Lost, Then Found

Kim’s P.O.V.

For some reason that night I had the hardest time getting to sleep, but when I finally did I was back in my small apartment I lived in when I was in New York. My heart started racing the way it did every time Eli came storming through the door. I could already smell the alcohol on his breath, an indicator that tonight would not end well for me.

When Eli reached me he grabbed me by the arm and swung me into the wall. After falling to the ground he pulled me up just to smack me so hard forcing me to the ground once more.

"I'm sorry!" I shouted, not even knowing what I had done this time to upset him. It clearly was not hard to do now days.

"Sorry for what?" He shouted back as he kicked me in the stomach making me fall once again.

"I don't know." Tears began to run down my face.

"Why the fuck were you seen with another guy? Who is he?"

"I don't know what you're talking about Eli." He clearly did not believe me because that only earned me another smack to the face. It was much harder than the last if that was even possible. If my face was not marked by his last hit, it was surely marked by that one.

"Am I not good enough for you anymore? I don't want to lay my hands on you, but the stupid shit you do make me." With that being said he left me with a busted lip caused by the half drunken beer bottle he walked in with. He left slamming the door behind him knocking down a picture of us when we were happy. Hard to believe now that once upon a time we were actually happy together.

This behavior started becoming regular, Eli would come home drunk claiming he saw me with another man. How could have this been possible, he isolated me from everyone, including my best friend who was like a brother to me, he was the only family I had left besides Shianne. I should have been the one confronting him; he was the one who had been unfaithful. He'd come home smelling of other women’s perfume. It sure wasn't mine; he threw all of my bottles of perfume out the window saying there was no need for me to have it, claiming he already had me, there was no need for it unless I was going out trying to impress other men. I once made the mistake of confronting him with girl’s numbers I found in his pants pockets while doing the laundry. That got me a few cracked ribs, which I got from clumsily falling down the stairs, which was the excuse I was told to tell the doctor. I was just thankful he even took me to the doctor. He was so nice to me while I was recovering. He did everything he had done when we had first met, opening doors, making dinner, and doing the cleaning. I had actually believed he had changed. I believed he actually loved me, but it all came to an end the day I refused to sleep with him.

The ringtone of my phone brought me back from the horrible nightmare that I once called my life. I dug for my phone still half asleep. When I finally found it the name displayed across the screen made me freeze in place, it was Eli. He must have sobered up long enough to realize I was gone. Without even thinking I immediately went with my first instinct which sent my phone flying across the room hitting its destination of the wall smashing it to pieces. I guess it would have been smart to change my number once I arrived here. Tears flooded my eyes at the thought of the nightmare I just had. I was scared of the thought that he was possibly looking for me. What scared me even more was the thought of what he would do to me if he found me. He once told me he loved me to death, at the time I thought he was being sweet, little did I know he was serious. If it wasn't for him going out to drink I wouldn't have made it out alive. I kicked myself for being so scared of him, forcing myself to stay with him as long as I did. I could only hope and pray that, that would be the last time seeing his face.

I don't know exactly when it happened, but I finally managed to cry myself to sleep. I was happy when the nightmare did not pick up where it left off. This time I was back at the beautiful beach sitting in the warm sand next to a beautiful man with bronze colored skin, short black hair, and the warmest smile ever.

I was sitting next to Jared, captured by his eyes. When I gazed into them all I could see was love. I was so used to looking into a pair of eyes belonging to a man that I now despised, which only shown hate and anger when he looked at me. When I looked into Jared’s eyes it was completely different; I felt that I was loved and cared for, I felt like nothing in the world could go wrong when I was with him, and most of all I felt safe.

