Second Chances (27 page)

“I'll never walk away from you again, Hayles.” I hear him say softly and then everything goes quiet and dark.

I have walked all over the club looking for Haylee. She isn't on the dance floor or by the pool tables or the bar. I've gone back to the table to retrieve Brynn so she can check in the ladies' room for me, but Haylee isn't in there either. Parker is also nowhere to be found. I know that even though Haylee had probably been upset, she wouldn't go anywhere without at least letting Brynn or Griff know. 

“I'll check out front. Maybe she just needed fresh air,” Brynn tells me, and I nod absently.

I'm starting to get frantic. My palms are sweating, my stomach feels queasy, and I just have this bad feeling. I stand still for a minute just outside the hallway for the restrooms and let my eyes travel around the place again. This isn't like Haylee. I just want to find her and apologize for overreacting the way I did. We've both been so emotional the last couple of days that I guess we are just ready to snap.

“Looking for something?” comes a voice and I close my eyes and clench my teeth together.

“No, Lexi, get out of my face,” I tell her, glancing right over her head to keep watching for any sign of Haylee.

“Why search around when what you really want is right here in front of you?” she asks, putting her hand on my chest. I take a deep breath and remove her hand, still not looking at her. “We could just slip in the ladies' room and. . .”

“Go to HELL, Lexi!” I shout, and she actually jumps backward a bit. Good. Maybe she'll finally get the idea. I don't usually lose my temper like that but I mean, seriously, how many times do I have to tell her she's got no chance? My nerves are fried and I still don't see Haylee anywhere. I pull out my phone to check for messages again, and I sense that Lexi has finally moved on. There's a text from Brynn:

Not out front….getting worried

How long has it actually been since any of us has seen her? Max was the last to see her on the dance floor talking with Parker. No one has seen either of them since then and I glance down at my watch. It's been maybe ten or fifteen minutes. I'm starting to worry about two different scenarios that make me sick. She might be somewhere with Parker getting it on. I clench my teeth tight just thinking about that. I don't really think Haylee feels that way about Parker, but if she's drunk and upset. . . Or the other possibility is something has happened to her. I need to start looking a little more carefully. 

I can't control my breathing anymore. I'm entering into full flight or fight mode and I'm ready to fight. I check in each of the bathrooms myself, looking in each stall. This earns me a slap and few shrieks, but I don't care. No Haylee or Parker here. I head further back down that hallway and come to a few closed doors and see the exit up ahead. I run to the exit door and push it open roughly. I lean out and look around, listen. . . nothing. I come back in, the exit door clicking shut behind me. Nothing could happen to Haylee. I wouldn't survive it. 

I open the next door I come to and find an office of sorts, but it's dark and quiet inside. I take a deep breath and open the only other door in the hallway. Before the door is even open all the way, I can hear Haylee sobbing, and I look down to find Parker on top of her on the floor. It's dark, but I recognize those legs and the heels she'd been wearing. I pause for just the briefest of seconds, wondering if this is consensual. Then I see his hand on her throat and see her legs kicking and sliding beneath him. There's a bright white flash in front of my eyes as I lean over and grab that fucker by the back of his shirt and pick him up. He's shocked and higher than a kite by the looks of it. He stands unsteadily in front of me, his jeans unzipped.

“I told you I'd kill you if you ever put your hands on her again.” I shout and wind up, delivering a powerful right hook to the side of his head. He goes down in a heap and I drop to my knees beside Haylee. She has to be all right. . . 

I can see her chest rising and falling in short, shaky spurts and she's trying to clear her eyes and look around. 

“Haylee,” I gasp. I've never been more afraid of anything than this moment, looking down at her, battered and shaking on the cold, hard floor. Her skirt is shoved up around her waist and her top is ripped open on one side. 

“Chase?” she whispers out my name like it's a question. Can she not see?

