Misplaced Trust (Misjudged)

by Sarah Elizabeth

  Fuck no.

  “Alex, I challenge you to break Brandon’s heart all over again, just like he did with mine when he not only took one girl away from me, but he took you away from me too.”

  “No! No fucking way! Go to hell!”

  “Fine, have it your way,” raising his hands at me, as though he’s retreating.

  I’ve just about had enough of all of this, I don’t see why he’s so intent on hurting the people who care, who cared about him so much.

  “You’re loss,” he shrugs his shoulders and walks over to Brandon, stamping on his leg before stepping over him, with Brandon wincing and letting out a muffled growl from the pain.

  “Read it, or say goodnight to Brandon and watch him fade away, just like he watched Holly,” he snarls, sitting down just out of Brandon’s reach, although it doesn’t look as though he has a lot of fight left in him anyway. “I warned you, right at the start, right at the beginning when you first met him, Alex. I warned you and guaranteed that you’d get hurt if you ever got involved with him. Do you remember that conversation?”

  Not being able to look at him, I turn away as he continues on this little power trip he appears to have going on.

  “I tried warning you both again with the flowers that were delivered for your birthday, everyone knows they’re funeral flowers, and then there was the whole ordeal of poor Brandon being beaten so badly that he ended up in a coma, and that, that still wasn’t a good enough warning for you both to keep the fuck out of it!”

  “And my mom?” I ask, feeling nauseas from finally being able to ask the question, but wishing the answer wouldn’t be what I’m expecting it to be.

  “You take after her in so many ways, Alex, it’s sickening!”

  “I despise you!” I lash out, wiping the tears from my eyes, and gazing towards Brandon, seeing his facial features showing all of the sadness he must be feeling inside. The betrayal of what his so called friend did to him. He trusted Neil like he trusts the rest of us.

  “Read the fucking diary or I’ll do it!” he scowls, pulling something out from his pocket and that’s when my whole body fills with dread and I feel my heart sinking. Glancing over to Brandon, I see him closing his eyes and lowering his head.

  “Do what he says Alexis, please? I promised you forever and I swore I would never break that promise, it’s okay … just read it, please?”

  Giving me an encouraging smile, I open it up and begin the first line.

  When I’ve read the entire thing, from cover to cover, my heart is hurting for him. Seeing him sitting there and listening to everything that was written down by the girl he so desperately loved, admitting she’d lost her virginity to his best friend, after he had been so loyal and never wanted to move on, because of his love for her. Listening to me, the person he loves now, reading out such a heart breaking thing, I can’t even imagine the pain he’s going through.

  I just want to hold him and make it all better. Watching him as he lifts his head, I see the redness around his eyes and the tears streaming down his cheeks. He looks so broken.

  “Are you happy now, Neil? Now that you’ve made whatever point you were trying to make before you left town?”

  “Actually, there is one more thing …” he places his chin in his hands, and looks to be thinking about something, and then he does it.

  Punching Brandon hard in the face, when he has no way of defending himself, he lets out an evil laugh again, and when I jump up to try and stop him from hurting him anymore, he pushes me backwards and then … and then … “NO!!!!”

  “Enjoy your forever, Alex,” and with that, he runs from the building and out of my view.

  Crawling over to Brandon, I see the fear in his eyes as I gently cradle him in my arms. Looking over him, I see where Neil rammed the needle into him, pulling it out from his neck as fast as I can, but when I look down, it’s already empty.

  “Brandon, Brandon where’s your cell phone?” I ask, the desperation clear in my voice.

  “Neil took it,” he tells me, his voice weak as he keeps his eyes fully focused into mine, “I’m so sorry, Alexis,” he says, trying to smile as his eyes begin to close.

  “No, don’t close your eyes, keep them open and I’ll go and get help!” I tell him, trying to stay positive for the both of us.

  “No, don’t … don’t leave … it was … it was full, he hit me good …”

  “What? What does that mean? Brandon, open your eyes! Please?” I beg of him, lifting him higher as I try to keep him from falling asleep, “Brandon!”

  “Forever,” he smiles, whispering the only word he can manage to speak, the one word that means the most.

  “You can’t leave me, you can’t leave me here on my own!” I scream at him, seeing some sadness in his eyes as they begin to glaze over. “Brandon, stay with me, we’re having a baby, you have to stay, you have to!” I scream, my tears falling onto his face as his eyes begin to fade.

  Holding him and clutching him as tightly as I possibly can, I feel as his body becomes limp and his breaths shallow.

  “Please stay with me.”

  Epilogue.

  I can’t believe it has been five years.

  It feels like it was only yesterday since we spoke our last words to each other, and although I was told it gets much easier as the more time passes by, I still don’t see how that can be true. It hurts like hell. In fact, it hurts just as much as it did on that very day. Time heals the pain they say. To hell it does.

  After taking a final sip of my coffee and placing the empty mug in the sink, I grab the two sprays of flowers from the dining table and head into the hallway.

  “Mommy, when are we going to see daddy?” a sweet and angelic voice to my right asks. “I wish he was here with us.”

