Falling Dumb Into Desire

-|| FF One Year ||-
With a happy sigh, I watched as my girlfriend twirled around the promise ring placed on her left ring finger, which I had given her over the summer for our one year anniversary. With the road and the snow falling upon it as her primary focus, she paid no attention to the love sick sigh I would emit from time to time. Being the love sick boy that I was, I couldn’t help but smile to myself as I thought about the past year and a half we've been through, and about how happy I was with where we were at in our relationship.

Over the past spring semester, Madison had taken a couple of child development classes at the local community college and since then has gotten a job at a preschool that has quite the prestige. While working there, Madison has sort of found her calling, which is to work with young children. She's still unsure as to what exactly she would like to do, she knows that it's something to do with kids.

I licked my lips that were chapped from the cold and then reached over, turning up the heater some more. Bits of snow that had collected on my hair during the short walk from the restaurant to the SUV we had borrowed from John's parents fell as I leaned over and landed on my bare arm. I watched as my body heat melted the small snowflakes within seconds and then turned my gaze back up to my girlfriend.

I found that she now had a small frown on her lips while both hands gripped the steering wheel. Knowing that she hated driving in the snow, I reached over and gripped her thigh gently.

"Want me to take over?" I asked.

The frown scarring her beautiful face deepened and she shook her head. "If I want to get over my phobia of driving in the snow, I'm going to have to suck it up and just drive through it." She informed me. "But I'll admit, this is fucking harder than I imagined it to be. I hate this." She hissed.

Smiling softly, I leaned over and quickly kissed her cheek before I sat back in my seat.

"Kennedy, you don't have your seatbelt on?!" Madison gasped. "Put it on right now!" She insisted.

"Babe, calm down." I grinned as I reached for the belt over my shoulder.

"If the worse should happen and we were to wreck, you'll be flying straight out the windshield." She growled. "Buckle your ass in."

"Okay, okay." I sighed, buckling myself in securely. "There, happy now?"

"Ecstatic." She mumbled.

Knowing that she was only being bitchy at the moment because she was stressed about the weather, I smiled and brushed off her attitude.

"You're doing fine, babe." I assured her. "We're almost to the hotel, about a mile or so to go."

"When we get there, I'm going to strip you down and have my way with you." She told me.

Biting my lip to keep my smile from getting any bigger, I looked over at her. "Yeah?" I questioned in a tone that was prodding her to elaborate on her plan.

She glanced over at me, her hazel eyes shining brightly thanks to the street lights lined along the road. "I'm all strung out about this fucking snow," she muttered. "So I'm going to take my stress out on you, in the form of sex."

"Hey, whatever helps." I smirked.

"Ugh, you were already planning on getting laid tonight, weren't you?"

"Well ... we're in Tahoe for the week to celebrate the New Years and to vacation and to spend time to ourselves, away from everyone back home," I pointed out, "of course I'm going to plan on getting laid."

"You're such a boy, Kennedy." She said softly with a small smile pulling at the corners of her lips. "We've had sex every single night since we've been here. We even spent the entire first day having sex."

"It's not like you objected to it." I teased.

"Kennedy Brock," she sighed.

"Madison O'Callaghan." I mocked.

"I love you," she whispered. "Always and forever." She muttered cutely.

"I love you too," I smiled.

With that we fell into a comfortable silence with only the sound of the heater keeping me in time with the world. We arrived at our hotel a few minutes later and Madison carefully eased the SUV into our designated parking spot underneath the car port. Making sure we had everything we needed, we left the protection of the SUV and hurried into the hotel, quickly locating our hotel room about a minute later.

The room was warm and cozy, and the heat seeped over my skin, making me feel as if I were an icicle melting in the sunlight. I breathed a sigh of relief and made my way to the bed where I collapsed onto the mattress. Kicking my shoes off, I eyed my girlfriend as she slowly took off her jacket. Removing her beanie next, she turned her hazel eyes to me and frowned softly.

"You're gonna get the bed all wet." She whined.

I wrinkled my nose, and then held my arms up. "Undress me then." I suggested with a mischievous smirk.

Tilting her head to the side as she removed her earrings, a sly smile slowly crept across her lips. Setting her earrings on the dresser, she made her way toward me while swinging her hips slightly, yet in an extremely seductive way. When she climbed up onto the bed and gently straddled my waist, I bit my lip in an attempt to hold in a sudden moan at the thought of such things we were about to do.

Madison's eyes burned with a sudden intense desire and she smiled as she unzipped my jacket. Pulling it off of my body with no real troubles, she leaned over and pressed her lips to mine, kissing me passionately. With her taste exploding on my tongue, I reached up and gripped her hips tightly, puling her closer to me.