“It's okay now, Haylee. I've got you,” I assure her, but my voice is unsteady, betraying the calm I'm trying to convey. I cover her up with her ripped clothing as much as I can before I lift her into my arms. She's shaking so badly that I'm afraid she might slip right out of my arms. I have to get her to a hospital. I carry her out the exit door I found and set her down briefly against the building so I can see her in the dim streetlights at least.

“Haylee. . .oh my God. . .Haylee. . . how did this. . . .did he. . .?” I 'm shaking now too and can hardly form words. I'm so angry and scared and disappointed. The corner of her lip is split and bleeding. Her left eye is swollen and starting to darken in color. But my biggest fear, I can't even say it to her. Did he do what he obviously intended? Was I too late?

“No,” she whispers. Her voice is strained and hoarse from his hand on her throat. She knows what I couldn't say. A relief so strong washes over me then that I start to cry and drop my head down into her lap. I made it just in time. If I'd been a few seconds longer, if Lexi had distracted me any longer. . .I lift my head back up again because I feel like I'm going to get sick. I can't think about all of that right now. I need to know if she's okay.

I reach my hand out slowly and touch it softly to her split lip and she flinches at the unexpected pain. With my hand, I gently tilt her chin up and I gasp at what I see. “Holy shit,” I hiss. “Are you okay? What hurts, Haylee? Tell me what hurts.” Her throat is a deep purple and I can already see the outline from his fingers on her skin. I want to run back in there and finish that bastard off.

“I'm okay now,” she whispers, pulling me back from those thoughts. Haylee is more important and she needs me right now. I scoop her up carefully in my arms again and she can hardly hold her head up on her own. Luckily I grabbed Griff's keys earlier to check if Haylee had gone out to his truck and they are still in my pocket. Someone is watching out for her tonight. I carefully put her in the seat of the truck and buckle the belt around her torso. Once she's in, I race around the front of the truck while taking in a huge, shaky breath. 

“Everything's gonna be okay now,” I assure her as I start up the truck and back out of the space. She's so weak and tired that she slides down the seat until her head is resting in my lap. My heart wrenches at the sight of her vulnerable form. She's here with me and she's going to be all right. I call Griff and very briefly fill him in, explaining that I'm in his truck taking Haylee to the emergency room. I don't want them all freaking out and then trying to drive to the hospital. He said he'd get everyone else and meet me there. I look down at her tiny, tattered body in my lap, and ever so carefully smooth her hair back away from her face and just keep the motion up as I drive.

“I'll never walk away from you again, Hayles,” I tell her as she sleeps, hoping she can hear me. Tears pool in my eyes as I think about what I'd seen and I blink them away quickly, focusing on the road. It's about a twenty-minute ride, but if feels more like two hours. I can't stop thinking about the what-ifs. What if I hadn't come back to Wake Forest? Would this still have happened? What if I'd come back a day later and she'd gone out with everyone and Parker tried this when I wasn't there to find her? What if Lexi hadn't come up to me in the club while I was looking for Haylee? Could I have found her any sooner? What if I had gotten to that room just one minute later than I had?

This train of thought is just making me furious. What kind of animal does this to someone else? To someone who thinks of them as a friend?! There's no doubt that Parker was high, but that's no excuse for what he did. I hope I never see him again but I know that's unlikely. I just have no idea how I'll react. Haylee is the kindest person I have ever known. She doesn't do things to hurt people and she certainly doesn't deserve what Parker has done to her.

I find that I keep looking down at her beside me, trying to make sure that she's still breathing. She suddenly seems so much more like the young girl I grew up becoming best friends with. Ever since I've gotten back, I've been astounded by how much she has changed. How much she's grown up. Seeing the way she looked tonight when she walked up to me in that club compared to now is so different. God, I just need to know that she's okay!

I wake up so slowly that I think I might just have dreamt the whole thing. My eyelids are heavy, and it seems as though my left one won't open all the way. There's a burning sensation in my throat, worse than any sore throat I've ever had before. The sensation brings back a sudden memory of not being able to breathe and someone holding me down. . .I jolt awake at that and gasp, which brings tears to my eyes from the searing pain it leaves in my throat.

