Trust Me (Finding my way) (3 page)

“What?” I ask warily.

“
What happened to your jaw?”

I lift my hand up to touch it; and although it
’s not swollen, it’s sore. I’m guessing from the way he winces when I do, that I have a bruise on it.

“
I slipped in the bathroom, caught it on the tub.”

“
Ouch,” he grimaces.

Despite my injuries, I feel well rested. I haven
’t had a peaceful night’s sleep in seven years. As soon as the abuse started, so did my nightmares.

“
I didn’t keep you up last night, did I?” I ask trying to keep my expression blank.

“
Uhh…no, why? You were asleep when I came in,” he replies, watching me curiously.

“
No reason, I usually keep Sophie up most of the night, that’s all.”

“
I’m a light sleeper and slept right through. So, you must have been quiet,” he smirks at me.

I feel my jaw drop open as I reali
se what he’s implying I was doing finally registers in my brain and glare at him.

I
’m completely caught off guard when he raises his hand towards me. I watch wide-eyed as it comes closer; and before I can stop it, I flinch away from him just as his hand comes up next to my face.

He quickly pulls his hand away and his eyebrows pull in together.

I turn my attention to my coffee when I am no longer able to bare his questioning eyes. A few minutes of silence pass before I hear him sigh.

“
You didn’t slip in the bathroom, did you?” he asks quietly.

“
I did,” I reply sternly, not looking up from cup.

“
Brooke…”

“
I’m going to take a shower.” I cut him off and push away from the table.

When I come out of the bathroom, the room is once again empty. I rush through getting dressed and dry my hair. Making another cup of coffee, I settle down into a full day of studying for a test I have tomorrow.

“What’s he staring at?” Sophie whispers in my ear. I look and over to where she’s staring at someone.

I shrug,
“He’s in one of my classes.” I smile over to Jason and he gets up to start heading our way. “Oh shit,” I whisper to her and watch as Jason takes the seat next to me.

“
Hi Brooke,” he smiles at me.

“
Hey,” I smile back, not sure what he’s doing because we’ve only spoken a few words to each other since we met at the beginning of the year.

“
I was thinking…it would be good if we went out sometime,” he says, taking me off guard.

“
Umm…”

“
I know we haven’t really spoken, but I’d really like the chance to get to know you,” he smiles.

I
’m aware that he’s waiting for me to say something, but I just sit there staring at him.

Sophie pokes me in the side,
“Uh yeah, sure,” I say quickly.

“
Great. We’ll arrange in next class,” he smiles getting up, tapping the top of the chair he’s just vacated. I watch confused as he walks off.

“
Well, that was interesting,” Sophie says to herself.

“
Umm … no, that was bizarre,” I correct.

“
Not really. Everyone thought you were gay. But, after hearing Tucker spent the night in our room; it’s been decided that you’re straight, just shy.”

“
Oh my god,” I groan and start hitting my head on the table.

“
What’s up?” I hear Matt say from somewhere above me, but I continue my head banging.

“
Jason Hunter just asked Brooke out,” Sophie explains.

“
Really?” he asks, not sounding that surprised. “Are you going?”

“
No wonder she’s always covered in bruises if she does stuff like this,” I hear Tucker say beside me.

I lift my head to see him watching me curiously; Matt and Sophie quickly look down at their food.

“How do people know you spent the night in my room?” I ask, ignoring his comment.

“
Uhh…people saw me leave…don’t worry; everyone knows nothing happened,” he assures me confidently.

“
How?” I ask, not sure I want to know the answer.

“
Because, I’m talking to you now and you haven’t hit me yet,” he says, as if it’s obvious.

“
That can change,” I smile innocently at him, making him chuckle softly.

“
I’m glad we decided be friends.”

“
Where was I when we had this discussion, because I don’t remember agreeing to any such thing,” I frown at him.

“
When you say friends, do you mean…?” Matt asks Tucker, but eyes me curiously.

