A Reckless Love I and II

Ch. 1-Better Off Alone
In the midst of a busy city, a metropolis known as Boston, there were two lovers, if you could call them that. They were one of those on-again, off-again couples. The girl, Paige Morrison, was a bit of a flirt, which maddened the hell out of her boyfriend, Adam Wade.

On a normally peaceful Sunday night, they were at it again, bickering as always. Adam had taken Paige out to a dance club and he had gone to go get them drinks, and another man had asked Paige to dance, and since Adam had not yet asked her to dance, she agreed. Anyone with half a brain would know how Adam reacted. He pulled her out of the club after only half an hour of behind there, and brought them back to his apartment.

“What the hell was that?” Adam finally asked once they reached the “safety” of his apartment. She tossed her curls out of her face and sighed.

“I was just dancing, Adam,” she said coolly.

“Just…dancing? Just dancing?!” Adam shouted. “It looked like he was trying to get a piece of you, Paige; don’t you get that?”

“How would you know what he wanted, Adam? You were too busy being jealous,” she snapped back. “If you don’t want things like that to happen, ask me to dance next time!”

“That’s not the point!” he shouted. “I was going to ask you to dance, but you had to go and find someone else to dance with. Damn right I’m jealous! Did you notice exactly how he was dancing with you?” He could feel his hands shaking as they clenched together.

“No, not really, because unlike you, I know how to have a good time, Adam! You wouldn’t know it if it danced naked in front of you!” Her eyes flashed dangerously as she stared him down.

Adam’s eyes flashed and he shut them, trying to steady his breathing and reason with himself, but his anger prevailed. He tried telling himself that he was being stupid, but his emotions drove him, not his rationale.

“No, I suppose not,” he said in an eerily even voice, and he opened his eyes. “Well, since it’s so obvious you’re unhappy with the way I am, why are you even with me, huh, Paige? Why do you stay with me when you could dance like that with any guy you want?”

“Well, I don’t know really,” Paige said, sounding somewhat wounded. “Maybe because I love you.” She looked at him.

“Then why do you do shit that very obviously pisses me off, then, huh? Why do you just love to push my buttons?” he asked.

She bit her lip and walked past him, pushing him out of the way, walking out the door. Adam finally snapped to his senses after she pushed him aside, but she’d already walked out the door. He went to follow her, but the door snapped in his face rather quickly, and his eyes widened.

“What have I done?” he muttered, walking to his room, and falling onto his bed, exhausted from everything. He shut his eyes and it took him a while, but he fell into a fitful slumber that was interrupted numerous times because of different reasons.

The last time he’d woken up, he’d woken up and he felt sick, so he went into the bathroom, and as soon as he sat down on the toilet, he felt a wave of nausea overcome him and he fell to the floor and vomited into the toilet. He let his sweaty head fall onto the toilet seat and he shut his eyes, falling asleep there.


Ch. 2-Life Ain’t Always Beautiful
Adam paced around the room, staring at the phone and flicking his brunette locks out of his face irritably. His blue eyes penetrated the white plastic, it seemed, and stared at the very core of the telephone, willing it to ring. He itched behind his ear, obviously agitated at something or another. He finally flopped down on his ratty old couch and put his hands over his eyes, heaving a deep, heavy sigh, rubbing at his temple.

“Three days…” he muttered. “Three…fucking…days.” He leaned his head back on the chair and tried to relax his coiled muscles, but they just tightened more when he flexed his muscles. He growled deep in his throat. “If Paige hasn’t called in the next three hours, I’m going out.” It seemed he was talking to someone, but he was just talking to himself. He let his head fall back completely and he finally shut his eyes.

As soon as he felt himself drifting away from consciousness, the phone cut an ear-splitting interruption to his relaxation. His head snapped up and his hand snatched the phone up and to his ear.

“Yeah?” he muttered, sounding groggy as the word left his mouth. His brain had set to calming down and it had pretty much stopped working when the phone rang. He rubbed his eyes.

There was a muttering on the other line, and his forehead creased in concern. “What’d you say?” he said, fully awake. “Wait, wait, calm down, slow down, Paige, I can’t understand you. You’re talking too fast.”

“I-I didn’t mean to do it, Adam…it just kind of happened…” Paige’s rather strained voice came over the phone. “I-I meant to call you, but things got so heavy at work, and after…. after yesterday, I couldn’t call you, I couldn’t bear to.” Her last words were a whisper.

“Paige, what the hell are you talking about?” Adam said in a somewhat calm voice, though he could feel the nervous tension building a knot in his stomach. “Slow down and explain it to me.”

