Heavy Wears The Crown

Thirty Six

"But if you love me, don't let go, whoa, if you love me, don't let go. Hold, hold on, hold onto me 'Cause I'm a little unsteady, a little unsteady."

---------- Unsteady - X Ambassadors ----------- 

               I didn't turn around, not immediately. I couldn't. It couldn't be. Had to be an odd coincidence. I tried to convince myself that I was crazy, I had misheard, I had to have misheard. But still, for an instant I believe my heart actually stopped, the hair on the back of my neck rose. I think I was going to pass out.

Walter. Not an uncommon name. It was just a hilarious coincidence. I was going to turn around and he was going to be an old man, pushing 70. Would that be better, or worse? To have Nolan beat an old man, or to have it be him.

It felt like eternity before I slowly turned around, when in reality I was frozen for only seconds. When I finally did turn, did look at him, I took an immediate stumbling step backwards and Nolan's hand gripped my arm to steady me.

Kaleb gave me an odd look, obviously recognizing me but not knowing immediately where or when. I'd grown up quite a bit from the young and impressionable girl stupid enough to accept a stray drink from a handsome boy.

I was going to be sick. I was literally going to be sick. I could taste bile in the back of my throat and the small room seemed to shrink in square footage by at least half.

"Baby?" Nolan said gently and with his hands still forced together helped lower me into his seat sensing I needed to sit down. "Just look at me Red." He urged but I couldn't look at anything but him right now.

Kaleb Walters. The mental image of his hands roaming up my unconscious body, mouth going to places no one had been before, and for everyone I knew to see this? All of the sudden it was seven years ago. All of the sudden it had happened yesterday. All of the sudden the scars cut so deep were bleeding again.

"Can we get a minute?" Nolan asked using his joined hands to wipe hair away from my suddenly sweaty forehead.

Kaleb's brows knit together. He looked like hell. Bruised and bloody and swollen as badly as the man Nolan had beaten the time the bar was. Blood was still all over his shirt as well.

"Nolan please." Ace whisper yelled to him. "Pull yourself together or you are going to jail."

My ears were ringing, the room was spinning, I bit my lip to stop it from trembling and immediately tasted iron.

Kaleb's lawyer turned on a tape recorder. "For our records, could the defendant please state his name?" He asked watching his papers on the table as he filled out forms.

"Nolan Doufer, can we please just get her out of here?"

Kaleb's lawyer looked up suddenly as if he hadn't noticed me sitting across from him. I should have gasped, or cried, but instead I held my breath.

"Is she alright?"

"No. She isn't, if you'd please-"

"Fine." I managed out on a breath of air.

Nolan shot me a concerned look.

"I'm fine."

"Just wait outside." He pressured me but I didn't answer. The misshapen and damaged puzzle pieces had finally worked themselves together to present me with a distressed and ugly picture. I understood. Nolan's refusal to pay off the problem, his insistence to keep me away from it, everything...