A Little Lost

by Burnett, R. S

  The last room is a swimming pool, with a fully stocked bar taking up the whole of one wall, kneeling down to test the water and it’s heated.

  I leave the room and walk back to the door where Cat, Tom and Travis are all taking in the front room silently.

  “Go ahead, look around” I smile at them all.

  “It’s beautiful” Cat smiles at me.

  Grinning I grab her hand “No, this is beautiful” I lead her to the rock room and open the door.

  She screams. She screams so loud the boys run over to see what’s happened.

  “I’ll get some drinks started, look around” I laugh and head into the kitchen.

  * * *

  Sat at the breakfast bar I can’t stop grinning and I don’t even care that I have a hangover. Travis is making breakfast which is highly amusing since he’s burnt his hand three times now.

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to do it?” I ask around a giggle when fat flies out of the pan landing on his bare stomach.

  “Just relax” He winces and throws a wobbly smile my way.

  “Such a bossy man” I say into my mug chuckling.

  Someone knocks the door and he walks over to answer it leaving me in my happy place.

  “Uh babe, you need to get some clothes on” he says holding the door in a way that would block out any view of me in the kitchen.

  I’m sat in just my bikini, thinking it was just going to be me and Travis here all day.

  “Send whoever it is away, tell them their ruining my happy glow” I poke my tongue out at him but jump down from my stool and head into the bedroom to put on a robe.

  When I come back out, Travis is back to cooking breakfast – in just his swim shorts – but I now have the whole Carlton family in my kitchen.

  “Morning” I call out and start the process of making more coffee for them all.

  “Afternoon you mean” Travis grins and plants a kiss on my cheek.

  “Late night?” Mason asks watching me amused.

  “Uh ... yeah, I don’t remember much just that I didn’t get that much sleep”

  Travis snorts and I close my eyes realizing how that sounded.

  “Can we look around?” Amber asks turning to look at the front room.

  “Sure” I shrug at her and take the mugs from Travis.

  “You might want to do a sweep of the rooms first” he whispers to me and then flashes of the night start coming back to me. When Cat and Tom finally left Travis and I started a game of strip dares.

  “Wait!” I shout.

  Everyone turns to me.

  “Uh .. let me just go in first” I smile weakly and go from room to room collecting various items of clothing.

  “Looks like you had fun” Mason guesses looking at the pile of both male and female clothes in my arms.

  I ignore him and turn to Amber “You can look now” I mutter and drop the clothes outside the bedroom door.

  “Babe, come eat” Travis calls over to me.

  Ignoring a glare from Kyle I pull myself up onto my stool next to him and dig into my full English that Travis had so expertly made.

  “Anne you have to come and see this room, it’s beautiful” Amber calls out, and I don’t have to turn around to know she’s talking about the rock room.

  “I know dear. I helped Elsie design it”

  At this news both Kyle and I spin around to face his mother who apparently helped my mother design it.

  “Excuse me?” I ask not sure I heard correctly.

  “Your mother and I designed this house. It was going to be your ...” she trails of and clears her throat.

  “It was going to be my what?” I ask frowning

  “Not just yours, it doesn’t matter” she turns her attention to the window but not before her eyes move to Kyle.

  Kyle looks at me just as confused and I think back to any conversations my I had with my mom. I remember how she kept insisting that I sold our old house and I would say no just in case he come back and changes his mind but she would say how we shouldn’t share a house until we were... My eyes widen as understanding hits.

  “No” I shake my head and look past Kyle to Mason who nods and smiles sadly at me.

  “What?” Kyle asks but I shake my head and go back to my breakfast not wanting to think about it.

  “The rock pools” I manage to sound nonchalant as I peek a look at Mason.

  “Yeah” he says quietly.

  The rock room makes sense now, the rock pools beyond the woods is where Kyle first told me he was in love with me and then again when he asked me to move in with him.

  “Baby come and see this. I want one” Amber calls out. Kyle leaves the table just as I finish my breakfast, I take my plate over to the sink and Travis comes to stand behind wrapping an arm around my stomach he spins us around so he’s leaning on the counter and I’m in his arms, my back to his front.

  “Considering what you’ve just found out, you’re doing good” he whispers passing me my coffee.

  “You caught that huh?”

  “Yeah, don’t worry, still plenty of time. Who knows maybe you’ll both live here one day” he squeezes me tightly for a second and I relax into him.

  Amber and Kyle return to the kitchen, Amber looks dreamy but I can’t make out Kyle’s expression.

  “You’re doing good son, I’m glad she’s got you” Mason tells Travis smiling.

  I grin up at him over my cup.

  “It’s a nice house and all but, where would you put the baby?” Amber asks.

  “The baby?” I frown at her not following.

  “Yeah, I mean you’ll want to start a family at some point” she smiles at me and Travis.

  “I’m only twenty five” I point out, probably looking horrified.

  “I know silly, but it won’t be long for you either” she says rubbing her stomach.

  I tense, wanting to make some sort of comment but Travis pulls me in tighter to his front.

  “There’s still plenty of time for children” he says above me. “She’s still young and has a few years to enjoy her life before she has to settle down and worry about dirty diapers and getting up every other hour to fetch a bottle” he tells her calmly.

