, and to think, I almost let you put your dick between mine,” I shout at him.
I look over at Kelly as she’s trying to catch her herself from the swaying caused by nodding her head once, really hard at me. Knowing I have her encouragement makes me carry on.
“I bet the only reason you even let me live with you is so you can say you fucked Abigail Adams, right? Well, here’s a wakeup call for you Matthew Garcia, it’s going to take a lot more than you calling me beautiful to get in between my legs. Because I’m worth a lot more that a quick fuck!” I say, staring directly at the phone that I have taken away from my ear so I can look at his picture. For some reason I needed to see his face as I bitched him out and the screen with his picture on it was the closest thing to it.
Kelly grabs the phone from me and hangs it up. After fumbling with it, she finally manages to turn it off and we sit there laughing at each other. I already feel drowsy, so lean back to lie down and finally pass out.
I wake up the next day, with Kelly lying next to me in her bed and I start to chuckle to myself when I see her drooling all over herself. She looks like she isn’t going to have a good morning, and I’m pretty sure the nauseated feeling coming from the pit of my stomach confirms the same for me.
Staring at her, I think, this girl has stuck with me through the worst of my crap. Without me even asking. She’s a keeper.
We both eventually get up and eat breakfast a couple of hours later. David sits there with a grin on his face, and I’m pretty sure that if Kelly didn’t feel just as bad as I do, she’d be smacking it from his face. My head is still spinning a bit and my stomach is worse. My throat feels like it has a frog lodged in it wanting to come up.
As much as I don’t want to go home and face Matt, I know that I have to do it sometime, so I finally turn on my phone thinking about last night. The crazy thing is I don’t remember much after David falling asleep. Saying that the night was a total blur is an understatement. Once the phone is finally powered up, I notice a text message left by Matt a couple minutes after we left.
Abigail I’m sorry about you walking in on me like that, it won’t ever happen again. I’ll use the bedroom from now on. M
I don’t care if he uses the bedroom. I don’t want to know when he’s fucking someone else, period. After checking my voicemail, it only confirms that he left a message pretty much saying the same thing and stating the house was safe to come home to now. Being that Kelly knows why I was really upset, this makes her even angrier with him when I give her the details.
I reach over the table to give her hand a squeeze and tell her, “It’s not his fault, and he has no idea how I feel about him. Especially because we made a deal not get involved with each other.”
Her face goes pissed. “You must really care about him, since you’re defending him for fucking someone else the same day he almost had sex with you.”
I wince, taking in the reality of the situation. “It’s not about caring about him; it’s about knowing that I could never have a real relationship with him. After what happened with the last guy, I’ve now learned my lesson and the last thing I need to do is jump into a relationship with a guy who is used to passing his dick around.”
This earns me a full laugh from Kelly, making her eyes water, while David sits there trying not to be judgmental.
“Okay, but if he breaks your heart, not even David will be able to stop me from kicking his ass,” she says, pointing her finger at me.
Now I’m the one laughing along with David. “From what happened to the last guy I won’t need your help. I’m pretty sure I could handle Matt myself. You’re welcome to finish him off a second time though,” I say smiling.
Kelly throws her hand up for a high five, which I give her. David just shakes his head at both of us saying, “Remind me to never do anything to Kelly that will have both of you coming after me.”
I look over at him. “Damn straight,” I deadpan, making us laugh again.
She eventually gives me a ride back to the house and I only see Trey’s Jeep in the driveway, leaving me relieved as I walk into the house. When I walk in Trey is sitting on the couch eating a bowl of cereal, while watching TV, so I go over and sit on the other end of the couch. “The table isn’t good enough for you to eat on?” I ask with a smirk.
He raises an eyebrow at me and says, “I figured since you weren’t here to force me to eat at it, I choose not to.” After eating another bite, he adds, “Anyways, who knows if he’s cleaned the table?”
Even if he’s trying to lighten the situation, it isn’t helping. “So he told you?” I sadly ask.
Finishing his cereal, he plac
es the bowl on the coffee table. “Yeah, I came home from having my own fun to find Matt all fucked up with a weird look on his face. He eventually told me.”
“Why would he be upset about me walking in on him?”
