Saved (Tempted #2)

                           Saved

               By Heather Doltrice

Five years ago.

After I dropped Emma off at home, I had gotten a text from West to meet him at the old field. There was a party there every night of the week. Smiling, I shot him a quick reply letting him know I was on my way.

West and I had been dating secretly for about a year. The only people who knew were his best friends Roman and his brother, Ethan. And our families. I wanted to make it public but he insisted on keeping it under wraps. It hurt me more than I let on. But I wasn’t going to risk losing him. He meant too much to me.

I mean I know that we were kind of an odd couple. He had two sleeves of tattoos and one of his ears were pierced. And me, well I was a cheerleader and prom queen. We ran in two very different circles but love doesn’t care who your friends are or how you look. And you can’t help who you fall for.

He was mine and I was his, that’s just the way it was.

I wanted the whole town to know how happy he made me but he kept fighting it. Anytime I would bring it up he would get really weird. So I just dropped it. I’d rather have him in secret than not at all.

But a part of me couldn’t help but wonder if he was embarrassed of me. Is that why he didn’t want anyone to know?

I wanted to tell Emma but I didn’t want her to have to keep that from her parents.

They were super strict and it was almost impossible to lie to them. And as much as I loved her I knew she would crack under the pressure and tell them. They would probably even forbid her to be friends with me.

Trying to steady my breathing, I did my best to shake off my nerves. I had big news to tell West and I hoped he would be as happy as I was.

Parking my car beside West’s Camaro, I walked through the crowd in search of my boyfriend. Seeing Ethan and Roman, so I walked over to them to ask if they had seen him.

“Hey, Guys.” I greeted them.

“Hey, Mad-dog,” Ethan said, pulling me into a half hug.

I had no idea where that nickname came from but I liked Ethan so I just rolled with it.

“Hey,” Roman said, looking around the party.

Roman usually joked around with me about brining Emma. It always seemed to me like he had a huge crush on her. But for some reason tonight he wasn’t in the mood to joke, it seemed like he wasn’t even in the mood to talk.

“Where’s West? He texted me and told me to meet him here,” I said, trying to spot him out.

“Yeah, I think he went over to get a beer.” Roman said, still not looking at me.

What was his problem?

“Okay then, I’ll see you guys later.” I told them, walking away.

Why was Roman acting so weird? He was usually so friendly. Something was up.

Maybe he was just having a bad night, I had them all the time. I told myself I was just paranoid. So, I walked over to where all the kegs were located. I caught sight of West walking in behind one of the trucks parked by the kegs.

Following him, I couldn’t believe what I saw. West had the school slut, Marilyn Martin, pushed up against the truck with his tongue down her throat. And his hands was roaming her body.

“Really? West, how could you do this to me?” I shouted.

Hearing my voice, he pulled away from her. And you know what he did next? He smiled.

Marilyn stormed off. Probably off to steal someone else’s boyfriend.

“Hey, Babe,” he said, walking closer to me.

That’s what I called him. Why did I feel as if he was mocking me?

“Don’t come near me! You just had your hands all over someone else, I don’t want them anywhere near me!” I shouted back farther away.

“It wasn’t official, Maddie. There’s no way you thought this was real, I mean I hid you for a year. That didn’t tell you anything?” he asked with a smirk.

“You’re lying! What we had was real and you know it!” I said, fighting back the tears threating to run down my face.

I wouldn’t let him see me cry, I wouldn’t let him know how much his words broke me.

“That’s what they all say. You didn’t think you were the only one, did you?”

“Yeah, I did. Stupid me, I guess when it comes to a guy like you I should have known better.”

Ethan and Roman chose then to show up. Had they known he was cheating on me the whole time? Why didn’t they tell me? And then I remembered they were his friends, not mine.

“What do you want from me?” he asked, smirking.

“I want you to look me in the eyes and tell me that you don’t love me. And I want you to make me believe it.”

Running his fingers through his dirty blond hair, he let out a heavy breath.

“Maddie, listen good to what I’m about to say and rest assure that you can believe what I’m about to tell you. I don’t love you. Never have.” he said like it was nothing.

He said it the way you tell someone what time it is. He said it like it didn’t hurt him at all but more than anything. He said it like it was the truth.

“Thank you,” I told him as I turned to walk away.

