The Art of Starting Over

A Quick History Lesson

Gavin and Nadia pull me behind them and I grab onto both of their shirts. “Sevyn you b***h, stop f*****g hiding.” Ritchie screams running over, he basically body checks them to get to me, in this moment I wish I didn’t send the security guard home. Ritchie grabs my wrist so hard I think it might snap and starts dragging me a way when I feel a soft touch and look behind me to see Noah and everyone else standing behind me, Noah’s softly grasping my other hand. “What the f**k do you think you’re doing?” Ritchie asks tightening his grip. “Owww Ritchie please just leave me alone.” He sneered at me. “You’re coming back with me bitch.”

NOAHS POV

I was having a good time talking with Cali and Ember when I hear shouting up ahead. “Oh my God thats Ritchie.” Cali gasps from beside me I see him push aside Gavin and Nadia, Gavin stumbles to the side his bad balance on account of his drunken state, and Nadia falls to the ground. He grabs Sevyns wrist and I can hear her crying. The rest of us run up and I grab her other hand, if he thinks he’s getting away with this he’s got another thing coming. “Hey you heard the lady let her go, she doesn’t want to go anywhere with you.” I say trying to keep myself calm and collected. “Who the f**k are you? Nobody? Oh okay cool now if you’ll excuse us we’ll be leaving.” He tries to pull Sevyn again and the fear and pain in her eyes is so visible it hurts me. “The f**k you are.” I growl out, he’s making it really hard to keep calm, I quickly eye him down he’s shorter than me by an inch and not as muscular as I thought, I could definitely take him. I quickly maneuver myself between him and Sevyn although I can’t get his hand off her wrist without hurting her more. “I’m gonna ask you again, who the f**k are you? What are you this w***e’s flavor of the week?” He snorts out. “Yup I am and right now I can clearly see she doesn’t want f**k all to do with you so I’m gonna give you one more chance to let her go and walk away.” He rolls his eyes and gives her another tug I feel her lightly grab onto my shirt and I hear her softly crying behind me. God this is the guy who abused this poor sweet girl, I could f*****g kill him. He lets go of her wrist to push me back into her but i steady myself and don’t budge, I feel Nadia pull Sevyn back to the group and I smile at him. “You’re a f*****g cocky son of a b***h huh I’ll fix that.” He says and c***s his fist back I skillfully dodge it and hit him with a good uppercut right in the stomach, he keels over and tries to come at me again. This time i go straight for the head getting him with a clean right hook to the jaw and well that was lights out. “f**k yeah Noah that was awesome!” Nadia exclaims from behind me looking at a passed out Ritchie. I grin at her as I turn around and make my way to Sevyn she’s shaking and being guarded by Charlie and Jared. She breaks from in between them and wraps her arms around my waist looking up at me with tear stained eyes. “Thank you.” She says softly, I wipe her tears and cup her face in my hands. “For you Sevyn, I’d fight an army.” She smiles up at me. “For you Noah, I’d fight about 5 Laurens.” I laugh and wrap my arms around her. “Only 5.” I ask and her smile widens. “She’s kinda tall so I don’t think I could take much more than that.” I chuckle and Gavin puts his hand on my shoulder. “Ohhh Noah thank you because I am way too drunk to fight that man, that was impressive you hit him with a clean 1,2.” He says I smile and shrug. “Honestly I’ve been thinking about fighting that guy ever since the first time Sevyn told me about him.” Gavin grins at me. “We’ll keep you I think.” and winks at Sevyn. “Yeah we don’t f**k with men who touch women like that, I don’t know the story but from what I just saw that guys a d**k and my boy just gave him what he deserves.” Paulie says as we’re walking the other way, the other boys agree and we all decide to call it a night because well Charlie doesn’t look too good, but he always gets like this when he drinks, but the other events just made us want to get off of the street. “Noah.” Sevyn whispers next to me, she’s been a little quiet ever since it all went down, I look down at her and slide my fingers in between hers. “I don’t want to spend tonight alone in my bed can I sleep with you?” She asks softly looking up at me, I give her a smile. “I’d love nothing more.” I say bringing her hand to my lips.

I’m so grateful Charlie sent his assistant for my car because I could not drive right now. I finally get Sevyn to my house and I grab her one of my T shirts and some sweatpants. She looks absolutely adorable after she’s changed and cleaned her makeup off. “You wanna watch something before bed?” I ask giving her the remote to my tv. “Do you like documentaries?” She asks and I nod. “I love them.” I said and sit down on the couch, pulling my legs to stretch them, she put on a murder documentary and faces towards me, I’m still stretching when she puts her hands on my knees and I see her pushing her face closer to mine, I eagerly meet her halfway and give her a soft kiss which she deepens and intertwines her fingers in my hair. I place my hands on the small of her back and pull her closer laying my legs down then picking her up and placing her on my lap. Her tongue finds its way in my mouth and I can feel myself hardening up from the interaction. She starts grinding on me and moaning into my mouth, f*****g hell this girl. She pulls my bottom lip into her mouth and starts lightly sucking on it, deepening this kiss even more, she has no idea how bad I want her. I pull away and give her light kisses from her lips to her jaw to her neck. “Sevyn you’re drunk and I don’t want you to feel like I’m taking advantage of you. She shakes her head and smiles. “I just kept thinking about that kiss earlier, it felt electric I loved it and I wanted more.” She says coming back for another kiss I oblige and thats how we spend the rest of our night until she passes out on my chest I carry her to my bedroom and tuck her in under the covers. I crawl in next to her and pull her into my arms soon after falling into a deep sleep.