  “Anyway, I’d just take the pool out” I shrug at her.

  “Not the rock pool?” she asks.

  I grin “Definitely not the rock pool”

  “That rock pool is where you’ll conceive your children” she says dreamily.

  I cock an eyebrow at her “And where did you conceive yours?”

  Everyone falls silent, Travis squeezes me, Mason sends me a wide eyed look, Anne smiles at Amber and Kyle looks at her expectantly then back at me with a look I can’t interpret.

  Mason clears his throat and interrupts the awkward silence “Well, I guess we’ll go and leave you two to your morning. I imagine you have a busy day ahead of you?” he turns and asks me.

  “Well considering I didn’t even plan on getting dressed today, I don’t have too much going on. You kind of ruined of my day” I wink at him.

  “You can always get back undressed, all you did was put on a robe” Travis says above me, amused.

  “I guess” I pout up at him “Too much effort though”

  “I could always help you ...” he trails off smirking.

  “It wouldn’t be the first time you’ve robbed me of my clothes” I laugh.

  “And look how that turned out”

  We both burst out laughing.

  “I don’t know whether to be happy that you’re finally happy again or scold you for talking about such things” Anne shakes his head amused.

  “It could be worse” I smirk at her “I could tell you about how Cat and Tom left last night when Trav and I were in the pool and we started to-“

  Travis slaps his hand over my mouth, choking on his coffee.

  “Yeah, we’d rather not hear the details” Mason scowls at me.

  “Sorry” I mumble behind Travis hand.

  Kyle n
arrows his eyes at me and leans over to kiss Amber slowly. I tense in Travis’s arms.

  I’ve been around Kyle and Amber plenty of times but I’ve never had to watch them together. I can honestly say, I don’t like it one bit, in fact I think everyone is about to see my breakfast make a reappearance.

  Mason catches the move and rolls his eyes.

  Travis has other ideas though and slips his hand inside my robe and starts lazily tracing circles on the bottom of my stomach, just above my panties.

  I shift on my feet, with it being the first intimate touch I’ve felt in months heat floods my body instantly.

  Travis lowers his face to my hair and I hear his quiet chuckle.

  “You need to stop that” I hiss at him quietly.

  He moves his hand from my stomach but only so he can repeat the movement on my hip.

  I clench my thighs together and clear my throat to stop a moan from escaping.

  Kyle and Amber pull apart and I grip Travis hand to stop the sensual torture he’s putting me under and lean up to whisper in his ear.

  “There is no way you are turning me on and leaving me like this”

  He pulls back to look at my expression, when he see’s the seriousness in my eyes he smirks at me.

  I cock an eyebrow at him “It’s been months”

  His eyes widen at my admission.

  I shrug at him “Two can play this game you know”

  “So are you going to be moving in here permanently then?” Amber asks interrupting our hushed conversation.

  I turn to face her and smile brightly “I don’t know yet, I was thinking about just keeping this place as somewhere to go when I need a break, a fun house if you will” I press my backside into Travis crotch and wiggle a little, the move’s so small that no one else will notice it.

  “I can see what you mean” she agrees.

  I step out of Travis’s arm and refill my coffee before jumping up on to the counter and pulling him between my legs. I wrap my legs around his waist and wrap one of my arms loosely around his neck using my fingers to trace a slow line from his collar bone to his ear.

  “So what are both doing today?” Kyle asks eyeing our position.

  “Staying in, I think” I answer him while brushing my foot across Travis crotch, I move my hand from his neck to massage his ear lobe.

  “It’s a lovely day, you should both go into town or something” he suggests.

  I frown at him “Since when is going into town better than staying in?”

  “Since the weathers nice” he glares at me.

  Travis reaches up to grab my hand from his ear and holds it against his stomach. I chuckle.

  “Not so fun when you’re the one being tortured is it?” I whisper in his ear biting it softly.

  “Get rid of them” he whispers back behind gritted teeth, he’s trying to smile but it just looks like he’s baring his teeth.

  “So ... What are you all doing today? Surely you have plans....” I try for casual but my intention for them to leave is obvious.

  “We’re going into town and I have a meeting soon” Amber answers.

  “We can stay for a bit” Kyle says at the same time.

  Travis turns to glare at him but Kyle just narrows his eyes in return.

  Anne looks between the two men confused but Mason watches the whole exchange looking a bit smug.

  “Oh well, I need to have a shower and get dressed” I try again.

  “That’s okay, we can all wait here” Kyle says dismissively but emphasizing the word all.

  I shift uncomfortably on the counter and squeeze Travis with my legs, I don’t know whether to be amused or annoyed at the fact that Kyle is cock blocking us, when Travis squeezes my hand in return I decide to go with annoyed. I haven’t had any sex since Chris months ago and he has a fiancé that he sleeps with every night.

  “I could go for a swim, you’re all welcome to join me” I offer.

  “Well actually we need to go. I have a meeting in an hour and I’d like to get something to eat first” Amber says unaware that she’s interrupting an argument.

  “Fine” Kyle sighs but then locks eyes with Travis “You should come, I need to speak to you”

  “I know I should come” he snaps.

