True Loves (A Collection of Firsts) (55 page)

Trevor’s face contorts in anger when I make eye contact with him. I open my mouth to tell him to calm down, but before I can get anything out, he tackles me with the full force of his body and knocks the wind from my lungs.

His two hundred pound frame crushes me into the mattress, and I gasp for breath. He pins my arms above my head with his massive grip, even though I’m fighting against him with all my strength, virtually rendering me helpless. His hands burn against my skin and I twist to get away from him.   

Sheer panic stings my stomach as I struggle to free myself from his clutches. My legs pump wildly as I try to buck him off me. It’s no use. He’s just too damn big. A scream rips up from my throat out of sheer frustration and panic. A growl reverberates in Trevor’s chest, and he uses his free hand to slap me again. The force of his blow knocks my face to the side. Pain shocks my core and my cheek throbs instantly. Blood drips into my mouth from a gash in my lip. The fight from inside of me starts to fade.  

I squeeze my eyes shut. Trevor Humphreys is about to rape me. I always thought I would be tough enough to fight off an attacker if I was ever in this position, but I was dead wrong. My only option now is to beg. Maybe it will make him realize what he’s doing. 

Bile rises up in my throat as I think about what he has planned. “Please, Trevor,” I whimper. “Please. No.”

Warm tears flow into my hair, and I attempt to get Trevor’s bloodshot brown eyes to focus on me, to realize he’s doing something wrong. No such luck. His eyes burn with unfathomable rage—rage he’s ready to take out on me.

His hand runs roughly up my thigh and reaches under my skirt. My breath catches. His fingers turn into claws as his nails scratch my skin in attempts to pull my panties down. 

“See, Sugarman, I can be just as nice as Masterson,” he says between ragged breaths. He leans in for a kiss, but I whip my face away from him, so instead he kisses my neck. 

His cologne overpowers me, and I grow light headed from the strong stench of spicy musk that crams my nostrils. I breathe through my mouth and shut my eyes. I just want him to stop and go away.

“Please. I’m begging you. Please, stop.”

He ignores my pleas, and his sloppy kisses continue to leave a trail of slobbery wetness on my neck. I try to force my brain to take me to another place, far away, so I won’t have to endure the guaranteed torture he has in store for me. I begin to zone out.

There’s a hard knock on the door. “Natalie?”

My body tenses at the sound of possible help, and once again I have enough energy to fight back. I open my mouth to scream for help, but Trevor’s massive hand quickly muffles the sound.

“Natalie?” Rick calls again. “Are you all right?”

“Get lost, fucker! Sugarman’s busy,” Trevor shouts. His body stills like a statue, allowing a blanket of silence to cover the room. He stares daringly at the door with narrowed eyes. 

“Natalie?” Rick calls, his voice agitated. 

I whimper under Trevor’s disgusting palm and try to squirm away from him.  He locks his eyes on me.  “Sugarman, I swear to God, you better not say a word.” 

At this point I figure I really only have two choices—lay here and take it, or make a scene and let Rick know I need help. I decide to go for door number two, and before I can think about it I sink my teeth into the fleshy part of Trevor’s palm. Warm blood seeps into my mouth before he jerks his hand away. I know I got him good. Here’s my chance.

“Rick!” I scream before Trevor raises his hand to smack me yet again. I cover my face to avoid any additional blows. 

There’s a loud crack, and the white six-paneled door nearly flies off the hinges as Rick kicks it in. The light shining from the hallway casts an angelic halo around him, like he’s my own personal savior. 

“What the hell, dude?” Trevor shouts, but the murderous look in Rick’s face tells me he’s not here to discuss the situation.

Rick storms over and grabs Trevor from behind with the strength of ten men and throws his sick ass to the floor. 

Trevor attempts to stand, but he’s quickly shoved back down and lands with a heavy thud. “Don’t get up until I say you can,” Rick orders.

Trevor doesn’t listen and tries again. “I think you need to mind your own fucking business!” 

