Unspoken Memories (Unspoken Series) (8 page)

I’M ONCE AGAIN standing at the same
front door as yesterday, waiting for an answer. I didn’t call, because I really
didn’t want to have to explain why I was on my way here over the phone, in case
someone around me was listening. So instead I grabbed a cab from the train
station, and headed straight here praying I wouldn’t be turned away.

It’s dark now, so upon exiting the cab, I took off the
sunglasses I was wearing, and now I’m waiting for a savior to open the door.
Then he does. Matt is shocked to see me standing there, but the minute I see
him I start to shed the tears I’ve been holding for the past four and a half
hours.

He opens his arms without hesitation and I walk straight up
to him. He takes me into his arms, and holds me while I bawl my eyes out. I
don’t know how long we stood there in the doorway, but when I pulled away, I
felt so much better.

Matt steps back so we can enter together, closing the door
behind us. I was so lost in my world of crying that I didn’t even notice the
noise coming from inside the house.

I take a peek from the doorway into the living room and
notice the large group of people gathered there. I see Trey walking up to us,
and the horrified look on his face makes me shed another tear. He’s holding a
bottled beer in his hand, and his knuckles starts to turn white from the force
that he’s squeezing it with. He looks rigid and his breathing is now becoming
heavy. Just looking at him I’m starting to get a bit frightened again, but Matt
reminds me that he’s still standing next to me when he pulls me protectively
against his body. Trey nods his head, in a silent understanding to Matt, and
turns back around towards the living room.

“Alright fuckers, party’s over! Everyone out. Now!” Trey
yells at the room. The tone in his voice obviously dares anybody to challenge
him, but I doubt they will.

I feel Matt tug me towards the hallway leading to the
bedrooms and I follow, with my head hung low, thankful that my hair is covering
my face. He leads me to the very end of the hallway, and upon entering I
already know it’s Matt’s room. It’s the kind of room I imagined him having.

The floor is done in a dark hardwood. The furniture is also
dark wood, almost matching the flooring, not masculine, but modern. There is an
open door off to the right, which looks to lead to a bathroom. The bed is
rumpled with dark coverings, and there are clothes lightly scattered around the
room.

Matt leads me over to sit on the bed. “Here, sit down, you
look exhausted,” he says before he starts picking up the clothing on the floor,
in an attempt to tidy the room. I sit there watching him, admiring him,
wondering what the hell I’m supposed to do now.

He finally finishes, and stands a couple of feet in front of
me. He crosses his arms in front of his chest and his eyes on me, as if waiting
for me to say something.

“I walked in on him fucking her,” I tell him.

He stays silent, simply staring down at me, expressionless.

Taking a deep breath, I keep going, “So I started packing
some clothes, ready to leave, but he didn’t take it so well. He stated that I
needed him. That he was the one who made me who I was and I was nothing without
him, especially since I have no family. He threatened to ruin my career,” I
say, shaking my head. “At this point I don’t really care anymore.”

“You don’t need him, Abigail.”

“I know, but I hate how he’s right. I don’t have any family,
and if he keeps his word about my career, it will be over. What am I supposed
to do? I had nowhere to go, I panicked, and came here.” I bury my face in my
hands and begin to sob again.

Matt kneels in front of me, pulling my hands from my face
into his. When he looks deeply into my eyes, the sobs stop, just from seeing
the comfort in his eyes. He lightly brushes the side of my hair near my injured
eye behind my ear, wanting to see more of my face.

He hesitantly touches the tender spot of my eye with his
fingertips, making me quickly flinch. Then he gently starts rubbing my chin
with his thumb while his eyes stay on mine. I lean my face into his hand,
wanting to feel the warmth of it, needing the comfort.

“You were right to come here, and you don’t need him for a
career. You’re a beautiful girl, and could get any job you wanted, if you work
hard enough for it.” His response makes me smile. “You’re not alone anymore.
Trey and I are your family now.”

The way he says it, I want to believe him, and the look in
Matt’s eyes seems to indicate sincerity. With everything going on in my life
right now, there’s nothing I can do but take his word.

I sniffle and nod my head as he pulls me into his body,
hugging me, and wrapping his lean arms around my waist. He starts to rub my
back and I bury my face in the crook of his neck, taking in the unique scent
that is him.

We stay like that for a couple of minutes, and then we hear
a knock at the door, pulling us apart to look towards it. Trey walks in, still
looking pissed.

“Everyone’s gone,” he immediately says. “Care to tell me
what the fuck happened to your face?” Trey growls at me.

Matt scowls at him. “Leave her alone for now Trey, she’s
obviously had a rough night,” he says to him very sternly.

I stand up now looking back and forth between the two of
them, not wanting them to fight. “When I tried leaving, he grabbed my arm so I
spit in his face, and he hit me.”

“What!” they both say at the same time with fury. I flinch
from how loud they say it. But it’s Matt who says, “I’m going to kill him!”
With Trey saying after him, “Not if I kill that fucker first.”

Hearing them say that makes me smile, knowing that I have
two guys willing to hurt someone for me. I barely know these two, but they’d be
willing to defend my honor in a heartbeat. I tell them what happened, and how I
was able to escape Bill. They’re both surprised at how I was able to take Bill,
but proud of me.

“Damn, supermodel. I’ll make sure not to piss you off,” Trey
says in a mocking tone while taking a sip of his beer.

