You Had Me at Hello

Morgan's P.O.V.

I watched Alex, Hoovey, and CJ walk away with a smile on my face, happy that all my guys were getting along. As I was standing looking out over the lake I took a moment to relax and to think about how lucky I was to have such amazing friends and such a wonderful family. I thought about how truly blessed I was and at that moment everything in life felt perfect.

My phone rang and when I looked it was a number I didn’t know but I decided to answer anyway. As I answered I walked to the side of the house where it was quieter.

“Hello?”

“Morgan?”

“This is she. Who is this?”

“I love you, baby. I miss you. I forgive you.”

“Who is this?”

“Turn around.”

As I turned I was about to ask again who it was but as soon as I completed my turn, I realized that I already knew and had known from his first words.

“Stefan, what are you doing here?”

“Like I said, I missed you baby. Eight months is a long time.”

“I thought you were supposed to be in jail for two years.”

“I got out early for good behavior.”

“What?”

“Yup, I’m such a good boy that they let me out early and it just so happened that I found out about your little party and just knew that I had to be here to help you celebrate.”

“Nick, you need to leave now. I don’t want you here.”

“Well that hurts. Baby, don’t be like that. I love you. I’m sorry for how I acted. I never should have hit you.”

“You’re right. You shouldn’t have. Unfortunately you hitting me wasn’t the worst thing you did to me. You making me feel like shit constantly was. It’s been eight fucking months and I still catch myself thinking horrible things about myself. I have no fucking self-esteem because of you. I never want to see you again. I would have thought that my getting you sent to jail would have been clear enough. Seriously Stefan, get the fuck out of here.”

“No. You are still mine and I will take what it mine,” he said as he grabbed my arms and pulled me to him, crushing his lips to mine. When I didn’t kiss him back, he shook me and started kissing down my neck. I tried to push him away but apparently he had been working out because I couldn’t move him. Soon he moved from my neck and started to kiss down the side of the v-neckline of my dress. When he got to the point he moved up the other side. Just as I was about to scream he pushed his lips back to mine at the same time pushing my back against the side of the house with enough force to knock the wind out of me. He continued to try to kiss me and at the same time he let go of my arms only to move one hand to my neck while the other went to the bottom hem of my dress. Just as his hand slipped under my dress I finally got my senses back and kneed him as hard as I could in the balls. His grip slipped just enough that I was able to get away.

I ran around the front of the house with tears streaming down my face and because I wasn’t looking to see where I was going I ran right into Alex who had Hoovey and CJ behind him.

“Morgan! What’s wrong?” I couldn’t answer so I just pointed to the side of the house I had come from. Hoovey and CJ took off to see what it was and Alex pulled me into his arms before moving the two of us around the corner of the house to see what was going on.

The scene in front of us froze my blood even more than Stefan’s hands on me had. Stefan was standing facing Hoovey and CJ and had a knife in his hand. Alex gently pushed me against the side of the house and told me to stay there before moving up to stand between Hoovey and CJ. I regretted in that moment having never told Alex about Stefan. Hoovey and CJ knew what he had done to me but Alex had no clue.

“Put the knife down,” Alex said calmly.

“Fuck you.”

“What the hell? Dude just put the knife down; if you want to fight then do it like a man without a weapon.”

“This cocksucker isn’t a man. He is barely a human and I don’t know if he even counts as that,” Hoovey spit out.

“Who the fuck is he?”

“Stefan, Morgan’s fucker of an ex,” CJ answered.

“Wait, Stefan as in the asshole who should be in jail?”

“That’s me,” Stefan said with a sick smile as he lunged at CJ, knife first. What followed will haunt my nightmares for years.

Stefan managed to cut CJ across the cheek before Hoovey tackled him getting cut on the arm in the process. Hoovey grabbed Stefan’s arm before he could cut him again and pinned it to the ground. While Hoovey was trying to get the knife from Stefan’s hand Alex punched Nick so hard his head snapped back and slammed off the ground. Stefan continued to fight with everything he had managing to cut Hoovey again before Hoovey finally got the knife from him. At this point Hoovey folded the knife and put it in his pocket before standing up and kicking Stefan in the ribs. Alex and CJ were also kicking and hitting Stefan and continued until he stopped moving. Once they finally stopped I found my voice and asked if he was dead. CJ checked his pulse and found that he was still alive which I was glad because I didn’t want CJ, Alex, or Hoovey to have to deal with murder charges. Apparently the fight had been louder than I thought because most of the party was standing by the side of the house when I looked back. I told Jen to call 911. Before Jen could call, a couple of guests stepped up and I recognized them as the owners of a local ambulance company. The two guys stepped up and began checking Stefan over to see what the damage was.

At this point I was shaking and felt like I should be ready to collapse when Hoovey, CJ, and Alex stepped up to me and Alex pulled me into his arms and while I buried my face in Alex’s chest, I felt Hoovey and CJ rubbing my back.

The guys that were checking Stefan told me that none of his injuries were life threatening but they still wanted to take him to the hospital. I said that was fine but I asked them to check Hoovey, CJ, and Alex before they left. They agreed and after stitching up CJ and Hoovey, they loaded Stefan into the ambulance and took off promising that they would call the police on the way and tell them what happened.

After they left, most of the people there drifted back to the front of the house understanding that we needed space to deal with what had just happened. My parents, brother, CJ, Hoovey, Alex and Jen and her family were all that stayed with me. After a minute Jen walked up to me, gave me a hug and asked me what the hell happened.

I took a breath and told them everything that had happened. I was too shocked still to speak above a whisper and by the end I could barely talk. Alex pulled me back into his arms and ran his hands up and down my back as I bawled my eyes out about what had just happened and what could have happened. After a few minutes I calmed down and stepped out of Alex’s embrace, wiping my eyes. I took a deep breath and forced a smile and told everyone that I would be ok. I don’t know if anyone actually believed me but they were all nice enough to pretend that they did. Everyone either hugged me or squeezed my hand before walking back to the front of the house. Soon it was just Jen, me and the three guys.

I looked up at Alex, Hoovey, and CJ and thanked them from the bottom of my heart and told them that I didn’t know how I would ever make it up to them for what they had just done for me. Hoovey always the joker said that I just had to bake some cookies and he would be fine which of course made me laugh just as he intended. I hugged him and told him that I loved him and that I would make him a batch first thing tomorrow morning. CJ just told me that I had to promise to never scare him like that again, I agreed hugging him and telling him I loved him as well. Alex just smiled and said that it was part of his job. I shook my head and smiled and hugged him. Jen then ‘yelled’ at me for scaring her and also made me promise that I wouldn’t do it again. I agreed and soon after that we all walked back to the front of the house to see that the party was still in full swing.

I suddenly felt exhausted and wished that I could just go home. It seemed like Alex could read my mind when he squeezed my hand and asked if I wanted to get out of there. I nodded and after finding Jen’s parents and thanking them for letting me have my party here, promised to come back tomorrow to help clean up. They understood that I just wanted to leave and said that that was fine. I said good bye to everyone, thanking them for coming and after making sure that all the hockey guys would be ok and that they knew how to get back to the house later, Alex and I walked down the driveway to where we had parked that morning. When we got in the car, Alex leaned over and kissed me gently on the lips before taking my hand and driving me home.