Broken Ever After

by Natalie Graham

“You promise you won’t leave me?”

  “I’ll try Angel.” he leant over and kissed my shoulder.

  We walked in to the station and Jamie spoke to the officer at the desk requesting a private room to discuss what I was there for. A female and male officer joined us in the private room and I explained everything about last night to them. I explained every reason I could think of as to why Luke would try to attack me, I told them that I never felt like I had led him on and he always knew that I never wanted to go further with him and he said he was taking from me what I’d never given him. I didn’t remember anything between passing out and the police talking to me so Jamie filled them in on the events there. I had no idea that Lily and Violet were right there; I figured they’d be close but I never realised they’d seen anything. Jamie said he’d got them to go out as soon as the paramedics arrived, they were so upset. I felt bad that my friends had to see that but at least it wasn’t worse.

  “What will happen to him?” I asked them.

  Officer Stephanie Bradley shrugged. “Exactly what guys like that deserve, if he confesses then eighteen to twenty-four months or if he denies it and we need to go to trial then probably another twelve months on top of that for the nature of the attempted assault.”

  “Given the state of indecency the officers found him in last night there is no way he can deny it though, so hopefully we will have this all cleared up for you soon enough.” said Sargent Owen Leighton.

  “How am I supposed to tell my parents?” I glanced nervously at Jamie then back to the officers. “Do you know who- Do you have my file?” The two officers looked at each other. I really didn’t want to say it in front of Jamie, I wasn’t ready to tell him, not here. I could feel him looking at me, his concern radiated from him at my mention of having a police file. Steph excused herself and came back a couple of minutes later with a laptop. It was obvious when they had finished reading when they both looked up at me with that sympathetic expression.

  “Olivia Stevens. We never figured. I’m terribly sorry. We can come with you to tell your parents if you wish? We can ring you and get a convenient time, when you know they will both be available.”

  “They work a lot, but both try to have Sundays off, they might be free tomorrow.”

  “Ok well we can both come by tomorrow if you would like? We’ll call you to arrange a time.”

  “Do I need a lawyer or anything?”

  “Not unless he tries to deny what he did.”

  Jamie said that if I did then I could use his and he’d take care of it for me. My family were connected to a lot of powerful people but I didn’t argue.

  I left the station in a daze. I wasn’t looking forward to telling my parents what had happened with Luke; they’d liked him after all, not believing what a douchebag he was to me.

  Jamie drove in silence, the radio on low as I stared blankly out of the window not seeing anything, not hearing anything, trying not to think or feel at all.

  I didn’t realise we were out of the city until I looked around us, finding that we were sat in the car park of a little country pub. I looked up at it seeing its thatched roof and ivy covered walls; a sign pointed behind it to a river. I hadn’t realised I was holding my breath until I inhaled the smell of freshly cut grass coming through Jamie’s open window. I looked over to him. He had his head down looking to his clasped hands, watching his thumbs do rotations around each other like they were the most fascinating thing he’d ever seen.

  “Jamie?” He looked up and gave me an apologetic smile. What did he need to apologise for? I wanted to say that I was sorry, I wanted to hug him and go back to Friday afternoon when everything was perfect, when I was the only one dealing with the demon in my head. He was coming back, I could feel him; pushing the frightened little girl to my exterior rather than her hiding in the darkest corner of my mind. I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek until I tasted blood as I battled with myself over telling him now or not. Tears threatened the corners of my eyes and I pulled my gaze away from him back to the pub. “Did you want to go in?”

  “I did… Do you? We can just leave if you’d rather?”

  “No- no let’s stay. I looks so beautiful here, please can we stay a while?”

  ***

  “Wow! This place really is so beautiful; I wish I had my camera.” I sighed, taking in all the wild flowers and wildlife on the bank of the river. Jamie caught up to me and held out his hand containing my small digital camera. “Thank you.” I stood on my tiptoes to give him a kiss, snapping a picture of us from the side.

