“Why not? You’re my girlfriend, and I wanted to see you. What’s the matter with that? And why are you covering yourself? It’s not like you’re covering anything that I haven’t seen already.”
“I’m not your girlfriend anymore, Travis,” Bree said as she retreated backwards towards the bathroom, “and you need to leave.”
His smile wavered for a second, but was quickly restored. “What are you talking about? Of course you’re still my girlfriend. Did you really think that I would give up on you just because you’re obviously not ready to marry me yet? That’s not a big deal. I’m more than happy to wait until you decide that you’re ready. Really. It’s fine with me.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about.” Bree continued to back away from him.
“Then what are you talking about?” Travis responded to her retreat by walking towards her. “You know what, forget I even asked. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that we love each other, and we can get past anything and forgive each other for anything.”
Bree shook her head. “It’s not that simple.”
“Of course it is. Can you really not forgive me for making a mistake? I forgave you for not accepting my proposal after all. I see no reason why everything can’t go back to the way that it was. Or are you telling me that you don’t love me anymore?”
Coming to a stop in the doorway between her bedroom and the bathroom, Bree looked down at her feet without saying a word. Why was he making this so difficult? Was she being unfair? She couldn’t understand why she felt like the bad guy even though he was the one who cheated on her.
“Why aren’t you saying anything? You do still love me . . . right?”
Bree met his gaze again and shook her head. “Please don’t do this, Travis. I know that you’re upset with me, and I’m sorry that it has to be this way, but please just go home.”
“No, I’m not going anywhere.” He stormed towards her. “Not until you admit that you still love me and that you still want to be with me.”
Panic setting in, Bree took a step back and then tried to slam the bathroom door shut.
But Travis extended his arm at the same time and held the door open.
“Leave me alone,” she squealed.
“We’re not done here.” He pushed the door wide open with such force that it slammed into the wall. She wouldn’t be surprised if the knob left a dent in the wall.
“Why are you doing this?” Bree asked while her heart beat furiously within her chest.
“Why am I doing this?” Travis snatched the pillow away from her and tossed it over his shoulder back into the bedroom. “Why are you doing this? Why are you in such a hurry to throw away everything that we have?”
“It’s not like that.”
“Then stop pretending like we’re not together anymore.” He grabbed hold of her shoulders, fingers digging into her flesh, and brought his face close enough for her to feel his warm breath on her face. “Just admit that you’re still in love with me, and we can put everything else behind us.”
She winced as his fingers dug deeply into her skin. It was starting to hurt. She just wanted him to stop smothering her with his unwanted attention. Could he really not tell that she wanted him to stop?
“Please let go of me,” Bree uttered in a tiny voice.
“Let go of you? Dammit, Bree, why are you acting like I’m doing something wrong? I came here to work this out with you. To apologize. And you’re treating me like I’m some kind of irredeemable monster. You know me. You know the kind of person that I am.”
“Yes, I do. So please be that good person that I know you are and let go of my arm.”
For a few heartbeats, Travis stared into her eyes with his own eyes narrowed. Then, at last, his hands slid away from her shoulders.
Right when Bree was ready to believe that she finally managed to get through to him, Travis did something she didn’t expect him to do. He pressed his hands to her cheeks and leaned in to kiss her deeply.
But Bree did not reciprocate.
She couldn’t imagine what could possibly make him think that she wanted him to kiss her in that moment, but she wasn’t going to let him have what he wanted. He had no right to let himself into her house, chastise her for being angry with him for cheating on her, and then try to get romantic with her as if he didn’t do anything wrong.
In her desperation to get away from him, Bree managed to slip her hands between her body and his and then shoved him as hard as she could.
Judging by the look on his face after she pushed him away, he wasn’t expecting her to react like that. The fact that she was able to send him stumbling backwards with a single shove was further proof that he was unprepared.
But his bewilderment soon turned into anger. “What the hell was that for?”
Bree ignored his question as she reached for the door, determined to slam it shut in his face.
But Travis lunged forward and attempted to once again hold the door open.
He wasn’t quite fast enough this time, however.
All that he got for his efforts were his fingers caught in the door. He cried out in pain and withdrew his hand. As soon as he had, Bree made sure to shut the door and then lock it. She stepped away from the door. Heart racing and breathing shallow. She could hardly believe this was happening. She was seeing a part of Travis that she never even knew existed. She was well aware that he could be reckless, short-tempered, and hated to lose, but this was another level of aggression and immaturity that she never would have expected from him.
“Damn you, Bree. You almost broke my fingers.”
“I’m sorry,” Bree apologized, “but I’m asking you to leave. Please. My mom is going to be home soon.”
That was a lie, but it didn’t matter. If it helped encourage him to leave, she would tell just about any lie that she needed to.
