DECKER
I’m not sure what happened the previous night. I know I hadn’t left the apartment, but my mouth felt like it was filled with sawdust and my head felt like an elephant had sat on it. I lifted my pounding melon from my pillow and took in the sight of Leah sprawled across my bed. I groaned with mortification. What the fuck had I done? I attempted another glance around the room. I was still dressed, as was Leah. This was an unusual scenario to find myself in. If Leah had stayed the night, it would be unlikely either one of us had kept our clothes on. Yet, my jeans, albeit unbuttoned at the waist, were still on. Leah’s jeans were zipped and buttoned, and her shirt was a tangled mess around the perfect curves that I knew lay beneath. Not as perfect as Andi’s, but womanly and soft, as they should be. The empty bottle of Jack Daniels on my bedside table brought back a few scattered memories. Me…drunk…again. Leah spitting mad like the enraged volcano I knew she could erupt into. Oh yeah, she had called me more than a few colorful names and reminded me what a pathetic and weak piece of scrotum I was. Yep, she had actually compared me to the skin on my sack. I laughed because I had to agree, it was a great analogy. It had been nearly three weeks since that night. Three weeks since a cab had towed my pathetic ass away from Andi’s, and I had vowed to fix things. Three weeks in which I had descended into a sniveling asshole of epic proportions. How many times I had picked up the phone and stared at it? I wanted to fix things between Andi and me so bad, but I was too damn weak to take the first step. I had been reduced to a Jack Daniels swilling, depressed scrotum sack. A voice somewhere in the back of my mind told me to just let her go; she deserved better, so much better. It was inevitable that I would fuck things up with her again, eventually. I couldn’t put her through that again. That hurt in her eyes when she had stood at the door in the back of that club and saw Melody on her knees before me. That pain that radiated from Andi had been so thick, so overwhelming, I swear I could hear her heart shatter. I had done that, I had broken her. I deserved to be miserable.
Over the pounding in my head, I recognized the distant pounding on the door to my apartment. Knowing it was most likely my mom who had I diligently tried to avoid over the past three weeks, I lay there and considered ignoring the rabid drumming. She was, if anything, determined though; I knew she wouldn’t simply walk away. I peeled my protesting body from the mattress and out of the bedroom. My feet were bare, as was my chest. The scruff on my face had grown out to resemble something like a face forest. My hair was no doubt just as untamed and feral looking. I didn’t care. Nothing mattered any more. It seemed we had come full circle. Prior to picking Andi up from the airport, I was in just as dark a place, only my heart hadn’t hurt quite so much.
“Pull your darn fists in, you’ll wake the whole damn building,” I growled as I threw open the door. A crudely landed thud on my cheek was followed with a snap of my head. I would have stumbled back if whoever had delivered the blow had put a little more effort behind it. Nevertheless, it stung like a bitch. When my watering eyes cleared, I blinked and took in the sight before me. Motherfucker! “You hit me?” I said, stunned.
“Damn straight I did. I was going to pay someone to do it for me, but I’ll be damned if I let someone else get the pleasure of beating the shit out of you,” snarled Bradley, then, he hit me again. This one packed a bit more of a wallop, and I did stumble back a step.
“Holy shit,” came a startled voice from behind me. Leah. I looked up at Bradley who had noticed the pretty porn star at my back. His eyes flared with fury, and he lunged at me again.
“She’s just a friend,” I went to say, but another punch landed on my jaw.
“Yeah, I know all about your female friends. You tried to turn my damn cousin into one of your fuck buddies.” He pinned me with his best glare; it was getting better. Bradley wasn’t known for his fury, he was better at laughing and smiling. “She’s as good as my sister and you fucked her over.”
I pressed my shoulders back and stood taller. “I did, and I deserve everything you want to dish out at me and more. So bring it on, I won’t even fight back.” Bradley looked a little bewildered, then he bitch slapped me. Oh, motherfucker, that was just embarrassing.
“It’s not as enjoyable if you just stand there and take it,” he mumbled.
“Stop hitting him. I’ve already tried it, it’s not going to work. He needs to stop being a * and man up and fix things. He’s miserable and I’m sick of cleaning up his half dead carcass.” Leah’s angry voice stopped Bradley’s assault.