I had no intention of being mortified further.
It was incredible how cold it was outside with bare trees, while inside each plant was in full bloom and gave off a wonderful scent.
I sat on a bench to enjoy the little oasis of peace, even though I felt angry inside me.
Anger towards Easton who hadn't warned me of how out of place I was with my dress and that he hadn't bothered to avoid the reception.
Anger towards Mitchell who did nothing but make me always feel inadequate.
Anger towards my mother who cared about me.
And finally, anger towards myself because I allowed all those people to hurt me.
I want to go home, to my father and Book.
I took the phone to call my father, but as always, I stopped. I was too low at the time and he would have noticed. I didn't want to worry him.
Overwhelmed by frustration and nervousness at the forced loneliness, I began to pick leaves from a plant.
"What are you doing?" thundered a voice behind me, startling me.
I turned and found myself in front of the gardener.
"What plant is it?" I said, taken aback.
"Melissa."
"I thought it was nettle," I lied.
"Incredibly wrong, otherwise you would have a bad urticaria and bubbles on all the skin that came into contact with the plant."
"Yeah," I chuckled uneasily.
"Are you interested in botany?"
A lot, if that's the only way I have to stay here instead of putting up with the party.
"Yes. Can you explain better the difference between these two plants?” I asked him, pointing to any two shrubs. I was ready to overwhelm him with questions just to stay hidden there.
After two hours of gardening class, I left my den.
The party was already over, the guests were all leaving, and I saw Easton's car in the driveway.
I ran to look for him.
Eventually I found him in his room.
He was half drunk.
"Easton, are we going back to campus?"
"Huh?"
"Now. Please."
“ Alice, my head is bursting. I think I drank too much. "
"Shall I make you some coffee so you can recover?"
"Do you know how fast you are?"
"I don't want to stay here anymore."
"I told you to come with me, but you didn't want to."
"I regretted it, okay?"
"I do not care."
His shuffling, irritated tone of voice was getting on my nerves.
“ Look, it's your fault too. You could have told me that my dress was ruined! Your father treated me like a beggar."
Easton laughed. An incredulous, drunk laugh.
"I spent a day in hell, and you laugh?" I raged.
"It just suits you."
"You're an asshole," I exploded offended.
“ And you are a poor fool who lets her day be ruined by an idiot. Now go away, I need to be alone to get rid of the hangover,” he chased me away, staggering around the room, and then landing on the bed.
Even if he was drunk, I had no intention of making it go smoothly!
I was furious and unconsciously turned Easton into the scapegoat I needed to let off steam.
My mind clouded by resentment, I went back to the greenhouse and, without showing myself, gathered tufts of lemon balm.
It won't be as stinging as nettle, but I hope Easton doesn't know!
Without being noticed, I went back to the boy's room and threw my loot on him.
Easton was so sleepy that he didn't even notice.
Let's see what you will do when you wake up!
Stuck at the villa with Easton I was forced to attend the family dinner.
My mother didn't even speak to me. Apparently, she hadn't liked my disappearance during the toast. Mitchell also seemed rather impatient because of my presence and because he had to endure yet another hangover of his son, who had not even got up to have dinner with us.
13
ALICE
When I finished eating, I immediately closed myself in my room in the hope that morning would come soon, and that Easton would take me back to campus.
I was watching a movie on my iPad when I heard Easton's voice scream my name.
Finally, someone woke up!
I did not move a finger, remaining impassive even when I saw Easton break through the door of my room to enter and come at me with his hands full of lemon balm, which he threw at me.
"I don't carry out your orders like a soldier and you fill my bed with nettles?" he snapped.
I smiled at the thought that he had remembered my threat to fill his bed with nettles when I couldn't get him out of my room on campus.
«Melissa, not nettles. Easton, have you ever thought about adding a botany course to your university program?” I snorted, rolling my eyes, and pretending exasperation.
"I'll kill you," he blurted, throwing himself on my bed and tickling me.
"Leave me alone!" I screamed laughing. “Nothing would have happened if you hadn't left me alone at the party and gone back to college. I also can't forgive you for not telling me that I looked ridiculous because of the ruined dress. "
“ I didn't notice anything wrong with your dress. I was too busy curbing the urge to get it off you."
"Balls!" I exclaimed blushing.
"Are you calling me a liar?" Easton hissed, getting closer and closer, until I found myself sitting with my back against the head of the bed and his face a few centimeters from mine. "You were beautiful in that dress," he whispered, brushing my lips with his.
"Was I beautiful? Easton, you're still drunk, aren't you?” I joked, too embarrassed to enjoy his first compliment to me.
Only my hot cheeks, surely of mottled red could reveal the emotion and the heartbeat that had triggered his words.
"I like it when you blush like this," he said teasingly, smiling, before placing his mouth on mine, giving birth to one of the most beautiful and longest kisses I had ever received.
