I walk over and give him a hug. “Thanks for everything today, Jason. You know, I always wanted a big brother and now I feel like I have one. Think about what I said, J. Don’t be afraid to let people in. Not everyone will hurt you. Carter helped me see that.”
I walk into the room and start to get dressed. I need to follow my own advice and let the past stay in the past.
Chapter Twenty Nine
Carter
I can’t wait for Maddy to get here. I just need to see her and make sure she is okay. I am working the floor tonight; I specifically asked my manager to do it. I figure if I can’t be with Maddy tonight, at least I can be closer to her than I would be if I was working the front door.
I glance toward the door and that is when I see her. She went shopping with Nicole yesterday for an outfit that I’ll have to thank her later for.
Maddy has on a black dress that ties around her neck. It dips into a low V at her breasts and comes to a stop just above her knees. She looks beautiful. I make my way over to her and pull her into me. She has heels on that make her almost my height so she doesn’t have to stand on her tiptoes to kiss me.
I am working so I really can’t do what I want to. “You look beautiful, baby.” I turn to look at Nicole, who also has on a short dress. Jason is standing behind her and I noticed he was staring at Nicole. Was Jason checking her out?
I need to talk to him later about this. “You did well with this dress, Nic.” She smiles at me. I am really glad Maddy has a friend like her. “You don’t look too bad yourself, either. Don’t you think so, J?”
He looks at me like he wants to kill me. “Yeah, she looks great.”
“I need to get back to work, babe, but I’ll see you at midnight, okay?”
She smiles at me. “I can’t wait, and this will be my first New Year’s kiss.”
“Well, Miss Stevens, you know how much I like giving you firsts, and kissing you. So, it will be my pleasure. I’ll see you later.” She gives me a quick kiss, then they walks off to the bar. I hate not being able to be by her side, and I am worried because there are already so many people here tonight.
Madison
I am having so much fun. Nicole and I are dancing, and I’ve had a couple of drinks already. I don’t want to drink too much, though, because of what happened last time. It is a quarter to twelve and I can’t wait to kiss Carter at midnight. I am feeling a little unsteady on my feet and I need to go to the bathroom. I tap Nicole on the shoulder. “Hey, I’m gonna go to the bathroom. I’ll be right back!”
“Want me to come with?”
“No, I’m fine, girl.”
I start to walk to the bathroom and begin to feel lightheaded. All of a sudden, I am no longer walking to the bathroom, but being pulled toward the exit. I hear a lot of yelling, but everything seems to be moving in slow motion.
“Time to start the countdown, everyone!”
The countdown? I need to go find Carter. I try to walk back to the dance floor to find him, but whoever is with me keeps pulling me.
“5!”
I need to get away.
“4!”
Who has my arm?
“3!”
The door just opened.
“2!”
Carter, where are you?
“1!”
I am taken through the alley door and look up at whoever has my arm. Who is he? I’ve never seen this guy before. A car pulls up at the end of the alley and the mystery man starts to drag me toward it. My head is so fuzzy but I know this is bad. I try to get away but it feels like my limbs are made of lead and I call out for help but there is no one else around. What the hell is going on? I need to get away. He pulls me up to the car and the back door opens. I looked inside…Chris.
“Happy New Year, Madison. I told you I’d be back for you.”
I start screaming or, at least, I am trying to. My body isn’t cooperating with me. I start hitting and kicking whatever I can get my hands on. The stranger punches me in the stomach and I double over. I fall to the ground, face first, and hit my head. I think I hear someone yell my name, but it is like I am in a tunnel.
Carter
I am patrolling the floor when, out of nowhere, some drunken assholes get into a fight. I go to help break it up but, with everyone drinking, what started as a pushing match was turning into an all-out brawl.
They start the countdown to the New Year and I know Maddy will be coming to find me. I look around for her and just barely see her leaving through the back door.
