Misplaced Trust (Misjudged)

by Sarah Elizabeth

  No. No. No. What the hell is he even thinking?

  Struggling to breathe, I open my eyes wide, seeing that his are closed tight. He doesn’t even seem to be registering that I don’t want this.

  He’s drunk. He’s on the rebound. He’s hurting.

  These are the only things I can think of that would make him do such a thing. Apart from the drunk part, I can totally see and feel his pain, because that’s exactly what I’ve experienced over the past weeks, but this really isn’t going to solve anything.

  Just as he tries to push his tongue inside my mouth, I feel something tugging on my jacket, before I’m knocked sideways and clean out of Neil’s hold by somebody passing by us.

  I’m stunned, and find myself not being able to do anything but stare wide eyed at Neil as I watch him take a couple of unsteady steps backwards. Noting the angry flare in his eyes, I soon realize they’re not aimed on me, and when I turn to see why he’s looking the way he is, I begin to understand.

  “Sorry for the interruption,” Harry, Zach, or whoever says, holding his hands in front of him and towards Neil, as though he’s retreating away and not wanting to cause any trouble.

  Sorry? He doesn’t look sorry. He’s looks pretty pissed himself with his eyes briefly glancing over to me, before directly them solely back on Neil.

  The scowl Neil is holding on him looks as though he’s ready to kill. He looks the angriest I’ve ever seen him. After a few moments of them both staring each other down, Neil seems to finally snap himself out from whatever zone he was in, bringing his eyes over to me.

  He looks troubled, he looks lost, and then he’s gone. Without so much as another word, he heads straight by me and out through the double doors that are located on the other side of the bar area.

  Not knowing what to say or do, I notice a lot of people glaring over in my direction. I glance towards Harry, and see that he’s now standing on the other side of the room, but still closely watching me as he takes a sip from his bottle of beer.

  “What the hell was that?” Alyssa asks, stepping by my side and looking completely bewildered by what she, and everyone else, just witnessed. “You and Neil?”

  Snapping my gaze up when Ryan comes to stand on the other side of me, I see confusion filling his eyes and a puzzled expression crossing over his entire face, “I’ll go and see what the hell he’s playing at,” he offers, and begins to head in the same direction as Neil left a couple of minutes ago.

  Neil looked really upset about what he just did, and I figure the longer we leave it to clear the air, the more uncomfortable it will be, for the both of us.

  Placing my hand on Ryan’s shoulder, and tapping him a couple of times, I compose myself by taking a deep breath, deciding that it’s probably best for me to follow Neil outside, “No, I should go after him,” I tell him while fastening my jacket, seeing him shrug his shoulders, before I walk away from them and out onto the sidewalk.

  9.

  Unexpected

  I’ve been sitting up for most of the night waiting for Neil to get back, but as of yet, there’s still no sign of him.

  Alyssa and Ryan stumbled through the dorm at three o’clock this morning, not even noticing that I was sitting on the couch and still wide awake, worrying out of my mind about him.

  They practically fell through the door, not being able to keep their hands off of one another as they went through to her room. I swear I wish I knew where I’d put my iPod, at least that way, I wouldn’t have had to listen to the high squeals and moans that they bellowed out during another one of their lust filled nights.

  His cell phone has been switched off all night, which doesn’t at all surprise me. It seems as though I’m the only one who keeps theirs active these days.

  It’s almost nine o’clock and I’ve only just gotten back from Starbucks, after spending around an hour in there, fulfilling my craving for a well needed sugar rush. The amount of sleep I haven’t managed to have over the past few days is beginning to take its toll.

  I jump up onto my feet when I hear a couple of loud bangs on the main door. He probably lost his key somewhere. He was pretty out of it when he left the bar last night.

  Opening the door, my stomach twists when I see the same female detective that was here the other day, standing on the other side of the doorway, but this time, she’s not wearing her uniform.

  “Alexis,” she smiles, and without even giving her any permission to enter, she walks right be me and stands herself over by the breakfast bar.

  “What is it now?” I ask, closing the door and avoiding any niceties with her on this occasion. ”What? You think I’m hiding him in my closet? Or maybe under my bed?”

  Shaking her head, I can see her watching me with a narrowed gaze, “No, not at all, Alexis. But, I do think you’re hiding something,” she answers, a harshness within her tone as she begins tapping her fingers on the bar. “He was seen, Alexis. He was seen leaving this very building a few nights ago.”

  Fuck.

  “I … I don’t know what you’re—“

  “Oh, I think you do,” she cuts me off, taking a couple of steps forward and towards me, while keeping her eyes firmly on mine. “I would have thought being the daughter of a cop yourself, Alexis, that you would understand the consequences of hiding a wanted man’s location from the law.”

  “I’m not hiding anything,” I begin to protest, although the weakness in my voice, because I’m unbelievably dreadful at telling lies, betrays me. “I’m not!”

  She begins pacing the room, and I can see her eagle eyes are looking for something, anything at all that will prove to her that she’s right. Although she’s not right on me knowing Brandon’s location, she knows he was here and that I’m not being overly truthful about that.

