by Debbie Civil
Chapter 50
Carmen
In the middle of the night, someone gently caresses my face. I yawn and stretch and open sluggish eyes to see that the sun is barely up. Jake is standing beside my bed in his boxers. He doesn’t have a shirt on. What a nice view.
“Hey, I’ve got something for you to listen to,” he tells me. I study the exhaustion in his eyes and frown up at him.
“August, have you slept?” He smiles at me.
“Some. I spent most of the night up with Dean. He’s taking it hard,” Jake tells me. This is twisted, but I’m glad that he isn’t inconsolable about Adriana. That would have meant that he loved her. I feel horrible that she’s hurt. But I barely know her. The girl hates me.
“Sit,” I tell him. He smirks and pulls up a corner of the pink comforter and lies in bed beside me. He wraps an arm around my shoulders, and I sigh in contentment. I’m just about to fall asleep when Jake reveals that he’s holding his iPhone with his other hand.
“Eli left me a phone message,” he announces and my heart speeds up.
“What did she say to you?” I ask, feeling kind of jealous. Then again, Jake is her brother.
“No Carmen, it’s for you,” he says before playing the message on speaker phone.
“Hey Jake. I know this sounds strange, but I’m leaving this message for Carmen,” Eli begins. “Carmen, I love you. You’re the only one that I truly miss. You’re my sister. Okay, enough with the sap, let me be honest with you. I avoided you before my wedding. I did it because I knew what was going to happen. Nathan and I want a real shot of happiness. And we can’t do it living with the Philips Family drama. I saw on the news that Aunt Kate was arrested for Amy’s murder. I also saw that Jake and Jill have broken up. Most importantly, I saw a picture of you and Jake at Murphy’s steak house kissing. Carmen, you are in the limelight now. I know that this is ridiculous, but people care about our family now. And I can’t take all of it. I can’t watch people slander Chelsea’s name. I can’t stand the fact that some people think that we actually had this coming. Okay, so let me tell you that if you’re with Jake, good luck. He keeps walls up. And maybe you can open him up. Maybe that kiss was just that, one random kiss. But I don’t know the truth. Okay, enough about boys. Carmen, take care of Matt. Despite what Dana says, Matt is my brother. I love him, and we went through a lot together. Tell Chelsea that I’m sorry. I could have been better to her, but I wasn’t. I guess that the drama was just too much. Carmen, I know that you’re probably hating me right now. But I don’t have a choice. It isn’t about me anymore; it’s about Nathan. I can’t ask him to go through that awful trial and the media scrutiny. I can’t ask him to lie to Shelly and Dad. Please, understand why I’m doing this. I’m also going to tell you that I’m ditching my cell phone and changed all of my bank accounts. Tell Dad not to look for me. He needs to except that I need time for myself. I’m sorry about Adriana. I wish that I could go to see her in the hospital. But I won’t. I won’t be in touch for a while. When it’s all over, I might contact you. I might not. Carmen, this is goodbye. I’m not sure when I’ll talk to you again. But just know that I love you and often worry about you. I wish that things were different. Please don’t stop loving me because I’ll always love and care about you. Jake, thanks for letting me leave this message for you. Oh and tell Nathan’s family that he will send letters. He’ll give them a P.O. Box that they are never supposed to share with my family. I love you, Carmen. Goodbye.”
“Delete the message,” I tell Jake when the female voice asks him what he wants to do with the message. Jake hit’s delete and then places the phone on the night stand.
“So, she isn’t coming back. That’s odd,” Jake comments.
“You didn’t listen to the message before you came here?” I ask.
“Just enough to know it was for you,” Jake replies.
“I don’t want to talk about it.” Honestly, I don’t know how to take this message. It’s not every day that someone leaves that kind of message. Eli is basically checking out until the trials are over. Wow, that’s something else. Who knew that this was all getting stressful for her? I mean, one would think that Peter and Chelsea, some of the actual victims, would abandon everything. But nope, Eli made this about her and her precious wedding.
“Talk to me,” Jake softly demands.
“How are you doing?”
“I’m all right. I feel a little terrible about yelling at her. I probably should have handled that better,” Jake says.
“You should have. But you didn’t. Just like Eli ditched us without a second thought,” I say as the door opens. Jake’s father Leon looks positively scandalized by finding his son in bed with me.
“I thought I heard Jake in here,” he comments a little too loudly.
“My dad up?” I ask, not wanting to move the blankets. If he sees that Jake’s only in his boxers, he’ll make a big deal out of it.
“Oh yeah, he’s in the library reading a book,” he replies, in a softer voice. “Jake, get out of here before he gets you. He has a gun.”
“I came in here to play a voice mail for Carmen. Eli called me,” he announces, and Leon’s face turns from worried to agitated.
“Her parents have been worried about her. I…”
“Dad, she isn’t coming back for the trials. She’s changing her number and doesn’t want to be bothered with any of us.”
“The Jones family?” Poor Leon seems confused. “I thought that Danny was her best friend.”
“No, she doesn’t want to be bothered with anyone that’s in the Philips family or anyone that knows us,” I clarify. My boyfriend isn’t good with words.
“What?” And there my father is, right behind Leon.
I carefully slide out of bed, making sure that Jake’s wrapped up tight. If Dad sees him without a shirt, he’ll over react. It’s weird that I still care about my father in this sense. After all, I am almost nineteen. But he still pays my bills, and I still live in his house.
“Dad, we’ll go into the study to talk,” I say as I approach the door. Leon grins and steps aside. Dad frowns at Jake.
“Why is he in your bed?” Dad asks as if the idea makes absolutely no sense to him.
“Because he was listening to Eli’s voicemail with me,” I respond. Dad nods.
“Fine, let’s go to the library.” Dad’s in a placating mood. “Jake, aren’t you coming to?” Dad asks. I guess not.
“Sure,” my boyfriend says before rolling out of bed. Dad laughs.
“I saw you run to her room in your boxers with your phone. I thought that she dumped you by text or something,” Dad says. I sigh in relief. Dad can be difficult when he’s angered.
“How about we go down stairs. Everyone’s having breakfast,” Jake’s father suggests, and I nod.
“I’ll be right there. I just need to wash my face,” I tell them. The two men nod in unison then leave. I rush to the bathroom and get ready for the day.
