by Rutter, M J
I hated being right, it hurt to hear he had ran so far away just to get away from me. I must have been that bad, that unworthy that he hopped on a plane and flew to the other side of the country. I walked around the small grocery store in a daze, grabbing only what I needed. When I realized I was already at the checkout, I noticed a couple of teenage girls staring.
“Ignore them,” the checkout girl smiled, “It’s not every day we get a celeb in town, especially one that is involved with one of our teachers.”
“Well, they needn’t waste their time, he’s gone,” I frowned.
“He’ll be back,” she grinned, I didn’t believe her, none of them knew him like I did and how stubborn he could be.
“Thank you,” I muttered, paid for my groceries and hurried out of the store into the warm night air.
When I got home I packed away the groceries and went to bed, I didn’t want to face the house being so empty and lonely. I didn’t even have a picture of him to remember him by. I knew I could go on the computer and print one off, but they weren’t Kaden, they would be of Max and I didn’t like him at all.
It took forever to fall asleep, everything kept running through my mind, I contemplated chasing him, getting a flight and hunting him down in LA, but I doubted he would even stay there. I didn’t want to appear pathetic and a loser, worse than that, a groupie.
When I woke early the following morning I didn’t feel as though I had slept at all. Groggy and weary I padded across my bedroom floor with heavy legs, lifted my hoodie and slipped my feet into my flip-flops. Misty followed me through the house and out onto the beach.
The cool sand squished through my toes as the orange sun began to appear on the purple horizon, we had beaten the sea gulls that morning. I sighed as I passed his house, I just wanted to talk to him, I wanted to ask him why he would rather run away than spend his life with me.
I sat down on the sand at the water’s edge and watched the sun rise in a lavender sky, lighting up the ocean in sparkling, silver rays. The beach around me covered in a silvery mist as the sun warmed the ocean.
I sighed again as I allowed yet more tears to fall, this was my life, alone, on a deserted beach. This would be how I would live my life now and the concept of never knowing love again felt like a lead weight in my aching heart. What was so wrong with me that no one cared enough to stick around?
My cell phone rang in my pocket, I pulled it out and didn’t recognize the number, but feeling pretty shit, I answered it if anything to take my mind off all that had happened.
“Hello?” I sniffed.
“Skylar, this is Parker.”
“What do you want?” I asked frostily.
“Do you love Max…I mean, Kaden, do you love Kaden?”
“I did, until he left me early hours of yesterday, now, now I just want to punch him on the nose.” I answered bluntly.
“Listen carefully to what I have to tell you,” he said. I wiped my tears as a slight hint of hope filtered through my body. “He is currently sat on a plane and heading back to you, he told me to call you and beg you to forgive him, personally I don’t care if you do or not, he is an asshat that needs to be punished for what he did, but I do care that you love him because that man sure as hell loves you, Miss. Reynolds.”
“I love him, I will always love him, but how do I know if I can ever trust him again?”
“You don’t and do you know why? Because love is a risk, but even when you weigh up the pros and cons, a chance at being happy and in love is better than no chance at all.”
I thought about his words, “So he is really coming back?”
“Yes, just uh, just go easy on him, he’s a boy and we all make mistakes.”
“I’ll try,” I agreed, “thank you for calling me.”
“Just promise me you will look after him.”
“I promise.” I nodded and ended the call, I could hear footsteps in the sand, he was here, my heart pounded in my chest as I waited for him to reach me.
Twenty
Kaden
I would not move, “Max, man, get off the fucking plane before I drag you off,” Parker roared.
“I have to go back to her, I love her and I want to be with her.” I protested and clipped my seatbelt together.
“You are going to get us arrested,” he complained.
“I suggest you go and see if I can get a ticket back then.”
“Sir, this is the return flight for Raleigh, but you need to get off so we can prepare the flight. I am sure there will be seats available.” The stewardess smiled, “If not, you can have my seat.”
“Promise?”
“I promise,” she nodded.
I followed a still swearing and cussing Parker off the plane an into the arrivals lounge. A hundred or more reporters were waiting for us, yelling and taking pictures.
“Mr. West, follow me,” the stewardess called over the noise. “We have a VIP lounge you can wait in.” she added.
She led us to the VIP lounge, it was completely empty and quiet, after that noise, I was relieved. I felt exhausted. I’d spent the entire flight trying to convince myself that I had done the right thing and the second we landed I realized I had made a mistake.
