Chapter 3
Adeline
Fuck me. Seriously though this is the first thing I thought of when I opened my eyes and saw a massive dog buried into my side. I knew I wasn’t in my own bedroom, and definitely not at Tim or Jake’s. The walls were a smoky grey color and matched the comforter of the king sized bed I was propped up in. A few small pieces of furniture lined the walls but for the most part the room felt empty, and barren. My head was pounding and my eyes could barely open, the morning sunlight hurt like a bitch. I moved into a sitting position and dog beside me groaned as if I was disturbing him. On the night stand next to the bed was a glass of water and some ibuprofen which I inhaled almost immediately.
“Where am I boy?” I ask out loud. I swear to god this dog literally rolled his eyes at me. The last thing I remember was being on Tim’s deck for the better part of yesterday. I had to find some way to drown out my sorrows. The booze and weed managed to do the job perfectly, at least for a little while. After a while Jake and Tim managed to get tired of my drunken rantings and headed inside leaving me alone, cold and tired. Looking down I noticed I had on only a man sized T-shirt and undies underneath. What the Hell?
As quietly as possible I make my way out of the bedroom and to the nearest bathroom. Thankfully its right outside the door. I take in my appearance after finishing my business and wince at myself in the mirror. I look terrible. I literally looked as if I was hit by a truck. My hair is matted and stuck to my forehead. The bags under my eyes are deep and dark, and not entirely from the black mascara smudged all over. I tip toe my way back into the room and frantically looking around the room for my clothes and come up empty handed. The room starts to spin and I have to take a minute and end up back on the bed where I started.
“Adeline.” A deep masculine voice pierces the silence and causes me to jump. When I look up my heart almost stops in its tracks. The darkest pair of chocolate eyes are fixated completely on me. I let my eyes travel the length of his ginormous body, from his enormous biceps to the fitted T-shirt stretched tightly over his wash bored abs. His hair is jet black and tousled as if he’s had a rough night of sleep. Guessing by the made up sheets on the other side of the bed, he no doubt must have slept on the couch last night. It’s almost impossible to force words out of my suddenly dry mouth, but somehow I manage.
“Did we…did I?” I can feel my cheeks light up like fire. “Did we have sex?” oh fuck me, did I seriously just ask that?
“No, we did not.” my lungs release the breath I didn’t know I was holding.
“How did I get here?” I feel the dog shift beside me as I force myself to meet his dark penetrating eyes once again.
“I found you out in the yard.” Great. I’m the spitting image of my drugged up mother, passing out on the neighbor’s lawns. “Max found you out in the yard. I brought you inside, cleaned you up and let you sleep.” he corrects himself when the lump of fur in my lap rejects his first statement.
“Did you see me naked?” I slap my forehead as soon as the words flow from my lips.
“I only removed your dirty clothes to replace them with something clean while I washed the others. It was nothing more than that.” He turns abruptly to leave.
“Wait!” I yell and he comes to a complete stop. “What’s your name?” I ask a question me and the entire town already knows the answer to.
“Gideon… Gideon Wellfleet.” It takes me a few minutes until I’m able to respond. The way his name dripped from his plump lips had my throat going dry. I can’t help the way my body seems to be reacting to his.
“Thank you Gideon, for helping Me.” all at once he leaves and I’m left almost completely alone except for the huge fur ball half laying in my lap.
I had one mind fuck of a morning. Never in all my drunkenness have I ever been that obliterated. I’m seriously going to have to talk to Tim and Jake about this. They’ll never believe Gideon Wellfleet came to my rescue. Matter of fact they’ll probably have a coronary.
Making my escape was more awkward then our initial conversation. Gideon wanted me to stay, or at least suggested I did, and I politely turned him down. I used some lame excuse like my mom must have been worried about me, which couldn’t be further from the truth. A part of me thought Gideon caught onto my lies. A spark lit up in his eyes every time I tried to lie my way out of his house. He knew… he had to have. I continued my walk of shame down his driveway and all the way back to the tiny little shack I call home.
“Where’ve you been Addy? I’m out of cigarettes.” My mother’s rough smokers voice cuts through the stale air like a knife.
“I was out with Jaimie.” I lie. “I’ll add it to the list and grab some tonight.” I trudge by her frail form stuck on the living room couch, and find my way into my bedroom. I head straight over to the top drawer of my dresser to take out the long grocery list and add on my mother’s request. You know… necessities. My hand dives down deep under all the socks and underwear searching for the wad of grocery money I stashed away only to come up empty handed. My heart sinks as I start ripping all the contents of the drawer out, and throw everything onto the floor. I know I had money tucked away in here somewhere!
“MOM!” I scream as anger and adrenalin take over my body. “Where is it?” I yell as I stomp out into the living room.
“Where’s what hunny?” She asks all innocent like. I know her well enough to know she’s lying.
“The money!” I practically screech. “The goddamn grocery money I’ve been saving for the past three weeks!” I can feel my cheeks turning red as my temper rises.
“Oh, that money? I had to pay the electric bill; I didn’t think you would mind.” Liar! I want to scream at her.
“Show me the receipt.” I demand sticking my hand out, patiently waiting for her to validate her statement. “Show me!” at this point I’m literally fuming with anger. I’d be surprised if smoke wasn’t pouring out of my ears.
“I don’t know, Addy. I had Dave pay over the phone.” Oh yeah that sounds about right, she had her flavor of the week pay it over the phone… Bullshit. She brushes off the conversation and continues to watch whatever soap opera plays on the screen in front of her.
“That was for groceries!” I cry out, before almost ripping my hair out in frustration. I know well enough that the money wasn’t spent on our electric bill. Judging by the late notice we received a few days ago we’re probably about one week away from getting shut off completely. Now we’re going to starve, all because my mother is addicted to smack. I stomp my way back into my bedroom, searching high and low for whatever loose change I can find. I come up with just around six bucks, enough for some milk and cereal. I guess that will last long enough until I can pick up another shift down at the quick stop. It’s going to half to. I remind myself.
Plopping down onto my tiny twin sized bed I throw my head into my pillow and let out all my frustration. I scream so loud I think the neighbors can hear me, the worn out cotton of my dirty old pillow barley sound proof. After a while my screams turn into tears, and then yawns and eventually I fall asleep completely. My body is exhausted from all of the emotional and physical stress I’ve put it under in the past week.