His Match

It's Not Beating, It's Falling

Maybe he's not as bad as I thought he was.

"Are you sure? I don't want to bother him?" She holds up her hands like she doesn't want that blame if he doesn't want to do that for his boss.

"Is fine, hell do it and then he can finish early" he shrugs and places his phone to his ear. "Ted! Hey, it's me, I need a favour from you and you can finish early?... cool, okay we need a few bottles of white?" He questions Kate and she nods back, "White wine, beers and some Hennessy please" he starts to laugh at whatever Ted had said to him. "You could say that, you want to come join us?" He jokes and he nods his head smiling down at his shoes.

I just watch him interact with him. He's so warm with him. So gentle like he knows the hardships he's endured, giving him a break. He gets all of that from his mother.

"Alright, call me when you're outside? Perfect, thanks Ted!" He hangs up on him and throws his phone across the table. "There, alcohol is on the way and you never had to leave the house" he jokes. He slides his jacket off his shoulders and places it on the back of my chair.

He squeezes my shoulder and I jump. The same place where Rick touched me. I flinch away from him and he caught it. He squints his eyes at me trying to figure out what the hell that was. I turn back to face Kate and she saw it too. Her eyes flicker back and forth between Ethan, I and my shoulder.

"You've been on edge all night Chloe? Is everything alright?" She asks reaching across the table for my hand. I flinch at that too; my mind is racing. My pulse raving. It's all coming back to me again. My body is trembling from that feels of him and the thoughts of that night.

GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME.

I can hear my own voice scream. Breaths loud and rapid. My senses heightening. My body about to shut itself off from it all.

"Chloe?" She runs around the counter to me and places both hands on my face making me look at her. She knows there's something going on inside my mind. "Chloe talk to me, what's wrong" I push her away from me as a reaction and she falls back onto Cole. He catches her with ease and she looks hurt I did that. That alone breaks my heart.

I'll finish you off if you're good.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that" I defend myself. Images and sounds run through my mind and ears. It's over powering my senses and I'm about to run into a wall. I'm backing away from them to get some air.

"I know you didn't. Talk to me Chloe..." I shake my head and I start to leak. My eyes drip with so much sadness. I look over at Ethan who is standing where he was still staring at his hand that he touched me with. "Chloe?" She asks making my attention go back to her. I open and close my mouth like a goldfish trying to get words out but I can't.

"It's Rick, isn't it?" The tone from Ethan sounds curious. Like he couldn't believe I flinched from his touch. It's not him. Or Kate, it's Rick.

"Rick? What does he have to do with it?" Cole asks dumbfounded by all of this. But I can't lie. I'm done with holding this to myself. It's eating me alive and tearing me down. It's the weakest part of me and I need to cut it off.

"He did something to you, didn't he?" That growl sent me to the floor. I was crouched down on my feet and curled into a small ball. Trying to breathe to myself. I could smell Kate's perfume as she ran over and comforted me. It helped when I got a whiff of it to stop my nose tricking me into going back to that night.

"Come on let's sit you down here" she pulls me over to the sofa and I sit beside her. Her arms wrapped around me. "You can tell us Chloe, if he hurt you" she rests her head on my cheek and I can't do anything but stare into space as my mind plays the images like I'm sitting in a seat at the movie theatre. Alone and strapped down to the seat.