I waited until they finished preparing the plane for the flight back to Raleigh. I paid over a thousand dollars for a return flight, but I didn’t care, she was more than worth it. I knew she wouldn’t be happy and that she would probably want to smash my face in, and once again, it was worth it. I panicked in truth, I got scared and I panicked. Spending my life with Skylar would be as easy as breathing, no, it would be easier. But could it be that easy? Could life give us a break so that we could be happy if only for a little while?
During the flight I wrote another song, one filled with hope and happiness, one where we would be surrounded by so much joy, nothing could damage us. I would not let MS stand in the way of my happiness a moment longer. I deserved as good a chance as anyone. So did Skylar, I only prayed my fear hadn’t destroyed us completely. We could live a long and happy life together, because I truly believed that maybe I could beat this thing, that MS would not be the end of my life. I was twenty-six and still had so much to give.
“Would you like something to drink, sir?” the stewardess asked.
“I could use some coffee and a glass of water, please,” I replied.
“Sure,” she smiled and filled a cup with smoking black coffee, then handed me a bottle of cold water. “So uh, this Skylar girl, she must be pretty special.”
“She is an amazing woman, she has bought me back to life.” I nodded. “I just hope I am not too late.”
“With those eyes and that smile, she’d be crazy not to give you another chance.”
“Thank you,” I smiled slightly.
As the plane touched down it was practically dawn, I had spent almost two days on a plane and now all I wanted was to hold her in my arms and tell her how sorry I was. The only car the rental guy had was a small red Chevy and to be honest, I didn’t care; I just needed to head to Silver Bay as fast as I could.
I filled up with gas and got a huge cup of coffee thinking it would keep me awake while on the road. I had about an hour until I could see her again, bearing in mind that she may have actually stayed in Charlotte.
I hit a little traffic through some road construction and it delayed my driving by about thirty minutes, but still I kept on going until I needed the bathroom and stopped at the next rest stop on the high way. When I came out of the rest room a few reporters stood waiting for me.
“I just need to get home,” I told them.
“Home as in LA?” One quizzed.
“No, home as in Silver Bay,” I answered.
“And what if the teacher won’t take you back?” another asked.
“Well, it will still be my home, just be a little more quiet I suppose.”
I hurried to my car and started the engine. Of course they took pictures and flashed their cameras in my face. I had to get to her now more than anything.
I reached the city limits as the sun began to rise in the lavender sky. Purple clouds streaked across the new day and as I turned onto the road that led to her house, my heart leapt into my mouth.
I skidded to a stop on the gravel drive and opened the car door. The relief I felt that she was there flooded my body and on shaky and weary legs, I ran to her front door and knocked on the glass. Nothing. I knocked again, just in case she was in bed.
I could hear Misty barking, they were on the beach. I leapt over the small wooden fence surrounding her house and ran across the sand. She was sat watching the ocean, with my heart thudding in my chest, I hurried to her side and sat down beside her.
“You left me,” she sniffed after a few moments silence.
“I’m sorry,” I muttered.
“And…”
“I got scared, okay? I got scared and I did the only thing I could, the only thing I am good at, I ran away.”
“I poured out my heart to you, I told you I loved you and you left.” She sniffed again. I moved her hair away from her face so I could see her. Tears streamed her cheeks and it crushed me.
“I told you I loved you too,” I pointed out. “I do and it took me going back to that cesspool to realize just how much I do love you, Skylar Reynolds.” She lifted her head and turned to face me. “You are an amazingly, beautiful, kind woman and I have never met anyone like you or been so in love with someone that the future scares me before.” I admitted. Her eyes filled with more tears. “Please forgive me one last time for being an asshat and hurting you, I promise to never lie to you or run away from you again.”
She turned her face to look at me, gazing into my eyes, “How do I trust you again?” she asked.
“Trust is something you earn and I am going to spend a long time proving to you that I will never hurt you again.”
“So, what about the MS?”
I frowned, “It will run its course, I can’t stop that,” I swallowed, “but you have given me a reason to go on, to live. I’ll be totally honest with you, I tried to push you away because I had planned to end my life in December.”
“What?” she frowned. “How could you even consider a thing?”
“I watched this reduce my dad to someone who couldn’t wipe his ass or feed himself, I don’t want to end up like that, be a burden to everyone around me. I’m scared, Skylar, scared of what this will do to me. So, I figured I would write an album this summer and it would be the last music from Max West or Kaden Wright, ever.”
“Do you realize how selfish that is?” she demanded.
