Unbound

Matt’s POV

“Stop gawking and let’s go, Sanders. My appointment is in twenty minutes,” Baker says as we all head toward the parking lot. He put his arm around my shoulders and started to drag me in the opposite direction but I just couldn’t take my eyes off Michelle. All I could picture was her gorgeous body hovering over me and damn that ass…I bit my knuckle at the thought, trying to suppress a groan as she looked back over her shoulder at me.

“You act like you’ve never seen the girl before. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you had a thing for her…which of course would piss Haner off to no end,” Baker continues and I just roll my eyes.
“Don’t be an idiot, Baker. She’s hot but she’s not my type. We’re just friends,” I lie, knowing that if Baker knew the whole truth, so would the whole school. The guy had a big mouth, or rather his shadow Leana did. I still had to find out what was going on there.

“Take it easy, I was just joking.” He put his hands up in mock defense and I shook my head. Sure he was. We both knew he was trying to figure out if he could stir the pot with Haner. They always liked to give each other a hard time—that was just their friendship. “And speaking of Chelle, what was up with her today? She’s been a hot mess...I swear she was crying all morning.”

I clenched my fist as my jaw tightened in frustration. I had no idea what had happened between the time Michelle left my house this morning and arrived at school, but she was definitely shaken. Not to mention the red welt on her face that she tried to hide with makeup. Who the fuck would hit her and why? She wouldn’t tell me but I hoped for Val’s sake that it wasn’t her. I swear if I found out who hit her, I’d kill them because that look of sadness in her eyes was killing me.

“How the fuck should I know?” Shit, I couldn’t let him know that we had been seeing each other. Michelle would fucking kill me and I wasn’t about to let her get away before I had all of her. Plus, I like the girl and wanted everyone to know she was mine. I didn’t like how the other guys looked at her—it pissed me off. She was mine as far as I was concerned. Did she think that way about me?

“Oh, I don’t know, you’ve only been glued to her ass today,” Zack snorts with laughter as he got in my car. Damn him for always being so observant. “You should have seen the look Haner has been throwing your way, it’s been priceless.”

“What do you mean?” Okay, so I knew exactly what he was talking about. I just couldn’t’ help myself and I wanted to make sure she was okay. I wanted to be there for her and make sure no one else hurt her. What? I considered her one of my friends, if not my freaking girlfriend, and I always looked out for those I loved. Not that I loved Michelle or anything…you get the picture.

“Just every time I turned around, you were with her…”he shrugs. His tone told me he had more to say but didn’t dare, which I was thankful for because I didn’t want to talk about it with him. “And like I said, Haner was pissed. He looked like he wanted to beat your ass.”

“She’s in almost everyone of my classes!” I threw my hands up in the air, really going along with my act. Thank fucking god it seemed to be working. “We’re working on that stupid English project together so we’ve been talking about it, plus she’s my fucking lab partner in Chemistry.” All of these things were true and I was thankful to be able to spend so much time with her. Chelle was a cool chick. “And as far as Haner is concerned, he can come talk to me if he’s got a problem.”

And that’s exactly what the fucker did once Baker and Johnny were in the tattoo chairs and Jimmy had taken the twins into the back. I had to admit that I was surprised to see them here, but the thought of either of them with a tattoo turned me on. There was just something about a woman with a little ink that aroused me.

“What do you think they are going to get?” I ask Brian as the girls disappear with Jimmy. He always had something he wanted to show someone, so I wasn’t really concerned.

“What the hell is going on with you and Chelle?” Okay, so totally ignore my question. That’s fucking cool. Haner, or should I say Syn, looked at me through narrow eyes and I could tell he meant business. Too bad I had no intentions of telling him anything. He wasn’t going to fuck this up for me.

I crossed my arms over my chest and stood up to my full height, looking slightly down at him. “Nothing besides working on a project together for English,” I shrug, using the same excuse I told Baker. It was true that we did have a project, though not that either of us had actually worked on it. Shit, speaking of which, when was that due?

“Cut the crap, Sanders, I saw you. You were fucking all over her today and Val noticed too,” oh he looked pissed and I couldn’t help but give him a small smirk. He’d like to know exactly what I did to her last night, wouldn’t he? Damn, I still couldn’t get that out of my mind, and if it wasn’t for my mom, I would have had her…

“What was I supposed to do, let her cry?” I hiss back and trying not to get defensive. I had to pretend that it was nothing though I really wanted to tell him she was mine. I just had to keep reminding myself that that time would come. “So what if I gave her a hug and walked her to class? We are in all the same fucking classes if you haven’t noticed. We’re just friends.” I was really getting fucking sick of saying that.

