Make Me Bad

We’re getting so close to falling apart—together. Pleasure builds inside me just as he buries himself to the hilt, rolling his hips and when he moans deep against my lips, I moan too, coming with him. Completely lost.

The last wave of pleasure is still wracking through me right before a hand starts pounding against the garage door.

“Is someone in here?” a voice calls out.

Ben and I freeze. It’s Arianna.

Shit!

She turns the door handle and I shove Ben away from me. We fly apart. By the time she walks in, my pants are zipped up and I’m holding a power tool up in the air while striking a pose that says I definitely know what I’m doing: hand on hip, hip thrust to the side, legs spread apart.

“Yup, so that’s how you change a tire,” I say coolly, pressing the trigger for emphasis.

The drill whirs to life and I yelp and drop it.

“What the hell are you two doing in here?”

She’s laughing, but she shouldn’t be.

“Tire stuff.”

We should have hung a sock on the door or something. Ben would still be inside me at this very moment if only we’d planned ahead.

“The real question is, what are you doing here?” I ask, turning to her and giving her my most accusatory glare. I point a finger too, for emphasis.

It doesn’t work. She laughs and shakes her head, walking over to open the spare fridge.

“We needed more soda.”

Ben steps forward and takes the cases from her. “Here, I got it.”

Then he just walks out! With the soda! Without me!

What about pounding me on top of Andy’s bicycle?! I thought we’d do that next!

“So you really held out there for a while, huh?” Arianna taunts as we walk back into the house side by side.

“He’s very convincing!” I cry. “Have you seen his hands? They were touching my boobs. What did you want me to do?”

She throws her arm over my shoulder as she leads me toward the bathroom so I can clean myself up a little. When I’m finished, we commiserate together on our way to the kitchen. Apparently, Andy hasn’t told her why they were late either, but as it turns out, we’re about to get the full story.

“Babe, I’ve been looking for you everywhere!” Andy cries as soon as he spots Arianna and me chatting in the kitchen. He sounds relieved and immediately walks up for a kiss, but she stiff-arms him.

“Uh huh. I’ve just been here,” Arianna continues, “at your party, talking to your guests.”

Andy presses his hands together in prayer. His brows are pleading with her to understand. “Arianna, sweet Arianna—don’t you know what I was doing?” He points to me suddenly and theatrically. “I was saving Madison from certain doom! Tell them, Ben!” he says, eyes wide, tone dramatic. “Tell them what we were doing!”

Ben’s behind him now, holding up two drinks. I left mine in the garage so I happily accept his spare as he comes around to pass it off and tug me against him. Apparently, Ben’s into PDA. I’m all too happy to oblige. His finger hooks in my belt loop just as Andy prods him again.

“Ben! Help me out here, man!”

I glance up to him. “You were saving me from certain doom, huh?”

He shakes his head. “It wasn’t like that.”

“Don’t listen to him. He’s being modest! Ben was going to confront hardened criminals to get facts about that guy who nearly shot you a few months ago, Madison!” He’s talking animatedly now, his hands flying everywhere.

“I don’t think he was going to shoot me—”

My interruption goes ignored as Andy continues, “Arianna, Ben dragged me out of this house and forced me to participate in this wild mission! I wanted to be here with you! I can’t stand to be away from you for a single second. You know that.”

Oh my god. I can barely believe what I’m hearing. I want to burst out laughing, but when I glance over, Arianna’s eyes are melting pools of love. Wow. She’s buying this. They’re perfect for each other.

I look up at Ben, tone hard and unaffected. “What really happened?”

He sips his drink and shrugs. “I wanted to go see if anyone at Murphy’s had information about the incident. Turns out, there was no need. Your brother had already found the guy.”

I nearly drop my drink. “What? Are you serious?”

He tightens his grip on me. “They arrested him.”

