Afflicted (8 page)

“Blake! What the hell?” She laughed.

“You should be more aware of your surroundings. I could have been a serial killer or something.” I teased.

“What are you doing over this way anyway?”

“I’m going to go 4-wheeling for a bit. I’m so sick of being stuck inside and it’s been raining all week. Since it’s nice out, I figure why not take advantage of it. Plus, Jake never uses it. It’s a waste to have it just sitting there. What are you up to?”

“I got out of work early today
, and I forgot that Aubrey had to take the babies to the doctor for a check-up. I was just going to wait here until she got back.”

Me being the moron I was. “Come with me. It will be fun.”

She looked down at her outfit, a red plaid skirt and fishnets and a black sweater. She couldn’t wear that in the woods, though I’d like to see her climb on the quad that way. I took her hand and led her back to the guesthouse.

Ruffling through my drawers I found a black hoodie that was too small for me and handed it to her along with a pair of drawstring pants. Walking out of the room I left her to get changed. I went into the kitchen and grabbed a cooler and tossed some stuf
f in it. She came down the stairs looking like a hobo, a sexy one, but still a hobo. Stifling a laugh I led her out to the garage and pressed in the key code.

After tying down the cooler
, I grabbed Aubrey’s white helmet and handed it to her. I climbed on and helped Piper get settled behind me. Wrapping her hands firmly around my waist, we took off toward the property line. Throttling the engine, I forced her to hold on tighter and press her chest against my back. I felt her lean her head against my shoulder as we headed toward the small pond a ways out.

Driving through puddles and hitting a couple
decent bumps I was having a blast. Pulling to a stop about 50 feet from the lake I shut the quad off and waited for Piper to climb off. Grabbing the cooler, we made our way down to the edge. The sun was reflecting brightly against the water, and the breeze was calm. I took a seat first and pulled a Vitamin water out of the cooler tossing it to her. Taking a swig of my own, I pulled out the chicken salad sandwiches that I threw together.

“This is really good.” She said with her mouth full.
“Is it from the new deli on Main?”

I ignored the last part since I made it using my
Nana’s recipe, but I didn’t like throwing that kind of information out there since some girls got the wrong impression of a guy in the kitchen, especially one like me. “I’m glad you like it.” I winked.

We sat in peaceful tranquility for about forty minutes before deciding it was time to head back since Aubrey would be back by now. Gunning it we made it back in no time. The Range Rover was still missing
, so I told her to come back to my place and wait. I told her she could go shower, but she insisted on waiting until Aubrey got back. I on the other hand, didn’t feel like walking around in a mud mask, so I excused myself and headed into my bathroom leaving her sitting on my beanbag chair.

I was rinsing the shampoo out of my hair when I felt her slide in behind me. Gasping from feelin
g her pushed against me in the tight space. I turned to see her naked and covered in mud smiling shyly.

“Sorry, Cole just called
, and he’s pissed that I didn’t come home since he suddenly has to go somewhere. I seriously need to go, but he’ll be even more pissed if I come home looking like this. It’s not like we’ve never been naked in front of each other.” She laughed.

“No, it’s
okay. I was just getting out anyway.” Reaching for the towel, I quickly wrapped it around my waist hoping she didn’t notice an extremely excited bam-bam.

After drying off I slipped on a pair of boxers and black
, gym shorts. She came back out a couple minutes later wrapped in a towel with her hair piled high on the top of her head, so it didn’t get wet. She still had mud caked right above her eyebrow. I took my towel off the desk and went to wipe it off.

“Hey I told you to put the visor down. Next time maybe you’ll listen.” I joked, knowing there probably wouldn’t be a next time.

Dressing quickly she leaned in and kissed me on the cheek letting her lips linger for a moment. “Thanks for a great afternoon, Blake. I needed it more than you’ll ever know.”