There's a hand on my shoulder holding me down, and it causes my heart to kickstart and panic to set in. “It's okay. . .you're okay,” a voice assures me, and I try to get my eyes to focus. I realize I'm in a bed in the hospital as I start to really look around. The hand on my shoulder means me no harm. It's Chase. He's sitting in a chair beside my bed, and he looks so relieved. “Welcome back, Hayles,” he smiles, and I can't help but smile back. I feel discomfort in my lip and jaw when I do so, but it doesn't matter. Chase is here.

“Good to see you smiling, Haylee,” comes Griff's voice, and I turn my head in the other direction. Griff is standing beside my bed smiling at me. Brynn is just behind him, and she reaches down and gives my hand a squeeze.

“Where. . .am I?” I'm aware of how hard it is to get sound through my throat and into my mouth to form the words I want to say. I wince at the pain and bring a hand up to my throat.

Chase takes that hand in his and brings it back down to my side. “Don't try to talk too much. Your esophagus and trachea are swollen, and you need to let them rest. You're in the hospital, but you're gonna be just fine. Your mom is here too, Hayles. She just went down to the bathroom. She should be back any minute.”

“How. . .long?” I rasp.

“You only just slept through the night. They really just wanted you to rest and see how you felt when you woke up,” Chase explains. I remember everything that happened the night before all too clearly, and I shiver at the images burned into my memory.

“Thank . . .you,” I whisper to him, and my eyes fill with tears. He saved me from Parker not a minute too soon. There's so much more I want to say right now, but my emotions swamp me, and he has placed his finger gently over my lips to keep me from talking any more right now. I know that there was a time last night when I thought I'd never see him or any of them again, and that I would never get the chance to tell him how I sorry I am and how much I love him. It's frustrating to know that I've gotten a second chance, but I'm not supposed to talk too much just yet.

“Haylee!” I hear Mom gasp from the doorway to my room. She is crying as she hurries over to my side. Chase gets up to give her room, but I feel his absence and keep my eyes on him as he stands more toward the foot of the bed. “I'm
so
glad that you're all right!” Mom sobs and smoothes my hair back from my forehead. My chest hurts to realize how terrified she must have been. She's already lost her husband and for her to have to get a call like the one I imagined about me had to have shaken her to the core.

“We'll give you a minute,” Brynn says, as she and Griff and Chase start toward the door. I hold my hand up and mouth the word 'wait.'

“I'll be right outside,” Chase assures me, and I relax as he exits the room. Mom just looks down at me with tears spilling from her eyes. I wonder what I look like right now.

“I'm. . .so. . . sorry,” I whisper to her. I know that I've made so many mistakes, and she doesn't deserve to suffer because of them.

“Sweetie, it's okay,” she whispers, and holds my hand while she sits on the edge of the bed with me. “I'm just so glad that you're okay. Anything else doesn't matter.”

I point to my throat with a questioning glance. Chase said there is swelling, but I wonder if that is it.

“You're black and blue all over, especially on your throat. That boy tried to strangle you, and he came far too close! You've got some swelling inside your throat and a small fracture of your hyoid bone,”

I furrow my brow at her. I don't know what that is.

“I'd never heard of it before either,” she smiles. “It's just a small bone at the upper part of your throat. They took x-rays last night, and it's a very small fracture, so they said we didn't need to worry about it impeding your swallowing or breathing in any way. The muscles and ligaments are all swollen around there too. It will take a few days for all the swelling to go down, and then everything should be back to normal. You are
so
lucky, Haylee. So lucky that Chase found you when he did.” She is crying again, and I hate that I am putting her through this. It is my fault after all. I wasn't supposed to be in that club. I shouldn't have been dressed the way that I was.

