66Recap of last chapter for those who didn't read it: Basically Maddy, her friend Anna and Aiden go to Travis' party. Anna stays at the party with Travis and Maddy and Aiden go to meet Aiden's friends. Some "things" (aka drug and alcohol usage) happen at the party and Aiden leaves Maddy alone for a while. Maddy gets into a scary situation involving a guy she doesn't know and someone comes to save her. Ta-da!
Written in the Stars
Chapter 17: All the Broken Things
"Maddy, are you okay?" my saviour asked, placing a hand on my ankle.
I was utterly speechless, and I hadn't even pulled my dress up yet. I gasped and stood up, covering myself back up. "L-Lyndon? What are you doing here?"
"My friend Cassi was here looking for her little sister and she asked me to come help her look around the neighbourhood. We found her but I came back in to use the bathroom when I heard you," he explained. "Maddy, I'm so sorry this happened to you."
My mouth opened and closed but I couldn't find any words.
"Oh Maddy," he murmured, wrapping his arms around me. "What are you doing alone in a place like this, babe?"
"I'm not," I whispered. "I-I'm not alone."
"It's okay Mads, I'm here now, I'm not going to leave you," Lyndon cooed, rubbing my back.
"No, I mean, I didn't come here alone. I…where's Aiden?" I asked, untangling myself from him.
"Aiden? You came to a druggie party with a drug dealer?" Lyndon asked in shock.
"He's not like that," I defended him, frowning at Lyndon.
"Isn't he?" Lyndon retorted, grabbing my hand and leading me out of the room. As we entered the kitchen he pointed to the table, where Aiden was sitting with some guy. I looked to the table and saw a bag of cocaine in front of them as the other guy counted out bills.
"There's your knight in shining armour," he spat.
"Holy shit," I whispered, scowling at the sight in front of me. Aiden looked up and smiled at me.
"Hey Mads, who's your friend?" he asked happily. He stood up and walked over to me, enveloping me in a hug.
"D-Do you have any idea what just happened to me?" I asked, tears threatening to form in my eyes.
"How many guesses do I get?"
"What the hell Aiden, I called you!" I accused, looking away. I turned back towards him to see him pulling out his phone and checking it.
"Yeah, I don't have any missed calls hun," he said after he tapped his phone against the table a few times. "Are you sure you called? How much have you had to drink?"
"Hey, watch it man, you don't understand what she just went through," Lyndon warned, stepping in front of me.
"Mads, we're not going to have another Gavin situation are we? At least let my face heal first," Aiden teased.
"Aiden, I-I can't do humour right now, I'm sorry. Lyndon is taking me home, I'll see you later okay?" I choked out, not wanting to cry.
"What?" he asked softly, touching my arm. "Maddy, what's going on?"
"Let's go," Lyndon whispered. "You can't explain this to him now, not here." I nodded, and let Lyndon lead me away from Aiden.
"Would someone please just tell me what's going on?" Aiden exclaimed. He looked over at me with pleading eyes.
"Later," was all I said before Lyndon let me out of the house towards his car. I heard him swear as we left and cringed, but there was no way I could talk to him right now without snapping. How could he? He promised he'd be right back, but instead of looking for me he chose to look for a deal. I knew he was having difficulties with money, I knew he needed to do this, but I didn't understand why he had to put that above everything else. It hurt, and it shouldn't because we weren't even dating, but it did and I needed some breathing room right now.
"I'm sorry," Lyndon said as we got in the car.
"Lyndon stop, it's not even remotely your fault. In fact, I should be thanking you, if you hadn't have come when you did I-I don't even want to think about it," I mumbled. Lyndon leaned over and placed a hand on my knee.
"If I'd gotten there sooner, maybe, maybe I could have stopped him," he grumbled.
"Lyndon, you can't protect me from the world," I replied, looking over at him and frowning.
He shook his head and looked away from me. "If I could Maddy, I'd be there to protect you all the time."
"Geez Lyndon, don't tell Cassi you're having this conversation with me," I teased. He looked over at me with a shocked expression.
