Broken #3 (The Broken Series - Book #3) (11 page)

The cab pulled up to my
apartment. I paid the guy and got out, closing the door behind me. I headed up
to my apartment slowly, not feeling like I had any energy at all. I knew Julie
was home, so the door would be unlocked. I opened the door and walked in,
seeing her drinking a beer on the couch watching an old episode of
Sex and
the City
.

“Oh my God, you are home early?
And you're crying?
Oh no, what happened?”

I started crying harder now,
feeling totally and hopelessly lost at that moment. She flew off the couch and
came over to me. She wrapped her arms around me, and hugged me tight as I cried
in her arms. When my tears stopped flowing, she patted me on the back and led
me over to the couch, where she handed me a box of Kleenex. I dabbed at my
eyes, and blew my nose repeatedly. Julie went to the fridge and grabbed me a
beer, cracking it open before she got back to me. She handed me the beer and I
took a long―very long―pull on it, and emptied half of the bottle. I
leaned back into the couch and pointed at the TV.

“Yup, just one of those nights.
One of Jet's friends actually
asked me out, which I was really excited about because he's super-hot. But by
the time I got home from school I was no longer in the mood to go out so I
postponed it for another night, and decided to be lazy,” Julie answered my
unspoken question.

I laughed. “It's probably best to
keep them guessing anyway, right?”

“You got it. He's been messaging
me all night ever since. I think he's worried that I got a better offer.”

We laughed. It felt nice to laugh
again. I didn't know what the heck I was going to do with myself but for the
time being. I was gonna sit there and laugh with my new best friend. She
watched me as I continued to swig my beer. She took a few sips of hers before
she started in. “So, are you going to tell me what happened? Did he try to get
in your pants again?” she asked jokingly.

“Well if he did, at least this
time I would have been sober.”

“Okay so what really happened,
Natalie? You’re a mess, and I don't understand how going out to a fancy family
dinner ended like this.”

I sighed and explained the whole
evening to her.
Right from beginning to end.
How he
had picked me up for dinner, and laid praise to me and then took me to a fancy
Italian restaurant. The kind of fancy restaurant where the waiter came around
and filled our wine glasses while we ate.

I told her how everything seemed
to be going great until Jet's father started giving him a hard time about MMA,
something I had no idea he didn't like about his son's life. I talked about how
Jet had a brother named Craig, who sat and defended him all through dinner.

Julie patiently sat there and
listened as I told her how the fight escalated as Jet's father wanted him to
work for his company, how he thought MMA was a joke, and basically railed on
Jet about every aspect of his life right down to why he didn't have a part-time
job. I explained how Jet exploded and yelled in front of everyone at the
restaurant, how his dad’s girlfriend was labeled a whore, and how I also
learned that Jet's dad had cheated on his wife with the “whore” at the table.

I finished my explanation with
how Jet had stormed out of the restaurant, leaving me there with his family,
and how I had gone out to talk to him, only to get into a huge fight with him
about secrets, the past, my ex, and the fact that we would only ever be just friends.
I was exhausted by the time I finished the story. I downed the rest of my beer
while Julie sat there looking shell shocked. I got up, went to the kitchen, and
grabbed us both another beer. I headed back into the living room and plopped
back down on the couch.

“Jet, actually called his dad's girlfriend a whore?”

I laughed. “Yeah, it was
something to see, for sure.”

“Oh my God, how do I keep missing
these things? That whole story was better than watching an episode of The
Guiding Light.”

“I know. I feel emotionally
drained from being a part of it.”

Well, that's one hell of a story,
Natalie. There's clearly a lot of history between Jet and his dad that they
will probably have to work out together, or maybe just not be a part of each
other’s lives.”

I nodded, feeling sad about the
whole thing.
Poor Jet.
I knew what it was like to have
dysfunction in the family, and I also didn't have the best relationship with my
dad. It was nothing like Jet's issues, but we had our own issues we had to
figure out.

“Anyway, I decided that I would
send a message to Jet later tonight, and tell him I want to break contact. I
don't even want to be friends anymore.”

“Well why would you do a thing
like that?”

I looked at her, confused. “Isn't
it obvious? Look at us―we're a mess, and we can't seem to figure things
out properly. I don't want things to continue on like this; we are far too
complicated for two people who are just friends.”

“Well for one thing, you guys
were never just friends.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well; even if you leave out the
sex that's happened between you two, you are way more than just friends. He for
sure has wanted more from you right from the beginning, but you have just
chosen to ignore his wants out of fear.
But even leaving that
part out, look at the two of you together.
Everyone can see it Natalie,
that's why no one can figure out why you aren't together with him. I understand
you’re scared of getting hurt because of what happened with Tom, but unless
you're going to become a nun, you have to learn to trust someone eventually.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really.
You guys have great chemistry,
and you have a blast together, and hello―he's hot. The sex is great ... I
can keep going on if you want. I think it's a mistake to have
a friends
with benefits pact with this guy, but I think it’s
an even bigger mistake for you to drop him out of your life completely. I think
you want something serious with Jet; you're just too scared to do anything
about it.”

I stared at her, shocked, and
wondered how right she was about everything. I decided to hold off on my text
to Jet, and see how I felt about things in the morning.