Without warning, Rick springs on Trevor like a wild animal and lands a hard right-handed punch in his face. “She.” Another punch. “
Is
.” And another. “My business.”

Rick releases Trevor’s shirt and lets him fall limply to the floor. My knight in shining armor splays his fingers, trying to shake the pain from his hand. Then, he turns to me. “Are you okay?”

I look down at myself and realize my skirt is still shoved around my waist. I quickly smooth it down. There’s a smear of blood on the back of my hand. My bottom lip still throbs, so I trace it with my fingers.  Blood covers my fingertips and I wipe them on my skirt and then run my fingers through my hair. Slowly, I peer up and meet Rick’s intense gray eyes, then quickly break away. Bodies pile into the room to check out the commotion. It seems the entire party has found its way into this enormous bedroom to witness my rescue. “I’m fine. Can we go?”

He nods, reaches over to take my hand, and then leads me through the gawking crowd. Every couple of seconds through the staircase gauntlet, I hear my name whispered.

“Can you believe someone would fight over Sugarman?”

“She’s such a freak.”

“Rick’s too hot for her.”

Tears threaten to spill from my eyes at the sound of their words. I let go of Rick’s hand and place my hands over my ears. I follow close behind him and try to block out the world around me. We reach the living room, and I feel the warmth of his hand on the small of my back. He guides me out the door into the cool night air. I drop my hands from my ears, feeling safe from the judgmental whispers in the house. I wipe the fallen tears from my cheek with the palms of my hands. 

Rick grasps my hand in his large, warm fingers. “Are you sure you’re okay? I can always go back in and finish the job on Trevor.”

I sniff and shake my head. “No, that won’t be necessary. Besides, I think you already did a pretty good job whipping his ass.” I pause and take a shaky breath. “I’m just really glad you showed up when you did. Thank you.”

He pulls me into a hug beside his car. “Me too,” he whispers. The heat of his body pulsates from him and envelopes me in comfort for some strange reason. “I would’ve killed him if 
anything
 did happen.”

There is an odd feeling in the pit of my stomach. I don’t deserve his kindness, but I appreciate he’s given me a second chance. The thought of disappointing my only friend earlier makes his words sting. “Why are you so nice to me? Especially after how I treated you?”

He pulls back, and I stare into his charcoal-gray eyes. “Because I care about you, Natalie. And even though you pick that asshole Stewart Masterson over me, I’m still glad you’re my friend.”

My head drops instantly at the sound of his name. “That’s over.”

It’s harder than I thought to hear myself admit it out loud. Stewart was using me. Trevor made that quite clear. I know it’s over now. Stewart doesn’t even have the balls to tell me to my face. Instead, he leaves me stranded at this party and made me look like a complete moron.  

Rick frowns, like he’s concerned for me. “Really?”

I nod. “Yeah, really.”

Rick’s lips meet my forehead in a gentle kiss and I close my eyes. An electric tingle zings through my entire body. He cradles my face in his hands and his thumbs caress my cheeks, and before I’m ready, he slowly breaks away and I open my eyes.

“Good,” he whispers. “Come on. I’ll take you home.”

“
N
atalie
?” the voice sounds like it’s down deep in a five gallon bucket somewhere. “Natalie!” This time I roll over to find my sister, drunk and kneeling at my side whispering so loud she might as well announce to Mom and Dad she’s just getting in. “Are you awake?”

“I am now,” I grumble.

“Good, because I wanted to talk to you.” She giggles. “So, what’s up with you and that Rick guy? I thought you were dating Steeeeewart,” she slurs his name, stretching it into three syllables instead of just two.

God, I so don’t want to talk about this. “Yeah, well, he stood me up and apparently he told his douche friend I’m easy. That asshole Trevor tricked me into going upstairs with him and he tried some stuff.”

She sways as she leans back and grimaces. “Stuff? What kind of 
stuff
?” 

I roll over and pull the comforter over my head. “I really don’t want to talk about it. Nothing happened. Rick made sure of that.” I need a subject change fast because I don’t want her to go nuts over the situation. “How’d you get home anyway? You didn’t drive like that did you?”

