Broken Fairytales (12 page)

As soon as Ben
saw me, the
unc
omfortable look
on his face
turned to panic
as he rea
lized what the scene must look
like
from my perspective
.
He backed away from her so quickly that it
looked like he’d been shocked.
I immediately shot a glare at Ashleigh, who leaned against the counter looking indifferent to the situation. 

Ben started apologizing profusely, but being drunk and very over Ashleigh always trying to steal my boyfriend, I’d just turned around and walked away from them both, putting my hand up behind me to stop Ben from coming
after me.
I needed to decompr
ess and let go of what I’d
seen and what might have happened n
ext had I not walked in on them
.

Of course, Ben immediately ran after
me, cornering me in the hallway and
babbling like a crazy
person about how sorry he was. That
started
fight number one of the night.
If only he’d let
me calm down before he’d come after me
, it might not have been so bad
.
I was not usually an overly emotional person in public, but in that moment, I was so fired up that I didn’t give a
damn that people were staring and commenting that sweet Emily
Cole was flying off the handle.

Not caring who noticed
,
and sick of the expectation others had laid upon me to be good and
sweet and
nice all the time,
I let loose on
Ben
, shouting everything
that I’d held in all at once.
In Ben’s defense, I’d never
before
expressed any aggravation with Ashleigh’s flirting and over-aggressive
attempts
to make-out with him, so it may have come as a surprise that I was so upset, but at the same time, how could he think I could have been okay with al
l of it? Yes, I had
know
n Ash
leigh since kindergarten, and was
never surprised to find her flirting with anyone, especially Ben
, but
it
was just a teensy bit
annoying
after
five
years
that she continued to do it.

I knew Ben wouldn’t do anything with her, but it was hard to get over the fact that a very w
ell-endowed, gorgeous girl was
sticking her chest in your boyfriend’s fac
e and rubbing up against him
every chance she got
.
For as long as I could remember,
I’d put up with her flirting.
I hadn’t said a word, but what h
urt
,
now that I thought about it, was that neither had Ben.
At no point had he ever stood up to her
, pushed her away
,
or told her to leave him alone
, and suddenly I was pissed that he hadn’t done
any of
that.
 

Ashleigh
relished the fact that
she was a UNC cheerleader and Ben
was a footbal
l player. Any time I went to a
football party
with him, she was always somewhere close by. What she
never seemed
to get is that
Ben would never go for her, not to mention the fact th
at he w
ould never cheat on me. She
didn’t stand a chance
, and her seduction attempts had become desperate and pathetic
.

The night before had been the same as always – different location,
same tactics
– w
ait until Ben was separated from me, and I was talking
to other people, then move in.
She never gave up.  Thankfully, Ben never gave in
either
, and he always tended to assume the guilt over her flirting which usually parlayed into him not leaving my s
ide for the rest of the night.
I told him time and again that it didn’t bother me, but
it always did.
H
e always felt b
ad that he let her get to him, but not once did he
speak up and tell her to stop.
I was over it.

I screamed at him in the hallway for a good five minutes before te
lling him I was done and walked away.
I wasn’t sure what I
’d
meant by being ‘done’,
but it had the desired effect.
Ben’s face held a look of shock and awe that I glanced at befo
re shoving past him to the back
porch where I ran smack into my brother.

“Ow! Shit!” I said, my hand instantly closing over the small painful circle of exposed
flesh
that appeared when my wrist collided with his lit cigarette
.
“Dammit!
That hurts!
” 

I looked up and glared at Chase, expecting him to make a nasty comment about my clumsiness, but instead he was looking at me with something resembling concern.

“Are you okay?” he asked, lo
oking down at my covered wrist.
In his right hand was th
e offending object I’d run into. It was
now out and slightly crumbled
, having met its fate against my skin
.
He looked at it once before letting it fall to the ground.

“
No, i
t hurts like hell,
” I said, realizing that the tiny burn was throbbing painfully.

“Yeah, fire tends to hurt when it collides with skin.
Do you want me to get you some ice?
”

I
shot him a dirty look at hearing the sarcasm in his tone. No, I did not want him to get me some ice. 

He stared at me for a moment, when I didn’t respond, before shaking
his head.
“Put some ice on it,” he said, pulling another cigarette
from his pack and lighting it.
“You’ll be fine.”