SEVYNS POV

I wake up next to Noah feeling his warm arms around me and I smile. I’m still so grateful for last night, and I didn’t even have a nightmare after I fell asleep. He really saved me, I give him a soft kiss on the lips and nuzzle back in his arms, I feel them tighten around me. “Good morning.” He said in a sexy husky voice, I turn towards him and place another kiss on his lips. “Mmm good morning.” I whisper still thinking about how much of a good kisser he is he’s soft and gentle like his personality, not rough like Ritchie. “If this is how you’re going to wake me up, I wouldn’t mind waking up to you more often.” He says grinning at the ceiling with his arms tucked under his head, I kiss him on the jaw and giggle. “I was thinking.” He said. “Mmm?” He peeks over at me. “Since our night ended short last night, maybe we should get everyone together for breakfast there’s this really nice spot the boys and I always go to after we go out, I’d love to show you and your friends.” I grin and nod. “I love all your friends by the way, they’re all so down to earth and funny as hell, that Gavin is a real character and Ember and Cali are the sweetest couple I’ve ever seen, Gina and Oliver seem to really dig each other too, and Nadia and you are quite the pair.” He says pulling on his jeans as we’re getting ready. “Oh yes we’ve all been friends for quite some time, I met Nadia in kindergarten and then Gavin shortly after, Cali and Ember I met in junior high and can you believe they’ve been together since 7th grade? and Gina I met and became close to very quickly in high school. We’re a close knit group, your friends are all really nice too, and so funny Paulie almost killed me from laughter last night and your brother Charlie is something else.” He nods. “Yeah so Jared and Paulie and I met when we moved from Italy and well Charlie just fit right in we’ve all been inseparable since before I could remember.”

As we walk up to the breakfast place, I spy Jared and Nadia having a small conversation outside, I knew they would hit it off they are laughing and I notice Nadia’s doing her small flirty gestures for him. Mostly everyone is already there as we get into our seats. We all chat and share jokes for a while until Oliver asks what the story was with Ritchie last night, I feel my heart tighten and Noah puts a reassuring hand on my thigh, not even all of my friends know what really went down just that he’s a toxic asshole. But I sigh and figure they all deserve to know. “So that was my ex boyfriend, I met when I was 16 at first we were really in love and everything was great, but Ritchie has a drinking problem and he is a mean mean drunk, a very verbally abusive drunk. It was right before my 17th birthday when he started becoming physically violent, I swore to leave if he didn’t stop drinking and he practically threw me across his living room, and I did leave a couple of times but the thing about people like that is that always know how to win you back they’re always promising to do better, and I was young and dumb I thought I could fix him, I thought he was my forever. Then after high school he forced me to move upstate near Albany area, my parents bought us a house, and it was the worst thing ever, I got a job with Gina but when I came home he was so angry and so drunk he wanted to know why I didn’t start cooking as soon as I walked through the door. And if I did little things like forgetting to go grocery shopping he would just snap and beat me, if any little thing was out of place, if I laughed to loud, laughed at a guys joke, things that weren’t even my fault like him losing his keys. That would warrant a punch or a kick. Then about 6 months ago I found out I was pregnant, things were better for a bit he seemed happy to be a father, and even though I wasn’t really ready to be a mom I saw how happy it made him. We were gonna have a little boy named Stephen Joseph after our fathers, his idea. But then when i was 3 months into it he started drinking again started hitting me again until one night I was just done, I called Nadia and asked for her help. She came up with a plan and well he found out about it and almost killed me, Nadia saved my life, I ended up losing my baby and he was put in jail but he’s out on bail now awaiting trial, I have restraining orders in place but guys like Ritchie, they don’t listen to things like that.” I finish my stories and everyone’s looking at me eyes wide, Paulie grasps my hand. “I know how that is I had an ex girlfriend who was all kinds of abusive but they say guys can’t get abused, she would do things like burn me with the iron when I didn’t do what she wanted and I realized you just can’t fix people like that, I’m so glad you got out, we’re both survivors.” I smile at him from across the table and everyone extends their sorrys and they all start taking turns to hug me, Charlie promising him and Noah will put Ritchie in the ground if they ever see him again. “You got that damn straight.” Noah says slinging and arm around me and I giggle. “After what I saw last night, I believe him.” Gavin says then gives a re demonstration of Noah beating up Ritchie, we all laugh at his antics and go our separate ways after finishing breakfast, I make a mental note to ask Nadia about her and Jared on our way out.