by S. J. West
When we reached the apartment, Tara pretty much took over. She ordered me to go take a shower while she called in for pizza. I was glad to shed my clothes. They still held a slightly sulfuric smell to them from the gas. When I walked back into the living room, I noticed Will was gone. Brand was standing by the kitchen counter looking at the roses Will had sent me as an apology for scaring me the night of the plane crash.
“Nice flowers,” he commented dryly.
I didn’t feel like I needed to say who they were from. I was pretty sure he had figured that part out on his own.
“Where’s Will?” I asked.
“He went home. He’ll be watching you all day tomorrow until I get back from my trip.”
I had wanted to thank Will for saving my life. Though, that wasn’t exactly something new. It seemed like he had been trying to keep me alive since I was eight.
Tara, Brand and I ate the pizza she ordered and watched a little TV. My best friend was uncharacteristically quiet that evening.
I ended up falling asleep on the futon with Brand while we were watching a movie. The next thing I knew he was carrying me to bed. After he laid me down and put a blanket over me, he turned to leave.
“No,” I said in sudden, irrational panic. “Please, don’t go. Stay with me?”
Brand pushed the door open as far as it would go. I could only assume it was for Tara’s benefit so she wouldn’t think anything was going on that shouldn’t be in my bedroom. He took his shoes off and climbed into bed with me, cradling me close to his warmth. He started to hum the tune I heard playing in Abby’s house the night my car broke down. It didn’t take me long to fall into a dreamless sleep.
When I woke up the next morning, Brand was gone. I could hear Tara in the kitchen banging a pan on the stove then cracking eggs against the side of a bowl. With the reminder of breakfast, my stomach gave an involuntary growl.
I walked into the living room and sat down on one of the stools at the kitchen counter.
“When did Brand leave?” I asked, watching Tara whip the eggs in the bowl frantically with a whisk.
“Not too long ago. Maybe half n’ hour.”
Tara didn’t look up at me when she said this. All of her attention was diverted to the eggs in the bowl, which had been whisked so much by now foam was appearing. I knew something was up.
“What’s wrong?” I asked her.
“What’s wrong?” she repeated whipping the eggs even faster. “Well let’s see. I’ve almost lost my best friend twice this week and we have no idea who wants you dead so bad. That’s what’s wrong.” She slammed the bowl of eggs on the kitchen counter in front of her. It only took a second for the tears to appear.
I immediately went to her and put my arms around her shoulders. She cried for a solid five minutes and kept mumbling that she didn’t know what she would do without me in between sobs. I held her as tightly as I could and kept trying to reassure her that everything was going to be all right.
“Besides, they’d be crazy to try something now that we’re on to them.”
“Well they better not try anything when I’m around.” Tara wiped the tears from her face onto her shirt sleeve. “They’ll be deader than a possum laying on the side of the road after midnight if they do.”
I hated what my misfortune was doing to my best friend, my sister. But it wasn’t like I had asked to be stalked by whoever it was who wanted me dead.
There was a knock at the front door. I went to answer it while Tara continued to pull herself together and finished making breakfast.
I had expected to see Will standing in my doorway, but it was a police officer. He said Detective Randall asked him to come by my apartment and check on me to make sure everything was all right. I knew what he was really doing, checking on whether I had survived the night without another attempt on my life.
I thanked the officer for coming by and reassured him that everything was fine. As Detective Randall had done, he told me to call if anything out of the ordinary happened.
While we were having breakfast, Tara slapped the table apparently remembering something important.
“I totally forgot to tell you about Will.”
“What about him?” I asked buttering up a biscuit.
“You kissed the dog out of that poor boy yesterday, girl.”
“I think I would remember something like that, Tara.”
“You would if you’d been conscience.”
“I don’t understand.”
Tara was completely confusing me. Then it hit me. The dream I thought I was having before I woke up in Will’s arms out by the pool.
“Oh God.” My hands started to tremble so bad I had to lay my biscuit back on my plate. “I thought that was a dream of me kissing Brand.”
“Well, that explains why you called Will Brand,” she said stuffing her mouth full of egg.
“I don’t understand. How did we end up kissing?”
“He was giving you CPR and then all of a sudden you grabbed his head and acted like you were gonna suck his face off. I think he was enjoying it up until you called him Brand.” Tara smiled and sort of snorted a laugh. “He let go pretty quick after that.”
“I’m going to have to apologize.”
“I wouldn’t if I were you. He saved your life. You shouldn’t embarrass the boy like that. If you don’t mention it, he’ll just think you don’t remember doin’ it. I just thought you should know what happened in case he brings it up himself.”
Tara was right. I would let Will bring it up if he decided he wanted to talk about it. As it was, I was completely mortified that my second kiss with Will happened that way. Speaking of kissing…
“How did your date go with Simon Saturday night? You haven’t mentioned it.”
“Oh, it went fine.” The sly little smile on Tara’s face told me that it had been more than just fine.
“Well, do I get any details?” I prompted anxiously. “What did y’all do? Where did he take you?”