Jared’s touch was warm and gentle; his kisses were soft but passionate. Jared gently laid me on my back, the sand feeling warm and comfortable. All of his weight was now directly on top of me. I spread my legs slightly making this position a bit more comfortable for him. There was no conversation between us, neither of us seemed to mind the silence; it was nice. He lowered his head directing his lips to mine. When they touched my heart began racing, he must have noticed because he pulled back a little, looking at me for permission to continue. When I nodded he dropped his head so our lips could meet once again, this time he separated them allowing his tongue to brush against my lips begging them permission to enter. Permission granted; my lips separated allowing him access to my upper lip. He worked on my upper lip while I gladly worked on his lower one. His left hand slid up my body until it finally found what it was looking for. He began to caress my right breast. A moan escaped me, but I couldn’t help it. He had no idea how amazing it felt when he touched me. I could tell he enjoyed the sounds I made because I could feel him gradually grow between my thighs, only making me even more wet there. Every sound that escaped me only made Jared push himself harder against the spot he was only making wetter, I felt like he was teasing me.

We may have still had clothes on, but it still felt amazing. Jared’s lips left mine and made their way to my chin where he placed a light kiss; similar kisses followed making their way down to the cleavage that my shirt allowed to show. Jared kissed me there a few more times before allowing his tongue to make designs on my skin.

“MMM, Jared, that feels, mmm, so good.”

He pushed himself up against me again only building the tension between both of our legs. I wanted nothing more than for him to release it for me, for both of us. I loved how he felt against me, the way he fit there between my legs, it was like it was meant to be, but I craved more, I wanted our bodies to physically connect; I wanted him inside of me.

Jared raised his head to meet mine where he placed one last kiss upon my lips. He brushed his hand against my cheek, leaving my skin tingly at his touch. He smiled showing off those dimples that I fell in love with the moment I saw them. I tried to reach up and kiss his lips, but he held me down, each of his hands pinning each of mine to the side of me.

“Time to wake up baby girl.” Was all he left me with.

I woke up startled to the sound of someone banging on the door, and Koda barking. Who in the world would be at the door? The banging only intensified the longer I ignored it. For a split second my mind drifted back to the days I locked myself in the bathroom hiding from Eli, like it would keep me safe. This only made him angrier, which led to an even worse beating. There is no way it was him. No one knew where I was. There was no way he found me. I tried to keep telling myself that, trying to make the fear building up inside leave.

My heart began to flutter when I realized Jared took me home last night, he’s the only one who knows where I live. I raced to the door, unlocked it and swung the door open to reveal that it was not Jared.

“Jacob, what are you doing here?”

“She’s going to fucking marry him” He shouted ignoring my question.

“What, wait, who’s marrying who?” I took a few steps back allowing Jacob to enter and storm past me. He plopped down on my couch and planted his face within his hands.

“Bella’s marrying Edward, who else would I fucking be talking about?”

I’m not going to lie, the tone that he was using with me did sting a bit, but I decided to ignore it, he was clearly going through something right now and came to me looking for help, or just to vent to. “Jacob I’m so sorry. Maybe it’s for the best.”

“You don’t understand, he’s not good for her.”

“With all due respect, it’s not good for you to have a hold on someone that clearly doesn’t want you. I’m not trying to sound harsh, but it needs to be said. She said yes when he proposed right? That’s telling you something Jacob, move on.” I can’t believe I’m lecturing someone I just met yesterday. It’s even weirder that he’s listening as if my opinion mattered.

“She loves me too Kim, I could give her a better life than he ever could. It would be as easy as breathing with me.”

“Jacob, it breaks my heart to see you like this, you deserve so much better, can’t you see that. You have so much to offer, so much love to give, stop wasting it on her. You say she loves you, but it’s clearly not enough. I’ve been here less than a week and known you both less than that and I can already see she’s using you. Whether it is her intent or not, stop allowing it to happen.”

Jacob stiffened at my words, almost making me regret saying them. Did I push too far for only just meeting him? “What the fuck do you know? You’ve known me less than 24 hours and you think you know me.”

