Becoming His Assassin

4 - The Next Morning

Audrey

    I woke-up the next morning with a pounding headache, and the inability to remember how I got back to Jason's house.  When the strong aroma of coffee reached my nose, I fully welcomed the thought and forced myself to roll off the couch onto the carpeted floor.

    Jason chuckled at me before I heard him mumble, "Audrey, it's nice to see that you're still the same innocent goofball."

    I flashed a forced smile his way, then I laid on the floor and pondered the irony of everything.  The last time I saw my friend was the day I married Luke.  

    Back then I still had an innocent heart with a positive outlook on life, despite being thin and weak.  Now I had a shattered heart, no clue what I was gonna do with my life, and I felt weaker than ever.

   Wishing I had never met Luke, I angrily blew my bangs out of my face and grumbled, "This sucks! Why did I have to fall for such a jerk?"

     The next thing I knew, Jason was standing at my feet, looking down with pity written all over his face.  Suddenly, he reached down to help me up, causing me to instinctively flinch.

    With a deep frown forming, Jason worriedly mumbled, "My friend, you have no reason to ever fear me.  I can promise you that!"

    Feeling bad for unintentionally offending him, I rushed to say, "I am so sorry, Jason.  I didn't mean anything by it.  I was just momentarily startled."

    After taking his hand, Jason pulled me to my feet, then he gently held onto my shoulders, as he looked me straight in the eye and adamantly insisted, "Aubrey, you don't have to explain yourself to me or anybody else for that matter.  I don’t know what in the hell that man did to you, but I have never seen fear flash in your eyes like it did just now."

    Unsure of what else to say, I looked away feeling ashamed and whispered, “The past two years have been awful, Jason.  If you knew everything he has put me through, you would understand.”

    Without saying another word, Jason wrapped his arms around me for a brotherly hug, then he grabbed my hand and led me to the kitchen.  Once we were in there, he poured a fresh cup of coffee and set it down on the counter in front of me.  

    After adding creamer and sugar, I idly stirred the coffee while my mind drifted to the most horrible thing Luke ever put me through.  It was something only me, Luke and his most trusted doctor knew anything about, and something I had been struggling to bounce back from for far too long.

    I was brought out of my thoughts when Jason asked if I wanted a few ibuprofen to help with the hangover.  Right away, I held my hand out palm up and mumbled, “Yes, please.”  After he set two of them in my hand, I mumbled a quick, “Thank you,” then I popped them into my mouth and washed them down with the hot coffee.”

     It wasn’t long before my thoughts returned to those dark memories.  Too often, I had spent hours trying to figure out what went wrong between me and Luke.  I thought he loved me more than anything, but that was clearly not the case.  I felt nothing but used and abused, which was a horrible way to feel.

    If only I had been smarter and stronger, then maybe I wouldn’t feel like I was slowly dying from a broken heart.  Luke took almost everything from me, and there was no way I would ever be the same person I was when I met him.  Too many bad things had happened, thanks to his abusive hands, and there would be no coming back from the total grief he left in his wake.

    However, I refused to let myself succumb to the heartache and grief.  Luke may have taken one of the most precious things from me, but I would make sure he paid dearly for it.  

    Never again would I let a man hurt me the way he did.  Never again would a man strike me and get away with it.  Never again would I sit back and take the abuse without fighting back with everything I had.  Never again would I let any man take anything that special to me.

    With those thoughts taking the forefront, I chugged the last of my coffee, then I held my head high and declared, “No more will I be the weakling my husband believes me to be.  From this day forward, I will carry myself with pride and confidence that no man will rob me of!”

    “Yes! That’s the Aubrey I remember!” Jason teasingly commented followed by a wink.

    I giggled at my friend, then I looked down at my clothes and asked, “Do you by chance have a t-shirt and shorts that might fit me?”

    Jason was a tall, skinny guy, so I was sure he would have something I could wear.  My thoughts were proven correct, when he scurried to his bedroom and returned with both a shirt and shorts.

    With a small smile playing on my lips, I took the clothes and thanked him, then I made my way to the bathroom for a hot, relaxing shower.  As the water eased the tension in my muscles, I thought about where I should go.  

    No way was I gonna stay in Arizona and make it easier for Luke to find me.  There were a few states that I had always wanted to visit, and Texas was right there at the top of my list.  

    Unfortunately, Luke knew how much I wanted to go there, so that would be the first place he looked, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t go there first to purposely throw him off track.  I could make it look like I went there to start over, then move on to a city where he would least expect me to go.

    Just having some kind of idea of what I was going to do helped ease my weary mind a little, and that was a great thing.  By the time I finished showering, I felt much better.  Not only that, I was eager to meet with Cedric, so I could get the hell out of town and start my new life.