Chapter Forty-Two : always
Parker
I laid my head on the headrest and tapped on my steering wheel. My windows were a crack merely because I was burning up. I was definitely sick, being out in the woods with a cold would do that to you. I wanted to see Paige, it's been six days and fuck did I miss the hell out of her. It took every ounce of strength not to go inside right now. Scarlet didn't want me in there right now. This was Paige's day to relax and be herself.
I went on my phone and saw that Paige had posted on her story, it was her and Scarlet taking a mirror picture and damn did Paige look fine as hell.
I took in a deep breath and shut my phone off before looking at the frat house, I knew my girl could handle herself. She was strong as hell.
"Oh my gosh, if Bryan didn't get in the middle of that that poor girl would've been sexually assaulted by those men," I heard one girl say as she passed by my truck.
My initial thought was Paige but she would've texted me, so I sat there instead tapping on my wheel again while some music in my truck played.
I saw her blue dress before anything else and Scarlet was walking out after her with a guy and I heard him yelling.
I got out of my truck because he was getting dangerously close to both of them. I grabbed my truck door to steady myself, fuck I have to be sick I'm dizzy as hell.
"Paige!" I called out to her as she got near my truck and she shook her head.
"Parker in the truck now," she motioned.
"Bitch get the fuck back here!" he yelled, "let me finish what I started you whore!"
"What the hell did you just say?" I stepped towards the guy and Paige grabbed my arm to stop me.
"Bryce inside now," Scarlet tried to get him away.
"Parker he's drunk," Paige tried to reassure me.
"Imma fuck your bitch," Bryce commented and usually that would set me off but I stayed calm but I noticed him rubbing his arm and from the red mark on his cheek told me someone got hit.
"No the fuck you are," I opened the passanger side door for Paige to get in the car.
"Her dress is too damn easy to take off, that zipper in the back," he smiled, "it's like it's meant to be taken off."
Paige grabbed me from getting to him and I looked at him, "what happened?"
"Nothing get in please, Scarlet are you coming?" Paige asked.
Scarlet walked towards my truck but Bryce grabbed her.
"She's not going anywhere," he was aggressive and angry.
I can't take this guy, he's a fucking dick, he acts as if Scarlet or any other female actually wants him.
Scarlet pulled her wrists out of his grip and he tried to grab her again but he didn't get to her.
"Parker," Paige tried to get my attention to get me to leave but I knew what he was saying, especially the last part wasn't a lie.
"For someone who needs control you really don't have any," I commented.
"I had your bitch in my hands, but she's a fucking fighter," he said, "don't worry though I'll get her eventually," he smiled like this wasn't the last time he'll see her but it was because I was going to beat this son of a bitchs ass.
Paige might let him walk off with some bumps and bruises but I was planning on not letting him walk ever again. It wasn't even just Paige he was being a dick to, but he was being a controlling asshole to Scarlet who never asked for it. I was doing everyone else a favor.
I threw the first punch before my anger turned to rage and I blackout not remembering getting off him. I didn't see his friends coming because thats who threw me off of the guy before beating the shit out of me. I couldn't even get a single throw in. I just remember feeling the pain shoot up my body before I passed out.
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I woke up in the hospital and found Paige asleep in the chair next to me, she had pulled it up so she could be right there when I woke up. She was holding my hand but I knew she was still asleep because her hand wasn't as tight around mine like it usually is.
I tried to reposition myself because I wasn't comfortable in my position but once I tried to move, pain shot up every part of my body causing me to wince in pain. Fuck.
Paige woke up and I didn't mean to wake her up, "You're awake," she looked at me and I saw the guilt in her eyes.
"What the hell happened?" I asked, "where did those guys come from?"
"Bryce has friends there who will always be there for him even when he's put himself in a situation he can't get out of. They'll take down anyone, I was trying to get you to leave so you wouldn't get hurt. I shouldn't have gone to the party, Kayla was right. I got you in the hospital with two broken ribs. I mean it could've been worse huh?" she looked at me, "I maced them before getting you in the car. I took you to my dad because I didn't know what to do and he got you to the hospital while Malcolm took Scarlet home. I need to call your mom and let her know you're awake. They said that they were going to release you in the morning. They have some medicine for your ribs for the pain, luckily there wasn't any damage to any organs.The doctor will tell you more when she comes in but I should've told you to stay home," she sighed again frustrated with herself.
"I wouldn't have stayed home Paige, I wanted to see you. I was going to come see you."
"But Parker you're in the hospital because of me," she commented.
"I'm in the hospital because I beat that guy up and his friends I didn't see coming. You were trying to get me to leave, I wasn't listening, that's on me," I started to realize that talking and breathing were not easy and not something I wanted to do but seeing Paige blame herself for my actions I couldn't take seeing either.
"I shouldn't have gone to that party, I haven't been making the best decisions have I?" she looked at me and I smiled.
"You maced those assholes, I think that was a good decision."
"I'll go find the nurse," Paige got up and went outside in the hallway, she was still in her dress but I could tell she had been crying. Her makeup showed that the mascara was down her cheeks and it stained the tears that had dried up.
I laid there for a little while trying to think of something other then the fact that every time I took a breath it hurt like a bitch.
The door opened again and I thought it was Paige but instead it was my mom.
