Seems Like We Lost It All

“Not interested, sorry,” Brian said to the girl offering to buy him a drink. She scoffed and walked off, clearly offended he wasn’t going to give her the time of day. He had more important things to be worried about at that moment. Like the way the guy Madison was currently dancing with had his hands all over her. She had insisted on dragging him down to the hotel bar that night and promptly deserted him the second the person asked her to dance.

A protective instinct like he’d never felt before burned inside him and he couldn’t tear his eyes away from the pair. The guy had been ordering her drink after drink for the better part of an hour. He was clearly trying to get her completely wasted. Brian had been pacing himself with his drinks, wanting to stay mostly sober to watch out for her. Matt would murder him if he let anything happen to her. Madison tripped over her own feet and fell into the guy and Brian pushed away his half empty drink. He knew what the guy was thinking, having done the same thing countless times himself, and knew any second now he’d have to go pry Madison away from him.

He watched with a scowl as Madison grinded her body against the stranger’s while his hands crept up under her shirt. He leaned forward and whispered something in her ear which caused her to nod. The guy grabbed her hand and started leading her toward the exit.

Brian took that as his cue and got up from his seat to follow them. He rounded the corner just in time to see the two go into the elevator. Madison was holding her head and looking around, seeming slightly confused. She staggered, being held up by the stranger.

Brian realized what was really happening about the same time the guy jabbed the door close button. If that asshole drugged her, he was going to kill him.

“Fuck,” Brian breathed. He watched the lights on the elevator, they stopped at the third floor. He turned and ran up the stairs as fast as he could. The hallway was deserted by the time he reached it. Having no other idea of what to do, he hurried to each door pressing his ear against them one by one. About halfway down he heard Madison’s voice. It was weak and slurred but it was her.

He used his fist to roughly beat on the door. “Open this fucking door, right now!”

“Go away!” the man inside yelled back. Like hell he would.

Without really thinking much into it, he backed up a few steps and then tried his best to kick down the door. The door shuddered violently but didn’t budge. He rammed his shoulder into it twice then with one final kick it burst open.

The man who was leaning over Madison on the bed was on his feet in an instant and threw a punch at Brian which he dodged. In return, Brian slammed his fist into the creep’s nose once then twice more for good measure before shoving him to the floor. Then he went straight to Madison. Luckily he had gotten no further than taking her shirt off and unbuttoning her jeans so Brian quickly helped her get fully dressed again then lifted her up off the bed gently.

He carried her past the guy who was still on the floor holding his face, stomping on the hand that shot out trying to grab his ankle. It was a good thing Brian was carrying her because he wanted nothing more than to get his hands on the piece of shit on the floor again. Focusing on the task at hand, he carried her all the way to the elevator then to their room. Where he placed her down gently on the bed then pulled the blankets over her because she was shaking.

“Brian the hero...” she whispered before making a weak sound that could probably be defined as a giggle.

“Shh don’t use your energy trying to talk.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize, everything is fine now.” He brushed her hair off her forehead and she leaned into his touch. “Do you need some water?”

“Please.” He grabbed a bottle of water from the mini fridge and helped her sit up so she could drink some. Once she was settled back down he slid into the bed beside her.

“Can we not tell Matt about this?”

“If that’s what you want, I won’t tell him.”

“Good.” She fell silent then and soon enough her breathing evened out and she was asleep. Brian didn’t sleep for a long time. He found himself watching her, making sure she was breathing properly and that there were no reactions to the drug.

He must have fallen asleep at some point because the next thing he knew he was opening his eyes to light streaming through the windows. Madison was curled against him with her head on his chest. His arm was around her and he realized that’s what woke him up, his arm felt like it was going to fall off.

“Thanks for everything last night,” she said softly. She bit down on her lip, seeming close to tears.

Brian shifted slightly, getting her weight off of his arm. He wrapped his other arm around her as the first tears rolled down her cheeks. “You don’t have to thank me.”

“Yeah I do. If you weren’t watching me..”

“I was and that’s all that matters. Don’t think about the what ifs, nothing happened. Now what do you say we get dressed and get out of this place? We can grab breakfast somewhere and get back home before your brother has a complete meltdown.” She nodded and he wiped her tears away.

Madison grabbed clothes from her suitcase and disappeared into the bathroom. Brian took the opportunity to dig through the bags from their quick shopping trip the day before and find some clean clothes for himself. He winced as he pulled his shirt over his head. His shoulder was throbbing from breaking down the door the night before and there was a nasty bruise. He dressed quickly, not wanting Madison to come out and see the injury which would only make her feel worse.

There was suddenly a loud knock on the door. Brian crossed the room and opened it up until the chain stopped it from going any further in case the creeper from the night before had managed to find them. That would’ve actually been preferable to who was really waiting on the other side.

“Matt what are you doing here, man? Hold on a sec.” He quickly shut the door so he could remove the chain and opened it again to let Matt inside.

“You can’t just disappear with my sister without telling anyone where you’re going and not expect me to come looking. Luckily someone posted a picture online of you at the bar last night and it was pretty damn easy to find you from there. Now you need to tell me what the hell is going on here.”

“I can’t give you details, only Madison can do that. And I don’t think she’s ready to talk about it right now. She just needed to get away and wouldn’t you rather I come with her than let her run off on her own?”

“I would have prefered you not to let her disappear at all.”

The bathroom door opened and Madison stepped out, freezing in place as soon as she spotted Matt sitting on the edge of the bed. “What are you doing here, Matt?” She asked with a sigh.

“I’m the one that should be asking you that! Why are you here?”

“I needed a break, that’s all.” She turned to her suitcase so she could toss in her toiletry bag and gather up the few articles of clothing that were scattered around.

“It’s not like you to just disappear. Either something happened or you’re fucking Haner.”

“Fine you win, I’m fucking Haner. Happy?” Brian’s eyes grew wide knowing all hell was about to break loose and he was going to be on the receiving end of it.