Helplessly Aware
By
Charlie burton
Chapter 20
ALYX
wheeled around. Grace choked as the arm
wrapped around her neck from behind and dragged her back from Alyx’s side.
“Hi Grace,” came the disturbing voice.
She recognised it immediately and screamed out Alyx’s
name. Oz raised his free hand and the
radiance from the moonlight and street lamps bounced off the silver Colt
.45. All substance in her body
dissolved and her mind raced as she began to think of what Oz wanted – part of
her didn’t want to know.
Grace was a few feet away from him and a man he wasn’t
familiar with had a rough hold of her.
She was crying out his name and it made him feel helpless for a
moment. Then he saw the gun in the dim
alleyway and although he couldn’t see it clearly, the presence of it shot
prickles down his spine.
“Whoa. If it’s
money you want-” Alyx began, reaching for his wallet.
“I don’t want your money!” Oz screeched, waving the gun at
Alyx. He was high on Ecstasy and his
body pulsed with power and energy, all he felt was a euphoric bliss.
“Just let her go,” Alyx continued, he still had no idea who
the stranger was, one thing was for sure – he knew Grace, he’d said her name.
Oz tilted his head to the side and studied Alyx with his
huge green eyes, then looked back at Grace.
“Let her go? Why would I do
that? Just look at her,” he purred,
defiling her with his eyes. “Now why
would I do that?” Oz laughed and ran
his tongue up her neck. “Why would I do
that?”
“Get off me Bray,” she growled, flinching.
“Bray? You know who
I am Grace, I know who you are.”
Bray! Now
Alyx knew who the sick creep was.
“Leave her alone.”
“Excuse me?” Oz replied, pointing the barrel of the gun at Alyx. He looked back at Grace, “This isn’t another
lover, is he?”
Alyx saved her.
“There’s nothing between us, I’m just her friend. Take my wallet just get the hell away from
her!”
“For fucks sake!
Don’t you get it? I don’t want
you money, I have what I want, this is the part where you leave us to it.”
Grace mutely begged Alyx not to leave her alone in the
shadowy back street, not with Him.
So he wants her.
“Leave,” Oz repeated, his deadpan face
scoring through Alyx’s. “Is that hard
to understand?” He trailed the gun down
her neck and her eyes bolt shut, she wasn’t going to watch him. She could feel it move over her collarbone
and between her breasts like an icy finger.
“Leave,” he said, not turning to look at Alyx as he said it, but
continued to scrutinize her body. If it
weren’t for Grace’s pitiable male friend he would have ripped her shirt off by
now. Damn him.
Alyx was quickly processing his thoughts, maybe I should
run for help, but the moment I leave that bastard’s going to devour her.
“Okay, so if you won’t leave, we will. And if you think about following I will
shoot you.”
A couple of tears fell but she wouldn’t let Oz see them,
she wasn’t going to let him see how much control he had over her emotions. She struggled and screamed out again, but it
was fruitless. Alyx was immobilized.
As Oz began to pull her away into the shadows he talked to
her in the same patronizing voice he’d used the time when he first revealed who
he was. “Oh baby, why are you
crying? Haven’t you ever had sex
before? Haven’t you craved someone so
much?”
She wanted to bite back but her mind was blank, not even
one word came to mind. There was
nothing she could do now apart from block out his vile voice and the way his
hands made her stomach churn.
“Talk to me Grace.”
“And I tremble to see you again…I see you holding me,
please don’t let me be…” She let JC’s voice comfort her, let him prevent
anything else to reach her.
Oz shook her violently and her frightened eyes trembled up
at him. “For fucking hells sake say
something!”
“Why?” she wept, scowling at him.
“Why? You ask
why?” He laughed dryly. “So, you want to get straight down to
business? Fine by me.” Oz pushed her up against the wall and forced
himself on her, covering her mouth with his hand when she started to scream.
“Put the gun down and step away from the girl,” came a firm
deep voice. In the musky streetlamp
Grace could make out a cop, gun poised with Alyx beside him.
Oz paused, he was facing away from them and grinned wickedly
at Grace before slowly turning around, wrapping a firm arm around Grace. “Can I help?” he asked coolly.
“Put the gun down.”
“Why? So you can
stop me doing this…?” he questioned, running his fingers across her body in way
that made her stomach curl.
“Put the gun down and step away from the girl. You haven’t got a choice, there’s back up on
the way. We either do this civilized,
or we don’t.”
Oz was twirling the gun between his fingers and it unnerved
both Grace and Alyx, suddenly, before she knew it he was forcing the Colt into
the side of her neck causing her to choke.
“The more you drag this out the more time you get. Put the gun down.” The officer began to slowly move towards them.
Oz threw the gun to the floor and it spun away. He turned to Grace grasping her face in his
hands and kissed her firmly, the officer grabbing his hands up behind his back
and pulling Oz away, fastening him in handcuffs.
“Write me when you and JC finally sleep together.” Those were his last words to her before Alyx
enveloped her in a hug, tears falling loosely and soaking his jacket.
* * *
The sexual assault case against Oz Quest was wrapped up
quicker than Grace had imagined. It
turned out that he’d assaulted three other women and his apartment had contained
a number of Ecstasy tablets. He
admitted all crimes and stood unblinking in court as his sentence was read out,
but because Grace had been assaulted in front of a police officer she had
little part in the court hearings. Oz had
been a journalist, but had recently been fired from his job. She hadn’t wanted to know all the ins and
outs of everything, all she could hear were his last words to her “Write me
when you and JC finally sleep together”.
