© ItalRT4u, 2012

Chapter 1

     Taking a hard look at myself in the mirror, I smacked my lips and smiled back at myself, making sure my dark blonde hair was tousled just right, my makeup was in check and my all black outfit hugged my curves in all the right places.  It had been nearly a year since I had last seen my girls.  They had all left for college while I stayed and tended to the house.  After my parents’ cruel death, I was faced with the hard reality that I simply couldn’t afford the finer things in life; well, not just yet.  Instead of heading out to some reputable university, I stuck around, working my regular nine to five at a posh bistro in the downtown core of Chatham Falls during the week days, while taking night classes to get my Public Relations degree.  Soon enough, I was overworked and highly underpaid, not to mention, my social life was non-existent.  Money was so tight I had recently taken up a weekend gig that I hoped would pay out more.  This weekend was most likely going to be the last of my free ones for some time.

     Fifteen minutes later, I entered Slicks.  The music was pumping, the patrons were having a good time and I was thankful to have beaten the rush of party-goers.  I headed to the bar, expecting to see my girls waiting for me but found none, so I ordered myself a drink as I enjoyed the thrumming of the base vibrate through my body, swaying my hips to the beat.

     “Hey Birthday Girl!”  I hear and couldn’t help the grin that spread on my face as I turned to see my oldest friend, Sahara standing there.  I squealed excitedly with her as we jumped at each other for a hug.

     “It’s been too long!”  I smiled at her.  “Where are the others?”

     “I left them in the washroom.”  She rolled her eyes.

     “So I see Beth and Brit haven’t changed.”  I laughed.  Bethany and Brittany Callem were twin sisters.  High maintenance in most ways but their hearts were in the right place.  Sahara Jones and I had known each other relatively our entire lives.  Both of us and the twins have been close since our freshman year in high school.  They were the only friends I needed.  When Mom and Dad passed, the three of them were there to help me pick up the pieces.  It was sad when the day came for all of us to go our separate ways.  It’s been a year, tomorrow, since my parents had been brutally murdered in front of me and left me alone – a story you’ll come to know about, fairly too soon, I’m afraid.

     “Happy Birthday!”  I heard the twins cheer in a sing-song way as they come and hug me from either side.

     “It’s not my birthday, yet.”  I giggled and I rushed to both and hugged them.

     “A technicality!  It will be at the stroke of twelve.”  Brit reminds me.  “By the way, I love what you’re wearing.”  She gestured to my black metallic v-neck halter, the black skinny jeans and my high-heeled boots.  I nodded my thanks.

     “You’re gonna slay some guy tonight with that outfit.”  Beth agreed which warranted a giggle.  Truth be known, I’ve only been on a handful of dates, most of them never fully measuring up.  All but one – Gage Wright.  Gage had been a total sweetheart; or so I thought.  Somewhere between my parent’s deaths, my healing, life changing, shifting on its axis, Gage’s and my relationship was left out in the cold.  I still ached to feel him present with me from time to time.  But you know how life goes – it’s quite an unfriendly foe.  It twists, turns and bends you out of shape only to do it over and over again when sometimes you haven’t managed to have straightened yourself out just yet.  That’s what changed us and ultimately, it led to our relationship’s demise.  He left Chatham Falls and never looked back.  It’s safe to say, I never thought of looking back either nor do I ever plan on it.  There wasn’t any hope, not after what he had done to me.

     I was on my way to Gage’s house.  I doubt he’d be home but that was the best part of it.  I had thought that tonight was going to be the night where we’d finally make love for the first time.  With my bag of goodies in tow, I took the key that I knew was stowed away under a rock in the front garden and headed for the front door.  I let myself in.

     Heading to the kitchen, to drop off some of the food I had picked up for us, I thought I had heard something coming from upstairs.  Choosing to ignore it, thinking it was just because I was in this large house by myself and hearing unfamiliar noises, I continued with placing everything away.  I smiled at the thought of us finally being able to be together.  It was something I finally felt ready for.  Gage was the perfect guy – the one.  My grin was quickly replaced with a scowl when I heard a feminine giggle.  Perhaps I hadn’t heard right.  I took the steps up quietly, two at a time to be more precise as I came to a stop on the landing.  Pausing to listen in on where this giggling was coming from, I narrowed my sights on the door to Gage’s room; I knew all too well that I was in for a world of hurt but still, I continued on.

     “What the fuck is going on?”  I walked in.  Trust me, when I say that the world of hurt I was preparing myself for didn’t amount to the true hurt I began to feel as my eyes landed first, on a shocked Gage and then on the topless raven haired stranger that was straddling my man’s naked waist.

     “Uh.  Hi?”  The raven girl said.  I stood there, staring; in shock no less.

     “Out!”  I yelled, fury consuming every fiber of my being.  “YOU!”  I turned my gaze toward Gage who was now trying to weasel his butt out from between his current flavor’s thighs.  If fire could be expelled from my mouth, I think he would have been burned to a crisp at this point.  The raven girl quickly jumped off, revealing a rather large and erect package that had me wondering if this was the first time he had done this or if there had been other times.

     “I’ll call you.”  She quickly turned to look at him while his gaze was still fused to mine, never wavering.

     “Babe,” he began but I hushed him by holding my hand up at him.  He quickly got up and pulled his underwear and pants on; “I can explain.”