“Of course not!” She sounds appalled.

I yawn, causing my cheeks to stings and I’m glad it’s really dark in here. I’m sure I  look horrendous after taking those smacks from Trevor. Alicia, in her drunken state, would completely freak out and wake up the entire house if she saw me.

She pulls down my comforter. “I hear Rick kicked Trevor’s ass over you, but no one’s really sure why.”

Nobody would believe the truth anyway. They think Rick is too good for me. No way would they ever believe I was with Stew. “Hmph. Well now you know. If Stewart would’ve been there like he promised, none of this would’ve happened. I hate him so much.”

We sit wrapped in dark silence for a couple of minutes, but it doesn’t last long. Alicia is a talker and she babbles constantly when she’s tipsy. “Well, tell me more about this Rick guy. He’s really cute. Someone pointed him out to me before the whole fight thing went down. It was like he came straight to the party to find you or something, because he wasn’t there long. Who knew you were such a hot guy magnet.”

A smile spreads across my lips. The right side of my face aches with pain, and my grin quickly fades. Rick is cute, but I don’t need to jump into another relationship so soon. It’s going to take a while before I get over Stew and what he did to me.

What am I thinking? I don’t need to focus on 
anybody
. Only me. It’s not fair to drag a guy into a relationship when I won’t be around much longer. But I am glad Rick cares enough for me to beat the ever-living shit out of Trevor for me. 

Alicia still waits on me to acknowledge my relationship status with Rick to her. I have to give her something. There’s no way I can pretend I don’t know him. “We eat lunch together sometimes. He’s really…nice.”

“Nice?” Alicia questions. “That’s always what you say when you want to avoid something.”

I sigh. She’s digging. “Okay, he’s interesting, but I’m not ready to, like, date him or anything.”

“Natalie.” She leans in close and rests her elbows on my bed. “To hell with Stewart. He’s an ass. You should give Rick a chance. I mean, the guy beat up Trevor Humphreys over you. Besides, what better way to get back at Stewart than date a hottie like Rick?” She taps my arm. “Show old Stewy what he's missing.”

I shouldn’t care about Stew, but I do. I turn my head toward her. “That could really hurt Stewart, though.”

Alicia growls in frustration. “Yeah, so? That ass deserves it. Didn’t he hurt you?” Her words feel like another slap in the face. More reminders of all the trouble Stew caused me tonight.

“Yes,” I whisper. It’s hard to admit it to her as well as to myself. Stew’s betrayal sends waves of nausea through my belly. This was his second chance and he blew it. He never really cared for me after all.  

“So what if you hurt him? What goes around comes around. Plus, you’d probably really like Rick if you gave him a chance.” She stands, swaying back and forth a little. “Think about it, Nat. I love you, and you should be treated like a queen. Don’t take shit from anyone.” She kisses my forehead before she wobbles from my bedroom. “Good night.”

Way to plant the seed, sis. 

Now visions of Rick flash in my mind. He really is kind of beautiful with his cool gray eyes set above chiseled cheekbones and full lips. Long hair and tattoos on a guy have never been my thing, but on him they totally work. And even though I’ve never seen him without his shirt, I imagine from the tone of his arms that his body is quite solid. Another plus is he’s definitely nice. Look at how he stood up for me tonight, like he’d take on the world if I asked him too. No one has ever done that before. 

I can’t think about this right now. I need a distraction. 

I snag my Mp3 player from my nightstand, poke in my earbuds, and study my alarm clock while mentally calculating how much sleep I’m going to get before the dreadful three-thirty-three nightly wakeup call. If I can manage to slow my brain down, I’ll get at least two hours of sound sleep. My breathing flows into a rhythmic pattern as I attempt to relax and search my playlist to choose a song. 

“I didn’t think she was ever going to leave.” My eyes fly open at the sound of the demon’s voice, and a gasp releases from my mouth. 

