Begin Again

by Mulliner, Brittney

  Brandon stuck his head out once to let me know it would only be a few more minutes. The smile on his face was ludicrous! He loved every second of Ms. Dragon fawning over him! Finally he had all of the t-shirts, button downs, slacks, jeans, and shoes he needed and came out of the fitting room. I rushed over to him and stopped him before he got to the register.

  “What is all of this and who is that putrid woman?” I threw a glance over my shoulder making sure she wasn’t within hearing distance. The last thing I wanted to do was get further up her hate list.

  “This is my seasonal wardrobe update and the woman is Margot, my personal shopper. I hired her a few years ago when I realized that I have no sense of fashion and needed to establish myself as a professional businessman. It’s pretty cool huh? I let her know a few days before I come in what I need, then I show up and she dresses me and stocks my closet with everything! Best decision I’ve ever made. Everything fits perfectly and she makes sure I don’t look like a complete nerd.”

  He smiled down at me as I laughed. As if he could actually look like a nerd. “Margot is alright once you get to know her, but I have noticed she’s not fond of other females. But she’s the best there is so I put up with her attitude.”

  He shifted past me while I tried to process this new information. My brother has a personal shopper? Who was he? Our mother? I guess the apple doesn’t fall that far from the tree, even when said apple rolls halfway across the country.

  “I’m all set here so unless you want anything we can get out of here and grab an early dinner before heading home to stare at your car.” He smiled at me again before walking away to pay Margot.

  ☀☀☀

  Brandon knew of a few outdoor cafes in the area so I told him to go to his favorite, which ended up being a glorified burger joint. Of course. Once we settled into a private corner and ordered he learned forward forcing me to make eye contact rather than watch people passing by on the boardwalk.

  “I know you don’t want to talk about it Aubrey, but I want to know your side of what happened in Chicago. All I know is what Mom told me which I’m sure is nothing close to the full story.”

  That’s an understatement. I’m sure Mom exaggerated the wrong things and made me look like a rebellious teen.

  “It was enough for me to ask her to let you move here with me to get away from everything, but I think you are going to need help to move past this and I can’t help you if I don’t know what actually happened.” He sighed like he had been holding onto those thoughts since I got here and sat back in his chair not breaking eye contact.

  “I don’t know where to start. There are things Mom doesn’t even know because, of course, she didn’t ask me what happened or cared about what I was going through. The Christmas party was just what finally got her to realize something was going on. She never listened when I told her about the notes. I don’t know if she thought I was being dramatic or begging for her attention but she just never listened to me.”

  Memories of what happened came into my mind. I decided I was going to stay strong and tell him the facts as I had the police, maybe that way the tears wouldn’t surface. He waited patiently for me to continue knowing I needed to do this my way.

  “There are two guys involved in this. There’s Derek who was my boyfriend. We dated for about a year, and at first he was the perfect gentleman. I told him I haven’t ever . . .” I stopped suddenly realizing how awkward this was to talk about with my older brother, but he nodded at me encouraging me to continue.

  “Well I told him that and said I wasn’t sure when I would be ready. He told me he was fine with that and he wasn’t dating me just for that reason. I’m a sucker I know! After about six months of dating he started getting more persistent, and me telling him no after the Homecoming dance certainly didn’t make him happy.”

  This was the first thing that got a reaction from Brandon. He scowled and shook his head. “You should never feel pressured to do something you aren’t ready for, especially with someone you’re supposed to trust!”

  “I know, but my friends told me I was crazy for not sleeping with him and if I didn’t hurry up he was going to leave me for someone easier than me. Derek was the top of our class, president of the student government and captain of the lacrosse team. Gorgeous in a very preppy, pretty boy way. He walked around looking like he stepped out of a Ralph Lauren ad.”

  I almost laughed aloud when he rolled his eyes.

