A Forbidden Love

Chapter 3

Waking the next morning, I felt like I had been hit by an emotional bus. Opening my eyes, I saw we were at Anton’s abandoned house. I had to get up and check on Azura.

She was still fast asleep. I let the guys know I would be back. I had to get some things prepared for the day. Azura was going to need clothes, food, headache meds, and a place to go.

Going back to work today would be a problem for her as I knew the police were still out looking for her. Besides, there was no point in taking her there and then having to take her elsewhere again. The best option would be to keep her where she was at now.

I called and let Jay know I wouldn’t be home for a few days. He knows Anton and was fine with me staying with him. He understood the situation and also understood Anton was best equipped to help.

Several hours later, I was back at the house and found Azura awake. She was emotional and frustrated. The first thing she wanted to do was to call her mom. We borrowed one of the guy’s burner phones to call. Her phone was off and locked in the safe at work. I couldn’t afford them to find her. Which would also mean they found Anton’s crash pad.

Azura took some privacy in her room and spoke with her mother. They talked a while. During which I was busy figuring out our plan of action. Anton had showed up and was giving me pointers on the do’s and dont’s. Azura was going to have to turn herself in. She would be charged with misdemeanor hit and run, but they couldn't charge her with a DUI if they couldn’t test her blood.

“Maya, she is going to have to stay here at minimum 3 days. Her system won't be cleaned out enough. She also needs to cleanse her system. I have some Niacin she can start taking. If she doesn’t turn herself in, they are going to go on a witch hunt.” Anton explained.

“I agree. Once she is done talking to her mom, we will talk about the plan.” I sighed heavily. This had all been so emotionally draining. “I have to take off. I forgot I have to head to work for a meeting. Can you keep an eye on Azura?”

“I got you dude.” He paused a moment. Then he looked at me with an odd look on his face. “Hey Maya, I got to ask. What’s the deal with you and her?”

“What do you mean?”

“Like are ya’ll a thing?”

Understanding finally caught up with me. “Oh no. I just feel for her. She’s gone through a lot. She won’t talk to me about it, but I can see it.” I thought about it further. “You remember how you met me and I looked like my soul had just left?”

He nodded.

“I have seen that look on her face. Something’s happened in her life that destroyed her will to live. But, I got to go. Can you please take good care of her? I know she has been through a lot and I can also tell she is pretty pissed at herself.”

“I got you dude.”

As I got back to my car, I realized I was going to have to go to work and act like life is normal. This was proving to be a very long day.

Oh, how wrong I was. The day was going to be horrifically long. Nothing was going right at the office when I got there. The staff were fighting and some were freaking out because they couldn’t get ahold of Azura. All of them were worried about her.

Angelica came running up to me as soon as I stepped into the building. “Maya, have you heard from Azura?”

Attempting to neutralize my face, I responded. “I haven’t heard anything from her, but I did hear from her sister. She is okay.”

“She is going to go to jail.” Angelica said plainly. Supposedly, Azura and Angelica were very close, but right now I was questioning how valid that was. Angelica looked and talked like she wanted Azura thrown in jail and the keys to be thrown away.

I didn’t understand it.

Taylor came up to me and mentioned I should probably give Azura’s ex a call. I knew the girl as she was a former employee of mine. I hated the idea of calling her as I knew this was partially her fault as well. However, it was not my business to keep this from her.

Reluctantly, I pulled out my phone to call her. The phone rang twice and she answered.

“Hello?”

“Hey Ava, it’s Maya.”

“Yeah, hi.” She responded shortly. She was not happy I was calling.

“I’m calling, because there was a situation with Azura last night. And I know you guys were together so I just wanted to let you know that she is okay. We don’t know where she is at but her sister let me know.”

“She and I aren’t together. I don’t give a shit.”

She hung up the phone.

I was shocked. I stood there, staring at my phone, trying to figure out how in the hell she was so heartless she couldn’t even give me 5 minutes. All I could do was shake my head and move on.

The day was as usual. Emails demanding my attention, the staff arguing with one another, and, of course, my boss chewing my ass out for whatever reason he felt like today.

Nearing 4 o’clock, I allowed myself to switch into auto pilot. It was going to be a much longer day than I had hoped.

A lot of red bulls later, I was finally done. The clock on the wall said 11:02pm.

I sighed heavily, grabbed my things, and said good night to the security guard.

I was staying at Anton’s again. My heart wouldn’t let me just leave her there without a familiar face. And we had to go over the plan.

Leaving my vehicle down the block in the alley, I carefully made my way to the house. The walk was uneventful, but the moon caught my eye. It was full tonight, and it was breathtaking. I’m a sap for simple things like the moon and the stars.

I took one more look at the moon before I headed to the back door.

With all of the commotion of last night, I totally missed what the house looked like. Half the windows were busted out, the front door barely stayed closed, the smell was atrocious, and the stairs groaned with every step I took. The walls leading to the basement were concrete.

The basement looked totally out of place from the rest of the house. It had 3 bedrooms, a kitchen, a dining room, a living room, and a larger closet. The area was complete with nice flooring and an awesome design on the walls. There were red and black wavey lines that made the area look really awesome.

Azura was up and sitting at the dining room table looking at a magazine that had been left there. Her eyes were red and swollen. She had been crying. She looked up at me with sad eyes. Looking into them, I could see the pain she was in. Not physically, but her heart hurt.

“Hey, how are you feeling?” She just shrugged her shoulders. “I know everything is a bit chaotic right now, but as time goes on, things will get better.” I paused a moment. Digging deep, I had to find my nerves and get them straight. “Can we talk about last night?”

