Back On The Saddle

Chapter Two

Fay Harlow

THE morning after was the worst, the pain had someone increased and it took me an hour to get out of bed and shower. I struggled to sleep, last night replaying over and over again in my head causing me to toss and turn all night. My body tense remembering the way his fingers dug into my skin as he held me down. Tears threaten to spill the more i thought about it, my own fiancé doing something so horrible to me and there was still so much love for him in me that it hurt. Walking into the kitchen i see Joey cooking breakfast, he looks over his shoulders when he hears me enter; a huge smile appears on his face.

"Good morning," he says as he flips over the pancake that was sizzling into the pan.

"Morning," i grumble pulling the grey bar stool out from under the kitchen island, "thanks for letting me stay here last night, i feel bad for rocking up that late."

He shakes his head as he brings the pan over and dumps the pancake onto the plate that was situated in front of me, "i would of preferred you to come here then go anywhere else, my door is always open for you whenever you need."

I knew there was a hidden meaning behind his words, i grab the maple syrup that sat on the counter top and pour it onto my pancake, "Thank you."

"Enjoy your breakfast, i gotta go to the gym. Help yourself to anything in the house," he says cleaning up the pan in the sink, "i will come back here at lunch time and we can go get coffee or something with Liv."

My eyes meet his, "Sounds good."

He puts the pan away and walks out of the kitchen gently resting his hand on my shoulder as he leaves and i knew that he had an idea of what happened last night. I couldn't exactly cover the blue and purple bruise that had appeared around my neck, the one on my back is easier to hide with a simple shirt but it was almost exactly an outline of the doorknob that had been pressed against it. I look at my phone that was sat above my plate, it was off but fully charged now; i hadn't been game enough to turn it on. I knew what was going to be on there, floods of messages and phone calls from Liv and Noah; realisation hits me when i remember i had promised Liv i would text her when i was in bed and i failed to do so. I turn on my phone and wait a few minutes for the notifications to stop and i instantly call her number ignoring all the other shit that pops up on the screen.

"Oh my fucking god!" She screams, "Where have you been, I've called you and I've called Noah thousands of times and neither of you were answering."

I pull the phone away from my ear and wait for her to cool off before pressing it back to my ear again, "You done?"

"No," she snaps, "You told me you would message me and you didn't."

"I know," I sigh into the phone shoving a piece of pancake into my mouth, "I'm sorry."

"What happened?" She says without wasting another minute, "And don't lie to me, i am over the secrets."

I lean back into the stool playing with the fork in my left hand, "I'm at Joey's."

It was quiet on her side, "I'll be then in ten."

She hangs up and i place my phone back on the counter top, my eyes catching the screen for a moment and see a new message from Noah comes through. I lift my phone up and let the messages fall down on the screen showing me all of the ones he has sent me since very early this morning.

Future Husband

Noah: I know where you are.

Noah: I'll be waiting at home for you...