The One

by Holly C. Webb

  “What if he doesn’t come back?” I asked, finally allowing my inner fear to have a voice, as hot tears stung my eyes. “What if this thing with his mother, or with Sylvie is just too much. Jared said he ran away to Australia because of that girl. What if he goes this time and doesn’t come back?”

  “Seth will always come back,” Danny assured me. “You need to just give him a little time to blow off some steam.”

  “But what if he doesn’t,” I whispered as tears finally broke free and trickled down my face. I sat down on the bottom of the stairs and quickly wiped away my tears. “He was already so worried about telling Jared about me and him. Seth tried so hard not to give in to the feelings he was having, because he loves Jared so much. I know the last thing he wants is to lose Jared from his life. Now this thing with his mother and Sylvie… I’m just scared that I’m the one that’s going to lose him.”

  “Savannah,” Danny said, sitting down next to me. “If Seth loves you, then nothing will keep him away. Seth is a good guy. He always tries to do the right thing.”

  “That’s what I’m afraid of,” I sighed as I looked up at Danny. “What if he decides that the right thing to do is let me go, instead of ruining his friendship with Jared.”

  “Jared and Seth will be okay,” Danny assured me with a smile. “They have fallen out plenty of times before. They’ve even fallen out over a girl before, but they always find their way back to each other. There is nothing so big that would ever pull those two apart. Seth loves Jared, and Jared loves him back. They will figure this out too.”

  “I hope so,” I said, giving him a smile, but something about what he said struck a nerve in me. They had fallen out over a girl before.

  I wanted to ask him to explain further, but I also didn’t want to appear jealous, so I let it go.

  Pushing up from the stairs, I looked down at Danny and smiled.

  “I should go check on Jolie,” I said as I wiped my face with the back of my hands once more. “Then maybe I think I will head home. There is no point waiting for Seth here.”

  “Okay,” he said as he too stood up. He kissed me on the cheek, before he turned and headed back across the hallway to the kitchen.

  Releasing a long sigh, I began up the stairs, knowing that right at that moment there was nothing I could do about Seth. For now, I needed to concentrate on Jolie.

  When I reached her room, I softly knocked on the door but there was no answer. I waited a moment or two before I pushed down on the handle and quietly opened the door.

  As I stepped into the room, I found Jolie fast asleep on her bed, her face still wet from all the tears. She must have cried herself to sleep. I quietly walked to the bed and reached for the blanket that was folded across the end, then carefully pulled it up over her.

  Leaning down, I softly kissed her forehead, before I turned and headed back towards the door.

  I quietly let myself out of the room, before I walked down the stairs. As I walked across the hallway, I could hear laughing coming from the kitchen. I stopped just before I reached the door and listened to Jared talking to his family. He sounded almost happy, and right in that moment, I knew the right thing to do was just leave.

  I picked up my purse from the hall table, before I turned and headed towards the door, and out into the night. As I walked down the steps, the cool air was almost refreshing against my hot, flushed skin. I hurried to my car, climbing in and starting the engine before anyone had a chance to even notice that I had left.

  I don’t know why, but fifteen minutes later I was switching off the engine outside the apartment building Seth lived in. I looked up at the windows of his apartment that I could see from the street, and the apartment seemed to be in darkness. Still I needed to check. Maybe he was there and just hadn’t turned on the lights.

  I climbed out of the car and quickly headed inside, and up the stairs. When I reached the door, I softly knocked and waited for a reply, but none came.

  I hated that I had no clue where Seth was, or if he was okay.

  I turned and rested my back against the door, before I slid down to the floor. I reached into my purse and pulled out my phone, hoping that there would be a missed call, or even a text message from Seth, but there was nothing. I didn’t know what to think. I was worried that something bad had happened to him. He’d driven away from Sylvie’s house so fast, and I knew he was angry; I was afraid he’d gotten into some kind of accident.

