One Of The Enemy (Hidden Descendant Series, Book 1)

by C. M. Chidgey

  “Cayla, don’t even think about it girl!” Andrew yelled.

  I grinned. “Relax guys.”

  “How do you even know its deep enough?” Dom yelled and the sunlight seemed to turn his eyes yellow.

  I shook my head sure that he could guess I had done it before so without answer I took the last two steps to the end of the branch and dove in. The wind whipped through my hair as I descended and the cool water felt amazing on my skin as my hands sliced through the surface and I was enveloped in it. I swam under the water and the minute I needed to breathe I swam up until I could breathe in the oxygen my lungs needed.

  The fact that I was tired after that was proof that the healing of my body had really taken it out of me and I still wasn’t completely recovered so I swam to the edge of the lake where the guys were before climbing out.

  “That was awesome.” Matt said seeming in awe.

  I laughed and took each of my shoes off and pouring the water out of them, but the minute I did Dom practically yelled.

  “It wasn’t awesome, you could have been hurt Cayla!”

  I sighed. “Relax Dom, I’ve done it loads of times before and it’s fun so I did it again.”

  “Fun, you call risking your life fun?” He seemed to be trying to control his anger, but he was failing and the sunlight was really turning his eyes yellow. I squinted against the light to try and make out the green of them.

  “I wasn’t risking my life; I was jumping off a tree into a lake.” I replied calmly.

  “Dom, you can see she’s fine, no harm done.” Andrew said.

  “Stay out of this Andrew!” Dom actually growled.

  “What the hell is your problem?” I said raising my voice giving up on the searching of the green in his eyes as my anger began to build.

  “My problem is that you’re putting yourself in unnecessary danger!” He shouted.

  “You could say that about anything! Crossing the road is unnecessary danger, anything could happen at any time. Life is full of risks!”

  “At least walking the road is something a lot of people do Cayla, but who the hell does what you just did?” He only seemed to be getting angrier.

  “I do what I just did!”

  “Dammit Cayla, what is wrong with you?”

  That was the last straw, he had pushed me too far, I would never have expected those words to come from Dom. They made me feel so pathetic just like my Uncle had. Tears stung my eyes and I put my trainers back on before turning to him.

  “I don’t know Dom, maybe I didn’t come out of the car accident as undamaged as everyone thought I did.”

  His eyes widened when a tear slid down my face, but before any of them could even say anything or stop me I took off into the trees. They may have longer strides than me, but when I really tried I could move fast so to my relief none of them caught up with me. Tears ran down my face, but I didn’t really need my sight to remember the way back so blurred vision didn’t slow me down. I was amazed at the pace I kept though considering how rapidly my energy was depleting.

  When I reached Dom’s house the sky was darkening and I realised I couldn’t stay with him anymore so I would have to go back to my Uncle’s house and hope he would stay away at least until I got my own apartment. The moment I had reached the front door I turned away from it and started down the long driveway. I hadn’t made it far when the guys burst from the trees not far from me.

  Dom was the first to grab my arm, but I pushed him off before yelling at him.

  “Let me go, don’t touch me!”

  He gave me a hurt expression, but I didn’t care at that point and I carried on walking.

  “Where are you going?” He asked.

  I paused feeling exhausted before saying. “You lost the right to ask me that around thirty minutes ago.”

  “So, just because I yell at you you’re going to act like that, yet you let your Uncle hit you around and keep defending him? Thanks Cayla.”

  I turned on him then and glared at him. “I defended him because he was the only family I had left and guess what? He’s gone now too so that was pretty pointless. All that shit was for nothing, I have no one! The only reason I could deal with his shit was because I stopped myself from caring, after the funeral of my family I cut myself off from everything except the pain of losing them. I had a pattern and I stuck to it, get up, do stuff, cry, sleep, have nightmares, and then wake up crying. Then you came along and messed it up, the nightmares stopped, I slept better and I didn’t cry as much, you made me start caring again and you know what? Right now I hate it because it hurts so much worse than anything my Uncle could have ever done to me! I can deal with being yelled at most of the time, but right now I can’t take it from the person I care about most in the world because it’s killing me!” My words slowly got quieter and I found it hard to stay upright by the end of it. “Now, I’m going.” I mumbled.

  “Where are you going?” Andrew asked the same time that Dom said.

  “Come on Cayla, let’s just talk about this.”

  “My Uncle’s.” I said turning away from them, but the movement seemed way to fast and I mumbled. “Or on the floor.” Just before everything went black.

  Chapter 8

  I woke up slowly, but kept my eyes shut and groaned as I remembered everything that had happened.

  “Are you awake sweetheart?”

  My eyes snapped open at the sound of Dom’s voice to find him standing next to the bed.

  I sighed and mumbled. “Please, just go.”

  He opened his mouth to reply, but I turned over on my stomach and held a pillow over my head so that I couldn’t hear him, it was a few minutes later when I heard the muffled sound of the door being closed.

  It was moments later when I heard the door opening again and I let out a big sigh against the bed.

  “Please Dom, leave me alone.”

  “Last time I checked girl, I wasn’t that good looking.”