Trey shrugs his shoulders. “Fuck if I know what’s going on between you two.”
My body tenses up, wondering if he suspects anything. I mean, it’s not like Matt and I advertise our little escapades. As far as I know, Kelly and David are the only ones who know something even happened between us at all.
“Where is he by the way?”
“Where the hell would he be? Running off his steam. I don’t know how he can do it with the hangover he had, but shit if I care,” he says, looking back at the TV.
Wanting to be alone right now, I get up and head to my room. I decide to take a shower and try to wash away the awful feeling I have. When I’m getting out of the shower I hear voices coming from the living room and realize it’s Trey talking to Matt.
My body immediately tenses up thinking he’s going to come straight to my room, but I hear the hallway bathroom door shut, and the shower start up. Feeling relieved, I quickly get dressed. A couple of minutes later I’m lying on my bed changing the ringtones on my phone, and I hear the knock on the door that I’ve been dreading.
“Abigail, can I come in?” I hear Matt ask through the door.
“Sure,” I answer automatically.
Matt walks in and he does look like shit. He comes into the room and shuts the door behind him, walks over to the edge of the bed, and sits down. I know he’s trying to keep his distance from me, because usually he would have come and sat next to me on the bed. But this time he’s purposely putting distance between us.
He must have come straight to my room after the shower, because he only has on a pair of running shorts, his chest is bare. Normally I would have already been fighting my body not to react at seeing him like this, but after yesterday, I think my body won’t have that problem anymore. I’d only have to remind myself of the image of seeing him with another girl, one that will forever be engraved into my memory.
As he’s sitting there, my eyes automatically start roaming up and down his body. I’ve made my way up to his upper body and that’s when I notice he has what looks like a bruise on his left shoulder. I narrow my eyes to try to get a better look at it. “What the hell is that thing?” I demand, scrunching my nose. Then it dawns on me, that it’s a huge hickey on his shoulder.
Astonished at it, I cross my arms on my chest. “What the fuck Matt, does she like to play rough while you’re fucking her?” I say, pointing my chin at his chest.
Matt looks down at what I’m looking at, then he looks back at me with a smile, and his brown eyes are boring right back into mine.
“Actually Abigail, that was a lovely souvenir from you,” he says, cocking his head to the side, looking at me through his half-closed lashes.
Growing confused by his answer, I quickly scan my memory of what happened yesterday. Then I remember that my lips were on his shoulder, but I didn’t know I was so out of control as to the point of giving him a hickey.
“What is it you want?” I ask, practically scowling at him.
He morosely says, “I wanted to talk to you about last night.”
“Look Matt, there’s nothing to talk about, it’s your house, you have a right to fuck whoever you want, when you want,” I say to him.
He just winces, as if he wasn’t expecting me to say that.
“She came over looking for Trey and since he wasn’t here she practically threw herself at me, and it just… happened,” he says, his voice full of regret.
My eyes go wide because the last line I wanted to hear is that one. I would have preferred any other excuse but that one, and it angers me.
Sitting straight up on the bed, my eyes going wide before I attack him with, “Don’t you fucking say that it just happened. Nothing just fucking happens. So don’t give me that fucking line. It’s the same line he gave me and it’s the same shit I walked into. So unless you want to start comparing notes with him… Don’t! Fucking! Apologize!” I yell at him.
This time it’s his turn to throw his eyes wide open and he’s opening and closing his mouth in disbelief as if he wants to say something else. Instead, he gets up off the bed and walks out of the room leaving me staring at the door that he just slammed. I sit there, forcing myself not to cry. I don’t want to let him win this time.
Knowing that I don’t want to risk facing Matt today, I keep myself in my room for the rest of the day, sleeping my depression off. I only leave the room once to make myself a sandwich and take it back to my room to eat.
I purposely avoid looking at the table, because the last thing I need right now is a flashback of last night. Knowing how hard I fought for us to actually eat on that table and then for him to use it to fuck someone on it only hurt more. Like Kelly pointed out, hours after he left me sexually frustrated. It makes me want to go in there and rip that damn table to pieces. I really need to get myself under control or I might just go crazy.