“For what?” he asked, scrunching his eyebrows in confusion.

“For showing me who you really are and stopping me from wasting any more time on you.”

“You’re very welcome, sweetheart.” He said, laughing at me.

“I hate you,” I shouted at him, hoping I made a scene. I wanted everyone to see what he really was.

Pushing my way through the crowd, I ran to my car and climbed inside. Punching the steering wheel, I did something I never let anyone see me do. I cried.

Starting the engine, I sped away from the party. Away from West.

I turned the music up as loud as it would go and pressed my foot all the way down on the gas pedal.

I knew I was speeding but I didn’t care. I had to get as far away from him as I could.

How stupid was I? I should have known that he didn’t love me. I guess the signs had been there all along but I misread them. Like always.

I was going to miss our long phone calls, the way he kissed me, the way he made me feel, and being around him. But most of all I was going to miss being his. I mean if I ever really was his. After what happened I wasn’t so sure anymore.

I let myself fall so deep in love with him. But I would never make that mistake again. There was no way I could trust my heart with West ever again. I had to stay strong.

The only good thing about tonight was that I didn’t have to share what was supposed to be our big news with him. Because it no longer had anything to do with him and I wanted him to have no part in it.

Hearing my phone ringing in my purse, I reached over to get it. But I dropped it on the floor board. Cursing, I reached down to get it but couldn’t reach it. So, I gave up and leaned back up. The first thing I saw was headlights. Swerving, I tried to slam on the brakes but I wasn’t quick enough. My car ran into a tree and the crunch of the metal crushing made me flinch.

Taking my seatbelt off, I tried to get out of the car but I felt an intense pain shoot though my leg. I couldn’t get out of the car, I couldn’t move. My vision started to get blurry and the scent of blood assaulted my nose. The last thing I could remember was looking at my lap and seeing nothing but red. And then everything went black.

Grabbing the big brown box from the U-Haul truck, I looked over at my new roommate, Grace.

I missed Emma but I was happy to see her get everything she wanted and then some. She truly deserved it.

“We should have called some guys to help us with this,” I said, trying to make my way into the apartment building.

“Yea, but neither of us have boyfriends, remember? That’s a boyfriend job.”

She was right. But in my experience boyfriends sucked. I had only ever had one serious boyfriend and it didn’t end so well. And the one thing I knew better than anyone about boyfriends was when they burn you, you never fully recover. Ever.

Getting in the elevator, I hit our floor number with my elbow. I hated elevators but there was no way to carry the boxes up four flights of stairs. The elevator ride gave me major anxiety and it made it feel like it was never going to open. Hearing the ding, I let out a sigh of relief and exited with Grace following behind me. As soon as I opened the door, I dropped the huge box on the floor.

“I can’t lift another one of these!” Grace exclaimed, walking through the door.

“I feel your pain but you kinda have to. How else are you going to get moved in?”

“I’m going to call Emma,” she said, retrieving her phone from her back pocket.

“Emma is pregnant, Grace. She can’t lift boxes, she can barely lift herself right now.”

“I know that. I’m going to see if Roman can help.”

I didn’t want to burst her bubble but Roman wasn’t going to leave Emma to help us move boxes.

Unpacking, I listened as she asked Emma to convince Roman to help two damsels in distress.

“He will be here in twenty minutes,” she said, looking relieved. “Oh, and Emma said don’t forget about Ethan’s birthday dinner. It’s Friday night at Victoria’s.”

That wasn’t the first time I had been wrong. But I couldn’t shake the feeling in the pit of stomach. Something was about to go down. I hoped he didn’t send West.

Exactly twenty minutes later, I heard a knock on the door. Grace was in her room unpacking, so I ran to the door to get it.

“Thank God you’re here! I can’t lift another thing. My arms feel like they’re going to fall off,” I said, opening the door with a smile on my face.

When I saw who was at the door the smile dropped from my face. But that wasn’t the only thing that dropped, my heart did too.

“I think this is the first time in five years you’ve been happy to see me,” West said, looking at my angel wing necklace.

My hands immediately flew to the pendant. It was a habit of mine.

“I thought you were Roman, don’t flatter yourself. What do you want?”

“He had an emergency at the shop, he sent me instead. Ethan’s parking. Let’s get our move on,” he said, rubbing his hands together.