  “I was stupid and listened to my friends. I thought I was lucky he picked me and I didn’t want to lose him . . . I can’t believe I’m telling you this! Please don’t laugh okay?”

  He nodded once again completely straight faced. He wanted to hear this as much as I didn’t want to tell him.

  “I went to Victoria’s Secret the week before the Christmas party to get something . . . Anyway, I decided I was going to surprise him after the party. I thought I was ready to take our relationship to the next level like he kept telling me it was time to do.”

  I could feel the blush growing on my cheeks. I couldn’t believe I was sharing these details with my brother.

  “I was searching the crowd for him to tell him to meet me upstairs when I overheard some girls talking about him. They mentioned his name and a girl named Heather who they were friends with. They were talking about how daring Heather was to sleep with him even though he was dating Neil Reynolds’s daughter. They obviously didn’t know who I was so I asked them to repeat what they said, and I wanted confirmed it was Derek O’Connell, my Derek, and it was. He slept with this girl because I wouldn’t. He told me he loved me and was going to wait for me, but apparently I’m not worth the wait.”

  A single tear escaped and slid down my cheek. I quickly wiped it away but I knew it was too late, Brandon had seen how affected I was by Derek’s betrayal.

  “Aubrey, I’m sorry you got hurt but you’re so lucky you figured things out before something happened that you would have regretted for the rest of your life.”

  “I know I should be grateful but it still hurts.”

  “Do you want me to go there and beat him up for you?” He sounded serious but a little smirk gave him away.

  I started laughing so hard I was crying again and had to focus on breathing for a few seconds to regain some composure. “Anyway, I turned away from those girls to find Derek so I could confront him. Before I took a few steps the music cut off and Peyton was standing at the balcony of the second story overlooking most of the party. She stood there waiting for everyone’s attention before she held up the Santa bra and announced to the entire crowd that I was sleeping with Derek, as if owning the bra was proof enough. I was shocked and humiliated of course.”

  Brandon shot forward and grabbed the table. “Wait . . . little Peyton actually did that? Why would she do something so malicious? More importantly, what does she know about that stuff?”

  “I never got the chance to talk to her about it. My best guess is that some of her older friends put her up to it. The only thing I could think to do at the time was to run. So I turned and pushed through the crowd to the back gardens before Mom or Neil tried to stop me. I ran to the bench in the very back of the property and stopped there. I could hear that the music had started up again, so Mom must have started damage control. I’m sure she was furious at me rather than Peyton, and I couldn’t go back and face those people. I didn’t want to see her or Derek or Neil so I sat on the bench for about thirty minutes. I don’t know for sure since I didn’t have my phone with me, but I could keep track of the songs that played.”

  I realized I had been staring down at the table the whole time I had been telling him what happened. I looked up at him and saw that his expression hadn’t changed, but his jaw clenched as what I said sank in.

  “So you found out your boyfriend was cheating on you, Peyton publically humiliated you, and Mom was . . . or is . . . mad at you? That’s messed up Aubrey! She has no right to be angry with you, you did nothing wrong!” The waiter came with our fo
od and Brandon sat back his face darkening.

  “Brandon, that’s not all of it. That’s not even half of why she basically kicked me out. What happened with Derek sucked, but there has been something else going on for a few months that Mom wouldn’t listen to me about. I told her in the beginning when something weird happened or I got a message, but she ignored me every single time.”

  Our food sat untouched as Brandon looked toward the beach glaring and obviously upset. I decided to lay it all out now before he thought about all of the worst case scenarios. “Someone was stalking me.” I waited to see if he gave a reaction, but he sat motionless listening to me.

  “At first it was notes. Nothing too graphic, I thought it was a secret admirer to be honest. They usually just said how pretty I was, or that I looked good that day. They were odd and appeared in random places. On my windshield, then in my locker. I thought it was weird and finally told Mom what was happening when a note was inside my car sitting behind the wheel on the dashboard. Mom said it was probably Derek and blew it off. I asked Derek, but he had no idea what I was talking about and he didn’t seem to care either.”