Her hands roamed my hair much like her tongue roamed my mouth and my heart rate increased rapidly as the seconds ticked away.

Just as one of her hands left my hair and made its way down to the zipper on my pants, Madison's cell phone started to ring from its place on the dresser. Madison pulled away from me in surprise, causing me to whine softly.

"Let it go to voicemail." I insisted.

"But that's my auntie's ringtone." She frowned. "She wouldn't call this late unless it was important."

"She's probably just making sure her SUV is still in one piece." I said, tugging her back toward me.

Madison, however, pulled out of my grip and went to answer her phone, leaving me behind on the bed to pout. Sighing heavily, I rolled over onto my belly and blocked out the conversation my girlfriend was having with whoever had called her. I closed my eyes and mentally cursed the one who had disrupted our plans.

"Kennedy." Madison said, her urgent voice cutting sharply through my thoughts.

Not accustomed to hearing that sort of tone in her voice, I quickly sat up and looked at her. Seeing the panic on her face, I stood up and placed my hands on her shoulders, steadying her.

"Madison, what is it?" I demanded.

"We have to go home." She said shakily. "My mom and brother are in the hospital."

"What?" I asked, shocked. "What happened?"

Madison simply shook her head as a single tear fell from her eyes. "I don't know." She whispered. "My auntie just called and told me they were in the hospital."

Seeing that more tears were beginning to fall, I took her in my arms and hugged her tightly. "Alright, alright." I whispered gently. "We'll go home."

Whispering other words of comfort into her ear, I led her back to the bed and then instructed for her to sit down while I gathered our things. Hearing the sound of my girlfriend crying softly in the background, I felt my heart drop to the pit of my stomach.

Whatever had happened back home, I hoped that her mom and brother would be okay.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Holding tightly to Kennedy's hand as I pulled him along the hallway, I simultaneously searched for the room number that the lady downstairs had told me my family would be. The hallways seemed endless and just when I was starting to feel hopeless, I turned one last corner and skidded to a stop when I nearly ran headlong into my cousin.

John stood there motionless, his eyes widened slightly in surprise as he looked down at me. Glancing at Kennedy quickly, John turned his attention back to me and then pried my hand gently away from Kennedy's. Giving it a quick squeeze, John led me away from Kennedy.

Once we were out of earshot of my boyfriend, John sighed softly. "I don't know if you want to see your mom and Jesse right now." He whispered.

"What do you mean?" I questioned as we came to a stop in front of the room number I had been searching for. "Of course I want to see them."

"Maddi - "

"No, John, Kennedy and I drove all the way from Tahoe," I snapped, "I'm going to see them."

Pushing John's hand away from mine, I opened the door and walked into the room. Upon entering the room, I gasped in shock when I saw what had happened. After I got over the initial shock, I felt the anger start to well up inside of me and my fists balled up at my sides involuntarily.

"Madison," my mom gasped, "what are you - "

"You let him do this to you guys," I growled. "You've stayed with him all these years, and this is what happened."

"Madison, it's not what you think." My mom whispered.

"Yes it is!" I yelled. "It's exactly what it looks like!"

"Sweetheart, please."

"No, mom." I said, shaking my head. "I moved out because dad has raised his hand to me for the last time. I would have thought that you had sense enough to leave too before things got worse, but obviously I was wrong."

Without another word to my mom (I couldn't even bare to look at my brother at the moment) I turned around and walked out of the room. Once in the hallway, I took slow, deep breaths in an attempt to steady myself. Feeling a single tear fall from my eyes, I reached up and hastily wiped it away.

"Madison, sweetheart?"

I looked up and gazed past the place were John and Kennedy were standing, and caught sight of my aunt making her way toward me. I sniffed back the other tears that were threatening to fall and then made my way toward her. She took a second to observe my expression, and then frowned softly.

"Oh, sweetie." She whispered.

"Where is he?" I asked.

"He's in custody." My aunt replied, knowing perfectly well who I was talking about.

"Mom's going to stay with him, isn't she?"

"I don't know, Maddi," she frowned.

"Well, she can go back to him if she wants, but I'm not letting Jesse go back to that place." I said firmly. "I'm going to call my aunt Francee and talk to her about getting custody of Jesse."

"Madison, are you sure?" She whispered. "I mean ... it's going to take a lot to support your brother. Sending him to school, clothes - "

"I can do it, auntie." I insisted. "I'm not letting him stay there any more."

My aunt opened her mouth to say something else, but I turned around and walked away from her. Passing by John and Kennedy, they both gave me sad looks, but either looked as if they didn't know what to say.

I didn't need them to say anything, though, because there was only one thing I could do to make this entire situation better, even if just slightly. Searching for the quickest route to the exit, I pulled out my cell phone and searched through my contacts, looking for the number to my aunt's lawyer firm.