I figure maybe she and Nicole saw the fight then decided to go outside to get some air and stay away from it. My eyes scan the club, looking for more people to help with this fight when I see Nicole over by the bar talking to Jason and I start to panic. I have to go find Maddy, but I am in the middle of this fight and am simultaneously trying to hold two guys. My eyes find Jason’s. “Maddy just went out the back!”
He starts running toward the door. Meanwhile, the other bouncers and I escort all the troublemakers outside. I run back into the club, but Jason and Maddy aren’t back yet. I head for the back door, hoping they are just outside talking and everything is fine.
I get outside, look down the alley, and my heart stops. Maddy is lying on the ground and Jason is crouched over her, yelling into his phone. I run as fast as I can to them. “What the fuck happened?”
“I don’t know. I came out and saw some dude punch her and she fell. I screamed her name and started running. The guy hopped in the backseat of a car and took off. I can’t get her to wake up. I just called 911 and they said they’ll be right over.”
I hear sirens in the distance. “I’m staying with her. Let the club know what happened and make sure Nicole gets home.”
Just then the ambulance pulls up. “I will, dude. Let me know when you find out anything.”
I am pacing the waiting room and no one will tell me anything. I am ready to put my fist through a wall. Nicole and Jason are in the waiting room too and everyone is on edge waiting for news on Maddy. A doctor walks in and I jump up.
“Madison Stevens?”
“Yes! I’m here for her. What’s going on?”
The doctor looks me up and down. “Sir, how do you know Miss Stevens?”
Shit! If I don’t say I’m family, they aren’t going to tell me anything. “I’m her husband.” I hear Nicole choke on the water she is drinking.
“Okay, sir, please come with me.” He walks me back and takes me into Maddy’s room. She has an IV in her arm and is still unconscious. “Mr.…?”
“James. What happened to her?”
“We tested Miss Steven’s blood and found traces of Zolpidem in her system.” He sees my confused expression, so he elaborates. “It’s a date rape drug.” Oh my god. “We ran a rape kit on her and are waiting for the results.” Rape kit? Please God, no. my stomach lurches as a multitude of scenarios run through my head. She’s been through so much already. “She seems to have a bruised rib and a contusion on her head from when she fell. Other than that, she’s perfectly healthy.”
“Okay, thank you. Can I stay with her?”
“Yes, that’s fine. She may be out for a while, though. Right now, we’re just waiting for the drugs to work their way out of her system.”
He leaves me alone and I walk over to her bed and kiss her head. “You’re gonna be okay, baby. We’ll find who did this.” Although, I already have a pretty good idea. I walk into the waiting room to let Jason and Nicole know what happened. I ask Jason if he’d recognized the guy in the alley.
He seems to have known what I was asking. “It wasn’t Chris, Carter. I’ve never seen the guy before in my life.” I tell them I’ll let them know when she wakes up and they go home. When I get back to her room, the doctor comes in to let me know that the rape kit had come back negative. Thank God. I fall asleep holding Maddy’s hand and my head resting on her bed.
I feel a hand run through my hair and I snap my head up. Her hands falls weakly to the bed. “Maddy?” I
jump up and yell to the nurse that she is awake. I walk back to her and give her a kiss. She seems surprised.
“Carter, what’s going on?” Her voice sounds strained.
“You don’t remember?” We have no idea who the guy that led her out is. I immediately thought it was Chris, but the cops say he has an alibi. If Maddy can’t remember, he’ll get away with it.
Chapter Thirty
Madison
Why am I in the hospital? My body hurts all over. It kind of feels like the morning after I’d gotten really drunk. However, that doesn’t make sense because I only had two drinks. Everything after the drinks and dancing with Nicole is a blur. My ribs and my head hurt really badly too. “Carter, why am I here?”
He tells me everything he knows. I am in shock. I was drugged? Who is the guy I left with? I start to cry. I hate that I can’t remember any of this. The fact that there is an entire block of time missing from my memory absolutely terrifies me. The nurse says they are going to discharge me today and I can’t wait to go home.