Once again his words stung, I knew he was right, but if he didn’t want to hear it than why was he here. “May I remind you that you showed up at my door? I’m sorry that you can’t handle the truth Jacob, or that your other friends are too scared to tell you like it is.”

“Yeah, well I guess it was a mistake to think that you would understand.” Jacob shot back as he was already halfway to his bike. I couldn’t let him leave like that, I had no idea where he was going, but wherever it was he was getting there fast. I grabbed my keys and took off after him in my car. I gave him space but stayed close enough to see where he was going. He turned off on to a long dirt driveway that finally let out revealing a huge house.

A man was already out on the porch as if he was expecting Jacob. The man was tall, at least compared to me he was. He was fairly thin and barely had any muscles compared to Jacob. He had golden brown hair, and the strangest colored eyes. Despite all that the one thing about him that really stuck out was how pale his skin was.

“Good to see you Jacob.” The man spoke as Jacob approached the house with his fists balled up.

“Where’s Bella, let me see her!”

“Jacob, leave it alone! Please, let’s go.” I yelled as I jogged to his side. I was not afraid of what this man would do to Jacob, I was afraid of what Jacob would do to this man.

“I didn’t ask you to follow me, go home Kim.” He shot back. Bella came through the door and stopped at the side of the pale man still standing on the porch.

“Jacob, Kim, what are you doing here?” She broke the silence.

“Bella, don’t do this, please! You know I’m better for you, just give me a chance to show you.” Jacob attempted to reach for Bella, but the pale man pushed his hand away.

“Jacob how many times have we been through this? You know it was going to happen sooner or later, just accept it and let me go.”

“I can’t do that, please Bella.”

“Jake, I don’t want you.” Jacob flinched at those words, but that didn’t stop her from continuing on as if she didn’t care that she was breaking his heart with ever rejection spewing from her mouth. “I’ve tried being nice, but you’re not getting it. It’s always been him.” The rejection wasn’t even aimed at me and it stung. Jacob was silent but began shaking. The shaking was even worse than it had been at the beach during their argument. I felt like I had to get him out of there before something bad happened. I grabbed Jacob’s arm guiding him back towards my car. Surprisingly he let me pull him towards the car. Jacob is a big guy, it literally took everything I had to get him to move, and he wasn’t even putting up a fight, I can’t imagine if he had.

His eyes were still locked on Bella who was comfortably wrapped up in the pale man’s arms who I’m assuming was Edward. As if publicly humiliating Jacob wasn’t enough she had to put the icing on the cake by acting all lovey dovey in front of him.

“Jacob are you ok?” Ok, so it was a stupid question to ask, but I needed to say something in order to tear his eyes away from that.

“What do you think?” He replied sarcastically leaning his head back on the headrest of the passenger seat.

“Ok, sorry, it was a dumb question.”

Jacob released a sigh as his hands ran over his face and dropped to his lap. The anger left, but in replace of it was sadness. “No, I’m sorry! I know you’re just trying to help me, although I still can’t figure out why.”

“It’s ok, I understand. I’d probably act the same way if I just had my heart ripped out. As far as why I’m helping you, who else is going to?”

“Right, thanks for coming after me. I probably would’ve killed him if you hadn’t showed up.”

“No you wouldn’t. You know that would have hurt Bella too much and even though she’s hurt you so many times it’s not in you to hurt her.”

“I guess you’re right. How is it that you know me so well?”

“I told you, I’m a good judge of character.”

“I guess so.”

It fell silent for what seemed like forever. My heart dropped when I just so happened to look at the clock on the dashboard that read 7:30. I can’t believe I forgot about something I was looking forward to, spending time with Jared.

“Fuck, Jacob, Jared was supposed to pick me up an hour ago for some fire with friends on the beach that he invited me to.”

“Chill out, I know where it’s at.”

Jacob pointed me into the direction of the beach. The rest of the ride was silent. I felt so bad; I could imagine Jared coming to the house only to find no one home. I screwed up our first date, if that’s what it was.