  “I thought you might like it here so I grabbed it.” He followed behind me as I snapped photos of the scenery along with a few of him. “Are you going to tell me what happened?” He asked so softly I wondered if he’d actually spoke. I gave him an odd look before I realised what he meant, I knew I wouldn’t escape that question.

  “I will… one day, I promise. It’s just too soon after everything.” I looked at him trying to hold back tears and painful memories. “I’m sorry, it’s just hard explaining it right and I don’t feel I can word it properly. Maybe I should have just asked them to show you.” I gave him a nervous chuckle.

  “It’s ok, you’ll tell me when you are ready, I’m sure.”

  I looked around at the sunset snapping pictures trying to distract my thoughts when I felt his arms around my shoulders, I lifted my hands to wrap my fingers into his and I shivered noticing how much warmer than me he was.

  “I should get you home.” I looked up at him pleading with my eyes, silently asking him to take me back to his house. I sighed.

  “I don’t want to go home.” I said as I nuzzled into his chest.

  “Will your parents be ok about you staying out again?” I shrugged my shoulders, they knew I’d planned to stay out this weekend partying and celebrating the end of school and they’d probably picked up the night shift at the hospital, they usually did if I planned on staying out.

  “I don’t really care. I’m eighteen and they haven’t called me so they are obviously worried about me.” I said sarcastically but I don’t think Jamie appreciated it. I rolled my eyes as I pulled my phone from my pocket and dialled my mum’s number.

  “Olivia? What’s wrong?” she answered.

  “Why do you always assume something is wrong when I call you?”

  “I don’t know… maybe because you never call me.” She had a point, if I needed anything it was usually dad or Austin I turned to.

  “Do you mind if I stay out again tonight?”

  “That’s what I thought you were doing. Dad and I are still at the hospital anyway.”

  “I am; I was just making sure you remembered.”

  “We’ll see you tomorrow, right? You’ll be home?” Her voice sounded troubled.

  “Yea. You’re off tomorrow aren’t you?”

  “We are. Hopefully we’ll even get the whole day off for once, so we’ll see you tomorrow sweetheart, I have to go.”

  “Bye Mum.” I shoved my phone back in my pocket and smiled at Jamie. “Sorted” I looked around at the rapidly fading sunlight and shivered again.

  “I should have made you grab a jacket or something.” It was nice when we had left his house and I didn’t anticipate being out at night and actually feeling the cool evening creep in. “Come on, I know how I can heat you up.” I looked up at Jamie a little shocked; he winked at me. “The heater in the car works pretty fast.” My shock soon turned to irritation and I scowled at him.

  “I’m sorry we had such a rubbish first date. Do you maybe want to watch a movie or something?” I asked as we pulled up in his garage.

  “No time spent with you is rubbish, Liv.” He lifted my chin with his index finger and placed a soft, chaste kiss on my cheek. It was such a tender move that it twisted my heart and stomach together in a beautifully painful way. “I have stacks of DVDs in the Entertainment Room if you want to go and pick one out?” I sniggered and gave him an odd look.

  “The Entertainment Room?”
I made air-quotes around the words as I spoke. “Do all of your rooms have names?” I looked around gesturing to the doors around us, as we walked through the hallway.

  “Are you picking on my house?”

  “Jamie… I live in a house… This…” I looked around “This is a freaking mansion! I live in a Hobbit Hole compared to this!” I flopped down in a heap on the sofa.

  He sighed. “Yeah they do” I looked up at him questioningly “Have names” He explained. “Wanna go exploring? I can show you them all and you can laugh at the names. I didn’t pick them though, so don’t laugh at me.” I smiled up at him as he pulled me up from the sofa again. “I never really pay attention to most of this so it’s nice to share it with someone that is actually interested in it finally. A lot of it is how my Grandparents left it, I’ve wanted to change some things but I just never get around to it” We headed to the room I knew to be Jamie’s home office first.

