by S. J. West
He brought the car to a stop in front of the cedar gazebo in the center of the park and turned the engine off but left the battery running to power the headlights and the radio. He turned the radio to an easy listening station.
“Don’t move,” he said gingerly getting out of the car and coming around to my side to open the door for me. He took my hand and led me up the stairs of the gazebo.
Without saying a word, he put his arms around my waist and we started to sway to the music. I don’t know what song was playing and it didn’t really matter to me at the time. I put my arms around his neck and laid my head on his chest. I could hear his heart beating in time with mine own.
The first song ended and one I knew started to play, Jim Croce’s “Time in a Bottle.” It was then I added something to Brand’s long list of perfections: a voice as beautiful as he was.
He sang the lyrics to me and it was like hearing them for the first time:
If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I’d like to do
Is to save every day
Till eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you
If I could make days last forever
If words could make wishes come true
I’d save every day like a treasure and then
Again, I would spend them with you
I couldn’t help but tear up at the gentle way he sang these words to me. I looked up at his face and desperately wanted to kiss him, but I couldn’t. He had asked me to only kiss him when I knew who my heart truly belonged to. I couldn’t do it on a whim. He deserved better than that.
He was staring into my eyes, and I knew he could see my confusion. He lowered his head to mine and whispered in my ear.
“Don’t look so sad.” He kissed my ear and continued to slowly kiss my neck down to my collarbone. I was finding it incredibly hard to take in a steady breath. When he got to my collar bone, he moved my sweater off my shoulder. The torturous kissing stopped, and I heard him take in a surprised breath.
“My God, Lilly. I didn’t realize…”
“Oh,” I flipped my sweater back over my shoulder to hide the bruises there. “It’s nothing. They’ll be gone soon. I’m a fast healer.”
Brand cradled me against him in a gentle hug, being careful not to squeeze me too tightly.
“Come on,” he said, reluctantly letting me go. “I should get you back home. You need your rest.”
I didn’t want the moment to end but neither could I hide the fact that I was indeed tired.
When we got back to the apartment, Tara was standing in the doorway arms crossed over her chest and tapping a foot in impatience.
“Well it’s about time,” she said when I got out of the car.
“It’s all my fault, Tara,” Brand was ready to take whatever Tara wanted to dish out. “I just wanted to be alone with Lilly for a little while. If you’re going to be mad, yell at me not her.”
I could see Tara’s anger fade. She hadn’t really been mad, just worried. She was like that. Always hiding behind her bravado when she didn’t want people to see how fragile she really was.
“Don’t worry about it,” she said. “I just worry too much about that girl sometimes.”
Brand gave me a kiss on the cheek and told me he’d be picking me up for school the next morning. I tried to protest, but he wouldn’t take my no.
I watched him get into his car and drive away. I turned to go into the apartment and heard another car crank up in the parking lot. Turning to see who it was, I saw Will’s Honda Civic back out of a parking space a few cars down and leave.
Chapter 8
Brand was at the apartment bright and early the next morning at exactly seven. He brought Tara and me some freshly baked croissant rolls with egg and bacon he cooked himself that morning.
“Oh my God,” I said taking a bite out of one of the rolls. “These are delicious.”
“Well, if you two ever marry,” Tara said with her mouth full of croissant, “at least I know one of y’all can cook.”
I was glad the day was Monday. It meant I would have two classes with Brand.
Dr. Floyd’s dry rehash of Chapter 2 in our biology class did little to distract me glancing in Brand’s direction frequently. I tried to concentrate on what the teacher was saying but all I could think about was the feel of Brand’s lips against my skin when he kissed me the previous night. I could feel my heart start to race and my hormones course through my body like molten lava. I desperately wanted to drag Brand out of the classroom and have my way with him back in my apartment. But when I thought of the reason preventing me from doing what I wanted, it was like a tidal wave of cold reality washing away my romantic fantasies.
I had to find out what was going on with Will. I had to decide if I even cared whether or not he might have feelings for me. Even if he decided he liked me again, would it be enough to erase the heart ache I had endured since that one perfect night on the beach? When I thought of Will, I felt a heaviness press against my chest, suffocating me. Was it because I still loved him or was it because he was too late?
Brand walked me to my English comp. class and said he would be waiting for me after class so he could walk with me to my next class, which was general chemistry.
“You know I can walk across the street by myself,” I assured him.
“Humor me. I’d feel better knowing you weren’t by yourself. Plus,” he said in a subdued tone looking at me with his smoldering silver-grey eyes, “it gives me a good excuse to spend more time with you.”
How could I argue with that logic?
Tara, Michelle, and Nora were already in their regular seats in the classroom when I arrived. I decided to try and be nice to Nora for Michelle’s sake. I liked Michelle and knew from a previous conversation with her in physics lab that she and Nora had been friends for a long time. Personally, I thought Nora’s reasons for keeping Michelle around were all selfish. She seemed like the type of person who only wanted ‘friends’ who seemed beneath her in looks and social stature to boost her own self-importance.