"Hey honey how are you feeling?"
"I'm in pain," I commented.
She sat down where Paige once was and she was quiet, she wanted to say something. I saw it in her eyes, she usually told me what was on her mind but yet she was quiet. Something that made me worry is when my mom can't even be honest with me.
"What is it? You're doing that face again," I said and she sighed.
"Paige makes you happy right?" she asked and I nodded a truthful answer, "do you think you make her happy?"
I thought about it long and hard before giving her an answer I feel is right, could I be wrong? Yes, I just hope I'm not. "Yeah."
"I just feel," my mom stopped talking then before looking at the door before speaking up again except in a lower voice, "I love Paige, I really do but she brings a side out of you that Haylee didn't."
"What are you saying?"
"It's like she's cursed, since you've been together there was that incident at work and you went to her with possible danger. The car accident, and now this expect she came out without a scratch and here you are in the hospital. The hospital Parker, I know how guilty she feels about the whole thing, she's been pacing the room waiting for you to wake up. She hasn't left your side because she blames herself for what happened and maybe it is her fault," I knew what my mom was doing, she sees faults because I'm more open about what happens in my relationship now than I ever did with Haylee. She'll draw a line when it ends up getting me hurt. Paige isn't the problem, she was never the problem. I put myself in all of those situations. I chose to go when Paige was panicking, I chose to take her to my dads, I chose to go to that party. I'm protective of Paige, I want to be around her, I like being around her.
"It's not her fault, mom you can't blame her," I started but my mom shook her head.
"How are we going to pay for the visit to the hospital Parker?" she looked at me and I then realized why she was being so hard on Paige then. She needed someone to blame for the things that my mom didn't see coming. I knew the hospital bill was going to be a lot and she was already stressing.
"I'll figure it out, it can come out of my savings," I mentioned and my mom shook her head.
"No, no that's for college, you've been working so hard to save for college," she grabbed my hand.
Since Michael left, financially affording a house like ours was a lot harder when it was one income coming in instead of two.
"I'll get it mom, I got myself in that mess," and she interrupted me.
"No, no Paige did it, she put you there. She didn't even need you to go," my mom shook her head in disappointment.
"I wasn't taking no for an answer, I was going to show up at that party no matter what. I did it to myself."
"Stop blaming yourself," she looked up at me like the one person I should be blaming is Paige but she had it handled as well as she could, my anger got the best of me. If I was strong enough in the moment he'd be dead.
There was a knock at the door and the nurse came in before Paige followed in, she looked nervous and tired.
The nurse was doing a check and was talking more to my mom than me. I was worried about Paige, she had distanced herself both physically and mentally from me and I wondered if my mom had said something to her.
Paige quiet is something I've always hated. But I've realized I've hated it more since we started fake dating then ever before.
"Paige, I think it's time for you to go home," my mom said and she nodded walking towards the door.
"No goodbye hug?" I said and she paused at the door and looked back at me like seeing me in a hospital bed broke her in pieces, this was really hard on her and she wasn't telling me how she was feeling, she wasn't doing what we promised before. My mom really got to her or maybe she got to herself.
"Parker you're in pain," my mom said.
"Mom, can you give me a moment to myself with Paige?" I looked at her and she sighed not understanding why but went out of the room anyways with the nurse.
"Parker, your moms right, giving you a hug will only make it worse," Paige stayed on the other side of the room.
"No she's just scared," I looked at Paige, "did she say something to you?"
"No, but it's not hard to guess what she's thinking. She's been trying to get me to leave since I called her. I know she doesn't trust me around you anymore and I'm starting to wonder if I should be around you. I mean look at where you're at because you went to the party, you're in a hospital bed. You shouldn't be in a hospital bed and in pain just by breathing," she shook her head, "we'll talk about what we should do later, right now just get some rest and I'll talk to you later," she hesitated leaving before coming over to me and kissing my cheek, "I'm leaving out of respect for your mom not because I want to."
"Don't leave then," I looked at her and grabbed her hand.
"She hates me, the woman who I look up to as one of the strongest women I know hates me Parker. I can't just stay around and feel her disapproving looks."
"She's stressed about the bills that are going to be coming from the hospital and so she has a tendency of blaming someone else because she's stressed. I don't blame you and that's all that should matter Paige," I looked at her and she smiled.
"But you really should. I should've told you to stay home, that you needed your rest. Parker you're sick, you got sick being out in the cold."
"Would you have told me what happened at the party?" I asked her and she was quiet, "so you were going to let him off the hook for behavior like that?"
"We all can't be heroes Parker, Bryce will be the same guy he was last night once he can heal from the damage you put him through," she was quiet then.
"Are you okay? I know beating his ass didn't make you feel better but it made me feel better. I just never got the chance to ask how you're doing with what happened."
"I'm handling it a lot better than I thought I would but I keep telling myself it could've been worse," she looked at me, "I got lucky, you didn't."
"Paige don't do that, these wounds will heal, it's harder to heal something you can't see."
"I'm okay Parker really. I'll come check on you when you get home, well if you're mom lets me in the door," there was something about her right now that made me wonder what else she was thinking about.
"Paige, thank you for staying by my side," I looked into her eyes and she nodded.
"Always," before squeezing my hand and walking out the door.