The Ties that Bind.
Chapter six.
Disclaimer: I own nothing
Madeline POV
[Rated M- ] Holy shit! Fuck, fuck fuck! What the hell had I just done? Oh right, I'd just given my personal number to a man I'd known for a total of about seventy-two hours. To top that Allison and Clarke were going on like this was a good thing! Mind you, I didn't think it was a bad thing either really. And he's kissed me, not some stupid check action either. An honest to God knee knocking, and potentially sinful kiss. It was just that too, sinfully promising yet innocent. It made you want more, it made me touch my lips and grin to myself. I felt like a schoolgirl, kissed for the very first time. But that's what it felt like, it felt like I could almost forgot about Seth and the horrors in the Seth-drawer.
Almost.
I didn't want to think about Seth even as my thoughts continued to drift there. I didn't want my memories with James to mingle with those terrible ones I associated with Seth. Because that's what they were, terrible. All of them, or at least most of them. There were good ones but they were at the very beginning before they transformed into what became years of pain. Those memories made the pain harder to deal with and are what hinder relationships. After all how can you trust anyone who makes you happy when that had been the beginning of hell?
I let my thoughts drift into the topic of Allison and Clarke's conversation which, surprise surprise was about their upcoming wedding. I was extremely happy for my sister, she had been the one to pick-up my pieces and I was glad she had found somebody to love and who would love her in return. They made a good couple too, a cute couple. One of those ones you saw in movies that fed popcorn to each other and also had some part of their body touching the other person. Sure, they fought…. at times I've been sure they were going to kill each other but it also seems to help them to understand each other. They've also never fought about the same thing twice.
Would I ever have something like that? More to the point, would James Rhodes be the person I had that something with?
I know now that none of what happened was my fault, and I had Allison to thank for that. She told me it wasn't my fault every chance she could until I finally believed it, until I realized the truth. Even so, who falls in love with someone who is a potential flight risk? I don't really liked to be touched, I'm jumpy, suspicious and I don't like crowds. Men like James Rhodes and Tony Stark make me nervous. Powerful, strong, and in Mr. Stark's case arrogant.
Yet, even with my long list of character flaws I'd allowed James to kiss me, and it had been good. Really good. Maybe I wasn't broken after all; maybe just maybe I was desirable, pretty, and beautiful. I rubbed my temples, all this self-revelation was making my head hurt on top of the throbbing in my wrist. I tempted a glance of my bandaged wrist and winced, the doctor had said that it wasn't bad and the bandage would be able to come off within a month. I let my head fall back against the head rest and closed my eyes trying to get my now extremely active brain to quiet down, I wasn't doing very well.
"Five bucks says he calls you before the day ends," Clarke's amused drawl came from the driver's seat. I rolled my eyes and kicked the back of his seat while Allison laughed. We pulled off the freeway and onto a residential street about five minutes from the house. I was currently living with Allison and Clarke, once they were hitched they were planning on moving into a semi-detached leaving my in the apartment.
It was never my intention to end up living with my sister and her fiancé but after Seth I had no place to live and Allison insisted that after what I'd been through there was no way she was going to let me live alone. As we began to pass familiar houses I glanced at the phone in my hand. Would he call? Surely he would, after all he kissed me so he must be interested. That thought sent chills through me. I had no idea how to be someone's girlfriend; I'd certainly never considered myself to have been one to Seth.
I looked up and met Allison's gaze in the mirror, she was smiling at me in a way that made me feel five years old. Like I had no idea what I had no idea what I was doing, or what to expect, which wasn't entirely untrue. "He'll call Maddy, even if it's just to check and make sure you didn't give him the number to the rejection hotline." Her voice was laced with amusement, and I had to smirk. The rejection hotline was a number Allison used to be famous for giving guys. When they called the number they'd get a voice on the other line; this is the rejection hotline, you were given this number because the person who gave you this number did not want to give you their actual number, as they did not want to continue contact….
We used to call the number just to laugh over the fact such a thing existed. We pulled into the underground garage and slowly made our way to the apartment. Allison had decorated the place in a very contemporary and modern style. It wasn't exactly fancy, but it was elegant. A lot of people questioned why Allison and I lived in a suburban apartment when we owned our own company, and the honest truth was because we didn't want to. For a while it was just the two of, we didn't and still don't need to live in a mansion.
Part of me wondered if James had figured out that we were multi-millionaires.
The rest of the evening progressed slowly and without incident. We'd decided to leave all the invoices that were surely awaiting us until the next day when we returned to work. I would also never admit it, but I was exhausted. Ashamed was also high on the list. I can't believe I broke down on James like that, crying and panicking like a child. I flinched at the memory and shook my head, it was too early to go to bed but too late to go on a run or do anything or the sort.
Allison and Clarke had retreated to their room about a half an hour ago and I really didn't want to know what they were doing. There was really nothing more awkward on the planet than having to listen to your sister and her fiancé have at it on the other side of a wall. I flopped down onto the couch and put my earphones in and turned my music on. I desperately needed to update my iPod. It was currently filled with Lee Hester, Panic! At The Disco, Fall Out Boys and Jaydee Bixby. I'd basically just uploaded some CDs onto it and left it like that.
I must have fallen asleep because I was woken by an ear-splitting scream. I jumped off the couch and flattened myself against the wall. The pounding of my heart against my rib cage was painful and with each pulse I could hear the blood roar in my ears. I knew that scream; I knew it because it sounded identical to mine, which meant there was only one person who could have made that sound. I heard a thud and another scream that was cut off too quickly and my panic rose. A wail rose in my throat as I clawed at the wall behind me trying to hide inside it.
The silence that followed was the silence that was heard in horror movies before the man with the chainsaw appeared out of nowhere and murdered the unsuspecting person. Very deliberately heavy footsteps approached the door and a second later it was kicked open. The sound made me flinch into the wall and close my eyes. I looked up through teary eyes ay my sister who stood with a gun pressed to her temple. Blood on her head from a struggle I hadn't seen. She was crying, tears were running down her face and she sniffled every couple of seconds. Clarke wasn't with her. Something told me the thud I'd heard was the cause of that.
The man holding Allison looked at me, and his eyes were pure evil, everything about him screamed evil. My breath caught in my throat and suddenly I was paralysed. Allison looked at me and mouthed the word 'Run'. So I did, and the sound of the gunshot reverberated in my ears.