“Your friends all stayed here the whole night, Haylee. You gave us all a good scare. I had no idea how serious your relationship with Chase is,” she says slowly. I begin to worry about where she's going with this. “He saved your life last night and drove you here all by himself. He wouldn't leave your side willingly. It is very clear that he's in love with you.”

My eyes fill with tears now. Chase has done so much for me even after the horrible way I'd treated him last night. “You're lucky to have him, Haylee,” she says as she stands and presses a kiss to my forehead. “I'll let someone else come talk to you but I won't be far.”

I mouth the words 'I love you' to her and I watch as the door closes behind her. Chase comes in immediately and smiles that heart-melting smile that I love so much as he walks over and sits down on the edge of the bed beside me. 

“I don't want you to have to talk, so I'll try to stick to yes or no questions,” he tells me as he takes my hand. His fingers start tracing lines across the back of my hand, and it feels so nice. “Are you in any pain?”

I swallow and can't help but wince. I nod my head and point with my finger to my throat. He nods as though he expected that.

“Anywhere else?” I have to stop and think about that for a minute. Yes, there is discomfort in a couple of places like my lip, the back of my head, my wrists, my thighs but it is nothing like the burning in my throat. I shake my head and look down at my wrists for the first time. There are purple bruises encircling each of them and I remember Parker's grasp on my arms. “The doctor will be in any minute to check on you. God, Hayles, I was so scared. . .” His voice trails off as he leans his head down near my arm. I can hear that he is crying, and it tears me up inside.

“I'm. . .sorry. . .” I try to tell him but my voice is a shell of what it should be. “I. . .”

“Shh, it's okay. You don't have to talk. You don't have to say anything, Haylee. I know. I'm so sorry about everything too.” He stands up then and reaches his arms very carefully around my shoulders and I wrap my arms around his waist. I'm so relieved to be able to hold him. I'm swimming in the warmth and scent of him when the doctor comes strolling into the room. Chase stands up and steps back so that the doctor can talk with me.

He explains everything that they checked out and x-rayed, since I'd been unconscious by the time Chase had gotten me here. Mostly it was physical and mental exhaustion that pulled me under. I cringe when he explains that they did a rape kit on me just to be sure, and the results are as I knew they would be: Parker did not rape me. Only because Chase got to me in time. I see Chase out of the corner of my eye while the doctor explains this. He's pacing with his hand on the back of his neck. This has to be so hard for him. I'm glad to hear that the doctor will be releasing me later today and that I just need to get plenty of rest at home. 

When the doctor finally leaves, I hold my hand out for Chase to return, and he seems a bit more pained as he does so. I mouth, 'I want you to help me up' to him and 'I want to see.' He nods reluctantly and helps me pull the sheets back. I'm wearing one of those scratchy, faded, unflattering hospital gowns and I sigh at that as he helps me sit up. I'm sore everywhere, but nothing that I can't handle. 

“Let's go slow,” he says quietly as he slips an arm behind my back as I push my body up onto my legs. I'm weak and shaky, but other than that, I can walk just fine. He holds onto me as we walk into the tiny bathroom that's part of my room. “Everything looks worse than it is, okay?” he says before he reaches out and flicks the light switch on. 

I gasp and the sensation burns bitterly in my throat as I look at my reflection. It's a good thing he's holding onto me because I probably would have collapsed onto the floor. I look like I've been the loser in a boxing match. My left eye is black and blue and swollen so that I am seeing through a small slit. There are large purple and blue bruises along my arms and legs, especially around my wrists. The worst though is my throat. It's dark purple and feels warm to me. As I step closer, biting on my bottom lip, I can see the impressions of Parker's fingers on either side of my throat. I close my eyes and fight back the tears. When I open them again, I notice tiny red splotches all around my eyes and cheeks, at least on the parts that aren't so dark with bruises. 

I lift my hand up to my face to see if I can feel the red spots raised up at all, but I can't. I've never seen anything like it before and I glance at Chase's reflection beside me with a question in my eyes.