“He took me to the Lakewood Country Club for supper and then he showed me how to golf out on their course.”
“You golf? That must have been a sight to see.” If anyone had worse coordination than me it was Tara.
“I didn’t do that bad,” she defended. “In fact, Simon said I had natural talent.”
“So when’s the next date?”
“I don’t know,” she said vaguely. “Depends.”
“I know what you’re doing. Will and Brand can look after me just fine while you go on a date. You won’t be able to watch over me all the time. Besides, Simon sounds like a great guy. You should see where this leads.”
“We’ll see.”
After breakfast, we got ready for school.
It wasn’t until I was about to head out the door that Will appeared. He only gave me the briefest of greetings before asking if I was ready to go. On the drive to school, he didn’t say a word, just sat behind the wheel with a brooding expression on his face. I wondered if his attitude had anything to do with the unintentional kiss we shared the previous day.
When we reached campus, he walked me to my world civilization class and told me he would be waiting outside the door until I needed to go to my college algebra class.
“Don’t you have your own classes to go to?” I asked.
“Don’t be silly, Lilly. You know we’re not going to let you out of our sights until we find out who’s after you. It’s obvious you can’t look after yourself.”
His course words cut through me like the jagged edge of a knife. Hadn’t I been through enough without his ridicule adding to my already fragile state of mind? I couldn’t help the tears which threatened to show how much his inconsiderate words had hurt me.
He noticed them of course and opened his mouth to say something, but I didn’t want to hear what he had to say. I turned my back to him and went inside the classroom.
After class, he was waiting outside for me and walked me to my college algebra class. Neither of us said a word. I barely ack
nowledged his presence. When class was over, I let everyone else walk out before me. Will was leaned up against the wall beside the doorway patiently waiting.
“This is your lunch period, right?” he asked following my lead down the hallway.
“Yeah, but I think I’d rather go into work early.”
I didn’t even look at him. The more I thought about his crass statement from earlier that morning the madder I got. I sure as hell didn’t want to spend a whole lunch period with the inconsiderate dolt. And then I remembered I didn’t actually have to go into work that afternoon. Dr. Barry was still in New Orleans. How was I going to get away from Will now? Maybe I could just hide out in her office for a while. Will didn’t know she wasn’t there.
“Lilly, stop for a second. We need to talk,” he pleaded.
We were outside the liberal arts building now. I started to walk toward the science building but Will grabbed my arm and made me look at him, though I stubbornly kept from meeting his eyes and looked at the sidewalk at my feet instead.
“Lilly, please. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean what I said earlier. I was just mad at something and shouldn’t have taken it out on you.”
It wasn’t enough. I yanked my arm out of his hand and started walking. I didn’t know where I was walking to, but I knew I had to get away from him before I said things I might regret later. By the time he tried to stop me again, we had walked to a secluded spot underneath the trellised arbor beside the library. No one else was within hearing range.
He grabbed me by the arm again causing me to yank free, spilling my books to the ground. He quickly picked them up and held them loosely in one hand at his side.
“Lilly, I said I was sorry. What else do I have to do?”
I finally looked up into his pleading blue eyes and basically lost it. All of the frustration from the last two years bubbled to the surface, spilling over before I had time to think through what I was about to say.
“There’s nothing you can do, Will!” I heard the hysteria in my voice but couldn’t help it. “Why do you care so much about what I think of you anyway? Why are you pretending that you actually care about me again? Is it because I might have actually found someone else who can replace you I my life?”
“I’m not pretending,” he defended. “I do care about you. More than I have any right to.”
“Well you sure have an odd way of showing it. If you cared about me you wouldn’t have said what you did this morning. People don’t do that to their friends.”
“I said I was sorry about that, Lilly. Why won’t you believe me?”
“Because I don’t know who you are anymore, Will. It’s almost like you have a Jekyll/ Hyde complex or something. I’ve seen the Will I used to love more in the past few days than I have the past few years. But then you have to go and ruin it by being a complete jackass this morning. Who are you Will? Which personality is the real you?”
“You don’t know what I wouldn’t give to be that boy who kissed you on the beach again, Lilly. I want that more than anything. I want to see you look at me like you did that night. What do I have to do to make you love me again?” The tortured way he said these words brought tears to my eyes and made my chest feel heavy with grief over missed opportunities.
“You’re two years too late! You broke my heart. Why should I forgive you?”
“Because I love you, Lilly. I’ve always loved you. Can’t you see that?”
“Why didn’t you say that two years ago?” I yelled at him, backing away. I felt like I was losing my mind. Hadn’t I always wanted to hear those words from Will? I would have given anything if he had declared his love for me just last week. But now, I had Brand, someone who had done nothing but show me respect and kindness; someone who brought joy back into my life. He was someone who knew what he wanted: me.
“You’re too late, Will. You’re too late,” I said shaking my head at him continuing to back away.
I could see the hurt in his eyes even through my tears.
“Don’t say that, Lilly. For God’s sake, you don’t know him. You just met him last week! You’ve known me your whole life!”
