Ten (My Brothers Best Friend) (5 page)

“Get off me! After everything she took from you, Ten, I’m going to kill her.”

There was that name again. Ten.

What I took from him?

He didn’t want anything to do with me. He never answered my letters.

“Get in! Now!” he roars, pushing her towards the exit door we left through.

“I’ll be seeing you, bitch.” She spits in my direction before sauntering inside.

Dalton’s heavy frame turns back to me and I wilt under the intensity of the anger radiating from him. “You shouldn’t have come here. Who the fuck do you think you are? I don’t ever want to see you here again, because next time I won’t pull anyone off you. I’ll let them give you what you deserve.”

What I deserve?

Cold rain seeps into my clothes and over my exposed skin, dampening my hair and causing it to stick to my face. I welcome the downpour; it obscures the tears falling from my eyes. I don’t want him to see me crying, to see me broken by his harsh, cruel words and behavior.

His stance emphasizes the raw power of his muscular body, the rain quickly drenching the cotton tee he’s wearing, showing the contours of his shoulders and chest, and as much as I’m hurting, the visual still quickens my pulse. His once bright blond hair is darker, and has lost its shape. Drops of rain bubble on his steel set jaw. He carries himself with a commanding confidence that makes me cower inside myself, preventing me from doing what I want to do.

I want to jump up and pummel my small fists into his chest, and scream at him.

“It’s me! It’s me! You loved me once and I will always love you! Don’t treat me this way. How dare you? You’re my soul mate. You’re my soul mate, God damn you!”
But my worst fear is playing out in front of me, and the way he peers down at me like I’m the trash he just threw out curdles my soul. He really doesn’t care who I am or what we once shared. He’s a different person now and he’s forgotten me
. Worse. He remembers me and he hates me.

Getting to my feet, I sway unsteadily, feeling nauseous. My face throbs from Lisa’s boot, and it causes anger to fire up inside me, my blood rages as my heart pounds heavily. I will never be a victim like this, not again.

I should have protected myself, defended myself, but I couldn’t comprehend everything that was happening, and it all happened so fast.

I use the wall to support myself and hobble down the alley with Dalton’s eyes burning a scar into my back. I was right. I’ll never be the same again.

I make it to my car and sobs burst from my chest. Patting down my damp, sore body, I learn my bag with my keys in is still on the bar. I want to scream into the rain but not be heard, and I know that’s not an option. Getting inside my car to get away from here as quickly as possible is what I need to do. Noticing a police car through the blur of my tears, I debate reporting the abuse I was just put through, but despite the pain in my heart over Dalton, I don’t want to bring attention to how he treated me or allowed others to treat me.

“Alex,” Lacy’s cautious tone calls out. “Oh, God. Look at you.” She shakes her head in sympathy, but I don’t need that from her. I needed her to help me when I was in the bar, but instead, like everyone else, she stood in silence.

“I brought your bag.”

I snatch my purse from her grasp and fumble inside for my car keys.

“I’m sorry, Alex,” she mumbles.

I turn, the anger raging to the surface. “Why didn’t you help me or get help? Why did no one help me in there?”

Shaking her head, she reaches to place her hands on my shoulders but I shrug her off. “It’s a Moore’s bar. It was a Moore, Alex. No one would dare, or bad things would happen to them too. I’m so sorry.”

I unlock my car and hastily jump in, turning the heating on full to warm my skin and dry off, but the drive back to my old home is done while feeling completely cold, and completely numb.

When I pull up, I run into the house, locking the door before sliding down it to the floor. My body trembles as the floods of emotion overwhelm me. I curl into a ball and let myself cry. I don’t know how long I lie there but my cell chiming pulls me from my misery. When I see that it’s DJ, I quickly swipe my tears and take a few deep breaths

“Hello, sweetie.”

“Hey. I know it’s late but I just wanted to say goodnight.”

“Missing me already, huh?”

“Always, but Leon is so cool, so don’t worry about me. He took me shopping for my new guitar.”