Michelle and Nora asked me about my car accident and came to the same conclusion that the police had: it had to have been a drunk driver. Not wanting to talk about my disastrous weekend anymore, I refocused everyone’s attention onto Nora, which didn’t bother her in the slightest. She was her own favorite subject after all.
“How did your date go with Elliot?” I asked.
“Horribly. Can you believe he wanted me to pay for my share of the meal after we ate? I mean, seriously.”
The exasperated look on Nora’s face made me want to laugh, but I kept myself from doing it. Tara on the other hand felt no such need for social grace and laughed until tears shimmered in her eyes.
“It’s not that funny,” Nora huffed and turned back around in her seat.
Poor Michelle looked at me beseechingly. I could tell she wanted me to make Tara stop laughing at her friend. So, I thumped Tara on the side of the head to get her attention.
“Stop,” I mouthed to her silently tilting my head in Michelle’s direction.
Tara saw the worried expression on Michelle’s face. I think she realized she was making it harder for Michelle to branch out from Nora and have other friends.
“Hey, sorry Nora,” Tara said, completely surprising me. “What fool would ask a girl out and then pull that kinda crap on her.”
Nora seemed to take this olive branch from Tara and told us what happened.
“He got real huffy about it too. Luckily, we met there in separate cars so I didn’t have to stay around him anymore than I had to. I just left him there to pay the full bill and went home.”
We all agreed she did the right thing under the circumstances.
Ms. Connor led us in a lively discussion about the battle of the sexes depicted in Taming of the Shrew the rest of the class period. I was so caught up in everyone’s opinions I was surprised when the bell rang to mark the end of class. Brand w
as true to his word and waiting for me outside the classroom.
After making sure I was safely deposited inside my general chemistry class, he told me he’d be waiting for me afterwards so we could have lunch together.
When we went to the Common’s for lunch I saw Tara sitting with Nora and Michelle at a table. I thought Nora and Michelle were going to have heart attacks when Brand and I sat down with them. Though, I finally found a way to keep Nora from talking about herself. Well, from talking at all really. She just stared at Brand in complete adoration the whole time. Poor Michelle just drew into herself even more. I tried to get her to join the conversation a few times but soon gave up. It was a hopeless cause with Brand around.
Since Michelle was in our physics class, she walked with us to the room. I couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for Michelle. She was desperately shy and obviously thought Brand was dreamy. But who was I kidding? What girl within a twenty foot radius didn’t have her eyes locked on Brand?
When we sat down at our desks, waiting for the physics teacher to show up, Brand turned to me and said, “I noticed their selling tickets to the Black and White ball. Would you like to go?”
“When is it?”
“A week from Saturday.”
I desperately wanted to go to the ball, but knew I didn’t have anything to wear. I might be able to get my mom to splurge on a dress though. Since I didn’t go to my junior or senior prom, she’d been spared the expense of buying me dresses for those occasions. Plus, I knew how taken she was with Brand. That alone might loosen up her purse strings.
“Can I get back to you on that? I need to find something out first.”
“All right,” Brand looked confused at my cryptic reply. “What about you Michelle? Are you going?”
She simply shrugged in response, dumbstruck once again by Brand’s attention.
“Well, hope to see you there.” Brand smiled at poor Michelle. I swear I thought she was going to faint.
“Maybe,” she finally replied. “It depends if things work out like I hope.”
After class, Brand took me back to my apartment. Since Dr. Barry was going to be in New Orleans all week, she told me to take the week off. I was thankful for the extra time to rest.
We were just about to get out of his car when Brand’s cell phone rang.
“Hey, I need to head to the house for a few minutes to handle something important.”
“That’s fine,” I told him. “I really just feel like taking a nap anyway. I’m still kind of tired.”
He leaned over and kissed me on the cheek, as usual.
“Will you promise me not to go anywhere alone?”
“You worry too much. But, yes, I promise not to leave my apartment without a chaperone,” I conceded.
Brand left and I went into the apartment. I didn’t realize how tired I was until I laid down on my bed and instantly fell asleep.
I had some really weird dreams during my nap. There was a lot of yelling and crying going on. Then, Brand was there holding me in his arms, finally kissing me on the lips. But he would only press his lips against mine for a few short seconds at a time. I could feel my consciousness tugging at me, trying to make me wake up, but I didn’t want to go. Even if it was only a dream, I wanted to keep feeling the warmth of his lips pressed against mine. Desperate to make it last longer, I ran my fingers through his hair at the back of his head and pulled him down to me as close as I could. He responded in kind and held me even tighter; kissing me back so hard I thought my heart would burst. The kiss seemed to last forever until I whispered, “Brand.”
I felt him tense and let me go.
“Lilly! Lilly, wake up!”
Tara’s hysterical screaming interrupted what had been a beautiful dream. I opened my eyes and saw Will’s face first. He was cradling me on his lap. Tara stood over his shoulder with a wild eyed look on her face like something was wrong. It was then I noticed we were outside on the grass by the apartment complex’s pool.
