Chapter 10 Thea
I hadn’t seen Bridgette this entire week.
It had been three and a half weeks since she met Matteo, and I couldn’t be around him anymore after the first two.
I told her about how uncomfortable he made me feel, and she would always tell me that I was overreacting and he was trying to make conversation, but we had one week before the semester ended and she wanted to make the most of it.
I still couldn’t ignore that I always felt watched when Matteo was around, like someone was lurking in the shadows waiting to jump on me.
We had only been communicating over the phone and I had to check on her to make sure she was okay, so I decided to go to his house.
The maid answered the door and immediately recognized me and let me in.
She went upstairs to get Bridgette for me while I waited.
The first time we visited, we were shocked at how beautiful it was.
It was a large villa-style house with low-hanging roofs and vines that clung down from the walls.
Stone tile covered the floors and the ceilings and the walls were covered in aged paintings that reminded me of the Renaissance era.
Matteo also had a taste for stone-carved statues and he had them all over.
My favorite was a statue of a woman dressed in a gown with a spear and shield by her side that sat in his living room.
Her face looked fierce and determined, like she had just led her army back from war.
Matteo had caught me staring at it the first time we had come over.
“That’s the goddess Athena,” he had told me, startling me.
“She’s beautiful,” I said bluntly, trying not to give him the attention he wanted.
“Indeed, she is,” he said, and I was painfully aware of how close he was to my ear.
A shiver ran through my body as I remembered how uncomfortable he made me and I finally heard Bridgette walk into the room.
“Where have you been?” I asked her as I walked up to her to get a closer look at her.
She looked tired, but not like she had just woken up.
She looked like she had spent the last few days not sleeping.
Her eyes were swollen and glassy and as I got closer, I noticed that she looked busted up with handprints on her neck.
“Did he do this to you, B?” I asked, pulling her in for a hug.
She began to cry uncontrollably. “Come on, let’s go before he gets back. ”
“I don’t want you here,” she spit at me. “Leave.”
“What do you mean?” I scoffed. “You can’t stay here!”
“Get out now,” she said. “You’ll ruin everything!
” From the moment I met Bridgette, I never imagined her to ever cry over a man.
Nonetheless, one who was putting his hands on her.
She looked so scared but also disgusted, like she truly didn’t want me there.
Though I could hear the words she was saying, I knew I couldn’t just leave her here.
“I’m not going anywhere without you,” I said to her. “Let’s go,” I said, pulling her arm out. “We can go somewhere and disappear together.”
“If it isn’t my dea,” I heard the voice of Matteo say. I turned around, meeting his eyes, which seemed like they were darker than before. “I knew you’d come.”
“Thea! Wake up,” a voice called out to me. I felt someone shaking my body and I jerked away. Blinking my eyes clear, I saw the outline of Anna sitting above me.
“Thank god,” she said as she put her hand over her heart. “You scared the daylights out of me. You were screaming in your sleep.”
Looking around the room, the realization hit me. “Did anyone else hear me?”
“No. I’m a light sleeper so I think I woke you up before anyone else could hear you,” she said.
I sat up on her bed and realized that I must have fallen asleep while we were watching a movie. Anna’s eyes looked over me as if she could see the truth I was hiding. “Did something happen to you? Whose Francesca?”
I sighed as I got up out of her bed. “What did I say?”
“You kept saying ‘It’s Francesca’ over and over.”
“That’s weird. I don’t know a Francesca,” I said, shrugging my shoulders. She gave me another glance that told me that she didn’t believe me, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t about to spill my heart out to a stranger at three in the morning.
“Don’t tell anyone,” I pleaded as I shut her bedroom door to head to my own. Loud noises could still be heard all over the clubhouse. The party from earlier was still in full swing. I decided to check to just look around for a moment since I wouldn’t be able to get any sleep any time soon.
As I walked down the stairs, I quickly realized that the earlier party had virtually nothing on the current one.
There were bodies everywhere. The women were no longer wearing proper attire, if any at all.
I looked toward the pool tables and saw Bullet and Ace leaning against one as a girl appeared to be sucking them both off.
Looking around the room some more, I saw girls getting railed all over the clubhouse.
All I could hear was the sound of Airborne blasting through the speakers and moans.
Too much was right, I thought, as a shiver ran down my spine.
I glanced over and saw Bane staring at me as he took a sip of his beer.
He gave me a soft, knowing smirk that I returned.
“Go the fuck upstairs,” I heard a voice growl from behind me. I didn’t even have to look to know that it was Davien. I scoffed, crossing my arms, making my way upstairs.
***
It’s almost been one week since I arrived in Haven Hills, and the days seemed to go by pretty much the same.