  “We will find him, Alexis. I guarantee that. It makes you look weak, covering for him even though it’s extremely obvious he didn’t love you, that he was using you all along,” she says, a slight smirk appearing over her face as she makes her way back over to the main door. “Do you still have our contact number, in case you happen to see or hear anything from him again?”

  Her sarcastic tone is really making me dislike her even more than I already did.

  Grabbing my jacket from the coat hook, I feel around in my pocket for the card.

  “Yeah, here it is,” I snap, handing it over to her so she can see for herself.

  She takes it from me, and I notice a wide smile beginning to spread over her lips, “Well, well, well,” she snipes, unfolding the piece of paper I just gave to her, revealing something that I hadn’t been expecting.

  Bringing her gaze back to meet with mine, my heart begins to pound when I see what she’s holding up. Waving it around right in front of my face, I see exactly what it was I gave to her just now. My stomach knots at seeing Brandon’s handwriting.

  I meant every word, Alexis.

  Every word in the letter I left for you.

  Read it, and keep reading it until it all makes sense.

  Meet with me.

  I need to explain.

  I have to explain.

  Saturday at midnight, at our special place.

  I’ll be waiting.

  Brandon.

  What the hell?

  Feeling my mouth falling wide open, I take a step closer and wonder how on earth that had even gotten in there, “I swear, I didn’t even know that was in there, it’s the first time I’ve seen it,” I say, feeling the blood rushing to my head when I see her continuing to smile at me. It’s not a nice smile. It’s a pure evil one.

  “Where is this special place?” she asks, folding the note into four before placing it inside her pocket. “Surely if it’s ‘your’ place, you would know exactly where Brandon wants to meet with you?”

  “Um …”

  Shit.

  Double shit.

  Triple shit.

  Fucking shit.

  “A letter he left for you? What letter would that be and where would I find it?�
�� Leaning back against the bar now, she crosses her arms over her chest, looking as though she is thoroughly enjoying this whole thing.

  I don’t like her, not one tiny bit.

  She has the note from him in her hands. She knows there’s something else, and now I can’t do anything but show her the note he left for me that day.

  Breathing out a heavy sigh, I walk over to my room to grab it, feeling her eyes following me as I walk by her and step into my room. It’s not as though it’s going to help her solve anything anyway. It’ll just show a few words that caused for my heart to be split in two.

  Closing the door behind me, I don’t make it anywhere close to my nightstand. All I can feel is a hand covering over my mouth, which makes me gasp and in the next moment, I find myself being pulled backwards, against a warm, hard body. I know who it is right away. I can smell his cologne.

  “Sshhhh,” I hear him whisper into my ear, letting go of his hold a little while slowly turning me around to face him. “Don’t make a sound,” he adds, placing his index finger over my lips while gazing deeply into my eyes.

  My hearts thrashing inside my chest and I feel as though I’ve been winded.

  Should I really be feeling this excited and happy to see him after what I found out the other night?

  “How the hell did you get in here?” I hiss at him in a whisper. “She found a note you wrote, she wants the other one and she’s asking to know about our place!”

  Searching my eyes and holding me close to him, he slowly closes his eyes and appears to be thinking hard.

  “Give her what she wants, and tell her about the lake,” he insists, lifting his hand and brushing some of the stray strands of my hair away from my face. “Don’t tell her you’ve seen me though.”

  “You want me to lie for you?” I ask, shocked he would expect me to do such a thing after everything he has put me through.

  “Beautiful, you already did,” he answers, his face becoming softer and his eyes slightly brighter. “Go and get rid of her.” he says, pulling away while throwing me an encouraging smile.

  Hurrying over to grab it, before she notices I’ve been gone for longer than I really should have been, I take it out from the top drawer and open it up ready to show her.

  “You said to keep reading it until it all made sense,” I say quietly, walking back over towards my door at a much slower pace.

  “Take the first word from the beginning of every sentence, and then you’ll figure out what I was really trying to say,” he answers, his face becoming more serious, with the frown lines beginning to appear above his brow.

  Alexis,

  We’ll both find someone we can’t live without one day.

  Have James keep a hold of my things for me.

  Our time together was fun.

  Forever doesn’t necessarily mean forever.

  Don’t hate me.

  Trust is more important in a relationship than anything.

  Anyone can and will try to break your heart.

  Brandon.

  We’ll. Have. Our. Forever. Don’t. Trust. Anyone.

  Holy fucking hell.

  My mouth goes dry, and I can feel goose bumps prickling over my skin when I see it. He never left. He didn’t leave me at all.

  With the butterflies that are whizzing around my stomach, and the way my heart has just begun to flutter, I’m finding it really hard to stay steady on my feet.

  Lifting my eyes until mine meet with his, he appears anxious as I take a step closer to him. Standing and staring into his eyes is all I can do while this all sinks in.

  The past weeks of torture, of pure hell, thinking that he had left me were completely unnecessary. How did I not see this?

  Unable to control myself and my thoughts, I grab his face with both of my hands, and crash my lips onto his. He lets out a gasp at my actions, and I feel his whole body becoming rigid. Smiling against his lips, I step away, noticing him wince a little before breaking our eye contact completely.

