Chasing Rhodes (Rock Falls #1) (23 page)

Everything went in slow motion at that point. The girl jumped up, scrambling for clothes. Brayden asked me what I was doing there while covering himself with the blanket. I was backing out of the room, tears wickedly streaming. He called after me as I ran away. The man had effectively smashed my heart to pieces.

The trip back to my room was a blur. Once I burst through our door, I met Pepper’s eyes. She instantly held her arms open to me, and I ran into them.

“Brayden is a bastard,” she whispered, stroking my hair, knowing without words what had happened. My life was ruined. This happy girl would no longer ever be happy.

A dark two weeks…

I can’t breathe. My heart actually physically hurts. How is this even possible? I thought they were joking when they talked about broken hearts.

But they weren’t lying. This shit hurt! How will I make it without him? I love him. But he ruined everything when he slept with that bitch. God, I hate him. I miss him.

For two days now, I just lie here, thinking about what would have happened had I not walked in. Would we still be getting married? Nothing can bring me out of this terrible place. Pepper tries, but she can’t even begin to even touch the depths of where I am now.

School doesn’t matter. Food sucks. Hygiene? What’s that? She keeps threatening to call my mom but all I hear is “blah, blah, blah”. Whatever.

He keeps texting me, but how can I begin to ever even talk to him? I’m afraid if I see him that I’ll just run right to his arms, hoping he’ll make it all better. But I know deep down that isn’t right. If he did it once, he’ll probably do it again. God, my heart hurts so fucking bad!

I guess I’ll just cry myself to sleep…again.

Present

“Come on, Andi! I don’t have all day. Some of us have been ready for hours,” Pepper called to me from the living room. Of course she’d been ready for hours. She was wearing jeans and a sweater for crying out loud, and it probably took two minutes to readjust her bun.

“Perfection takes time,” I told Olive, who was sitting on my bed while I applied the last of my makeup. “You sure you don’t want to go with us, hon?” I asked, turning to look at her. Olive was our new friend. She was a gorgeous black girl with legs that went on for miles. Her hair was smooth as silk and her eyes were the palest orbs that contrasted vividly against her chocolate skin.

Olive moved in with us about a month ago. She somehow managed to escape an extremely abusive relationship but had nowhere to go. When I found her crying at the café one day, I took her under my wing, praying Pepper would be okay with it. Of course Pepper fell in love with the leggy chocolate goddess as well, and she’d been living with us ever since.

Olive got modeling gigs left and right because she was perfection personified. But her fears of her ex sometimes cripple her socially.
A lot of times.
Like tonight, she was adamantly shaking her head to my offer. She had a fear that she might run into Drake and he’d drag her away from us, never to be seen again. It always gave me the shivers to think about what he must have done to her to make her so afraid. And the fact that she refused to ever let us see her without being fully clothed made me wonder if he’d done something to her body. Just the thought made me sick to my stomach.

The modeling jobs she took were mostly for magazines. She absolutely refused to do any live modeling at shows even though that would have been the best way for her to get noticed by more well-known agents. Olive gave us money when she got paid on these jobs, but we never asked her for any. We just wanted our girl safe with us.

I didn’t make much money at the café so Pepper was our breadwinner. Well, if you call having a monthly trust fund “breadwinning” then she was definitely it. Her dad was a high-powered attorney there in the city and didn’t want his little girl to hurt for anything. We lived in a sweet little apartment and didn’t hurt for much either thanks to Pepper being “Daddy’s Little Girl.” Oh, and she played the part so well. The girl could be downright bitchy, but when—Daddy—was around, her voice was as sweet as sugar.

Thankfully, I was going to start my new job on Monday and would be able to help Pepper out more than just buying the groceries. Even though her dad took care of a lot for us, I still felt guilty about being a total freeloader. Today was my last day at the café and now we were going to celebrate. It took several months after college of applying all over the city to finally land a job at Compton Enterprises. The job I really wanted was to be an architect, but working as an assistant at an architectural firm was a good foot in the door. Everyone has to start somewhere.

“One day I’ll go with you guys. But it’s just too soon. Please have fun for me. I have a date with American Idol,” she smiled at me.

“Okay, fine. But I’m holding you to it. Now, how do I look?” I asked her, flipping my hair over my shoulder.

Ever since the day I found Brayden cheating on me, something in me snapped. Gone was the blond-haired innocent. Gone was my optimism. My outlook on life and love had been ruined the moment I saw that girl’s big tits bouncing as she rode my man. He had stolen it all away from me when he decided to sleep with some bimbo after almost four years of dating.

Now, I was this hard, jaded woman. Away had gone my conservative ways and I had welcomed my inner skank. I glanced at my reflection in the full-length mirror on the wall. My platinum-blond hair was flat-ironed perfectly straight halfway down my back. I had carefully made up my face, complete with smoky eyes and plump red lips. The dress I chose to wear was black, tight, and short. Just the way I liked it. The plunging neckline revealed my adequate cleavage. My red pumps put me up three inches higher than my five foot seven frame.

“You look beautiful as always, Andi,” Olive genuinely assured, making me smile at her.