"Cassi? What does she have to do with this?"
"Don't you like her? Isn't that why you came to help tonight?" I asked, confused.
"What?" The corners of his mouth lifted up into a smile. "Maddy, Cassi is my cousin."
"What! But you called her your friend the other day! What about that Tonya girl you were talking about?"
"No Maddy, I don't like Tonya," he said, smiling at me.
"Oh. You just looked so happy when you were talking about them."
"Yeah, because I haven't seen them in years, not because I have a crush on them," he replied, full out laughing at me now.
"Well that's settled. Let's just go," I mumbled, embarrassed that I had thought he liked one of them.
"If I liked anyone it would be you," I heard him whisper to himself. I'm fairly certain he hadn't meant for me to hear that and my cheeks burned red for the rest of the drive. We didn't talk on the way to my house, I think mostly because Lyndon didn't know what to say, and really I didn't either. He'd just stopped some guy from raping me, there's not much conversation there.
When we arrived at my house Lyndon got out and walked me to my door. "Thank you again Lyndon, for everything," I said.
"I'll kill him Maddy," he whispered, brushing his hand against my cheek. "If I ever see him again, I'll kill him."
"That's a bit extensive wouldn't you say?" I mumbled, looking up at him.
"He deserves it."
"Well when you get a life-time jail sentence remember to leave me out of it, okay?" I teased, smiling the slightest bit.
"You don't want to spend life in prison with me?" he asked, pretending to be hurt.
"Hmm, as tempting as that sounds, I think I'll stay in regular society."
Lyndon laughed and looked at me, all humour draining from his face. "Perhaps under different circumstances," he whispered, running his hand along my cheek.
"What?" I asked him, swatting his hand away.
"Nothing. Good night Maddy," he said as he turned to leave.
"Wait," I replied. He stopped moving and turned to face me. "D-Do you think you could stay for a little while?"
He paused, looking like he was debating how to answer before saying, "Yes."
I smiled, relieved that I wouldn't be alone for a while. I didn't really want to think about what happened and I certainly didn't want to think about Aiden. I led Lyndon into my room and he sat down on my bed.
"Thank you," I said, sitting down beside him. "For staying."
"It's no problem Maddy, you know I've got your back," he replied, smiling warmly at me. Ah friendship, there's nothing else like it.
"Do you want to watch a movie on my laptop?" I asked, picking it up from the floor beside my bed.
"Sure, something funny." I chose Stepbrothers, it was one of my favourite comedy movies and I needed something to take my mind off of tonight.
After it started I relaxed a little, letting myself forget everything else. I was starting to feel a little tired and looked over at Lyndon to see that he had already fallen asleep. I guess he'd be staying the night. I set my computer on the floor and curled up beside Lyndon, quickly falling asleep.
"Oh!" was the first thing I heard when I woke up. I opened my eyes to see my mom standing beside my bed, looking half excited, half confused.
"Mom? Get out of my room," I groaned, frowning at her.
"Good morning to you too. Care to explain what's going on?" she asked. I looked beside me and noticed that Lyndon was still sound asleep in my bed. Ah, I could see how this probably looked.
"Well, Lyndon came in to watch a movie and we fell asleep," I explained innocently.
"Okay, so tell my why you left with one boy and returned with another?" I could tell that she was having fun with this.
"Aiden didn't want to leave so Lyndon took me home."
"But you were next door, why, pray tell, did anyone need to take you home?"
Oh crap, sometimes I wished she was a little denser. "Uh, he just wanted to make sure I was okay."
"Did something happen?"
There was absolutely no way that I could tell my mom about last night, anything about last night. She would freak out for sure. "Not really, Aiden was just being mean."
"Because you wouldn't sleep with him?" she asked.
"Mom!" I yelled, shooing her away. Unfortunately she didn't leave and I woke up Lyndon in the process. He rolled over and looked directly at my mom. His eyes went wide and he clambered out of the bed.
"Uh, hey Mrs. Fenning," he said sheepishly.
"Hello Lyndon, did you sleep well?" she asked. Lyndon looked at me for help but there was no way I was getting him out of this one.