“Mr. James, these are your wife’s discharge instructions.” I look at him in confusion out of the corner of my eye. The nurse left and Carter turned to me.
“I had to say I was your husband, or they would have never let me stay with you.”
I was a little freaked out. We’d only known each other for four months. Although, a little part of me couldn’t wait to be Mrs. James.
* * *
It is the first day of the spring semester and I am more excited than I was last semester. Carter and I are happier than we’ve ever been. For a little while, it was hard after what happened on New Year’s, especially since the police have no idea who I was with that night.
I have been having nightmares about that night, and what would have happened if Jason hadn’t come to get me. It is so scary having a piece of your memory missing and not being able to do anything to get it back. At this point, though, I am going to do what I did best, suck it up and move on.
I have five classes this semester and Carter is in two of them. Chris is in one. I am dreading that class more than anything else.
My first three classes of the day are easy and when I walked out of the third one, Carter is there waiting for me. “Ready to go to lunch, Mrs. James?”
I laugh. Carter has been calling me that every once in a while since the hospital. I told him how, eventually, I wouldn’t mind becoming Mrs. James and, ever since, he’s gotten a kick out of calling me it. “Yes I am, Mr. James.”
We meet Shawn and Jason for lunch. Nicole is supposed to come, but she isn’t feeling that great. When I mention it, Jason has a relieved look. Apparently, he and Nicole hooked up on New Year’s. He said they were both upset about what happened with me. I know that it meant more to Nicole, though, and I have a feeling it meant more to Jason too.
I’ve never had a family before, but I feel like this is what it would be like. I’d do anything for these three boys and I know they feel the same. Carter is rubbing my back up and down the way he does when he wants to calm me down. I look over at him, confused because I am perfectly fine right now.
He leans down to whisper in my ear. “I know you’re worried about our next class.”
I smile because he is always so attentive. “Right now, I’m not worried about anything. You make everything else disappear. I love hanging out with you and the guys.”
He leans in and kisses me. I hear a loud groan as I pull back. Jason is laughing at us. “Do you guys really need to do that? I just ate.”
Carter throws a napkin at him. “Don’t worry. Your lunch is safe. We need to get to class anyway.” He throws out our trash and puts the trays away, while I give out hugs and say goodbye to the guys. As we walk to class, I start to get more anxious. Carter seems to sense it, too, because he gives my hand a reassuring squeeze.
When we get to class, it is pretty empty. Carter and I sit next to each other in the middle of the room. We are talking about how happy we are that we can just share the book because of how damn expensive it was.
I look up and my stomach drops. Chris is standing there, just looking at me. Carter tenses but, thankfully, doesn’t make a move...although I know he wants to. All I can think is please don’t sit next to me. Thank God, Chris decides to sit a couple of rows over, but I can feel his eyes on me all throughout class.
I breathe a sigh of relief as we are walking to the next class. Doing that three times a week is going to kill me. When I walk into my last class of the day, I stop dead in my tracks. Are you fucking kidding me?!
The bitch whore, Alyssa, is sitting there with a fake smile on her face. I look up at Carter, and he looks just as shocked as I do. We go to sit down and he makes sure we aren’t near her. That doesn’t stop her from talking over people just to get to him, though.
I think the universe hates me, and I now hate both of my afternoon classes.
Carter
Classes have been crazy, especially with the pain in the ass afternoon Maddy and I have. We are getting through it, though.
Alyssa has been relentless between sitting near to me, constantly texting me and showing up at Rebellion. It has been irritating Maddy, and we’ve been fighting over little things because of it.
It also doesn’t help that Chris is in our literature class and just stares at her the whole time. I’ve had enough of him these last few months, though. Today, Shawn, Jason, and I are going to ‘talk’ to him.