She made a face that told me no. Which didn’t surprise me, but we had to talk about if we were going to fix this and save her from a world of trouble.

“I know it’s not ideal to talk about it right now, but we need to. A lot happened last night, and we are here because the cops are out looking for you.”

She sighed heavily. Internally, I shuddered. This was not going to be a fun conversation.

“Let’s start at the beginning.”

She was resistant at first to giving a lot of information, but as she talked, she slowly opened up. She and Ava had been in a relationship, but Ava was also in a relationship with a man. Ava was literally timing how much time she spent with each one. She was leading both of them by saying she was going to leave one for the other. Azura found out about it, and they got into a big ol’ fight. She went to the office to see Taylor and Angelica. They were all pretty close, and she needed her friends. Where things went wrong is when she found out that Ava had been cheating on her with ANOTHER person. One of whom she was not made aware of. This set her off. She had already been drinking heavily most of the day.

“And that’s how f****d up I am,” she finished.

“Azura, you are not f****d up. You made bad choices, yeah, but who hasn’t? Who here is a saint? Last, I checked, and I am aiding and abetting a wanted person. My best friend is a career criminal. I am the last person to judge you on anything you do. We need to discuss our plan. You have to turn yourself in, but not until we are sure you are outside of the testing window. If they can't see alcohol in your system, then you can’t be charged with a DUI.

Anton was helpful in getting a plan together. In 3 days you will go to the police station and turn yourself in. When they take you into the interrogation room, you have to keep your nerve and don’t fold. You were exhausted from studying for your state exams and emotional from the recent relationship break up. You were struggling to see clearly how tired you were. You didn’t mean to hit the light pole, and it freaked you out. So you ran. You were worried about losing your ability to take the state exams to finish getting your RN license.” I paused to make sure she was following me.

I looked deep into her hazel eyes. They had specks of green and gold in them and they were mesmerizing. You know, they say when two people stare into each other’s eyes, their heart beats will sync. I don’t know if that was happening, but I had to look away. I didn’t want to make her feel uncomfortable.

“Azura, I need you to keep your word that that is the story that you are going to stick to no matter what they say or how long you are there.” I paused and waited for her to nod her head. I continued, “Okay, I am going to be there the entire time with you. I don’t want you to feel alone. I am going to let your mom and sister know to expect you home afterwards. If you need to take time to refocus, you can. I will understand.”

I got up to go grab an energy drink out of the fridge.

“Maya, why are you helping me?” She said so quietly, I almost didn’t hear her.

“Because I care about you. I understand your pain. And I feel a connection with you. My childhood was a s**t show and a half. I know that look you carry. It is the look of waiting to die.”

Her face held shock in it.

“You act like your life is so great though!”

I laughed, “My adult life is up and down. I don’t deal with the s**t from my childhood. That is too traumatic. It would take me years to unbury and deal with that monstrosity. Anyways, I am going to make something to eat. What are you feeling?”

“I don’t care.”

“Okay, why don’t I just grab some Rodolfos?”

“Sounds good.”

I grabbed my things and went and grabbed our food. Thankfully, they were 24/7. It didn’t take long for me to grab that and head back. We ate in silence as I could see she was consumed with her thoughts. Not long after finishing, she went back to her room and I crashed on the couch. I could have taken one of the rooms, but I found the couch more comfortable.

Tomorrow, I was going to have to go back to work and continue with my façade. Which meant I had to be up in 5 hours.

Sleep came quickly and morning arrived. I got up and got going.

Work was the usual chaos, but I found myself thinking of Azura. It helped the day pass quickly. However, it being the story of my life, I didn’t get to leave until late. By the time I got back to the house, Azura was already fast asleep.

The following day was similar to the last.

Before I knew it, it was time to take Azura to the police station to turn herself in. Azura was a ball of nerves as we drove there. After checking in, she was taken back by two detectives. I paced the lobby and looked at the pictures they had on the walls.

Some creepy guy came up and tried talking to me for a while, but after figuring out I wasn’t in a talkative mood, he left.

They had her in there for 3 hours. By the time she came out, she looked drained. The detectives dismissed her. One of them approached me and asked me if I had known where she had been hiding out. I simply told them that I had accompanied her to help her feel supported. I didn’t know much other than that.

The detectives eyed us with suspicion, but didn’t stop us from leaving.

Azura got in the car and plopped into the seat. She let out a heavy sigh and stared out the window.

“Are you okay?” I asked with caution.

“Yeah, that was just a lot. I almost cracked when they finally decided to let me go.”

“Well, I am glad they didn’t decide to detain you further.”

The ride to her house was quiet. As I pulled into her driveway, I felt sad. She was going home now. Thoughts consumed my mind. I worried she would shut me out after that. For some reason, I still wanted to be part of her life. It was important to me.

As she went to get out of the car, she looked at me. “Hey, thanks for your help. I don’t know how I would have gotten through this without you.”

“It’s no biggie. I got you. Let me know if or when you want to come back. Take some time and handle your stuff. You have my number. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to call or text me. It doesn’t matter what time.”

She smiled at me and it nearly stopped my heart. Her smile was breathtaking.

The drive home was silent as I thought about Azura. I hoped we could be friends.

I got home and sat in front of my house for a moment. Taking a deep breath, I prepared myself for what hell hole I was about to walk into.

Surprisingly enough, Jay was in bed and fast asleep. I could smell the alcohol coming from him. As did I see the evidence of the bottles of Kraken sitting on his nightstand. My anxiety cooled. He was asleep, which means I missed the worst part of his behavior.

I fell asleep thinking of Azura.