by Bella King
There it was. He had no way of knowing where I actually lived after I had lied about it to him in the past. Unless Mia had told him, which she didn’t remember doing, he had to have been watching me in order to know my address.
I crossed my arms, coking my head to the side. I could tell by the worried look on his face that he knew he had said something wrong. “How did you know where I lived?”
“You told me. I dropped you of one time,” Oliver said, shifting his eyes left and right.
More bullshit. “I never told you where I lived, Oliver. You took me to the wrong place last time.”
“You lied to me?” Oliver asked, trying to shift the narrative.
“Oh no, buddy. We’re not playing that game. How do you know where I live?” I said, pulling a finger from my crossed arms and jabbing it at him.
“Woah, chill out, Lydia. You must have told me at some point. I don’t know,” Oliver said, holding his hands up.
I shook my head. “Listen, Oliver. I fucked you, yes, but that doesn’t mean I want you stalking me. Cut it out, or I’m going to call the police.”
Oliver laughed. “I’m not stalking you. Have you been taking crazy pills or something? Jesus, you’re like my crazy ex-girlfriend.”
I exploded.
I had enough of Oliver’s lies and mind games, and I burst into a fit of rage. “What girlfriend, Oliver?! Where?” I held my hand out, looking around us. “You don’t have one, and you never fucking did. Stop lying to me and tell me the truth,” I demanded.
“You’re off your damn rocker,” Oliver said, shaking his head at me like I was some kind of crazy person on the street.
I shoved him with an open palm, hitting his broad chest firmly, but he barely moved. “You’re a liar. If you ever want me in your bed again, you’re going to tell me the truth right fucking now.”
Oliver looked around, a panicked expression coming across his face. “Be quiet about that,” he whispered urgently.
I laughed angrily. “Why? Is your imaginary ex-girlfriend going to hear me?” I was growing hysterical and completely out of control. I would be late for class at this rate, but class could go fuck itself. Everything could go fuck itself for that matter. I wanted the truth, and I was going to tighten my hands on Oliver’s balls until I got it. It gave me pleasure to watch that asshole squirm.
Oliver winced as I grew louder. “Can we talk in private?”
“No,” I said firmly. “Tell me what’s going on.”
“In private,” Oliver insisted.
Outside of a tall gray building, Oliver and I stood locked in a heated battle of words. Neither of us wanted to give in to the other, but I knew that I had the upper hand. Compromise wasn’t on my list of options, but his offer to talk elsewhere suggested that I might finally know the truth. I agreed to it.
“Come with me,” Oliver said, walking past me toward the student parking lot.
I hurried after him, my sneakers sinking into the soft wet grass as I tried to keep up without running. I broke out into a backward jog just to stay at his pace, facing him and trying to continue our talk before we got to his truck.
“Why are you so shy about us? I know you’re into me,” I said.
Oliver shook his head. “I went too far. I’m sorry.”
“You’re not going to toss me aside like that,” I said. “Do you really hate me that much that you would just fuck me and try to cover it up?”
I was waving my hands around wildly while I talked, which was making Oliver even more uncomfortable. He was acting like he was afraid that someone might see us or overhear me, and I needed to know why.
Oliver walked up to his truck, opened the passenger’s side door, and pointed inside. “Get in,” he said in a commanding tone.
I didn’t argue. I hopped right in and waited for him to come around. Oliver climbed into the truck and started it up, pulling out of the parking lot without saying a word. It wasn’t until we were driving away from the school that he started talking.
“Alright, Lydia. I guess there are some things I can’t keep hiding from you,” Oliver began.
Chapter 20
I sat with my hands clasped between my legs, eagerly awaiting what Oliver had to say. After all this time, I still didn’t know a damn thing about him, and that had to change.
I had a lovely evening with him, and I didn’t want to lose what we had. It wasn’t much, but it was something special, and I knew that both of us felt it. Maybe I was just another cheap fuck for him, but to me, that night had proved that I could feel something for someone again. It showed me something amazing, and I wasn’t so ready to forget it.
Oliver’s knuckles were white as he gripped the thin leather steering wheel of his red truck. He stared down the road as though it was a thousand miles long. I knew there was something terribly wrong, and I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach as Oliver started talking.
“About two years ago, my grandmother had a heart attack. After that, the hospital bills started piling up. That shit gets expensive. I don’t know if you know, but they had her on all kinds of medications on top of her hospital visit, and it was too much for her to pay.”
I thought back to my own grandmother passing away right before my 16th birthday. I had been devastated, so I knew how it felt. I would have done anything to keep her alive, but I was helpless.
Oliver sighed loudly, adjusting the AC in his car so that it blasted ice cold air in his face. “My grandmother raised me after my parents died in a car accident when I was little. I don’t really remember then that much, but that’s beside the point. My grandmother was the only person I had, and I felt guilty for leaving her when I started college.
“I thought I was going to have to choose between school and my grandmother, but something happened that changed everything for me. Did you know that we used to go to the same high school?” Oliver asked, looking over at me.