"Yes ma'am, you're very good at picking out mattresses, I feel like my spine is completely aligned," Lyndon mumbled. It took all my will power to not burst out laughing at his statement.
"Well, breakfast is downstairs when you're ready. I hope you two at least used protection," my mom said.
"Mom! I did not have sex with my best friend," I growled in response.
"Well stranger things have happened. Speaking of best friends, where is An-" my mom began to say just as something crashed through my window. I looked down to see Anna crumped on my floor.
"Never mind, I see she's found her way home," my mom mumbled.
"Hello Mrs. Fenning," Anna said, getting up off my floor. She looked at me, no past me, and opened her mouth in shock. "Who's this?" she asked.
"Oh, this is my friend Lyndon. Lyndon this is Anna, my friend from Canada," I explained.
"Hi," Anna said slowly before turning back to me. "And why exactly is he in your room?"
"I'll take this as my cue to leave," mom mumbled before heading out of the room.
"He stayed over," I said to Anna.
"What happened to Aiden? I always took you for the monogamous type."
"Lyndon, can you give me a minute to talk to Anna?" I asked. He nodded and left the room. Anna was looking at me expectantly so I told her everything that happened to me after we had left her with Travis. I didn't leave out anything, I could trust Anna to keep her mouth shut, and it's not like she had anybody to tell anyways.
"N-No, oh my god Maddy. I'm so sorry," Anna murmured, tears threatening to form at the corners of her eyes.
"It's not your fault," I replied.
"But if I hadn't of stayed with Travis…"
"You mean if we hadn't left you with Travis? Anna, we left without even telling, there was nothing you could have done."
"I'm sorry," she said once again.
"It's okay. Let's get breakfast okay?"
"I really should go Maddy, I never even meant to stay over," Lyndon said as we sat together in my room while Anna took a shower.
"Thank you though, for staying," I mumbled in reply, looking up at him. He was looking at me as though he felt sorry for me and a sudden wave of anger flowed through me. "Please Lyndon, don't pity me."
"Maddy, it's not pity, I'm just worried about you. I just need to make sure you're okay," he murmured, tucking my hair behind my ears.
"I'm fine. I've already forgotten about it," I replied, smiling at him reassuringly. Okay so I wasn't fine, but there was no way I was going to let him, or anybody else know that.
"Okay, well make sure you call me if you need anything." Lyndon got up and grabbed his jacket. As he made his way to the door I joined him and grabbed his hand.
"Let me walk you out kind sir," I said in a fake British accent. Lyndon cracked a smile and led me down the stairs.
"Your accent is terrible," he teased, bumping his shoulder against mine. As we got to the door we turned to face each other. I sort of got the vibe that this wasn't a friendly goodbye, which was weird for me because I'd never really experienced that with Lyndon.
"See you at school Maddy," Lyndon said before giving me a quick hug and walking out the door. Weird. Obviously I was just imagining things.
As I turned away from the door I noticed Anna standing there looking at me expectantly.
"What?" I asked her, giving her a friendly glare.
"You like him don't you?" she teased.
"No! And we've been talking way too much about me lately, what happened last night with you and Travis?"
"Nothing, I just slept over," she said nonchalantly, trying to hide her blush.
"Uh, yeah right, and I'm the captain of the Starship Enterprise. Spill it," I commanded.
"Ugh fine, you caught me, but I'm not going into detail you sicko," Anna teased, heading back up to my room. "Is it totally weird that I feel a connection with him though?"
"No way, and besides, people have long distance relationships all the time, I'm sure you could have all the cybersex you wanted during those long winter nights up north."
"Maddy! You're so weird sometimes," she grumbled, flopping down on my bed.
"Yep, and that's why you love me. So why don't you come to school tomorrow and profess your undying love to him?" I asked, sitting down beside her.
"I'll come to school with you Mads but there is no way in hell I'm professing my non-existent love."
Sorry for the wait! Hope you liked it!
Also, I put a link in my last chapter and I'm super aware that it didn't work, so sorry about that!
Steph