“That’s wonderful, baby. I miss you so much already. I don’t plan to stay here long.”

“Are you crying?”

“No, silly. I’m just tired. It’s been a long few days.”

“Okay. I love you, Mom.”

“I love you too, baby. Goodnight.”

Hearing from my son,
our
son, only makes my heart crumble more. Dropping the phone to the floor, I lie amongst the dirt. Physically, I am here. Mentally I’m far, far away.

I
was fourteen when I had my first kiss. I’d mastered climbing Dalton’s tree years before, and when he didn’t sneak through my bedroom window to spend the night, I snuck out and climbed the tree into his room. He wasn’t there once I made it up, so I curled up in his bed to wait for him.

I awoke to a noise from outside his window, and I saw him kissing Lisa goodbye. My world came crashing down around me. He always told me that he would make me his as soon as I was old enough, and that we would get married and never be apart, but if I had to wait, why couldn’t he? I despised Lisa and every touch she got that I didn’t. My soul cried every time she spoke about him in the locker room or in the lunch hall. It felt like a betrayal that he went to her. Why did he do that if he didn’t love her?

I swiped the tears soaking my cheeks and waited for him to come up to his room. It was ten minutes before he appeared. I startled him and he stumbled a little and looked around his room and then to the window sheepishly.

“Alex, what are you doing in here?”

“Waiting for you,” I croaked out. Anger and irrational thoughts churned inside me. “I love you,” I spat out into the room, and nervously stepped from foot to foot while playing with a loose piece of thread dangling from my shirt. “I loved you the first time I saw you, and you know I do. You promised me that you’ll marry me, and you think I’m a little girl who will be content with that. Well, guess what, Dalton Moore? I’m not.”

His eyes grew wide at my words and he walked closer to me, warning me to quiet down with hand gestures and frantic head nodding towards his bedroom door but I was too mad to listen to him.

“I hate Lisa. I hate that you do things with her. I hate that she talks about it all around school. I hate that you tell me I’m special and that we will be together one day, but all the time you’re with her and I’m alone.”

“You’re only fourteen, Alex. Your brother would never let us be together.”

“Well, maybe he doesn’t get a say, Dalton. Or maybe you never meant those things you said, and really you just don’t want to hurt your best friend’s sister who is crushing on you.”

“Now you’re talking crazy and you know it. If you were just a little older… It’s so hard for me, Alex. Your brother wouldn’t understand, and your parents, God… your Dad would arrest me!”

“Now who’s talking crazy? Maybe I am a little young. Maybe I should date boys my own age,” I teased, to see if I could gage a reaction. He stood silent and still so I pushed a little more. “Jordon Reese told me he wanted to give me my first kiss today, and asked if I would go out with him this weekend.” It was the truth. Jordon was new and didn’t know my brother…yet.

Dalton’s heavy footfalls stomped across his room until he stood a fraction away from me. His large hands encased my face. His eyes were heavy-lidded and there was a mist in them, highlighting the powerful blue. “I’ll be your first kiss. Your first everything. Please, Alex. Just wait for me.”

I felt his plea through the intensity of his gaze. I dropped my tone so he knew I was more sad than angry. “I’m done waiting while watching you do it without me.”

His forehead came down to rest against mine and he closed his eyes and inhaled heavily.

“I love you too. Since the first day I saw you.” His lips smoothed over mine, eliciting a small gasp of surprise. His mouth slowly coaxed mine to open and his warm tongue slid delicately into my mouth. It was weird, warm and soft, but as his tongue pushed firmer against my lips, my own joined his to form a dance, and it felt incredible. When he eventually pulled away I groaned in disappointment.

“That’s all I can give you for now. That, and a promise that I’m done with Lisa and any other girl. You will wait for me and I’ll wait for you, and as soon as you’re old enough we will be together.” A sigh of relief pushed past my lips and I willed the tears threatening to fall to dissipate.

And I did wait, and he gave me all my firsts. He was the first person to make love to me, and the first person to break my heart.