  “Things still aren’t that straightforward, Alexis,” he says, keeping his eyes focused away from mine and aimed down towards the floor. “We have a lot of things we need to deal with, and I’m not so sure you’ll be so willing to accept everything that I have to tell you.”

  Knitting my eyebrows together at his words, I go to question him, but get distracted by the sound of a door slamming closed from the other side of mine.

  “I’ll be right back,” I tell him, a sinking feeling taking over my lower abdomen from the words he’s just spoken.

  He had a look of sorrow crossing into his eyes for a moment, and the sadness that washed over his face told me we’re most probably not going to get our forever just yet, if at all.

  ***

  Closing the door behind Detective Gil, I let out a sigh at the fact that I managed to get rid of her so quickly.

  She looked pleased with herself, really pleased. I don’t think it will be too long for her to make another appearance, and so with that thought, I head towards my room.

  Finally I’ll be getting some answers, although from the way Brandon looked and sounded before I left my room, I’m not overly sure I want to hear some of them anymore.

  Opening my door and walking through, I see him sitting on the bed, instantly looking up when he sees me, “Hey,” he says, tapping the space beside him.

  Not being able to say a word, because there are what feels like a hundred different emotions flying around my body all at once, I take a seat and watch him for a moment.

  He lays back on the bed, and I can’t help but allow my eyes to fall on the toned and tanned abs that are peeking out from underneath his shirt as it rides up his body.

  “You don’t deserve any of this, Alexis,” he begins, placing his hands over his face as he lets out a deep sigh. “You really don’t. I’m so sorry.”

  He sounds upset.

  Climbing onto the bed and sitting right beside him, I place my hands gently onto his and try to move them away so that I can see him. I need to see his eyes and face so I can read what he’s thinking and feeling.

  He turns his head slightly, so we’re looking into each other’s eyes, and it’s then that I see how exhausted he really is. He looks as though he’s had about the same amount of rest that I have in the recent days, maybe even less.

  Lifting his hand and lightly tracing his fingers across my left cheek and along my jaw, he sits up, not once taking his eyes off of mine.

  “Alexis?” he begins, sitting up a little and resting on his right elbow, keeping his other hand resting on my shoulder. “You look like shit.”

  There’s no laughter in his tone like there used to be whenever he spoke those words to me before. None at all. He looks really low, devastated even.

  “I need some answers,” I respond quietly, knowing that I won’t have a lot of time with him before he needs to be leaving again. “You need to tell me what the hell has been going on, because since you left, my life has turned crazy, actually, its been crazy ever since the first day I met you.”

  Nodding, he averts his gaze elsewhere as he sits up and crosses his legs, before turning until his whole body is fully facing me.

  “I’m not sure whether you’re going to be able to handle it, Alexis,” his voice cracks and his eye become glazed. “It’s scaring the shit out of me, because if I tell you, you might resent me, hate me, never forgive me, and I don’t think I could handle that.”

  Closing my eyes and trying to prepare myself for whatever it is he needs to tell me, I take a deep breath before reopening them.

  "Brandon, it can't be any worse than the things I've been imagining, or how it felt when you left,” I say quietly, and from the words I’ve just spoken, I can see his lips turning into a frown. “You can tell me anything.”

  “Your mom …” he sounds frustrated as he climbs off of the bed, pacing the floor in front of me and breathing heavily. “Shit!”

  I wasn’t expecting it to be those words that came out from his mouth.
Fine, I know now that it was my mom who had been working on his case, and for whatever reason he didn’t tell me this before, but he’s right, I am scared. I’m petrified he’s about to tell me that it was him who had broken into my father’s house last week.

  “I don’t think her death was an accident, Alexis,” his voice is strangled, and I see a single tear falling from his eye as he speaks the words, his eyes and face draining of any color that was previously visible in them. “I’m so fucking sorry!”

  Okay, now that was not what I was expecting to hear.

  “No, no, it was … It was a drunk driver … It was … Why would you even say that? Why would you try and hurt me like this?”

  I’m not accepting this. I won’t. I can’t.

  “Beautiful, they only said that because they didn’t know. My lawyer, he came to visit me on that same day. He told me a cop that had been working on my case had evidence to prove I was innocent of everything, that same cop … that same cop, your mom, Alexis … she never came. She never came because she lost her life that day,” he strides over and kneels by the bed, grasping at my hands and clutching them tightly.

  “If that were really the case then they still would have cleared you! You’re lying!” I scream at him, not being able to take in anything he’s trying to say. Is it really his main objective to hurt me more than he already has?

  Refusing to believe any of this, I rip my hands out from his and head out into the living area, “Alexis, you need to listen to me. As soon as they found the drugs at my place, they pulled each and every cop away from the case and wrapped it up. As far as they were concerned, I was the one who did it. Holly, the dealing, everything! Your mom though, your mom didn’t believe it, she didn’t believe that I did it.”

  Struggling to breathe and fighting to keep myself from being violently sick, I wipe the tears that have begun to fall from my face with the back of my hand, and head over to the main door.

  “Alexis, please?”