  “Why didn’t you tell someone else?”

  I glanced at him but ignored him. He was going to get more upset when I finished telling him.

  “I didn’t put that much thought into it once they blew it off . . . until I got home from dance practice one night and there was a note on my bed. I turned it over and it was a picture of me in the studio taken that night. I showed it to Mom and again she told me it was Derek playing a prank. Pictures were showing up almost every day, pictures of me at the studio, at school, even at home. I saved them all hoping if I showed Mom or Neil all of them at the same time they would admit something was going on.”

  I paused to take a few breaths before getting to the worst part.

  “The week leading up to the party things escalated. The notes turned more suggestive and vulgar and the pictures of me were taken from inside the house. Some were of me undressing or in the bath. I started getting calls from unknown numbers and a man left messages sometimes just saying my name over and over again or whispering things he had written on the notes.”

  Brandon leaned forward startling me enough to cause me to pause. “Aubrey! Why didn’t you call me or the police? Why didn’t you tell me what was going on? I would have flown out. I would have listened to you. This creep was in the house, in your room and Mom wasn’t listening. I can’t believe all of this was happening and neither of you mentioned anything to me.”

  My blush reddened with his angry words. I assumed he would be freaked, but I didn’t expect he would get so angry. “I don’t know why I didn’t tell you. Mom wouldn’t believe me, Derek ignored it, and I guess I thought I was being overly dramatic or something.”

  “I’m not Mom. I would have believed you. You would have been here a lot sooner if I had known you were in danger!” He huffed leaning back again and resumed staring at the ocean clearly angry.

  “It wasn’t just the notes, pictures or calls, Brandon. He came after me that night.” I stopped, assessing whether or not he was going to lose it again before finishing what happened that night. When he remained silent I continued.

  “I was sitting on the bench listening to the music trying to decide what to do and where to go when I heard footsteps behind me. I turned but I couldn’t see anything so I stood up to head back to the house when I was grabbed from behind. I looked back quick enough to see who it was. I thought in that moment I was going to die.”

  I had tears streaming freely down my face. My voiced stopped working prohibiting me from telling Brandon everything that happened that night and the full story of what led up to it.

  After a few moments Brandon turned to me, his face softening again as he looked at me. “Let’s eat. I’m sorry, Bree, I shouldn’t have brought it up here. Just finish your burger and we can finish this later. Just forget about it and try to enjoy tonight. If you’re good I’ll consider getting you dessert later.”

  A slight smile appeared on his face and I realized how strange it was to see him without his signature grin even for those few minutes. Relieved I had gotten through that much of what happened I wiped away my tears and looked down at my plate before picking up my burger.

  Once we finished he decided he still had room for my favorite treat—frozen yogurt. We walked past a few shops before coming to my happy place. Two dozen flavor options and unlimited toppings. Could it get any better? I made a chocolate/fruit/candy concoction that looked divine while Brandon loaded up on tart yogurt with berries only.

  I eyed his bowl and smirked up at him. “Could you be more boring? Thousands of options and you pick bland with some more blah.”

  He looked down at his bowl then at mine. “Whatever, at least I won’t be in a sugar coma in an hour!”

  “Brandon! Hey!”

  A petite blonde came running up to us as we tried to claim a table outside. She was a pretty little thing with a huge smile and big blue eyes. She finally reached us as we sat down. She saw me and her smile grew wider. “You must be Aubrey! Brandon has told me all about you and seriously hasn’t stopped talking about you moving here for like a week!”

  I smiled at her before stealing a glance at Brandon who was looking shyly toward the blonde. “Sorry! I should introduce you two, I didn’t mean to be rude. This is Liv, well Olivia but everyone just calls her Liv. She works with me. Liv, this is Aubrey.”

  “Nice to meet you Liv. Do you want to join us?”