I yank the earbuds out and stare at him. His tiny body rests against the side of my bed as he leans over me and inspects my face. My pulse pounds in my veins and I try sit up. He places a tentative hand on my forehead and forces me back against the pillow. “Wait! I’m not ready.” I plead and try to get to my nightstand where I keep a jar of salt stashed.

He shakes his head and a dark lock of hair falls into his gray eyes as he stops my hand. “Relax. I’m not here to kill you.”

My bottom lip trembles. “Why are you here then? You never used to check up on me so much, and you’ve never come into my room before.”

His little palm traces the contours of my face. “I’m here to fix you.”

My mouth feels like I have a wad of cotton balls in it. “Fix me?”

“Close your eyes,” he whispers—the side of his face illuminated by the moonlight shining through the window. 

My eyes narrow and I stare him down. He matches my intense gaze and sighs. “I’m not going to hurt you. I would’ve done it already if I was.”

What choice do I really have? I don’t have a weapon or another plan of attack yet, so I do as he asks. But when a bright amber glow flickers, I sneak a peek. His tiny hands are red, like hot coals. The same brilliant white eyes he gets when he’s about to claim a soul are on full display. I knew I couldn’t trust him. 

“Wait!” I beg, but he presses his hands on either side of my face. My legs buck wildly beneath the blankets, and I claw at his hands. I’m not ready to die yet, and I’ll fight my hardest against him. 

 At first, my skin burns, like a million tiny flames trying to melt my face from the bone, but then it changes. A cool sensation covers my skin. A combination of fire and ice fills every inch of me. My legs calm down and stop pumping all over the place. My fingers go limp and fall away from his. The pain is gone. The gash where my lip split is now smooth under the glide of my tongue, and I’m totally relaxed. 

He removes his fingers from my head. “There. That should fix it.” 

Sleep tries to overtake me, but I fight to stay awake. It’s almost like he gave me a sleeping pill. 

“Wha’d you do?” I manage to choke out. 

He smiles, and it seems genuine. “I told you. I fixed you.”

I’m too tired to try to escape. My legs wouldn’t move even if I attempted to budge them. “Why?” is all I can manage to ask.

“It’d be easier if I showed you.” His index finger touches the middle of my forehead. 

Suddenly I’m in the dark. There is complete nothingness around me for a few seconds until a light flickers before my eyes. The tunnel reappears just like before when he tried to show me something—blurry at first, but then it grows clear. There’s an old, wooden cabin surrounded by trees. The path in front of the house is dusty and worn. To my right, I see a horse trough filled to the brim with water. The birds chirp while the smell of wild flowers and fresh air feels real. Why is he showing me this? I’m not scared at all. Matter of fact, I feel completely comfortable here in this vision. It’s peaceful here, like this is home.   

There’s a little girl in a faded, blue dress sweeping the front porch. She looks like she’s straight off of 
Little House on the Prairie
—very plain. I glance down and notice my outfit nearly matches the little girl’s. My fingers touch my hair. It’s braided into two long plaits that rest on my shoulders and feels strange between my fingers. 

While I wonder why I’m here and why demon boy is showing me this, I hear a man shout in the distance, followed by the sound of hooves pounding the ground. The haze of the hot summer sun causes the three cowboys riding over the hill to shimmer. They’re strangers. Strangers I can’t let near the little girl. For some reason, I just know this. Fear causes my entire body to tremble, and before I can stop myself, I yell, “Run, Sarah! Hide!” 

The little girl drops the broom on the porch and takes off toward the barn. I watch her tiny eight-year-old legs carry her, but I feel like she’s not moving quickly enough so I scream again for her to hide. I think about hiding too, but no one else is here to defend the farm, and I can’t let them destroy what I feel is our home. The men bring their horses down to a trot as they approach me. They look rough—like they haven’t had a bath or shaved in weeks. I swallow down a lump in my throat. Suddenly, I’m really afraid, more than I’ve been in my whole life. It doesn’t look like they just want directions. 

