“Dude, what the fuck are you doing here?” He asked before looking at Scarlett. “Did you not hear the doctor? He was supposed to stay until tomorrow.”

“It wasn’t her’s or the doctor’s decision to make. I’m fine and I didn’t want to be there any longer,” I answered sternly before she had a chance to say anything. “

“Rat, you almost died. You were unconscious for over a day, and you’ve only been up for a couple of hours. I hardly think you’re fine,” he hissed.

By this time my brother and manager had joined us and they both added their support of Cruz’s assessment of the situation. Scarlett, still silent, squeezed my hand hard as I addressed all of them. “I had a bad fucking night, okay? It won’t happen again. I don’t need to spend another night in the hospital for them to tell me I need to chill on partying. I got it. Now we’re gonna go to my room and get some rest. I’ll be ready to leave tomorrow morning. Excuse us.”

I pulled Scarlett by the hand, bumping Marcus’ shoulder with mine as I passed by him.

“The tour is over for Jobu’s Rum,” Jag’s voice stopped me mid-stride.

Turning around abruptly, I pleaded, “I said I will be okay, man. I really need to finish this.” Cutting the tour short was not only devastating to me, but to my best friends and band mates. I didn’t want this to be over for any of us.

“Mason, you’ve still got a bright future ahead of you. Jobu’s Rum has been a huge success so far. We can put together something for you in a few months, once you get some help, but you need to go home and get your shit together.”

I knew by the tone in his voice and his body language that he wasn’t budging on this. Defeated, I turned back around and continued on to the elevator. I hated everyone in that moment. Everyone but Scarlett.

Once we were in the room, all I wanted to do was take a shower and go to sleep. I didn’t want to think about anything or anyone.

“I’m gonna take a shower, Angel, then get some rest. I’m fucking exhausted and I’m in an awful mood.”

“We need to talk Mase,” she answered meekly.

Running my hands through my grown out hair, I sighed loudly. “I know we do, Scarlett. Apparently I’m gonna have a lot of free time in the next few months to talk, so we can do it later. Okay?”

She took a deep breath, and I could see her trying to muster up the courage for whatever she was about to say. “No, it’s not okay. You’re not okay, and you aren’t fine. You need help. I’m not gonna sit around and watch you destroy yourself. Things will never same between us, Mase. We can never go back to where we were, but I’m not gonna turn my back on you when you need someone to love and support you. I’m sorry for what I did to you… to us.” She paused and looked down at the ground for a moment, shame washing over her face. Raising her chestnut eyes back to mine, she continued, “I won’t fail you. I promise I won’t let you fall again.”

SCARLETT

Once Mason had showered and fallen asleep, I grabbed a room key and quietly let myself out the door, heading back to the tattoo shop I had sat in front of the previous day. An hour and a half later, I was walking back to the hotel smiling for the first time since I had landed in Miami. I absolutely loved my new ink ~ a permanent reminder that I needed to fly with my own wings, that I could never truly be happy until I learned to love myself for being just me. I still had a long way to go to get to that point, but I had finally realized that not Ash, Mason, nor Max… no anyone else could do that for me.

Mason was still asleep when I returned to the hotel room, in the exact position that I had left him in. Sitting next to him on the bed, I gently stroked my fingers across his cheek. He looked so vulnerable in that moment, any negative thought that I had ever had about him, was washed away as the love I still had for him flowed freely. I was so worried about him; I knew that he should’ve stayed in the hospital one more night, but damn if he wasn’t the most stubborn person I had ever met. I could only hope that he would seriously try to get help and get his life cleaned up. I would do everything in my power to make sure that that happened. I just wasn’t sure how Ash was going to feel about it…

Completely exhausted myself from the events of the previous twenty four hours, I moved to the other side of the bed and lied down next to him. My shoulder was a little tender from the tattoo, but I wasn’t awake long enough to care. Seconds after my head hit the pillow, sleep consumed me.

I had no idea what time it was when I woke up. The room was dark and there was no sunlight shining through the window; the only way I could see anything was from the faint glow of the streetlights outside. Despite my lack of vision, my sense of touch was definitely working, and there was no doubt that kisses were being peppered on the inside of my thigh, moving right up to the most sensitive spot on my body.

CHAPTER THREE

Come Home ~ One Republic

Chasing Pavements ~ Adele

ASH

The day after Christmas was always one of my favorite days of the year ~ that was until that year. I woke up with a pounding headache, a stomach begging to be purged, and the worst case of cotton mouth ever, but none of those things compared to the awful empty feeling I had inside ever since Scarlett had left the day before. The attempt to drink my woes away at Nicholas’ house only led to more problems as the girl from the night of Evie’s funeral attempted to seduce me in the kitchen. Thankfully Jess walked in just at that time to save me. And by save me, I mean she kicked the girl out and told her she wasn’t welcome at the house ever again. There was no way in hell that I would’ve touched her, or anyone else for that matter, regardless of how much I had to drink, but Jess taking care of it for me made it much less awkward.