  She and Brandon shared an awkward look I couldn’t interpret before she turned back to me.

  “I’m actually late meeting someone up the street. I just saw you guys and wanted to say hi. I’ll let you guys finish. Have a good night!” She smiled once again at Brandon before rushing off.

  “She’s cute. Are you two dating?”

  “Nope.” He was obviously uncomfortable with the direction of this conversation, but after everything I shared I thought I deserved some insider information about his personal life. Judging by the way he stood up and threw away our cups—mine was only half gone—I was very, very wrong in my assumption.

  “Let’s go home and check out your car.”

  That was a pretty good subject change. I followed him back to his car, deciding to bring up the subject again soon.

  Chapter 4

  I rolled out of bed early to get in a workout and surprise Brandon with breakfast. He deserved a thank you for all he had done for me, and it may have been an attempt to break the tension from last night. The food was ready and on the island, and I was finishing washing the dishes I had used when I heard him finally trudge into the kitchen.

  “Whoa! Who knew when I asked you to move in with me I would be getting a personal chef and a maid.” Brandon grinned at me when I turned to say good morning then continued to wash the dishes in the sink.

  “You do know that there is a perfectly functioning dishwasher less than a foot from where you are standing, right? Please don’t tell me Mom made you wash dishes by hand back home. I know full well they have a full staff of wannabe servants to do her dirty work.”

  Barely turning my head toward him I gave him a half-hearted glare. “I am aware of such modern conveniences and, no, I would never let Mom boss me around like that. I happen to enjoy doing a little manual labor every so often. It gives me time to think.”

  As he sat down on one of the bar stools facing the kitchen island he stared down at the pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage, and hash browns I had made that morning all before eight. Seeming like he didn’t know where to start, he picked up a fork rather than making his own plate and began inhaling the buffet of breakfast foods.

  “So what do you need time to think about this fine morning, or have you been up all night?” He barely took a break long enough to spit out the question before going for another forkful of eggs and pancake, yes at the same time.

  I could barely look at him without laughing. “I woke up at five to go for a run, but wh
en I got to the lobby, I noticed you have a nice gym here so I decided to work out for a few hours then I came up to make breakfast . . . You eat like you have been starving your whole life, and last night you ate even more. Where do you put it all?”

  “High metabolism. So while I appreciate this, and I now fully expect a full breakfast made for me by the time I wake up every morning, you avoided my question of what you were thinking about.”

  “Keep dreaming bro. This is a once in a lifetime thank you present.” I paused from washing and grabbed a towel to dry off my hands before turning to face him. “Why aren’t you dating anyone? You’re successful, handsome, and have a great personality. Even if you are a nerd, and don’t even try to tell me that you can’t find a girl because Liv looked like she is in love with you.”

  “Liv works for me. That would be a conflict of interest and just plain unprofessional. I go on dates and stuff. I just haven’t met a woman that I have enough in common with or I have that but I’m not attracted to her. I can’t win. Plus, I have a company to run and programs to write, I don’t really have much time for the dating scene.”

  I rolled my eyes and started walking toward my room. “We’ll see!” I could barely hear Brandon groan as I closed the door to my bathroom.

  I took my time getting ready, enjoying the luxuries of a waterfall shower and the vanity. It was big enough to spread out my makeup, blow dryer, and curling iron at the same time. Trying to appear less like an out-of-towner, I pulled a pair of black chino shorts and a loose fitting emerald silk shirt and black sandals I hadn’t worn in months.

  By the time I finished I heard Mckayla greeting Brandon in the living room. I walked out to see her and Brandon with their heads together talking in hushed voices.

  “What are you guys saying about me?” I was kidding but when I saw them jump and go silent I grew suspicious of the duo.

  Mckayla gave a pointed look over her shoulder at my brother before grabbing me by the elbow and pulling me out the door. I yelled a bye back to Brandon before shutting the door behind me. We got down to the garage and I led her to my car.