EroticReverie

Tobias Knight

I drive to my place in Santa Monica, from L.A. I blare music the whole way as Hadley just looks out the window at traffic, and the lights. She doesn't try to talk and neither do I, even though I have  a thousand things I want to say to her. What was she thinking dating Abel? Why did she try to kick me out when he was hitting her? Why was she like this? What the fuck could I do to help her? 

I turn up the heat, because I can tell she's cold , because she barely has any fucking clothes on.  At a red light I undo my seat belt, and slip my arms out of my jacket and pull it out from behind me and hand it over to her. 

She shakes her head looking at me. Why won't you just let people be nice to you Hadley? I think to myself. I drop it in her lap and then press on the gas as the light turns green. 

She waits a good ten minutes into our drive of ignoring each other, before she pulls it up and places it around her, hugging the back of the jacket to her front. I let out a little breath at the small victory and continue our drive. 

My phone is blowing up half way home, and I let Siri read them to me. 

Oliver: Dude. Duuuuuude. What the fuck did you do bro? 

Atlas: Where did you go? 

Sonny: Shit man.  You fucked his shit up.  Good job. 

Sonny: You got Hadley with you?

Atlas: Hadley is with you right?

Oliver: Answer us fucker. You got Hadley with you?

Hadley looks to display on the dash and then my phone rings, from Oliver. 

The music cuts out as I hit answer and he comes on speaker. 

"You're on speaker." I tell my brother. 

"Good, Hadley  with you?" he asks. 

Hadley stays quiet.

"Yes. She's with me." I say.

"where you headed, your place?" he asks. 

"Yeah." I answer.

"Alright, we'll all meet you there." he says.

"that's fine." I say and hang up without saying goodbye. 

I can see Hadley's eyes on me, but just look straight ahead and keep driving as the music starts to blast again. 

--

Thirty minutes later were at my home, just a small five bedroom luxury home that I live in alone. 

I walk in with Hadley behind me, and she bends down and unties her boots. My eyes go to her ass, and I roll my eyes at the short skirt, that lets me see her cheeks peeking out of her panties and covered in fishnets. 

I toe off my sneakers and then flip on the lights and walk in, and Hadley hangs out in the small foyer with my Jacket, and she walks over and hands it to me. 

"I can get you a shirt or something." I say. 

She shrugs. "I'm fine." 

The girl was wearing nothing but fishnets and pasties, and a god damn skirt fit for a five year old that didnt cover a god damn thing. 

"right." I say and turn and walk into the kitchen. 

"Want a drink?" I call back to her and can hear her following. 

"You have any Jack?" she asks and I turn to look at her. 

"I didnt mean alcohol." I say. 

she purses her lips. 

"Ok, but do you HAVE any Jack?" she asks. 

"nope." I say. 

"Where do you keep the liqour?" she ask. 

Hadley hadn't been to my new house yet, and I'd moved in over a year ago. 

"I don't keep any in the house." I tell her, honestly. 

"What? Why?" she asks. "You're lying." she says. 

"Because I don't want it in my house. And no I'm not lying." I say. 

"But I saw you drinking tonight." she says. 

"Beer." I say. 

"Ok, well do you have any of that?" she asks. 

"No." I say. She huffs and rolls her eyes. 

"You dont need a fucking drink Hadley." I say and she darts her eyes to me. 

"Ok, dad." she says and just shakes her head, not arguing with me any further, no pushing her normal bullshit about how I need to stop telling her what she should or shouldnt do. 

She walks over pulls open my fridge. 

"Jesus." she says as she looks at everything lined up and organized. 

"Ew, what is this?" she asks pulling out a green drink. 

"I think it has kale and-"

"Kale?!" she says and looks over her shoulder. 

"When did you start drinking this shit?" she asks and then turns her head back and shoves it back in. 

"I just have been trying to take better care of myself." I say. Because I can't say, when you started putting nothing but alcohol and drugs in your system. 

"mmkay" she hums and plucks a coconut water from the fridge and opens it and shuts the fridge with her hips as I turn on the faucet and start to wash my hands, watching the water run pink as the blood from my knuckles and hands washes off. 

She walks over and looks down at my hands. 

I look up at her, but she just keeps looking at my hands. 

"I didn't even know you could throw a punch." she says. Trying to make light of it. 

"Yeah. Me either." I say and she looks up. 

"That's the first time you've punched someone?" she asks surprised. 

"Yes." I say. 

"Well...shit." she says. "How did you even know how to do it?" 

"I don't know." I say. Because he had his hands on you. Because he was hurting you. Because you were scared. Because you needed me to. Because someone has to save you.  I don't say any of the that. 

"Does it hurt?" she asks and I look to my hands as I carefully wash my knuckles, trying not to crack them open again. 

"not really. just a dull throb now." I say. 

"do you have a first aid kit?" she asks and I look at her. 

"Bathroom down here, second door in the hall there..." I nod towards the side of the kitchen where the hall entrance is. "It's under the sink." 

"got it." she says and turns and sets down the bottle of coconut water and walks across the kitchen to the hall. And I watch her as she goes, then look back to my hands and shake my head. 