“Are you all right?” she asked, trying to control her hysterics.
“What…” I tried to make sense of what was happening. “What’s going on?”
It was then a couple of male EMT’s came rushing around the building.
“What happened?” one of them asked kneeling beside us.
“The gas was on in the apartment when we got here,” Will told him in a calm, detached voice. “We tried to wake her up but she wasn’t breathing. We brought her out here and I performed CPR on her.”
“We’re going to need the oxygen,” the first EMT told the other one who made a mad dash back around the building. I assumed back to their ambulance.
“Have you turned the gas off in the apartment? Was anyone else affected?”
“I did.” Tara said, still shaking from the experience. “I turned it off as soon as we found it on. And there wasn’t anyone else in there.”
“Ok, good.”
The second EMT came back with a gurney and tank of oxygen. They had the breathing mask over my nose and mouth within a matter of seconds.
“We’ll need to take her to the hospital just to make sure she’s ok. But you guys did the right thing,” he complimented. “Which one of you will be coming with us?”
“I’m coming,” Tara quickly volunteered.
“I need to stay here and wait for the police,” Will said, looking at me with an odd unreadable expression.
It didn’t take long to get to the hospital. Strangely enough, I ended up with the same doctor who had treated me after my car accident.
“I didn’t expect to see you again so soon, Ms. Nightingale” she said when she came to see me in the emergency room.
All I could do was shrug since I still had the oxygen mask over my nose and mouth.
A nurse came around and took a sample of my blood. We weren’t there but maybe twenty minutes when Brand and Will walked in together.
“I’m so sorry, Lilly,” Brand said coming to stand beside me and hold my hand. “I shouldn’t have left you there by yourself.”
“What did the police say?” Tara asked Will.
“They said it looked like someone jimmied the lock from the outside of Lilly’s bedroom’s sliding glass doors. It doesn’t look like it was an accident.”
Not an accident? That couldn’t be right. Who would want to kill me besides my old nemesis Fate?
“Why would anyone want to kill Lilly?” Tara asked, voicing my own question for me.
“Well, considering the accident she was just in and now this. They think someone might be after her.”
A chill went up my spine and I held onto Brand’s hand even tighter.
“We won’t leave her by herself anymore until we figure out who’s doing this,” Brand said with a reassurance in his voice I needed to hear just then.
The three of them coordinated their schedules to ensure I had at least one of them with me at all times. All I could do was lay there in stunned silence. So not only did I have Fate trying to kill me but now a real flesh and blood person wanted me dead too? What had I done in my life to deserve this?
The police came by to see me while I was still in the emergency room.
The lead detective’s name was Joseph Randall. He was a man of average height and weight with dark brown hair and eyes. Pretty non-descript which I thought was a good thing in his line of work.
“Do you know of anyone who has a grudge against you, Ms. Nightingale?” He asked with a small black notebook and ball point pen in his hands, prepared to write down my responses.
“Not that I can think of,” I said trying to rack my brain for someone who hated me enough to want me dead. “To be honest I don’t know many people here.”
“Have you noticed anyone new at school? Perhaps a stalker?”
“No, I haven’t noticed anyone like that.”
He closed his little black notebook and stuffed it in his jacket pocket. He pulled out a stack of cards and handed one to each of us.
“I’m afraid u
ntil we get a lead there isn’t much that we can do. We didn’t pull any fingerprints from the door or gas knobs that don’t belong to you and Ms. Jenkins. If you think of anything else or something else happens, feel free to contact me anytime, day or night.”
The only thing I could think was if we needed to call Detective Randall again I would probably be dead.
Luckily, I didn’t have to stay in the hospital very long. I was allowed to check out at around five that evening. I rode home with Brand in his car and Tara rode with Will.
“I never should have left you,” Brand said with a lot more guilt than he should have.
“There’s no way you could have known what was going to happen,” I tried to reassure him. “I just don’t understand why someone would want me dead. I hardly know anyone here.”
“Do you have any schoolmates from your high school here? Would one of them have a grudge against you for something?”
“Well, sure there are some kids from my old school here, but I haven’t talked to any of them since school started. Anyway, I didn’t talk to them that much when we were in high school together. I doubt they even know I’m here to be honest.”
“My trip couldn’t be happening at a worse time,” Brand said in frustration. “I need to go out of town tomorrow, and I’m not sure what time I’ll be back.”
My heart sank. “Where are you going?”
“I got a lead on someone I need to see before he disappears again,” the odd secretive tone of his voice worried me. “Tomorrow will be my best chance of catching him.”
I didn’t like the idea of Brand not being around, but decided not to make a big deal out of it. It was obvious he didn’t want to leave me either. I didn’t want to guilt him into staying when whatever he was doing seemed so important to him.
“Would you stay with me tonight?” I asked.
“I’ll do anything you want, Lilly. You should know that by now.”
