Because I Loved You...
Chapter 8

Some chairs were broken and they went to the bartender. Addy, to save face, stepped in and started explaining the whole scenario to him. The police turned towards her and asked, “What happened?”, she was the only one who seemed sober. Maddy seemed a little wobbly. The officer assumed that maybe Addy hadn’t had anything to drink yet. She nervously started describing the whole scene. Towards the end of the ‘probing’, she said, “That’s why my boyfri… I mean my ex-boyfriend stepped in. I’m really sorry for what happened, please take care of these guys and I’ll pay for the damages.”, she said this with such responsibility and charm that the officer seemed to be under a spell. He dragged the guy out of the club and gave him a warning. “Ex?”, asked Maddison, who was a little taken aback by the scene that had just unfolded. She had had gin, one too many and just wanted to go home. She felt a weird feeling when she thought of Colby who didn’t even say hello to them at the club. She felt drowsy on the way back home and Addy was worried that she’d fall off the bike, so to keep Maddison safe, she hailed a cab, for the first time in a long ass time. She’d been scared of getting into a cab because of that night; just the thought of being in a car, with a man driving brought back bad memories. 

After they got home, Addy tucked Maddison into her bed after giving her a change of clothes. She sat down on the bed and her eyes fell on a photo of the four of them. Maddison kept this photo by her bed; they looked so happy and Colby looked normal, they had taken a shot of both the couples kissing each other. They all looked cute and sane, at least Addilyn did and god she’d do anything —she’d do anything and everything to change the course of that night. 
After thinking about a lot of things for a while, she slowly fell asleep. Then the doomed night returned, she saw, 
“Addilyn reached the cafe where Stefan and James were waiting for her. She got into the cafe and gave Stefan a big hug, she looked at James with an annoyed expression and asked him, “Did you return from the dead?”. She angrily continued, “You haven’t talked to me, in several fricking weeks. I hate you.” James leaned in and grabbed Addy tightly, giving her a big hug. She relaxed her tensed brows as soon as James patted her head, “I’m sorry but I’m here to tell you something about Colby. I didn’t wanna see you because I didn’t know if I could keep this from you if I saw you…” “What’s going on guys?”, she further probed, “What’s up with you Stef, I thought you weren’t coming back till December.” “Sit, Addy, we need to talk to you.”, commanded Stefan, a grave look on his face. James’ eyes darted towards Addy’s wrist, he held it up and showed it to Stefan, “See, this is exactly what I was afraid of.” Addilyn broke his hold on her wrist and said, “Nerves got to me before today’s show, it was an accident.” There were hints of pain in her voice, “You… look, we already know that Colby did this.” “Look when he was out on his tour, I received a very distressed phone call by one of the band member’s mother. You know Jake, right, Webber?”, asked James. “Yeah, I know Webbie. Isn’t he the dude who has that web tattoo. The one who was flirting with me.”, answered Addy, she then took James’ coffee and asked, “Do you mind?” He shook his head and continued. “Well, during one of their shows, Colby was looking at your photos…personal one’s and he caught a glance and said something about your body.”, finished Stefan, helping James get this over with. “I don’t get it.”, answered Addy dumbly, though she got a sinister feeling from how serious they both were. “He got into a quarrel with Jake and apparently smashed his favourite guitar on his head.”, said James, not knowing how to keep talking. “Are you insane, I know Colby’s a little rough but he’d never do that to anyone.”, said Addilyn, defending Colby. Though she doubted the words that were coming out of her own mouth; how could she convince Stefan and James. “I think he has a problem and it’s not just temper.”, said Stefan, not letting Addy interrupt him, “I think he has been off his pills lately.” “What pills?”, asked Addilyn, slowly putting down the coffee mug in her hand. “He…”, but before James could finish what he was about to say, Colby walked in furiously, he felt betrayed, “I can’t believe you’d do this to me.”, he said as he grabbed Addy’s arm and jerked her forward, she felt like he broke something, maybe her bone but she couldn’t release the tight hold he had on her.”
 She started yelling no, out loud and started to sweat, her shirt rode up and she clenched her fists… it was happening again but this time, it was happening with Maddie in the room. Maddie got up as she heard Addilyn tensed up and screaming, she was sweating profuse, each drop of sweat trickling down her skin. It was 10:00 am, of course they’d slept in. Last night, Maddison didn’t even have to take sleeping pills because Addy had tucked her into bed and that gave her peace of mind. She missed James a lot but she felt whole again with Addilyn around like old times. She got up to shake Addilyn out of this daymare but surely enough her eyes darted towards the scar on her belly. “Oh, Addilyn, what the hell? Get up!”, she screamed into Addilyn’s ear; Addy was awoken by Maddy’s breathless panting and knew in an instant that something was wrong. She wrung her head from side to side, trying to fully comprehend the situation but it was too late. She self-consciously pulled her sweatshirt down and ran to the bathroom. She felt like crap because she’d cried herself to sleep last night. She didn’t really know what she’d spilled in her wretched sleep, so she was preparing to be tackled to death by Maddison. “I can explain everything!”, said Addilyn barely getting her t-shirt off. “I’ll take a shower first.”, she added sheepishly, well aware how deep in the waters she could be. In the shower surely enough, after she got the hot water running, she closed her eyes. A memory flashed in front of her eyes, she remembered the time when they’d helped out at the old age home and helped sneak in some cookies for Bob, wool for Merca, how they’d acted coy on the first day and sobbed on the last. They were good times, she mused but was interrupted by a shadow, lurking in the corner; “What are you going to say on my funeral?”, asked James. Addilyn was totally shook, this was the first time that James had spoken, that too so clearly, each word escaping his lips, which were moving as though he were alive.

author's bits: "When is James finally going to get peace? Do you think you can predict what happened? Will Maddilyn ever find out what really happened? What's going to happen at the funeral? 

Lots of questions with only one answer: show up next time.

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Leah.