I stumbled into the bathroom and stared at my reflection. I looked nearly as bad as I felt with dark circles under my eyes and stringy, oily hair plastered to my face. After brushing my teeth, I took a long shower trying to wash the funk off, but that unsettling feeling still sat heavy in my stomach even after I was clean and dressed. I didn’t want to spend the day moping around the house thinking about what she was doing, so I called Max to see if he had plans.

An hour later, as I sat playing Xbox with him, I realized that hanging out at the apartment he shared with Scarlett wasn’t doing much to help me not think about her. Everywhere I looked I saw something of hers, and it took everything in me not to go lay in her bed just to feel closer to her. I was losing my mind wondering what was going on in Miami, and if I was honest with myself, I knew that I was petrified that I was going to lose her to him again. I hadn’t heard from her since her plane landed the previous night, and I had refrained from calling to get a status update. And by status update, I meant when she was coming home... as long as Rat was simply alive, I could really care a less about his ass.

The longer I sat there, the more that stomach-turning feeling of something not being right continued to eat at me. I knew it wasn’t just the remnants of the hangover, it was a real gut check. Abruptly, I dropped the controller on the couch next to me and jumped up.

“I’m going to get her,” I blurted out.

“What? What do you mean?” Max asked, looking up at me like I had lost my mind.

“I’m not going to let him weasel his way back in. I finally got her back, and I’ll be damned if I lose her again,” I explained. “I’m going to claim what’s mine.”

“Well, I’m going with you then,” he replied as he stood up next to me. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

I didn’t answer him because honestly, I had a bad feeling about it too. Instead I waited silently as he threw some clothes in a duffel bag and checked the apartment to make sure all the lights and electronics were off. We stopped off at my house for me to do the same before heading off to the airport. Once we got there, I realized that I had no idea when the next flight was or anything else. It took a little bit of time for us to get the tickets purchased, and then even longer to wait for our flight, but finally at six thirty in the evening, we were airborne and I was on my way to get my butterfly.

It was late on the east coast when our plane touched down, and I was completely exhausted by the time we got to the hotel. I decided to wait until the morning to call Scarlett in case she was already in bed. I assumed she was most likely drained, both physically and emotionally, from the events over the past few days, Plus, I had no idea what hotel she was even in.

That night I got the worst sleep ever. I tossed and turned with visions of Scarlett and Mason together running on loop through my mind. I had never been so happy to hear the alarm clock go off at seven o’clock. I knew it was early, but I couldn’t wait another minute to hear her voice. I grabbed my phone and hit the first name listed in my favorites.

“Hello?” a sleepy male voice answered.

With that one word, my world came crashing down around me as I realized that my worst fears had come true.

SCARLETT

“Scarlett, wake up,” I heard Mason’s voice say as he shook my shoulder. “Scarlett… Scarlett, get up now. Ash just called your phone.”

Hearing Ash’s name, I sat up instantly and looked around trying to get my bearings. I realized I was on the couch in the living area of the hotel suite, and the events of the previous evening flooded my memory.

Waking up to kisses on my inner thigh, I moaned slightly and leaned my head back in to the pillow. My legs instinctively had spread open to make room for him to settle between my thighs, and within seconds my body was aching in anticipation for his mouth to land on my mound. Keeping my eyes closed, not wanting to end this dream-like state, I lifted my hips slightly and moved my hands into his hair to hurry along the tortuous process. As my fingers slid through the short locks, it was then that I realized that it wasn’t Ash in bed with me. My eyes flew open as I cried, “Stop! Please stop!”

“Scarlett, you need to call him back,” Mason’s voice pulled me from my reminiscent thoughts. “I didn’t even realize it was your phone on the table and I answered it. He didn’t say anything… just hung up…”

I snatched the phone from his hands and immediately called him back. My body was shaking with panic; I could only imagine what Ash had thought when Mason answered my phone so early in the morning. Silently praying for his understanding as the phone rang, I was relieved that he answered and didn’t completely ignore me. I needed to explain everything quickly.

“Ash, thank God,” I said as soon as he picked up. “I can explain.”

“That’s really not necessary, Scarlett,” he replied icily. “I heard what I needed to.”

“It’s not what you think…” I tried to clarify as the tears began rolling down my cheeks. “My phone was in his room, I wasn’t. I promise.”

“Whatever, Scarlett. I’m just going to go back home; I don’t know why I even came here in the first place. I guess I just needed to confirm what I already knew.”

“What did you just say? You’re gonna go home? You’re here?” I asked completely confused.