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  “You are my mom, I loved you so much I thought your job in life was to protect me and last night I needed you more than in any other moment before. You chose someone else over me, you chose that.” I said gesturing wildly to Rick who had stopped watching the game and was now turned facing me with an angry look on his face

  “My dad was the greatest man alive, he was kind, he was handsome and he loved something fierce he would never ever hurt another person and you and I both know that he would never hurt me in the way that you have hurt me”.

  I paused unsure of what to say next

  “One day I am going to have babies, and I am never going to be able to bring them to meet their grandma, I am going to tell them stories about their Grampy, but you no longer exist. I don’t understand what would make you believe that I, your own daughter would flirt with your boyfriend, you know what dad told me about boys. I don’t even date you of all people should know that I am careful. I’ve never even had sex and you knew this.” I heard a gasp come from Rick “you should have chosen me mom. You were supposed to choose me”.

  I looked one last time at my mom who now had her head bowed, fidgeting with her hands and I could see tears dripping down her face.

  I walked towards the door, but before I left I walked over to Rick’s prized Dodger baseball collection. On the side of it, there was a signed collector’s bat. I picked it up and smashed the large cabinet to pieces, glass and collector’s items crashing to the floor. Rick came rushing towards me but before he could reach me, I swung the bat right into his face the loud crunch of it breaking filling the room and blood began to gush through the hands that were holding it.

  “You fucking bitch” he spat

  I looked at him

  “Yeah, you got that right. That’s for taking the only parent I had left away from me. Enjoy Rick, some of this stuff might be ruined”

  Before anyone could say anything I walked through the door.

  Brett and Lisa were both bent over laughing.

  A slight laugh escaped my lips, right before the tears started to fall.

  Chapter 3

  Lacey was always really good with her money. She had a great job where she worked as a publicist for a television studio in LA. She rented a house in Bradbury, which meant she only had to travel about half an hour to get to work every day. She considered living in LA when she first moved out here, but dad told her he didn’t want to have to worry about her every day. People who don’t live in California think that LA is this really great town where all the rich people live. They don’t realize that most rich people live as far away from the city as they can possibly get.

  Jason has been Lacey’s boyfriend for about 3 years now. She met him the first year she moved down here. He works for his brother Ryan, who at the time was a new up and coming actor. Jason was really hot. He had brown hair, green eyes and was super sweet to Lacey. He and I hung out a lot when she came up to spend her vacations with us. She didn’t do that much after dad died. Jason was like a big brother and he was perfect for Lacey.

  They lived together most of the time, Jason lived with his brother Ryan, if he had to travel. I was worried that going to stay with them would cause issues, but I was kind of relieved that Lacey had offered for me to come up there. I needed her.

  The drive from Lakewood to Bradbury isn’t long, about 29 minutes or so, but it still wasn’t a trip we made often. Lacey moved away for a reason. I never really understood why she didn’t stay home, but I figured one day she would explain it all to me.

  I pulled up to the big house at around noon. I sat in my car for a few minutes unsure of moving. Just needing to have quiet for a few more minutes. Before I had a chance to talk myself out of being here, the front door flew open and Lacey came running out with Jason right behind her both wearing cheesy grins.

  “You made it” she said throwing my driver side door open

  “I made it” I said unbuckling before she could rip me out of my seat

  I stood up to hug her. Lacey had always been tall. She was built like dad, but looked just like our mom. She was beautiful. Light brown hair, piercing blue eyes and always thin.

  “I am so glad you are here, let’s get inside and get you situated” she said, pulling me towards the front door.

  Jason nodded at me walking past me to get my bags from the car

  When we got inside I noticed right away that it was covered in Jason’s sports stuff. He loved basketball and baseball. He was one of the few living people who truly understood the sacrifice I made when giving up softball.

  There was a long sofa against the one wall, another on the far wall of the room and a huge big screen TV across from the bigger one.

  It was a fairly large house. Not as big as some of the other’s on the street, this was a very expensive town to live in. Lacey got lucky when she found it. Most of the town’s residents were celebrities or rich in other aspects. She didn’t really socialize a whole lot with the people who lived on her street, but she knew some of them.

  We got inside and Lacey led me to the couch, urging me to sit down.

  “Okay” she said “let’s have everything in detail. What happened this morning?”

  As I was telling her Jason came in from the hallway and sat down across from us. He didn’t look happy when I told him about Rick smiling as I said my “dramatic” goodbye to my mom.

  When I reached the end of my story, and told them how I smashed Rick’s Dodger collection with his prized bat, and then his nose they both started hysterically laughing.

  “That’s daddy’s girl” Lacey said, she stopped laughing and looked at me with sadness in her eyes “God I’m sorry Emmy, I didn’t- I mean I shouldn’t have said that. If daddy hadn’t died, you wouldn’t have ever had to go through any of this. I am so so sorry sweetie” She said starting to cry, reaching over to take my hand.