"I hate you," I sighed when Easton came down on my neck and his hands began to run all over my spine. God, how exciting it was to be with him.
“ I hate you too. That's why I like to do this to you," he replied, returning to my mouth and penetrating it with his tongue until it joined it with mine, while my hands ran languidly across his chest and through his brown hair.
I felt him make space between my legs, while with one hand he grabbed me by the waist and dragged me under him.
I let my legs slide against his and wrap around his hips.
I had never been so uninhibited with a boy, but with Easton it was all different. He took me beyond limits, knocked down all my hesitations, my every determination to resist him and made me want things I had never tried.
I was scared of what we were doing, but his caress, his kiss, the warmth of his body against mine was enough to let me go completely and open up to him.
I kept telling myself that I wanted love, I wanted mutual and unconditional trust and respect, not a hurricane that came, violently sweeping away every barrier and finally destroying everything it touched.
I felt this way with Easton: different and unrecognizable after being with him. He didn't care about my intentions, my rules, or fears. He always came unexpectedly, took what he wanted and then you never knew what he left you.
I had tried to keep my distance, to make him think, but it was like trapping a tornado in a glass. Impossible!
Easton was indomitable and too rebellious to handle without suffering side effects.
"Don't tell me no," Easton whispered to me at one point, pulling off my pajama shirt.
Every word got stuck in my throat in front of his excited and determined gaze. His pupils were so dilated that I could barely see the blue irises.
I am a virgin. I don't know how.
"I ..." I tried to say, but he choked the rest of my sentence with a breathtaking kiss.
When I saw him low
er my bra straps and kiss my breast, my breath broke.
Oh God, I'm really doing it! I'm letting him ...
I was about to react somehow when I heard my cell phone ring and the vibration under my ass.
"Don’t you dare answer," Easton warned me as I tried to grab my cell phone.
“ No, I'll put it away. I just want to see who it is,” I agreed, but as soon as I read the name on the display, I felt the anxiety growing inside me.
Mrs. Lillaby, my neighbor in Seattle, was calling me.
Why would my neighbor call me at that hour?
Something happened to Dad!
Panicking, I dodged Easton and covered myself as I answered.
***
EASTON
From the way Alice suddenly turned pale, it was obvious that the phone call wasn't auspicious.
I tried to hear the conversation, but Alice had moved away and kept pacing back and forth nervously.
From what I understood, something had happened to her father. He must have broken his hand while he was working and now a woman was helping him with household chores. Apparently, her father did not want to let his daughter know so as not to worry her, but the neighbor didn’t agree and had wanted to warn her.
When the call ended, Alice sat down on the bed next to me.
"Are you okay?"
"No. My father hurt himself at work. In the evening he works as a warehouse worker and a load fell on him. He managed to avoid it, but his right hand was pinched and fractured his hand. Ms. Lillaby says it's not serious, but he won't be able to work for a month. She asked me not to tell my dad about the call. "
"I'm sorry."
"I ... I have to go home, go to him, see how he is," Alice began to stammer in agitation, getting up and starting to gather her things and put them in a bag. "If you take me to the bus stop, I could be with him tomorrow morning."
"Alice, what are you saying? It is already late and you yourself said that your father is fine. There are already people thinking about him," I tried to stop her.
“ I ... he ... he needs me ... It would never have happened if I hadn't left. I… it's all my fault,” Alice mumbled, before bursting into a desperate cry.
"It's not your fault. It would have happened anyway,” I consoled her, taking her in my arms. It was the second time I had seen her in tears and each time it stabbed me to the heart. This time it was even worse. Alice was suffering a lot, and, unlike last time, I felt I could not comfort her.
She was overwhelmed with guilt and the distance from home had made her feel worse than ever.
Now I understood why her father hadn't wanted to say anything to his daughter.
Alice was too fragile and fond of him to be able to keep her nerves tight.
Damn neighbor!
"Please calm down. Your father is fine. You're just scared," I whispered, continuing to caress her head, her hair and her back, while she clutched my waist in her slender, trembling arms.
"I want to go home."
"Okay, but not now."
"Please help me," she pleaded, looking me in the eye through that veil of sadness and despair that hit me like a punch in the stomach.
"I will. I promise you, but first I want you to stop crying, go to the bathroom and wash your face. In the meantime, I'll see what I can do. "
"Will you really help me?"
Yes, but not as you think. I will never let you travel alone in the middle of the night, in these conditions.
I nodded.
Alice took a long time to stop crying and calm down.
“ I have to make a call first. Can you give me your unlock PIN? "
"0000," she replied, without asking why I didn't use my cell phone.
As soon as Alice closed herself in the bathroom, I phoned her father.
It was already late, but I had no choice.
Alice promised not to, not me.
"Alice!" Exclaimed the man a little worried, given the timetable.