Though Brian still didn’t seem to buy my story. He narrowed his eyes again and took a step toward him, his nose only inches from mine. “Just remember that I called dibs on the twins,” he warns and I laugh.
“Since when did you call dibs?” What’s the matter Haner, you don’t like the idea that you don’t have a shot with either of them? Well, to me it seemed pretty obvious, though I still had no idea what he was doing with Val earlier.

Brian threw his hands up in frustration, “Since fucking forever. Just keep your hands to yourself, Sanders. I’m warning you!”

“Well, sorry to tell you Syn you can't have both,” I sneer just as the girls and Jimmy come back. Michelle gave me a small crooked smile and I had no idea what that was about. Well, not until I saw the Rev’s puffy eyes.

As the girls moved over toward the tattoo chairs, I grabbed Jimmy’s arm and the stench of weed is all over him. “What the hell are you doing? Did you just get them high?” I rage, watching Michelle and Val stumble and giggle a little bit.

“Yeah, they just needed to relax a little bit and look at them…they look great!” Jimmy giggles, pointing at the twins. I follow his gaze just in time to see Gates put his arm around Val, almost like he was claiming her. Well, he can go ahead and claim the she-devil because I honestly didn’t want anything to do with Val. She was way too much for me to handle. My attention was solely on the little brunette coming my way.

“Are you assholes ready to go? Haner has something he wanted to show us,” Zack says, looking at his new ink.

“It’s Synyster Gates!” Jimmy interrupts, shaking his head between us. “Come on, you have to use the names and you motherfuckers need to come up with some!”

I roll my eyes as Michelle joins our little group, looking between us with a half smile. Well, at least she isn’t stoned off her ass. She was just relaxed like Jimmy said. “Yeah, yeah, we’ll come up with something,” I say. I just can’t help but smile when her brown eyes meet mine. Damn this girl was beautiful.

“Come up with what? A new song?” she asks innocently. Michelle bites down on her bottom lip and all I can picture is her doing that, moaning, and throwing her head back as I finger fucked her. Shit, I was already getting hard at the thought and if I didn’t stop that soon I’d have a problem.

“That’s classified Avenged Sevenfold information, Ma’am,” Jimmy says in a deep voice, making us all burst out laughing. Michelle frowned and raised her brow and looked around the group before her eyes fell on me. So now I was supposed to tell her?

“What are you guys going to do, practice?” she asks, her eyes staring up at me with a small glint in them. I knew she loved to listen to us play and had even admitted once that it turned her on. Maybe I could arrange something so she could come to our rehearsals some time, that is if Jimmy would let her. He was all about being top secret about our band meetings and music lately, which I understood but it was also nice to show off from time-to-time.

“Something like that,” Zack replies and looks between us with a smirk. “What’s it to you, Chelle?”

“Nothing, I was just wondering if you guys were leaving.” Michelle’s brown eyes didn’t leave mine as she spoke and I had to admit that I was getting lost in them. There was a slight glint of mischief hiding there along with something else that I couldn’t put my finger on. What was she thinking?

“Yeah, see you Chelle,” the guys wave before they disappeared out the door.

“Yeah, we’ve got to run out for a little bit. We’ve got to go see Mr. Haner for something I guess,” I whisper to Michelle once we are alone, taking a step toward her and pulling her into my arms. “But if you’d like, I can come back. Maybe I could drive you two home.”

Michelle bit down on her bottom lip as she looked up at me. “I’d like that,” she smiles and looks even more beautiful. “And maybe when you come back we can talk about later…” Oh, so she was thinking the same thing I was. So Michelle was a naughty little girl after all, huh? I liked that. I’d have to see how naughty she could be…

“That sounds perfect, babe,” and before I can stop myself, I lean down and peck her lips, surprising us both. Michelle looked at me with wide eyes and took a small step backwards touching her lips. Damn it, I broke her number one rule about our relationship, though I didn’t know why we had to remain a secret. We both liked each other right? “I’ll see you later,” I say, just as Gates comes and takes my arm and drags me out the door. Fuck, I hope I didn’t mess everything up.

“What the hell was that?” Brian hisses as soon as we’re outside. He looks livid and I knew that I fucked up. “I thought you were just friends,” he sneered.

“Relax, it was an accident,” an accident? What the hell was I doing? There was no way he was going to
believe that. Hell, I didn’t believe that. I was just burying myself deeper and deeper into this hole and there was no getting out. “I went to ask her a question and she turned her face…” god that was awful too.

“What the fuck ever, Sanders…I called fucking dibs!” Brian raged before climbing in his car. “I’m warning you, back off.”

