Michie

“Not only are you insinuating that I’m a whore, but you’re also insinuating that your brother has the intelligence of a mud fence to be with a woman who would take advantage of him because of his celebrity or his money, and be perfectly okay with that.”
― Kristen Proby, Come Away with Me

“KRIT

"Fuck," Matty whispered.

He'd heard her.

It was me who couldn't breathe now. I had thought it was an accident. But she'd fucking done it on purpose. To protect me. Holy hell.

"I'm gonna go . . . ," Matty trailed off. I listened to his footsteps until he was gone before pulling back and looking down at Blythe.

"You got in front of a six-foot-three one hundred and eighty pounds of muscle because he was going to hit me?"

She nodded. "It was my fault he was going to hit you. I was just going to stop him."

She was going to stop him. This girl. Never in all my life did I imagine there was anyone like her. Never.

"Sweetheart, how did you intend to stop him? I could handle him. I've kicked his ass many, many times." I cupped her chin in my hand. "I had rather had him kick my ass than to have anything happen to you. That was fucking unbearable. You can't do that to me. If you get hurt, I won't be able to handle it."

She signed, and her eyes locked back toward the stage. " I made this worse. I'm sorry. Can you go fix things with the two of you so you can get back onstage?"

The distressed look on her face meant I wasn't going to be able to leave. I wanted nothing more than to take her back home and hold her all night. But she was really upset about this. I had overreacted. She had been sitting over here staring at the floor with the saddest lost expression, and I couldn't think straight. I had to get to her.

"I'll get Green, and we'll go back onstage. But you have to promise me that you won't try and save me again. I take care of you. Not the other way around," I told her.

She reached up and touched my face.

"Then who will take care of you?"

No one had ever cared about that before. That wasn't something I was going to tell her, though. "You safe in my arms is all I need. Okay?"

She frowned and glanced away from me. "I'm not agreeing to that," she said.

God, she was adorable. I pressed a kiss to her head. "Come with me to get the guys," I told her as I stood up and brought her with me.

"You won't do anything to Green then?" she said, sounding hopeful.

"No." Until you're asleep tonight. And then I'm beating his ass.”
― Abbi Glines, Bad for You

“I'm so sorry. God, baby. What were you doing? You . . . God." He took a shaky breath. "You couldn't breathe. He hit you so hard and you went down and fuck, sweetheart. I've never been that scared in my life."

I was able to breathe again without pain and I had to fix this. This wasn't Green's fault. I didn't know he wasn't going to be able to stop. I thought he would stop from hitting Krit if I was in front of him. "He was gonna hit you," I said, wincing from the pain in my throat.

Krit went still a minute, and then his hold on me tightened.”
― Abbi Glines, Bad for You

“We are working! She was fine. You could see her. What the fuck is wrong with you? This is our job, asshole. You can't go doing shit like that when we have a packed house!"

Krit shoved him again. "Don't tell me what the fuck to do."

I had to stop them. This was about me. I wasn't sure why Krit had come offstage, but I knew it was about me. I had to fix this. I didn't want Krit fighting his best friend.

"Stop fucking shoving me, you pansy-ass motherfucker!" Green roared, and lunged for Krit.

I moved fast, putting up two hands and jumping in front of Krit to stop him. The force of impact when Green didn't stop hit me directly in the chest. It was as if someone had put a vacuum in my lungs and sucked all of the oxygen from the room. Nothing was getting in, and panic gripped me when I realized I couldn't breathe.

"Fuck!" Krit yelled, and his arms were around me. He was doing something to my chest as he begged me to breathe. I was trying to breathe. It wouldn't work.

"Baby, please breathe," he was pleading, and I wanted nothing more than to do that, but I couldn't. It hurt, and the terror that I was about to die settled over me.

"She got the air knocked out of her. She's gonna be okay," Matty said in a calmer voice.

And then the vacuum left, and the air I had been fighting for filled my chest as I gasped loudly and bent over. Krit was holding me against him as me muttered sweet things over and over while he rocked me back and forth.

"Take him out of here," Matty said.

I couldn't look up to see who he was talking to, but I grabbed Krit's arms to hold onto him in case they were talking about him.

"Not me, baby. I'm not leaving you," he said as his hand began running down my hair as if he were petting me. "Not going anywhere."

"When Krit is sure she's okay, he is going to beat the motherfucking hell out of you. Go with Legend and let him calm down first.”
― Abbi Glines, Bad for You