Shattered Hearts

Chapter 8

Liam
Present Day
Dinner had gone okay.
My dad was the only one home tonight, and he seemed thrilled to see Madelyn again, which just made it even easier.
I was laying in bed replaying the night over in my head, all the things we'd said about our relationship, logging them in my memory so I wouldn't slip up down the road.
Then the door to my room opened slightly and a thin shaft of light poured in from the hall. Maddie's head peaked in a second later, her long hair pulled back into a bun on the top of her head.
"Psst. Liam. Are you awake?" She whisper yelled across the room, and I couldn't help but laugh softly.
"Yeah. I am." I said, and she took that as an invitation to enter. She closed the door behind her and crossed the room to my bed, climbing in like I'd invited her to.
"Whoa, what are you doing?"
I asked, placing my hand on her shoulder before she climbed under the blankets.
She looked at me like I was an idiot.
"I have to sleep in here to really sell it you dipshit."
Now it was my turn to look confused, "But, my mom said you had to stay in a guest room, I picked the yellow one because I know you like it..."
She held up her hand to cut me off.
"Your mom said I had to stay in a guest room as a formality. They fully expect me to sneak in here and sleep with you. We're full grown adults. Why wouldn't we. It would look bad if we didn't do this."
I narrowed my eyes at her skeptically. "I thought you hated me and were only doing this because you wanted me to stop begging, now you wanna sleep in my bed?"
She rolled her eyes, "I'm not asking you to spoon me Liam. I'm just saying, this will sell the lie. Charlie and I used to do this all the time and we were in high school."
That hurt a bit.
I narrowed my eyes at her, "Yeah but you guys were actually dating."
She sighed like she was getting frustrated with me, "Yes and to everyone else in this house, we are actually dating you dipshit."
She stared at me for a bit. I guess she was right, but having her sleep in the same bed as me was going to be a huge temptation. She had to know that. But, then again, maybe she thought anything I felt for her had fizzled when I left for college.
She would be wrong about that, she was still hot, but it still didn't help the situation.
I sighed, "Fine, just please tell me you don't snore?"
She laughed and slid under the blankets, her bare legs disappearing from view. She was wearing an extra large white teeshirt, and all I could think about was if that teeshirt was mine.
"Don't you think you would've noticed that last time we slept together?"
Her words slip out before she realized what she was saying.  Her eyes go wide with shock, like she just realized she'd said that out loud.
I opened my mouth to respond, before I could say anything she shot out, "Goodnight!" and quickly rolled over to face away from me.
We hadn't talked about what had happened since I left for college, and I'd tried to put it out of my mind for years, and failed miserably.
Maybe she was having just as hard a time as I was forgetting about that night.
•••
Liam
4 Years Ago
It took a long time to get Madelyn back to the house and in bed. She'd brought another wine bottle with her in her bag, and she'd been able to sneak half of it before Charlotte and I noticed.
3 and a half bottles of wine could really take out a 125 pound girl.
It was two am when I finally got to bed myself.
Just as I was about to fall asleep, I heard my door creak.
I turned over and found Madelyn standing there. Holding onto the door for support.
"Hey. Liam. You up?" She whispered.
I sat up and nodded, "Yeah. I'm up. What's up? Why aren't you in bed?"
She leaned a little further into the room.
"I have a proposition."
I narrowed my eyes at her.
"What kind of a proposition?"
She giggled lightly and entered the room, stumbling a bit, but making it to the edge of my bed.
She had a giant grin on her face.
After dinner tonight I'd do anything to keep her this happy for as long as I could.
"Well... I still wanna go skinny dipping..."
Okay maybe not anything.
"And Charlotte is passed out and Charlie would never go with me, so please." She spoke really fast and shot another smile at me when she was done.
I shook my head about to tell her no. When I looked up, her eyes were brimming with tears.
I sighed, realizing there was no way I could say no.
"Fine. But we have to go back to the lake because if we do it in the pool we could wake someone up."
She kicked her feet like when a small child got excited. It was kind of adorable.
I snuck her out to the front courtyard and got her in my car. I wasn't about to carry her half a mile again.
We drove back to the lake, and when I pulled up, I realized how big of a mistake this was.
"Hey maybe we should..." my word fell on deaf ears, because Madelyn was halfway out of my car. And halfway out of her clothes. Her shirt was sitting in my passengers seat, and she was sprinting towards the water.