  I took the pillow off my head and sat up quickly to find Andrew standing just inside the closed doorway.

  He smiled. “Plus, I wouldn’t want to kiss you.”

  I snorted before throwing a pillow at him. “Shut up.”

  “Not quite yet.” He said sitting on the edge of my bed. “Just tell me, why are you trying to push someone away who clearly cares about you?”

  “I’m not.” I mumbled pulling my knees to my chest and avoiding eye contact. “He was yelling at me for no reason.”

  “There was a reason Cayla, he was right you could have been hurt. You may have done it before, but for us it was a first time seeing you do it and it was scary as hell. Dom panicked and yelled, but it was understandable and you know as well as I do that you overreacted to being yelled at. What was the real reason you acted like that?”

  I sighed looking at the wall. “Because he made me care again and I don’t want to so I have to push him away Andrew.”

  “Do you really want to live your life alone because you’re too afraid to let yourself care again?” Andrew asked.

  “At least it wouldn’t hurt.” I mumbled.

  “But isn’t the pain worth all of the good time you have. Would you trade all of the good memories with your family in exchange to get rid of the pain it caused when they were taken away?”

  I sighed and closed my eyes as I thought about all the good memories I had thought about earlier at the lake and I realised I would never want to forget them, they made me who I was, every memory I had was part of who I was.

  Eventually I shook my head and muttered. “No.”

  “Then maybe you should give Dom a chance.”

  “I think I’m falling for him Andrew and it’s happening too fast. It scares me.”

  “Well, I’ll tell you what. How about we go to your Uncle’s apartment today and pack up your stuff like you planned. Matt’s dad said you could borrow the truck so you will have somewhere to put it then you can have some Dom free time so you can sort your head out. You can stay at my house tonight
and we’ll see him at your party the next evening, that’s almost two days away. Does that sound good?”

  I nodded. “I think I can sort my head out by then.”

  He patted my knee and stood up. “Ok get up and I’ll meet you out front after I tell them what’s going on. You aren’t going to pass out again are you?”

  I shook my head. “No, I just overdid it yesterday, I’m fine.”

  He nodded. “Mark pretty much said the same.”

  When he left the room I got up and headed to the toilet, I didn’t bother changing my clothes and I didn’t bother with a shower. I would do that at my Uncle’s apartment so that I could finally put some of my own clothes on.

  The sun shone down on me as I waited out front for Andrew and it felt like my nose had started to burn when Andrew walked out of the front door swinging the keys to what I assumed was Matt’s dad’s truck. I looked around the driveway for it, but couldn’t find anything that remotely resembled a truck. Andrew seemed to catch me looking because he said.

  “Matt left it outside your Uncle’s apartment because he didn’t know if you were ready to get in cars yet.”

  I smiled. “That was nice of him.”

  He grinned in response and linked my arm with his before leading me down the driveway and towards my old apartment.

  The minute we reached the apartment I could tell he hadn’t been home. There were still things on the hallway and kitchen floor that my Uncle had knocked over in his drunken state. Without pausing to pick things up I headed straight to my bedroom followed by a wide eyed Andrew who was looking around.

  When we reached my room I went straight to the closet and grabbed some underwear, jeans and a top before saying.

  “I’m going to have a quick shower.”

  He sat on the bed and nodded giving me a smile. I was out of the shower in ten minutes and pulling my own clothes on. It felt so good to be in my own clothes, it was weird how much you could just miss wearing something. Not to mention some underwear, I had, had to go without unless I wanted to keep wearing the same underwear over and over.

  At a glance in the mirror I was glad to see my blue eyes were bright and the bags from under them had vanished. My hair was once again shiny with more volume to it and it had seemed to grow further down my back without my noticing. The blonde highlights that had seemed to grow into it for as long as I could remember were noticeable and my hair actually looked good. I grinned into the mirror noticing my dimples were showing, that only ever happened when I gave a real smile. I could never pull them off if I wasn’t genuinely happy.

  Feeling excited I opened the bathroom door and before I could stop myself I shouted. “Oh my God I have dimples in my smile again.”

  Andrew looked at me seeming confused before he chuckled and asked.

  “Again, what do you mean?”

  I shrugged and explained to him that I could never do a smile and make them show up if I wasn’t happy.

  He frowned before saying. “I never realised, but now you mention it you didn’t have dimples when I first met you. In fact they started showing up when you spent time with Dom.”

  I groaned. “How convenient.”

  He chuckled. “You can’t deny that he makes you happy Cayla.”

  I sighed. “No I can’t because he does.”

  “Well, what are we packing?” Andrew asked after a minute of silence.

  “Oh, I still have my suitcases for my clothes.” I said going over to my closet and pulling them down from the shelf.

  “Don’t forget you need something to wear to the party.” Andrew reminded me.

  I nodded and put all of the dresses into one suitcase along with a couple of changes of clothes and some underwear before throwing everything else into the other suitcase. I was trying to be as quick as I could on the off chance that my Uncle might show up.

  Luckily I still had the boxes from when I had moved my stuff in so I threw some over to Andrew.

  “Just put everything in except the furniture, it doesn’t matter if it’s neat I’ll sort it out when I get my apartment.”

