The Beginning of Us (131 page)

“Wow!”

He pulled me up and kissed me. I backed away, not understanding that he could actually want to kiss me after that. But, he did. He kissed me hard, like he wanted to eat me. I loved how erotic it seemed. I grabbed at his shoulders and dug my nails into his back. He reached down and used his fingers to penetrate me. I could tell how wet I was. Sucking him off turned me on and I was ready to do it again. I enjoyed feeling his soft foreskin against my lips. Our tongues brushed and teased, while his thumb rubbed hard against my clit. My body began to buck. I filled with emotional bliss as I felt myself letting go. He pulled his fingers out of me and licked them while I watched. “Promise me, that whatever happens, you’ll come to me for an explanation first. When Ivy finds out that you know, she’ll make me look like the bad guy.”

“I promise. I won’t let her keep you from me, Stosh. Not this time!”

Chapter 10

You are dead to me.

It was hard for me to think about walking away from someone that I’d fantasized about being with my whole adult life. It didn’t help that he was everything I imagined and more. Stosh had swept me away in just two short days. There would never be enough time for me to be able to walk away from him and not be a mess over it.

We made love all night, never taking each other for granted. He invaded my soul and I let him. I memorized the musky scent of his skin and the way he felt against my fingers. We laughed together, and even cried together, knowing that I wasn’t going to be able to stay. As much as we tried to not think about it, I knew it was on both of our minds. I had to keep telling myself that it wasn’t forever. When the smoke cleared, we’d be together again.

Nothing was going to stand in our way this time.

In the middle of the night his phone rang. I knew it must have been important, since he hopped out of bed and went running into the living room.

I tried not to listen, but when he didn’t come back for five minutes, I started to worry that something bad happened.

I walked into the living room and saw him sitting there. He was holding his phone with his hands over his face. I rubbed his back while sitting next to him. “Are you alright?”

He shook his head but wouldn’t look up.

“Stosh, please talk to me. What is it? Did Ivy call you?”

He shook his head again. “I can’t tell you. You won’t understand.”

I grabbed his hand, but he pulled away and walked into his bedroom. It was important for me to give him a few minutes to calm down. Whatever happened, had really gotten to him.

I noticed his phone was still on the table. It was wrong for me to grab it. I shouldn’t have done it, but I couldn’t help myself.

I opened up the newest message. It was from the number that Ivy had been calling me from. My heart started beating so fast that I thought I was going to pass out. I had a feeling in the pit of my stomach that whatever it said was going to devastate me.

I opened up the message and saw a picture. Stosh was between my legs, on his bed. The picture looked like it was taken from the window. I put my hand over my mouth, shocked that she had been watching us.

I hope you enjoyed yourself. Did she taste as good as me? Remember what we agreed upon. See you tomorrow. Xoxo

I dropped the phone on the table, causing a loud bang.

Without even thinking about what I was doing, I ran out of the house in my underwear. To say that I was hysterical would have been an understatement. I was so distraught that I didn’t even realize I had made it halfway down the long driveway.

I heard Stoshua calling my name, but I refused to turn around. He’d shattered my heart worse than the first time. Tripping wasn’t in the plan, but I fell to the ground hard. Pain ripped through my chin and the palms of my hands stung, as if the skin had been scraped off. I felt strong arms pulling me up. “You’re bleeding!”

“Screw you.” I flung myself off of him. “I saw the message.”

“Let me explain.” He tried to grab me again. I pulled away and started running, but I wasn’t as fast as he was. He grabbed me again and forced me to stop. “I know you’re mad. Just, please, let me at least take you where you want to go. Please, Willow.”

Knowing that I wasn’t dressed, and I had no vehicle of my own, I agreed to let him drive me to my parents. From there, they could take me to my car that was parked at the airport, in the morning. All I wanted to do was get out of there.

After getting my things together, I met Stosh in the car. I refused to look at him and I was crying too hard to hear what he was blabbing about. I couldn’t believe he’d used me.