“I-I can’t do it anymore, Adam, I just can’t…” her voice trailed off and what sounded like a sob came over the receiver. Adam looked confused.

“Are you breaking up with me, Paige?” he asked, his voice becoming a bit shaky. “What brought that on?”

“I-I can’t tell you, we just can’t be together,” she said in a whisper, and he could hear the tears in her voice. He tucked his hair behind his ear and blinked a few times. “I-I don’t want to tell you.”

“What the hell happened, Paige? Please, tell me, you’ve never acted like this before,” he said, the quaking in his voice becoming more agitated.

“Well, I’m not the same as I was,” she said.

“What, the same as you were three days ago? That’s bullshit and you know it!” Adam practically shouted over the receiver.

“Adam, you have to understand!” she said frantically, her voice quavering worse than his.

“Tell me what the fuck happened to you, or I’m going to come over and get it out of you myself!” he shouted.

Adam could hear her breathing heavily on the other side of the line, and he could tell she was sobbing quietly. He sighed and breathed in deeply.

“I’m coming over, now,” he said in a very calm voice.

“Fine,” she said softly, and he heard a soft click on his end of the receiver. He hit the “talk” button and put the phone down, walking over to the coat closet. He pulled out his leather jacket and walked out the door, slipping his coat on as he exited his apartment. He virtually ran down seven flights of stairs and flat out sprinted to his motorcycle. He threw himself onto the seat and quickly started the engine, pushing the clutch in and beginning his descent down the garage.

He reached the street and weaved in and out of lanes, avoiding cars for about five blocks until he reached an apartment building looking similar to his own. He parked in front and turned off his engine, hopping off and dashing up the stairs.

Paige’s apartment was only on the second floor, but he was winded by the time he got to her door, and he knocked hard on it, leaning against the doorframe to catch his breath, his hair sticking to his sweaty forehead. He brushed it back just as she came to the door…kind of.

The door opened, but she wasn’t behind it. He arched an eyebrow and walked into the apartment. Everything seemed normal…except the lighting of the place. Almost every light was turned off. Something’s definitely wrong here, he thought to himself. He walked through the hallway and into her bedroom, and he saw a huddled mass under the blanket, a wavy mass of blonde hair splayed on the pillow, her face buried in the pillow, her body curled into the fetal position.

“Hey, Paige?” Adam said softly, walking closer to the bed. “Paige, it’s me. What’s up?”

“Don’t come closer,” her muffled voice said hoarsely through the pillow. “Stay right where you are. Please.”

“Why?” he asked softly, taking another couple of steps, his boots echoing on the wood of her floor.

“Because I said so,” she said, her face still smashed into the pillow. He came a bit closer and saw a rather large smudge on the pillow. It was dark red in color, and it looked as if it was wiped there, as if to get rid of it. “I said, don’t come any closer!” she said, picking up her head and turning it to look at him. All he could see through her wavy locks was her teary green eyes.

“Paige, what’s wrong?” Adam asked again. “Please, just tell me.”

“No!” she snapped, her face still covered by her hair. He moved closer, trying to move her hair from her face, but she pulled away from him, the hair like a curtain to her face.

“Paige, please. Tell me what happened.” He tried to touch her face again, but she flinched and her hair finally fell from her face. He let out an involuntary gasp of shock, and she turned away. “What did that to you?”

“Don’t you mean, who?” she asked. She turned her face back to him, and the hollow under her left eye was split open, looking as if she were crying blood onto the bed, she had a cut across the bridge of her nose and a gash on her cheek, and blood was smeared on her forehead. “Remember I told you about Norman, that guy I work with at the parlor?”

“Yeah…”Adam said slowly, trying to take in the violent residue left on his girlfriend’s face.

“Well, um, he kind of, sort of asked me to go to a party with him, and since we had had that fight on Sunday, I figured, why the hell not, right?” she said in her normal animated voice, her hands gesticulating very similar to normal, except much slower. “Well, we got there, right? And I said I didn’t want to drink, so he got me a lemonade…and, and I think it was spiked, Adam. I-I don’t know what I did, but yesterday morning I woke up next to him…and…and,” her voice trailed off and she let out a small sob. “I-I think he did it…w-with me. I tried to get out of wherever I was, which was in that r-really dumpy downtown hotel, and he woke up…and he saw me trying to get away, and he…he hit me. I t-tried to defend myself, but he just kept hitting me, until I grabbed something-I don’t remember what-and hit him over the head. After he fell, I grabbed a blanket, and I ran. I ran all the way home. I don’t know what to do, Adam…I’m so sorry.”