“I don’t need your help, you can leave,” I told him, turning my attention back to the box on the floor.

He looked like someone Taylor Swift would write a song about. He was trouble, he covered it up with humor. But I knew who he really was, I knew the person he was trying to hide. And that person had a lot of demons.

“All I want to do is help you lift some boxes, Angel. It’s been five years, why do you still hate me?”

I wanted to tell him that I hated him because he took everything away from me, that he completely shattered my heart. But the reason I hated him the most was the one thing I couldn’t tell him and that was that I hated him because I couldn’t stop myself from loving him. After everything I went through alone, I still wanted him.

Before I could answer Ethan walked in and I was so relieved to see him.

“Hey, Mad-dog,” Ethan said, greeting me, “Is this idiot bothering you again?”

“When is he not?”

“I can hear you guys, ya know. I’m standing right here,” West said, once again trying to fix everything with a joke.

“Is Roman here?” Grace asked, walking into the living room.

“No, he couldn’t make it so he sent them to help instead,” I said, pointing at the guys.

“Hey, Ethan,” Grace said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

“Grace,” Ethan replied, nodding.

“Oh Gracie, you just got the nod,” West said, leaning against the wall.

He looked so good. I always loved his tattoos and his earring, but this new hair style was really doing something to my body. He had it shaved on the sides and longer on top. I wanted to run my fingers through it, I wanted to be close to him again. And feel that electricity that surges through my body when we collide.
Snap out of it, remember what he did!
Everybody has a weakness, something they can’t resist and he was mine.

“Shut up,” Ethan said, “Grace, do you want go downstairs with me to get the next box?”

“Yeah, let’s go,” she replied and I could see the slight tint of red come over her cheeks.

Did she like Ethan? I might have to set that up. They would be cute together. I knew what my mind was doing by going into matchmaker mode. It was trying to distract me from West’s presence and that was hella hard to do.

“Maddie, can we talk?” West asked, reminding me that we were alone. That was never good.

It was toxic

“About what? I have nothing to say to you.”

He started to walk closer to me and before I knew it, he had me backed into a wall. Taking my hands, he pinned them to the wall over my head.

“I have so much I want to say to you and there’s so many things I want to do with you. Let me in, Angel. We can be together, do you remember how good we were together? I know you do. I can tell by the way your breathing,” He whispered, letting his lips trail down my neck, “You remember how my lips felt all over your body and the way I make you moan my name. Don’t you?”

I did remember, I had tried to forget but it was like he was forever etched into my memory.

“I remember you breaking my heart, I remember your lips on her, and I remember me losing everything. That’s all I remember. And you can’t make that right, no matter what you do,” I told him, turning my face from his.

“If I slipped my hand down inside your pants I bet your body would tell me different,” he said, running his nose against mine.

Letting go of my hands, he backed away.

“I’m not backing down, Angel. Your mine and I’m going to make you fall in love with me again,” he said just as Ethan and Grace walked back in.

It wasn’t making me fall in love with him that he needed to worry about, it was making me trust him.

“West, are you going to be any help?” Ethan asked, setting down the big box in his hand.

“Yeah, let’s go lift some shit,” he told Ethan, never taking his eyes off of me.

Watching him leave the apartment, I fell on to the couch and let out a big breath.

“Is everything okay? There was a weird vibe when I walked back in the room,” Grace asked, sitting on the chair next to the couch.

“It’s too long of a story to tell.”

Ethan and West brought in the last of the boxes and then offered to take us out for dinner. And Grace kindly accepted for the two of us. I mean just because she had the hots for the younger Charles brother shouldn’t meant I had to sit around with the person that I hated and loved.

They told us to be ready and they would be by in an hour. I thought about faking sick but I knew West would just want to keep me company and I couldn’t be alone with him. I didn’t trust myself around him.

Hearing my phone beep in my room, I forced myself up from the spot on the couch. Looking down at the message waiting on me, I felt a fluttering in my stomach.

It was like a tradition we had, we would text each other the title of a song to explain what we were feeling for the other. West could never express it in words alone, so he let lyrics tell me. After he started it I joined and started doing it too. It was the one thing from our now broken relationship that remained the same.

West- Stay by Florida Georgia Line.

God help me stay strong. He was the one person who could break down my walls. And he knew it.