Never Again

** LACEY'S POV **


The rest of my school day went by slower than any day I have ever endured in my life, and that's saying a lot because I've had some [i] long [/i] days. After my little meet up with Pat on my break, despite it being very brief, my mood was significantly better that it was before seeing him. Mondays are always long, hectic and the most stressful day of the week for me because on Mondays, the phones at work ring and ring until I hear them ring even when they're not actually ringing. People need lawyers on Mondays because they've spent the entire weekend fighting with their spouses and they want a divorce, people need lawyers because they partied too hard on the weekend and they need to be bailed out of jail, and people need lawyers on Mondays for every reason under the sun. I always start work at 6 am on Mondays, I stay at the office until 9, and then I have to be at school from ten until six. It's my longest day, totalling 12 hours before I'm free to go home and do what I want. Usually by the end of it I'm beyond exhausted and I want nothing more than to go home and crash in my bed, but today I have an endless amount of energy from Pat asking me to be his girlfriend. I will probably never understand how he got me to open up to him so quickly and willingly since so many guys before him have tried with no success. Having the official title of 'girlfriend' stressed me out to an extent, but I can't deny the happiness that Patrick has brought me in my little time of knowing him. He's sweet, caring, very spontaneous, and I would be an idiot to deny his offer of being his girlfriend.

That conversation alone was energizing enough to make me bounce off the walls and check the clock for the end of the day every 10 seconds, but then you add the kiss in the equation and you have the formula for an overly-excited, overly-happy Lacey. Man oh man, that kiss. I could think about it forever. I had been fantasizing about it ever since I first laid my eyes on him, and it was everything that I dreamed of and more. As I was looking into the ocean that is Patrick's baby blue eyes, I noticed a wave in them which briefly travelled towards my lips and then crashed back at my eyes and the next thing I knew his lips were just inches from mine. I could smell his breath at that point, and it was minty fresh. I remember thinking that he must have recently brushed his teeth, or taken a breath mint. Before I could register any other thoughts, his lips were pressed on mine and I felt a smile crawl on to my face and I was kissing him back. There was no tongue involved and I didn't think that there needed to be. For a first kiss, it was absolutely perfect. I could feel a little dent in his lips which likely was the result from a puck or a stick, but it made his lips unique. The kiss was unlike any kiss I had ever had before and I spent my whole school day thinking about it until my final professor of the day dismissed us at last. I only had two hours from the time that my class let out until the puck dropped for Pat's game and despite my nervousness about meeting the other wives and girlfriends; I was beyond excited to see him play for the second time. This time, I was watching in a good mood, and I simply could not wait to see my boyfriend in his element.

♦ ♦ ♦

The drive back from my campus was pretty short; the silver lining of finishing at 6 pm is that I avoid all of the rush hour traffic. Within fifteen minutes, I was pulling in to the parking lot of my apartment complex and once I was parked, I grabbed my school bag and started walking up to my 6th floor apartment. I put one of my hands on the doorknob as per usual and used the other one to fish around my bag for my keys, but to my surprise my door was unlocked already. "That's odd", I said out loud to myself, because I never forget to lock my door. It was a habit that I got in to back in Québec and it was not a habit that I forgot from time to time. My only sibling, my older brother Jacob, always made fun of me by saying that I was borderline OCD with the amount of times that I check that my door is locked before leaving the apartment. Dismissing this little slip up with the excuse of my exhaustion, I twisted the doorknob to the right and walked in, greeted by a voice coming from my couch. "Hello, love"

My head snapped in the direction that the voice came from and when I saw the face of the man sitting on my couch, I lost my voice. It was a face that I never thought I would ever have to see again, it was a face that I moved out of the country to avoid seeing and it was a face that haunted my nightmares on an almost nightly basis. I could barely speak louder than a whisper, and even that was laced with fear. "How did you find me, Alex?"

I took a few steps back away from the couch, not wanting to be anywhere near him. I was terrified. I had taken every precaution necessary to ensure that Alex could never find me again: I changed my phone number, my parents changed their land-line number, I moved away, and my parents and brother had only ever gotten my new address from me verbally. I was too scared to send it to them through an e-mail, even though I changed that too. I knew that if there was a way to find me, Alex would be able to do it and I knew that I needed to make sure that all my bases were covered if my plan to escape him permanently were to work. His dark, familiar chuckle brought me out of my train of thought, "Someone snapped a picture of you and the man that you're cheating on me with kissing and put it on the internet today," he said as he took a few slow steps towards me, "and just by seeing his face I knew what city you were in. He's not only a local celebrity; you should have chosen someone less conspicuous to cheat on me with, babe. Knowing you were in Chicago, all I had to Google search was 'Lacey Rogers, Chicago' and this address was spat at me, so here I am!"

He kept walking towards me and I kept backing up until my back was against my kitchen counter, essentially trapping me between his body and my counter. His hands reached up to cradle my face and he looked into my eyes before speaking again. "Why did you run away from me, Lacey? We were in love, and you ruined it." He waited for my response, but I wasn't giving it to him. I was too scared to find my voice, let alone fathom a thought that I would be able to speak. His hands moved down to my shoulders, shaking me in a not-so-gentle way. "Tell me why, Lacey. Why did you change your phone number? Why did you move so far away?" With his temper rising, I knew that I had to say something or the situation would escalate very quickly. "You know why. Now get out of my apartment, before I call the cops."

Immediately his hands flew down to my pants pocket where he took my cell phone out and threw it against the wall, shattering it into hundreds of pieces. "Really, sweetheart? You're going to call the cops?" I let out a small sob, all of the memories of Alex doing this to me back at home flooding back to me. "Why did you cheat on me, Lacey?" His words triggered another round of sobs and tears from my body, and when he didn't get a response he raised his voice, repeating his question. "WHY DID YOU CHEAT ON ME, LACEY?" The only answer I could manage came out of my throat with a small croak, "I didn't."

Instantly his hand flew up and slapped me across the face repeatedly. "What did you say?" he asked as he grabbed the neckline of my t-shirt, yanking it towards him making our faces just inches apart. In that moment, I decided that I needed to muster up any and all courage that I had in my body and stand up to this man, even if it killed me. With a deep breath, I spoke. "I said that I didn't cheat on you. I broke up with you. We were done, Therefore no cheating happened."

Those were the last words I was able to speak because Alex's fist collided with my face, knocking me out cold.

Notes

Ahh, drama drama. So not fun to read, but so fun to write. I know that if I was reading this story I would hate to be left on this cliffhanger, so I'm going to try to avoid a super long gap between this update and the next.
Comments are fun,
Happy reading! :D