Welcome to New Haven (62 page)

“Go.” Said Ben. “I’ll stay here.”
 

Alex ran to the master bathroom and vomited.
 
He could hear Ben shouting at Stacey.

“Get out of his bed, you fucking crazy whore!” He shouted.
 

“I’m waiting for Alex.” She said with venom in her tone.
 

“What the
fuck
?! So you thought you would break into his house and get in his bed?”
 

“Now he can see how much I want him.” She said, as if that made it all ok.
 

“No.” Said Alex from the doorway, his stomach now empty.
 

“I hate you.
 
I despise everything about you.
 
I can’t even look at you without feeling sick.”

“You don’t mean that, baby.” She said, trying to soothe him.
 

“Then why have I just puked my guts up, seeing you there? I’m only standing here now because there’s nothing left inside.
 
Now. Get. Out. Of. My. Bed.”

Alex was so angry he could feel his blood boiling in his veins. His jaw hurt from gritting this teeth, and his heart was pounding. And, for the first time since meeting Holly, it wasn’t a good thing.
 

“Let’s just talk about it baby.”
 
She said, batting her eyes and holding out a hand.
 

“Don’t you call me that! Don’t you ever call me that! I’m not your fucking
baby
!” He almost screamed. He quickly glanced around his room.
 
She’d been through his stuff.
 
His clothes, his drawers.

Oh no, no, no! Please no!
 

“Get. Out. Now. And put your skanky clothes back on!”
He growled.
 

“But, Alex, I love you!” she pleaded.

Alex dry heaved and took a deep breath.

“I love Holly.” He said. And he did.
 
He felt great at finally admitting it out loud.
 

“No. You don’t mean that…” Stacey said with a snort.

“I do.” He said. “I love her. I love how she’s smart
and
funny…”
 

“No.”

“I love her laugh…”
 

“No!” Stacey shook her head.
 

“…I love her smile…”
 

“No,
No
!”
 

“…I love her hair, her beautiful face, her body.”
 

“No! You want
me!
” she screeched.
 

“I especially love how she tastes when I kiss her, how her breathing changes when I whisper in her ear. And how she sighs when I kiss her neck…”
 

“
No! No!
” Stacey screamed, shaking her head.
 
“That bitch…You’re mine!”
 

“I’m
Holly’s
, forever.” He said. He belonged to Holly and nobody else, ever.
 

Stacey’s eyes were crazed.
 
Her face was contorting into ugly features and her hands twisting like claws.

“That fucking little virgin bitch!” she spat. “
She’s
not here ready to suck your dick.
I
am!”
 

“Don’t you
ever
talk about her again!” He roared.
 

“
I’m
here. She doesn’t love you,
I
do!” She cried, pleading with Alex.
 

“I love Holly.”
 

“No, you love
me
.”
 

“I
hate
you!” He shouted.
 

There was no getting through to her.
 

Her insistence that he wanted her was driving him insane. Even telling her everything he loved about Holly hadn’t dissuaded her.

“
No. You. Don’t
! Where’s your fucking precious little Holly now? Huh? If she’s so fucking fantastic, where is she?”

“I’m right here.” Said Holly from behind Alex.
 

“Holly!” He breathed and he held her close, worried about what Stacey might do.
 

Holly cupped Alex’s face with her hands and lightly kissed his lips.
 

“I love you, Alex. I wanted to tell you under better circumstances, but I love you.” She said.

Alex was paralyzed with shock.

Holly loves me!
She loves me.
 

“I love you Holly.” He whispered.
 

“No, no, no,
No
!” Stacey screamed again. “
You
weren’t supposed to be here.
 
You were supposed to go home to your pretty little flowers and your dead Dad! You fucking cunt, you ruined
everything!
” Stacey jumped out of Alex’s bed, with her skeletal frame, and ran at Holly.

Alex and Ben were ready to stop her, but Holly pushed forward, pulled her fist back…and released.

Stacey fell to the floor in a daze.
 
Holly was about to hit her again when Alex took hold of her.

“Baby, no.” He said gently.

“I fuckin’ hate ‘er!” She cried.

“I know.
 
Let the cops handle it now, babe.” The sirens and the sound of doors slamming indicated that the police had already arrived.

Dev, accompanied by offer Dixon, ran up the stairs.

“Oh thank God!” Said Dev as she ran to them for a group hug.

“Alex, I’m sorry.
 
I couldn’t hold her back, and she made me promise to wait to let the cops in.”
 

“That’s fine Dev.” He said with a smile. He looked down at his beautiful girlfriend.
 

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Dev beamed and her eyes teared up. She looked at Ben with a worried expression, and he simply nodded, Dev breathing a sigh of relief.
 

Holly saw the exchange and knew there was definitely something between them. Even if they didn’t admit it to each other.

“Alex” Holly said. “She said something about my Dad. How does she know about my Dad?”

Holly started to panic.

The police officers were carrying a half-conscious Stacey, wrapped in Alex’s sheet to the police van outside.

“Officer Dixon…” Alex said. “…She mentioned Holly’s flowers and her Dad.
 
Only Dev and I knew about it.”
 

“I’ll make a call, Mr. Valencia.” Said Dixon.
 
As the officer was on his phone, Alex turned back to Holly and held her tight to him.
 

“Oh Holly, I’m so sorry.”
 

“My Dad!” She said into his chest. “He’s low down…she couldn’t…”

“Miss. Edwards.” Dixon approached her. “Miss. Edwards, I’m so sorry.
 
A disturbance was reported at your address just under an hour ago.
 
CCTV retrieved from your cameras show miss. Scutter entering the rear of the property.”
 