  I have to bite my lip to hold back a laugh.

  I watch defeated as they all leave the house to head into town once Travis is dressed. So much for me relieving some tension. I roll my eyes at myself and set about having a more thorough exploration of my new home.

  Thirteen: Babe, I need your help

  A loud ringing wakes me up, I look around the dark room dazed, rubbing the sleep away from my eyes I recognize the noise as my cell phone, fumbling around in the darkness I flip it open.

  “Hello?” I clear my throat to get the crispiness out of it.

  “Louise” Mason calls relieved.

  “Yeah?”

  “Is Kyle with you?”

  “Mason it’s Three am, why would Kyle be with me?” I ask checking my alarm clock.

  “He and Amber had an argument, he stormed out about four hours ago and we can’t get hold of him. He was pretty upset, I’ve tried Travis and he hasn’t seen him either”

  “Did you check the beach?”

  “Yeah, he’s not there”

  “Did she tell him?”

  “No”

  I sigh loudly to make sure he knows I’m not comfortable with this “I might know where he is, I’ll send him home”

  “Thanks hon. I owe you”

  “Yeah” I agree and hang up.

  I push my way through the overgrown grass and trees heading to the rock pools praying that Kyle is there. This is where he used to go when he was upset so I’m hoping the habit stuck.

  When I come to the clearing I spot him sitting not too far away drinking from a bottle, it looks like vodka.

  “You lied to me” His voice carried through the night air to me. I freeze, looking around to see who he’s talking to because he has his back to me.

  “Come on Lou, you came this far, not going to turn around now are you?” There’s something in his voice that I’ve never heard before, frowning to myself I make my way over to him and take a seat on one of the rocks, not too close to him but not to far away.

  “Your dad called me” I tell him even though he didn’t ask.

  “I figured he would” he tips the bottle of vodka back and takes huge swallow.

  “You know there’s a thin line between love and hate” he says conversationally “I’m thinking that I’ve always had that line confused when it came to you” he turns his head to look at me and I flinch at what I see in his eyes. “You ruined me. I was happy in New York, the happiest I have ever been in my life. Then we came back here, Amber wanted to meet my parents, I didn’t want to come back. Did you know that?”

  “No” I whisper and shake my head at him even though I don’t think he actually expected an answer.

  “Yeah, I wanted to stay away from here, I knew what you would do to me, how you would ruin my chance at a happy life”

  “What have I done?” I force myself to ask.

  He laughs but there’s no humor in it. “You’re you, that’s enough. Amber is pushing me to set a new date for the wedding, but I can’t. You can’t make me happy, Amber is supposed to make me happy, not you” I feel a tear fall down my face and he sends me a look of disgust “I watch you a lot, laughing with everyone, smiling as if you don’t have a care in the world. Everyone worships the ground you walk on, hell my dad loves you, everyone in this town loves you, they think you’re the golden girl. They don’t know you for what you are though. How can make a man fall in love with you and then just disregard him.”

  “Why are you saying this” I ask not bothered that my voice cracks.

  “Because someone needs to set you straight. You are not a good person Louise. If your dad could see you he would be disgusted with you. Ashamed of what you’ve become” He finishes off what left in the bottle and st
ands before he turns back to me.

  “Stay away from me and my family. You’re not wanted in our lives anymore. All you are is an inconvenience to us” He sends me one more look of hatred and walks away as I silently cry while heart shrivels up and shatters.

  I’m not sure how long I sit there for but when my crying eases up and all my tears have dried I push away from the rocks and make my way back through the looming darkness of the woods. A light and movement catches my eyes stopping me in my place. “Kyle?” I call out uncertainly.

  “Nope sorry baby, it’s just me. Now how about we work on you being able to keep a secret” A familiar voice comes from behind me and then everything goes black as I fall to the floor.

  ***

  White hot pain flashes through my body and a tortured screams rips out of me. I drag my eyes open and fight against the pain it causes. I’m still in he woods, I have no idea what time it is apart from the fact that it’s daylight. My legs are bruised and my right ankle is swollen. They are also tied to a tree. I can move my left hand and arm but my right is tied above my head, I can’t lift myself up to untie my right hand because of the position my legs are tied in I have no leverage and the pain in my body when I move even the slightest is too much to bare. Using my free hand I pat down my pockets on my jeans until I find the one with my cell in, I pull it out and fumble with the buttons until it powers on. I have an array of missed calls and messages which takes me by surprise but I ignore them and dial Travis number.

  “Lou?” His worried voice comes through the phone on his immediate answer.

  “Trav?”

  “Lou thank god, where are you? We’ve all been so worried”

  “Umm.. why?” I frown and drop the phone, I reach down to pick it back up “sorry I dropped the phone why are you worried and who’s we?”

  “Well Kyle told Mason this morning that he said something to upset you last night and Mason tried calling you but your phone was off so he came to my house, we went to yours and you wasn’t answering so we tried Cat’s and you weren’t there either. We’ve been trying to call you all day but you’re phone’s been off, we even went back to the rock pools looking for you. I’m just glad you’re okay” he sighs.