“No, I don’t think I know you at all. I thought I did, but I don’t think I do now. You really need to leave me alone, Will. I can’t be around you anymore. It hurts too much.”
I ran. I didn’t know where I was going and I didn’t care. I just knew I had to get away.
Chapter 9
The next thing I knew I was standing in front of the Common’s building weeping uncontrollably. People were looking at me funny but I didn’t care. I could hear Will yelling my name behind me and knew I needed to keep going. The last thing I wanted was to be around him.
“Hey Lilly, hop in!”
I looked to my left and saw Abby in her car wearing a purple pigtailed wig and blue contacts dressed in a white mini-dress opening the passenger side door for me. I didn’t need a second invitation. As soon as I got into her car, she hit the gas pedal and we sped off. I don’t think I stopped crying until we were on the highway.
“I’m sorry,” I told her searching through my purse for a small package of Kleenexes I always kept in there. “You shouldn’t have to see me like this.”
“No worries, love. Do you want to talk about it?”
“No. I don’t want to even think about it.”
Abby was silent, content to give me whatever time I needed to pull myself together.
I knew if I thought about Will anymore I would just end up crying again. I racked my brain for something to take my mind off of him.
“Do you think you could take me to my car?” I asked. “Brand said it was at his house. I really need to get in touch with my insurance company and see about getting all that taken care of.”
“Sure thing, love, I can take you there now if you want.”
“Thanks, I’d really appreciate it.”
It wasn’t long before we were turning off the highway toward Brand’s home.
“What were you doing on campus?” I asked.
“Watching after you,” Abby admitted with a small amount of guilt over her voyeurism. “Brand asked me to keep an eye on you. He didn’t completely trust Will to do the job right. And from what I saw, he had good reason to believe that.”
“Well, thanks for being there for me. I wasn’t sure how I was going to get away from him otherwise.”
“I’m always up for a quick get away.” She emphasized her words by revving up her car engine a bit with a devilish grin on her face.
I couldn’t help but laugh at her. It eased my tension and I finally started to feel my body relax.
When we pulled up to Brand’s house, I stared in disbelief at what was left of my car.
“Oh my God.”
The front end was completely smashed in. I’m not even sure where the engine was anymore. I felt lucky it hadn’t ended up on my lap. The driver’s side door was propped up against the side of the car, almost like it had been wrenched off. I assumed it must have been torn off in the accident somehow.
I used the phone Brand had given me and called my insurance company. Luckily they had an agent free that afternoon to come look at the damage. Abby invited me into Brand’s home and offered to make me lunch.
“He always has a stocked kitchen,” she said. “He knows I’m too lazy to do my own cooking.”
In no time at all Abby cooked us a couple of ribeye steaks, baked potatoes and prepared a salad. When we sat down to eat, I noticed her steak had so much blood coming out it was almost raw. Thankfully, when I cut into my steak it was a perfect medium rare.
“So, mind me asking how much you like my dear cousin?” She asked popping a large bite of steak into her mouth.
“Well, I like him a lot. He’s one of the nicest people I’ve ever met.”
“Nice,” she mulled the word over like it didn’t quite sound right. “Most women talk about how gorgeous and dead sexy he is. It’s odd you would talk about an attribute of his personality.”
; “Well he is gorgeous,” I admitted. “But, that’s obvious.”
“True,” she said. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him as taken with someone as he is with you. In fact, I know I haven’t.”
“But what about the girl he mentioned? His first love. I assume he told you about my best friend interrogating him before we went on our first date?”
Abby laughed. “Yes, he did. I would really like to meet Tara someday.”
“He said she died. Did you know her?”
Abby’s eyes fell to her plate as she absently played with her potato with her fork.
“Yes, he did love her, but I wasn’t around then.”
“Oh,” I said surprised. “I was under the impression you two had grown up together.”
“For the most part, but not that part,” she said.
She placed her fork down on her plate and folded her hands in front of her before looking up at me again. “I know I said I wouldn’t talk about this before, but I need to know something.”
“What do you want to know?” I asked cautiously, wondering where this was going.
“I love Brand with every fiber in my being, and I don’t want to see him get hurt. I know this isn’t any of my business but if there’s something going on between you and Will, please don’t lead Brand on and give him false hope. He deserves better than that.”
“I wouldn’t do that to him, Abby. He knows what Will has meant to me in the past. I haven’t tried to hide anything from him.”
“But what does Will mean to you now? From what I saw, he can still affect you a great deal. Listen,” she said with a heavy sigh. “Brand’s falling in love with you. Well, to be perfectly honest I think he’s already in love with you. I just don’t want to see him get hurt if it can be helped.”
“I don’t want to hurt him, Abby.”
“No, I don’t think you do, but you will if you don’t decide who it is you want soon. One way or another someone’s going to leave with a broken heart, and I don’t want to see Brand picking up the pieces of his unnecessarily.”
“I know. I just need some time to figure everything out.”
“I just wanted to let you know how I felt about the matter. I don’t mean to pry into your relationships. It’s just that I love him. I don’t want to see him hurt.”