Misguided Truths: Part Two (Misjudged #4) (27 page)

“I left for us, I left because they threatened me, Alexis. I had no fucking choice!”
I try and tell her loud enough for it to sink in. She isn’t listening.
She needs to hear me!
I grab her face, making her look at me. If she won’t believe anything I have to say then she’ll need to look in my eyes and see that I’m not lying. Yeah, she needs to read me. If she sees me then she’s gonna know that I’m telling the truth here.

Her breaths are becoming a whole lot more even now, and she’s no longer trying to push me away.
Yeah, that’s it. Look at me and you’ll know that I’m not doing all of this just to hurt you. I’ll never hurt you, beautiful.

“Brandon?”
I hear Neil behind me as he walks inside the dorm. “What’s going on?”

“I need Alexis to understand w
hy I left, why I came back and—”

“Whoa, wait a second
. By the looks of things, you both need to calm the fuck down.” Neil says, and I feel him place his arm around my shoulders while ushering my further back in the room. “Come and explain what the hell has been going on, bro.”
Finally! Finally somebody who’s willing to listen.
We head toward his room, and I look back over my shoulder to Alexis.
She’s gotta believe me. I need her to. She’s all I have. She’s everything to me.

“If you don’t believe me, Alexis, I may as well give up the fight and let them throw away the key. You’re the only person I need, the only person I want. If I los
e you, I lose everything that’s been keeping me going each and every day through all of this.” I can see her lips tremble, but she doesn’t respond. She doesn’t say a word. Not one.

I turn back away as we near Neil’s room, a sharp pain shooting through my stomach
, and a dull ache spreading across my chest. From the way she was looking at me just now, it feels like I might’ve already lost her.

“Not like that!” Rach scolds, ripping the wooden spoon right out from my hand. “Just stand back. Just. Stand. The Hell. Away!” She elbows me away from the counter, and sets to work on creating what she likes to call ‘Her Masterpiece’.

What’s going on? Well, I’m making a special dinner for Alexis. Well,
Rach
is making the dinner. But, before you laugh, let me explain. For the last six hours I’ve been trying to make something myself, and if I’m gonna be completely honest with you here, I actually thought that I did a good job, but then Rach dropped by to check in on things and she made it clear that under no circumstances should I ever be let loose in the kitchen. Was I offended? Yeah, actually I was, but then she had me taste what I’d knocked together, and I hate to admit this, but I’m now in full agreement with her. My culinary skills suck ass. Major ass. It tasted so bad that I thought I was actually gonna hurl right here in the kitchen. 

Yeah, a lot’s happened since I went to see Alexis at her place, and I think the main people I need to thank
for her hearing me out is Neil and Rye. If it wasn’t for them then I don’t think she would’ve agreed to meet with me. You see, I told them everything that’s been going on. I told them the reason why I left, why I’m staying away now, and what I’m planning to do to make all of this right again. They know everything, but the good thing about this is that I don’t need to get them involved this time. I’ve put far too many people in danger as it is, the last thing I wanna be doing is getting them caught up in this mess as well.

Zach brought Alexis out here the same day I went to see her at her place, and she listened. And, now? Well, now she believes me. I knew she would once she’
d let me explain, she just needed some time to process everything I had to tell her, that’s all. She wants what I want. She wants to find out what happened to her mom, and I can’t begin to explain to you how relieved I felt when she told me that she stills wants to have a forever with me.

I went over to her place that same night, and I stayed most of the day after
ward, though things could’ve worked out a hell of a lot different. You wanna know how? Well, I’ll tell you. Alexis’ father showed up at her place. To say he wasn’t so happy about the company she’s been keeping would be an understatement, especially when she introduced us to one another. Did he wanna hang me up by the balls? Yep. And, I think he would’ve quite gladly taken me down to the police department himself when he realized that I’m the guy who allegedly broke into his home.

He and Alexis went to have a quiet word, and thankfully he listened to what she had to say. No, scrap that. He listened to the both of us. Why am I smiling? I’m smiling because he went to the cops and told them to drop the charges they had against me for the break-in. I’ve gotta admit that at first I thought it was a trap. I thought that he only told Alexis that he was okay with the two of us
being together so he could get me out of the dorm. But, it wasn’t a trap. He meant what he said, and he helped get the cops off of my back. Okay, so he wasn’t so nice to me when he first saw the both of us fooling around in the living area, but he soon warmed to me, and I think that’s all got to do with the fact that I helped smooth things over with him and Alexis.

