The Note

It took us an hour to get to the shopping center. I parked near the ice cream joint because I'll be damned if I was doing any shopping without some kind of tasty treat. Shopping was hell. Shopping with a woman? Purgatory.

We crossed the parking lot. I walked while Mady skipped and danced around to the music only she could hear. She often did this. It's why my mom calls her a free spirit and I'd tend to agree. Even the way Madison dresses reflects her vibrant energy. Her full length dress is split up each side to the knee where her boots begin. She wore a white corset her hair again in pigtails.

I breathed a sigh of relief as we entered the store. The was no line.. When we got to the counter I felt Maddy tighten against my side. Her whole body tensed as she held her breath. Behind the counter, the young man turned and looked at me like he had seen a ghost.

"J...J...Jason?" He stammered.

"Yeah." I muttered with a lifted brow. "I know you?"

"Bryan." The kid answered. "Sam's brother."

"And who is Sam?" I asked the brow going even higher. "You say that like I should know him."

"Know him?" Bryan gasped. "You only put him...."

"Enough!" Madison interjected. "It doesn't matter. Get us two Blizzards. Small. One with Oreo,and the other with snickers."

She held out a ten dollar bill and I turned that raised brow down at her. Even for twins we weren't close and she knew my blizzard now? The boy frowned, but nodded and took the money. He then turned away to complete the order. I turned my attention to my sister.

"Since when do you know what kinda ice cream I like?"

Madison bit her lip gently and looked down, shuffling nervously. The toes of her boots slid back and forth across the ground.

"I learned a lot about you J." She whispered. "Drop it, okay?"

There was something odd in her voice, but I shrugged and did as she asked. It was bad enough I was always uncomfortable, the last thing I wanted to do was make her the same way now.

I ate my ice cream in peace, while Madison pulled me all around the damn mall. Shoe stores. Clothing stores. Hot Topic.....Jesus Hot Topic. People might assume, based on the wallet and the rings and earring, that I shop here, but can we not just burn Hot Topic? Please?!?!?

She must have tried on a dozen pairs of shoes, pants, shirts, and dresses. I spent so much time sitting in those uncomfortable chairs that my ass fell asleep more than once.

All and all, it was the standard trip shopping with anyone of the female persuasion. Except one.

I was sitting on an uncomfortable throne with two other guys who had obviously been dragged here by their girlfriends, when the divider pulled back. The two men beside gaped, so of course I looked. Curious who the hottie was.

Then I saw Madison. The dress was a full length dress and was skin tight. Her rounded backside was on full display and the wealth of her breasts were sticking out more than I had ever seen them before. She had swapped her stockings and boots for a pair of black five inch fuck me heels.

Then it hit me like a truck.

Her legs were laying on my shoulders. My tongue slides over the heel of a black, five inch heel on a pair of pumps. Above me, on the bed, a girl giggles with desire and playful lust. I have waited to long for this. Talked myself out of it too often.

The other foot comes up and presses the tip of the other heel into my shoulder. I feel the painful sting of the heel and groan in need.

"You ready for me baby?" A familiar female voice asks.

"Tell me." I command.

"I love you Jason Matthews. Only you."

My head shook and slowly my vision clears. Madison is kneeling between my legs looking up at me, concerned.

"It happened again, didn't it J?" She whispered. "A memory."

"Yes." I replied in pain.

Suddenly, I had a splitting headache. It was as intense as the last memory. The migraine strengthened with each slamming vision. I had built a hell of a wall to keep these memories at bay.

"Need to go home?"

"No." I assured her, calming myself. I smiled. "I'll be fine."

She looked up and locked eyes with me. Her lips parted into a warm smile. She scanned the crowd to make sure we haven't made a scene.

"Fuck." She cursed.

Not waiting to explain herself, she jumped up and ran back into the dressing room. The heels clicked off the tile leading to the dressing room. I turned to follow where she had been looking, but see nothing except groups of shoppers.

Then I notice a blonde woman pointing at me. She can't be much older than me, wearing a tight pink sweater and short pink skirt. Her pumps? You guessed it, pink. She was standing with a group of two girls and three guys.

Our eyes met, and I read her lips clear as day. "There the fucker is." Before I know it, the group has made a beeline for me. I jumped up from my seat. The two men beside me exchanged confused looks as they watched how fast my sister runs for the dressing room.. They both stood and left leaving me alone in the changing area.