She comes back a minute later, and has a small first aid box in her hand, and a clean hand towel that she hands to me. 

"Here." she says when I turn off the faucet. 

I take it and dry my hands carefully. 

"Let's go sit at the table." she says and picks up the box and walks from the kitchen to the dining room as I turn on the lights over head, and she pulls out a seat, then another, and sits in the second. I sit in the other. 

I watch her open the box and look through it.

"What are you looking for?" I ask her after a minute.

"I don't know. I guess, maybe we use the ointment? And....the gauze? And like, wrap it up?" she asks and I can't help the ghost of a smile on my lips as she looks up at me confused. 

I give a nod. I see the slight smile on her lips as she looks at my almost hidden smile. 

She looks back to the box and pulls out the things she mentioned, along with some alcohol pads. 

"It might hurt..i think..." she says and looks up at me with the alcohol pad she just ripped open and all I do is nod once. 

I watch her dab the alcohol pad over the cuts, and there's a burn, a sting, but nothing I can't handle. She looks up at me for my reaction. 

Her lashes are long and they  frame those gorgeous blues so well that it makes my heart stop for a second. But then I just give her a little smile. 

"Ouch." I say without any real pain , or inflection. 

I watch her smile. "you jerk."  she says and shakes her head and then looks back to my hand and keeps cleaning it. 

It's the first time she's smiled at me in what feels like years, and probably has been that long if not more. 

I don't know where it comes from, except that I do, because I've felt it ever since innocent Hadley was lost. 

"I miss you." I say quietly, and her hand freezes. Without looking up she continues. 

"I'm right here." she says as if what I just said is silly. 

"No you're not." I say and she lifts her eyes now. 

She shakes her head. "Don't Tobias." she says softly. "Not right now." 

She looks back down at my hand, sets the alcohol pad down and grabs the ointment. 

She doesn't want me to care for her. Doesnt want me to show that I care. She doesnt want to talk about the fact she's not the girl I knew when I was a teenager and she was the innocent, fun, sweet girl that adored me and the other Devil's Kids, even if we were trouble. She used to be the one that worried. Now it was me. 

She dabs the ointment on as my front door opens and she looks towards it as my brother calls out my name. 

"In here." I say loudly over my shoulder and then look back to Hadley as she takes a bit of gauze, lays it over the knuckles and then starts to wrap it. 

Their footsteps fall across the floor towards my dining room and they stop. Hadley doesn't look up as she puts the things back into the box. 

They all start to walk again and sit down around the table as she closes the box.

"I'm gonna go put this back." she says and walks out of the room. 

I watch her go. Then look back to the table, at my friends. 

Atlas, my best friend raises his eyebrow. 

I let out a sigh and shake my head. 

"Don't look at me like that." I say gruffly. 

"Like what?" Atlas asks, knowing damn well what he's doing. 

"You mean like you just beat the shit of of Abel Stone, almost killed a man for dating her?" he asks. 

My jaw clenches. 

"That's not why I did it. " I say. 

Atlas huffs, and my brother gives me smile that says "youre not fooling anyone." 

"he fucking hit her." I seethe, the rage starting to boil back up, my busted knuckles wanting to feel the crunch of his nose again. The way his skull  felt like punching a rock. 

They all drop their assuming smiles. 

"He what?" my brother Oliver asks. 

I shake my head as I hear her footsteps come back slowly, as if she's politely giving us warning to stop talking about her. 

I look to her as she walks in, really wishing she'd let me give her a shirt. 

We were all used to Hadley's body by now, and we'd all even seen her tits bare, more than once, when she would get drunk and take her top off and skinny dip in pools at parties.  Didn't mean they still didn't have an effect on me. Her body was gorgeous, every inch of it, even with the tattoos that hid some of her perfect skin. I loved women with tattoos, but Hadley was always was so perfect, that I hated she'd done anything to change herself. I knew that's not what tattoos were about, but I just thought she was priceless and perfect as she was. She still was. Just broken. 

She sits back at the table and then finally looks up at the guys. 

"Your man is alive by the way." Atlas says, and her eyes go to him. 

I find myself wanting to know more too, I didnt need the guilt of murder or putting a man in a coma on my hands. Not that he didnt deserve it if it happened. 

"He's not my man." she says , her tone sharp and I look to her. She notices the turn of my head. 

"I'm not going back to him." she says. Because she knows I need to hear it, I need to know she's not going to return to someone who could hurt her like that. I nod once. 

"He wasn't too happy with you when he woke up Tobias." my brother says. 

I shrug. 

"Yeah, well, I'm not to happy with him either. " I say and my brother smiles slightly. 

"I'm tired." Hadley sighs and stands. 

I nod. 

"You can take either of the guest rooms. My room is to the right of the stairs , first door on the left. " I say. "You can grab a shirt or something if you need to. The guest baths all have extra tooth brushes, shampoos and what not if you need to shower or anything." I say and she nods and then looks at the guys. 

"night guys." she says. 

They all give a nod in return. She starts to walk, then places a hand on my shoulder. 

I look up at her. 

"Thank you Tobias." she says, her hand squeezes my shoulder gently and then keeps walking.