  She inherited her father’s sparkling bright blue eyes and raven black hair. She’s beautiful. Shaking my head a little at that word, while crouching down in front of her, I stroke a stray strand of her hair away from her face and smile as she begins pulling me towards the front door.

  “I just need to grab my purse and we’ll go, okay?” she nods, and then flashes her wide smile at me while waiting over by the shoe stand.

  ***

  It’s a Sunday, so it’s quiet as we head onto Beck Hill. Autumn has set in and the surrounding trees are a bright shade of auburn, with the wind holding a slight chill.

  Clutching my hand tightly as we cross the street, I smile down at my daughter as I watch a beaming smile beginning to cross over her lips. Her eyes begin to sparkle when she sees the cemetery gates up ahead, and before I know it, she’s already let go of my hand and has started running in the direction we were heading.

  As I approach the entrance gates, a smile of my own creeps over my lips when I see him. He’s embracing her tightly and throwing his amazing smile right over at me as I go to step beside them, “Hey, beautiful,” he greets me as he lifts her up, while leaning over to me and placing a warm, lingering kiss on my lips.

  That smile gets me every time. Those eyes get me every time. Who am I kidding? He gets me every time, “Somebody was missing you,” I tell him, as he reaches over and takes the flowers from me with his free hand, with our daughter now perching happily on his left hip. We make our way along the pathway so that we can lay flowers down for both my mom, and Holly, like we do on every Sunday morning.

  “Holly, tell grandma how well you did in your singing lessons on Friday,” he tells her as he places the calla lilies down on the ground, beside her head stone.

  She kneels down on the grass and begins chattering away, with Brandon sitting by her side, watching and listening to her as she speaks.

  I can’t believe we made it. After everything that happened four years ago, we’re here, together, and have the sweetest little girl, Holly Rose Taylor.

  We chose to name her Holly, because even after learning about what had happened between her and Neil, and even though it hurt him, he has never displayed even a single moment of bitterness toward
s her. Brandon once loved her, and she loved him. At the end of the day, that’s all that really matters. We both realize that after everything we’ve been though, and how easily it could have been ripped away from us, life it far too short to hold any grudges.

  We chose Holly’s middle name to be Rose, after my mom. The woman who believed this truly remarkable man was innocent right from the beginning. She was so brave as she fought to try and let the truth be known, even when she knew there could be severe consequences. Consequences that resulted in her life being taken away in a sudden, tragic, and highly unnecessary way.

  If I’m honest, I don’t think we’ll ever be able to forget everything that we’ve been through, it’s not something you can easily put to rest.

  I really thought I’d lost him that day. Lost him in the exact same way that he had lost Holly, but he was lucky. I was lucky. We were lucky.

  The cops tracked Neil down not long after he ran from the small building by the lake, while I was on my way to the hospital, unwilling to leave Brandon’s side as he laid there, fighting for his life.

  I thought that was it that day, but here we are. A happy little family of three, with all the love we will ever need.

  “Hey,” Brandon’s voice brings me back from my thoughts, and I watch him stand and step over to me, before wrapping his arms around me tightly. “What are you thinking about?” he looks concerned, but he really has no reason to be.

  “Us and how happy I am ...” I tell him as he stares deeply into my eyes. “I love you.” Nestling into him, he brings one of his hands up to my chin, and tilts by head back until I’m gazing right into him again.

  Stroking my cheek as he keeps his eyes firmly on mine, an intensity fills them as he smiles, “I love you too, beautiful … forever.”

  Brandon’s POV – Title TBA – (Misjudged #1.5)

  Due for release January 2014!

  http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18193635-untiltled

  Prologue.

  Dinner and a movie. That’s how we’re supposed to be spending our first evening together in almost a week. Instead, I got a call from some good friends of mine this afternoon, asking me to help them out with a gig they’ve got going on in Seattle tonight. Their lead singer got hit with a throat infection and so they asked me to step in and replace him.

  “Don’t feel bad, Brandon,” her voice captivates me every time she speaks. “We can always do something together afterwards, or even tomorrow.” She smiles, placing her hand on my leg as I take the final exit, before we hit the outskirts of the city. Her smile is even more mesmerizing than her voice, and I know I’ve already fallen hard for this girl.

  “I know Holls, I just don’t want you thinking that I’m bailing on you again,” taking my focus off of the road for a split second, I notice her face fall slightly before she directs her gaze away from me completely, and back out of the passenger side window.

  She’s been pretty quiet for the past couple of weeks, and although she keeps telling me she’s okay that I started up a new band outside of college, meaning I don’t get to spend as much time with her as we’d both like, I can sense she’s not overly thrilled by it.

  See, that’s the thing with Holly. She puts everyone else before herself and doesn’t have a selfish bone in her body. Not a single one. We’ve known each other since the beginning of high school, but only started dating a couple of months back in the summer, before I began studying at the College of Olympia. If truth be known, I’ve been into her for a lot longer than that, I just didn’t know how to go about telling her.

