Forgotten Kisses.

“Dahlia, finally, you’re home!” Alex stood up from the bed with wide eyes once I finally returned home and stepped into the bedroom. “You guys have been gone all night.”

I glanced down at my heels and nodded before I sat down on the edge of the bed and slipped them off. “Yeah, Allison didn’t want to leave, it was her first time meeting the guys.”

I watched him from the corner of my eye as he nodded and walked to get into my front line of vision. “Where is she, is she downstairs?” he asked curiously.

I shook my head and pulled the zipper down on the side of my dress and slid it off, leaving me in my underwear. “No, Max said he had more than enough room for her to stay at his place.”

I carefully watched Alex as he came closer to me and rested his hands on my hips, his pointer fingers running patterns along my hip bone. This was my fiancé, the man I was planned to marry, but after feeling Josh’s hand on the same places, it felt wrong for Alex to even be close to me.

“It’s been a while,” he trailed off, his hands running along my sides. “I wish hearing you scream out my name.”

I shuttered at the feel of his hands on me, not from pleasure, but from the utter uncomfortable feeling he was giving me. I mustered up a fake smile and pulled away from him, heading towards my side of the bed. “I’m kind of tired from tonight,” I explained softly and slid into the bed, pulling the covers up.

Alex sighed deeply and I watched as he began to pace the room slightly, his hand reaching up to push back his clean hair that wasn’t held in place with pomade at the moment. “What do you want from me?”

“I’m sorry?” His question had completely caught me off guard. I was at a loss of what to say to him. I mean, what was the right answer? What did I want from him?

“I asked, what do you want from me?” his voice dropped an octave and I prayed to God he wasn’t in the mood to start an argument already, the moment I got home, but it seemed to be heading that way.

“I don’t want anything, I-“

“Then what the fuck is going on? We’re engaged, we’re in a relationship, we have sex. I don’t see the problem here.” He was highly irritated, he was tugging at the ends of his sandy brown hair and I bit my lip.

“I just, I’m tired. I just want to sleep.” My voice was soft.

“It’s because of fucking Allison,” he spat. “That bitch never liked me in the first place, and I knew the moment she walked through these doors, she’d do nothing but start problems.” He snorted. “No wonder she got along so great with those idiots, she’s just as fucking pathetic as they are.”

“Don’t fucking talk about Allison like that!” I had yelled so loudly that I was sure I had woken up my father and Catherine down the hall. I was fuming. How dare he just jump in and talk badly about someone who’d been with me my entire life. “You have no right to talk about her like that.” My voice lowered a bit.

He looked beside himself. “Did you really just raise your voice at me?” his eyes were wide. “Did you really just fucking talk back to me?”

I slowly stood from the bed and walked backwards the closer he got towards me. His eyes narrowed and if anger could be seen radiating off of him, it’d be the color of fresh picked tomatoes. “You never seem to learn your fucking place and I’m sick of it. All of your fucking little piece of shit friends are always egging you on, teaching you to act like a piece of trash, but this is not the way to go. You’re going to be my wife, and you are going to learn to behave correctly.” He was mill centimeters away from me now. “Even if I have to force it into you.”

I closed my eyes tightly, awaiting for the impact that was surely to come, but the sound of the bedroom door slamming open tore my eyes open and I glanced up to find Catherine standing in the doorway, a stern expression on her features and a metal bat in the other. “Get away from Lia,” she warned him. “Now.”

“Catherine,” he smiled, trying to reassure her. “Calm down, the two of us are just having a little talk.”

“Listen to me right now, Alex, because I’m not going to repeat myself.” Her green eyes were intently focused on him. “You must think everyone around you is an idiot if we thought we couldn’t put together that you were the one who mangled her face.” She stepped forward, the bat shinning a bit from the reflection hitting the light. “I really don’t like it when men feel they can hit women, especially if said woman is my family.”

