Triple Update: If your notification took you here, go back to start at Chapter 24
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"Trish?"
Aiden's head snapped to where Marley was looking, releasing her hand to step in front of her, "I'd never hit a girl but if you don't get the fuck away from her-"
"I think we need to talk," Trish interrupted calmly, knitting her fingers together, "about what happened yesterday."
"What happened yesterday was that you and fucking Jordan cornered my girl in a bathroom and attacked her. Does that sound about right?"
Marley wrapped a hand around his bicep as he shook with anger. She could understand why though, she was angry too. Trish stood by and did nothing. No matter the reason why, it was an awful thing to do.
Her impassive blue eyes flickered between Marley and Aiden, who was vibrating with rage but that didn't seem to faze her at all.
"There was nothing I could've done. If I tried, he would've turned on me and gotten even angrier. He'd probably have done worse to the both of us."
Marley chewed on her bottom lip, sort of seeing where Trish was coming from. But Aiden didn't, at all.
"You scream for help. You run out the door. I was right outside. You stood there and watched him intimidate her and you did nothing. You're no goddamn victim and the only reason why we're validating your story is because Marley has asked me to. I'm doing it for her - only for her."
Trish still didn't appear fazed, locking eyes with Marley's hazel ones, "You're lucky, you know. I don't think you even realize how lucky you are."
"Lucky?!" Aiden boomed, "In what situation is she lucky?! That she wasn't fucking molested?! You're sick. Get the fuck away from us."
Marley watched Trish shake her head in disagreement, "That's not what I meant. I meant she's lucky in that she has you."
She recoiled, momentarily stunned just like Aiden. The both of them assumed that Trish was saying something about how Marley was lucky she wasn't hurt any worse. But then...this?
"Trish I don't...I don't understand," Marley breathed out from behind Aiden's bicep, a frown on her face.
She leaned back on her hands, "Of course you don't. I'm just guessing that he's your first boyfriend, right? So you've never had to flip through the catalogue of assholes. He respects you, he protects you, he treats you right and he doesn't do it for anything else but the fact that he loves you. You stumbled upon a diamond in a field of thousands of coals, and trust me. I would know."
Marley studied Trish's impassive expression and felt bad for her immediately. She was telling the truth - that she's seen a lot of bad relationships in her past.
Marley stepped out of Aiden's shadow, "There's someone out there for you, Trish. And I'm sorry that you've had to experience the bad before the good. In a way, I understand why you couldn't step in. It just, it was hard for me."
Aiden grabbed her hand while Trish just flicked her hair behind her ear and watched the movement, "You deserve it anyway. There isn't a single bitch cell in your body. I'm sorry about what Jordan said."
Aiden froze from beside her, "Marley. What did he say?"
She looked down at her shoes, her eyes burning as she remembered the lashing words.
"Shit about how she's a virgin - well, not that we know for sure he was just blowing smoke. Threatened to smash her head against the ti-"
"That's enough," Marley cut in harshly, feeling Aiden's shaking and quickly kissing his bicep, resting her cheek on his arm and hugging it.
"I'm okay now," she soothed gently, "I'm okay, Aiden. I'm right here."
He let go of her hand to circle his arm around her waist and bring her into his side, inhaling her hair at the top of her head and placing a kiss there, his anger beginning to calm.
"I'm just proving a point-"
"You can shut the fuck up," Aiden snapped, "You've said enough. You've done enough. You will stay away from her or I'll have one of her girl friends do something about it."
"You should just go,"'Marley added in a much kinder tone, in the back of her mind thinking about who would willingly take a swing at Trish if Aiden asked.
They'd probably have to get in line. That thought made her smile, lucky to have such supportive friends.
"I've been dealing with him for the last year. Marley was my window of opportunity to talk to the cops without him tracing it back to me-"
"Ah, so you could cover your own ass?" Aiden barked.
"No one would protect me if he came after me. No one ever has. Marley you have Aiden if he tries anything again. I did what I had to do and whether it was bad or good doesn't matter as much as I'm free now."
She stood from the stairs and headed for the main path where they were standing. Aiden moved when she did, keeping himself as a barrier between them until Trish was gone.
"No matter what she did, Aiden," Marley began, sitting on his bed as he grabbed what he needed for a shower, "she didn't deserve an abusive relationship. Nobody does."
His hands stilled in his armoire for a second, and Marley knew he was thinking about Violet, "The more I think about it, the more it makes sense. Not that it was right, not that she should've done what she did, but it just makes sense."
He turned around, leaning his back against the wood to face her.
She smiled at him softly, "Well, she was right about one thing."
When she paused for dramatic effect, he raised a questioning eyebrow.
"That you're a diamond in the rough." her words were light but the meaning behind them wasn't. There are bad people in this world, worse men she could've ended up with.
And she ended up with one of the best ones.
Aiden's smile was wide and bright, "I think I got lucky, too."
"It has nothing to do with luck," she disagreed with a shake of her head, "Do you know what the Cheerio Effect is?"
"How if there's two Cheerios in a bowl of milk, they gravitate towards each other without any outside influence." he nodded, wondering where she was going with that.
"I think that's what love is. Not luck. But that the right people just...have a way of finding each other."
-
"Mr. Green, 3:00, with ice tea."
Marley smirked secretly as Jay checked the bases in the middle out of view, "Shit."
