Unfortunately my silent hope that Sarah wouldn't want to let Miranda and I stay at Corey's apartment didn't follow through. No, she had to be the nice person she is and agree to it. So I decided right then that I was going to come out of my bedroom as little as possible just so I wouldn't have to be around Corey. Even then I still had to see his face thanks to the posters of his band I had pinned on my walls that he had given me years ago. I groaned as I buried my face in a pillow, no matter what I did it seemed like I could never get away from Corey.
Suddenly I heard the door creak open and then a weight on the edge of my mattress.
"Who is it?" I questioned, somewhat muffled by my pillow.
"Just me." Miranda's voice answers and I feel myself instantly relax. "I'm sorry that I have to put you through all of this Ash."
I rolled over so I could look at her and shrugged, "It'll all be over soon enough. I just have to suck it up in the mean time and hide out in here."
"So are you ever going to tell me what happened this time?"
I sat up and moved to close the door before I even considered saying a word. "It happened again."
"You kissed him again?" She asked in disbelief.
I quickly shook my head, "No, he kissed me this time and a bit more."
Surprise took over her features and I quietly explained this morning's events to her.
"So do you think he was planning to have sex with you?"
I have her a look of disgust, before answering, "I don't know, he was fairly tipsy, so that means literally anything could have happened."
Out of nowhere Miranda's stomach makes a loud growling noise and I couldn't resist chuckling.
She pouted, "Hush, I'm starving."
I rolled my eyes as I patted her knee saying, "I am too, come on let's go find something."
She was quick to agree and as we stepped into the kitchen I made sure to avoid eye contact with Corey. I busied myself with making sandwiches, so Sarah wouldn't notice my unusual behavior.
"Hey can you hand me two slices of cheese?" I ask as I spread mayo on the bread.
A second later there's a tap on my arm and the cheese is being held out to me by a hand much larger than Miranda's. I move my gaze to see that it was of course Corey and I only nodded as a thank you.
"You're welcome." He tells me with an edge to his voice and that irritated me even further.
I was the only one that had the right to be mad in this moment, he had been the one that caused this. So I simply ignored him and finished up with the food. I sat at the table, gesturing for Miry to join me.
'Are you not going to talk to him?' She mouthed when no one was looking.
I just shook my head no.
"Hey babe?" Sarah called from the living room and I had to fight every fiber of my being to not roll my eyes at the pet name.
"Yeah?" He answered, finally stepping out of the kitchen.
"My mother needs my help with picking out the color schemes. Would you mind going to the grocery store for me?" She requests and when he agrees she hands him a list from her jeans pocket before adding on, "You should take them with you and grab them some food that they like. Oh and be sure to grab Miranda some prenatal vitamins, it'll help with her baby."
Miranda gave me a questioning look and I whispered, "You can go with without me, you know pretty much everything I like."
"But Ash," She whines softly, "Corey and I barely know each other, do you have any idea how awkward that will be?
I sighed muttering, "Fine, I'll go."
"Thank you." She tells me weakly.
Corey's face pops in the door frame with his keys and list in hand, "You two up for it?"
It didn't take long for Miranda to figure out that I was still refusing to speak to Corey, so she spoke for us both, "Sure, sounds good."
After that we climbed into Corey's car and he seemed to decide to make sure there was no possibility of an uncomfortable silence by turning on the radio. Chris Isaak's song Wicked Game came on and Miranda turned to look at me in the backseat with an excited smile.
"Isn't this one of you're favorite songs?"
I noticed Corey glance at me through the rear view mirror and I shrunk in on myself a bit as I told her yes.
That was all that was said for the rest of the drive to the store. Once we arrived I hopped out of the car, only waiting for Miranda to step out before grabbing her hand. I pulled her along with me, calling out that we were going to search for her vitamins and that we'd find him after that.
Once inside and far away from Corey I acknowledged her tugs of resistance.
"Ashley how could you do that? That was so rude! Neither Corey or Sarah have to be doing any of this for us and you're acting childish!"
"Well I guess Corey didn't do that good of a job at finishing raising me then did he?"