  “There it is,” she taps my leg and I slow the car, parking it just outside the small bar on Benson Avenue. “Are you excited?” Her smile is back as she steps out onto the sidewalk and begins walkin’ around to where I’m now standing.

  While locking the car, I place my free arm around her waist and pull her into me, giving her a kiss on her sweet and soft lips as she wraps her arms around my neck and nestles in, “Eight songs, and then we’ll have some time. Just you and me,” I tell her, inhaling the strawberry scent in her hair, and thinking right now that I’m the luckiest guy alive.

  After a few moments, we step out of our embrace and head into the busy bar, seeing Ike and Thomas sitting beside the bands equipment that’s set up in the far left corner of the room. Before we even have a chance to order ourselves a soda, they summon us over to their spot, with both of them wearing expressively wide grins over the faces, “Bro!”

  “Ike,” I chuckle as he shakes my hand, before he stands and gives Holly a kiss on the cheek and a welcoming smile. “What time are we up?”

  “Right about … now,” he replies, checking and tapping his watch, with the excited smile he was wearing being replaced with a more nervous one. “Shit, I hope we can pull this off.”

  Shaking my head at his reaction, I turn to Holly, “I want you right up front. If I’m gonna be singing, I’m gonna be singing to you.” Brushing my fingers lightly across her cheek, I stare into her eyes and see small creases forming on the side of hers as she nods. “I love you.”

  “And I love you,” she answers, before stepping back a couple of spaces as I head over to the mic.

  Yeah, I’ve got it bad. Real bad.

  Reaching the middle of the sixth song, there’s a large gathering of people standing around the makeshift stage, and if I’m completely honest, tonight couldn’t have gone any better. Because I hang with these guys a lot while they practice back home, I know the songs like I know my own.

  It’s almost ten thirty and as I glance over towards Holly. I see her smiling at me as I sing the final words of the slow song we’re playin’ out about love. Yes. Love. This is what it feels like, and I don’t think that I would have it any other way.

  Glancing around the room and seeing people dancing and having a good time, I look back over to Holly and see her fiddling with her cell. I laugh inwardly to myself as we begin the seventh song. It’s most likely to be her father. Where she’s out late on a Friday night, even though she tells me I’ve been given both her mother and fathers full seal of approval, they still worry about her. I’m actually surprised they didn’t give her a curfew tonight. If they had have, it would probably mean she wouldn’t have been able to come with us.

  ***

  “Bro, that was fucking awesome!” Ike steps over the guitar lead and pats me on the back as the set draws to a close. “It’s a shame we can’t make this a more permanent thing, huh?”

  “Sure is man. It sure is,” I retaliate his enthusiasm and ruffle his hair as I look around for Holly. “Dude, did you see where Holly went?” She was standing right by the side of the stage a few minutes ago.

  Trying to look over and around the dispersing crowd, she’s still nowhere in my sight, “She probably went to the bathroom, Brandy, come get a drink from the bar. It’s on me,” Thomas pushes me forward and over to the now vacant bar area. “You know what chicks are like, gotta make themselves all pretty…” shaking his head, he summons the bartender over and orders a couple of beers.

  Well I guess ones not gonna hurt.

  After several more minutes and still no sign of Holly, I call her cell, and because the place is still filled with people, I head out onto the sidewalk. She wouldn’t have gotten far.

  Dialing her number and holding my cell up to my ear, I hear the sound of her ringtone and turn in the direction of the Justin Timberlake song that’s beginning to play out. That’s weird.

  Walking over to the small and really dark alleyway, the music’s getting louder. “Holly?” I call out, a little surprised she would’ve come out here on her own, especially this late at night and of all places an alleyway.

  Stepping inside the dark space, I hear a small sound. Something like a whimper, and then I see her.

  “Holly?” My blood runs cold as I step in front of the limp body that’s slumped against the wall to my right. “HOLLY!”

  Misplaced Trust Playlist

  1. Look In My Eyes Rains

&nbs
p; 2. My Last Breath Evanescence

  3. 50 Ways to Say Goodbye Train

  4. Secrets One Republic

  5. How to Save a Life The Fray

  6. Alone In This Bed Framing Hanley

  7. What About Now Daughtry

  8. Stay Hurts

  9. Let Her Go Passenger

  10. Broken Seether ft. Amy Lee

  11. Forever Papa Roach

  12. The Last Goodbye David Cook

  13. Unsaid Angelsfall

  Thanks so much for reading Misplaced Trust!

  I hope you enjoyed reading Brandon and Alexis’ story as much as I loved every moment writing it.

  Table of Contents

  All Rights Reserved

  Dedication

  A note from the author

  Prologue

  1.

  Harry

  2.

  Sabotage

  3.

  Intruder

  4.

  You’re Back

  5.

  Wanted

  6.

  Mom

  7.

  Friends

  8.

  Rebound

  9.

  Unexpected

  10.

  Explanation

  11.

  Show Me

  12.

  Moving On

  13.

  The Cabin

  14.

  The Love Shack

  15.

  The Vultures

  16.

  The Willing Hostage

  17.

  The Surprise