I spent most of my time in my room unless Anna and Serena invited me somewhere or the occasional time I’d catch Bane outside on the porch.
Though we didn’t do much talking, I always found reasons to bail pretty soon after.
I was getting comfortable at the clubhouse, around Bane, and I knew I needed to leave town soon.
My brother said I’d stay here for a few days so we could work shit out but we’d barely said ten words to each other this week.
It was Friday morning, and I was scrolling through my social media.
Clicking on my own profile, I paused on a picture of me and Marcus.
We had just gotten back from seeing the Dirty Heads and had taken the photo in a parking garage.
He looked at me with a dopey smile as I was laughing at something Chase said while taking the photo.
That was the night I told him I was pregnant, and we had one of our worst fights yet.
It wasn’t that he pressured me into having an abortion or that he was trying to force me into keeping it.
It was how he said I was a terrible person for coming to the conclusion so quickly, because it didn’t seem to bother me and that I hadn’t even considered his feelings.
Though in the end, he ended up agreeing with me anyway.
He just didn’t want to be the dick who said it first.
My phone began to ring and I saw Chase’s name.
“Hey,” I said casually, trying not to show how much I missed him in my voice.
“We got a problem, kid,” he said, more stern than usual.
My heart began to race, waiting for his next words.
“Bridgette keeps getting these weird unknown calls. Have you gotten any?”
“No,” I replied. “Have they said anything?”
“No, there’s no one on the other side but Marcus looked up the number and it’s from Italy. Some place called Oceanside. Bridgette said that’s where you-“
“Yes, that’s where we met,” I interrupted him before he could get his name out.
Terror rang through me, but I knew not to show it.
“Look, I’ve got to go,” I said. He started to stop me, so I quickly disconnected the call.
I knew it was mean, but I wasn’t at the appropriate place to deal with this.
It had been two years since I left Italy so why would he reach out now?
Had he been looking for me this whole time and if so, were these calls a sign that he knew where Bridgette and I were?
For the rest of the day, I was stuck in my thoughts.
I was sitting downstairs eating what Anna made for lunch when Serena walked in smiling from ear to ear.
She was wearing a beautiful blue and white sundress that made her pregnant belly stick out.
She sat down by me and wouldn’t stop staring at me and Anna.
“Uh?” I said as I looked at her. “Ares said we can go shopping for the baby room!” she said as she let out a soft squeal. Anna quickly joined in her loud squealing. “We have to go right now, I’ve been waiting to decorate my future minion’s room,” Anna said.
“Let’s go right now,” Serena said. Anna got up from her chair and they both looked at me as if they were wondering why I wasn’t moving.
As-fucking-if I would be caught dead shopping for baby clothes all day.
I’d rather spend the day with Pearls than do that, and that was saying something.
Not to mention, I was still in shock from my call with Chase. Was he looking for me?
“Go ahead and go without me. That’s not really my thing,” I said as I tried to shrug them off by returning my gaze to my food and taking another bite.
“You don’t want to help us pick out stuff for your niece’s or nephew's room?” Serena looked at me with a hint of shock and hurt in her eyes.
Again, it’s not that I didn’t like her. It’s just I didn’t like being around pregnant her and the constant reminder how bad I fucked my life up.
“That’s not really how I want to spend my day, no.
Pretty soon I won’t even be here anymore, so my opinion doesn’t really matter.
We can be nice to each other until then, but let’s not pretend like it’s anything more than that. ” I saw the hurt in her eyes deepen.
Before she could answer, I saw Bane, Ares and Crash walk into the room and I instantly felt guilty when I saw the look of concern on my brother's face as he walked over and hugged Serena.
“What’s wrong, babe?”
“I thought you were going to fix things,” she said to my brother, pushing away from him. She looked up at me with tears in her eyes and walked out of the door with Anna scurrying behind her.
“What did you say to her?” My brother said with a look in his eye like I just kicked a cat. Hell, everyone was looking at me that way. “That,” I said, gesturing towards the door. “Was not my fault. I just said that I didn’t want to go shopping for baby shit all day.”
He scowled at me. Before he could say anything, I shrugged and said, “I’m not even staying here for long so I don’t see why it matters anyway.”
Once again, it looked like he wanted to say something but he left the room, presumably to go find Serena. I looked up and the boys were still looking at me disapprovingly. “What?” I questioned them.
“One day, you’re going to regret the way you’ve been treating her,” Bane said, walking closer to me. “Serena is the sweetest girl I’ve ever met, and all she wants is for you and your brother to make up,” he said and grabbed a fry off of my plate.
I sighed and returned to my food. If that was true and she was different from the girls that my brother typically goes for, then that’s more the reason for me to push her away. She didn’t deserve to get wrapped up in my mess.