Chapter Two

Stacey had become so comfortable in his arms that she didn’t want to ever leave. How was it that this felt so right, when in reality it was very wrong. Stacey cuddled into the corner underneath Ricky’s jaw line. His sweet smell was that of something almost dreamt. She remembered that when she had first met Ricky his scent was something she could detect from miles away. Whenever she had that scent rise to her nose anywhere she would look around for him, half expecting to see him standing right behind her.
High school was something that she had loved. It had so many memories, so many people that she loved but knew she more than likely would never see again. She still kept in touch with certain ones, and she went out a few times since graduation with them. During high school Meg and Brandi were her support. They never failed to be right about something in Stacey’s life, especially when it came to boys. She smiled to herself, Meg and Brandi were two of a kind, and there’s no way Stacey would have ever been able to get through high school without them. Meg and Stacey met way back when they were 14 and 15 years old, there were auditions for the spring musical, Annie. They were both dancers and they soon became inseparable. Brandi and Stacey on the other hand met through Meg. And they soon became the infamous trio, having many nights of watching mean girls and eating macaroni and cheese. Not to mention making memories to last a life time. High school was that of a great experience and Stacey wouldn’t trade it in for anything. She had made mistakes, just like everyone else, but she learned from them.
Ricky’s breath was incredibly steady and even almost as if he was asleep. She could feel his steady heartbeat, strong, and comforting. Bum bum… bum bum… bum bum… bum bum…
A shrill high pitched sound suddenly interrupted her thoughts, and her comfort was instantly gone. He was close, too close.
She jumped up and startled Ricky, “What’s wrong?” He looked incredibly concerned. “Sh! He’s coming,” There was a look of almost sheer terror of her face. She thought quicky, “Quick go into the other room and pretend that you were putting boxes away don’t come out until you know it’s safe.” She pushed him out of the room shaking she sat back down in the rocker. ‘Breathe. Breathe Stacey, just breathe.’ She told herself over and over again. She had just got her nerves down when she heard a loud thud outside followed by cursed calls out to him. The garage door flew open and then… the voice.
“Where is that son of a bitch?!” He stormed up the stairs, not caring that he was leaving dirty footprints on Stacey’s beautiful carpet. He reached the top landing and saw that the nursery door was open. Stacey was facing away from him, sitting in the rocking chair holding the small stuffed puppy that Ricky had bought for the baby. His face was red, and for the first time he felt ashamed for thinking the worst. He unclenched his fists and unwrinkled his eyebrows. Clearing his throat he stepped into the brightly colored room; that suddenly became shaded with guilt.
“Baby?”, His voice was suddenly sweet and gentle, Stacey could tell it was an act. “You ok?” He stood in the doorway and his aura was almost an evil feel.
“I’m fine.” She didn’t want to cry, but she could already feel the tears coming. Why was everything so twisted? All she wanted was her baby back, her Nicholas. No, his name was Michael, but that’s not who he was. He was Nicholas Michael and there was no changing it. Even if the order on his birth certificate went the other way around.
“Baby, don’t lie to me.”
“Why would I lie?” It was hard but she managed to keep her voice under control. She could sense that he was hiding something. He never really felt comfortable in this room after he was gone. Nicholas was gone. That simple thought made her tears flow freely. Silent tears running down her cheeks.
“Baby, please don’t cry…” He moved closer towards her. Trying to comfort her knowing he couldn’t.
She wanted to tell him that he wasn’t welcomed right now, but the words wouldn’t come out. He laid a heavy hand on her shoulder; it was almost as if it was a solid weight crushing down on her bones. She wriggled free of his touch, it didn’t feel right. It felt different; it’s been that way for a while now. Ever since Chad went on that trip to Morocco for a few days he’s been weird. Even before the baby was gone, there was something that he was hiding, but what else is new.
She stood up and turned to him. “Baby, I-”, but her sentence was cut short.

* * * * * * * *

Marie’s side was really bruised. The purple and green was already starting to show and it had only been a few moments since Chad threw her out of the way. Lying on the opposite side in the back of the truck she couldn’t believe that he would have the nerve to do that. Why was it so important to Chad that Ricky and Stacey never talk? It was understandable that Ricky could easily have Stacey back, but it was too complicated. And there was almost a look of fear in Chad’s eyes when Marie mentioned that Stacey was talking to a long time memory.
“I can’t believe this shit!” Rudy was mad, no that was a quiet way of saying it. Rudy was straight up pissed, as were all the others outside.
“Oh my gosh,” Irene had actually started to tear up when she saw Marie’s side. “I can’t believe it either.”
“David, call Jose and see where the hell he’s at.” JJ was the one that was pissed off the most. Now there were two JJ’s that were at the house. There was JJ that was graduated from AAI (Arizona Automotive Institute) and there was Brandi’s JJ. To make sure that there won’t be any confusion between the two we’re going to call the JJ that graduated from AAI Junior, because we can. Oh, and the one that was telling David to call Jose was Junior.
Marie’s side was horrible, the bruise was really dark now. There were hundreds of different shades of purple, green, yellow, blue, black, and all the other colors of the rainbow. “It’s even painful to breath or even to just twist my arm under my head to lay comfortably.”
“This is wrong, this is so wrong.” Meg had a look of disbelief and rage on her face. “I swear, he’s gonna die soon if he keeps this behavior up.” She sighed and agitated sigh. “I mean seriously why was it that he had to rush up there? It’s not like they’d actually be doing something other than like, holding each other.”
“Yea I noticed that too.” Brandi noted, “I mean what if Marie meant that Stacey was talking to Nicholas or something? He’s crazy, I don’t like him anymore.” She thought for a moment. “No, actually I never liked him at all. Ever.”
“Well I know one thing’s for sure,” Marie winced at the pain in her side. “The second that Travis hears about this, someone’s gonna be having a funeral. And I doubt that it’ll be mine.”
There was a feeble laugh from everyone. There was a silence, then Rudy burst out. “Screw this shit man, I’m going in there.” He turned with a quick pace and went into the big empty house. It was almost as if Chad left a trail of evil, his dark footprints on the creamy carpet were hard to miss and almost had a look of blood.
He saw his dark figure in the doorway of the nursery. He started up the stairs and just as he was about to say something he saw that Ricky was like a deer frozen in headlights. If Rudy hadn’t have known that Ricky was real he would have thought that he was a statue.
Ricky looked down and saw Rudy, his eyes grew wide and he tip toed so quietly past the room you didn’t hear the slightest sound, even if you were listening for him. Ricky went straight past Rudy and went out the door making a loud slam. Rudy continued up the stairs and was standing right behind Chad.
“Baby, I-” Stacey had started to say something but the sight of Rudy made her stop. “Rudy? What’s wrong?”
“Maybe you should ask you man that. Seems he knows how to pick a fight.”
Stacey looked from Rudy to Chad, “Chad what is he talking about?”
“I don’t know baby, he’s just some stupid mechanic what can he know?”
Rudy stepped forward, “You want to start something with someone that ain’t a chick?”
“Rudy what are you talking about?” Stacey was becoming frantic, “What happened?”
Rudy sighed, “Marie’s hurt real bad, Chad pushed her into the truck when he thought that my brother was up here.”
Stacey looked at Chad with amazement. She choked back more tears and ran from the room. Leaving Chad with the rage of Rudy. Luckily Rudy followed Stacey, Chad breathed once they were gone.
He couldn’t risk her finding out. He’d send her away for a while. Yea, that’s what he’d do… Send her away.