Jason turns to Shawn as we drive over. “I don’t know why you wanted to come today, kid. What are you going to do? Hit him with your anatomy book?” Jason is cracking up, but I can see it is really starting to get to Shawn.
J and I were always more athletic, and he likes to rag on Shawn about it. “Anyway…” I need to diffuse the situation between them. “What are you guys planning on doing for the summer? Maddy and I are gonna spend most of it here, but I think we’ll go home for about a month.”
Shawn looks confused. “Why are you staying here instead of at your dad’s?”
“Because the Maddy refuses to have sex in my dad’s house. While I appreciate that she respects him, I’m not going to spend the whole summer celibate. I think we’ll go home for July and when we come back, Holly and her friend, Christen, are gonna be coming with us.”
We pull up to Chris’ house and go up to his door. Jason bangs on the door so loud I think it might buckle. When Chris answers it, he smirks at us.
“If it isn’t the fucking cavalry. What do you want?”
I haven’t even been here a minute and I am ready to pound his face in. Shawn and Jason don’t look like they are doing much better. I know Jason won’t hesitate to throw a punch but, lately, Shawn seems extra confrontational too. “I want you to stay away from Maddy. You’re done trying to run into her, staring at her in class, and being a crazy asshole in general.”
He laughs as if this is all a big game which, truthfully, to him it probably is. “Aw, what’s wrong, Carter? She bored already? I warned you before, you know. You can’t turn a hoe into a housewife.”
That is it. I pull back and bury my fist into his face. I hear a crack and he goes down. The boys grab me to hold me back, even though I know that they are fighting the urge to go after him too. This is why they are here, though...to make sure I don’t kill him. “You’ll stay away from her, motherfucker, or I’ll be back.”
“Okay, I’ll stay away. Just know, eventually, she’ll come back to me. She’s mine and always will be. After all, I was her first.”
I start to charge toward him again, but Jason pulls me back toward the car. “Carter, he isn’t worth it. He wants this. He wants you to lose control. Don’t let him win.”
As we are walking back to the car, I see Shawn walking back to Chris. He bends down and, after a minute, starts walking back to the car. “What did you say to him?”
“I told him his daddy can’t save him if he can’t find him.” We all start laughing as I pull away.
***
Tomorrow is V
alentine’s Day and I need to set things up. I want Maddy to always remember tomorrow.
When she comes home, I am drowning in math homework. I swear one of the evil gods created math as a way to punish humans. This is like Latin to me, and I’ve been sitting in the class for two months now.
“Well, you look like you’re having fun, babe.” Maddy comes over and sits down next to me. I throw myself against the back of the couch and wrap my arms around her. “You want some help?”
“If by help you mean that you’ll dress up as me and take this test tomorrow, then yes, I do.” She looks at me and we both start laughing.
“C’mon, Einstein, let’s get this done.” After about two hours, I downgraded my hatred of algebra to a strong dislike. We go to bed and I smile to myself, thinking about what is going to happen tomorrow.
Madison
I wake up to the smell of something that makes my stomach growl in appreciation. I start to make the bed, when I notice a heart shaped lollipop on Carter’s pillow. It is a big pink heart with the words ‘I love you’ in white. I smiled to myself. He is so cute.
When I walk into the kitchen and see Carter flipping pancakes, I smile so big that my cheeks hurt.
I don’t know what I did in this life to deserve someone like him, but I am so grateful for it. He makes all of my demons go away, and gives me a sense of peace I don’t ever remember feeling. He is standing in front of the stove without a shirt on with his sleep pants hanging low on his hips. It is such a tease when they are like that, I just want to pull them down.
Carter makes me feel free to be sexual and not see it as a bad thing. Chris used sex as a weapon, but Carter uses it to show me how much he loves me.
He turns around and smiles when he sees me. When he starts to walk over to me doing his sexy strut and wraps his arms around me, I am ready to drag him into the bedroom.
“Some amazing man left me a cute surprise on your pillow.”
Fall for Me Page 13