“Open this door, Bree.” He slammed his fist against the door. “I’m not playing around. Open this damn door or I’m going to break it down. You know I will. You know I will do anything to prove to you that you’re the most important thing in the world to me.”
She wasn’t sure if he was exaggerating or not, but wasn’t in a hurry to find out. She needed help, and with Travis this out of control, she didn’t feel like simply calling Veronica or her mom was good enough.
It was time to call in the big guns.
It was time to call the sheriff.
She didn’t want to do this to her ex, but she didn’t feel like she had any choice but to make the call.
Picking her phone up off the bathroom floor, Bree dialed the sheriff and then brought the phone to her ear.
I’m sorry, Travis, she thought as waited to hear a voice on the other end. I’m so sorry that I have to do this.
6
THE TWELVE MINUTES THAT IT took for Sheriff Rogers to arrive were some of the most anxiety-filled minutes of Bree’s life. She had hoped that Travis would get scared off when he heard her call the sheriff, but it actually had the exact opposite effect.
He got pissed off.
She heard him storm around her bedroom, punching walls, kicking things around, and pounding his fists against the door periodically. It was terrifying, but he never did make good on his threat to break down the door, much to Bree’s relief.
She didn’t know what he would have done if he decided to force his way inside the bathroom. She didn’t want to believe that he could ever harm her, but with the way that he had been acting since she discovered he was cheating on her, she no longer felt like she knew him the way that she thought she did.
She wasn’t sure if she was just more aware of his faults now, or if he was legitimately changing in ways that Bree never believed that he would, but she did know that she didn’t feel comfortable around him anymore, and she certainly couldn’t trust him.
While the arrival of the sheriff did put an end to Travis’s rampage, it didn’t really defuse the situation like Bree hoped that it would. She had hoped that Sheriff Rogers
would persuade Travis to calm down, but it didn’t play out like that.
Travis’s anger only went up a few notches when the sheriff showed up. Instead of walking out of the house of his own free will, like Bree hoped that he would, he was led out of the house in handcuffs.
Bree waited for the sheriff to return before she unlocked the bathroom door and stepped out at last—fully clothed—to find the sheriff standing with his thumbs in his belt loops.
Sheriff Rogers had been the sheriff in Trenton for as long as Bree could remember. He had a pudgy frame, a thick mustache like a wooly caterpillar had set up permanent residence on his top lip, and receding silver-streaked hair. She always found it hard to guess his age. He looked old to her, but he had looked old since the first time that she saw him more than a decade ago, so he could be anywhere from forty to sixty for all that she knew.
“Are you alright, Bree?” Sheriff Rogers asked in his typical gruff voice. Although he could come off as perpetually bad-tempered, Bree knew him well enough to know that he was a much kinder man than he appeared to be on the outside.
Bree nodded. “I’m fine. Where is Travis?”
“In the back of my car with his hands cuffed. He was cussing up a storm when I put him in there. You mind telling me what the hell is going on with you two? Since when do you kids getting into fights?”
“Since we broke up.”
“Well, that’s news to me. Judging by his behavior, I’m going to assume that you’re the one who dumped him.”
Bree nodded. “That’s right.”
“So when exactly did this break up happen?”
“Officially, at school today, but he didn’t want to accept that. I could tell that he was really upset and angry with me.”
“Then why did you let him in your house?”
“I didn’t let him in. He has a key.”
“I see . . .” The lawman started to stroke his mustache.
Bree could tell that there was something that he wanted to ask her, but was holding back for some reason.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Well, I don’t want to sound like I’m presuming anything, but do you really believe that you were in any danger today?”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m just saying that normally when a couple gets into a little spat, they don’t typically call me unless things get violent.”
“I had to lock myself in the bathroom.” Bree folded her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes. She did not like what the sheriff appeared to be implying. “I think I was justified in calling you.”
“Alright. Did he physically hurt you?”
“No . . .”
“Did he threaten to hurt you?”
“No, he didn’t.”
“So you just didn’t want him around because you decided to end your relationship with him. Is that it?”
“Well, yes, but there’s more to it than that.”
“That’s fine.” The sheriff held up a hand. “All I’m saying is that if you want to break up with your boyfriend, then that’s your business, but you can’t call me to come around and play referee whenever the two of you get into an argument. I suggest you ask him to return the key that you gave him. If he refuses, you might want to talk to your mom about getting your locks changed.”
“Fine. Whatever.” Bree didn’t bother pointing out that he was being presumptuous by assuming that she wasn’t in any danger. She didn’t want to believe that Travis would hurt her, but she didn’t want to believe that he would cheat on her either, and she turned out to be wrong about that.
“I should be going.” The sheriff started to leave the room. “Will you be alright on your own?”
“I’m fine. Besides, my mom is going to be home soon.” Bree followed him to her bedroom door. “What’s going to happen to Travis?”