* * * * * * * *

The bruise wasn’t as bad as Stacey had anticipated, but still it was bad. Marie was having trouble moving and she had to control her breathing. If she breathed too deeply her side would sting. “Are you sure he did it on purpose?” Stacey just didn’t want to believe it, “Maybe he just wanted to make sure that I was ok and no one was there with me.”
Ernie looked from David to Ricky then back to David, “Stace, we’re pretty damn sure that it wasn’t an accident. He deliberately shoved her into my truck Stace he’s always been like this, just… no one’s had the heart to tell you.”
Marie cringed as Stacey gently lifted up the side of her shirt to see the damage once more. The bruise was taking more of a greenish tint to it rather than a bluish purple. It was bad and Stacey knew it. She didn’t know what she was going to do, her mind was so blurred with the events in the past month and the past weeks, and now to deal with this? It was too much for her. She put her right hand on her forehead and tried to breath. This is too much, she needed to get away, if only for a moment or two. If only she was back in California at the bridge that seemed to make her problems disappear.
Back before her junior year of high school she had gone on a camp trip with her parent’s church to California. It was a beautiful place with small ponds for the kids to swim and bridges going over the rushing water. There was a particular bridge that was more over towards the boy’s cabin, there was nothing spectacular about it. There was no great architecture, no fabulous paint job, no sparkles, nothing glamorous at all about it, true it was bigger than the one by the girl’s cabins but it was just as shaggy and run down as the rest of the camp. But the view was amazing. If you faced North the river that flowed beneath you was flowing right at you, and the farthest from you there were rocks that almost formed glistening steps, three of them to be exact. To the left of the water was some shrubbery that wasn’t gorgeous, no colorful blooms that were blossoming from the spring. To the right was a large gathering of rocks that ranged from the size of a boulder to nothing more than a pebble on the bank. There were some scattered rocks within the middle of the river like stepping stones that were individually placed there by God. There were some plants growing here and there, but the feeling was what Stacey loved the most. The feeling of belonging, the feeling of power. Whenever she was having problems on the trip she would stand on the bridge for hours just thinking about nothing and everything at the same time. That bridge was what she needed now, but it was all the way over in California and she was all the way over here in Arizona. Oh well, she sighed. She’ll have to grit her teeth through it.
“Marie is there any way that you can sit up?” Stacey’s voice was now gentler than it had ever been, “Do you want to bear with it or do you want us to call a doctor?”
Instead of answering with words her following actions were the answer, Marie simply gripped the top of the backseat and slowly rose to a half sit and a half laying down, “See,” She grimaced. “I’m fine. It’ll only be there till tomorrow I bet.” Marie sure was a trooper.
There was a commotion behind everyone and they all turned to see Chad knock over Stacey’s priceless bureau and see it slowly shatter into thousands of pieces. He looked like a clumsy drunk bumping into everything and cursing at it as if it jumped at him out of nowhere. Stacey ran over to the incident and peered at her timeless item that was handed down from her family. It was her grandaddy’s bureau, and it was special to him, and it was special to her even more so.
“What did you do?” Her sentence was barely audible, but Chad’s look was twisted with guilt, shame, and timidity. He was like a deer caught in the headlights before the truck smashed into him.
“Baby, it was an accident,” he stammered, “I didn’t, I didn’t see it there, baby please don’t be mad –”
“Mad?” She erupted with a single burst and didn’t give him an inch to talk. “Hun, I was mad when you had to leave me here for a week while you went and did something! I was mad when you assumed that Ricky was up in the nursery with me,” Her voice went down an octave. “I was mad when I found out that Marie could be hospitalized for what you did in your rash actions.” There was a short silence as the anger poured out of her face. “No, now I’m furious.” She turned away and got into her Mercedes convertible, with great effort Brandi, Meg, and Irene helped Marie into the car and situated themselves in the car. Stacey turned to Ernie who was by her side of the car, “Denny’s” was all she said. With that she was gone and all the guys got into their cars and abandoned Chad at his house with nothing but bad thoughts being thrown to him.