IT’S THE NEXT day and I’m lying down on the couch and turn on the TV. Of course it’s on the damn sports channel as usual, I really doubt at this point that they watch anything else. The guys are at practice, leaving the house quiet and I hate it. It only makes me think of things. Things I don’t want to think about.
I leave it on the channel since it reminds me of them and start watching a re-run basketball game that is playing. It must have started to bore me because I close my eyes and drift off into a dream.
I’m at a basketball game. It’s for a school, high school to be specific. Teenage boys are scrambling around on the court and I’m concentrating closely on number 11. He currently has the basketball and is dribbling it. He can’t seem to find a player on his team to pass it to and it’s frustrating him because he only has 12 seconds to do something.
As I look at the scoreboard, the home team, which is the team he plays on, is down by two points. The time is running out on the clock for the fourth quarter. The guy blocking him is shoving him, with his arms out to the sides, obviously keeping him from seeing where he wants to pass it.
The teenager takes this chance, faking that he’s going to move to the left, then moves to the right as the player behind him goes to the left. Allowing him the opportunity to move forward. He dribbles the ball across the court just outside the three-point line and stops. As the clock dies down to two seconds left he shoots. I hold my breath, I’m so nervous. My heart feels like it has stopped, as I watch the ball fly through the air, praying that he makes the shot. The ball is in mid-air when the buzzer goes off, then I watch it sink right into the circled rim, through the net, making the winning basket.
The crowd goes crazy and his team all run to congratulate him. As I’m cheering with the crowd, he turns around to face me, he points to me, and I point right back at him with tears running down my eyes from the happiness. As he turns around to continue to celebrate the win with his teammates I see the back of his jersey that says, Garcia.
I wake up, shocked as I’m gasping for air. I have tears running down my cheeks from what I’ve just seen. As much as I love seeing Matt’s past, I’m really starting to hate these memories a little. They allow me to see a side of Matt that I want to ignore when I’m upset at him. It’s as if they appear to help me understand him better, even though I want to be mad.
Remembering what I’ve promised Matt’s sister, I realize that no matter what happens in my life I have to keep my promise to her. Even if it means never having a relationship with him because I could risk jeopardizing that promise, as much as it pains me, I know I can’t break it. He means too much to me.
A COUPLE OF days go by with Matt and I dancing around each other, and it’s killing me. Although we don’t ignore each other completely, we only make enough small talk to not make it seem awkward around other people.
As I’m getting ready to go out shopping with Kelly this afternoon I need to c
all Julio to notify him of my plans. I can’t find my phone, which is strange for me since I take that thing with me everywhere. The last time I had it I was in the living room. So I head in that direction on a mission to find it. As I walk into the living room I notice Matt and Trey are watching the sports channel as usual.
As I bend over and start digging my hands into the recliner, thinking it must have fallen into the cracks of the cushion, I ask, “Have you guys seen my phone? I can’t find it.”
They don’t answer, so I turn my tilted head and see them both staring intensely at my ass. I feel something at the bottom of the cushion and get excited. Only to wrap my hand around the remote for the sound systems we’ve been searching for. So I dig it out, turn around, and chuck it at Matt with all my might since he’s the one I’m angriest at right now. He instantly reacts by ducking his head, causing the remote to whiz by him knocking into Trey’s head instead.
Matt throws his head back laughing while Trey rubs the spot on his head where the remote connected.
Pleased with myself that I was at least able to catch one of them, I say, “That will teach you to stare. Will one of you call my phone? I need to call Julio, or else I’m recruiting half the football team to take me shopping. As you guys requested.”
Matt only groans. He digs out his phone from his pocket, and after tapping on the screen a couple of times, I begin to hear my phone start to sing. It’s vibrating and I knew You Were Trouble is blasting for all of us to hear.
I hear the music come from close to Matt’s feet and he looks down at the ground. My phone is on the floor under the couch at his feet. He picks it up and the words resister to him and his mouth goes into a deep frown.
“You changed my ringtone?” he says with his eyebrows drawn.
Trey says, chuckling, “That one is better, it suits you dude.”
I grab the phone from his hand, practically yanking it from him, ignoring his scowl. I walk away shooting Julio a text with my plans, asking him to meet me at my house as soon as he can.
Unspoken Memories (Unspoken Series) Page 19