On A Whim - Chapters 7 & 8

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Chapter 7: Out of the frying pan



Do you ever have a dreadful feeling in the pit of your stomach, but you don’t know why? As Matt and I were driving to my house, I couldn’t seem to put my finger on why I felt like dooms day was right around the corner.

I gave Matt my address and he plugged it into his GPS. His rental was totally cool. I fell in love immediately. It was some kind of Audi, I had to remind myself to look up the price tag on one of these bad boys when I got home.

“So Stell, what do you do for a living?” Matt asked when we got into the car.

“I’m the director of a no kill animal shelter. I started out as a volunteer and worked my way up. ”

“Really? That’s awesome. I have a dog named Jed. He’s my best friend, sometimes the only one I can count on. Dogs are awesome. ”

“Ooooh – I love Jed, but I must correct you, cats are awesomer than dogs. I have a cat, her name is Sylvia. Well, her actual name was Syl-vie, but my dad kept calling her Sylvia, so that stuck.” I would never get enough of talking about her.

“Now wait just one-minute Missy, dogs are so much more affectionate than cats. They are always waiting by the door when you get home. They are excited to see you no matter what kind of mood you are in, or what you look like. Cats, you have no idea if they are planning to assassinate you, or if they just woke up. ”

“Ohhhh no you don’t. Have you ever had a cat? They are just as affectionate as dogs, plus, because they tend to be more, selective, you know they really love you by just coming near you. And there is nothing like when they head butt you for a kiss. Cats let you know in subtle ways you are part of their family. For example, Sylvia will groom me when I get home from work. It is pure love in action. ”

The drive to my house went way too quickly. We hadn’t even finished our conversation about cats and dogs and we were there.

“Ok, you got me, I’ve never had a cat, but dogs will play with you and hang out with you, they really are like a friend. Cats only spend time with you on their terms. They don’t play, you can’t bring them anywhere, and they wouldn’t dream of going for a run with you. ”

“Then it’s a good thing I don’t run.” I said with a smile on my face. I was having such a good time bantering with him. I don’t think I have been this relaxed in years.

“Well, this is my place. It was so nice chatting with you, and thank you very much for the ride home. I don’t know how long Pinky will be, but I’m feeling pretty tired, waiting would have been a drag. ”

I opened the door to get out when I felt Matts hand on my arm. “Are you sure we can’t go get something to eat. My treat. It’s just been such a pleasure talking with you, I don’t get to do this very often. People have expectations of me, and I feel like I can be myself with you. ”

“I would truly love to, but I just can’t. My boy-friend wouldn’t understand and in a town this size, there is no way he wouldn’t find out. I can’t risk that. ”

“I understand. Now you go in and hang out with your boring cat. Jed is at the hotel waiting for me, he’ll greet me with a smile on his face, not a sneer. I’m just giving you a hard time, I’m sure cats are great. ”

“Cats are great and one day you’ll see, there is nothing quite like hearing your cat purr. Thanks again Matt, I had a really great time to-day, and it was fun enlightening you on the gloriousness that is the cat. ”

I got out of the car with a grin a mile wide, until I looked at my house. There it was, dooms day.

Steve came storming off the porch, right up to Matt’s car, yanked on my arm and started yell-ing, “I knew it. Have you been off fucking him? Is that why I couldn’t come to the set? You are such a tramp. I knew I couldn’t trust you. I knew I shouldn’t let you do this, but I wanted to see what would happen. Just as I thought, you fuck the first guy you can get your hands on. ”

Yanking on my arm again, he starts pulling me away from Matt’s car, “You’re such a whore. Who do you think you are, bitch? Look at you, your whore make-up and your slutty clothes. I’m going to make you regret this. ”

“Steve, I just got a ride home, I didn’t know when Pinky would be done and Matt offered to bring me home, that’s all, I swear. I didn’t do anything wrong. I wouldn’t do that to you. ”

Shortly after Steve yanked my arm the first time, Matt must have gotten out of the car. I didn’t even notice him approach until I heard him start talking.

“Now wait one minute, Steve is it? Stell didn’t do anything wrong. Like she said, I was just giving her a ride back to her place. She filmed all day, I assumed she was tired, so I offered. There is no need for you to talk to her like that. ”

Aw shit, here we go.