The largest of the three men stops his black horse in front of me. “You there, girl, yer daddy here?”  

I shake my head. “No sir, but I ‘spect he’ll be along any minute.”  Those words don’t sound like anything I’d ever say, but it’s like I have no control over my actions or words. It’s like I’m in the passenger seat of my body. 

The three men laugh as they dismount. The big one smiles at me and I notice he’s missing his right, front tooth. “The horses need tending to. You see that they get water and then get on in the house and fix us something to eat. We’re mighty hungry.”

Bossing me around doesn’t sit well, and I’m sure as hell not their servant. “Papa doesn’t like strangers ‘round here. Y’all need to get back on your horses and be on yer way. There’s a town a little ways up the trail.” 

Toothless marches over and grabs me by the arm. Hard. “You sassing me, girl? I don’t take to kindly to being sassed by no woman.” He spits, and it nearly lands on my shoe.

“Let go of me!” I shout as I smack his face. Nobody grabs me like that without asking for a fight.

He rubs his face and smiles evilly. “Looks like we’ve got a feisty one here boys. Maybe we should cool her off.”

Bile fills my throat and I nearly throw up as I’m brought out of the vision. The room rocks back and forth as I focus on the demon boy. Then he presses his finger to his lips and then points toward the door with the other hand.

“Natalie?” It’s Alicia. “Can I sleep with you tonight?”

I look at him, my eyes still wide from what’d I’ve just seen. Alicia cracks the door open and my gaze darts in that direction. 

“Why—” before I can say another word, he’s gone. That vision felt so real and has left me with so many questions and absolutely no clues on why it’s important. Now, I’m just further confused about him and what exactly he wants from me. 

I clear my throat to regain my composure before I answer Alicia. “Sure.” I pull back my covers and slide over. 

She snuggles in beside me. “I really don’t want to leave for school.”

She’s still drunk. I rub her arm and whisper, “It’ll be okay.”

I’m safe from a return visit from the demon as long as my sister is here with me. For some reason, I think he’s only able to freeze time when he’s collecting a soul, which is why I used to always climb in bed with Alicia when I was younger. There’s safety in numbers. He did seem different tonight, though. Not as scary as usual. 

This visit showed me a different side to him—a caring side. Maybe I can convince him to renegotiate my deal? The next time I see him, I have to try to bargain with him and ask him about the vision he showed me. I sigh and close my eyes knowing I won’t get my answers tonight.  

The next thing I know Alicia shakes me vigorously. Damn it! I wish I could be an evil sister and yell at her to leave me alone because I only have a couple hours of sleep time left. I love her too much to do anything mean to her, though.

“Nat, wake up.”

My heavy comforter becomes a shield over my face. “What, Alicia?”

Footsteps come to a halt at my bedside. Why is she up already?  “Come on. Get up. You don’t want to sleep the day away. I’ve got big plans for us.”

I groan. “You’re still drunk. Can’t it wait until morning?”

She laughs and yanks the blanket off my face, then opens up the drapes that keep my room pitch black. “God, Nat. It is morning.”  

What the hell? Startled, I sit up and rub my eyes as streams of bright sunlight shoot across my bedroom.

She gasps. “What the hell happened to your face?”

My fingers trail along my right cheek. Crap! I bound up from my bed and dart over to the mirror. The bruises aren’t nearly as bad as I thought. There’s a faint yellow spot on my left cheek. They’re almost healed. Impossible. The baby demon really fixed me just like he said. 

Not wanting to drag the topic of me and Trevor back out, I quickly cover the faint bruise up with make-up. “It’s nothing. I got drunk last night and kind of fell on my face.”

Alicia crosses her arms and glares at me through the mirror. “Are you sure? That jerk-off Trevor didn’t touch you, did he? Because you told me last night that Rick came in before anything happened. Don’t lie to me, Natalie. You know I can always tell when you’re lying.”

Nervous laughter spills from my mouth. “I wouldn’t lie to you. I fell. That’s it. I promise. It’s not even that bad. See.” I turn towards her.