6. Tucker
Tucker
It’s been a long day, but I can’t complain about it because it’s the closest thing to normal I’ve had with Rios in a long time.
He came over tonight and we hung out like old times.
Slowly, I think we’ll finally get our friendship to what it once was.
I can only hope he’ll start to see his sister and I had nothing going on between us.
I’ve known Rios most of my life. We grew up together as neighbors, going through our biggest moments together, and he has been my ride or die for as long as I can remember.
We went through so much, from little league, flag football, high school dances, and then starting at the fire academy together.
He was the first call after I heard about my mom’s diagnosis.
Spending these last few months feeling like our friendship wasn’t going to survive this hardship felt like my body was missing a limb.
Abby talks about Baylee and I needing to explore this thing between us, but she doesn’t realize that I can’t envision my life without my best friend.
I know so many see Rios as this terrible person, but he’s been the guy I call when I hear the worst news in my life.
I just don’t understand my life without him in it .
Much like my shadow, he’s been by my side, no matter what. There’s loyalty between us. I may have been curious about where things could’ve gone between Baylee and I, but I’ve only known my life with Rios in it.
I walk through my apartment, still finding boxes in corners because I have yet to fully unpack.
I’ve been here a few months, but life has been busy between shifts at the firehouse and taking my mom to appointments, so unpacking boxes is the last thing on my mind.
Plus, if I have extra time, I’d much rather soak up the nice weather while Boston hasn’t frozen over yet.
I’m brushing my teeth when I hear the faint sound of my phone. I rush to grab it, concerned it might be my mother with an emergency. I finally find it in the living room and see it’s from the last person I’d expect. I press accept and put the phone to my ear.
“Hey, you okay?” I ask into the phone.
At first, I think she dialed it by accident because she never calls me, until I hear a hoarse, faint version of her voice.
“Tucker? I need you.” Her voice cracks at the end as if she’s holding back a sob.
“Where are you?”
“My place,” she croaks.
“Stay right where you are. I’m leaving right now.” In a rush, I grab my things, not even turning off any lights.
Luckily, it’s summer, and it’s the middle of the night because there’s no traffic.
I make it to Connecticut in record time.
I pull up to her apartment complex, and her light is dim but on.
She’s lived here for the past two years.
Thank goodness she hasn’t moved. I helped her get settled here when she and a few of her friends found this place after moving from the dorms .
I park my truck and lock up, running to her apartment. I’m getting ready to call her to come unlock the door when I see it’s already open. It’s then I realize the lock is broken.
I walk frantically into the apartment, my heart pounding, the whoosh of the blood flowing through my ears all I can hear.
“Baylee, it’s Tucker. Where are you?” I call, taking in the scene in front of me.
The apartment is in shambles. The living room light is knocked down, and some of the chairs are tossed. She hasn’t called out to me in response, but I hear a slight sniffle coming from the back room.
I try to keep my breathing calm because my blood is still rushing through my ears. What happened here tonight?
I finally go back toward the room that was last hers. When I push the door open, I find her in a corner, her knees pressed up into her chest, her hair a mess, and her arms hugging her legs into herself. Her mascara is running down her face as if she’s been crying for hours.
What. The. Actual. Fuck?
“Baylee?” Who did this to my girl ?
“I didn’t know who else to call.”
I run to her and crouch in front of her. I push her hair away from her tear-streaked face.
“Baylee, tell me what happened?” I try to suppress the anger I feel creeping up my spine.
She looks too fragile right now as I run my hand through her hair. She closes her eyes and leans into my palm and all I want to do is pull her into me and take away her pain. The more I take her in, the more questions keep piling up in my head.
“I’ve never seen him like that before,” she says, as if she’s talking to herself, almost like I’m not sitting in front of her.
“Baylee, baby, look at me.” I try to get her eyes to fully focus on me. It’s then I see her fingers trembling as she moves them along her shins. “Tell me what happened.”
“Myles—I broke up with him. He… he got so mad.” Tears well in her eyes and I cup her cheeks in my palms hoping she feels safe enough around me to tell me what happened here tonight.
“I shouldn’t have pushed him, but I didn’t know he would get so angry.” A sob breaks loose.