I was picking at the soft flesh beside my fingernails nervously as he spoke. My eyes lit up, and I stopped. “Yes, that’s where I know you from,” I said, waving a finger at him. “I knew I had seen you before.”
Oliver nodded. “Yes, which means I know all about your crazy ex-boyfriend and how badly he wanted to keep tabs on you. He wanted me to do it for him when he found out I was going to the same college as you, but I refused.”
“James asked you to stalk me?” I asked in disbelief. This was the first time I had used my ex-boyfriend’s name since I had left for college. It rolled off my tongue like poison, and I hated myself for even saying it, but I had to make sure we were talking about the same person.
“Yes, but I wouldn’t do it. He even offered me money, but I refused. I’m not that bad of a person, and I didn’t know what his intentions were,” Oliver said. “But…”
“But what?” I asked, anxiety creeping into my voice. My throat was tight, and my stomach began to feel sick.
“But when my grandmother had her heart attack, I needed the money. I needed it so bad, Lydia. I don’t expect you to understand, but I had to get it one way or another. Then, I remembered James.”
I shook my head. “What the fuck, Oliver? Please tell me you haven’t been working for him this whole time.” I was disgusted with what I was hearing. How could Oliver betray me like that? Didn’t he know how insane James was?
“I had to. James paid me good money to watch you, and to make sure you didn’t date anyone while you were at school. Things were going so smoothly until you started getting funny ideas about certain guys here.”
“That would be you,” I said. “You started it.”
Oliver chuckled. “It wasn’t just me. Do you remember Todd? I had to keep stepping in to stop you from getting carried away. That was the reason why I kept resisting you.”
“You’re a fucking creep,” I spat at Oliver. “How dare you interfere with my love life.”
“I am your love life, Lydia,” Oliver countered, turning the steering wheel aggressively. “I tried to resist you, but goddammit yo
u’re just too perfect. I caved. I fucking caved and let things go too far,” Oliver said, his teeth grinding together so hard I thought they might turn to dust.
We were driving down streets I had never seen now, with no sign of slowing down or turning back. I didn’t know where we were going, but that wasn’t what mattered right now. I needed to know everything.
“I’m far from perfect,” I said, but I felt better now that he had admitted to having feelings for me. The mixed signals were getting old.
“You are as close as anyone in my life is going to get. I don’t want to fuck this up, but I think I already have,” Oliver said.
I could see tears forming in his eyes.
“I tried not to get involved with you. I watched you for longer than you know, and I became obsessed with you. I know that’s fucking weird and creepy, but that’s the truth. I couldn’t let James find out about it though, or he would stop giving me money. That guy’s a real whack job, you know?”
“I know better than anyone,” I replied.
Oliver breathed out of his nose heavily in what resembled a silent laugh. “I wouldn’t want to get on his bad side, which is why he can’t know about us.”
I sighed. “First of all, I have to decide if there even is an ‘us’ anymore after the shit you pulled. That’s a lot to process,” I said.
“The problem is, I think he might already know. I’m not his only set of ears around here. I did my best to hide what we were doing, which was the reason I dropped you off at home after we had sex, but I don’t think that worked.”
“How do you know that?” I asked.
“He’s coming,” Oliver responded, genuine dread flickering in his bright blue eyes.
“James is coming?” I said, my wave shaking as a wave of panic washed over me. My throat tightened so much I thought I might stop breathing, and my head started to feel light. I was on the verge of throwing up in Oliver’s cute little red truck. I doubted he would enjoy that.
“Pull over,” I demanded.
“You’re not running off,” Oliver replied.
I tugged on his shirt sleeve. “Pull the fuck over before I puke on your damn lap.”
Oliver hit the brakes, and his car skidded to a stop on a stretch of open road. There were no other cars around us.
I jumped out, dashing toward the ditch on the side and emptying the excessive amounts of iced coffee that I drank earlier into the dirt. The soil soaked it up graciously as drool hung from my lips. I spat the taste of bile out of my mouth and pulled up my shirt to wipe my lips.
Oliver got out of his truck and came around to help me. I felt a warm hand on my back, which I shook off. “I’m fine,” I said, standing up straight.
Oliver laughed. “You look like shit.”
I laughed with him. “Well, this isn’t exactly my best day. I assure you, I clean up well.”
“So I’ve heard,” Oliver replied coolly. “We need to keep moving, though. I don’t think anyone is following us, but you can never be too sure.”
I nodded, retreating from the ditch and climbing back into Oliver’s truck. I felt a little better after throwing up, but I was still shaken by the nightmarish reality that was unfolding before me. Everything that I thought had been a lie, and years of my life were now under close scrutiny. I wondered just how much Oliver knew about me.
“What’s my favorite color,” I shot at Oliver when he got back into the car.
He looked surprised but was quick to answer. “Aqua.”
I racked my brain for a harder question. “What kind of shampoo do I use,” I asked him.
Oliver smiled at me, figuring out what I was doing. “Darling, I’ve been watching you for too long not to know everything about you. You used to use this cheap strawberries and cream scented that they sell for 99 cents, but in March, you switched to a nicer one when you started experiencing dandruff.”
“Jesus Christ, you know me better than I do,” I said, letting out a huge breath. “Wow.”
