My Last(71)

He was about to ask her what the hell she was doing when he saw tears streaming down her cheeks. He froze, not sure how to proceed. His first instinct was to pull her into his arms and tell her everything would be fine. He wanted to tell her that he would never hurt her, and that he would never let anyone else hurt her, either.

But, the problem was, he knew that was a lie. Those would be hollow assurances, designed to make the two of them feel better in the moment, but containing no actual truth.

The truth was that he might be able to protect her from the rest of the world...but he would never be able to protect her from himself. He would hurt her. He was sure of that. It was in his DNA.

“Chelle…” He began still uncertain of what to say.

Sniffing and, from the looks of it, trying desperately to put on a brave face, Chelle patted the trunk of the car, “Pop it, so I can get my bags.”

He did as she asked and reached in to pull out her suitcase and carry-on. As soon as he had them out of the trunk, Chelle reached out and tried to take them from him.

“I got it,” she said firmly.

“It’s okay, I’ll take them in for you.”

She shook her head decisively, “Nope, really, I’ve got it.”

He heard someone clearing their throat loudly and looked towards the house. He saw David the Douchebag standing on the porch, arms crossed, glaring at them. Riley's gut tightened. Even if this asshole hadn't hurt Chelle, Riley would have wanted to knock him out based on nothing more than the incredibly smug air of self-righteous anger that was coming off of him in waves at this moment.

Holy shit this guy was a douchebag!

Riley looked back at Chelle. She was holding out her hands, waiting for him to hand over her luggage. Well, hell, she could stand there all day and he still wasn't about to let her drag these heavy bags up those steps. He was that much of a gentleman, at least!

He turned and began walking towards the steps that David stood at the top of, glaring silently.

“Riley, give me my bags,” He heard Chelle say with an urgent note in her voice as she quickly fell in behind him.

“I’m just taking them up to the door.” He turned to look back at her, hoping to gauge just exactly how mad she was. He didn’t want to really, truly piss her off...but there was no way in hell that was she going to carry anything that heavy when he was around!

Her shoulders slumped and she sighed loudly, making her displeasure known. “Fine.”

As he turned back around he saw David had moved to stand directly in the path to the front door.

“Where do you think you’re going, Sloan?” He puffed out his chest.

Riley had to suppress a laugh. Douchebag David could not be serious.

“Move, David.” Riley didn’t mean it to come out sounding as harsh as it did, but he was not in the mood to deal with this crap. If Chelle wanted to, that was her prerogative...but that didn't mean he had to.

“Leave them by the door and then get the hell off my property.” David slurred.

Two thoughts immediately filled Riley’s head. First, this guy really wanted to get his ass kicked. Second, David was hammered.

After setting the luggage down by the door Riley turned back to Chelle, “I’m not leaving you with him.”

“I’ll be fine. He’s harmless.” Chelle rolled her eyes.

“Hey,” David tried to step closer to them but ended up tripping over his own feet. He grabbed the railing and was able to steady himself. “Don’t talk about me like I’m not even in the room.”

“This is a porch.”

David glanced around, surprised, like he hadn't even realized where he was.

“Don't talk about me like I'm not on the porch.”

Riley tried to quickly assess the situation, to decide if it was actually safe to leave her here with him. Before he could come to a determination, however, Chelle pushed past him and opened the front door. Stepping inside, awkwardly pulling her baggage along with her. David stumbled through the door in her wake.

Before shutting the front door behind her, she looked up at him and smiled – a sad smile, but a smile nonetheless – and it hit him like a ton of bricks. “Thanks for everything, Riley. You’ve been amazing. I really do appreciate it so much.”

With that, she shut the door. He stood for a moment on her porch, stunned and feeling at loose ends. Not knowing what else to do, he pulled out his phone and scrolled to a familiar number on speed dial.



--- ~ ---



Chelle leaned her forehead against the wooden front door. Her body felt so heavy. She wanted to crawl into bed, pull the covers over her head and hide from the world.

Well...first she wanted to order a pizza and get some ice cream...but then she wanted to crawl into bed and stay there.