The Cunning

11

"Oi!" An hour after the hiccup with Jack, Benny's bellowing ricocheted off the walls from the hallway into the kitchen. "You want her, you pay." Jase and Sam stopped their conversation, looking up from lines of cocaine arranged neatly on a phone screen and frowning at each other.

"I'll put money on that being Madison," Sam mumbled. He was right.

When Jase stepped into the hallway, Charlie had Madison's back against the wall next to the stairs, his hand almost disappearing up her dress. She looked petrified, the same way she'd looked when she had bumped into Jase but when her eyes met his, the fear dissipated.

She would not freeze up again, she refused.

Benny distracted Charlie long enough for Madison to throw her head back and smack it into his crooked nose. Cartilage crunched under the force of the headbutt, his nose exploded, claret spraying over Madison. The impact made his eyes water. Blood and tears gushed down his face, covering his hands cupping the injury.

Everyone abandoned their conversations, even those with heaps of white powder on the end of a key directly under their noses turned to watch the chaos unfold.

"You little bitch!" Charlie roared, raising red knuckles to deliver a lethal backhand in retaliation. Jase was between them in seconds, forcing Charlie's hand back into his chest before it could make contact with Madison's cheek.

"We have a way of doing things here," Jase told Charlie, staring him down. He was a good few inches taller than Charlie, and when they stood almost chest to chest, Charlie appeared half the width of Jase's broad shoulders. "You don't touch the girls until you've handed over the money. Now fuck off." Charlie didn't get a chance to reply. Madison was already being wrenched upstairs to the bedroom.

By the time Jase closed the door behind him, she had realised what she had done. The panic set in. Drinking on an empty stomach was a bad idea, the four fruity drinks had gone straight to her head. The outburst was rapidly sobering her up, apologies were already spilling uncontrollably. She had gone in too strong, too soon.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me, he started groping me, and I freaked out, and I didn't know what to do. It won't happen again, I swear. I know I messed up-"

Jase was frowning with his ear pressed to the door, trying to listen to any continuing drama. He couldn't hear over Madison's rambling.

"Shut the fuck up a second," he snapped. She did, holding her breath. All her aggression and confidence shrivelled up and died. Her insides were practising for the next Olympics. Jase recognised the look of sheer dread as the colour drained from her face.

In a flash, he had Madison back on her feet. They made it to the bathroom by the skin on his teeth. Madison keeled over the toilet, spewing the dark purple liquid that had clouded her judgement. The sweet beverage was now hot and acidic as it made its way back up her throat at high pressure, splashing into the water.

"Please don't hurt me. I promise I'll behave. I just panicked," she groaned through heaves, her words bouncing around inside the bowl.

"How much have you had?" he asked when it finally seemed to subside. Madison was quivering, her head resting on the rim of the toilet, with no energy to care whether it was clean or not. She didn't answer. Jase rolled his eyes. "Too fucking much then." He ran a flannel under the cold tap, wrung it out and handed it over. "Clean yourself up."

She didn't argue, taking the cold compress and wiping her mouth. She would need to keep her head down for a while if she was going to survive long enough to escape. He told her to get on the bed and stay quiet when they returned to the room.

"What are you going to do to me?" she questioned, not entirely sure she wanted to know the answer. Jase ran a hand through his hair.

"Nothing. You'll get yourself killed before I do anything if this is how you're gonna behave."

Mascara had run down under her eyes, and most of her foundation had come off on the flannel. The layers that made her appear older had melted away, leaving clear skin and tired eyes in its wake. Jase's frustration fizzled out. He couldn't blame her for her behaviour, not entirely. He had expected something like this to happen.

"They aren't supposed to touch you," he said, "not like that, not unless they're paying for it. Charlie knew better. He was out of line first." He took his cigarettes from his back pocket and lit one. Madison was stunned.

Was that it? No slap? No shouting or severe telling off? No consequences or repercussions whatsoever?

"So, you're not going to send Adam up here?" she asked after he'd had a few puffs. If he was lying and she was going to get a hiding, she at least wanted to prepare for it mentally. He shook his head,

"No. But don't get it twisted. I only got you out of the situation because if people see Charlie breaking the rules, they will too, and he was about to hit you."

"And if he did that?" She asked out of curiosity to see if the girls always took the brunt of things. Jase straightened up, forcing Madison to tilt her head back to maintain eye contact. They had been talking for too long.

"What you did was incredibly stupid. Do something like that again, and it's not Adam you'll have to worry about. This is the only warning I'm giving you."

"Jase," she said, stopping him at the door, "thank you."

Her words hovered in the air. He didn't turn to look at her.

"Don't thank me. Nothing I do is for your benefit."

The noise from the party kept on until the early morning. Madison had unpinned her hair and wiped away the remaining make-up with pads Lily had left behind. The skin-tight dress peeled away from her body, replaced by a pair of joggers and jumper she'd dug out of the wardrobe.

Behind her eyelids, Madison repeated the events of the night. The headbutt and the feeling of Adam's fingers pressing her cheeks into her teeth. Naturally, she poked her tongue into the fleshy pink on the inside of her cheek. They still ached, as did her arm. Jase had pulled her upstairs with such little regard for her shoulder socket that she was sure she wasn't going to see the light of day again. And then all of her fear was for nothing.

He did nothing.

It didn't feel as though she had been asleep for long when the lock on the door snapped, and it was pushed open. She lay on the bed still, every muscle tensed.

"Get up, go get in the shower," Jase said. She rolled over. His t-shirt was creased, and he'd changed his jeans to joggers, similar to the ones she was wearing. He hadn't slept from the looks of things. She sat up, and he narrowed his eyes. "Is that my jumper?"

"I don't know," she looked down at the grey crewneck with the Nike tick above her left breast, "I just found it in the wardrobe, I can take it off-" He was shaking his head,

"Keep it. It doesn't fit me anymore." She nodded, standing up and walking towards the door. Jase didn't move out of her way. For a second, she thought he knew he went too easy on her last night and was considering making up for it until he spoke. "Keep your head down today. They aren't happy with you." She assumed 'they' was Benny, Adam and Sam.

"You're not going to let anyone come up here, are you?" she asked. Jase masked his annoyance at her words but didn't care enough to make a point this early in the day.

"I'm not your babysitter, Madison," he replied bluntly.

*

Now what do we think of Jase? Do you think he made a mistake by letting Madison off so lightly? Let me know in the comments and don't forget to vote :)