Michelle’s POV

I winced as the tattoo needle scrapped through my skin, stinging and burning the entire time. This freaking hurt! Though there was something comforting about the pain and I had to admit that it was easier to bear than everything I’d been through in the past twenty-four hours. “You’re almost done, sweetheart,” the tattoo artist says. “Just a few more minutes.”

I pinched my eyes shut as they finished up, my thoughts wandering back to Matt. We had been having a lot of fun lately and I really liked spending time with him. He just seemed to understand me and was always looking out for me, which is what I needed. Not to mention that I craved his embrace and affection—it was exactly what I was missing.

His kiss before he left the tattoo parlor had caught me by surprise. It wasn’t that I didn’t want him to kiss me but rather I was shocked that he did it in front of his friends. We had agreed to keep our relationship a secret to avoid everyone pointing and looking at us. Not to mention that our friends really wouldn't approve of it—or at least Val wouldn’t. I didn’t think that she would understand that Matt made me feel good, that he made me feel whole. And even though I wanted to be with him in the open, I didn’t want everyone else to be in my business too.

“Lookin’ good, Chelle,” Val said as we looked at our tattoos in the mirror. “It’s like we were born with it…not to mention that it will get back at the bitch.”

I nodded and tried not to let my mind replay her awful words this morning. They cut me deep and I just didn’t understand what happened to the woman I loved. She seemed to disappear when Daddy died, though she had always been hard on us. Did Daddy soften her? I didn’t know but now she was just brutal and hurtful. Did she even love us anymore?

“You girls all done?”

I turned around to see Matt and Brian walking down the hallway toward us. I could sense a little bit of tension between them but I had no idea why. Did they get into an argument? Oh, well it really wasn’t any of my business.

As soon as I nodded, both Brian and Matt were hounding us to see. “No way,” I laughed, slapping Matt’s hand away from me as he took a step towards me. “It’s my secret…”I say as a blush spreads over my face.

“A secret?” and now he’s laughing. Is he laughing because it's another one to add to our list or because it’s hard to believe I’d have one? “What do I have to do to be let in on it?”

I pursed my lips and looked up toward the ceiling, playing coy. “I don’t know but it will cost you…” I tease and that seems to awaken something within Mr. Sanders. Was that a little growl in the back of his throat?

Shit, just thinking about it was making me weak in the knees.

A few minutes later, Matt and I are standing out front of the tattoo parlor smoking a cigarette. His eyes are looking me up and down and I can tell that he is trying to figure out where I got my tattoo. That was my secret for now and he was going to have to play my game to find out where it was.

“So let’s play a game,” Matt suddenly grabbed my hand and pulled me down the little alley to the left of the building. He instantly pressed me up against the brick wall and kicked his cigarette butt away. “What do you say, Chelle?”

“Oh, yeah, and what kind of game is this?” I laugh, blowing out a cloud of smoke. Matt had a mischievous glint in his eyes as he looked me up and down.

“I’m going to guess where your tattoo is…and if I get it right we have to do whatever I want when we meet later…” he breaths in my ear and I can't help the light moan that leaves my lips when he bites the tender flesh.

I took in a shaky breath as his lips made their way down my neck. “And-and what happens if you don’t…”
“Then you get to have your wicked way with me,” Was he laughing at me? Why was it so hard to believe that I could please him? Was it because I was a virgin? There was no way he could have known that, was there? “But damn babe there are so many things that I want to do to you tonight…” he breathed and I felt my heart rate start to increase. Should I tell him I’m a virgin? “I haven’t been able to get you off my mind…

I want you…” Shit, he should probably know…“So lets start to see who’s in charge…”

“Matt…” I say, pushing him back a little bit so that he’ll stop.

“What’s the matter?” He looked so perplexed that it was actually kind of cute.

“I need to tell you something…” I nervously bit down on my bottom lip but just as I opened it to tell him, I heard Val yelling. “Shit! I’ll meet you at the abandoned house at midnight” I said before I quickly pulled away and raced back to the front of the building, only to see her and Brian coming outside looking flushed. What the actual fuck? Did they just…? No way!

“Are you okay?” I ask Val, unable to keep the smirk off my face. That little slum dog…and after she said that there was nothing between her and Haner. Well, I guess she wasn’t the only one being untruthful with their relationship.

“Never better,” she says before she grabs my hand and drags me away from the guys. “But we’ve got to get home…Mother Dearest is going to fucking kill us!”

“At least let me drive you home!” Brian said as he raced after us, and put his arms around our shoulders. “You do live next door…”

“And ride in your gross car, Haner? As if…” Damn it, why couldn’t Val accept help just once? I swear if it were a life or death situation, she would still be a stubborn ass. Well, I was sick of it and I wasn’t riding the bus.