  I brought up his number and hit dial, hoping that maybe he would answer the phone, but he didn’t. Instead, it just went to his answering machine.

  “Hey, it’s me,” I said, having no idea what I should say to him. “Seth, you’re scaring me. Please just call me; let me know you’re okay…”

  I paused for a moment, having no idea what else I should say.

  “I love you,” I finally whispered before I hung up the phone.

  Pushing my phone back into my bag, I rested my head back against the door and closed my eyes. My head was aching, but not even nearly as much as my heart was.

  I drifted off to sleep with thoughts of Seth swirling around my head.

  “Savannah,” Seth’s voice filled my mind. “Baby. Wake up.”

  I opened my eyes, and found Seth crouched down in front of me. I quickly sat up straight, feeling a little thrown to wake up on the floor outside his front door.

  Without even thinking, I climbed onto my knees as I wrapped my arms around Seth tightly, relieved that he was at least safe.

  “I was so scared something had happened to you,” I whispered as I buried my face into his neck and held him closer, as once more the tears began to fall. “I thought that I had lost you. I thought you had gone again, and this time you were never going to come back.”

  “You could never lose me, Savannah,” Seth breathed out against my ear, as he held me tightly too. I knew he was upset. I could hear it in his voice, and it just broke my heart more. “You’re the only thing that makes sense to me right now.”

  “Promise me,” I said, holding him at arm length, my heart aching to see the sadness in his eyes. “Promise me that you will never run away like that again.”

  “I give you my word,” he said as he softly kissed my lips. “I’m sorry that I worried you.”

  “You’re back now,” I replied, hugging him once more. “That’s all that matters to me.”

  We just held each other for the longest time until Seth finally climbed up from the floor, before he reached out his hand, pulling me up from the floor too.

  “How long were you out here?” He asked as he opened his apartment door, and we both headed inside.

  “I don’t know,” I replied as I glanced down at my watch to check the time. It was just after midnight. “A couple of hours maybe.”

  “I’m sorry,” he sighed miserably as he threw his keys down on the hall table, then turned to look at me. When he did, he pulled me into his arms, giving me a sad smile. “I just needed time to think. Everything is just such a fucking mess.”

  “I know,” I said as I took his face in my hands. “But you know it’s going to be okay. Nothing is so broken that it can’t be fixed.”

  “Sylvie lied to me, Savannah,” he said, the look of hurt in his eyes was hard to see. “I mean, I’m used to Liz letting me down. It all she’s ever done my whole life. But Sylvie knew the truth and she didn’t tell me.”

  “But you were just a little boy back then,” I tried to reason with him as I reached up and softly brush back his hair. “By the time you were old enough to understand, maybe it was just too hard for her to hurt you again.”

  “Why didn’t my dad fight for us?” Seth asked the one question I had always asked myself about my mother. “He knew what she was like, but he just left us.”

  “Only he can answer that, Seth,” I said wrapping my arms around him. “And I know it hurts, believe me, I know it better than you think. But you can’t let what happened in the past define who you are now.”

  He pulled bac
k and looked down into my eyes.

  “Why don’t you talk about your past?” He asked, surprising me with his question.

  “Because it’s my past,” I replied, knowing that wasn’t really an answer. “I am who I am today in spite of my mother and father, not because of them. I will never allow them to take my future.”

  “I thought your parents were dead?” Seth said, giving me a questioning look.

  “They are to me,” I replied, pulling back from him a little. I hated to talk about my past. Callie didn’t know about it, neither did Jared. But if I was going to make this work with Seth, I knew I needed to tell him about my past too. “The truth is, my father was just as much a nightmare that your mother is.”

  “I had no idea,” Seth said as he watched me walk across the living room, a sit down on the sofa.

  “No one did.” I shrugged as I looked up at him and smiled. “I don’t really talk about back then. It’s not who I am anymore.”

  “Do you want to talk about it now?” he asked as he walked across the room and sat down next to me.