"Seriously Ash! You're making a big show out of all of this! Don't you at least want to look like you have a little bit of dignity in this situation?"
I sighed tilting my head to the right, "I guess you have a point."
She quickly snatched up a bottle of store brand prenatal vitamins saying, "Come on, let's go find Mr. Taylor."
I couldn't help chuckling softly at her remark as I followed her. I became lost in my thoughts as we searched for him. I had to think of a to make it through this stay with Corey, otherwise I'd surely snap. It was clear to me that our friendship is nearly dead at this point and I don't know if it can be fixed or that I even want it to be.
A gasp from Miranda pushes me back into reality and then what I see shocks me as well. Patrick was walking up the same aisle as us and the moment I grabbed Miranda to run away from, Patrick spots us. He sprints after us and we are only able to get away from him for a moment before he grabs Miranda by the arm, yanking her back to him. She didn't hold back the yelp of pain that escaped her lips, but no one came to help us. So it was up to me yet again to put a stop to this.
"Let her go you prick!" I shouted launching myself at him, knocking Miranda out of his hold.
As soon as she was free from him she ran off yelling at the top of her lungs, "Corey! Corey, Patrick has Ashley!"
Patrick hurries to throw me off his back and into the bottles of shampoo we were next to. The products toppled on top of me, some of them bursting open.
"I'm starting to get really fucking sick of you getting in the way." He growled wrenching me up by the hair on my scalp.
I let out a cry of pain and braced myself for the beating I knew I was getting ready to receive. As his arm swung back I flinched away, but before he could move another inch he was stopped by a voice that I was very familiar with. Right then I don't think I have been happier to hear Corey's voice.
"Get your fucking hands off her." He seethed.
I looked up at Patrick to see that he didn't seem fazed by Corey's threat and reared back his fist, swinging. His fist connected with the side of my jaw before Corey went after him. He ripped Patrick away from me not even a second after that. I crawled away as fast as I could, slipping on the spilled shampoo. When I got to my feet and saw what was happening I was floored. It was like watching two rabid dogs fight and Corey easily had the upper hand. He had Patrick on the ground on his back, pummeling him with his fists.
It didn't take long for people to notice the fight and they were hurrying to break them apart. At this point Patrick was already a bloody mess and Corey looked like a madman, this is exactly why most people knew not to piss him off. In all honesty I wanted to let him beat Patrick into a pulp, but when I saw someone pull out their phone I knew I had to put an end to this.
Corey finally quit when I rushed over to him shouting, "Corey, stop! They're getting ready to call the cops!"
He let go of Patrick and got to his feet warning, "If you know what's good for you, stay the hell away from Miranda and Ashley."
A few minutes later we were being kicked out of the store and Corey wouldn't stop trying to talk to me as we walked back to the car. He kept asking me if I was alright or if I was bleeding. I figured I at least owed him some answer for saving me.
"I'm fine, I promise. Thank you for helping me though."
"You don't have to thank me for anything. Do you think I was just going to let that fucker hurt you? No one hits you."
I choose to ignore the swell in my chest at his words as I asked, "Where's Miranda?"
"I told her to get in the car, lock the doors, and wait for us."
"So you left her by herself? Do you know how stupid that was? One of Patrick's buddies might have grabbed her!"
When we got in sight of the car I saw that my fretting was for nothing when I spotted her in the passenger seat, but before I could even think about apologizing Corey spoke.
"It's not as stupid as you trying to tackle a man twice your size!" He argued.
"What else was I supposed to do?!"
"Maybe if you had just stayed with me instead of running off none of that would have happened!"
"Well maybe if you would've kept your damn hands off of me I would have!"
Suddenly Miranda interrupts us, "Would you both stop?!"
Corey and I both fell silent.
"Do you two not realize that we were just attacked in there? This is a lot more serious than we thought it was going to be. I think we need to be considering what we're going to say to the police to get Patrick away from us instead of your petty drama at the moment."
Despite the harshness of her remark, I knew she was right and that's what I'm going to focus on now. How to get rid of Patrick.