This Cat Has Claws

25: Making Up

Landon's POV

It had already been about a month since I'd really talked to Marley. We both knew I was kind of avoiding her, and we both knew why. That night Grams had asked me to come to the hospital pretty late since she had a late shift. I figured I'd take a little detour and visit Marley at work since it was almost on the way to the hospital. When I arrived at the convenience store, I was told she'd just left, so I ran after her. I really was not expecting to see her the way I did. This beautiful woman jumped up off the ground and cracked her knuckles. I just stood there in amazement and confusion as to what kind of situation I had just walked in on.

"Oh, come one. Not even gonna try and run?" she taunted. "The chase is the best part."

The way Marley's face looked was both dazzling and terrifying. The words that came out of her mouth did not warrant the look of pleasure and pure enjoyment of the obvious pain she was about to inflict on the guy on the ground. I couldn't keep my eyes off her, though. She kicked him, stomped on him, punched him, then smashed his head into the ground. All the while she looked so pleased. If I kept looking at her face, and her face only, I could forget the reason she looked that way. It almost didn't seem real. My Marley. So beautiful, and so violent.

And it's not like I didn't know that Marley could be violent, because obviously I did. She had showed me plenty of times she could handle herself. But this time seemed different. The other times, it had seemed more like it was out of self defense, because it was, but now all I could focus on was the look on her face. It was so sadistic and cruel when paired with her actions at the moment. If not for the man writhing in pain beneath Marley, I'd probably feel a little, okay a lot, turned on right now.

As the man passed out Marley stood up, but it looked like she wasn't done. But something caught her eye and she turned her head in my direction. I couldn't help but notice as the color seemed to drain out of her face. She knew I had seen at least some of what just happened. And she knew I could tell how much she enjoyed herself. I stared into her eyes and almost couldn't believe it was really her.

"Marley?" I asked.

I could hear fear seep into my tone unintentionally. And at that moment I wished I hadn't spoken, hadn't moved; that I would just disappear. It was clear on Marley's face that she could hear that fear in my voice. And the look on her face was devastating. She looked on the brink of tears. Before Marley had the time to answer, maybe try to explain the situation, I turned around and walked away, towards the hospital, as was my original purpose.

When I finally got to the hospital, I was completely out of it; replaying the scenes in my head over and over again. What Grams wanted to give me was a family heirloom. One she was going to pass to my mother, but never did because my mother was apparently "never ready." Turns out, it was an engagement ring. Definitely not what I was expecting, especially after what had just happened. I accepted it gratefully. It's not like Grams expected me to ask for Marley's hand in marriage anytime soon, if at all, but she wanted me to have it for the right time, whenever that may be.

So now here I was, wallowing in my room staring at an engagement ring even though I hadn't talked to my girlfriend in a month. I wanted to talk to Marley, I really did. It was just I wasn't able to sort out my feelings. Part of me hated seeing her like that; so happy to be hurting another person. But there was also another, albeit smaller, part that didn't care about what Marley did, as long as she looked happy like that. There was no doubt in my mind that Marley would ever hurt me like that, but nevertheless, it was hard to come to terms with that small part of me that could be okay with Marley murdering someone in cold blood as long as she was happy.

"Dude," Josh said, bringing me out of my neverending turmoil of thoughts. "You need to get a life. What happened to you and that chick? I haven't seen you two together recently. Is that why you're acting like a sad puppy?"

I sighed but didn't repliy. My sigh was all the answer Josh needed anyway. He gave me a crooked smile than eyeballed the door, telling me to go out and talk to her. He was probably right. Nothing was going to get solved by keeping my feelings to myself like this. And I'm sure Marley was hurting over my behavior, and I hated the thought of that. So I gathered up my courage and walked out my dorm room and called her.

Marley picked up pretty quickly. She sounded all stuffed up and I couldn't tell it it was from crying or she was just sick with a stuffed up nose. She told me to come over since she was already at home, which just confirmed my suspicion of her being sick. I quickly walked over to her house and knocked on the door. A red nosed Marley wrapped in fuzzy clothes answered the door and led me to her bedroom.

"So, I'm sorry I've been avoiding you," I started off.

"I mean, I get it and all, but that was pretty shitty of you. You can just ask me about anything. What more do I have left to hide from you now that you know about my family's work and secret?" she said.

"I guess, it was more something I felt I had to work out myself, or something. I don't know how to explain it, but it was hard to come to terms with the way I felt when I saw you that night."

Marley's face looked pained and scared at what I'd say next. I guess she thought I'd say she was too disturbing to go out with anymore and that I hated her or something.

"I'm still in love with you, Marley," I said assuringly.

Her face lit up and little and a small smile formed on her lips. She leaned into me and hugged me tight.

"You're such an asshole sometimes, Landon. You're lucky I love you anyway, though," she sniffled.

I tried my best to explain what I was thinking about seeing her torturing that man on the ground. It seemed like she understood my feelings, somewhat, but she still didn't quite understand why I avoided her for as long as I did. But in the end we made up and I ended up staying the night. Marley didn't want me to leave. She reasoned that it had been so long since we'd really gotten any time together, so she easily convinced me to stay.

To be honest, I was definitely in the mood to see her nakes and get it on, but she was still sick, so there was no way that was happening since she was not in the mood to be intimate that way. So instead, I settled for cuddling her to sleep. We laid on Marley's bed and watched TV until I spooned her to sleep before falling asleep myself.