The blonde leans in close to me, her fingers dancing along my abdomen. I rest my hand casually on her lower back, basically the top of her butt, and pull her so she’s flush against me, then twirl my fingers around in her bleach-blonde hair.
It’s not as soft as someone else’s hair I know. Those silky smooth dark strands…
No. Stop it right now. Focus.
We’re doing this, not that.
I lean into her ear and whisper, “A girl’s who’s coming home with me says what?”
“What?” She huffs in a soft giggle.
It’s showtime.
The girl and I down our drinks, all the while touching each other teasingly, then we leave the club hand-in-hand, stepping out onto the street, into the cool, fresh air of Saturday night in Manhattan.
“Should we get a cab?” She asks, slurring a little as she sways on her feet.
I grab her hips to steady her and almost fall over myself, the both of us giggling like drunk children.
“I live like three blocks away,” I hiccup. “We can walk it.”
“Really?” She whines, pulling some unenthused face that serves as a buzzkill and a turnoff at the same time. “These shoes kill my feet. Let’s just get a cab. Please…” She presses her boobs into my chest and nibbles on my earlobe.
Ugh. Fucking fine.
“No problem, love,” I rasp with an easy smirk to cover up my annoyance, then tug my phone out of my pocket to call Jimmy.
Just as I’m about to press call, my phone starts ringing in my hand. I focus my blurred vision on the screen, because I must be imagining this.
There’s no way it’s her… Is it?
It is. It fucking is! Alex is calling me right now.
My heart surges behind my ribs and I frantically swipe to answer the call.
“Hello? Al?” I’m out of breath from literally nothing.
“Noah…” she whimpers and it’s immediately clear she’s crying. Her voice is small and meek in my ear and she sounds scared.
“What is it, baby? What’s wrong?” I ask, fast and panicked. She better be okay.
I’ve completely forgotten about my mantra from a few minutes ago; surrounding the what happened the other day. And I’m fully ignoring the girl standing next to me, who’s tugging on my shirt to reclaim my attention. But it’s not working. The only things I’m focused on are the soft, breathy little sobs coming out of Alex, slinking right into my brain.
“I’m here, Alex. What’s going on? Do you need me to come get you?”
“N-no… No-ah…” she sputters, sniffling over and over. “I can’t…” Then she stops abruptly, going fully silent.
I check the screen to make sure the call is still connected.
“Al? Alex?! Talk to me, baby. What’s going on?” The blonde girl stomps away from me in a huff.
“Noah, I’m scared,” Alex whispers and my heart cracks down the middle, whilst my blood simultaneously rushes in my ears.
I’m going to kill him. I’m going to fucking kill him.
My fist clenches at my side, every muscle in my body constricting with the need to hurt someone. One someone in particular.
“I’m coming over there. Right now,” I growl into the phone, gritting my teeth like a madman. I think my eye is twitching.
“No! No, Noah you can’t,” she shrieks as quietly as possible.
The thought that she’s hiding from her psychotic monster of a husband has me walking. I’m not sure where I’m going. I can’t very well walk across town. Maybe to a cab? Yea, that’s good. I’ll get in a cab. I’ll ride to her house and somehow get inside her building and murder her fucking husband with a… knife? Yea, a knife. That’ll do.
“Noah… Please promise me you’re not coming here,” she pleads, her soft, uneasy tone slithering inside me and forcing my feet to stop moving.
I squeeze my eyes shut tight and release a steady breath.
“Noah, promise me.”
I bite the inside of my cheek so hard I taste blood.
“I promise,” the word crawls out of my throat, against my will, contradicting the rage burning me from the inside out.
“Thank you,” she sniffs as I swallow hard.
“You’re leaving that house right now though, Alex. Do you understand?” I hiss, struggling to keep my anger in check for her. “Right now. I’ll send Jimmy.” She’s quiet again.
I check the screen. “Alex?”
“Yea, okay,” she whimpers, and I can see her nodding in my mind. It’s so cute and sad I just want to curl her up in my arms and protect her from everything that wishes to cause her harm.
“Okay. I’ll hang up and call Jimmy,” I tell her, possessed by determination. This is good. We have a plan. We can fix this. “Give me one minute and then call me right back, okay?”
“Mhm…” she breathes and falls into more quiet crying.
“Alex, baby, please… Sixty seconds and you call me right back, alright?” I beg her. “I’ll stay on the phone with you until Jimmy gets there. One minute, Alex, or I’m coming over there.”
“Okay, yes. I’ll call you right back in one minute,” she sighs through a raspy voice that’s barely existent. She sounds like a ghost. This fucking asshole is killing her.
And I’m going to kill him.
“Good. Alright. Hang tight, beautiful.”
“Thank you, Noah.”
Everything inside me is falling apart.
“Don’t thank me, babe. We’re gonna fix this.”
She murmurs a quick okay and I hang up to call Jimmy. I bark at him to go to Alex’s right the fuck now and not to leave until she’s securely inside the vehicle, then bring her straight to my house. He agrees and tells me he’s less than ten minutes from her place.
I disconnect with Jimmy and wait only about twenty seconds before Alex is calling me right back. I pick up fast.
“Hey, love. He’s on his way. You think you can get downstairs?” I ask, hurriedly stomping up the block toward my apartment.
“Yea, I think so,” she sounds a little less terrified now, like she’s up moving around. “I think he left.”
“Good,” I breathe out in relief. “What the hell even happened?”
“I don’t want to talk about it right now, Noah, please,” she squeaks in exasperation and I frown.
This whole thing is actively killing me inside. I hate that she’s going through this. I hate that she feels scared and alone and that some walking piece of human shit is actually hitting her, and yet she doesn’t want to talk to me about it. She’s got me up against a wall. There’s nothing I can do but try to be here for her as much as humanly possible until she decides she’s ready to leave the scumbag.
And maybe then she’ll let me help her.
I arrive at my place, phone still plastered to my ear while I listen to Alex breathing and whimpering on the other end of the line. I’m not sure what she’s doing, but she won’t let me ask any questions other than Are you alright? So I guess just sitting in silence is fine.
“I just got home,” I tell her as I walk into my apartment.
I immediately turn on the fireplace to get it nice and warm in here, then I run to the guest room to make sure the bed has fresh linens and there are enough towels in the guest bath.