“Stell? So he calls you by a pet name? I knew you’d do this Stella. ”

Turning to Matt he continued, “who the fuck do you think you are telling me what I can or can’t do with my girlfriend, Matt? Stella is my girlfriend, you don’t have any say in what I do to her. ”

“She may be your girlfriend, but I do have a say in protecting a girl from a beast like you. Let go of her arm, now! I won’t tell you twice. ”

Matt seemed calm, and I knew Steve was any-thing but. I also knew what Steve was capable of and I didn’t want to be the cause of Matt getting hurt.

“Matt, please, you are just going to make things worse. I’ll be fine. It’s really ok. ”

“Ya Matt, she’ll be fine, it’s really ok. Fuck you two make me sick. How long have you be fuck-ing this guy anyway? I bet he’s not even from the movie set is he. You’ve been seeing him all along, haven’t you?” Steve was seething, and a big part of me just wanted to jump in Matt’s car and let him drive me away, but I couldn’t. There is no telling what Steve would do, and I’d never forgive myself if something happened to anyone I love.

Matt didn’t look deterred in the least. He con-tinued to look Steve right in the eyes and said, “Take your hands off her, or deal with me. ”

Steve pushed me away from him and I fell down onto the grass. It wasn’t two seconds later that I heard a fists connecting with skin. I looked up and saw both men brawling in the yard next to me.

First Matt was on top of Steve, then vice versa. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, I didn’t know what to do, I was screaming at both of them to stop.

I don’t know if Carey heard what was going on, or if he had seen the interaction, but he came out and told us that the police would be there any minute.

That didn’t stop them. It was obvious Matt was doing his best to keep Steve subdued, but there is no stopping Steve when he gets like this. Finally, the cops arrived and pulled the guys apart.

The cop holding Steve didn’t have a good grip on him and he was off and running. A couple other cops took off after him, but we’d been through this before, they weren’t going to catch him, Steve was fast.

I was in a daze, hearing my name shook me out of it.

“Stell, Stell, are you ok?” Carey asked con-cerned for me.

Matt was over giving a statement to the re-maining cops. I was humiliated beyond words. Here this awesome guy was just trying to be nice by giving me a ride home and look what happened. Damn my life, damn Steve.

“I’m ok Carey, is it possible to die of embar-rassment?” I half-jokingly asked. I just want to crawl into a hole and die.

I didn’t see Matt approach with the cop, but he answered, “No, thankfully you can’t die of em-barrassment, I’d miss you. ”

“Oh Matt, I want to introduce you to my roommate Carey,” introducing them, “Carey, this is Matt Johnson. ”

My rapidly beating heart did a flip and warmed. Thankfully, Carey was so wrapped up in how things went down this afternoon, he didn’t blink twice at Matt.

He didn’t really look all that bad, he held his own with Steve. I’m somewhat shocked, but then again, I remembered feeling that chest earlier today, I shouldn’t be surprised at all.

“Stella,” the officer said, “I’m going to need you to fill out a report if you are going to press charges. ”

“Oh, thank you so much for coming, but I don’t think that will be necessary. Steve didn’t really hurt me. ”

In unison, all the guys drew a breath in shock.

“Are you sure Stella, I know he didn’t hurt you this time, but he’s hurt you in the past and we both know he’s fully capable of doing it again. ”

I stared open mouthed at Carey, I couldn’t be-lieve he’d just said that in front of not only the cop, but Matt as well. Well, if I’m going to go of embarrassment, now would be the time.

I knew I couldn’t press charges; he’d kill me if I did. He’s already going to punish me for the cops coming, even though I wasn’t the one to call them. And God, I couldn’t stand to think about what he was going to do about the whole Matt situation.

Uh, I felt sick to my pants, I didn’t want to deal with Steve when he showed up again. I was so afraid. What Carey said was true, he had hurt me in the past. His go to move was to grab me by the neck and hold me against the closest hard surface. It terrified me every time.

“I’m sure, he doesn’t mean to hurt me, I just make him so mad. I’m so sorry you had to go through this Matt. I was afraid something like this would happen and I knew better, I should have never let you drive me home. ”

“Stella, don’t even think twice about it. I’m sorry it came to this, but I’m glad I got to spend more time with you. Is there anything I can say to make you change your mind about pressing charges? I am and I’ll have my lawyers all over him like white on rice for what he’s done. ”

Matt was so nice. I couldn’t get over the dif-ferences between him and Shae. They were equally famous, but she had some kind of stick up her ass, and he seemed to take his success in stride.