Chapter Ten

Jet

It was round two of the
conference finals, and the crowd was wild as the bell rang for the second round
to commence. I moved forward toward my opponent, Jan, who was trying to take me
down. He was a strong fighter, and he had almost mastered me in the first
round, until I got him onto the ground in a triangle hold. I almost had him
submitted to tap when the bell rang to announce the round had ended. I got up
off the ground and went to my corner, pissed off.

“
It's
okay, Jet. You will get him next round.”

I wasn't breathing heavy at all.
My cardio was excellent, but I could not deny that it had been a hard round. I
was fighting in the finals, and the guy I was up against was a great fighter,
maybe one of the best in our weight class. If I won that fight, I would be
heading to the nationals. I could not wait to get there, and I just needed to
mow through Jan here to do it.

Someone screamed, “JET!” as we
met in the middle of the cage to begin round two. Everyone got up from their
seats, as they were dying to see me kill this round.
 

Jan hit his mark immediately,
throwing a kick into my ribcage, and following it with a front kick. The hit
was hard, and the breath came right out of me as I staggered back from the
front kick. I ate the hit, unable to check it. But I got back in with a few
punches to Jan’s face. My body is strong and flexible, and my movements are
fluid. The crowd starts to boo as I take another hit to my torso. Jan followed
that with an uppercut to my chin. As my head flew up, I backed away quickly to
recover. He was not going to take me down; I refused to let him. I walked back
in, and hit him with a four-punch combination.

I regained my position by hitting
Jan with a flying knee, and dropping him.

Jan got back up, and came in
hard, trying to grab me and keep me in a clinch. He dropped in a few knees as I
tried to remove myself from the clinch. I pushed him away from me, and hit him
with a jab, and then a right cross. I did it again, and Jan ate both hits.

My corner was screaming at me to
just keep
going, that
I was knocking him down. I
needed to get this in, to conquer Jan, and move on to the nationals. This was
my dream, and I was going to prove my father wrong. Prove to him that I could
do this, be the best, and have the career I always wanted in the MMA.

I went in fast and hard just as
he recovered from my one two shot. I swung high and fast with a kick, and
clocked him right in the head, and he was down for the count. The medics went
in, and the fight was called. The medics stayed with Jan to make sure he was
okay, and then he joined me in the middle for the call from the judges.

My hands went high in the air as
my name was called, and I had won the fight through TKO. My corner came rushing
into the cage to congratulate me, and I had the press in there as well, to
interview me. I was going to the nationals. I felt like I was flying high,
about to take over the world. I had never wanted anything more in my life, and
there I
was,
the winner.

I slipped into my shirt, and
headed out of the cage with my tea. We went back to the lockers and started
collecting our things to leave.

It was party time as my team and
I headed out to celebrate my victory with everyone. No one could kill my high
at that point, and I knew that the nationals would be mine as well.

We all went to our usual party
spot, and I realized then how much I missed Natalie. I should have invited her
to the fight, but I never really knew what was going on between us. She kept me
constantly confused, and to be honest, a little mystified. I looked around the
room, hoping that I would see
her, that
she would show
up with Julie, and sit at her usual spot at the bar. I wanted to see her gloomy
and sassy as she pounded back drink after drink. The first time I had seen her
at the bar I thought I had fallen in love, and believe me, I don't get that
feeling around many girls. But Natalie, yeah, Natalie instilled that sort of
thing in me.

Chapter Eleven

Natalie

I was lying on my bed, trying to
wrap my head around the story I was writing. I felt like I needed more drama
and intrigue in it, but I was stuck as to how better to spice up the story.
Ugh! I rolled over in bed, and considered heading to the kitchen to make some
tea. Surely there had to be a better way to figure this out. Writing a story
was so much harder than I thought, and I needed to consider the fact that it
wasn't my calling. I could create magic when it came to photography or the
visual arts, but put a blank piece of paper in front of me, and I was totally
lost. I got up to go to the kitchen to make that tea. Maybe when I came back,
my writers block would be over.

As I was about to leave my
bedroom the phone rang. I stopped and turned around. I considered ignoring it
and grabbing my tea, but I thought it might be just the welcome distraction
that I needed. I snapped it up from my bed, and was stunned to see that it was
Tom calling again. I stared shocked at the phone, unsure of what to do. I
couldn't imagine what he wanted, and I was sure I didn't really want to find
out. He had destroyed me for an eight-month span of time, and I had finally
started to get a handle on my life again, only to have him start calling me
now, the insensitive prick. Without knowing why I did it, I clicked on the call
and said
hello
.

“Hey, Natalie ...”

And then there was silence. His
voice―it had been so long since I heard his voice. I had forgotten just
how much I liked his voice. It used to soothe me when I cried or had a bad day.
It also stirred me when he used to whisper my name when we lay in bed together.
All it would take was for him to touch my body and whisper my name, and I was
undone. Now here he was again, saying my name as if nothing had changed, as if
he hadn't torn my heart in two.

“Tom, why are you calling me?”

There was a pause before he said,
“I don't know. I've been thinking about you a lot lately. I wanted to make sure
you were okay.”

“Why would you care?”

“Natalie, come on.”

I felt tears well up in my eyes.
“No, really, Tom, why would you give a shit at all?”

“Just because we aren't together
it doesn't mean I never cared about you. We were together for years.”

“That didn't stop you from
fucking my best friend, though, did it?”

He sighed deeply on his end. “I'm
sorry, Natalie, if have no idea. I never wanted to hurt you; things just spun
out of control. I never meant for you to find out that way.”

Tears spilled down my cheeks as
my mind raced.