  “It’s okay Lace, honestly I am okay. He didn’t get very far. I am just thankful mom came in when she did. I am sad that she didn’t believe me, but we both know mom isn’t strong enough to take on someone like Rick. I just couldn’t forgive her for that. Not yet.” I explained

  “I know Emmalyn, but you are 18 years old, you just graduated high school and your step father tries to rape you. Your mother. Our mother should have believed you, she should have left him right then and there and called the cops but she didn’t. She’s selfish Em. She won’t ever change.

  She paused

  “Did I ever tell you why I decided to move away”? She asked me, moving a bit closer

  “No” I said

  Lacey looked at Jason, who nodded his head in approval for her to go on.

  “I was going to live at home and go to school” she started “I didn’t want to leave you and dad even mom. One day I came home from hanging out with Becky and Liz and mom was sitting at the kitchen table with a boy I had never seen before. You and dad were at one of your games or something, so I knew he wasn’t there for one of you. When I walked into the kitchen she asked me to come in and sit down. As I did she introduced the boy as Aaron Jennings. She told me that he was from the local church and was on his way to Harvard in the fall. Clear across the country Harvard.”

  “She was talking, raving about this boy sitting across from me, who had his palms flat on the table looking down like he was nervous. He was wearing a freaking bow tie, who the hell wears bow ties anymore?” Lacey was laughing

  “I don’t know” I answered

  “Well anyway, it took me a second to realize that she wasn’t just raving about him, she was trying to sell him to me. Like he was a damn dog or something. I looked at mom and asked her what the hell this kid was doing here and mom says ‘I want you to start dating him, it’s time you think about your future Lacey, and you can be married by next summer and start having babies when Aaron graduates. He will make more than enough money, so that isn’t an issue and you can all fly back out here during the summer and be with us.” Lacey paused

  “What?” I asked he
r confused about her story. “You mean mom was trying to arrange a marriage for you, what the fuck?”

  “She was, dad didn’t know anything about it, and I knew it the moment mom told me not to say anything to him or to you about Aaron. I think she thought that I was a whore, we all know I had a lot of boyfriends in high school. But at 19 she thought that I should be thinking about getting married and having kids. Forget the fact that I was on my way to UCLA, she wanted me to give that up and follow Aaron. A guy I met 5 minutes before. I freaked out, threw down the kitchen chair and told mom to go fuck a dildo. I was pissed” Lacey recalled

  “Um, I would have been too” I told her now reaching over to hold her hand

  “You know Emmy that Mom and I were always so close when I was growing up. You had dad, and I had mom. We always did so much together, we were best friends. Then a few months before dad died something in mom went really wrong. She no longer wanted to hang out with me. When we did she would tell me that I was starting to get chunky, or that my hair should be kept up more often, leaving my hair down made me look wild and free and that I would never find a respectable man to take me if I didn’t clean up. Like I was a dog that needed to be adopted or something” Lacey’s voice dropped quiet

  “Dad didn’t want me to move away, when I told him what mom had been doing, and about Aaron he and mom had a huge fight. Screaming and yelling, I had never heard anything like it. I felt like I was causing them to break, they had been so in love for so long. That night dad and I were sitting outside after you had gone to bed to read or something dad told me something shocking “Lay, I am going to tell you something that Em doesn’t know yet, and she can’t know just yet…. Your mom and I….we aren’t happy, we haven’t been happy for a long time.”

  She stopped talking. Tears streaming down her face

  “Dad told me that he had been seeing someone else for about a year, which actually made a whole lot of sense because he and mom were hardly ever in the same room together if you remember.” She looked at me

  “I do remember that, but I never thought dad would cheat on her” I said

  “I don’t think he really wanted to, but mom was changing and fast. She would get hysterical over the littlest things. She would make fun of dad, or tell him that he loved his job more than he loved his family. I didn’t understand it, she never did it when you were around. I don’t think she wanted to ruin him for you, but something changed between the two of them that final year and it made mom worse.” She patted my hand

  “When Dad died, mom didn’t tell me right off the bat. She called to ask me if I wanted to come home for the weekend. When I told her that I had plans with Jason, she said ‘well your father is dead so if you think you can pencil us in let me know and she hung up on me.”

  “I called her back and she told me that dad was killed in a car accident. She said she was sorry for not telling me the right way and I found the whole thing to be very odd. My mom telling me my dad was dead like it was no big deal, a random inconvenience in her.”

  “I realized that it kind of was. She and dad had been so far apart and she was so angry with him so often, that I think she really was just far from caring. I know that isn’t true. She had a total meltdown as soon as I got there. Again not something she wanted to do in front of you. We all knew that his dying hit you the hardest, there was no doubt. Mom asked me to leave school and stay home, I told her I couldn’t, that you didn’t need me. I think she wanted to try and control someone again, and we all know you are not one to be controlled” she stopped giving a hard laugh

  “This is true” Jason said. I forgot for a while that he was here

  “Anyway” He went on “your mom should have had your back, and it was really fucked up that she didn’t, but not a total shock. It doesn’t matter anymore. Rick didn’t…. He wasn’t successful in what he tried to do to you that’s what matters most, and you are here now. You don’t have to go back there. Stay here for as long as you want, we are happy to have you. Lacey was talking about getting you a job with her, it’s all going to be okay from here on out.”