I huffed once in annoyance, before turning on my heel and st
alking off toward the kitchen.
I wanted to cry, but I was far
to
o
pissed to let that happen.
Silently, I grabbed a piece of ice from the freezer and pressed it against the seared circle of flesh, instantly feelin
g relief
.
Ben reappeared then
, holding a
box of Band-A
id
s
and a tube of Neosporin, and I realized he’d seen me get burned by Chase’s cigarette
.

“I’m
so
sorry,” he said, searching my eyes for some sign that I might forgive him
, as he set the first-aid items on the counter
.

I sighed and nodded.
“Me too,” I said
,
realizing how much I really didn’t want to fight with him
.
I wanted to enjoy our last night together.

“I didn’t know you were that upset about Ashleigh flirting
with me
,” he said, and I
knew he was telling the truth.
“Em, you know I’d never
do anything with her, right?”

I nodded
again. “Yeah, I know.”

I could feel the ice cube melting, water running down my arm and dripping onto the tile floor, making small puddles.
Ben reached out for my wrist, taking the ice from my hand and
placed it over my burn.
Looking up at hi
m, I knew I couldn’t stay mad. Not when he was being so
sweet.

“I think I’m good,” I said, after a few minutes. 

The ice cube was
almost entirely melted anyway.
Ben removed it from my wrist, rev
ealing a very red, open wound.
The skin around i
t was peeled back and charred.
It was far from attractive.  Ben leane
d down and kissed my wrist, next
the burn.
Without looking up, he set to work applying the Ne
osporin and covering it with a Band-A
id.
When he
finally
looked up, his eyes locked with mine.

“Thank you,” I said, grateful for his kindness after I’d
just
yelled at him.

“I love you, Emily,” he said, softly. “You know I’d never do anything to hurt you, right?”

“Yeah, I know,” I
said, leaning up to kiss him.
I smiled at him as he smirked down at me. 

“
I can’t wait for later,
” he
mumbled against my lips, his body pressing against mine. “Do you just want to leave now?”
 

M
y second
mistake
of the night
was hesitating. We should have just left the party then.

“Not yet. I want
to
find
Rachel.
I haven’t seen her all night.”

“Okay,” Ben said,
looking slightly crestfallen,
“but let
me know when you want to leave.
I’m ready whenever.”

I could
tell
he
could care less about spending time with our high school friends. Of course, he wasn’t leaving the next day like I was, and I wanted to get some Rachel time in
before I was separated from her again
.

I leaned up
and kissed him long and hard.
“Later,” I said
seductively
, before heading toward the keg outside where I could see Rachel talking to someone.

I noticed as I got close
r that that someone was Chase.
She
was
listening
and noddi
ng at something he was saying.
It was a strange scene
to take in
.

“How’s your wrist?” she asked as soon as she saw me. I
peeled back the Band-A
id and
held it
up to show her.
She visibly winced. “Ouch.”

“Yeah, no kiddi
ng,” I said, glaring at Chase
, as I re-secured the Band-A
id
.
I fully blamed him since it was his cigarette I’d run into.

His face s
howed no change in expression.
He just lifted his cigarette to his lips and took a long drag, blo
wing smoke out into the night.
I ignored him and turned back to Rachel.

“
I need to talk to you.
” I reached out and grabbed
her arm
, dragging her over to a corner to demand
some answers.
“Okay, BF,” I said, well aware that I was beyond buz
zed
at that point.
“What exactly were you doing hanging out with my asshole brother the other night, and where exactly do you get off not telling me about it, huh?”

I’d forgotten to ask Rachel about hanging out with Chase at the concert she’d gone to th
e week before.
Now, seeing them together again, I remembered what Keely had told me.

“What?” Rachel asked, and I knew she was playing dumb. “What are you talking about?”

“The concert.
Keely said you guys were hanging out together,” I said, as if the words tasted sour in my mouth.

“Oh,” Rachel said, waving me off, “that was nothing. I ran into him at the bar, s
o we watched the set together. He was cool for a change.
It was like hanging out
with the Chase we knew when we were little
.”

I rai
sed my eyebrows at her.
“Seriously?”

She shrugged and took a sip
of her beer.
“It’s weird, I know, but he was actually nice to me that night.”

Now I was beyond
puzzled and a little annoyed. I had
person
al knowledge that Chase had
referred to Rachel a
s a
psycho
-bitch
several times in the past
.

“Are you guys, like best friends now?” I asked, a little more harshly than I’d intended to
and
realized too late that I sounded petty and immature.
It must have been the
alcohol
talking
.