  “No way am I going in there.” I stopped walking, pulling back on Jamie’s hand. “I was looking for the kitchen this morning and saw all of the paper. I’d need a map to find my way out of that maze.” Jamie opened the door and peeked inside, quickly closing the door again and chuckled to himself. He showed me that he had a games room; it was home to a Pool Table and a full sized Snooker Table, several classic arcade machines as well as some newer ones. I begged him to come back to the games room once we were finished with my tour so I could hand him his arse at Pool. I never told him that my Uncle Austin was a Pool freak and had taught me very well. He pulled me down the hall to a big set of double doors and slowly pushed them open, revealing a huge ball room. The ceiling was high, chandeliers hung from it in precise intervals, a huge fireplace sat in the middle of one of the walls, with an old oil painting of the house set above the mantel.

  “So do you actually host balls here?”

  “No, I just use it for family stuff now.” I walked to stand directly in the middle of the room under the biggest chandelier, overcome with the desire to dance under it as light twinkled from it. I could look up and watch it sparkle as I spun underneath it in an elaborate dance, in a beautiful dress, as I imagine many fortunate women had before.

  “Will you dance with me?” I’d wanted to dance with him so badly during my ruined prom and wasn’t sure when I’d ever get another chance to.

  “With no music?” I looked down and shrugged. I knew it was a stupid idea as soon as the words left my mouth. Jamie slowly walked over to me, set his phone to play a piano concerto and bowed like a gentleman before a lady at a ball; I giggled and pretended to lift a ball gown to curtsey to him. His warm hand held mine aloft in a traditional dance pose, his arm slowly encircled my waist and I rested my other hand on his shoulder. Jamie looked uncomfortable at first, but soon loosened up as we swayed there together. I stood with him, staring into his pale eyes trying to count the hazel flecks that dashed through the green as we danced, before I leaned forward and rested my head on his chest. I let go of his hand and moved mine up to his neck, interlacing my fingers in his hair as we swayed. He leaned away from me and tipped my chin up to kiss him, before stepping back and bowing his thanks for our dance and switched off the music. I looked up at the chandelier again and smiled before looking around at everything.

  “Everything here is so beautiful, if it wasn’t for the unfortunate circumstances, I’d say you were very lucky to own it all.” I looked down at the floor, feeling the weight of my own inheritance on my shoulders.

  “Come on, still plenty to see. I have a special room just for you to come and see.” I looked up at him shocked, envisioning being tied to a bed with handcuffs and the skin of my behind feeling the harsh kiss of his belt like in a book I’d just read. He pulled me across the hall into a wide open room with huge floor to ceiling windows. “I never use this room and can never figure out what to do with it. There is a lot of natural light in here during the day; I had a dream about turning it into an art studio or maybe for your photography if you’d like? I can get you anything you want to make it just right.”

  “You have far too much money. We’ve been together, what? Three weeks and you are giving me a room and want to kit it out for me too? You’re insane. I thought it was supposed to be a place for my toothbrush first? Or you clearing out your sock drawer for me?” I looked at him incredulously; I meant it as a joke just as he did. Or I thought he did. He looked hurt like he thought it could be a good idea and it both scared and excited me.

  “When you know someone is right for you, you’ll do anything to make them happy. Is it so wrong to want to make you the happiest girl in the world?” He walked over to me and kissed me deeply.

  “You are too much, do you know that?” I wrapped my arms around his waist holding him close to me “I don’t need your fancy named rooms filled with things to make me happy, just you will do.” I held on to him tighter committing the scent of oranges deep into my memory.

  “I know, but I want to share my things with you. I’d like you to have everything you could ever want” I knew that all I would ever want would be Jamie but no amount of money would let me keep him forever. Once he knew about me he’d probably run a mile.

  “Material things don’t matter. If there is anything I need then I get it, but all I’ve ever really wanted was you.” I blushed as I thought about how spoilt and needy my words sounded, I looked up at him through my lashes and pressed my lips gently to his before letting go of him and going to look out of the window. Jamie came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist, whispering in my ear

  “You told me that there are never happy ever afters in life, but you’re mine, Olivia. You’re my happy ever after. I promise I can give you yours. I want to be yours.” I felt my heart swell and the butterflies soaring in my stomach again upon hearing his words to me. Tears brimmed in my eyes as I turned to look up at him. His finger stroked over my cheeks before he delicately placed a kiss on my lips. “Come, still lots to look at.”