I was in “Man-Killer Mode” as Pepper called it. I’d have them falling at my feet tonight. One of them would get lucky too. I was on the prowl, and even Pepper wouldn’t be able to tame me. This Friday night was about to get crazy.

“Thanks, babe. See you in the morning,” I waved to her as I grabbed my clutch and walked out my bedroom door. Pepper was curled up in the recliner reading a book. “Let’s go, bitch,” I told her as I shrugged into my coat.

“About time, bitch,” she shot at me, picking up hers from the back of the chair as she stood up.
Man-Killer Mode: Activated.

A dark two weeks…

Today, I am absolutely sick to my stomach. Not eating hardly anything for several days straight has sent my body into a tailspin. My head throbs, I’m weak, my body hurts, and now I am throwing up. Pepper told me earlier that things were getting out of control, that she was going to drag me out of the bed if I didn’t get my act together soon. I just flipped her off and threw the covers over my head.

Thankfully, I was caught up on all of my classes before the “incident.” I was really just waiting to take my finals. I have worked my ass off for four years. Surely I can take the week off without catching flak from Pepper. Wishful thinking.

My heart still hurts so fucking bad. I keep playing reruns over and over again of “what-ifs”. Every scenario ends the same. Bray is a cheater. He even had the nerve to come to my dorm room, but luckily Pepper ran interference.

Hearing his voice successfully caused me to break down all over again. He was begging her. She was cussing him out. I was sobbing uncontrollably.

Will it ever get better? I’ll never be able to love or trust again. Brayden was it for me. Now I have nothing.

I’m looking at myself in the mirror and it doesn’t even look like me. My hair is curled, my makeup is heavily put on, and this dress was my mom’s when she was in high school. It is much too short for a girl of 16 to be wearing. There is a knock on my door before it opens. “Well, look at you baby girl. You look all grown up. Here I brought you these high heels to put on; they will make your legs look longer.” My mom puts the heels down on the floor and I step into them. “Now my friend Ted will be here soon, so let’s go over everything again.”

I hate this. I hate that my mom feels the need to use me like this. I always feel sick to my stomach when her ‘friends’ come over. “I know Mom. Just look pretty and let him do what he wants.” She smiles at me before fixing the comforter on my bed.

“Maddie, you know I hate that I need your help. However, my friends take care of things for us as long as you’re a good girl.”

I look at myself in the mirror one more time and she comes up behind me. “Baby girl, don’t forget men are only after one thing from a woman. Give them what they want, but don’t let them trap you baby. A man will treat you a hell of a lot better if you aren’t his. You are beautiful and you will be able to get any man you want, but don’t let them try to get you into a relationship. You get what you want from them and they take what they want from you. Does that make sense to you?”

I look at her through the mirror. “Not really.”

She smiles at me in the mirror again. My mom is absolutely beautiful. She has long blond hair, bright blue eyes and is always dressed perfectly. Her looks are everything to her. My mom has never been the one to attend PTO meetings, class plays or even back to school night. She always had a date or something else going on. She has men coming and going all the time. She has a lot of girlfriends that spend the night in various bedrooms, with ‘friends’ as well. The only reason we live in this huge house, with expensive cars and enough clothes to dress my whole sophomore class at school, is because she sleeps around. I am almost certain she is some kind of high paid hooker.

That is what she is trying to turn me in to. She has ‘friends’ that like young girls. She was nice enough to keep them away from me until I turned 16, then she said I was old enough to be helping her. She took me to the doctor to be put on birth control and a month later, I had sex for the first time with a much older man. It was horrible. He was rough and it hurt like hell. I cried the entire time, which apparently was more of a turn on. I have begged my mom these last few months to not make me do it again, but she always says the same thing. “This is why we have the beautiful things we have. Men will give you anything if you give them your body.” I have just stopped trying to fight it. It makes it easier to just let it happen.

“Maddie, I can see your wheels turning. You do this every time. Just relax and let him do what he wants. You will enjoy this one day, baby girl. You will want men to do these things to you. The earlier you become familiar with what you like and they like, the more you will enjoy this when you’re older. Now did you put on the pretty light pink bra and panties I got you?”

“Yes.” She fixes my hair and pulls my dress down to show off more of my cleavage.

“That’s my girl.” Just then, the doorbell rings and I begin to shake.

After Ted has his way with me, I am laying in the bed while he gets dressed. “You were a very good girl, Maddie.” I don’t say anything and I don’t turn to look at him. I just want him to leave so I can shower. “Look at me baby girl.” I hate when they call me baby girl, it makes me sick. I don’t want to look at him, but mom always says to do what they ask. I roll over and make sure to keep the sheet tucked around myself. He is smiling at me while he buttons his shirt. He sits down on the bed and runs his hand down my face. “I will definitely be back baby girl. You are a beautiful girl; I will have a hard time not thinking of your sweet little body.” I close my eyes tightly because I don’t like when they talk to me like this. I don’t want to have any kind of relationship with them. I want them to just leave. I feel his hand on my cheek again. “Don’t be ashamed, baby girl. You are a sexy little thing and you should be proud of what you can do to a grown man. I am getting hard again just thinking about it.” I squeeze my eyes tighter because I can’t do this again. When they start to linger like this, it’s usually because they want more. He runs his hand down my side and touches my ass. So much for him leaving.