Page 54 of Broken Butterfly
He continues on like I hadn’t spoken. “And I told you that night in the hospital that I would never stop fighting for you. We belong together. You. Are.Mine.”
Jayson backs me up against the tree next to the opening of the fort; the same tree he and Julien hung upside down on when I saw them for the first time thirteen years ago. Two snaggle-toothed brown-haired boys that I called my princes. My breath gets knocked out of me from the force of my back hitting the trunk and it takes me a second to get my lungs working again.
“Jayson, please stop,” I wheeze out.
He pulls down my bottom lip with his thumb, the pupils of his metallic eyes narrowing to a pinprick.
“These lips belong to me, just like your body and your love belong to me. There isn’t a single part of you that hasn’t felt my touch. You remembered and you came back.”
“I’m not that girl anymore, Jayson. And you haven’t listened to a word I’ve said. I love Ryder!”
“We’ll see about that,” he replies angrily, pressing into me harder and making it difficult to move.
Before me is the boy I grew up and who I know better than most anyone, other than Ryder and Julien. Jayson panics and reacts by acting out in the heat of the moment without thinking. It’s just like when Ryder told Jayson and Julien his feelings for me. Jayson panicked and came straight to me, declaring his love. He felt like he had to be the first one to stake a claim on me. Or the night at the bonfire in eleventh grade when I was jealous over Ryder’s attention toward Maria, and Jayson tried to drunkenly take me against a tree next to the abandoned warehouse because he felt insecure. Or every time he tried to push me into accepting that I was his girlfriend even though my amnesia left me with no memories of us being together that way.
“Elizabeth!” Ryder’s voice calls from the edge of the forest as he, Fallon, and Julien quickly approach. Jayson steps away from me and the suddenness of it has me falling to the ground. Within seconds Ryder is sliding across the leaf-littered ground, catching me in his arms.
“Don’t you touch her again,” he snaps at Jayson just as Jayson is crouching down to help lift me up.
“Liz, baby, I’m sorry,” Jayson garbles out like he’s coming out of a trance.
“Liz, you alright?” Julien asks me, coming into my line of sight as he shoves Jayson back.
Fallon lunges forward but I’m able to grab the bottom of the leg of his jeans to stop him from charging Julien to attack Jayson.
“I’m fine. I just lost my balance.”
“The fuck you did,” Fallon snarls.
Ryder helps me to stand back up. The four boys square off. Jayson and Julien on one side, Ryder and Fallon on the other, with me in the middle.
I’ve had enough. Nothing more will get resolved today between the five of us.
“Please apologize to Freda. I didn’t mean to ruin your Thanksgiving dinner. We all need to sit down and talk soon. I have a lot of explaining to do and apologies to give. I owe both of you apologies,” I tell Jayson and Julien.
“I don’t want your damn apologies, Liz,” Julien angrily hurls at me. “You lied to me. You promised you wouldn’t leave again, and you lied.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ryder tells him.
I open my mouth to speak but Julien shuts me down. “I’m not interested in anything you have to say right now. Come on, Jay. Mom and Dad are waiting for us and dinner is getting cold. Fallon, I don’t know how you factor into everything, but if it wasn’t for this shit-show, I would say it’s good to see you.”
Fallon acknowledges Julien with a chin jerk, his focus never leaving Jayson.
Jayson shoulders past Ryder and Fallon and cups my face with his cold hands. He bends down to my ear and whispers, “It will never be over between us, princess.”
A cold shiver makes its way down my back as I remember my nightmare from that first night I was on Fallon’s yacht. I recall Old Elizabeth telling me,“You will never find true happiness with Ryder. You’re deluding yourself if you think you can. Jayson will never let me go.”
Jayson turns back around and shifts his attention from me to Ryder. He takes a deep breath and I watch as Jayson’s entire body language changes. “Heard you had a good trip. Can’t wait to hear about it. Welcome back.” He holds his fist out to Ryder for a bump.
What the hell? The whiplash caused by Jayson’s sudden change of demeanor has me off-balance.
Ryder knocks his fist to Jayson’s like they weren’t about to come to blows five minutes ago. “Good to be back.”
“Why don’t we all meet up at Ruby’s tomorrow for lunch?” Jayson suggests. “You can come too, fuckwad,” he tells Fallon.
“Wouldn’t miss it, dickhole,” Fallon replies.
And then, like nothing ever happened, the boys start chatting away, leaving me very much perplexed on what the hell is going on. The only exception is Fallon. He sticks close by me watching Jayson. Ryder wraps his arm around my waist and pulls me to his side as we walk with the rest of the group back toward the house.