“
No. But that’s a good idea.” Tucker watches me for a second.

“
What’s a good idea?” I ask, worried now.

“
Why don’t we do the whole friends with benefits thing?” he asks seriously.

“
Because…I don’t think I’d enjoy having the benefits you’d give me removed,” I answer back not missing a beat.

“
Just friends it is then,” he says not perturbed and starts eating his lunch.

“
You two are weird,” Sophie sighs, watching us bemused.

Matt nods in agreement.

“I’ve got to go, I got a date to arrange, apparently.” I stand up from the table picking up my coffee.

“
What date?” Tucker asks looking up at me from his plate. I shrug and walk away as Sophie starts explaining the Jason situation to him.

When I walk into English, a few people nod at me. I manage to hide my surprise and smile weakly back at them. Normally I manage to slip in to my classes unnoticed.

I slump down into my usual chair and gather my things from my bag. When I look back up, Jason is sliding into the chair next to me, the one that Tucker sat in last Friday.

“Long time, no see,” I smile shyly at him.

“
Yeah...was it random? Me approaching you like that?” he asks with a shy smile of his own.

“
Just a bit; normally people just leave me alone.”

“
But you don’t mind? Me asking you out?” he checks. I shake my head at him. “Great. Can I have your phone so I can program my number into it, please?”

I pass him my phone and catch Tucker watching us.

“Was there anything in particular you wanted to do on our date?” Jason asks mindlessly, while he taps his contact information into my phone. 

I
’m unable to answer him when our conversation gets cut short by the lecture beginning. I rip out a piece of paper from my notebook and scribble a note on it for him to see.

No, what did you have in mind?

He leans over to read it, and then writes his reply. We carry on our conversation on paper.

Dinner. Movie. Bowling. Coffee. Golf?

Golf?
I look up and raise an eyebrow at him; he just shrugs grinning.
Dinner’s fine.

It
’s a date then. Tonight?

“
Mr. Hunter, is there something interesting going on up there?” We both look up when the lecturer calls to Jason.

“
No, Sir. Just helping Brooke with her notes,” he replies easily.

“
Well, Miss Daniels, maybe you should consider taking one of Mr. Hunter’s tutoring sessions if you’re having problems,” he raises an eyebrow at me.

“
Of course,” I reply, sinking into my chair to avoid all the eyes that are now on me.

You
’re a tutor?
I quickly write.

Yeah, extra credit. Do you need help keeping up?
He’s smirking at me now. I roll my eyes at him and slip the paper back in my notebook, deciding to start paying attention to class.

* * *

“
How was it? Where did you go? What’s he like? Did he kiss you?” Sophie doesn’t even wait for me to close the door before she throws her questions at me, bouncing on her bed excitedly.

“
Good, FB’s, sweet, yes,” I answer all her questions while stripping my jacket off and collapsing on my bed while she screams and claps her hands together.

“
Oh my god,” I groan and pull a pillow over my head to block her out.

“
Aww, come on Brooke. I’ve known you nearly three years now and I’ve never been able to do the whole girly date run down with you before.” I look up from my pillow to catch her pouting at me.

“
Fine. You can question me on the way.”

She freezes at the subject change.
“Where are we going?”

“
Wear something…pretty,” I wink and get up to grab my suitcase from under the bed. She claps when she notices the dress I’ve selected; there will be no shy Brooke tonight.

We meet Gavin outside the old gym where he hands us our tickets. The building’s full and we have to push our way through to the bar. We squeeze our way through the crowds as Sophie guides us to the front, getting us as close to the cage as possible. This isn’t the first fight we’ve been to, so we both know that as soon as it’s over, we’ve got to make a quick exit, unless we want a few bruises of our own.

The lights dim as one corner of the cage is lit up by a spotlight, illuminating the first contender. He isn
’t one I’ve seen before, but he looks mean and fast. His opponent is Gavin’s friend Jack. The fight starts quickly and like every other time we’ve been here, I flinch with every hit.