It’s a staggering feeling, truly. I’m thrust right back to that night, one I’ve tried hard to pretend never happened. In some ways, my life continued on as normal. I didn’t stop walking home from the library. I brushed aside my family’s concerns on the matter, but sometimes, in bed at night, I’d still find myself YouTubing self-defense moves. I bought a can of pepper spray off Amazon and connected it to my keys. I looked over my shoulder more often than I did before, always aware that the person who attacked me might have the urge to do it again.

In some ways, I felt silly and paranoid. I didn’t want to wave the victim card and make the whole thing seem more dramatic than it was. I didn’t get hurt. He didn’t do anything to me, really. Now, I realize I was completely deluding myself. He did hurt me. Just because that trigger wasn’t pulled doesn’t mean his attack didn’t affect me. Now, I realize just how much relief comes with the knowledge that they caught him.

I need to sit down.

I turn for the dining room behind the kitchen and pull out a chair. Ben follows, concerned. I wave him off as I take a seat, unsure what words will come out if I speak.

“They’ll probably have you go down to the station.”

I nod, eyes focused on the woodgrain of the table.

“I’ll go with you.”

“Okay.”

“Madison? What’s wrong?”

“I’m relieved. I just don’t think I want to go down there. I don’t want to have to see him.”

Ben sits down in the chair beside mine, leans over, and takes my hands. “He won’t hurt you again.”

I sit quietly for a few moments, working through all the conflicting emotions starting to bubble up inside me. “Is it strange that I kind of feel bad for him?”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know. I don’t want to go down there and identify him and put him in jail. I don’t want to be the reason he’s there.”

“He did something wrong. You’re in no way to blame.”

To Ben, this is black and white.

“Right, but why’d he do it? Do we know yet? Maybe he really needed money. Maybe he was—”

“Colten arrested his brother last year. Apparently, this guy wanted to get revenge. You were an easy target.”

“Oh…”

I don’t have to look over to know his eyebrows are furrowed, his mouth tugged in a hard line. “You still feel guilty, don’t you? Why?”

“It’s hard to explain.”

He murmurs under his breath and I know I’m making him angry. It’s a hard concept to explain to someone.

Suddenly, he stands, taking me with him. “Let’s go down to the station now. I bet Colten’s still there.”

“What about Andy’s party?”

When we look over, Andy and Arianna are hardcore making out against the kitchen island. Andy is moaning against her mouth. Cups are clattering to the floor behind them.

“Baby, I’m so sorry I upset you,” he says hungrily.

Arianna is fisting his shirt.

Oh jeez. I cover my eyes.

They’re about to do it right there, in the middle of the party. I really hope her brother is still in the back yard.

Ben laughs. “Yeah, they won’t miss us. C’mon.”

I don’t fully understand Ben’s motives as we arrive at the police station and an officer directs us back to Colten’s desk. We find my brother sitting there with a day’s worth of stubble and three cups of coffee spread out across a mountain of paperwork. He looks exhausted.

“Madison,” he says, relieved when he glances up and sees us approaching. “I was just about to call you.”

I nod and glance over at Ben. What are we doing here? I don’t want to see the guy. I definitely don’t want to have to speak to him or anything. I know that makes me a wimp, but I’d rather go my entire life without having to confront him.

“I told Madison what happened,” Ben explains to Colten. “And I think she should see this guy’s criminal history.”

My stomach drops.

“What? Why?” I ask.

“Because you feel guilty that he’ll be put away for this one thing he did to you, like it’s not bad enough, but what if that’s not all he’s done?”

Colten snorts and shakes his head. “Give me a second.”

He types something on his computer, clicks around, types some more, and then swivels his monitor so we can see it. Scrolling fast, it still takes him a while to make it through this guy’s entire criminal history. Random words jump out at me: grand larceny, second degree felony, aggravated assault and battery.

Good lord.

It’s hard to catch my breath.

I really thought he wouldn’t hurt me! I really thought he had just fallen on hard times or…Jesus! I’m so naive!