“Mam, if I could just intervene, if you are afraid he’s going to come back, we can work on get-ting you a restraining order. ”

I didn’t mean to but I sniffed, “you really think a restraining order is going to keep him away from me? No, he doesn’t care about things like that, especially with everything that hap-pened today. It’ll be all our war now. ”

“Stell, why don’t you go stay with your parents tonight, just to be safe? Bring Sylvia with you. If he comes back, I won’t hesitate for a second to call the cops on him and have him tres-passed from this house. Pinky and I will be fi-ne. He’s never touched either one of us,” Ca-sey pointed out.

“I can’t do that, number one, I don’t want to endanger my family and number two, I couldn’t sleep knowing he might attack you guys. I’d rather just stay and face the music. ”

“I know a place you can go where he’ll never find you. I’m staying at a hotel in, ahhh, Lan-sing, he won’t even think of looking for you out there, plus the hotel has security.” Matt of-fered.

“We can have a car patrol the area throughout the night in case he does come back, we’ll be close by,” the cop said, “he’s going to be picked up one way or another, so being near will be a good thing and we can keep an eye on your friends. ”

Matt chimed in again, “Yah, and if you want you can bring Sylvia too. I have a suite so we can keep Jed and Sylvia away from each other, and you would have your own room. ”

I was so conflicted. I wanted to run far away from here, I wanted to go to Matt’s hotel, but I wanted more than anything to just throw in the towel. I really couldn’t deal with this shit anymore. It’s one thing after another.

“Matt, I appreciate the offer, but if the cops are going to patrol the area, I’m sure I’ll be fi-ne. I have Pinky and Carey to watch over me too. I don’t want you to get any more involved than you already are. This is all so complicat-ed. ”

My chin started quivering and I knew the damn was about to break. Turning away from all three guys, I walked to the house, let myself in and let the tears fall fast and furious.

I had put my cell phone on vibrate so it wouldn’t affect the filming. I suddenly re-membered that when it started buzzing with three short beeps, and one long one, I knew what that meant – Steve was calling.

Taking a deep breath, I answered, “Hello? ”

“Bitch, you are going to pay for this. I knew you were a slut and you just proved to me that I need to reign you in. You think you are the almighty one, but I’ll show you.” With that, he hung up.

Beaten, I went and took a shower. I needed to get the day off me. I stood in the shower until the water ran cold, and even for a short time after that. I didn’t want to get out and face the world.

A few hours later, Pinky came home. I was in my room and the last thing I felt like doing was talking about anything that happened today. I had no doubt Carey would fill her in on the deets, I didn’t need to be there for that.

About a half hour later, I heard Pinky yell, “What? What did that fucker do? ”

My door flew open and Pinky was standing there, her eyes glowing. “Are you freaking kidding me right now Stella? You need to break up with him before he kills you. I know you are afraid of what he’ll do, but those of us who love you are afraid of what he’ll do to you. ”

I was laying on my side in bed, Sylvia laying by me, purring as I pet her belly. Pffff, don’t tell me kitty cats don’t love and cherish. They are every bit as loving as dogs, they just have a dif-ferent way of showing it.

“Pinky, please, I’m exhausted. I had a shit day and I really can’t face this right now. I know I should leave him, I fully get that. But you don’t understand the fears I have. I teeter on the edge of sanity as it is, losing someone I love because of him would push me right over. ”

“No, Stell, we’ve let this go on long enough. The time has come. If you don’t do something about him, we’re going to tell your parents. ”

I sat up and glared at her. “How dare you Pinky. You know what that would do to them, would you really want them to know what a fuck up I am, my inability to control my life? What I’ve kept from them?

It’s hard enough to keep my head held high each day, Pinky. I don’t want them to worry, there is no need to get them involved. ”

“There is every need. You won’t do anything and it’s not getting any better with him. In fact, it’s getting worse.

Judging from his last phone call about reigning me in…I feared she was right.

 

Chapter 8: What the hell was that



Stella and I talked the whole way to her house. I don’t think there was a minute we weren’t talking. It was so awesome. I haven’t been able to talk like that with someone for as long as I can remember.

The drive to her house went quickly, much quicker than I wanted it to. We talked about our opinions and differences in the joys of cats and dogs and yet it was thrilling.

She is so warm. She works at a no kill animal shelter which was commendable. I wanted to know more, I wanted to learn all about her. Obviously I’ve only known her for a few hours, but what I knew about her so far, I liked, a lot.

As Stella was getting out of the car, through the windshield, out of my peripheral vision I saw someone walk up and yank her out. What the hell? I immediately got out and went to help her.

All I could hear is this guy, berating her, calling her names and holding her arm like he was go-ing to tear it right out of the socket.