She had 3:00 and the ice tea already marked off on her sheet.
"You're out of the game," Bryan said, grabbing the dice off the Clue Junior mat with a smug smirk, "guess it sucks to suck eh?"
"You play this with Christopher all the time," Marley pointed out in Jay's defence, referring to Bryan's young son, "So you kind of have an unfair advantage."
"I don't," Aiden cut in from Marley's right, looking over his markup sheet with a sly smile, "and I'm about to win."
Marley leaned over to peek but he quickly turned his paper away with widened blue eyes, "Marley Hoover cheats at board games? I guess everyone has a dark side."
She rolled her eyes playfully but when he lowered his hand still tried to peek again. When he flipped it over behind his back, she put on her cutest pout.
"You won't even help me?"
His eyes lowered to her lips and darkened, but his were pursed with resolve, "You really don't play fair, Hoover."
She leaned back with a smile, "I play fair, and I win, too."
Bryan rolled the dice across the mat to her side, but she didn't move to pick it up.
"I'm making a guess. Mrs. Scarlett ate the cake at 1:00 with lemonade."
Aiden growled under his breath and tossed his markup paper in front of him, while Marley danced and wiggled on the spot, "I'm the Clue Junior master! Haha! Sucks to suck, Bryan and Aiden and Jay"
"For someone so modest you're an awfully cocky winner," Jay noted bitterly as he began to put the game away and head out for the day.
"So, Aiden." Bryan leaned his hands back on the floor behind him, eyes narrowed on her boyfriend.
"You have plans for the future career-wise?"
Marley smiled proudly as she watched Aiden respond, "I'm going to play football through college, getting drafted is the dream. I've been playing since I was a kid. But I'm going to get a degree in something I can use or build on as a plan B. Still deciding between a few things."
"College football eh?" Bryan nodded and seemed impressed, "What school?"
Marley sucked her lower lip between her teeth, looking between them nervously and wondering how Bryan would take Aiden's choice to follow her to Brown.
"I'm going to Brown," he spoke confidently, "They already guaranteed me a spot on the team."
Marley watched Bryan's eyebrows shoot to the ceiling as the glanced between them, "I'm assuming that's no coincidence?"
"Nope," Aiden replied easily, leaning back on his hands too, but this time he shifted his focus to Marley, "I follow her."
She blushed and looked at him, and they locked eyes briefly, just gazing at each other.
"You treat her right?"
They broke their stare to both look at Bryan, who seemed considerably more won over than he was a few minutes ago.
Aiden took her hand and laced their fingers together, "Always."
She smiled at Bryan, "He does."
His shoulders relaxed and he seemed convinced that Aiden was a good guy her her, but there was something else he wanted to say as he stood from the floor.
"Marley, you wait here, Aiden and I are going to have a talk on the front porch."
Marley's mouth fell open, her cheeks turning bright red immediately, "Absolutely not!"
Aiden slipped his hand from hers and moved to stand too, but she quickly scrambled up after him and grabbed his muscled arm in an iron hold, "This is not happening. Please dear gods this is not happening."
"Marley-"
"Don't Marley me!" She hissed at Aiden, her pulse still racing beneath her cheeks, "You're not going to talk about...no!"
"It's just a conversation that needs to be had," Bryan explained calmly from behind her, "If Aiden truly cares for you, he'll agree."
She released Aiden's arm but stood firmly between him and Brian, feeling more mortified than she's ever felt in her life.
"If either of you love me at least the tiniest bit, we drop this conversation right now and never talk about it again! Especially not here!"
Bryan gestured around the empty room, "The other councillors are gone and Jay just left. This is the perfect time to talk about respecting boundaries and safe se-"
"NO!" She shrieked, putting her head in her hands with a groan, "This is so embarrassing."
She felt Aiden's warm hand on her chin, tilting upwards. She peeked through her fingers, trying to put every once of her desperation for him to not do this in her hazel eyes.
His blue ones were soft and tender as he looked her over, "This is important to me, too. You deserve to have someone who looks out for you this way and who will have this conversation with me."
"Oh gods," she whined, storming for the couch and curling up into a ball in the farthest corner, "Go away, world."
She heard Aiden's footsteps follow her to the couch, and crouch at her side. She kept her eyes firmly squeezed shut even as he brushed her hair out of her face with gentle fingers, his deep voice soft and reassuring, "I love you, Marley. I respect you far too much not to do this. Please understand?"
She buried her face in the couch and spoke though it was muffled, "Come back with a shovel to bury me alive."
His chuckle was deep and warm before he placed a kiss on the side of her head and she felt his body heat disappear. As soon as the screen door shut outside, Marley felt physical pain as more and more seconds passed into Aiden and Bryan's sex talk.
Marley has no desire to know what it was they were conversing about, because no matter what she knew it'd make her want to throw herself back in the ditch.
When her phone began to vibrate in her back pocket, she pulled it out hoping it was Gabby or anyone at all to distract her from this pure torture. With her eyes still closed she shoved the phone to her ear, mumbling a 'hello' with her cheeks still acting as an efficient space heater.
"Hello. This is an automated message from...Lakefield Detention Centre. You are receiving a call request from inmate number...356891...Bob Hoover. In accepting this call you agree to pay cellular charges on your next phone bill. If you would like to continue, press the star key to be connected momentarily."
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