Broken Fairytales (13 page)

“No,” she said, “Not hardly.
”

“But you were talking to him tonight,” I said, reminding her of what I’d walked up on two minutes earlier.

She rolled her eyes.
“He was
just
telling me about how you ran into him and burned your wrist. I ran into him at the k
eg and asked if he’d seen you.
Trust me, we
’re not friends.”
She laughed lightly.

“W
ell, good,” I said, thinking it would be too much to stomach
if
Rachel became friends with my brother
too
.

“Um,
okay
so I
do
have to tell you something,” Rachel said, sounding nervous.

“What?” I asked, matching her tone. The beer was making me more emotional.

“I’m dating someone,” she said confidently, but I could hear the hesitation in her voice. 

Panic filled me, as
I was afraid she was going to reveal that she was seeing Chase, and that would have literall
y put me over the edge.

“His name is Michael
. He’s actually the guy I went out with a few weeks ago, and we’ve been hanging out a lot lately.”

“Rach, that’s awesome,” I said, hugging her. I couldn’t remember the last time a guy had actually made the cut with her, so this Michael guy must be special.

Rachel went on
to tell me he
was going to be a s
e
nior
in college
at the
small, private university i
n the next town over
, before launching into more intimate details of their new relationship, and I couldn’t help but smile
.
I’d had a feeling
she’d
been keeping something from me
ever since our fight two weeks earlier. She’d been pre
occupied ever since that day, and
I was
relieve
d to find out her anxiety had nothing to do with me
. I could see the tension on her fa
ce ebb as she told me
more
about Michael.
It was weird.
I wasn’
t sure I’d ever seen Rachel so
affected
by a guy before
.

She explained that he was leaving the next day for an internship in Chicago and would be gone for the rest of the summer, so she asked if I’d be okay if she took off early. I told her ‘hell yes’ and we made plans to get together for breakfast the next morning
before I left
.
Since she was leaving, I figured there was no reason for Ben and me to stay, so I set off to find him.

It took me a good ten
minutes before I located him, and when I did, all hell broke loose.
When I couldn’t find him downstairs, I went upsta
irs to see if he was up there.
I passed Chase
, a
s I made my way up the stairs.
He and his friends w
ere lounging on the bottom step
s
.
I had to step almost over
his friend
Davis to get around them.

“Excuse me,” I said
curtly
, stumbling slightly as I did.

“You okay, Em?” Chase called after m
e, and I thought I could hear a
taunting
tone
in his voice.

“I’m fine,” I snapped back, not bothering to turn around.

“Fin
e,” he said, matching my tone.
“I was just asking, because you looked wobbly, but if y
ou’re going to be a bitch, go ahead
and
fall
.”

I glared back at him, as I made my way to the top
of the stairs
, stumbling once again
.
Chase mumbled something I couldn’t hear, and
I thought I heard Davis laugh, but I wasn’t sure.

“Ben,” I called when I got up to the top of the stairs. 

I looked dow
n the hall and didn’t see him. So I walked around, peaking in the open rooms. I saw a Chris DeLuca and Brittney
Markham making out – eww,
something I didn’t want to see – but I didn’t see Ben.
I headed back downstairs, annoyed that I had to step over Chase
and his friends
again.
I rounded the corner just in time to see Ashleigh Ballast kissing my boyfriend.

“What the fuck!” I screamed, and for
th
e record, I had
never said that word
before in my life
before that moment
.
“What the hell are you doing?!”

I wasn’t sure who I was directing my obscenities at, but
both Ben and Ashleigh looked up –
  Ashleigh with a smug smile on her face, and Ben with an absolute look of terror on his.  Forgett
ing Ben, I charged at Ash
l
e
igh. Now, let me say that I had
also
never got
ten into a fight before. I had
never hit anyone, besides smacking
Chas
e upside the head, and that didn’t count, b
ut w
hen faced with Ashleigh flirting with
Ben
for years
, arguing with him
about it an hour before
and then findi
ng her kissing him, I lost it.
I screamed, and I honestly don’t know what came out of m
y mouth, but I’m pretty sure ninety percent of the words
would cause FCC violations if they were said on TV
.
It was
that
bad.
Then
I literally drew back and punched
her
square in the face. 

I
t
was like slow motion as I watched he
r head
fly back
.
She wobbled slightly, as her hand flew to her face before she ful
l-on
screamed like a banshee.
Before I knew what was happening, her hands were on my shoulde
rs
,
and I was falling backward.
Ashleigh had five
inches of height on me and about fifteen
pounds, so her weight
alone
was enough to
knock me over
, let alone the force with
which she shoved me
.
 