Walking out in front of the group, was a blond guy. He stood six foot, maybe a little less. Stocky with thick bodied muscle, and short blonde hair. I recognized him at that moment. Going through a glass and wood table.

Subtly, I slipped the rings off my fingers and slid them into my pockets. I would never fight with my rings on. It's not fair to anyone. My Mom and Dad's had taught me better. If you have to fight, do so with some kind of honor. There is a special honor in combat, respect it.

When the man reached me he raised his arms and I lifted my own to defend myself, only to then be pulled into a fierce hug. The man roared with laughter as he patted me on the back. When the hug broke he kept his hands on my shoulders, and giving and gave me a wide grin.

"Fuck me! Jason Matthews!" He exclaimed. "When the fuck did you get back!"

"And you don't even call me?" The blonde woman snapped.

"....I don't know you." I told them truthfully.

The realization dawns on them., Sam nodded understandingly.

"Yeah, Jennifer told us about your amnesia." He said with a smile. "Two years? Man, that's some fucked up shit."

"You ain't living it." I complained. "Reintroduce us?"

"Cool!" The blond man obliges. "Me? I'm Sam. The two guys behind me are Andy and Dalton. The girls with them are Jamie and Janice, and of course you know Catherine."

"I can introduce myself, asshat." Catherine snorted.

Catherine stepped forward and reached out to slide her arms around my neck when a hand with purple fingernails grabbed her by the throat and thrust her away from me. I looked down at my side to find Madison dressed in her skirt and corset again with hate in her eyes.

For a 5'2" tiny woman, she scared the crap out of me at that moment.

"Keep your fucking hands to yourself bitch." Madison shouted. "He may not remember what you fucking did but I do!"

"Are you still harping about that?" Catherine replied, laughing. "It was a joke Maddy."

"A joke?!" Maddy continues. "You think that shit was funny?! Addison was crushed Catherine! Crushed!"

"That's what made it funny." Catherine smirked.

She reached out to touch my arm and Maddy again slapped her hand away, and her eyes flashed dangerously.

"Keep your fucking hands to yourself!" Maddy snarled.

Catherine's face contorted into an almost feral look as she stared at my sister.

"What the hell's your problem bitch?" Catherine growled. "He was my man for over a year! If I want to touch him I damn well will!"

Madison grasped my arm almost possessively. She leaned forward and whispered.

"Touch him again Cat and I swear I will rip that silicone off your fucking chest and feed it to you!"

I don't know what offended Catherine more. The threat of violence, or the thought that her tits were fake. She hissed back to my sister.

"No silicone here bitch. Ask your brother, He'd know all about them."

Madison shrieked and slugged Cat clean in the face with her free arm. Cat staggered back screaming, clutching her nose. The big blonde man yelled in protest and came at my sister, and I stepped between them. He was big, nearly six foot and thick, but I was still a head taller than he was.

He looked up at me in shock.

"Really dude?" He asked. "Sticking up for this bitch? What, it's only okay if I get physical with her while she's sucking my dick?"

"Fuck you Sam!" Maddy screamed. "I only sucked your cock because I thought you were....."

Her mouth snapped shut..

"Thought I was who bitch?" He growled. "You were fucking around behind my back? I should beat your ass."

"Last time you touched her you ended up with thirty stitches and a broken table." I snarled.

Madison looked up at me. Her eyes shined brighter, and I blinked looking down at the ground. Is that why I had done it? Had he hurt Maddy? As I puzzled through it Catherine and her group shuffled away from us. It was clear this was not over, but her nose had started bleeding.

"J?" Maddy whispered. She looked up at my downturned face. I could see the hope burning in her eyes.

"Is....that why I attacked him?" I questioned.

"Yes!" She whispered urgently. "He found texts on my phone from someone else and was slapping me around when you showed up. I thought you were going to kill him. You were....so angry that he was hurting me."

I sighed. "Are we done here?"

"We can be." She answered. "If you need to see dad."

I shook my head, and she dragged me from the stores with her bags in hand. She led us across the mall and into a shop I was very familiar with. I couldn't help but smile. The shop sat in the very corner of the mall, lucky to have even been allowed inside.

It was a music shop.