Alex’s eyes were narrowed again and he seemed to be growing more and more impatient with each second. “Listen, Catherine, just put the bat down and let me handle my business with Lia.”

Catherine’s lips formed an ‘o’. “Put it down?” she asked and once Alex nodded, she slowly followed suit, nodding as well. “Oh, okay.” She seemed to be putting it down and then quickly swung it out harshly, hitting him square in the leg, knocking him down. “Whoops!” she chuckled. “I’m getting so old, I can’t even hold my arm steady.”

“You fuckin’ bitch!” he shouted as he grasped his leg tightly, obviously in extreme pain from the hit he had just taken. “You’re out of your fuckin’ mind!”

She merely smiled and held her hand out, beckoning me closer. “Now, Lia, sweetheart, don’t you have something you want to say?”

“Get the fuck out,” I spat, finally finding my voice. “Get out of my house, right fucking now, or I’m having the police called.” I watched his eyes widen. “And when you get home, you can ship my things to me.”

“Dahlia, what are you doing?” he questioned, suddenly using a softer tone.

“I’m breaking up with you, you fucking asshole.” I came forward, kicking him harshly in the leg. He let out a screeching fuck and darted forward to retaliate and hit me. Catherine’s bat quickly came forward and slammed his arm down.

“Keep your filthy hands to yourself, young man.” She smiled once again and I found myself loving Catherine even more. “Now don’t make Lia repeat herself, get your bags and leave now.”

“And you,” Catherine turned to me, pushing my hair behind my ear. “I think we both know where you need to go, right now.”

I wanted to ask her, if she’d known what was going on this whole time. I wanted to ask if she was actually an angel sent to me to look out for me. I wanted to ask her so many things in that moment, but I knew those could wait. But what I had to say, what I had to do in that moment was ten times more important.

I quickly slipped on some clothes and stepped into some flip flops. I gave Catherine a smile as I passed, but she was focused instead on keeping a watchful eye on Alex who had begun packing, her trusty bat in hand.

I quickly darted across the street and I didn’t even think about or care what time it was and I began knocking harshly on the front door, wanting any one of the Franceschi’s to answer, to let me in, to let me to him.

Josh’s figure appeared at the door and he seemed immensely more tired than he had half an hour ago when we’d arrived home. He had a small smile on his lips as he looked down at me. “Lia, it’s late, what’re you doing waking up my whole family so late?”

I could’ve answered him. Actually, there were plenty of things I could’ve said in that moment, like, I’m free orwe can finally be together or God, how do you always look so sexy without a shirt on? or better yet, is that a present in your boxers, or are you just happy to see me? But no, instead, I simply came forward, and crashed my lips onto his unexpecting ones and melted into his frame immediately.

Once we finally pulled away from one another, he pressed his forehead against mine and he smiled brightly, his perfect teeth showing. “What?” I asked softly, not caring that all of this was happening in the doorway of his house, and here I was standing outside in the middle of the night.

“You know what that kiss tasted like?” he asked me, and I couldn’t tell if he was being serious or joking, but I humored him nonetheless.

“What?” I played along and his smile only seemed to increase with each passing second.

“It tasted like freedom, baby.” He grinned before crashing his lips against mine then.

“Does this mean we’re together now?” I asked softly, but before Josh could utter a word, Dumb and Dumber appeared in the doorway behind Josh with shit eating grins on their faces.

“What the hell are you guys doing here?” I asked with a dumb founded expression on my features, as I recalled them driving off to his apartment.

“Are you serious?” Allison snorted. “And miss this? No fucking way!” Allison wrapped her arm around Max’s shoulder. “We knew this was coming, we wanted front row seats.”

Max seemed utterly pleased with himself. “We kick so much ass,” Max noted with a smirk and Allison grinned.

“Fuck yeah we do,” the two reached up, their hands meeting in an overly exaggerated high five.

“Our friends are completely fucking retarded.” Josh mumbled, but I could barely understand him because I brought my lips back to his.