One Time [Montgomery De La Cruz x OC]

When the tables have turned.

A/N: Lots of drama in this one! Some unknown bits of information are coming out too 😝 Also, lots of mention of mental illness. A good portion of this chapter revolves around it and the struggles of it. P.s. I also wanted to explain all of Monty's tattoos in this chapter.

Marci's POV

"God, put that fucking shit out, would you? It's making me feel sick." I complained to Monty as we were driving down the road in his jeep on the way to school. Sherri picked Emma up early because they had to work on a project together so it was just us. "Oh shit, I'm sorry baby. I'm just so nervous." He said while tossing the cigarette out of the window. It was his first day back to school since going to jail and rehab and I knew that his nerves were running a million miles a minute but I couldn't bring myself to comfort him. After my initial reaction of being happy to see him, I'd started being very mean to him the past couple of days. What made it even more sad was that he was being unbelievably sweet and kind to me. I knew that he genuinely felt bad about what he did but I had some deep seeded resentment towards him that I needed to work out. I wasn't intentionally being hostile towards him, it was just happening and I knew that my pregnancy hormones were contributing to it a lot. "Do you think people will act differently towards me?" He asked and I just shrugged my shoulders in response. He looked hurt and I immediately felt bad. "I'm sure everything will be fine." I mumbled and he nodded his head. He placed his hand on my growing bump and started gently rubbing it. Before I could stop myself, I snapped. "You don't have to always touch it, ya know?" He immediately took his hand off of it and bit his lip. I looked over at him and could tell that he was trying not to cry. I was honestly hurting him by the way I'd been treating him the past couple of days but I mean shit, he'd hurt me really bad too by becoming a drug addict and having to go to jail and rehab and be gone for five weeks. Annie told me that she'd told him it wasn't going to be easy with me for awhile because of what he'd done but I knew that I had probably really messed with his mind whenever I was so nice and forgiving at first and was now being a total bitch. I sighed with a roll of my eyes and grabbed his now fully tattooed hand and placed it back onto my stomach before looking out of the window. He sighed in content and started rubbing his thumb up and down. I wanted to stop hurting him but I just couldn't. It's like I had some sort of sick need to make him feel as low as he'd made me feel. Why'd he get strung out on drugs? Was I not good enough to keep him happy and grounded? We pulled into school and whenever I looked over at him as we were getting out, I noticed him visibly shaking. Monty was never like that so he must've really been nervous. Ever since he'd gotten home from jail and rehab, he was like a completely new person. He was sweet, kind, goofy, but also very timid and vulnerable. After seeing everyone for the first time, it's like he sunk into himself and became shy almost and unsure of himself. It was so weird to see that kind of personality on Montgomery but I guess this whole debacle really did a number on him. "You can walk ahead of me if you want to." He mumbled with his head down and my heart ached for him. I felt even worse now. I shook my head and grabbed his hand and he looked up at me surprised. "I may be dealing with my own shit when it comes to you and what you did right now, but I'm not gonna let you go through this alone." I said to him and he smiled the best he could back at me but I could still see the pain in his eyes. I whispered a "let's go" and drug him along with me. As soon as we walked through the school doors, everyone's eyes were on us. People were staring and whispering to one another. I glanced back at Monty and saw the most insecure and embarrassed look on his face that I'd ever seen on anyone. He kept his head down and even though I was treating him shitty, I wasn't gonna let anyone else do it. "Come the fuck on, people. Get over yourselves." I called out to everyone in the hall and I was sure if I turned around Monty would be looking at me with wide eyes. I was probably the last person he expected to defend him right now. I drug him through the hall towards our lockers and it was almost like dragging dead weight behind me. He was really depressed. I couldn't help but to wonder if I had caused that because he was so ecstatic whenever he first got home until I started being mean and distant. "Carry on." I growled whenever a group of girls tried to approach Monty. I saw our friends staring at us as we got closer to them and I pleaded with Jeff with my eyes to help me. "Mind your own fucking business." Jeff yelled to everyone in the hallway and they only halfway listened to him. They continued staring and whispering but at least they weren't trying to approach us anymore. "Are you fucking serious?" Justin snapped on a group of people that were taking pictures of Monty like he was a celebrity making his first debut after some sort of scandal. "You people have