Aw shit, it must be her boyfriend. Regardless, I’m stepping in, I’m not going to stand by and watch her get treated this way. Nobody should treat a woman like that, least of all someone like Stell.

I hadn’t realized that Stell was a nickname, call-ing her that pushed him into a further tirade. Apparently her name is Stella, but Pinky had called her Stell, I assumed that was it.

I was infuriated with him. I couldn’t believe a man would talk to his girlfriend like this, or touch her like this. I’ve heard about abuse, but never saw it firsthand. I wanted to grab her and run away, keep her safe from this asshole. The sweetest girl I’ve met, ever, is dating this asshat.

I did the only thing I could do and told him to take his hands off her. It was like speaking to a brick wall. He called her some more names, accused her of sleeping with me. When I told him again to let her go, he threw her to the ground. That did it. We took after each other like two bears fighting for a fish. The guy had some size on me, but I wasn’t a wimp either. I thought we were pretty well matched. My fist was the first to connect and then, down on the grass we continued to fight.

I heard someone talking about cops in the background, but there was no way I was going to let this guy get the upper hand on me. I did my best to hold him down and not let him nail me again, but it wasn’t easy, this guy was pret-ty good, but I did manage to pummel the bas-tard a couple more times before the cops final-ly arrived, then we were torn apart.

The police saw I was the hero and not the insti-gator, right? I explained what happened, en-suring to include how he threatened her. I asked them to talk with her about getting a restraining order against him, as well as rec-ommending her to stay with a friend or some-where other than her house. I didn’t like the look in his eyes, the man is not right.

After I agreed to press charges and finished filling out the paperwork, the officer and I walked over to Stella and the guy who came rushing out when hell broke loose. I’m not sure who he is, but Stella looks comfortable with him, it looks like they know each other.

Just as we walked up, I heard her whisper, “is it possible to die of embarrassment?” I was tak-en aback, she certainly had nothing to be em-barrassed about, it was her dud of a boyfriend who should be ashamed of his behavior. I re-plied, “No, thankfully, you can’t die of embar-rassment, I’d miss you. Besides YOU have nothing to be embarrassed of! ”

So sweetly her cheeks turned blush, and she stared into my eyes. I just smiled.

The officer then asked if she wanted to press charges and remarkably, she said “no.” I couldn’t believe my ears, and neither could the other guys. Why wouldn’t she press charges?

Carey started talking about Steve abusing her and their fear of him doing it again. She was stunned, the look she was giving him was downright scary. She went on to defend him, I couldn’t believe it. How can you defend that?

The officer mentioned getting a restraining or-der preventing him from continuing his abuse. She again said “no”. I hope it’s fear that is pre-venting her from taking any steps toward her protection and not love for this guy.

Carey recommended going to her parents to stay. Yet again, she absolutely insisted no, that she didn’t need to go. She’s afraid of what he would do to her family. This is far more serious than I ever imagined when she simply turned me down for dinner. Someone needs to inter-vene and help her with this guy, he’s a lunatic.

The officer reassured everyone by promising they would have patrols in the neighborhood, not only to maintain safety but also to look for Steve.

At that point, I jumped in and said, “I know where you can go that he’ll never find you. I’m staying at a hotel in, ahhh, Lansing, he’ll never think of looking for you out there, plus, the hotel has security.” I let her know she could bring her cat with her, I didn’t want her to be alone at a time like this. I know when I’m stressed I like having Jed around me.

After refusing my offer, she had a look of ter-ror on her face and she took off toward the house. I don’t know what to make of today. I met the most gorgeous and tempting girl, only to find that she has a fuckwhit of a boyfriend. While I am jealous, I am speaking literally, this person, if he qualifies as such, is scum. My brain is fried.

After she ran away, Casey and I started chat-ting. Apparently she’s been with this guy for some time and he’s always treated her pathet-ically. What can I do, I can’t even say she’s a friend, despite having intense feelings for her, I have no influence with her, I won’t even see her after today.

Finally, I was back in my hotel room. What a fucking long hard day, I have never experi-enced this kind of shit before, and I never want to again. Ahhh, but Stella, I’ll take her any time, any day, any hour. Despite my past with my father, I feel like my life has been protect-ed from the real world.

Stella has real world problems and I can’t even begin to think of what I can do to help her. I feel so powerless.

Pouring myself a double shot of whiskey, I begin what was going to be the start of a long night. Jed and I will watch some TV and order some dinner. I’m wrecked.