Chapter 5 #2
I’m startled awake by someone knocking on the door.
Rolling over, I glance at my phone to see it’s 3:12 in the morning.
I grab my sweatshirt off the floor, which is actually Blue’s, and slip it on.
It almost falls to my knees, covering up my shorts completely as I stalk toward the door.
Just as I am about to look out the peephole, a louder, angrier knock sounds and I freeze.
I know that knock.
Glancing backwards down the hall, I notice that Neve’s door is closed and the apartment is silent except for the quiet hum of the television in the living room. I hastily send my sister a text before I turn back to face the door, and I take a deep, steadying breath before I pull it open.
Travis stands on the other side, a pair of ripped jeans and a tee covered in dirt.
His blonde hair is almost brown from god knows what, and I notice right away how fidgety his hands are.
Looking him in the eye, my heart clenches as I notice the redness in them just as the stench of alcohol hits my nose.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, pulling the sleeves of the sweatshirt over my hands. “It’s late.”
“Where’s Claire?” He asks instead, pushing past me and forcing his way into the apartment.
I hastily close the door and run ahead of him, stopping him in his tracks. “She’s not here. Now, what do you want?”
Travis scans the apartment as if he doesn’t believe what I’ve told him before his eyes settle on me. I watch as he scans me from head to toe; my blonde hair up in a messy bun, the bags I know that are under my eyes, the oversized sweatshirt, my bare tanned legs and my fuzzy sock covered feet.
“Whose sweatshirt is that?” His voice is dangerously low as he takes a small step toward me and I instinctively back away, moving with him.
“Jesus,” I mumble, running a hand down my face before reconnecting our eyes. “It’s Blue’s. Not that it’s any of your business, anyway.”
His eyes narrow. “Not my business? You’re my girlfriend, the mother of my child. Of course it’s my business.”
“Travis, you left—” he closes the gap between us faster than I can comprehend, my back hitting the wall as he slams one hand beside my head, caging me in.
“I went to rehab,” he yells before gesturing with his free hand to the door behind him as I flinch away. “I was getting well for you, for our daughter, so we could be a family. I didn’t leave.”
I shake my head, noticing the tremor in my hands as I keep my face tilted away from his, too afraid to look him in the eye. “You haven’t been here, truly here, in years, Travis. I have practically raised Claire on my own. You left me when you started using.”
“You’re not leaving me,” Travis spits as he roughly grabs my arm and pins me against the wall, his other hand gripping my face so tightly that my hand instinctively comes up to grip his wrist. “You’re mine, Marlowe. We are a family, and nothing will stop me from keeping this family together.”
He crashes his lips to mine, angrily nipping at my bottom lip, which causes me to yelp in pain. I try to turn my head away, but his other hand comes up to my face, effectively trapping me in. I’m scratching at his arms, his chest, his neck, anything to get him to let me go.
“Say it,” he hisses as he pulls back slightly, giving me the chance to breathe as tears fall down my cheeks. “Say you’re never leaving me.”
“Travis—” I whisper, but his hand comes down roughly on my cheek before I can finish my sentence.
I feel my skin instantly heat under the contact and I squeeze my eyes shut as he wraps his hand around my throat. “Say it, Marlowe.”
“I’m not leaving you,” I rush out, looking up at him with cloudy eyes and a pleading expression. “I’m not, Travis, okay? I promise I’m not.”
“Prove it.”
Before I can react, he grabs my wrist and turns us around, pushing me down onto the couch. He comes over the top of me and my adrenaline screams at me to fight, run, get away.
I push at his shoulders, but he grabs both my wrists in one hand, pinning them against the cushions. I squirm underneath him, frantically looking around as his hand slips under my sweatshirt and runs up my side.
His mouth lands on my neck, kissing and nipping at the sensitive skin there that he knows would normally turn me on, but now all I can do is cry as I try to lift my legs out from under him to get some grounding so I can attempt to get him off me.