“I’m going to take him down to the station and then call his parents to explain the situation. They can pick him up whenever they want. If you’re worried about him bothering you again, you could think about getting a restraining order, but I doubt that will be necessary. He’s young and he’s emotional. Breakups always feel like the end of the world when you’re that age. He’ll get over it.”
“Yeah. You’re probably right.”
“Well, I’ll see myself out.”
“Okay. Thanks, Sheriff.”
With a curt nod, he left the room.
Although Bree was relieved that the frightening situation with Travis had come to an end, she couldn’t shake the feeling that it wasn’t really over. Not only that, but for some reason that she couldn’t quite put her finger on, she felt awful for getting Travis into trouble.
But why?
She didn’t do anything wrong, so there wasn’t any reason for her to feel bad . . . was there?
Moving to the window, Bree brushed the curtains aside and looked out at the sheriff’s car parked in the driveway. From the angle that she had, she could just make out Travis sitting in the backseat.
While doubts about her decision to call the sheriff weighed heavily on her, Travis suddenly looked up at her as if he could sense her eyes on him. Although she expected him to still be furious at her, his face sunk instead and his shoulders slumped in obvious dejection.
Not wanting to feel any guiltier than she already did—especially when deep down she knew that she shouldn’t be the one feeling guilty—Bree stepped back away from the window and shut the curtains. When she heard the car’s engine roar to life, she took another quick peek through to watch the car drive away.
With her original plan of taking a relaxing bath no longer on her mind, Bree sat down on her bed and tried to process everything that happened.
But she wasn’t sitting for more than a minute before her eyes were drawn to her wide open bedroom door. Even though she knew that Travis couldn’t bother her anymore today, she was compelled to not only shut the door, but lock it as well.
And she intended to keep it locked until her mom got home from work.
***
Travis was accustomed to getting what he wanted. Typically, all he had to do was ask for something and it would be his almost instantaneously. But that didn’t work with Bree. He thought that if he could just convince her that he was sorry, and that he would never cheat on her again, she would jump at the opportunity to repair their relationship. But she was clearly more upset by his actions than he realized. And now he had no idea how to dig himself out of the hole he was in.
That was exactly what he was contemplating as he sat in the corner of the jail cell. Fortunately, he was alone. At least that dinosaur of a sheriff had the decency to put him in his own cell rather than stuffing him in with the drunks, the perverts, and the other riffraff where he clearly didn’t belong.
He still couldn’t believe that Bree actually had the audacity to call the sheriff on him. How could she do that to him? She knew him. She had to know that he would never harm her. He had only been trying to prove to her how much that he loved her. Why was that so difficult for her to see?
How much more obvious could he make it?
Did she really believe that he gave a damn about Melissa?
She meant nothing to him. That dumb blonde was just a quick lay that was too easy for him to pass up. He told Bree that it only happened once, and while that wasn’t true, it was true that he only meant for it to happen the one time. Melissa just kept on coming back for more. Despite what Bree might believe, as far as Travis was concerned, Melissa was the one that she should be angry with.
This was all that stupid slut’s fault.
Why couldn’t she have just considered herself lucky to have gotten with him even once and then moved on with her life? Why did she have to keep on coming back and tempting him over and over again?
And when he really thought about it, Bree was as much to blame for all of this as he was. Maybe even more so. If she really didn’t want him to cheat on her, then maybe she should have made him more of a priority in her life. If sh
e had been willing to put out for him a little more often, this all could have been avoided.
Yeah, that was it. He wasn’t the one who should be treated like a deviant. He was the victim in this situation. Not the other way around. All that he had done for four years was love Bree, and treat her like a goddess. So why was it that when he slipped up just one time did she act like everything that they had together for years meant nothing to her? Was that how she always felt? Did all of those memories truly not mean a damn thing to her?
Just then, Travis heard a door swing open. He looked up to see his father approaching the cell. He was dressed in a long gray coat over a sharp suit and tie combo. His expression betrayed nothing about what might be going on inside his head. That was nothing new. Travis had spent practically all of his life trying to guess the thoughts and feelings of his father, and never had any success.
His father came to a stop in front of the bars. “Come closer, son.”
Travis shot to his feet and approached the bars.
“I am a forgiving man, Travis. I can look past many mistakes and errors on your part, as long as I believe that you are making an effort to live your life in a manner that does not reflect poorly on me.”
“Dad, please just give me a chance to—”
“Shut up. I wasn’t finished.”
Travis nodded, swallowing back the rest of his words.
“But my forgiveness has its limits. I will not tolerate dishonesty and blatant refusal to obey on your part. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
Travis nodded again.
“Very good. Now I want you to explain why you decided to go to that girl’s house and act like a low-class thug rather than allow me to handle the situation as I said I would.”
Travis said nothing. He wasn’t sure how he was supposed to respond to that.
“Answer the question,” his father barked.
Hide and Seek: A Suspense Thriller Page 4