Nodding, I watched her walk
down the stairs deciding that I needed to go watch some porn and wondering why some of her best days were my worse.

~~~

Three days. That’s how long it had been since I saw Piper. I hadn't summed up the courage to call or text her to find out what happened when she got home.
What was I supposed to say?
“Hey creepy stalker here, wanting to know what’s going on with you and your boyfriend.”
I didn’t see that going over well, so I decided not to say anything at all.

Throwing myself into my work with my g
uitar in hand and pencil behind my ear I started writing down chords that went to our new song ‘Enough.’ The notes were coming easily when my phone started vibrating across the end table. I reached over and answered it hoping it was Piper, but instead it was Aubrey.

“Hey,
Aubs.”

“Hey Blake, are you going to be around today?” She asked apprehensively.

“Yeah, I was planning on trying to get some writing done today. What’s up?”

“I just got off the phone with Piper a little while ago.
She thinks she has the flu.” This was news to me. “I just finished making her some soup, but with the babies I don’t want to risk going over there and getting sick bringing it to her. Would you mind?”

Jumping at the opportunity to see her sick or not I agreed.
“No, I’ll be over in a few.”

I tossed my phone on the bed and jumped in the shower.
Picking out a pair of low hanging, dark gray, sweatpants that were comfy as hell and a white t-shirt I finished getting ready. Grabbing my keys and sliding my sneakers on, I headed over to the main house. Aubrey handed me the soup and thanked me, calling me a lifesaver. I stopped at the drug store on my way and picked up some tissues and flu medicine in case she didn’t have any.

Pulling
into her driveway I noticed that her car was gone, so either she went out or Cole took off again. My guess was the latter. I grabbed the bags from the passenger seat and headed to the door. After knocking for a minute with no answer, I peeked in the window and noticed she was asleep on the couch. I walked back over to the door and turned the knob, it was open. I let myself in. I started unpacking the stuff and put the soup in the fridge.

“Cole.” She rasped, coughing.

“No, it’s me.”

“Blake?”

“Yeah
, sorry to startle you. Aubrey sent soup over, and the door was open. I was just getting ready to leave. I brought you some tissues and stuff, they’re on the counter.”

She struggled to sit up. She looked terrible. Her face was flushed
, and she clearly had a fever. Instinctively, I walked over and put my hand to her forehead. Sure enough she was burning up. Heading back to the kitchen I grabbed a dish rag and ran it under some cold water before bringing it back and placing it on her forehead, hoping to cool her down a little. I was thoroughly pissed off at Cole right now for leaving her like this.

I sat down
next to her and ran my fingers through her hair since she liked that. Sometimes I swore she’d purr like a cat when I did it. I moved so she could lay her head in my lap. There was no way I could leave her here alone like this when she needed someone to take care of her. Within a couple minutes, she was back asleep.

I turned on the TV and started surfing through the channels, but of course nothing was on.

A little before dinnertime she woke up again. I got her some of the medicine to take and heated up the soup, feeding her until she swore she had enough. The phrase my mom always used, “starve a fever, feed a cold” came to mind, but she also needed to eat to keep her strength up. Even sick she was still stunning. I was getting ready to go home when she mumbled, “stay.” I couldn’t deny her, so I laid my head back on the couch and drifted off.

I woke up to the sound of things crashing. I shot up almost knocking Piper off the couch in the process.
Cole was back and tossing shit all over the place. I got to my feet and walked over to where he was standing.

“What the fuck, man?” I yelled.

“What the hell are you doing here?” He said, getting in my face.

“If you would take better care of your girl I wouldn’t be
, you fucking asshole!”

“Fuck you, dickwad. You know nothing about me or Piper
, so just fuck off.”

“I know that she deserves better than you. You better open your
fucking eyes before it’s too late. There’s only so much more she’s going to take before she leaves your sorry ass. I know you have a lot of shit going on in that ugly head of yours, but that’s no excuse.”

I walked over to Piper and kissed her on the head telling her to call me if she needed anything before
checking my shoulder into Cole on the way out. After I slammed my car door shut, I punched my steering wheel in frustration. I’ll never understand why she lets him treat her the way he does and still sticks around.

I
burned rubber out of her driveway and started speeding back toward the house when I decided to stop off and get a beer since I was way too pent up to go home yet. I nearly crashed when I looked down at a text from Piper.

Sorry about Cole, he gets jealous sometimes. Thanks
again for taking care of me. xo <3

Was she kidding me? Jealous? That was full blown fucking rage
, not jealousy. He needed some serious help because whatever he was doing to self medicate clearly wasn’t working. I pulled into the bar parking lot and was already in the door when I realized I was wearing my sweats.
Oh well.

I took a seat at the bar and started talking to Misty, the bartender.

“Why the long face, handsome?”

“I don’t really feel like getting into it.”
I said brusquely.

“Lady trouble?
Though looking like you do, I highly doubt that’s a problem.”

I didn’t feel like getting into
it with her, or anyone for that matter, but I figured maybe an outsider could offer some insight. I started all the way at the beginning and by the time I was done I felt emotionally spent.

“I’m sorry you’re going through something like this
dollface, but maybe it’s just not meant to be. Sometimes we want things that we just can’t have. They obviously have history and that’s not something that’s just going to go away, so if I were you I’d focus on getting yourself a single girl with less baggage.”

As I let what she said sink in I started running different scenarios through my head
, all of which involved Piper in one way or another.

What was it about her that mad
e her so fucking special?

I
spent the last three years moving from girl to girl without blinking an eye and never once getting emotionally attached, then Piper comes along, and I’m in fucking knots. I finished my beer and got up to go home. All this thinking about Piper had me needing to go home and take a cold shower.

Piper

“What was he doing here? Did you ask him to come?” Cole yelled, making my already throbbing head worse.

“No, Aubrey made soup
, and he brought it over. He felt sorry that I was here all by myself, so he stayed for a little while.”

“Did you fuck him again?” He spat angrily.

Blowing my nose hoping to get some of the congestion out I rolled my eyes. “Have you looked at me?”

“You look
healthy enough to me. Do you need anything?” I shook my head no. “Alright, I’ll be back in a bit then.” 

I groaned and put my head back on the lumpy pillow. I secretly wished that it were Blake’s legs again before mentally slapping myself since I had a boyfriend, a shitty one, but a boyfriend nonetheless.

I closed my eyes and started dreaming.

I stood in fron
t of the full-length mirror wearing my pale yellow, prom dress. My chocolate brown hair was curled and in a side ponytail secured at the base of my neck. My eyes were sparkling with the natural eye shadow that had been professionally applied.

I felt feminine and somewhat grown up. I was anxiously waiting for the doorbell to ring so I could see Cole since I
hadn’t talked to him all day. We had huge plans for tonight. It was cliché to do it on prom night, but we were planning on having sex for the first time tonight. We had been friends since we were kids, and dating for two years. With graduation looming around the corner, the time felt right.

Finally, I heard the chime and
walked down the stairs. He was standing at the bottom, looking up at me adoringly in his tuxedo. He looked breathtaking. I loved him more than anything and we already talked about getting married right after graduation. He said that he had something to talk to me about tonight, and I was wondering what it could be. He slid the corsage on my wrist, and I pinned the boutonniere on his lapel before we stood around while our parents repeatedly took photo after photo.