“I wouldn’t expect anything less.” His voice was warm. It sounded wrong in the context. “So, what do you say? Will you be my girlfriend—officially?”
All I wanted was to say yes—to scream it—and jump into his arms. But I couldn’t let go of the very real concerns in my mind.
“What about Matthew?” I asked. “What will you do when he finds out? You can’t?—”
“Let me deal with Matt,” Charlie said, cutting off my rant. “But I promise, I won’t make you hide. I don’t want to ever hide this again.” He took a step closer to me, and I could feelthe warmth of his body. “So what do you say? Will you be my girlfriend?”
“Yes.” My voice broke, the word barely coming out as a whisper. This was the first time I’d ever let myself enter a relationship with the plan of it lasting more than a month, but I knew we could make it. We would make it.
“Yes,” I repeated. And then I did what I’d wanted to all summer—I jumped into his arms and kissed my boyfriend.
“I love you so much, Madison,” he murmured. He held me like that for a good few seconds before putting me back down. I landed unsteadily on my high heels. Charlie took off his suit jacket. “Here. It’s cold out.”
I shook my head but didn’t stop him from wrapping it around my shoulders. “I don’t feel cold at all.”
Charlie Owen was mine. All mine.
It felt like everything in the world had finally aligned exactly as it was supposed to. Like we were finally where we were meant to be. I had a feeling Charlie felt the same way too—that is, until a blur of a boy came out of nowhere and tackled him to the ground.
eighteen
Charlie landed heavilyon the ground, but I barely had time to process that before he was punched in the face.
“Hey!” I yelled. I reached for the guy’s arm as if I would be strong enough to pull him off, even though I knew I wouldn’t be able to. “What are you doing?”
They both ignored me as they grappled, Charlie’s arms going up in a defensive position while the boy punched at him. I didn’t understand how this happened—we hadn’t even been doing anything, and the boy had come out of nowhere. Was this somebody from their hockey team who was also at the wedding? But why would he choose now to go after him?
Charlie mumbled something, but I couldn’t understand what he was saying.
“I told you not to do it!” The boy yelled. A cold sweat ran down my back as I realized who that voice belonged to: Matthew. “I told you not to go out with her!”
The punch landed again, and Charlie’s head lolled to the side. Tears started flowing from my eyes, and I just stood there for a while, paralyzed by shock. This was all my fault. I knew coming here—even going out with him—was a terrible idea, but I’d done it anyway and now look at what was happening.
A new rush of adrenaline ran through me, and I tried to grab Matthew again. This time, I actually managed to grab his shoulder and pulled as hard as I could.
“Matthew, stop!”
“Get off me!” he yelled. He threw his hand back and, the next thing I knew, his hand connected with my face, causing me to fall to the ground. Pain blossomed in my face as I tried to get up. My nose felt broken, and blood was streaming down my chin. Tears blurred my vision, and all I wanted to do was curl into a ball and disappear.
“Don’t you dare touch her!” That voice wasn’t Matthew—it was Charlie. I lolled my head to the side just in time to watch Charlie get the upper hand and start punching Matthew instead of the other way around.
“This is your fault!” Matthew said. “I warned you!”
Charlie didn’t reply. He was too busy hitting Matthew over and over. I hoped that Charlie would have the sensibility to end the fight now that he had Matthew down, but he showed no signs of slowing down.
“Charlie, stop!” I yelled. My voice was hoarse from crying, and the pain in my face was starting to intensify. But even though I called his name, he didn’t seem to hear me.
“Charlie!” I screamed, this time louder than before. “Charlie, stop! He’s down!”
I could see the anger in Charlie’s eyes, and it made me even more afraid that he would do something he would later regret. I rolled over onto my side and forced myself up to my feet. I had definitely learned my lesson about trying to stop them, but that didn’t mean I could just let them continue fighting like this. They were showing no signs of slowing down, and I didn’t want to imagine what would happen if they kept going.
I ripped my high heels off and dropped them on the ground before taking off toward the venue. My dress was flying in thewind, and I hated to imagine what I must have looked like to everyone around me, but I didn’t let that slow me down. I needed to find somebody—anybody. My heart was pounding so hard I thought it would explode out of my chest, and I thought I might be sick, but I didn’t stop moving for a single second.
I was so focused on getting back to the main reception area that I didn’t even notice anyone else along the path until someone called my name. I skidded to a stop and looked around. Thomas was leaning against the wall with a cigarette dangling between his fingers, along with a few friends. He was grinning, but it slipped off his face as he looked at me. He immediately dropped his cigarette and ran over to me.
“Are you okay?” he asked. He grabbed my chin and turned my head each way, assessing me. “Were you punched?”
“Never mind that,” I said. My breath was coming out in gasps. I liked to think I was pretty fit but I didn’t sprint like that very often. “I need your help.”