You see, he was in Seattle with somebody, and this was something that upset Alexis so much that I was the
only person who managed to calm her back down enough to see reason. Yep, that somebody he brought with him was his new girlfriend, Diane. At first Alexis wouldn’t listen, and I could totally understand why she was so upset. It was the first time she’d seen her father happy with someone other than her mom. She said that she thought it was way too soon for him to find somebody else, and for once, I had to disagree with her.

Her father lost her mom,
his wife,
around the same time that I lost Holls, and because I know how hard it was for me to move on with Alexis, I had to tell her that she needed to see things for what they really are.

Just because the cops are off of my back doesn’t make everything else just go away
, though. We still have a lot to deal with before things can go back to the way they were before. I need to lay low for a while, and so I asked Alexis to come and stay with me here at the cabin until college starts back next week.

“What are you doing with that?” I lean over, resting my hands on the counter when I see Rach doing something weird with some wire thing.

“Mixing it this way helps to make the sauce stay nice and light,” she answers, a smile creeping over her face before she raises her eyebrows up high. “Instead of the stodgy mess you were quite happy to serve up.”
Ouch.
Alright, I get it. I’m not the world’s greatest chef, but surely I should get some kinda credit for at least trying to cook for my woman.

I walk through to t
he living room and outside, making sure that everything’s set out and ready for when she arrives. It’s almost seven o’clock already, and I had Zach go pick her up just over an hour ago. She could arrive at any time, so you could say that I’m feeling a little bit anxious about Rach still being here. They haven’t officially met yet, and I’m not so sure if it’s gonna be weird when I finally introduce the two of them to each other. Do you think I’m being ridiculous? Maybe. But, Rach is the older sister of my late girlfriend, and I dunno, I guess I don’t want either of them to feel uncomfortable. Rach has asked me a couple of times about meeting her, but I don’t think Alexis is ready yet. It’s gonna be weird for her, I know it is.

I step out onto the decking
, and stuff my hands in my pants pockets as I look out over the lake. It’s not in any way as nice as mine and Alexis’, but then I might just be thinking this because the one right outside the campus holds special memories for me. You know what I haven’t done yet? I still haven’t thanked Rach for insisting that I go to the ball that night. That night changed my whole life.

“Okay, I’ve set the timer,” I turn around when I hear Rach speak
ing from behind me, and I see her leaning up against the doorway. “When the bells sounds out then it’s good to go. You don’t need to do anything else. I think that even you can manage to serve the food onto plates, right?” She asks, cocking her head to the side, a slight smile etching over her face. If I didn’t love this woman as much as I do, then I think that I’d have something to say to her for mocking me in this way. Of course I can serve food onto plates. What? She thinks that I’m that undomesticated?

“Thanks, Rach,”
I tell her, mirroring her smile before turning back around to look back out over the water. “You don’t know how much it means to me that you wanna protect Alexis from being poisoned from all of my efforts and hard work.” I snicker, and I hear her let out a laugh.

“I’d better get
going before she gets here.” She tells me, and I swing back around to face her as she walks toward me.

I glance at my watch again and nod, “
Yeah you’d better, she’ll be arriving any minute.”

“I love you, Brandon,” she
says, leaning in and kissing me on the cheek. I wrap my arms around her, and keep them there as she pulls back away a little. “Get your name cleared, and then everything can get back to how it should be.”

“I
love you, too,” I tell her back. “And, that’s been my number one intention all along.”

I follow Rach back inside, and walk her out the front. Her cab is already outside
waiting for her, and I watch as she climbs inside before blowing me a kiss through the open window. She’s awesome, and I don’t know if I would’ve gotten through all of this without her by my side. I head through to the kitchen to grab a bottle of wine from out of the refrigerator, and I see Alexis standing by the door through the window. The wine can wait, the lady cannot.

Jogging over to open the door, I see the surprise in her eyes when she looks my way,
“Hey,” I say with a smile, taking a look behind her. “Where’s Zach?”

“He, um … he said he di
dn’t want to interrupt anything,” she answers, and as she slips out of her jacket, I grab a hold of her case and bring it inside. Yep, Zach’s a pretty awesome dude, too. He’s staying over with Rach while Alexis is here with me so we can have some alone time. You wanna know what I think? I think that even though I don’t have a mom and dad anymore, I still have the best family a guy could ask for. Rach and Zach are all the family I’ll ever want or need. “How has your day been?”

