The house Josh was renting was in probably the nicest neighborhood I had ever seen. He had spent the last few years saving to get his own place and I had to admit, he picked a good one. The yard was small but it was a very nice white, two story house. The door was a really deep shade of crimson and the shutters were matte black. Of course, I had only seen pictures having been away for the last month completing an internship in a hospital over 300 miles away.
Long distance relationships are always hard but it was about to get exponentially easier. I got a position at the local hospital and I was finally moving back home. Josh had invited me to stay with him until I could find an apartment. But first, I had to finish my internship, my very... last... day. The anticipation was killing me and I had actually made up my mind weeks ago that I was leaving immediately after my shift. I hadn't told Josh. I wanted it to be a surprise. I had already packed the essentials and had set up to have the rest of my stuff moved in a week. I was doing my last rounds of the night and I was double checking the file and vitals of Mr. Chatwin, my heart racing with excitement when someone grabbed me from behind making me jump and forcing a small squeak to escape my lips.
"Tonight!" Carly squealed, obviously just as excited as I was. "Why are you still here? I can cover for you, girl. Get the hell out of here!"
I laughed and hugged her as tight as my slight frame would allow. This is why she was my best friend. She always had my back, ever since we were undergrads. She was the one who helped me get into med school. She helped me study for six weeks straight and it was the most trying and exhausted thing that I ever went through. At least until I started my internship which turned out to be roughly 122% worse. Interning was the most grueling, sanity-breaking experience of my life.
"Thank you, Car. You're my favorite person in the world. I love you!" I kissed her on the forehead, shoved the chart into her hands and nearly tripped over my feet as I was sprinting to the locker room. As I ran, nearly sliding on the polished floor, I found myself nearly knocking over one of the resident doctors, hitting him full in the chest. In a most unexpected act of gracefulness I caught the folder I had knocked out of his hands, brushing a few loose strands of mousey brunette hair out of my face.
"In a bit of a rush, Dr. Williams?" he chuckled deeply taking his folder from my hands, and gently straightening his glasses.
"Yes, sir. Sorry, sir," I stammered. "Tonight is actually the last night of my internship and I was just about to head out because I'm going to drive home and hopefully surprise my boyfriend and I'm just anxious to get on the road because it is so far and –"
"Slow down, Liz! You're fine," he chuckled again. "Geez, you sound like you're about to have a panic attack. Maybe you should take a little while and calm down before you get out on the road. A lustful, sleep deprived driver is just as bad as a drunk one, you know."
"Yes, sir. Sorry, sir," I replied walking away, trying to slow my pace but my excitement burst from me sporadically resulting in an awkward skip-sprint.
"And stop calling me, sir!" he called after me. "I'm not your boss anymore!"
"Sorry, sir!" I called back, not really having paid any attention to his last statement. My mind was flooded with thoughts of Josh, of his face when I knocked on the door, of his hands in my hair, his lips crushing mine, his breath on my skin... Focus Elizabeth! I scolded myself. Don't wear yourself out before you get there.
A quick change of clothes at my locker and shoving my used clothes into a bag meant I was finally ready to hit the road. Finally having sated my exuberance I walked calmly to my car, though my heart was still pounding. As was tradition, I always had to have a great departure album to keep me awake and entertained through the nearly four hour drive, especially considering how late it was. Settling on an upbeat pop-punk album with an understated, nearly post-apocalyptic narrative, I put the car in gear and headed onto the freeway entrance.
Singing along hard and loud to the album twice over I had all but lost my voice and decided ease the temptation to keep singing by switching to a news radio station which was recalling the events of the day, one of which was an elementary school shooting that killed six children, two of which were kindergarteners and injured eleven others. I sighed, feeling terribly sorry for the children and the families but also for the doctors who had to care for those children. Dying and injured children were the hardest parts of being a doctor, a necessary part, sure, but most assuredly the most difficult. I listened for a few more minutes before I had to change the station, the morose news impeding my excitement and breaking my concentration.
When I had pulled off the freeway to Josh's house I had stopped at a gas station, refilling my tank, using the facilities and switching into something a little more convenient to get out of. I touched up my make-up, let my hair down, and dabbed a very light scented perfume below my ears and on my wrists, not wishing to drown out my natural scent or being too overwhelming.
It wasn't the cool night breeze on my newly freed skin that caused a shiver to tickle my spine but the overwhelming calmness that had settled on me, the prize for my patience and loyalty was so close at hand. Soon enough I would be in his arms again and the mere thought of what awaited me causing a slick wetness to pool between my thighs. The last mile to his house was torture, plain and simple. It seemed to take hours yet passed too quickly. The nerves had set in but as I pulled to the curb in front of his house I knew everything would be fine.
All the lights were off, he must have been sleeping. I knew he had been working extraordinarily hard since he got his promotion and was now Lead Developer for a local gaming company and I hoped he could forgive me for waking him but then chuckled reminding myself that he was still a man and men like sex at every hour of the day and night. I turned off the car and got out.
I steadied myself, smoothing my skirt and hair and slowly walked up to his front door but I heard something rustle on the side of Josh's house. Thinking perhaps he had heard me pull up, recognized my car and was trying to scare the pants off of me, as per usual. I crept over in an attempt to spoil his silly prank.
"Josh," I said, keeping my voice low so as not to wake his neighbors. It was about 3:30 in the morning and I didn't want any of them to get the wrong first impression about me. "Josh, come out. Let's go inside. I've got a... present... for you," I whispered seductively, hoping to sidetrack his mind from his childlike mischief, but he didn't come out. He didn't even reply. That was when I noticed the man who had just walked out from behind the house.
It could have been Josh, right height, right build but everything else about him was wrong. He had blond hair, not black. He had bright green eyes, not hazel. Everything was wrong, I was scared, my fight or flight senses were screaming at me to do something but I couldn't. My knees were locked, my eyes unblinking. I only had time to say "What the f-" before the man, the wrong man, had closed the distance between us, closing one hand over my mouth, grabbing the keys from my hand and turning me around so his muscular chest was pressed against the soft curves of my back. Clawing at the hand on my mouth and the hand wrapped around my stomach I screamed, hoping Josh would hear me, hoping anyone would hear me but it just came out as a raspy broken breath.
He was dragging me to my car, swinging me when I had dug my heels into the moist ground. I could feel his erection growing against me, pulsing slightly, and creating new waves of rage and panic induced adrenaline to burn though my system and I couldn't stop myself from crying. My salvation was literally less than thirty feet away from me but he wasn't coming to rescue me. He didn't even know I was there. I heard the soft click of my car doors being unlocked. He released his hold on my chest to open the door and then shoved me in. I landed on my back, my left arm twisted under me and I heard a sickening crunch then an explosion of white hot pain in my left wrist and I was sure it was broken.
The man climbed in after me, slamming the door and I wished with all that I was that someone had heard it and was checking to see who was slamming doors at this hour. I tried open the door on my side but he grabbed me by my ankles and flipped me onto my stomach, a shooting pain dancing up and down my left arm. My screaming sobs so raspy and broken and muffled in the back seat of the car that when he grabbed for my wrists and zip-tied them together behind my back no sound escaped.
I could hear him breathing, long, slow, calm breaths when he grabbed my hair and arched my back, pulling my face towards him. I could feel his rough fingers sliding up my skirt and dipping under my panties. "Are you scared?" he whispered, his sickly sweet breath against my neck.