“It's called petechiae. It's tiny hemorrhages close to the surface of the skin and it's common if you're choked.” His voice is so quiet, and I can hear the pain in his tone. He looks down at the floor and I know it must be so hard for him to see me like this. 

I turn around, and he helps me back to the bed. “None of it is permanent, Hayles. All of this will go away,” referring to the marks I just saw in the mirror. I'm not bothered so much by what I look like, but more by the fact that someone I called a friend did all of this to me.

“How did you. . .find me?” I ask him with almost no sound as he pulls the sheets back up around me. Parker dragged me into some deserted storage room in the back of the club. I had been so sure that no one would even know where to look for me.

I feel the bed move a bit as he sits down beside me again. He takes my hand in both of his and begins stroking his thumb along my skin again. It's so comforting just knowing that he's here. That I can reach out and touch him. “We all noticed that you'd been gone for a few minutes, and Max remembered seeing you and Parker talking on the dance floor.” 

I look absently at the overbleached sheets covering my legs and try to think back as I listen to his low, melodic voice explain. “We started to look around. I even walked down and checked Griff's truck to see if you'd gone out there. I didn't think you would just leave without telling someone. Haylee, I'm so sorry that I just walked away from you on that dance floor. If I hadn't. . .” I shake my head try to let him know that it isn't his fault at all. I deserved being left there after what I did. He clears his throat before he continues. “I even checked the bathrooms myself when I started to really get worried. No one saw you anywhere around the club and no one had seen Parker since he was with you last either. I looked out back and then I just started opening random doors in that hallway. When I opened that one, I heard you crying out and begging him to stop. I've never been so insanely pissed off before when I saw him pinning you down, his hand on your throat like that. I grabbed him by the back of his shirt and literally just lifted him off of you by it. I knocked him the hell out and it killed me inside to see you like you were,” he pauses, blinking his eyes and clenching his teeth at the memory. “You were bleeding and disoriented on the cold floor. I had no idea how badly you were hurt or if he had. . .I just had to get you out of there.” He's choked up now and hearing the pain in his voice makes me hurt for him.

I squeeze his hands in mine. “He didn't hurt me like that. . .because of you. I'm so sorry. . .for earlier.” I force the words up and out of my throat and fight against the pain. 

He is shaking his head. “I understand why you did what you did, and I was going to tell you that I didn't blame you as soon as I found you. I just did not expect what I found.“

“I. . . believe. . .you.” It hurts my throat to talk, but I need to tell him these words. “About. . .everything.” I use my hand to motion around trying to illustrate that I mean about everything that has happened since he's been back, and that I believe him when he told me that he hadn't known Lexi was here either time, and that the baggie in his glovebox isn't his. “I wanted. . .to tell you. . .last night. . .before. . .”
He has tears in his eyes as he puts his finger against my lips again. “Thank you,” he whispers his understanding. He doesn't want me to try and talk anymore. My eyes are getting heavy again already. I tug on his hands until he understands the meaning of what I want. His lips curve up at one side as he carfully climbs up onto the bed with me. He's so cautious of my injuries as he lays down beside me and puts his arms gently around me. I smile and close my eyes as I snuggle in closely against his side and let my head rest on his shoulder. I'm warm and safe, cocooned in the familiar smell of him, his clothes, his body. 

When I wake again, I'm cold and I realize it is because Chase is gone. I panic for a moment until I look over and find Brynn sitting beside my bed. She smiles at me, but her happiness seems forced. Is something wrong?

“Where's. . .Chase?. . .How long. . .was I. . .asleep?” I rasp out and try to pull myself up into a sitting position. Brynn pushes a button on the side of the bed and it creaks to life, lifting behind me so that I'm sitting up.

“Chase just stepped out a couple minutes ago to grab something to eat. You were asleep for about two hours and he got some sleep along with you. Lucky bastard. None of us slept last night,” she explains. “How ya feelin'?”