Thankfully, my parents only lived a couple blocks away, so I didn’t have to be with him for very long. He reached for my arm when I was climbing out. “Willow, wait! Please let me explain.”

I pulled away from him and slammed the door shut. “I have nothing to say to you. You took something beautiful and turned it to shit. You two deserve each other!”

I walked toward the house and never looked back at him.

By the time I’d made it around back, where my parents always hid the key, I heard him peeling away from the curb. I grabbed the key, but sank down in a chair by the pool. I didn’t care if I spent the night out back of my parent’s house. I just didn’t want to be near him.

How could he have done that to me?

Why did he say those things to me, when he didn’t mean them?

Why did he show me the diary, if he was just going to break my heart?

None of it made sense.

I continued crying, losing myself in an emotional breakdown. I never should have come home. I should have ignored her calls.

I should have stayed far away from her husband.

All they’d ever done was hurt me.

I heard laughing and someone approaching me. There was no reason to turn around, because I knew exactly who it was. “I was wondering when you’d show up.”

I lunged toward her, shoving us both into my parent’s in ground pool.

“I hate you! You took everything from me, you stupid bitch!” I shoved her under the water, but she was just as strong as me, she took me with her.

We wrestled under the water, until we both needed to take a breath. She came up in one direction and I came up at least five feet away.

She kept backing away from me until she reached the ladder. I watched her climb out of the pool. “You deserved it! I’ve waited forever to see the perfect princess fall. They’ll never forgive you now. You’ll be forever tainted in their eyes.”

I climbed out on the other side. “Who?”

“Mom and Dad. They’ve been comforting me since I found out you were having an affair with Stoshua. They’ve known about it for days.”

“That’s impossible. I never heard from them. Mom would have called.”

“I have your phone, remember? It’s too bad you ignored her calls. I think she really wanted to let you have it. Don’t worry, I saved the messages. I recall one saying that no daughter of hers could ever stoop so low.”

I was flabbergasted, enraged, heartbroken and alone. How was I supposed to give up everything. It was bad enough that my sister had betrayed me, but now she’d told my parents a bold faced lie.

I’d only come back to town because she desperately needed my help. Stoshua had nothing to do with it. What happened between him and I wasn’t planned. Not on my part. “This is insane. They won’t believe you!”

She started laughing. “I assume you saw the photo? Where do you think I got it?” She laughed harder. “Dad hired a PI. He sent dad the text a couple hours ago. That was all the proof they needed, being that I was here with them the whole time, crying because of what the two of you had done to me.”

I ran after her, knocking her onto the ground. My hands were wet, so the sting of me smacking her face must have hurt. I didn’t care. I kept hitting her, taking out all of my frustrations on her face.

She tried to cover herself. “Stop! You’re hurting me!”

“Screw you! Screw you for all those things you said about me. I never did shit to you! How could you ruin my life on purpose? How could you take him away from me?”

I felt someone pulling me off of Ivy. She wiped the blood away from her mouth and laughed again. “I’m glad you know the truth! Take your cunt ass out of here and never come back!”

I didn’t know who had me by the arms, but I tried to lunge at her again, failing completely. “I hate you! I wish you were never my sister!”

“I don’t care how you feel. I have the life you wanted. Everyday, you’re going to want to be me. Take that and shove it up your nerdy little princess ass, Willow!”

At first, I thought it was my father that had a hold of me. I knew it couldn’t be my mother, since she was smaller and not as strong. When I turned and saw Stosh, I said nothing. I didn’t know why he was there, but I didn’t care either.

He and my sister could have each other, for all I cared. They were both dead to me. “I did everything for you! I walked away so you could be happy. I covered for you our whole lives and this is how you repay me?” I was sobbing so hard that I wasn’t sure they could even hear me.

“Cut this shit out, Ivy! This has gone too far.” Stosh was obviously defending me out of pity.

Her eyes got huge. “Now you’re taking up for your little conquest? Does she know how I lured her here so you could fuck her? Does she know that it was all part of my plan to ruin her?”