  Lacey looked at me and smiled “yup kid you are stuck with us, we will take care of you. You can start over here, out from under the thumb of the drama queen herself.”

  Chapter 4

  Settling in with Jason and Lacey was a lot easier than I first thought it would be. They didn’t really bother me about mom and Rick after the first day I was there. Mom called Lacey a few times, and tried to get me onto the phone, Lacey would always tell her that I wasn’t there or that I needed space. Mom stopped leaving messages for me to call her back after a while.

  At first I felt bad, like I should find a way to forgive her. That’s what you do right? When someone wrongs you, you are supposed to find a way to forgive them. I couldn’t though. Every time I would start to miss her, I would remember that smile on Rick’s face when I was saying my goodbyes to her. I started trying to find a way to push her from my mind. To remind myself like Lacey had said “if that’s the type of person she has chosen to become, we have no room for her in our lives.” She’s right. She’s always right.

  We went out to eat a lot. Lacey wasn’t big on cooking, she never had been and she insisted that I was a guest in their home and she wasn’t going to force me to cook for everyone. I wasn’t going to complain. I loved to cook, but I had taken a sudden interest in reading the last few months. Lacey turned me onto Fifty Shades of Grey, insisting that I would never meet any book man as hot as Christian Grey. I did, I found many other men in books who were similar, Kellen Kyle, Travis Maddox oh the list went on. I was spending so much money on books, Jason would laugh at me and started calling me ‘nerd’. Anyone else would have been offended, but Jason was hilarious, and he kind of had a point.

  I was a book nerd. Spending 50 dollars a month on Kindle E-books, I couldn’t stop. But I liked reading. I loved the romance that other stories offered. I loved love, I just didn’t think it was something that was ever going to happen for me. The sex was always hot, the romance was always enough to make you fall in love with the leading man. There was nothing wrong with getting wrapped up in a good book.

  One night Lacey and Jason were watching a movie on one couch, and I was reading on the other when a crash outside made us all jump.

  “I bet you anything that’s fucking Ryan” Jason said, standing up and heading towards the front door

  I looked over at Lacey and noticed that she looked annoyed.

  “Ryan?” I asked

  “Yeah” she said finally looking at me “Ryan, um comes here sometimes when Holly is playing stalker” she sighed standing up

  I followed her outside to see the black escalade pulled right up onto the manicured lawn.

  Lacey was out the door before I was “What the fuck Ryan, get off my lawn you know how hard it is to keep it green like this?”

  I heard laughing between Jason and Ryan, who I hadn’t seen yet.

  Of course I knew who Ryan was, everyone knew Ryan Alexander he was one of the hottest actor’s out there right now. But he was also extremely private. Any photos of him online were him dressed in a tux at a premier of something he played in, or when he was dressed down, but face covered hiding from the paparazzi.

  I didn’t spend much time at Lacey and Jason’s so I didn’t stare at his photos before I moved in because I knew the story of Ryan Alexander

  He was a player

  He was hot

  But he was a heartbreaking man whore

  He never slept with the same girl twice, he was rude, Lacey loved him as a brother in law (almost) but as a client she couldn’t stand being his publicist. Every time he fucked a girl and left her behind, Lacey would have to do damage control and make sure that said girl didn’t decide to plant her story on TMZ.

  He was also clearly drunk from what Jason was yelling

  “Bro, you have no fucking clue, she’s back at it again. She was in my bed naked this time. I didn’t even notice her until I was naked and
climbing in ready to pass out. This shit has to stop but Alex can’t do anything”

  Lacey leaned in and explained that Alex was Holly’s brother

  As Ryan was explaining the issue to his brother, he was making his way towards the front door, where I was still standing.

  He was beautiful.

  Well hot, sexy... Sinful...

  He was gorgeous!

  He had bright blue eyes, sandy blonde hair and a light beard going on his chin that looked like he had just been too lazy to shave for the last week. His nose had a slight curve, where it had been broken in a bar fight late last year when some guy tried to grab Lacey’s ass.

  He was tall, about 6’3 taller than Jason who was just slightly over 6’. He was wearing a sleeveless shirt that showed the muscles of his arm, he was extremely ripped. Which I knew already, Jason told me that Ryan works out almost obsessively. It helps him to deal with his stress.

  As soon as he noticed me, he stopped walking.

  His face curved up into a half smile

  “Who’s this?” He called over his shoulder not taking his eyes off me. Trailing them up and down my body, like he was sizing me up, looking to see if I was worthy

  “I” I said slightly annoyed at the way he was looking at me “am Lacey’s sister Emmalyn, and you are?” I asked, trying to mess with him. Clearly this guy liked to have his ego stroked and that was something that happened often