“Do you love me?” He asks, leaning back to look me in the eye, almost nose to nose. I stop struggling for a moment, seeing the second of clarity in his eyes. Seeing the vulnerability and hurt behind them. “Do you?”
Before I have the chance to respond, the front door slams open. We both turn in surprise, and I watch as a tall figure grabs Travis by the shoulders and throws him off me. I quickly stand, watching as Travis hits the wall so hard that he leaves an indent behind.
“Are you okay?” The blonde man asks as he steps in front of me, gripping my shoulder with one hand and gently cupping my face with the other. As my eyes finally focus, I release a shaky breath.
“Cole?” I rest my hands on his chest as my eyes widen. “What are you doing here?”
He doesn’t get to answer as Travis grabs him from behind, yanking us apart. I watch in horror as Travis lands a punch to Cole’s cheek, my hands coming to my mouth as his head snaps to the side.
Cole wastes no time as he charges Travis, throwing a punch of his own before they both fall to the rug. Cole is on top, sending multiple punches to Travis’s face before I snap out of my stupor and walk over, resting my hand on Cole’s shoulders.
He doesn’t fight me as I pull him off Travis, but he stays firmly planted in front of me, blocking Travis’s view.
“Get the hell out of here before I call the cops,” Cole spits as Travis pushes himself up on shaky legs. His lip is split and blood has formed at his temple, but I feel nothing. My whole body is shaking.
“Are you fucking him, Marlowe?” Travis seethes, taking a step forward.
Cole instinctively throws his arm out to the side, caging me in behind him. “I told you to get the hell out.”
“You promised me, Mar,” Travis whispers, and I can hear the pain in his voice. “You said you wouldn’t leave me.”
“And you promised me you’d get well,” I reply before I can think better of it.
Cole’s arm fully encircles me now, resting against the small of my back as he holds me firmly against his backside. I grip his tee in my hands as I blink rapidly to keep the tears at bay.
“It was just a one time thing, Mar,” Travis tries to tell me, and I feel Cole scoff. “I swear it won’t happen again.”
“Claire needs stability.” I take a small step to the side so I can look Travis in the eye, yet Cole’s arm never strays from its position in front of me, ready to shield me should he need to.
“You can’t provide that for her. If you go back to rehab, finish the program, and stay clean, then we can talk. But I can’t do this anymore, Travis.”
I watch as he runs a hand through his hair, messing it up even more than it already was. “I love you, Marlowe. You said you wouldn’t go anywhere.”
“And I won’t,” I say before I can think better of it. “But right now, I need to put Claire first. And you need to put yourself first.”
“You owe it to me,” he says through clenched teeth. “You owe it to us to wait for me.”
“She doesn’t owe you shit, asshole,” Cole snaps, and I notice that his other hand is fisted roughly at his side. “Get out of here. This is your last chance.”
Travis looks at me like he wants to apologize, like he wants to wrap me in his arms and never let me go. He looks as though he has forgotten the last twenty minutes and that it’s all rushing back as he glances at the couch with tears in his eyes.
As he looks back at Cole and me, his jaw tightens before he audibly swallows, his attention on Cole. “Take care of her for me until I come back for her, yeah?”
Cole simply stares at him in silence. Travis casts one last glance in my direction before he turns around and heads for the front door. The second I hear the door close behind him, a whoosh of air escapes my lungs and my knees buckle.
I’m caught in a pair of muscular arms before I hit the floor, and he carefully leads me over to the couch and sits me down. Cole hastily wraps his arm around me, holding me firmly against his chest as I cry.
“What are you doing here?” I ask as he rubs a soothing hand on my back, the other cupped against the back of my head.
“I called him.” Pulling back, I see Neve standing in the hallway, a mix of concern and anger covering her features. “I noticed in our shared maps that he was closest.”
I give her a sad smile as a fresh round of tears comes to my eyes. She practically runs over and leaps onto the couch, joining me in Cole’s embrace as she holds me tightly.
“It’ll be okay, Mar,” Neve whispers, her head on my shoulder. “I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere.”