“Shut up! I’ve had enough!” I could see the blood boiling inside of him.

It didn’t matter that he was attempting to take up for me. Nothing he could say would make me forgive him. He was playing a losing game.

“If you leave, you’ll be sorry. Remember what I told you, Stoshua. I meant every word.”

His grip loosened and finally he let go. “The keys are in my car. Take it wherever you need to go,” he whispered so she couldn’t hear.

I didn’t thank him for the gesture, instead I hauled ass out of my parents yard. I drove his car straight to the airport, where my car was still parked. I didn’t care about my bag of clothes, or my cell phone. I just wanted to get the hell away from all of them.

Before I could drive home, I sat in my car and let out the pain. I cried harder than ever before, only stopping to catch my breath. They betrayed me. My sister had ruined my chance at happiness. Stosh had slept with me, filling my head with false hope. It was too much to handle.

I couldn’t even call my parents for support. They thought I was a home wrecker.

I had no one to talk to. I was all alone, just like Ivy wanted.

I pulled her phone out of my pocket and threw it against the ground, smashing it into a million pieces. I didn’t care about getting in touch with any of them. If she needed her phone, she could buy a new one. My days of doing her favors were long gone. I no longer had a sister.

When I finally got home, I was so exhausted that I landed in my bed and fell right to sleep. I was glad about it, since I didn’t want to have to think about them. The next day, I remained in my room. It took me three days to call the phone company and report my cellphone lost. I received a replacement on the fourth day, but kept it turned off. I didn’t want to listen to the messages, or take any phone calls.

My new job was just days away from starting and I wasn’t in any condition to do it. I cried all of the time, even when the animal shelter commercials came on the television.

Even my friends couldn’t get me to talk. The less I said the less it hurt. I just wanted to move forward. Talking about it would only hold me back.

By the next weekend, I was a force to be reckoned with. I focused on packing up my things and prepared to move into my new place. It was a big step for me and I needed to do it right.

It wasn’t until the night before my big day that someone got in contact with me. It wasn’t by phone or email. No, he’d driven all the way to my doorstep for a chance that I would hear him out.

Chapter 11

Nobody puts Princess in the corner.

“If you were smart, you’d turn your ass around and leave.” I could smell him from the doorway and as much as I tried not to pay attention, he looked more handsome than ever.

“Well, I guess I’m not smart, because I’m staying until you hear me out!” He put his hands in his pockets and waited for me to reply. I looked him up and down, smiled, then slammed the door in his face.

He didn’t knock again, so I went about what I was doing. All of my roommates had already moved out, so I was the one who had to go through and make sure everything was cleaned out and they didn’t forget anything hidden in the corner of a closet somewhere. I was so hurt and angry that I couldn’t fathom having a conversation with either of them. Why he thought it was okay to just show up on my doorstep was beyond me.

I focused on the task at hand and ignored the fact that he’d come all that way to talk to me. I guess he thought he had some kind of valuable information that would change my mind.

I cleaned and packed my ass off for the rest of the morning.

At about noon, I was hungry and dying of thirst. I grabbed my keys and headed out to grab a bite at the corner deli. When I opened the door, a pizza delivery guy was standing at my door, about to knock. Since we rented a whole house, I was puzzled how he’d gotten confused about the address. Our number was in large block on the front of the house. “I think you have the wrong address.”

He looked down at his paper. “No, it’s the right place. Someone called and paid for a ham and pineapple pizza and a two liter of soda. Since it’s paid for, do you still want it?”

I grabbed the pizza box and the two liter, while shaking my head. “Yeah, sorry I forgot that I ordered it. My mind is just crazy lately.”

Feeling like an idiot, I waved to the delivery guy as he walked away. As soon as his car pulled away, I saw Stosh leaning against his.

Did he really think he could earn his way into my house through my favorite pizza?

Okay, I have to be honest. For a split second I did consider slamming my door and eating the pizza, then throwing the empty box out on the street at his feet. It was just for a second though. Instead, I walked into my house and left the door open.