hard | daniel seavey

chapter thirty-three

  We sat outside Aaron's building as I rethought this over. Just go up, ask for the box, and then leave. Simple as that. It'll take no more than 5 minutes. I closed my eyes, taking deep breaths.

  "Madison," Zach spoke from the back seat. He leaned forward, rubbing my arm a bit. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

   "I have to." I sighed, keeping my eyes closed. That apartment held so many haunting memories that I knew the second I walked to the door, they'd all hit me. I felt a hand rest ontop of mine, causing me to jump a bit. I looked up and saw Daniel giving me a reassuring smile. I knew he was upset with me, he hasn't talked to me since I picked them up at the studio. But seeing his small smile relieved some of my fear.

  "C'mon. We'll be right behind you," Daniel said in a low voice. We got out of my car, Daniel grabbing my hand as soon as I walked over to him. Zach stood closely behind me as we walked the steps to Aaron's door. I stopped before knocking, letting my nerves calm down a bit.

  "Well look who finally showed back up." Aaron said once he opened the door. He looked like a mess. It was hard to believe that this was the guy I had been with for the past 3 years.

   "I just came to pick up the box I left here." I said as he let us in. Daniel let go of my hand, but kept me close to him. Zach stood in silence next to us.

   "It's under the bed." Aaron nodded towards the room, crossing his arms. I quickly shuffled into the room. The bed was unmade, the floor was covered in clothes, and beer cans covered the night stand. I hated seeing that he lost himself. "You know she doesn't need a babysitter. She's safe with me."

  "Obviously not," I heard Daniel mutter. The sound of his voice made me dig through the mess even faster. My nerves rushed back in an instant.

  "What was that?" Aaron's voice was slightly raised now, scaring me even more.

   "If she felt safe with you, we wouldn't be here right now. If she felt safe with you, then why did she go out of her way to find somewhere to go after your arguments and to get away from you?" Daniel's voice boomed throughout the apartment as he spoke. Once I saw the box, I quickly grabbed it and walked to where they stood. Daniel and Aaron stood a foot apart from each other, Daniel's face red with anger.

  "You don't know anything about what happened between Madison and I-" Aaron began to protest, but Zach's fist came flying through the air and connected with Aaron's face. Aaron flew back a bit but caught himself against the wall. Daniel and I looked at him in shock.

   "We better get going," Zach said while holding his hand. I rushed the boys out of the apartment as Aaron stood back up. Once we got into my car, I turned and looked at Zach.

   "Are you okay?" I asked worriedly. Zach tried to flex his hand, wincing slightly as he bent his fingers down. I held my hand out for his. He placed his hand in mine and I turned it gently, examining it. There was a small cut and a trickle of blood ran down his knuckles. "When I take you back to the studio I can clean this up."

"I'll be fine," Zach said as I started the car.

  "Dude you just decked Aaron," Daniel laughed from the front seat. He turned to look at him and pointed at his hand. "You're lucky you didn't break it."

  "He was getting annoying, someone had to do something." Zach mumbled, rubbing his knuckles.

   "I'm not even gonna lie, I was about to do the same thing. I've never hit someone but God would I have loved to knock him out." Daniel sat back in his seat, lacing his fingers with my free hand. 

   "Okay, Rocky Bolboa." I joked and continued driving to the studio. When we got there, Daniel went to talk to the boys while Zach and I went to one of the back room. I got the first aid kit off the wall and told Zach to sit down.

   I wiped the now dried blood of his knuckles and placed a butterfly bandaid over his kid. His knuckles were already bruising, so I wrapped them in tape and then a bandage.

   "I'm sorry. If I would have just gone over there myself this wouldn't have happened." I sighed as I finished wrapping his hand.

   "I wouldn't have let you go by yourself. I don't know what happened that really ended your relationship, but I knew it wasn't good. And from the way you acted afterwards, I could tell it scared you a bit." Zach gave me a sympathetic smile and bent his fingers a bit. "What ever happened? I know Daniel came into the picture, but it just seems like there's something else to it?"

"Well," I exhaled deeply. Zach was my best friend and I was stupid for not telling him what happened when it happened, but it still felt so unreal to me that it made me upset just thinking about it. "Other than the whole Daniel situation, after spending weeks of running and being terrified of Aaron, I decided to cut things off for good. He treated the relationship like we were in high school. I wasn't happy anymore and he clearly has things he needs to figure out, it just didn't work like if used to. And the night I went to break up with him, he proposed. I told him I needed to think about it, because I had such strong feelings for Daniel and I wasn't sure what that was yet. So when I went to tell him that I couldn't marry him... he hit me... And I haven't seen him since. Well, besides today."

  "He hit you?" Zach whispered in an angry tone. "God if I knew that an hour ago I would've done more than a silly punch.." He looked down a bit, then at me. His eyes were covered in sadness. "I'm sorry. I should've been there for you."

  "Some things need to be figured out on their own. And you're here now, and that means more to me than you'll ever know." I gently placed my hand ontop of his wrapped one. He leaned over and wrapped his arm around me, pulling me into a hug.

   "You really are something special. Through everything you've been through, you still manage to come out strong. I'm so lucky to call you my best friend, Madison." Zach whispered in my ear. I closed my eyes, not disconnecting from our hug. I've only known Zach for 4 months, and he already impacted my life so much. He taught me true friendship and gave me some of the best friends I could've asked for. And without him, I probably wouldn't have met Daniel.

   "My life has never been better, ever since the day you came into my life." I responded, thinking of all the memories we shared.

   "Don't go soft and make me emotional." Zach laughed and pulled away, but still kept his arm around my shoulder. "Now c'mon, we have an album to finish by the end of the week and I think Dani will sing his love song better with you there."