I take her jacket
, and go to hang it up on one of the hooks just down the hallway, letting out a deep contented sigh as I take a hold of her hand and lead her through to the main room, “Now that you’re here, it just got a million times better, let’s put it that way.”

“Why did something happen?”

“Apart from going out of my mind from missing you and wanting you here with me? No,” I answer her as a wide smile crosses over my mouth when my eyes rove over her. My girlfriend, ladies and gents. My girlfriend is the sexiest and most beautiful woman to ever walk on this earth. And, you’re gonna be surprised to hear me say this, I know you are, but the dress she’s wearing isn’t displaying any boobies at all. Nope. And, I still appreciate what I’m seeing. Impressed? Yeah, I thought you might be. “You look fucking amazing.”

I step forward and place my hands lightly on he
r waist, noticing her cheeks starting to turn a slight shade of pink. She really needs to learn how to take a compliment.

Beep! Beep!
Beep! Beep!

“I’ll be right back!”
I tell her when I hear the oven sounding out from the kitchen, and head straight through to grab the trays out. “You have got to be fucking kidding me.” I close my eyes and dump the tray on the counter. I’m sure as hell it’s not supposed to look like that. “Fuck. Fuck. Motherfucking fuck.” She told me to take the food out when the oven sounded, and I did. She gave me one set of instructions to follow, but somehow it’s still managed to look like it’s been thrown over a barbeque for at least a couple of hours. Alright, well, it could be worse. I mean, it’s not like it’s on fire or anything, and maybe I can get away with telling her that it’s supposed to look like that. Yeah. Yeah, it can be charcoaled chicken risotto with huge black pieces floating around in the sauce.
Huh.

“It smells delicious,” I hear Alexis say from behind me, and she’s right, it does. It just doesn’t look as nice as it smells. I glance over my shoulder, and see her heading toward me. I give her a smile, and think that I can definitely pull the whole charcoaled thing off. “I didn’t realize you were such a good cook!”
She really has no fucking idea.

“Beautiful, I i
ntend to surprise you every day for the rest of my life.” I wink, and turn myself around, moving her hair behind her shoulder before leaning in to kiss her on the neck.
I think that I might actually get away with the dinner thing.

I go
to pour the both of us some wine, and tell Alexis to go and take a seat while I serve everything up. While Rach was taking care of the food that I’ve managed to pretty much destroy, I set up the table outside. We have candles, wine, flowers. Everything ready to make tonight as perfect as it possibly can be.

Alright, we’re good to go.
I grab our plates and carry them through the table outside. Alexis smiles when I place her dish down in front of her, and I take a gulp of wine before I sit down to dig into the food. I try not to make it obvious that I’m watching her, but I really wanna see her face when she takes the first bite. Why? Well, if I don’t see her then it’s likely she’s gonna lie and tell me that it tastes good, when I know that it most probably doesn’t.

She lifts the fork up to her lips, and I watch as she gently eases the food inside her mouth. She throws me a smile, and I see her go to take a hold of her wine
glass, “Mmm … this is good,” she says, and I keep watching her as she chews the piece of chicken, her mouth starting to twist at the sides. “It’s … it’s really good!” She swallows, and takes another large gulp of the wine. Huh, maybe I was just imagining things. Of course it’s gonna be good, I did everything that Rach told me to do.

I pull my seat closer toward the table, and grab a hold of my fork before stabbing at a piece of the chicken. Oh. Yeah, no. She lied. She just fucking lied to me. She thinks this
tastes good? She’s crazy. Completely crazy. Tonight was supposed to be perfect, but she hasn’t been here for more than a half an hour and I’ve already managed to screw it up. We don’t say anything else for a little while, until I’ve had enough of watching her play around with the now cold food that’s sitting in front of her. I’ve been watching her, and I’ve tasted it for myself. She’s had two mouthfuls.
Two!

I toss my fork down on the
table, and push my seat back out so I have enough room to stand, “Brandon, really, it’s fine.”
No, no it’s not.

Clearing our
plates, I head back through to the kitchen and start emptying the food trays into the trash. Once I’m done, I slump myself down on one of the bar stools, feeling more than frustrated, “You need to eat, Alexis.” I tell her as soon as I realize that she’s followed me in here. I rest my chin in my hands, and watch as she walks over to grab a hold of the phone.

“Let’s order a takeout!”
Sure, rub in it why don’t you?
And the best boyfriend of the year award goes to … anybody, but me
. “Brandon, it wasn’t your fault that the oven miraculously decided to switch itself up to a higher setting.”