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” I tell her as I watch the tears slowly fall down her cheeks.
“I told him it was over at the restaurant. I thought I could walk away, but he came after me. He forced his way in here,” she says, and it takes everything in me not to stand up and go after this fucker. I want to kill him with my bare hands.
I’m not a violent person, but this sorry excuse for a man made Baylee feel unsafe when all she wanted was to break things off. He’s a coward. I take a deep breath and let her continue.
“I’ve never seen him so furious before. Then he grabbed my arm.
At first I thought that was as far as he’d go.
But then he wouldn’t let go, even when I told him it hurt.
He pulled me further into the apartment and pushed me into the wall.
It was so hard, Tucker. He’s never done that before.
But I was so stupid.” She starts to sob as I pull her into me, and she balls her fists into my chest.
I rub her back until I feel her calm down. I kiss the top of her head and soon she regulates her breathing, pulling away from me and continuing.
“The way he spoke to me, telling me he wasn’t going to let me go so easily.
He was just saying such hateful things, I couldn’t let someone talk to me like that.
So instead of taking it, I pushed back and told him to pretty much fuck off.
It was the wrong thing to say and he punched me in the stomach.
” Right then she brings her hands to her face and cries harder.
I knew something was off about this guy she was dating, but never in a million years did I expect this confession. It’s taking everything in me to school my expression. If I allowed myself to truly show her how I’m feeling on the inside, my face would be murderous. But she’s seen enough tonight.
I slowly pull her hands away from her face, but she forces her gaze downward.
“Baylee, look at me,” I tell her.
She shakes her head, embarrassed to let me see her.
“Baylee, please let me see you,” I plead.
“I can’t. I’m too embarrassed. I can’t believe I let things get this bad,” she says, still shielding herself from letting me see her face.
“Bay, you called me and I’m here to help. Please, look at me,” I say, keeping my voice calm.
She finally looks up at me and those deep, dark eyes meet mine. Even with her mascara marring her cheeks, she’s still the most beautiful person I’ve ever laid eyes on. And all I want to do is make her feel better.
“I’m sorry, Tucker. I’m sorry for calling you all the way over here,” she says.
“Don’t ever apologize to me for that. I’ll always be here when you need me,” I tell her. “I need to take a look at where he hit you. Can you show me? Are you comfortable showing me?”
“Mmhm,” she mumbles and nods.
I slowly get up and reach my hand out for her to take hold.
I help her up. Once standing, she pulls her dress up and I can already see the bruise forming on her abdomen.
The dress has no sleeves so I can see the mark from where he grabbed her upper arm and some bruising along the shoulder from where it connected to the wall.
There’s no blood on her head where she hit the wall, but they’ll do a more thorough assessment at the hospital.
“We need to call the police, Bay, then get you seen at the hospital to make sure you’re cleared. The sooner everything is official, the faster they’ll get an arrest warrant out for him,” I explain.
Her eyes go wide, dropping the dress, and she wraps her arms around her waist.
“Baylee, you didn’t think this was something we weren’t going to report, did you?” I look up at her.
“I just didn’t think about it, Tucker,” she says as her eyes take in the room around her. I can tell she’s starting to feel overwhelmed at the thought of everything that’s going to happen from this moment on.
“You’re a few steps ahead of me in all this,” she continues.
“I’m still trying to catch up. I passed out from him hitting me and when I woke up he was gone.
He trashed my apartment after I lost consciousness, and I’m just putting some of the pieces together.
Myles comes from a prominent family here in Connecticut and I’m scared.
What if it’s his word against mine? What if he does something else to me? ”
The fear in her eyes nearly cripples me.
I’ve never seen her this way before. Baylee has always been a pillar of strength whenever we tackled things throughout the years.
She’s always been the person to stand tall against any obstacle.
Obviously, nothing has ever been this big in her path, but I’ve never heard her sound so small.
And that just makes me feel even more angry at what Myles has done to her.
He’s muted something within her, and I wonder how long this has been going on.
“I won’t let you go through this alone, okay?” I reassure her.
She nods, but I can still see the apprehension in her eyes.