I fle
w backward, losing my balance.
I realized too late that I was going to hit the ground, and i
t was going to hurt like hell.
My body slammed against
someone else, knockin
g the beer out of their hands.
I felt it soak my shirt before I hit
the hard
wood floor and my head knocked against the ground
. I was stunned for a second before
I realized what had
happened and felt some sort of liquid soak into
the back
my jeans.

A
nger boiled
my blood
,
as I looked up a
t Ashleigh’s
face, red with fury.
It was enough to get me back on my
feet
.
I was
charging at her
within seconds
.
That i
s until someone restrained me, and I could
n’t get to her.
I fought like hell to get loose, but the person holding me was stronger and wasn’t loos
en
ing their grip. 

“Let me go,” I s
aid, kicking my foot back in an effort to collide
it
with the person’s
shin.

“No,” came Chase’s firm voice
, succeeding in shocking the hell out of me. My brother was the last person I expected to be holding me back.
“Stop it, Emily. Right now.”

“Emily, what are you doing?” Rachel asked, coming up behind Chase.

“I want to hit her,” I screamed, and could see Ashleigh looking at me in fear, her right
eye already starting to swell.
She might have been bigger than me, but
in that moment,
I was scarier. My rage ignited
a fury that told her I would
n’t
hesitate to kick her ass. Next to her
Ben was tak
ing it all in in stunned silence
, his mouth hanging open slightly as he looked between us
.

“Take her outside, Chase,” Rachel commanded.

“
Come on
,” Chase said
authoritatively
, picking
me up off the floor just enough so my fee
t weren’t touching the ground.
I continued to squirm around, trying to get awa
y from him,
blind
with
indignation
, only thinking about pummeling
Ashleigh again and again. “Quit fighting m
e, Emily. I’m not letting go.”

Chase tightened his
bear-hug
grip, his arms squeezing mine so tight
that I was sure they’d
bruise
, but
I
honestly didn’t care. When it hurt too much, I finally gave up the fight.
There was no way I was getting loose anyway. He was a foot taller and eighty pounds heavier than me. I didn’t have a chance.

Once we were outside, and Chase was pretty confident I wasn’t going to charg
e back into the house
, he
set
me down.
I only realized
then that I was out of breath. I stood on
the deck, pulling in ragged breaths and coughing every few minutes.
It seemed like forever
until my heart stopped racing.
The whole time, Chase stood there watching me closely, as if he was afraid I was
going to make a break for it.
I finally noticed Ben, who had snuck outside at some point, standing
behind
Chase, watching me closely.
I moved to walk around Chase to talk to Ben, but Chase stuck his arm out
to stop me. I swatted it away.

“Stop it, I just want to talk to Ben,” I said, giving him a look that said I would hit
him
if he didn’t get out of my way. 

“Don’t do anything stupid, Em. I meant it.”

“I’m fine,” I spat at him, giving him the most evil look I could conjure.

I wasn’t sure exactly when I’d become a violent person, but
I was angry through and through
,
and the fact that my brother had pulled me away from releasing tha
t anger had me upset with him.
Yes,
I realize
my perspective was slightly
skewed
at that moment
.
 

“Fine,” Ch
ase said, lowering his arm
, but not leaving.
He stood to the side like a bodyguard.

I took a deep breath after watching my brother
stare at me for a few minutes.
“Chase, I’m cal
m,” I
said, through gritted teeth,
only half-serious. “I want to talk to Ben alone.
He has som
e
serious
explaining to do.”

I saw Ben look down at his shoes out of the corn
er of my eye.
He looke
d guilty, but of course, he was guilty.
I’d just
caught him kissing another girl.

“Fine,” Chase said, glarin
g at Ben and then back at me.
“I’ll be over there. Don’t do anything stupid.”

“Fine,” I said, before looking away from him and focusing on Ben.

He looked back at me sheepishly.

“Explain yourself,” I demanded, raising my eyebrows
in expectation and thinking he’
d better have a good reason
for what had happened
.

“Em, I’m so sorry,” Ben said, try
ing to put his arms around me.
“I didn’t mean for that to happen
. I fucked up. I’m so sorry.
She j
ust kissed me out of nowhere.
We were talking, and then she kissed me,
and that’s when you walked up.
Please, you have to be
lieve me.
I
t’s the truth.”

I gritted my teeth for a minute
then felt my whole body sink
before I started crying.
It was like every e
motion that had fueled my anger
suddenly conve
rted over to complete despair.
Every negative thing I’d thought about Ben came flooding back t
o me, trumping all of the things
I loved about him
, and I
made a snap decision.