  “There’s nothing to tell,” I sighed. “My dad was an abusive asshole. He hit my mom till she couldn’t take it anymore and she left. So, he turned his focus to me. He would get drunk and he would hit me. Sometimes it was just a slap, sometimes it was a lot more. When I was sixteen, he tried to force himself on me. He didn’t succeed. Thankfully he was too drunk. That night I left, and I never looked back.”

  “Savannah,” he said, giving me a look that made me feel stupid and pathetic. “I had no idea.”

  “Please don’t look at me like that,” I begged, hating that he felt sorry for me. “I’m not a victim.”

  “No, you’re not,” Seth said, giving me a broad smile. “You are a survivor, and you are amazing.”

  I smiled at his words, knowing that the reason we clicked the way we did was because we were both two parts of the same lost soul, looking for its other half.

  “I love you,” I said, giving him a genuine smile as I leaned in and kissed him softly on the lips.

  “I love you, more,” he replied, smiling against my lips, before he kissed me again, but this time his kiss was deeper and full of want.

  Breaking his lips from mine, he stared down into my eyes, giving me a look that pulled at by soul.

  Then suddenly he moved, pushing me back on the sofa, before he climbed over me.

  “I fucking love you, Savannah,” he said looking down into my eyes. “If I didn’t have you, I don’t know what I would do.”

  “You have me,” I whispered breathlessly as my heart raced so fast, I could barely catch my breath. “I’m yours, Seth. Forever.”

  He stared at me for a moment, before he slammed his mouth to mine once more. This time I could feel the need pour from his whole body.

  We began to pull at each other’s clothes, but our lips never parted. Before I knew it, Seth as settling between my legs, pushing into me as he moaned my name.

  I closed my eyes and allowed him to claim my body, taking me wherever he wanted to lead me. Each thrust into me, pushing me higher.

  After everything that had happened that evening, my emotions were raw, making my body react in ways I never imagined it would.

  I wrapped my arms and legs around him as I instinctively pulled him closer to me, grabbing his ass and shoving him deeper into me.

  “Savannah,” he growled against my mouth as his pace picked up. My head spun as my body began to come apart and all I could concentrate on was the feeling growing deep inside me. I could feel every muscle in my body quiver with excitement as I grew closer and closer until finally, I couldn’t hold back as my orgasm thundered through my body, and I loudly called out his name. With two more thrusts, he found his release too, and he erupted inside me, his cock pulsing as he emptied himself into me.

  For a moment, neither of us spoke. Instead, he just held me so tightly, I could hardly breathe, but I knew he needed to hold me. He needed to feel connected to stop himself from spinning out of control. His breathing was fast, and I realised that he was upset.

  “Seth,” I gasped, as I held him close to me. “Everything is going to be okay. You will figure this out, and I will be with you every step of the way.”

  He leaned up on his elbows and looked into my eyes, and my heart hurt to see tears trickle down his face. He quickly brushed the loose strands of hair from my sweaty brow.

  “As long as I have you, Savannah,” he sobbed softly. “Then I know I’m going to be okay.”

  “You have me,” I assured him once more as I leaned up and kissed him again. “It will always be me and you.”

  I lay in the darkness of Seth’s room, listening to him breathing. We had moved to the bedroom, where we made love once more, and now we were both lying in each other’s arms, knowing there was nowhere else in the world we’d rather be right at that moment.

  I thought about everything that had happened that evening. About the things his mother had said; about his argument with Sylvie.

  I thought about Jolie and hoped that she was okay. I wondered if she was still sleeping, or had she woken, looking for Seth to find he still hadn’t returned. That thought made me feel so sad.

  Then I thought about the conversation I had with Danny; in particular the comment he’d made about Seth and Jared falling out over another girl in the past. I don’t know why, but this thought bothered me more than I thought it would have.

  In my heart I didn’t believe that I was just another girl, but still it gnawed at my gut.