I silently laugh. Even if he were to piss me off, I’m pretty
sure I wouldn’t be able to take him out. He’s too big. At that moment my
stomach starts to rumble very loudly, and it makes us all laugh.

Trey throws his arm around my shoulders, and says to me. “Come
on kung-fu supermodel, we need to feed your skinny ass.”

It makes me smile while I walk out of the room with him
towards the kitchen, Matt following close behind us.

I’m finally able to take in the whole scene and you can tell
that there was a party going on in here. I try to ignore the mess as best as I
can, since I’m already getting the urge to tidy up, but my stomach is
protesting to be fed, which is exactly what I intend to do at this point.

The smell of the pizza hits me when we enter the kitchen and
my mouth starts to water as Matt hands me a slice of pizza loaded with all
kinds of veggies and meat. As I take a bite, I moan, because this pizza is
delicious.

Matt eyes me with a smile. “Good, huh? It’s the best pizza
in town, but they don’t deliver so we only get it when one of us is willing to
drive for it.”

The boxes on the counter say
Flying Pie Pizza
on
them. Shoot, I’ll drive from now on just to get this mouth-watering sin.

We eat in silence, standing against the counter in the
kitchen and I can tell by the looks on both their faces that they are anxious
to start asking questions, but they don’t. Which, I’m grateful for. After
eating a second slice I feel like my stomach is going to explode, but I am
completely satisfied.

Looking back into the living room, I can’t take it any
longer and finally start to tidy up the place. This time though Matt helps me.
He’s quiet the whole time he’s helping. I can tell he’s thinking really hard,
but he still won’t say anything.

Once we’re done, I go and sit on the couch. Finally feeling
like I can relax, I take off my shoes, and curl my feet under my legs. Matt
sits on the recliner that I had sat on yesterday, elbows on his knees, staring
me.

“What?” I say to him.

He merely smirks. “You took my advice and went for a run.”

I look down at my clothes and realize that I still have my
running clothes on, including the light jacket that I had worn.

I nod. “You were right, it really did help. At least it
helped before the shit hit the fan,” I state.

“Are those the only ones you have?” Matt points at my
clothes.

Now that I realize it, they are. The new stuff I had bought
was in the guest bedroom I was staying in, so I didn’t get a chance to pack
them in the bag. Good thing I had the shoes on, or else I would have cried all
over again.

I nod. “Well then, we’ll have to get those washed tonight
because we’re both going to need a run tomorrow morning.”

Trey comes up and sits on the other end of the couch, beer
in hand, staring at the flat screen that’s tuned to the sports channel. As I’m
sitting there, the exhaustion of the day is catching up to me, and my eyes
start to grow heavy. Matt notices and stands up, extending his arm and hand to
me.

“You look exhausted, let’s get you in a bed so you can get
your rest,” Matt says quietly. “You can crash in my room in the meantime, it’s
cleaner, and that bed
actually
has sheets on it. I’m taking the extra
room until we get this whole situation settled.”

I’m so tired right now that I’m not going to argue with him.
Grabbing his hand he pulls me up, and walks with me back down the hallway to
his room.

“You want to shower?” he says, looking at me with concern.

“That sounds good,” I tell him.

Crap, I didn’t even think to pack anything to sleep in. I
was too focused on clothes to wear. “I forgot to pack something to sleep in.”

He heads over to a dresser and grabs a shirt and some boxer
briefs, then hands them to me.

“You can wear those for now, tomorrow we can go online for
whatever else you need. Remember, I have your money in my account, it’s yours
to spend however you want.”

“Matt,” I whisper to him, “I want to say… thank you… for
everything. I really didn’t mean to impose on you.” I pause, taking a deep
breath. “I guess I was just scared, and this was the first place I thought of
going when I left,” I finish, staring down at the floor, feeling embarrassed.

Matt comes over to me, taking me in his arms in a tight
embrace. “Look, I don’t know what’s going on in that beautiful head of yours,
but whatever it is, it brought you to me, which makes you mine now, and I
always protect what’s mine, Abigail.”

From the way he says it, the emotion strong with every word,
I know he’s telling me the truth and I begin to cry. I cry because I know I’ve
finally found someone who cares, someone who I can finally trust, and I don’t
want to let go.

He pushes us apart so he can look down into my eyes. “Don’t
cry, beautiful. We’ll figure this out. There has to be a reason why all this is
happening, we just have to figure it out. Okay?” He has a calming look, and
those damn eyes with long lashes are mesmerizing at this moment, which make you
believe anything he says.

I nod my head at him, wiping my nose with the back of my
hand. He leaves me, pointing to his bathroom, telling me that the hanging
towels are clean.

After showering and dressing in the clothes Matt gave me I
climb into bed and fall asleep the instant my head hits the pillow.

I KNOW I’M sleeping, but somehow it
feels like I’m wide-awake. I sit up feeling strange and sensing someone else in
the room. It’s still dark, but since there’s a full moon tonight, there is
plenty of moonlight shining through the window. It’s casting enough light for
me to notice the other person I’m sensing sitting at the edge of the bed.

At first, I become frightened, but a feeling of calm takes
over my body almost immediately. I don’t recognize the person right away, but
her face has a familiarity that I’ve seen before. Then it occurs to me that she
is the woman in the picture that Matt showed me yesterday, the one with him at
his graduation.