     “You can explain?”  I asked him bitterly.  “Maybe you can explain why you’re not at school right now?  Maybe you can explain who that bitch is!  Maybe you can explain to me why I’ve wasted two years of my life with someone like you!”

     “Pay,” I hushed him again.

     “Never mind.”  I tell him.  “I don’t want to hear it.  I thought we had something special.  Clearly, we don’t.  I thought that you loved me.  Boy was that a lie!”  I huffed.  Taking a deep breath, I fought the tears that were stinging behind my eyes.  I felt utterly betrayed.

     “I do love you, Payton.”  He tells me softly.

     “Tell that to someone who cares because as of right now, I don’t.”  I say.  “Goodbye Gage.”  I turned to leave.  I was one foot out the front door, literally when I felt his hand on my wrist, pulling me back into the house.  I refused to turn and let him see the damage he had caused me.  In that moment, I felt his guilt, his lust, and his remorse, rolling toward me.  God, did I hate being so in tune with my emotions.  This is where being an empath bites the big one.

     “I can’t let you leave like this.”  He said almost at a whisper.

     “But I have to.”  I told him, turning finally but looking down.  His hand reached for my chin to tilt my head up.  “You were never mine.”  I looked at him for a few seconds as I turned and walked out of his life – never to return.

     I had returned home to shut myself off from the rest of the world.  My phone rang senselessly for a few days before everything became silent.  The two knocks on my door had been Gage’s.  No one else was around to come to me.  The girls being in college, my parents, no longer with me, I found myself unbearably and completely alone.

     By the end of that first week, Gage had ceased all attempts at contacting me.  His last try had been through email.  Another measly attempt at conveying his apologies; pleading with me to give him another chance, that he realized the errors of his ways.  That’s right, ‘errors’ and not ‘error’.  In an attempt to diffuse the situation he put us in, he only further angered me by admitting that this all had happened more than once.  That’s when I had had enough.  At that moment, I decided that I was done with sitting around, letting life pass me by at the hand of Gage Wright and his poor decisions.  Instead, I submersed myself further into my schooling, my day job and came home to an empty house filled with bittersweet memories.

     “Earth to Payton!”  Sahara said giggling as she handed me a drink which I took gladly to help me erase the memory that had just flashed through my mind.

     “Sorry.”  I mumbled with a slight smile.

     “Where’d you go off to?”  She asked me with Beth and Brit standing there, checking out the scene.

     “Nowhere.”  I told her.  I clinked her glass to mine and smiled.  “Cheers to us ladies!”  I cheered and chugged my first drink of the night down and chased it with a shot that the twins had bought me.

     “And cheers to the Birthday Girl!”  The twins said simultaneously when we tilted our heads back, taking in a second shot.

     We hung out by the bar, talking for a while before we realized that the liquor had been pooling in our systems, rendering us rather tipsy as we got up to our feet.  Choosing to dance it off, we headed for the dance floor.  On our way there, I felt a hand roughly palm my ass.  Pissed off at the audacity of the male, I turned to pull his hand off of me.

     “Do you mind?”  I snapped and grabbed his package hard, through his jeans and gave him a stern look as his eyes bulged in shock.  “I suggest you keep your paws off before I rip your jewels to shreds.”  I let go abruptly and turned to find myself facing my girls.  They all had a look of shock strewn across their faces; they had never seen this side of me before – this was new.

     “Well, I expect that we know who can take care of herself now.”  Sahara laughed with a slight nervous tone.

     “Damn bastards!”  I muttered lowly.

     “You’re hot!  Of course they want to have a piece of you.”  Brittany tells her.

     “I’m not a damn steak.”  I tell them, chuckling at my lame analogy.  “Besides, I’m not interested in anything with anyone right…”  And my voice trailed off as my gaze made contact with the brightest blue eyes I had ever seen.  I smiled shyly at the owner of those baby blues as I felt myself being pulled in the opposite direction by the girls, causing me to lose the contact I had with him.

     A few hours later, I had managed to make my way home, sharing a cab with my girls.  Sahara had offered to stay the night but I waved her offer away, telling her that she’d better come and see me tomorrow, before she took off.

     Getting into bed, I felt myself drift off with a sense of pleasure.  It had been so long since I had been able to truly laugh with others again.  This past year had definitely been one to forget.  Thinking about the stranger with the bright blue bedroom eyes, I felt darkness embrace me.

     I woke to a loud thud in the room next to me.  Wiping the sleep from my eyes, my senses being regained, I hear a whimper on the other side of my wall.  I immediately sit up, wondering what could be going on.  Something was telling me that things weren’t right.

     Filled with dread, I got up, my feet feeling like they were touching ice, my room feeling foreign suddenly, my heart sunk as I felt a stabbing pain in my abdomen.  Clutching my stomach, I knew this wasn’t normal.  I straightened myself up, the pain fading away and proceeded to walk to my closed bedroom door.  Quietly, my hand turns the knob and I exit my room, into the hall where I find my mother, lying on her stomach, arms stretched above her head as she was attempting to crawl toward me.

     “Payton!  Run, Honey!” She yelled, blood sputtering from her lips.  “It’s time to run, Sweetheart.”

     Sitting up abruptly, I wipe the sweat from my brow.  When will these nightmares about that awful night end?

                                          *************************************

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