issues." Emma added. "It's okay, guys. I deserve whatever I get." Monty mumbled before throwing his stuff into his locker real quick. "I've gotta go talk to Porter to get back on track. I'll see y'all later." He mumbled again before leaning down to kiss my head. I subconsciously dodged the kiss and his lip started to quiver before he nodded his head and walked off down the hall. "Marci..." Jess started but I gave her a dirty look, causing her sentence to drift off. "You're being way too hard on him, princess. He's really trying to do good and to make things right with everyone but especially you and you're just kicking his ass and making him feel awful about himself." Jeff said to me with a sad look on his face. I knew he was disappointed in my behavior because Annie had made it clear to us that the leaders of the rehab center that Monty went to said it's very important to be loving and supportive whenever he got home or it could cause him to turn back to drugs and drinking. "I'm trying it's just... it's so damn hard. Look what he did to me... look what he fucking did to me...." I sobbed and Jessica immediately hugged me. It was the first time I'd actually broken down to my friends' about everything that happened. "Shit, Mar..." Emma started while placing her hand on my shoulder. "He was strung out on multiple drugs and alcohol... I wasn't good enough for him... his kids weren't good enough for him.... he chose that shit over us." I continued crying, interrupting Emma. "I didn't realize you were so hurt and angry about it... you never said anything." Sherri whispered while pushing my hair out of my face once I pulled away from Jess. "I never said anything because I didn't wanna sound weak..." I confessed. "That doesn't make you weak, Marci. It was a traumatic thing to happen and a really shitty thing for him to do. You have every right to be upset. But he did what he had to do, he's clean now, and all he wants is for everyone to give him another chance so that he can prove himself to us." Emma said. "Of course you'd take his side." I snapped and she rolled her eyes. "Marci, I'm on your side, we're family but whenever I can see him genuinely trying then yeah, I'm gonna say that you need to give him another chance." She snapped back. "Hey, no one needs to fight about this." Jeff said while putting his hands up, separating his sentence. "Mar, you're slowly killing him. You need to take it easy on him. I know why you're upset, I get it, but you're doing nothing but potentially making the situation worse. If you don't wanna be with him anymore, then don't, but I can't sit back and watch you hurt and torture him while he's trying so hard to do right by you... no matter how much I love you. He's my best friend and you're destroying him and possibly all of the progress he's made." Jeff said to me firmly. He'd never talked to me like that before. "I never said anything about not wanting to be with him anymore." "Then stop treating him so damn shitty." Jeff yelled at me, catching me by surprise. I wasn't used to people taking Monty's side over mine and I definitely wasn't used to people, especially Jeff, being so hard on me. I didn't know if it was from that or my hormones or a combination of both but tears immediately welled up in my just recently dry eyes. I took a couple of steps back, spun around on my heels, and then stormed off down the hall. "Mar!" "Marci, come on!" "Princess, I'm sorry!" I heard them calling out to me but I ignored them and kept going down the hall. I didn't wanna be around anyone but I couldn't leave since we took Monty's jeep instead of mine so I went to the library to be alone instead. The bell rang on my way down the hall but I didn't care. I ignored the stares that I was getting since I was crying and just kept on going. Everyone was in their classes by the time I made it into the library since it was all the way on the other side of the school. I walked into the library and stopped in my tracks whenever I saw Monty sitting at a table, scratching his head while working on something. I figured that they probably had him doing work alone for awhile so he could catch up and get some peace at the same time. Hell, as weird and depressed as he was acting, he might've asked for it to be like that. I started storming towards him and he looked up at the sound of another person walking into the library. There were only a few other people in there and they were all silently working on projects, the librarian was nowhere to be found... probably getting coffee or something. His face immediately contorted into concern whenever he saw the tears running down my face and the redness and swelling that proved I'd been crying for awhile.  He stood up fast and started heading towards me to meet me in the middle. "Hey baby, you okay?" He asked concerned but I didn't answer, just ran up on him faster. My anger, hurt, resentment, and hormones took control before I could even think clearly and I started pounding on his chest with my fists. "How could you do this to me?!" I scream cried while continuing my actions. "How the fuck could you do this?!" "What about me?! What about your fucking kids?!" I screamed, struggling to get the words out because I was out of breath from repeatedly punching him and bawling. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see a couple of people recording the scene in front of them on their phones. Of course they were. This was like gold to these sick fucks. I began punching him harder and starting to scream at him again. "You're so damn selfish! You could've ruined everything!" By this point, he was trying to wrap his arms around me and calm me but I wasn't stopping. "You swore you'd never leave me again and you did because you're a fucking junkie! You're a god damn junkie who couldn't even be there for me while I was sick as fuck every night from being pregnant with your baby! You almost missed your daughters first birthday because of drugs!" I screamed, tears running down my face at a fast pace. It was all coming out at one time and I was so gone, I was starting to say things I didn't mean. "You ruined our whole lives! You went to jail and rehab instead of being home with your pregnant fiancée and kids!" I screamed again but was starting to lose momentum in both my screaming and my hitting. "I wasn't good enough for you! Drugs were more important than me! ..... it was all more important than me..." I rasped out through sobs, no longer screaming, while almost falling to the floor but he caught me and held me up. He held onto me and whenever I looked up, he was sobbing too. "I'm so fucking sorry, baby girl... I'm so fucking sorry." He sobbed. "I love you. Nothing is more important than you... I love you." He whispered while his body was racked with sobs. "I deserve everything you said to me. I deserve for you to hate me... I fucking hate myself." He said, yelling the last part out of frustration towards himself. We were both standing there, two giant bawling messes. The phones were put away now and I figured they probably stopped recording once I was done. "I need you though... I can't do this without you... please." He pleaded with me and I stared into his eyes. He was so hurt, insecure, embarrassed, disappointed, and scared and I could read it clear as day in his eyes. We were both still crying but finally not as violently. I had never felt so disgusted with myself before. I had every right to be mad at him and hurt by him but what I just did was so wrong. I ljust beat the shit out of him literally and figuratively while he was already down and struggling to keep his head above water. I could've just absolutely destroyed him because of how nasty and hateful I was being. What kind of fiancée was I? He was going through something so hard and trying his best and I was being awful. He needed me and I was being the complete opposite of a support system. Whenever he started crying harder again, I stared at him with wide and guilty eyes because I knew that I did that. "I... I'm sorry.... I love.... I love you so much and I'm always here for you... I'm... I'm just so sorry...." I stuttered and then pulled him into my arms. It was so strange having his massive frame wrapped up in my tiny one but he needed this now more than ever. I ran one of my small hands through his thick, continually growing hair, and pushed the other one up under his shirt and gently rubbed his warm back. I felt around his body for the first time in close to six weeks and I couldn't believe how big and muscular he'd gotten. He'd always been a big guy but it was now official, he was huge and rock solid. With his body being like that and his height being around 6'2", he made me look like a tiny, young, little girl. That's part of the reason I always felt so safe with him though. I felt him starting to calm some and I was happy to see that everyone was minding their own business now; finally. After another minute or so, he gently pulled back and stared into my eyes. His were red and swollen and I was sure that mine matched. "I really need you to help me through this, baby." He whispered and I nodded my head. He slowly leaned down and connected our lips. I deepened the kiss and pulled him in closer to me by my hand on the back of his head. We melted into one another and then he gently pulled back. He grabbed our stuff and walked towards the back corner of the library, reaching for my hand with his own which I accepted. We made our way to the back where we'd have complete privacy away from everyone. He placed our stuff onto the ground and then sat down on the floor, pulling me down with him sat me down in between his open legs. He was just wearing a black v neck tshirt and basketball shorts which was so weird for me to see him in at school because he liked to dress to impress. All of his tattoos were exposed and it seemed like almost every time I throughly examined him, I'd find another tattoo that I didn't know about. This time, it was a couple on his calves that I had never seen before. He saw me looking at them and sighed. "I got those the night I was arrested, before the fight. I was high off my ass like I was every time I got a tattoo... well, like I was 24/7." He mumbled. "What are they?" I asked whenever  I noticed that there was a set of Roman numerals on the side of each calf, strategically placed. "Savannah and Dallas's