Oliver shrugged. “Hey, it pays well to stay informed.”
I didn’t want to laugh at his tasteless joke, but it was funny in light of everything. “You’re a sick bastard,” I said with a goofy smile.
Oliver glanced into the rearview mirror. He was more paranoid than I was about being watched, but then again, he had to deal with James for two years. He knew how crazy that man was.
“I haven’t told you the whole story,” Oliver said. “There’s a little bit more to it.”
I didn’t think this could get much worse. I only had so much iced coffee I could throw up at any given time. I needed a refill.
“And I’ll be honest with you, Lydia. I could have lied about his part, but I’m telling you because I want to come out as an honest man. No matter what happens, I don’t want you to think about me as a piece of shit. I’m trying to be straight with you.”
“Go on,” I replied, reserving judgment for later.
“I already paid for all my grandmother’s stuff last year. I kept working for James because he kept paying me to. The money was too good.”
“Really?” I asked, not expecting Oliver to have stooped so low for a quick buck. “You’re a fucking idiot.”
“I didn’t know it would get this bad, Lydia. I figured I didn’t have any excuse to keep creeping on you if I wasn’t getting paid, but at that point, I was already in love with you.”
The story just kept getting wilder and wilder, but of all the people to fall in love with me, Oliver was probably the most handsome and most definitely the best in bed.
“So, what now?” I asked. “You stop stalking me, and James comes up here to murder you now that he knows you stole me away from him?”
Oliver grimaced. “You might be being sarcastic, but that’s pretty much what’s happening.”
I groaned, slapping my hand on my forehead. “God, why are you so fucking stupid, Oliver. For a man as handsome as you are, you sure don’t have much in the way of critical thinking skills.”
“I have straight A’s,” Oliver said, sounding hurt.
“Grades won’t keep us from keeping killed by my psycho ex-boyfriend.”
Oliver sped up the truck, barreling down the interstate now, heading west.
“Where are we going?” I asked, looking at the passing signs.
“I need to find a motel for us to sleep in for the night,” Oliver said, scanning the signs that we passed. “We probably need to move a little further out.”
“If you make me drop out of school, I’ll be the one to murder you,” I said grimly. “I didn’t work my ass off to get sent away for skipping all my fucking classes.”
“Did James ever send you any messages? I told me he was coming us, but he sounded angry about it and didn’t tell me anything about when he would be here or where exactly he was going.”
I remembered the frequent emails from him on my phone. I pulled it out of my pocket, waving it at Oliver. “He sends me emails all the time. I never read them, though. He sent one today.”
“Open it,” Oliver urged. “We need all the information we can get.”
I was reluctant to open the email. I knew that if I did, then all the memories of his abuse would come flooding back. My finger hovered over it in the email app, but I didn’t bring it down to tap on the little unread email icon.
Oliver had been somewhat cruel to me, but it paled in comparison to what James had done. I was sure that Oliver felt terrible about the situation, judging by his expression and the way he was driving, but I would be quick to forgive him if we came out of this alive. Nobody could be worse than James.
Maybe it was wishful thinking that Oliver and I could still work things out after all this, but I was clinging to a glimmer of hope when I hit that icon to open the last email that James had sent me. It was the only thing that gave me the courage to face James again.
Chapter 21
FINAL WARNING
Lydia, you have managed to avoid me for three years, fooling yourself into thinki
ng that I would abandon you amongst the degenerates at Briarwood University. You’re wrong, though. I would never leave you there alone. We were meant for each other, and even if you don’t believe it, I still do.
By now, you must have met Oliver. Yes, the man that has been trying to take you from me is actually one of my many spies turned rebel. That’s unfortunate because he was one of the best.
You have saved yourself for me for three years, and I commend you for that, but you have crossed the line by getting involved with Oliver. I see everything that happens, so I also know what happened between you two on Saturday night. Quite frankly, this had made me doubt ever having loved you, but with time I think I can forgive you.
I’m coming up to visit you now that the restraining order you filed against me has expired. See you soon!
- James
I put my phone down in my lap, the body of it hot against my sweaty hand. “We’re so fucked,” I said.
“What did he say?” Oliver asked, glanced at me worriedly.
“I put a restraining order against him a while ago when he started threatening me via email. I stopped reading his messages after that, and I felt safe knowing that he probably wouldn’t be coming up to try to visit me,” I explained. “But now, fuck. The restraining order has apparently expired, and he said he’s coming up to see me.”
Oliver nodded. “Yeah, he and I have been meeting halfway. He never told me why he wouldn’t meet closer to school.”
I hated Oliver at that moment. I wanted to wring his stupid goddamn neck and bash his thick skull through the windshield, but I kept myself contained. I looked like a sacred girl with my hands in my lap, but I felt like I could kill if I had to.
“So, James knows basically everything. He even knows that we had sex,” I said. “I think we should go to the police.”
“No way,” Oliver said. “You want to get me thrown in jail?”
I didn’t exactly want that, but it wasn’t like Oliver was innocent, and I felt like I was in danger. “We don’t have to tell them about your involvement. I’ll deny everything.”
