Breaking Through the Wall (Guarded Hearts Book 2) (16 page)

“What do you think
, Mads?”

“I think it is a great idea
, Nic. Thank God I have Carter’s car keys in my purse too!”

It took me one hour and both of us a couple of missed calls and fake locations with the guys to get it done. Once we had it in the trunk
, we went and met them at the sushi restaurant we had picked out for dinner. When we saw them, they looked pissed and I really couldn’t blame them. We had been leading them on a wild goose chase for the past forty-five minutes.

We had dinner and walked around a little more after that, and it was really nice. I was not looking forward to going home tomorrow
, but at least Jason and I were finally in a good place.

Jason

This past month had been crazy. Nicole had play practice at least four times a week. On top of that, I’d had to spend time with Slutty Stacey on our final for class. The only girl I knew who was more of a pest than her was Alyssa. Now that was one crazy bitch. Carter said she showed up everywhere. It was like the girl was a damn hound dog. You would think, after everything, she would realize she didn’t have a chance and give up.

Stacey just texted me and asked if I could meet her at her room
, because the library was closed today. I knew this was a bad idea, but we only had a couple things left to do and I just wanted the girl to beat it already. When I got to her building, I signed in and went to her room. I took a deep breath, because I knew this girl was going to push my buttons in every way possible. When I knocked on the door, I heard her yell, “Come in.”

I walked in and saw all the stuff for the project laid out on the desk. She lived in one of the nicer dorms on
campus and had her own bathroom. The door was closed, so I assumed that was where she was. When I started looking through all of the papers and everything, I noticed that all of the things she had said she needed help with were already done. This couldn’t be good.

I heard the bathroom door open and when I turned around
, Stacey was standing there in nothing but a red lace push up bra, matching boy shorts, and a pair of heels. Fuck my life!

“I thought we could celebrate having this finally done
, Jason.” She strutted over to me, trying to look seductive, but really, the only way she looked was desperate and pitiful.

I backed away from her and started making my way toward the door. “Stacey
, are you fucking serious right now? I don’t know how many times I need to tell you this, ‘I don’t want you.’ I know you understand English, but if I knew any other fucking languages, I would tell you in those too. I don’t care what you think, this is not me playing hard to get. I. Do. Not. Want. You.”

I turned and walked out of the room, slamming the door as I left.

When I walked out of the dorm, I saw Nic walking into the theater building. Maybe I’d go watch her practice, the show would run the week before Christmas break and I kind of wanted to see what she had been working on.

When I walked into the building
, I could see Nicole standing toward the end of the hallway. I couldn’t see who she was talking to because they were around the corner. As I got closer, I heard bits and pieces of their conversation.

“I don’t know how many times I need to say it
, Aaron, this is just acting.”

I hated that asshole
. He was so entitled and thought he was God’s gift to women because he had money.

“Nicole
, you can’t tell me that loser is really good enough for you. Let me show you what you are missing, doll.”

I
was going to fucking kill him.

“Aaron
, I am not going to stand here and listen to your shit. You don’t know me, or Jason, and how dare you—”

I couldn’t see her anymore, so I started running. When I turned the corner
, that asshole had her pushed up against the wall, kissing her. I grabbed him and shoved him against the opposite wall. I looked back at Nicole to make sure she was all right.

“Sorry you had to see that
, Jason. You know sometimes romances start onstage, then carry on off stage as well.” Was this dickhead serious right now? I pulled back my fist and slammed it into his face. “Fuck! My nose!”

I turned back to Nicole. “Are you ok
ay, babe?” She just nodded her head.

“How did you know I was even over here?”

“I saw you walking in and was going to come watch your rehearsal.”

“Well
, thanks for being my knight in shining armor, Tarzan. Do you still want to come watch?”

The dirty thoughts running through my mind when she asked me that were endless. “I don’t know if Romeo will be up for rehearsal today.”

We both looked at Aaron still lying on the floor and laughed. She grabbed my hand and started walking toward the theater. “I don’t have any scenes with him today, so it doesn’t matter.”

I was sitting in the audience watching Nicole and she was amazing. I
had never been the type to go to plays and things like that, but she was such a natural. As far as the story, I couldn’t understand half of the shit they were saying.

Everyone was going out to Shattered Glass tonight, mainly because Nicole tortured us every
day to go. I knew she loved to perform and I really liked seeing her up there too. What I didn’t like was the fact that every guy in the club would stare at her the entire night.

Madison

I was meeting everyone tonight at Shattered Glass
, because I was coming straight from work. My manager offered to drop me off, even though it was only like five blocks away, to help ease Carter’s mind. He had been so concerned lately with my safety and I got it, but sometimes it could be a little much, like now. He had been taking me shooting once a week and I was just now starting to get over my fear. I even hit the target last weekend, but I think that was because I finally had my eyes open when I pulled the trigger.

When I got out of the car
, I saw Shawn walking down the street. I had texted him earlier about meeting us out tonight, but he had told me he couldn’t because he had a study group. I was glad he changed his mind, he hadn’t been around and I really missed him. As he was walking toward me, he passed under a streetlight and I saw a huge gash on his face. I ran up to him and I realized he hadn’t seen me before now. “Shawn, are you okay? What happened to your face?”