birthdays." He said. I got an idea and decided to roll with it. "How about you show me all of your tattoos and explain them to me? I know this sounds crazy but... I feel like I don't know who you were during those few weeks. It seems like every time I really look at you, I see another tattoo that I didn't know about. So, help me to understand." I said. He fidgeted around some before placing both of his hands on my bump and relaxing. "Okay... well, you know about your name tattoo, the roses on my arm and hand, the owl on my neck, and now the birthday's on my legs... the other ones are a different shape on each finger and then the same shape on the same finger on the opposite hand, don't ask me why I got those because the only answer is drugs, I have the typical "MOM" tattoo on my bicep that's not covered in roses, on this hand I got a bunch of thorns to match the roses on the opposite arm and hand..." he said while showing me his hand covered in thorns. I had noticed most of these but didn't know the story behind them. "I've got Savannah's name going down my ribcage, on the inside of this wrist is your birthday in Roman numerals and it almost blends into the thorns which looks kinda cool, on the inside of this bicep it says "It's better to burn out than to fade away" which I just thought was a badass saying... you're gonna die at this one..." he turned his neck to the side and I moved so I could see what he was trying to show me. In between the base of his neck and collarbone, on the opposite side of his neck that the owl was on, was a pair of bright red lips. How had I not noticed that one? I couldn't help but to laugh at how blind I had been considering he was covered in tattoos and I hadn't even noticed some of them. I guess that really proved that he was very distant and not around much towards the end because of how bad off on drugs he was, then he was gone for five weeks, and now ever since he'd been back I'd been distant towards him. I was feeling much better now though, so I obviously needed to get that outburst out of the way. "Who's lips are those?" I chuckled and he blushed. "Yours." Whenever I gave him a confused look, he elaborated. "Kevin has the same one with Rosie's lips and I thought it was cool so they told me all I had to do was get you to kiss a piece of paper and the guy could do the same for me..." "That's why you wanted me to put lipstick on and kiss that paper that one day." I laughed, interrupting him. It all made sense now. Whenever he asked me to do that, I thought he was losing his mind but it was actually kind of a sweet gesture. He nodded his head with a shy smile and I leaned my body back into his, relaxing for the first time. "Ready to see the most embarrassing one?" He laughed and I nodded, honestly kind of excited to see it. He took one of his hands off of my stomach and pulled his bottom lip down. My eyes got wide and I busted out laughing and he was quick to follow. He literally had "BITE ME" tattooed on the inside of his bottom lip. "What the hell, Mon?" I laughed and he playfully slapped my thigh. "Drugs, Mar, drugs." He chuckled but I could tell that it was forced. He laid his hand back onto my belly that had our unborn child in it and I slowly placed my hand on top of his, trying to start showing him affection again. "You have an awful lot of tattoos that have to do with me." I mumbled, trying to hide my smile. "Just three... well, four if you count the fact that I got roses because you love them... but it's alright, you're my whole world... I could tattoo my entire body with things that have to do with you and I'd be happy about it." He whispered in response and I couldn't help but to feel so loved. Tears started clouding my vision and I bent my head back and placed my hand on the back of his neck and pulled his face down to mine. Our lips connected and each time we'd pull apart, we'd connect them again. We did that four times before I asked my final question that had to do with his tattoos. "Where'd you get all of them done?" "There was a professional tattoo artist that worked out of the club during fight nights. He owns his own shop and David got to know him and talked him into doing tattoos out of the club for a certain amount of commision. Anyone there could get a tattoo done by him." He explained and I nodded my head. We heard the bell ring signaling it was time to go to the next class of the day but neither of us moved. "I get to stay in here all day. I talked Porter into getting the teachers to give me all of my work and letting me do it alone in here. You should get to class though." He whispered while burying his head into my neck. So I was right, he did want to be alone. "Do you want me to go?" I asked and he immediately shook his head. "No, I'd love for you to stay here with me but I don't want you to get in trouble." He clarified. I got myself comfortable and he laughed at the fact that I obviously wasn't going anywhere. "I'll tell them I was sick and in the bathroom, they'll believe me, I'm pregnant." I laughed and he rubbed my stomach at the mention of being pregnant while kissing my cheek. "We're gonna be okay, aren't we, baby?" "Yeah, M, we're gonna be just fine."