  ***

  My very own Prince Charming and I walked through the house, holding hands, brushing our thumbs over the back of each other’s mindlessly; stealing little kisses every so often as we walked. He showed me his childhood bedroom that still had posters of films, his football heroes and girls he’d liked when he was younger. A dusty pile of comics sat beside his bed and I smiled as I recognised one that Uncle Austin had read to me when I was little. Figurines of his comic book heroes’ lined shelves along the walls between the posters. Photographs lined a shelf in the middle of the wall with a layer of dust covering them; I used my finger to gently wipe it away. I saw they were of the small boy and the older couple from the painting in the living room. “You and your grandparents?” Jamie nodded to me looking a little forlorn. “You were a cute kid… What happened?” I smirked at him trying to lighten his mood a little. Turning my attention back to the photograph I traced over his little boyish face one more time before taking his hand and pulling him from the room.

  “Do you still want to watch a movie? It’s getting pretty late and I don’t know what time the police will want me in the morning.” I had to force myself to hold a yawn in.

  “I have just one more room to show you, then we can go to bed to watch something if you want?”

  “This place has more rooms? I’m going to need a map I think.” He grinned pulling me through another door and down a dark, wide staircase. The smell of chemicals hit me in the face straight away. “Jamie! I can’t see a thing down here!” I stuck my hand over my nose to block the strong smell.

  “Just shhh and come on!” He put his hands on my shoulders once we were at the bottom of the stairs and told me not to move, I heard his feet on the hard floor as he walked away leaving me stood alone in the dark. Chills crept up my spine as the unfamiliar darkness held me in its grasp. I heard a click and soft lights flipped on around the huge white and pale blue room, the floor was taken up by a huge swimming pool that I was dangerously close to the edge of for someone that was stood in the dark not two s
econds ago.

  “Oh my God! You have a pool? Why did you not mention this first?” I screeched with a huge grin on my face, feeling every bit the idiot I must have looked.

  “Do you want to go for a swim? It should be warm by now, I asked Anna to heat it for us earlier.” I nodded and kicked my shoes away eagerly. I pulled my clothes off and stood there in my underwear as I wondered if I should take those off too. Jamie stood beside me and stripped naked, leaving me at the edge in my lace panties and bra. “Are you coming in?” I slowly peeled off my underwear as he watched me; I checked the depth gauge and leaped in headfirst. Opening my eyes under the water I searched for Jamie in the faint glow of light from above; I swam up behind him and pinched his rear, rising from the water in a fit of laughter.

  “Race me?” I challenged him.

  “I swim almost every day; I’m pretty quick. Do you think you can beat me?” He smirked at me, thinking he had me beat before we even began.

  “So? You don’t think I can win?” I asked him, raising an eyebrow.

  “I never said that… I just mean I can be pretty fast and you’re… small” I saw red. Everyone in my family always teased me for being small like my grandma and it made me furious when anyone else began picking on that too. I glared at Jamie and he quickly swam away from me.

  “Out Matthews!” I swam back over to the deep end of the pool and climbed out, Jamie followed. I stood with my hands planted on my hips and looked down appreciatively at his hardness that stood proudly. “You sure that won’t slow you down?” I grinned.

  “I’ll be fine. So what are we racing for?” I shrugged. I had no idea; I hadn’t thought of a bet. “If I win, you are my slave for the next twenty-four hours and if you win?”

  “I… get the satisfaction of beating you!”

  “Really? That’s all you want?”

  “Well there is one thing…” I looked between him and the pool, biting my lip and pressing my thighs together with the thought of having him in the water.

  “I think that one is a given whether you win or lose, Angel.” He grinned at me then we began counting together.