“Nothing
, Maddy, I’m fine.”

He
started to walk around me, but I grabbed his arm. “You are not fine! What is going on with you? I’m not stupid, I know something is up. We all do!” I was not a person who usually yelled at people, but I was so frustrated with him. Not only that, but I was a little bit scared of what he had gotten himself into.

He
jerked his arm away from me and started to walk away again. At this point we were back in front of the club. “You are going to speak to me, Shawn Matthews!”

This time when he turned around
, the look in his eyes scared me. “I said, back the fuck off, Madison!”

Just then
, I noticed Carter had come out of the club. He pushed Shawn away from me and out of my face. “Watch how you fucking talk to her!”

“You
’re really going to push me right now, Carter? Because now is not a fucking good time!” He pushed Carter, who went slamming into me, causing me to fall on the ground.

Just as Carter was about to go after him
, Jason came out and got between the two of them. “What the fuck is going on?”

“Don’t ask me
, J! Ask him! He is the one always sneaking around and disappearing. Then I come out here, and he is screaming and cursing in her face.” I could hear the anger in his voice.

“Shawn
, what the hell is going on?” Jason looked just as pissed. The guys had been getting more and more irritated by Shawn’s behavior over the past couple months.

“You know what
, I am not dealing with this shit right now! You can all go play Dr. Phil with someone else!”

He turned and walked away from us, leaving us all wondering what the hell happened to our friend.

Nicole

When everyone came back in, they all looked ready to kill someone. I went right up to Jason when he sat down. “What happened, babe?”

He looked at me and I could tell he was trying to calm himself down before answering me. “Maddy saw
Shawn walking by outside, and he had a pretty big gash on his face. She was trying to get him to tell her what was going on, when he started flipping out and yelling at her. That would be when Carter walked outside and the shit hit the fan. I had to hold them back from getting into a fight. I don’t know what is going on with him, Nic. He is not the same person he used to be.”

This was a lot to take in
. Especially because Shawn was the last person I would expect stuff like this from. “Have you noticed anything weird around the apartment?”

“No
. I even went into his room and looked around a couple of days ago. Nothing was out of place, and everything seemed really normal, for the most part. I’m scared he is into drugs or something, but then I think...wouldn’t I have found something?”

I could tell by his face that there
was something he wasn’t saying, I wasn’t getting the whole story. “What aren’t you telling me?”

He looked up at me and I knew I had caught him. “I found an envelope with a lot of money in it, and I mean a lot. It was in his underwear drawer under a bunch of clothes.”

“Could it be something that his family sent him?”

“N
o. his dad has a construction company, but it isn’t doing very well right now. There is no way they gave him that kind of money. I don’t want to believe it, but whatever he is into, I know it can’t be good and I seriously doubt that it is legal.”

I had no idea how to respond at this point
. Everything I thought I knew about Shawn was now slowly fading away. I couldn’t even imagine how Jason and Carter felt, they had known each other for years. We all ended up leaving shortly after, because no one was really in the mood to sing and have a good time.

Carter and Jason went back to his apartment
. They wanted to wait and try to get through to Shawn or at least figure out what was going on. I took Maddy home so we could hang out because we hadn’t really had that much girl time lately. I didn’t know how she was dealing with all of the crap in her life, between the miscarriage, Chris’s trial, Carter taking her to the shooting range every weekend and school. I would have had a major meltdown by now, but I always knew she was strong. We decided to make some popcorn and just hang out for the night.

“So
, how are things with Jason?”

“They are so good
, Mads! He seems like he is getting more comfortable with the whole relationship thing, and the sex is phenomenal. I umm…I think I’m in love with him.” I couldn’t believe I just said that out loud. I knew Mads would never say anything, but it felt so much more real now that I said it to someone.

“Nic, I can see that you love him
, mama. I think he does too. He won’t admit it for a very long time, though. He may not even know that is what he is feeling right now, but I see it when he looks at you.”

She thought that Jason was in love with me? I
didn’t think there was any way in hell that was true. He liked me, and he was definitely attracted to me, but I didn’t think love had crossed his mind at all. Has it?

“Stop overanalyzing it
, girl. That boy has fallen and fallen hard for you.”

“Al
l right, enough about me, woman. How are you?”

“I’m fine.” I
knew she didn’t think that answer was really going to work on me. “What? I am!”

“Listen
, girl, I have told you before and I will tell you again, I can see right through it. You, my dear, are not fine and I thought we did this shit after New Year’s. You cannot keep everyone out, Mads. You don’t always need to deal with everything yourself.”

“I know that I can’t deal with it all by myself
, Nic. The thing is that it hurts less to bury it.”

Her answer did not surprise me at all, this was how she always dealt with things and old habits are hard to break. “Mads the way that our life has been going this past year
, if you try to bury everything, the cemetery is going to be overflowing in no time. Talk to me about it. I’ll even make it easy…let’s start with dickhead’s trial.”

Her face dropped.
I knew bringing up Chris to her was hard, but it needed to happen. “It sucks. Their lawyer is actually suggesting that I wanted to leave with Chris and that Carter has pressured me into changing my story! We have absolutely no evidence to prove my claim either. Nic, I am scared to death that he is going to walk.”