Brian just smirked and chuckled. “Oh, you’ll be begging me to ride my—“

“We’ll ride with you, just get us home quickly,” I interrupted. It really was getting late and Mother dearest was going to kill us. We were supposed to be home hours ago and I was going to pay dearly, especially because I was grounded.

The ride back home consisted of Val and Brian bickering about god knows what while I texted Matt. He was asking me a million questions about what I wanted to tell him, but it wasn’t like I was going to text him that I hadn’t lost my v-card. That would be mortifying. I just ended up telling him that it wasn’t anything super important and that I would tell him when we met up later. I just hoped that I could sneak out tonight.

“Where the fuck have you two been?” Mom said as soon as we opened the door. I winced when I heard something slam and break on the island. Her temper scared the hell out of me and I was afraid that one day she was going to go too far. She never used to be like that and something told me that David brought out the worst in her.

Val hung up her backpack and crossed her arms over her chest. “We were studying at the library with the Haner boy. We’ve got a project due next week.” I was always thankful that my sister was such a good liar. I wasn’t gifted with that gene I guess because I was lousy at it.

“Bullshit, you know that you need to be home by four. You’ve got fucking chores to do and dinner should have been ready an hour ago. David is livid!” she shrieked and I subconsciously stepped toward Val for protection.

“Don’t worry, we’ll get something around quickly, Mother,” Val sneers. The next thing I knew, Mother dearest roughly grabbed Val's’ face and squeezed it hard.

“Don’t you start your fucking lip with me. You better have dinner ready in fifteen minutes or else you’ll both get your asses beat. I also want this places spotless and I don’t care how long it takes.” My eyes wandered around the kitchen to see the huge mess that David had undoubtedly created. He was a bum and I honestly didn’t think he had a job. So what the hell did he do all day?

“Do you both understand me?” Mother Dearest hissed, pushing Val’s face away. She stumbled backwards slightly but I made sure to catch her.

“Yes, Mom…” we both said in unison before she stormed out of the kitchen leaving us alone. “God I fucking hate that bitch…” Val whispered, quickly moving to get out something for dinner. She was always good at coming up with things off the top of her head.

“What happened to her? She’s never been this bad before…” My voice shook as I spoke. It hurt to know that she didn’t care about us in the same way that she used to. How could you just stop loving your children? We were part of her but she didn’t seem to care. It was almost like the more pain she could cause us the better and that terrified me.

“I don’t know, Chelle, but stop standing around and help me. You and I both know we don’t want Captain Douchebag to come out here…” and she was right. That guy creeped me out with how he looked at us. Our whole home life wasn’t pretty anymore.

As I cleaned and Valary cooked, we danced around the kitchen, making the most of our punishment. “And I want it in fifteen minutes,” Val mocked in a quiet voice, making me roll with laughter. She had mastered mocking our mother. “And if you don’t fucking stop that Michelle I’m going to beat your ass until you can't sit.”

“You’re an embarrassment to this family, Val…I’m going to send you away,” I tried my impression but it wasn’t as good as hers.

“I’ll send her someplace…try hell,” Val laughed and I had to admit it was nice to see a smile on her face. Her smiles were very few and far apart. “You know, Chelle. One day you and I are going to get out of here and our music is going to take us.”

“Yeah,” I agreed with a smile. “Oh and speaking of which, is Leana in?”
“Duh, she’d be an idiot not to. All we have to do is find a place to practice….” Val mused and now it was my turn to smile.

“How about that abandoned house on Birch Avenue? No one is there and it’s okay inside. There was a party there a few weeks ago. We’d just have to borrow the generator. The douchebags won't notice it’s gone. I don’t even think they know what it is,” I suggested. I was excited about starting a band because music was one of the things that made me feel like everything was alright. It think it was because it reminded me of my father.

“You’re a fucking genius, Chelle…let’s see if Leana can practice tomorrow,” I nodded in agreement as my mind wandered to song ideas. I had been floating melodies around my brain for weeks now and I couldn’t wait to share them. This was an awesome idea!

Two hours later, Val and I had served dinner and were now making the house shine like the top of the Chrysler building. Unfortunately, Val and mom got into another fight. She said something that set mom off while we were cleaning the living room and Val wasn’t backing down tonight. I quickly grabbed the trash and headed out for the curb, knowing that I would be Mother Dearest’s whipping boy when she was done with Val. I didn’t want to stick around for that. I hoped that the out of sight, out of mind strategy would work for me tonight because I had enough of the shit for one day.

I slowly walked out to the garbage cans on the side of the house, biding my time and humming under my breath. So I really wasn’t prepared when a voice sounded behind me in the dark, scaring the shit out of me.

“What’s a beautiful girl like you doing carrying trash?”

Notes