Holly was now silent.
 
Her whole body felt cold, the blood draining from the surface.
 

“I want to see.” She said. “I need to see the damage.”
 

“We need to take statements from all of you.”
 
Said Dixon.
 

“No problem.” Said Alex as another officer was taking photos of his room.
 

“But we need to go to Holly’s house first.”
 

They arranged to give statements, and Alex led Holly downstairs.
 
An officer was on the phone to her Mum, telling her Holly was on her way.
 

“We’ll come too.” Said Dev.
 
They drove to Holly’s house in silence.
 
Holly was holding Alex’s hand, tightly, the whole time.

Two police cars were there as they pulled up.
 
They walked into the house and through to the kitchen. Where Kim was sitting, with Oli, crying.
 

“Oh Holly, babe.” She said as she looked up. She got up and pulled Holly in for a hug.
 

“Mum, I want to see.” Holly said.
 

“I’m so sorry love.”
 

“You didn’t do anything, Mum.
 
It was the psycho bitch.”
 

Holly, with Alex behind her, walked out into the garden.
 
Her hands flew to her mouth.
 

It was wrecked.

Her greenhouse had been gutted.
 
Seedlings tipped out and stood on. Plants ripped out and torn apart.
 
The poly-carb panels split and broken.

Holly’s shrubs had been kicked to pieces and the younger saplings pulled out and snapped.

The glass table in the covered seating area had been smashed with a rock.
 
The flower beds had been trampled on and some pulled up.

The arches of the hideaway were fixed securely into the ground, but some of the climbing plants had been torn down, and lights ripped off.

Holly then walked, slowly, to her rockery.

The daffodils and tulips, that her Dad had worked on for years, were pulled up and thrown on the lawn.
 
The rocks had been pulled up and used to smash through the greenhouse and the table.

Holly was shaking more and more the closer she got.

The name plaque was gone.

Looking around, she spotted it, bent and sticking out of the ground.

The rocks surrounding her Dad’ ashes had been tampered with, but too heavy for Stacey to move.
 
Even Holly had to get Oli’s help, at first, when placing them.

The box that housed the urn was still there.

Holly collapsed to her knees and broke down sobbing.

Alex at her side, holding her. Her Mum and Dad at her other.
 

Holly screamed in pain.

Alex held Holly as she cried, not saying anything. He just let her cry as he held her and stroked her hair.

It didn’t make sense why Stacey would do that.

She was evil. Plain and simple.

It was as if Stacey had planned on taking her Dads’ ashes and, probably, dumping them but attacked the rest of the garden when she couldn’t get to them.
 

The question was…how the hell did Stacey know about them being there? Only the family knew, and Holly hadn’t told anyone other than Alex and Dev.

Alex felt numb.
 
Numb with fear that Holly would blame him, she wouldn’t love him anymore and she would leave him.

It was his fault.

If he hadn’t pursued her, this wouldn’t have happened. Holly’s garden would still be beautiful; her fathers’ rockery, and years of hard work would still be intact.
 

“I hate her.” She whispered.
 

“Me too.” He replied. “Holly, I’m sorry.
 
If I’d never have…If I had not asked you…” Alex didn’t want to say it.

He didn’t want to say that she should’ve said no or that he shouldn’t have asked her out.
 
He thought it would only give her the reason to leave him
 
Stacey had been obsessed with
him
.
 
He
was the reason Holly was sitting there crying.
 

“What? No.Don’t you dare. Don’t you dare blame yourself!” Holly said between sobs.
 
“She would’ve found a way to do this without us being together.
She’s
the one to blame because
she’s
the one that did this,
Not
you,
not me, not
anyone.” Holly looked into his remorseful eyes, her own mirroring his.

“Alex, I love you and no-one will change that. No-one.
She
did this to try to make me walk away. Well, I’m still here, and you’re not getting rid of me that easily.”
 

Alex exhaled in relief.

“Holly, I love you so much. I don’t want to ever lose you.” He whispered, cupping her face and resting his forehead against hers, wiping away her tears with his thumbs.

Holly stroked her hand down his cheek and kissed him.

Before she knew it, her hands were in his hair and he was holding her tight with one hand whilst cupping her head with the other.

Their tongues dancing with each other and not wanting to give the other up.
 

“Um…guys…” Said Dev. “Guys!” She said a little louder.

They both pulled away and turned to Dev.

“You have an audience?” She said motioning her head towards the police officers.
 

They turned to each other and smiled, flushing.

More officers came to take photo evidence of the damage before anything could be cleared up.
 
Once they were done, Holly picked up the tulips and daffodils.
 
In the mess of the greenhouse, she found some pots and a bag of compost.
 

“Can I help?” asked Alex.
 

“Me too.” Said Dev.
 

“And me” added Ben.
 

“Don’t forget about us.” Said her Mum and Dad.

Holly was overcome with emotion and only managed a squeaky “thanks”.
 

“Everyone grab a pot and fill it with compost.” Said Kim and they got to work.
 

Holly gathered the flowers that she could salvage. Some had been snapped, but the bulbs could be kept for the next year. They re potted the flowers and stored them on the deck are until she could repair the rockery.
 

Holly picked up the name plaque. She wouldn’t be able to bend it back.
 

“I can get that repaired.” Said Ben. “My Dad has a metal shop.
 
He could straighten it for you.”
 

“Thank you.” Said Holly.
 

“I’ll help you fix the rockery.” Said Alex and they gathered up the rocks, putting them back where they belonged.

“It’s going to take a lot for work for the rest.” Said Holly as she looked around.
 

“Then, we’ll be here to help you.” Said Alex as he planted a kiss on her lips.