Alyx – to be clichéd – had been a star, concerned, but not over
pampering, which had come as a shock to Grace.
He had given her space but listened attentively whenever she’d needed a
friend.
Spring break had finally arrived and she’d been able to
escape to Florida to spend time with her ‘family’. They’d all been informed about the assault and case, and she was
half dreading that the guys were worrying because it had started off because of
them. While she’d been back at college
she’d found the time to finish her project on *NSync for Johnny, and compiled
what she’d written and the photos she’d chosen in a portfolio for him.
“So you said all nice stuff about us, right?” Lance asked,
as they got ready for the Charity Baseball game they were playing at.
“I told the truth,” she replied, handing Justin his mitt.
“Aw no,” Joey whined, “That can’t be good.”
“Of course it is!
You guys are all great and your habits are more quirky than
maddening. Apart from the
channel-hopping, Joe.”
He pulled a sad face, pouting his lips and crinkling up his
forehead.
“C’mon, let’s go play ball,” Chris exclaimed, leaping in
the air and heading towards the door.
Joey and Justin followed doing nodding chicken impressions,
you just didn’t ask about these things.
“It’s good to have you back,” JC said to Grace as she wandered
out with him and Lance.
“Yeah, it is. We
missed you!” Lance cried. “There was no
one to sneak in Ben and Jerry’s or chocolate or marshmallows.”
She laughed and put an arm round Lance’s shoulder. “Guess I’ll have to go out and buy some as
an indulgence before you guys leave for Europe.”
“And you’re sure there’s no way you can come with us?”
Grace shook her head and her eyes saddened. “I wish.”
“Bounce, come on bounce, I slam the door, boom, when I come
into the bedroom, wham bam, coz I’m the king of the castle,” JC exploded,
bouncing up and down and cracking out a few moves to the invisible melody.
Both Lance and Grace just burst out in laughter and JC’s
eruption of exaggerated dance moves and deep gruff voice.
“Come baby come, baby, baby, come, come,” he continued,
pushing his hands into the air and letting his whole body groove to the beat as
they headed out onto the field.
The game was good, full of unexpected moments from all the
celebrities playing, especially JC who seemed to be on a high. Grace was sat on their bench holding drinks
for them and occasionally taking photos, but it was her sketchbook that took
prize position on her lap as she discovered she hadn’t lost her passion.
All five of them came off the baseball field fully charged
and riding high on a rhapsody of enthusiasm.
JC sounded like a siren as he ran over to Grace and grabbed her hand,
pulling her into the changing rooms and before she could protest he’d turned
the shower on and they were soaked.
“JC!” Grace cried out, her hands slippery against his arms
as he held her close.
“Wow,” he gasped, shaking his hair and drawing in a deep
breath.
She began to laugh, and tickled him as he squirmed beneath
her fingers.
“Be gentle, and watch where you’re putting those fingers,”
he teased, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her in tight. Grace clasped her hands against the nape of
his neck and hugged him back, she was so immensely happy to be back with them. To be back with him.
That night to add to the shift in JC’s personality, he
insisted that they all go out clubbing at the swankest club they could think of
in Orlando. Everyone dressed up for the
occasion. Grace appeared in a white
skirt that fell just above her knees with a slit that ran most of the way up
her thigh, a low-cut red top that left her mid-drift bare and a black necklace
that shimmered.
“Ta-da!” she announced, stepping out and striking a pose,
flicking her long free hair out her face with a toss of her head. It fell in loose ringlets about her
shoulders and if it wasn’t for the crimson top she would have reminded them all
of the Greek Goddess Aphrodite.
She shimmied towards them, her heels clicking on the floor
as the heavy bass from the song playing on the boom box.
“Get her in the car before Joey starts drooling,” Chris
instructed. JC was driving them in his
Cherokee, and Grace had to sit on Justin’s lap, not that either of them
protested.
Grace’s eyes watched JC flirtatiously as their hips moved
to the Latino music that throbbed from the bulky speakers. They’d never danced together before, but
after a few moments Grace found it easiest just to let JC hold her close and
his body led the way. He danced so
smoothly and every move was accurately placed with the beat and rhythm, going
with his flow had never felt so right.
JC’s
hands grasped her hips, but he knew that as the song progressed and they got
lost in the music that they would venture.
Her blue-grey eyes were wild and the passion in them electrified the
rest of her body. Their bodies brushed
and it sent shivers through his skin that thrilled his entire body. As she trailed her fingers sensually over
his bare arms and black wife-beater he wanted more than ever before to cover
her mouth with his lips in an ardent kiss.
Can’t
you see what you’re doing to me?
There’s a chemical reaction exploding inside my veins – like I’ve been
heated over a naked flame. I’m crazy
for you. JC
fixed his eyes on her, but they were no longer gentle, instead flames licked
the blue marble in a frenzy of passion and emotion.
“I
wanna be with you, if only for a night, to be the one who’s in your
arms…there’s nothing more to say, there’s nothing else I want more than to feel
this way…” so what if the lyrics didn’t fit with the Latino music, it was how
she felt. JC
was indescribable. The way he made her
feel was beyond description and words. …I
can’t fight this feeling anymore, drives me crazy when I try to… Grace
sighed and let the music to continue through her body.
As
if he almost read her thoughts he moved closer to her and hung his head down
beside hers, their cheeks touching.