“I know,” I nodded. “Then I met this really irritating dog who kept pouncing on me whenever it felt like it.” I smiled. “It turns out that that annoying little mutt happened to have the most beautiful owner I had ever seen. Not only was she beautiful, her temper is a fiery as her hair and her soul is as bright as her ocean blue eyes. She is so selfless and caring and she gave me a chance, and even if she tells me to leave now, I will live whatever life I have left, knowing that I had a chance to love her once.” She stood from the sand and held out her hand,
“Come with me,” she said. I stood and took hold of her hand. “Misty,” she called out and led me from the water’s edge, back towards the house. “Do you have your keys?” she asked. I nodded and showed them to her, she snatched them from my hand and walked to the car. “Get in,” she said sternly. I was on suck up duty, so without arguing I got into the car.
She drove us up the coastal road towards the town, she never said a word and even switched the stereo off so that we rode in silence with Misty’s panting as the only sound in the car. She stopped the car in front of a wooden fence that overlooked a lake. She climbed out of the car and walked to the fence. Leaving the dog in the car, I climbed out and joined her.
“This is where Jay died, he drove off the road and right into the water, a passerby who witnessed the crash dove in the water and tried to save him, but he was trapped and drowned.” A tear rolled down her cheek, she brushed it away and looked me briefly before looking back at the lake. “Do you think it was easy falling in love again?” she asked not taking her eyes off the lake.
“No,” I frowned.
“No, loving Jay was easy, it seemed we had a good life together, but I knew deep down that he wasn’t happy and looking for a way to call off the wedding. I lost Jay a long time before I actually lost him.” She then turned to me, “Losing him almost killed me, I would have happily followed him, but I realized that I had my life to live, be it alone or with someone, I still had to live. I can’t be with you living with the fear that if the MS gets too bad that you will kill yourself, Kaden, I would be there and love you for the rest of our lives, but I can’t if you are still considering suicide. I cannot risk my heart on someone who will leave me again before he’s meant to.”
“When they told me, at first I thought my life was over, that there would be nothing but pain and embarrassment on my horizon, so I gave myself six months and was determined to go through with it, and then I met you.” I smiled slightly. “You changed everything for me, Skylar, you gave me a future, whether I’m going to be on meds for the rest of my life or not, I don’t care as long as I am with you. The whole world could end tomorrow and I’d die happy knowing that I was lucky enough to find this incredible woman and share whatever time I have left with her.”
She lifted her hands to her neck and removed her chain holing a diamond ring from it. I gazed at her fingers where she held a diamond ring with the chain dangling.
“This is the last thing I have that Jay gave to me. My engagement ring, if we do this its forever, our forever?” she checked.
“That’s what I want, but you…” before I could say another word she threw the ring into the water. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“I did, I don’t want it anymore, that chapter of my life is now closed.” She turned to me and wrapped her arms around my neck. “Now, let’s get home and make a start on that future.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m positive.” She smiled and pressed her lips to mine. “Let’s go home.”
Once back at her house, silently I followed her to her bedroom figuring that she needed sleep, neither of us had slept much at all, I couldn’t have been more wrong. She turned to face me as I closed the door and pulled her hoodie off over her head. She then slipped out of her pajamas and kicked them aside. Standing there in nothing but her white underwear, my heart sped up in my chest and I licked my lips, she looked sensational.
“Don’t just stand there,” she smiled, “get your clothes off.”
“I don’t have to be told twice.” I grinned and pulled my shirt off over my head.
She lifted a scarf from her chair and turned to face me wearing a huge beam. “Maybe I should tie you to the bed to make sure you don’t go running out on me again.”
“Maybe you should,” I agreed, “but I can promise you this, I am not going anywhere. Everything I need is right here.”
“As long as you never forget that,” she said walking towards me. I lifted her from the floor and carried her to the bed.
“Not as long as there is a breath in my body,” I promised.
The End
About the Author
Melissa J Rutter lives on the south coast of England in the quay side town of Poole. She grew up nearby in the beach resort town of Bournemouth and after spending a year as a nanny in New Hampshire where she studied at the New Hampshire Institute of Art, she returned to her home and met her husband Francis. They have been happily married for thirteen years now and have two wonderful children.
For more information on Melissa by visiting her website, MelissaJRutterAuthor.webs.com or by visiting her Facebook page, Author Melissa J Rutter. You can follow her on Twitter @MelissaJRutter. She is always happy to hear from her readers.
Other Novels:
Lunar Ryce, Soul Collector
Lunar Ryce, Soul Searcher
Lunar Ryce, Soul Savior
Diamonds to Dust
Back to Innocence
Summer Rain
Cruel Winter
Shadows Lost
Reflections Found
Lessons in Love
I, Immortal Book 1
I, Immortal Book 2, World in Flames
I, Immortal Book 3, Fire and Ice
Time To Breathe
Also coming in 2015
Lunar Ryce, Soul Redeemer
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