  With both of us throwing things into boxes constantly we were finished within an hour. When we were done I had two suitcases and ten boxes full. Between us we carried them all into the elevator and went down to the ground floor. The receptionist and security guards helped us to carry the things out to the truck. When everything was in Andrew locked it up and said.

  “I’ll call Matt to come pick it up.”

  I nodded before pulling the suitcase back out of the truck that contained my dresses and changes of clothing. We made our way to Andrew’s house and I struggled to carry the suitcase. Andrew kept looking at me before eventually taking pity on me and taking the suitcase off my hands.

  “I can carry it.” I objected.

  He rolled his eyes. “I know you can, but the thing is nearly as big as you.”

  He was right so I just kept quiet and followed Andrew not knowing where his house was since I hadn’t been there before.

  “Damn.” I mumbled. “I’m going to have to get a cell phone. I must have lost it that night.”

  “No you’re not, I picked it up. I forgot to give it to you, I think it’s at Dom’s in the kitchen.”

  “Thanks. I completely forgot about it until then.”

  He shrugged as he turned down a pathway towards a small house. “No problem and I should probably warn you. My parents probably won’t talk to you. They tend to ignore me, they didn’t take my erm, being gay too well.”

  I frowned. “But they are your parents.”

  He shrugged. “It’s fine. There are worse things than being ignored.” He said pointedly at me.

  I sighed. “I guess.”

  I thought he may have been exaggerating, but he was actually serious. As we made our way through the house, it was like his parents couldn’t even see us. They seemed oblivious to the fact that their son was walking through the house.

  “That’s awful.” I whispered the moment we entered his room and he closed the door.

  He shrugged. “My sister was the only one who took it ok, but she’s in college at the moment.”

  We spent the remainder of the day in his room only coming out to get something for lunch and then again for dinner. They didn’t even cook him food, he had to get it himself, but he assured me he liked it better that way since he didn’t like half of the stuff that they ate. After dinner Andrew spent the remainder of the evening telling me all the reasons why I should give Dom a chance. It was almost as if Dom had paid him to do it, but when I suggested this to him he laughed seeming confused how I could come to such a conclusion. Eventually it got late and we went to bed, he had a huge double bed so we shared and within minutes I was fast asleep.

  “Wake up Cayla! It’s two in the afternoon! Happy Birthday” Andrew shouted poking me in the arm.

  I rolled over with a groan to see him fully dressed and wide awake so I guessed he had got up hours ago.

  I yawned and stretched. “Thank you, but why did you let me sleep so late?”

  He shrugged. “You needed it, now come on get up. We need to plan your party outfit.” He pointed to his bathroom. “Take a shower and wash your hair.”

  I did as I was told before pulling on a vest top and jogging bottoms knowing that I was probably going to be changing loads of times. When I re entered the bedroom, he was coming in from the hallway with a hairdryer, curling tongs, straighteners and all sorts of other hair things. I sighed knowing that my hair was about to get attacked before I sat down in a chair.

  Without a word he dried my hair until there wasn’t one single wet strand left. He pulled it all up in a clip before taking a step back.

  “Right, we need to find your outfit first. If I do your hair first it’s going to get messed up when you keep changing clothes.”

  I rolled my eyes and walked over to my suitcase before unzipping it revealing the dresses to him. He looked in deep thought as he examined them.

  After thr
ee hours of trying the same ones on repeatedly over and over again he had finally narrowed it down to three different ones. One was a navy blue strapless corset, which flared out into a skirt before ending just above my knees. The next one was simple, tight and black. The final one was red with a black belt just under my boobs before flaring out down to my knees.

  “Which one do you like?” Andrew asked as he rubbed his chin in thought.

  I shrugged. “The blue one is my favourite.”

  He nodded. “Yeah, I like that one too. It matches your eyes as well, which is a plus.”

  After a few more minutes of rubbing his chin and a few more rolls of my eyes he grabbed the blue dress.

  “The blue one it is!”

  I grabbed a strapless bra and matching underwear before going into the bathroom to change. It was about the fifth time I had put this dress on today, but I was glad it was the final change of clothes for tonight. After pulling on the underwear I pulled the dress on leaving it undone at the back before walking out into his room. He walked over to me and tightened the corset at the back until it was almost difficult for me to breathe before tieing it off at the top.

  “Is that ok?” He kept asking.

  I nodded every time and he then pushed me into the chair.

  “Are you sure this doesn’t show too much cleavage?” I asked looking down at my boobs, which seemed way too revealed to me.

  He chuckled. “Guys like too much cleavage, even gay men can appreciate a good cleavage.”

  I laughed at him shaking my head until he held it still. It amazed me how good he was at doing hair considering he didn’t have a whole lot of it, but he worked silently and when he finally seemed satisfied he ushered me to look in a mirror. My eyes widened, my hair was just a mass of spiralling curls, the top half was pulled back into a silver hair clip at the back of my head while a few curls were loose and framed my face. Curls cascaded around my shoulders and down my back in a mixture of browns and blondes.

  “You should be a hairdresser.” I said with a dimpled grin.

  He smiled. “Maybe, now a little makeup.”