Kidnapped by Mr. Bad Boy

Chapter 5

"Hailey?" I questioned as I made my way over to the bed. Her whole body was shaking as she cried. I didn't really know what to do. I'm not exactly the comforting type. I did kidnap her after all. I slowly reached out my hand and began rubbing her back, stopping at first to make sure that she didn't mind. Her crying grew softer, but she didn't say anything so I kept rubbing her back as she slowly started to calm down. After a few minutes she finally stopped crying, but she didn't move and I was getting oddly worried. "Hailey?" I asked again.

This time she responded with a pathetic sounding, "What?"

"Oh...nothing." I muttered unsure if I should remove my hand from her back but she solved that for me by sitting up and looking at me, her face red from crying.

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"Okay so I was thinking..." I began before James cut me off.

"How could you be thinking? You were bawling your eyes out? How can you cry and think at the same time?" James asked faking amazement, trying to lighten the mood.

"I'm not a stupid boy." I replied, playing along, "I can multitask. I know that's a foreign word for you. You can go look it up in a dictionary. Or ask Siri. I'll wait." I finished with a completely serious tone that had us both cracking up at the end. I have no idea why it was so funny, but it felt good to be laughing. I leaned back against the headboard of the bed and stared at James, wondering why he had come in here and acted so...nice.

"What?" James asked, once he finished laughing, noticing that I was staring at him.

"Why did you come in here? "I asked without thinking, instantly regretting my words. I liked this friendly version of him. I didn't want to go back to being afraid of him.

"Blaze is clearly an ass, Hailey." James stated, looking me dead in the eye.

"No, he's not." I looked downward, drawing random shapes in the sheets with my fingers.

"Hailey-"

"No, you don't understand. Before my parents died, I was any parent's nightmare. I stayed out late, got drunk, partied, skipped school, you name it. Blaze was my partner in crime. We loved each other. Then after the accident, I turned into a completely different person. I didn't want to do any of those things anymore but Blaze stood by me and tried to pull me out of this crazy funk I had gotten myself into. He still loves me." I said finally meeting his eyes. His hand reached out and grabbed mine, squeezing it soothingly, as if he knew that it was hard for me to think about it all.

"But you don't love him anymore, right?" James asked his eyes unsure.

I shook my head. "I can't love anyone if I don't even recognize who I am as a person? Or recognize who he is?" I asked, shuddering at the last one, as I remembered what had happened in the kitchen.

"Then let's go." James said standing up, still holding my hand and pulling me off the bed.

"Go where?" I asked as he pulled me to the door.

"Go find who you are." He said smiling at me, as he unlocked the door. In the hallway Blaze and Alex stared at us as we left the room.

"What's going on?" Blaze asked, glaring daggers at James's hand that still held mine.

"We're going out." James said to Alex, completely ignoring Blaze, before he led us to the front door. It was the same door that only two days ago I had tried fruitlessly to escape out of.

"No." Blaze stated before blocking in our path, keeping us from leaving. "She's not going anywhere where I can't protect her."

"Protect me from what?" I asked incredulously.

"From him." Blaze said, crossing his arms and nodding his head in James's direction. James looked like he was about to say something, before I put my free hand on his chest, stopping him.

"I don't let anyone tell me what I can and can't do. You know that better than anyone, Blaze. Right now I want to go out with James and I'll be damned if I'm going to let you try to stop me just because you want to 'protect' me." I practically seethed, feeling more like my old self than I had in months. "Come on James, let's go." I said pushing past Blaze, who had a stunned look on his face. James quickly unlocked the front door, and guided me outside. I can't explain the feeling I had once I stepped outside. Maybe it was because it was the first time I had been outside in almost three days. Maybe it was because I had finally found some resemblance to my old self when I was telling off Blaze. Or maybe it was because I was still holding James's hand. Either way, I felt more free than before I was kidnapped.