"No, I'm Easton."
"Did you steal her cell phone again?"
"No."
"Is she all right? My daughter ... did something happen? "
That's who she got this attachment anxiety from!
"She's fine, but your neighbor called her and ..."
"Oh no! She told you about my fractured hand. "
"Yes."
"She must have been scared."
"Definitely. She wants to leave and come to Seattle. Now."
“ But I'm fine. You don't have to worry. "
"Easier said than done."
"I know. Alice has always been a very apprehensive and caring girl. Please stop it. I don't want you to make such a trip at night. Besides, she has classes tomorrow and I don't want her to skip school for me. "
"I need to know how to stop her and how to stop her crying," I found myself asking, as I heard Alice sobbing from the bathroom. "She feels guilty ..."
“ I will speak to her but promise that you will be near her and that you will console her. Alice knows that I want her to graduate and make me proud of her, even though I already am, but she doesn't believe me. "
Just then Alice returned to the room. She was very pale, with red and swollen eyes.
"Here’s your father. He wants to talk to you,” I said, holding out the phone.
As soon as Alice heard her father's voice she began to cry again, but silently, so as not to make him understand the pain she felt.
I heard the man make the usual comments and reassure her saying that it was not her fault, that nothing serious had happened and that the company would pay for all the treatments. To put it mildly, he also told her that with this excuse he could now enjoy a month of paid vacation and that soon he would take the bus and come here to visit her.
When the call ended, Alice literally threw herself into my arms and let go of all the tension she had held back during the call.
"He'll come here to Eugene next week."
"Are you relieved now?"
"Yes, thank you," she whispered, giving me a light kiss on the lips.
"Now go to sleep. We need to get up early to be on time for class tomorrow. "
"You can sleep here with me, can't you?"
"Do you want me to stay here?"
"Yes, please," he asked, holding me even stronger, as if she were afraid of falling into an abyss if she let me go.
I had never been important or supportive to anyone. It was the first time that a person considered me a lifeline.
That feeling made me feel strong, but it also frightened me.
I was afraid of not being able to protect Alice from everything and that the confidence that she placed in me could be lost because of my inadequacy.
14
EASTON
There is something wrong.
I had just spent one of the most difficult weeks of my life and the worst part was that I didn't know why.
On the morning that we returned to the university, Alice had told her mother of her father's accident in Helena. She had been sorry but hadn't even thought of picking up the phone to call her ex-husband. That failure had been yet another stab to the heart for Alice.
However, on the way, the father had called his daughter to tell her he was better and that he was starting to pack his bags.
Alice was still sad and very anxious, but she had a smile full of hope and expectation, which had reassured me immediately.
It was a pity that the hint of optimism vanished on Tuesday, the following day.
"My father was fired," she informed me that evening when I went to her room to sleep with her. By now it was she who could not be without me. She claimed to suffer from insomnia without my presence to calm her.
“ They can't do that. He suffered an injury and now they have to pay him ... "
"He wasn't fired from the firm he works as a warehouse worker at night, but from the firm he works for as a welder during the day."
"Does your father do two jobs?" I understood, amazed.
"Ye
s. We have a lot of expenses and it's just the two of us. "
"Helena won't help you?"
“ No, and my father certainly won’t ask her. He's a proud guy, you know?"
"I understand."
“ I don't think he'll come to see me now that he's out of work. Besides, the electrical system in the house is causing problems again and my father is terribly busy finding an economic solution. I offered to use your dad's credit card to pay him an electrician, but he was deadly offended."
"I'll pay for the trip."
“ He would never accept, but you are kind. I already told him I just need to hear him on the phone every day. "
"But it's not true."
"I know, but he doesn't have to know," Alice replied with tears in her eyes.
It was obvious that she had been hurt and I felt sorry for her.
However, it seemed that things were going better anyway ...
Until Wednesday afternoon, when I found myself facing an elusive and even more worried Alice than before but closed up like a hedgehog.
Even at night, when we slept together, she would lie down with her face against the wall and pretend to sleep just to avoid talking to me.
Her attitude was maddening, and I knew she was hiding something from me. But what?
"Do you know what you’re doing?" I blurted out Thursday, after stealing her beloved dessert just to cause a reaction, but to no avail.
"Eh?" Alice winced with her frown lost in emptiness.
'You haven't spoken since yesterday. You express yourself in monosyllables. Is it because of your father? "
"No."
"Is he fine? Was he fired from the other firm? "
"It's all OK."
"So, what's going on in your brain?"
"Nothing."
"I don’t think so."
"Look, I have to go study. Bye, " she hurried away.
On Friday, the situation became unsustainable.
Alice seemed even more agitated and anxious than usual, especially around lunchtime.
During American Politics, I noticed that she no longer took notes and always had her head somewhere else.
Broken Rules (Love Storm series Book 2) Page 9