Not the kind that carried vinyl and Cd's but the kind that carried the instruments. In the very back, behind the counter, stood a short pudgy man. He saw the two of us walk in, and his eyes lit up. He was almost as short as Maddy. He waddled as he hurried over.

First he hugged Maddy and then me. I grinned down at him. Finally a face I knew from before the memory blockage.

"Hey Carl." I said.

"Man is it good to see you." He said. "I wasn't sure you were ever gonna get out my boy."

"I never even knew I was gone." I answered, and when he gave me a strange confused look I laughed. "Another time my friend. Do you mind?"

"No!" He agreed happily and opened his arm. "It's been too long!"

I set Maddy's bags down by the counter before making my way around. I ran my hand gently over the cymbal of a drum set. Then traced my fingers of the keys of a beautiful grand piano. When I finally reached the stands for the standard wooden guitars I picked one up.

I never noticed at that moment Maddy and Carl watching me. A small smile on Carls face and Maddy holding her breath, her hands over her chest.

I sat on the small stool and placed the guitar base on my left leg. As I strummed the strings it happened again. The image was so powerful it shook me to my very core but there was no pain this time. Just a terrible intensity.

I'm sitting on the chair arm chair in the corner of a hotel room. The skyline of what looks like downtown Vegas glowing out the window. I can see the black and white guitar when I look down. The black and white tux on my body with the tie loosened.

I have never felt like this in my entire life. I burn. Every fiber of who I am burns as I strum the strings and the notes come to life.

I strummed the same exact chord, my eyes closed tight, locked in whatever was happening to me. From somewhere far away I hear someone gasp in a disbelieving breath, but I couldn't open my eyes. No matter how much I tried, they wouldn't open.

"Every morning I watch you

Walk in, your hair pulled up neatly.

You tug at your glasses and you sit down.

And I watch you in the fluorescent glare.

And my mind drifts away somewhere."

I could hear my own voice over the speaker system. I couldn't see Carl but I could sense him standing next to me. He'd plugged in the microphone into the stores PA System. Maddy on the other side her hand over her mouth in shock. Tears standing in the corners of her eyes.

A crowd was gathering around me, but I never noticed. I couldn't pull myself from the image of that hotel room and the guitar. The sound of someone lying on the bed weeping happily. A sound matched almost pitch perfect by Madison beside me.

I could the way my voice wavered as the tears ran down my face. I couldn't break out from what I was seeing. What I was feeling. I could hear the whispered chatter of the people all around me. Some of them sniffling and others talking quietly to one another.

"Jason Matthews....." I hear her whisper from the bed crying softly. "I love you so much. Thank you for giving us a chance."

My eyes snapped open again and I stared down at the guitar in shock. Applause rang out from all around me. I looked up and nearly a dozen people were standing around me. Carl was standing slack jawed and Madison was a mess. She was standing behind the group her face in her hands crying hard.

"Wow." Carl whispered and turned to the crowd. "Jason Matthews ladies and gentlemen!"

The crowd all began to talk to me, but I pushed through them to get to Madison. When I reached her she was still weeping and I looked down at the top of her head laying a hand on her shoulder. Her tears shocked me more than I could express.

When she looked up at me there was something different in her eyes. Something strange I had never seen before and I felt a knot appear in my stomach. It made me feel uncomfortable and unclean. The panic in the back of my mind beginning to creep over me.

The most shocking of it all? How familiar it all felt.

Had I hurt my sister?

"Maddy?" I whispered unable to keep the pain from my voice.

"J?" She mumbled and shook her head. "I...just never thought I'd hear that. I heard about it from someone. It was beautiful then, I heard and beautiful now."

"Did I...." My tongue snaked out and moistened my lips. "....Did I sing that for someone?"

All she could do was nod and sniffle.

"Six months ago."

"In Vegas."

"Yes."

"Was I in love with someone?"

"Yes."

"Do you know who she is?"

"....Yes."

"Tell me!"

I pleaded laying my hands on her shoulders and shaking her softly. She shook her head hard, her pigtails flying around. The tears had smeared the makeup around her eyes.

"I can't." She cried. "Mom and Dad made me promise. Said it was dangerous for you if you knew it all too soon."

I screamed in frustration and stormed from the store. The crowd that had one second before been singing my praises jumped out of my way muttering about me having screws loose. Behind me Madison rushed after me.