  “Seth,” I said, knowing that I should really just let it go, but I needed to know. “Can I ask you something?”

  “Of course,” he replied, as he softly brushed down my spine with his fingertips. “You can ask me anything.”

  “I was talking to Danny earlier,” I said, wondering if I should have mentioned our conversation before now. “He knows.”

  “About us?” He said, his fingers stopping dead in the middle of my back, and I knew he was worried. “What did he say?”

  “He said that he got it,” I replied, lifting my head to look down at him. “He said that you and I made sense, that Jared and I would have never worked out.”

  “Really?” He asked, still looking worried.

  “Yeah,” I said, pushing up further until I was sitting up straight, my legs folded before me. “He loves you a great deal. He said you were a good guy and that you always tried to do the right thing.”

  “I see,” he said, still watching me closely. “So, what’s your question?”

  I hesitated, knowing how ridiculous I was going sound. I dropped my eyes down to my hands, wishing I hadn’t mentioned anything.

  “Savannah,” Seth asked as he reached up, taking hold of my chin. He pulled my face up until I was looking at him once more. “What is it?”

  “Danny mentioned something,” I said, my face flushing with embarrassment. “He said that you and Jared fell out before over a girl…”

  Before I could even finish, Seth threw his head back and laughing so hard there were actual tears in his eyes.

  “Seth, don’t laugh,” I pouted, hating that I felt so stupid.

  “So, you want to know about Sophie Johnson?” He asked, still laughing uncontrollably.

  “Seth!” I exclaimed, burying my face in my hands. “I can’t believe you’re laughing at me.”

  “I’m sorry,” he said, trying his hardest not to laugh anymore. “Sophie Johnson was the first girl I ever kissed. I was twelve years old. I thought she was the prettiest girl I’d ever seen. At least until I found out she only kissed me to make Jared jealous. It worked, she ended up being his first kiss too. We didn’t speak for three whole days. Then we heard she kissed some other kid from our class, and we decided we were friends again, and we hated her.”

  I flopped back in the bed, mortified I was actually worried about this girl. I hid my face in my hand, as Seth laughed once more.

  “Savannah,” Seth said as he leaned over me, pul
ling my hands away. “It’s okay for you to ask me these things. It’s okay for you to be jealous. But you know there’s no need.”

  “I wasn’t jealous,” I insisted, but I knew he wasn’t buying it.

  “Oh, I think you were,” he said with a knowing grin. “I remember the first time you were jealous. It was that night I realised that maybe you loved me too.”

  “Ughh!” I groaned, hating that he’s brought that horrible girl up. “I still can’t believe you went home with that skank.”

  “Why do you hate Meggie so much?” Seth asked, giving me a serious look.

  “I don’t know,” I shrugged, releasing a long sigh, feeling stupid for ever saying anything. “I guess I thought for a while that she and Jared were…”

  “You thought he was shagging Meggie?” Seth asked, giving me a worried look. “Why did you think that?”

  “I found this earring in the car once,” she sighed. “I knew it wasn’t mine, and Meggie was always so attentive to Jared.”

  “Whose earring was it?” Seth asked giving me a strange look too.

  “It was Callie’s,” I explained, still feeling embarrassed I was having this conversation. “He’d given her a lift, and it fell out. I felt so bad that I doubted him. Callie said I was lucky he was so understanding.”

  Seth didn’t reply. Instead he just looked at me.

  “You’re worried he won’t be as understanding when he finds out about us,” I sighed, sensing he was worried. “I hate that I could be the reason that you two might fall out. The last thing I ever wanted was to come between you both.

  “I just think we all need to sit down and clear the air,” Seth said, but there was something in his eyes that worried me.

  “Everything is alright isn’t it?” I asked, giving him a worried look.

  “Yeah,” he replied, but this time his smile didn’t quite reach his eyes.

  “You would tell me if there was something I needed to know,” I asked, sensing there was something he wasn’t saying.