Thankfully it
’s all over just as quick as it started when Jack knocks the other man out in the second round. We make our quick exit, meeting back up with Gavin outside.

“
Are you coming to the party?” Gavin asks us both.

“
Of course,” Sophie laughs.

We follow Gavin and Jack back to Jack
’s house in my car.

When we get there, the party is already in full swing.
Sophie and I quickly fall into the festivities, drinking and dancing with the guys that I have known for years and introduced to Sophie my Freshman year.

By the time Jack turns up to the house, with a two blonde
s hanging off his arms; I’m more than drunk as I stumble over to him.

“
Hey there, Bee” he catches me as I stumble and one of his blondes glare at me now I have his attention and not her.

“
Jack, Jack, Jack! Why do you do it to yourself?” I look up at him, closing one of my eyes to see him better.

“
I’m not hurt” he assure me. This is something we regulary go over and it still doesn’t sit well with me.

I
’m about to start my lecture on how he might not be hurt tonight but he will someday when Dave pulls me away from Jack, twirling me through to the kitchen where a line of shots are spread out on the counter.

“
Sophie!” I shout, not taking my eyes off Dave as he fills the shots glasses with a grin.

“
Holla!”Sophie stumbles into the kitchen and pulls me into a hug “What’s up?”

I point to Dave and the shots and we both wait while he turns back to us and leans a hip on the counter, folding his arms across his chest.

Sophie and I glance at each other and grin as we decide which of the drinking games Dave likes us to play, as we try – and almost always fail – to prove that we aren’t lightweights. I just hope that I’m not too hungover tomorrow, you never know with these parties. I pull up the front of my dress, securing my breasts that are now spilling out of my dress and tilt my head, feigning deep thought.

“
Brooke, what was that one with the song names?” Sophie asks laughing as she no doubt remembers our shamefull behaviour of past parties.

I wince
“I’m not doing that one. It’s too confusing, we need something easy,”

“
You’re not too drunk already are you?” Dave asks smugly.

“
Fine!” I throw my hands in the air and start moving around the kitchen. I gather all three of all the glasses I’ll need and thank the heavens that they have so many different types of alcohol here.

When I start pouring out the drinks and shots, Sophie cheers and rummages around in the drawers until she finds a sheet of paper. When Dave sends me another confused look I smirk at him.

“Were going to play golf,”

“
Golf?”

“
Every drink is a hole, to get a hole in one, you need to down it in one, you get the idea.”

His eyes widen with excitement and we all take our places at the first
‘hole’ – half a pint of water.

I make it up to the fifth hole before everything starts going too fuzzy.

***

“
Oh god, I’m starving, but I can’t stomach food yet,” I grumble, collecting my coffee and handing one to Sophie.

“
Tell me about it,” she whispers back, wincing slightly.

“
What the hell happened to you two?” Matt asks when we take our seats at our usual table.

“
Shh, don’t shout,” Sophie winces.

“
You’re hung over?” he asks us both. When we wince, he lowers his voice. “I thought you had a date Brooke?”

“
I did. We went out when I got back,” I tell him barely above a whisper.

“
Anyone tell you that you both look like shit?” Tucker informs us cheerily as he joins us; putting his hands up in front of him when we both glare at him. “Okay, never mind.”

“
Where did you go and what the hell happened to you both?” Matt asks.

“
I got tickets to watch a fight”

“
Were you both
in
the fight?” he asks, looking pointedly at the cuts on our faces.

“
Umm…not exactly…” I glance at Sophie, wondering how we should explain it, but she just busts out laughing, taking me along with her.

“
Ah, don’t, it hurts,” she gasps, holding her head.

Tucker clears his throat, and I look up to see Matt watching us unimpressed.

“Okay, so a few guys I know gave me tickets to go watch a fight in the next town over. After the fight, we went back to the house party and things got…out of hand…we all drank a bit much and passed out,” I tell him, skipping a few details.

“
The cuts?” Matt prompts.