By the time she caught up with me I was pulling out of the parking lot alone. She ran behind the truck screaming hysterically.

"No!" she screamed. "No! Not again! Please Jason! Please don't do this!"

The last time I saw her she was a tiny dot behind me. On her knees in the parking lot. The tires of the truck squealed as I rounded the corner at high speed. The emotions running through me were overbearing. I couldn't stop it. It was like a flayed nerve burning just beneath the skin.

I drove through town faster than was safe. My hands closed around the steering wheel so hard my knuckles turned white. I didn't stop until I came to the small parking area of the creek. A lot of people came to fish here, but I tended to come here to think. To be alone and relax.

I climbed from the driver's seat of the truck and slammed the door. I fiddled with my rings..Even from here I could hear the water running. It only took me seconds before I cleared the trees and plopped down in front of the lake..

Her hair, as dark as shadows, flips back over her bare back. I press my bare chest to her naked back and wrap my arms around her waist. I press my lips to the side of her neck and hear her moan with need. She presses her bare ass back into my lap and I feel my cock respond. I can smell the vanilla and peppermint lingering on her skin.

My hand slides down her flat stomach, over a shaved crotch and it slides between her thighs. She moans happily and splays her legs for me. I feel how much she wants me when two fingers slide into her. She's soaking wet.

"Stop teasing me." She whispers.

I tried to stand, but stumbled to the side and grabbed a hold of the tree. I let out a whimper of pain and my legs began to shake.I looked over to the spot near the water where me and this dark haired woman had been standing.

No one was there now.

Suddenly, I heard the voices from behind me and spun around. Sam, Andy and Dalton are standing at the top of the hill, a few meters away. They come down together at a sprint.

The bigger one, Dalton charged and grabbed me around the waist, slamming my back against the tree. Andy hit me in the jaw with a hard right cross. Sam swung hard for my head, but I ducked driving an elbow into Dalton's back. Sam's fist slams into the tree where my head had been.

Dalton groaned from the elbow, but Andy grabs my arm and pulls it back. Dalton straightened up and grabbed my other arm. The two of them bend me at the waist and held me in place.

"What happened to being friends!" I shouted as they jabbed me with their fists. "What the fuck Sam!"

"That was before." Sam growled.

He threw himself forward and drove the point of his knee up into my stomach. I felt the wind rush from my lungs and the pain run up the back of my skull.There was no fighting it.

I'm standing on top of the hill looking down at the creek bank. Sam is naked from the waist up and fumbling with his belt. Andy and Dalton are holding her arms above her head. Her black hair flying as she shakes her head screaming.

"Get the fuck off me!" She screams.

Sam leans down and rips her chest at the chest and her large breasts pop free. When she realizes what they are about to do she begins to sob and shake her head. She looks up the hill and locks eyes with me. Madison.

There was no weakness to follow this time. I look up at Sam with hatred burning in my eyes. With a roar of rage I yanked my arm free from Andy and threw my weight to the side. Dalton flips clean over me and slammed back onto a rock.

He screamed in pain. He tried to over and get back up,but I arched my leg up and kick him dead in the face. He collapsed unconscious. Andy stared down at his friend in shock, and I grabbed him by the back of the head and drove his face hard into the tree behind us.

His nose broke showering the tree and ground in blood. I stared ahead without concern for any of them.

"You tried to rape my sister." I snarled at Sam.

"Jason wait...." Sam called out raising his hands up in defense. "Catherine said you may need a reminder. To pick a fight. Nothing big dude. We're still buds. We're trying to help you dude."

"You tried to rape my sister!" I screamed.

I charged him without another word, taking him across the stomach with my shoulder. He rolled with me and threw me off. He staggered to his feet, trying to get away from me. I took off running and shoved him forward.

He landed with a splash in the water of the creek. I followed him into the water.. Lifting him by the back of his hair, I threw two hard punches to the side of his head and yanked him sideways. He flipped over my shoulder and landed in the water with a splash.

I drove my foot down hard on the back of his shoulders and he disappeared beneath the water with a terrified gasp. He fought hard to get free, to no avail. He was just starting to go limp when something hit me from the side and drove me into the water.

I came up spitting water. I turned to see the face of my oldest sister Jennifer and my mom. With a howl, I charged forward throwing the two women out of my way.Sam was crawling weakly toward the creek edge.