"Fuck." I muttered to myself as I pulled my own shirt off and left it on my seat, following after her.
By the time I reached the water she was already swimming around, and I'd passed her discarded bra and panties on the way here.
She looked over to me, her eyes sparkling in the moonlight. She looked beautiful. Like a siren, beckoning me to certain death.
"What are you doing still wearing clothes?"
She called out.
She was fucking sexy.
And I was fucking screwed.
I stepped out of my shorts and joined her in the water.
The lake was warm, and the muggy August night made the whole world feel like an oven.
But the stars were out, and Madelyn was happy. That's all I needed.
"Ever done this before?" She asked, swimming towards me. The water here reached her clavicle, hiding pretty much everything from view.
Good I didn't need to make this situation more tempting than it already was.
"Done what before?"
She raised her eyebrow at me. "This. Skinny dipping."
I laughed, "Oh right. Yeah. One time."
Her face fell a little, "With who?"
That's what she was caught up on?
"Myself. One time when everyone was gone from the house I swam naked in our pool."
She snorted, "Alone? That's so boring."
Relief flooded her eyes though, and she was too drunk to hide it.
"Why do you ask?" I pushed, taking a step closer to her.
She smiled at me innocently, "No reason."
"Are you sure?" I took another step closer.
She shook her head.
I took another step. We were were only inches away from each other now. She looked down at he the water and traced her hands across the surface.
I reached out and placed my hand on hers.
She looked up at me. Her eyes wide and full of wonder.
She looked fucking breathtaking.
Before I could do anything, Madelyn reached up and grabbed the back of my neck, pulling me in for a kiss.
I stopped just before our lips touched.
It took all the restraint I had not to drag her out of the water and take her right here on the beach. She looked so beautiful and her eyes were pleading with me to kiss her.
"We can't do this." I whispered, my lips brushing hers for a moment.
She inhaled a sharp breath and pursed her lips, "But... why not?" She asked, tears welling in her eyes.
Well fuck.
"You're... you're Charlie's now..."
She scoffed, cutting me off, "I don't give a fuck what your parents say, or what anyone says. I have never, and will never be Charlie's."
I exhaled shakily, the longer I was close to her, the harder this was getting.
"Please." She muttered, closing her eyes and resting her forehead on mine, "I've wanted this for so long, please."
I shook my head, "You're just drunk. Your head, it's all fuzzy, you have no idea what you're saying..."
"I've never felt clearer in my life."
Oh my god, how was I supposed to walk away from this now? Huh? Do you have an idea? Because I've got no fucking clue.
"Madelyn..." I started shaking my head, our foreheads rolling against each other as I did.
Her skin was so soft, I could stay here, holding her face in my hands until I died.
A couple tears escaped her closed lids, and as I brushed them from her cheek, her eyes fluttered open.
"I just..." Tears had welled up in both her eyes and were threatening to spill, "I don't want to be with him." She choked out before breaking down. I hugged her into my chest for a while. Let her cry.
This wasn't about me. This was just about wanting to be with anyone but Charlie. She didn't want me specifically. She just wanted someone different than the boy she now had to be with.
That made it a little easier not to do anything. It broke my heart a little, but right now, all I wanted was to help her, even if it was at the expense of my own feelings.
After some time, I helped her collect her clothes and led her back to my car.
We were silent on the short ride home, and as we snuck back into the house.
The clocks read 3:30 when we entered, and I quickly ushered her upstairs, just incase Rudy, our Butler, was around. Sometimes when I came down in the middle of the night to get a snack or something, he was up doing various chores.
Couldn't be too careful.
I walked with her to Charlotte's door, and as I headed for my own, she reached out a grabbed my wrist.
When I turned around, I noticed the silent tears rolling down her cheeks.
"I don't want to be alone."
I tipped my head towards Charlotte's door, "You won't be." I whispered.
She gripped my forearm tighter.
"It's already late. They can't find you in my room when they wake up, that would be hell for both of us."
She held onto my arm like it was her lifeline.
She wasn't going to make this easy on me, was she?
I reached over with my free hand and wiped the tears from her cheeks.
"Go get some sleep, okay? I'll see you in the morning."
I pulled my arm from her grasp gently and headed down the hall.
Just as I reached my door, Madelyn called out, "Liam?" She whispered loud enough for me to hear.
I turned to look at her, "Yeah?"
She smiled softly, "Thank you for doing that with me."
I smiled back, "Anytime."