Misguided Truths: Part One (5 page)

Two Months Later

“Happy Anniversary!” I say as soon the front door opens up, and I see her standing on the other side. “Shit, I’ve missed you.” Practically diving forward over the threshold, I drop the gift that I bought for her on the hallway table to the right. Grabbing a hold of her waist, I pull her up to me as close as I possibly can, instantaneously smashing my lips onto hers. Fine, so it has only been a few days since we last saw each other. But, that’s three days way too fucking long as far as I’m concerned.

I feel her smiling against my mouth, but from the way her hands are placed flat against my chest, I can sense that she’s trying to pull away from me. I throw her a questioning look and notice her cheeks tu
rning a slight shade of crimson, “It’s our two month anniversary
tomorrow,
Brandon,” she answers my unasked question, and begins to shake her head while jokingly face palming herself.

“Yeah, I realize that
, but I couldn’t wait any longer to taste you,” I step forward and grip her by the waist again, trailing kisses over her neck and tipping her back a little in my arms.

“Why? Is she wearing a new flavored lip gloss or something?”
Shit
. I close my eyes, inhale a deep breath, and then release Holly from my embrace. Now I know why she was pushing me away.

“Nice to see you, Brandon.” I wince as Holly peeks up at me through a lock of her hair. She’s resting her head on my chest and looking more than embarrassed. I know the feeling. I hadn’t realized her mom would be home from work so early.

I wince and look down to the ground before lifting my hand, gesturing a small wave as a hello, “Mrs. Grainger.”

“I didn’t know you were stopping by,” Holly’s voice draws my attention back over on her.

“If we’d have known we would have saved you some dinner,” Holly’s mom offers. “Where you appear to be so famished and all.” She adds with a slight smirk spreading over her face.

I clear my throat, throw them both an awkward smile
, and scratch the back of my head, “Thanks, but I already ate.”

“Yes, my daughter’s nec
k by the looks of things …” she rubs Holly on the arm, and laughs lightly before making her way back through to the main living room.

“Whoops,
” I cringe, and then close my eyes for a split second as the door is pushed fully closed from the other side. I look down when I hear another small laugh from my beautiful girlfriend. “So, I bought you something.” I pick the gift wrapped box up from the table.

“Let me guess. Is this the part where you tell me that you’r
e cancelling our plans again?” her smile has faded, and she holds my gaze as she asks.
Shit
. “I thought so.” She shakes her head while letting out a small sigh.

“I’m sorry, Holl’s.” I look down to the ground because I hate seeing the look of disappointment in her eyes when I cancel on her. Just recently it seems to have become a regular thing. She leans up and places a feather light kiss on my right cheek. “We got a call earlier from one of the bars and they’ve offered us a gig for tomorrow night. It’s only an hour set, and we’ll be wrapped up by eight. Then, I’ll be all yours. I promise.”

Nodding, she turns, grabs her jacket from the hallway closet, and then heads back over to stand beside me, “Considering we won’t be spending the whole of our two month anniversary together, then I guess we should make the most of tonight.” I can see the warmth reentering those gorgeous emerald green eyes of hers and wonder what the hell I must’ve done in a previous life to deserve a woman like her.

“You’re not mad?” I ask, disbelieving that she can be so understanding, especially when I had to bail out on the dinner she an
d her parents invited me over for last night.

“No, I’m not mad,” s
he opens the living room door and tells her mom she’ll be home by midnight. “You do owe me a ton of ice-cream, though.” She links her arm with mine and steps forward to open the front door.

I pass her the gift box and she places it back down on the table. “You’re not gonna open it up?” My eyebrows furrow. Girls love presents, right?

“I’ll open it tomorrow,” she smiles and pulls the door closed behind us, resting her head back on my shoulder as we make our way towards my car. “Brandon?” Looking down at her and kissing her hair, she lifts her head and smiles. “I want extra choc chips.”

“You got it.”

***

I’ve been tapping the steering wheel ever since she went inside the grocery store. I can see her through the store window, chatting with some chick who’s working on the counter.

My smile is wide and no doubt the cheesiest you’ll ever witness in your life. Never had I once imagined that I’d be sitting here and waiting for my girlfriend to bring out some ice-cream so we can go stargazing together. Shit, and not only that, my girlfriend is Holly. Holly Grainger. The girl of my fucking dreams.

Who knew that the night she walked in on me and Heather in Tye’s bathroom would’ve led to this? Well, I wouldn’t have believed it in a million years. But, here I am, and you know what? Screw it, I’ll say it. I’ve fallen in love and it’s the best feeling in this entire fucking world.

I let her sweat for a couple of days after she came by my garage and kissed me. Well, what did you expect me to do? You’ve gotta keep a girl on her toes, right? We went for a walk, and it was then when I understood why she was hesitant to take me up on my offer of a second date. She judged me on the rumors flying around and wasn’t sure if we’d work. Maybe I shouldn’t tell you this next part, I mean, it’s pretty personal. But, well, Holly’s never …
y’know
. She had her reservations about seeing how things would go between us. She thought I’d expect her to put out after a couple of days, but I assured her that that wasn’t the case. I’d wait my whole life for her to be ready if I had to. She’s special.
Really special.

I check my watch and let out a deep breath. She’s been in there for over twenty minutes, at least, and she doesn’t look as though she’s ready to come back out just yet
, either. I change the radio station a few times, and when I manage to find a song that I like, I rest my head against the back of the driver’s seat while keeping my eyes still solely on her.

Just lately, we haven’t spent a whole lot of time together. My band have been practicing pretty much non-stop, but I’m in no way gonna complain because all the hard work the gu
ys and I have put in seems to finally be paying off. We’ve managed to secure ourselves our first gig tomorrow night. And, right afterwards, I plan on telling Holly that I’ve fallen in love with her.

To answer your question. No. No, I haven’t told her yet. I wanted to wait until the right time
, and I think tomorrow would be a perfect time to tell her exactly how I feel about her.

“What are you thinking about?” Holly breaks me away from my thoughts. I didn’t even notice her leaving the store, never mind expect her to be sitting so close beside me now. She strokes he fingers through my hair
, and the gleam in her eyes is telling me that the store must have had her favorite flavor. “Where do you want to go now?”

“I thought we could head a little out of town,” I answer. “There’s a quiet place a few miles away that would be perfect for what I have in mind.”

Her eyes widen some and she’s beginning to look worried, “Um … w-w-what do you have in mind, exactly?” she stutters and I know what she’s thinking. I laugh and lean forward, kissing her right on the lips as I turn the key and switch on the ignition.

“Well, I’d certainly like to know what you think I have in mind.” I say, pulling away just enough so I can look directly into her eyes. She moves back over in her seat and starts to gaze out of the passenger side window. “Relax, Holly. I’ve already told you we’ve got all the time in the world for that stuff. Just when you’re ready. I’ll wait however long it takes.”

She turns back to face me and I can already see her shoulders beginning to relax. She smiles and I reciprocate, before driving out from the parking lot and heading towards the I-5.

“Rachael, are you still awake?” I whisper and knock quietly on her bedroom door.

It has just turned eleven o’clock and I arrived home only a second ago. The ground floor was in complete darkness when we pulled up outside, so it’s likely my mom and dad are already asleep, and I don’t really want to wake them.

Brandon has just dropped me home. We spent most of the night kissing under the star filled sky, just outside of the city. It was amazing.
He
was amazing. And, this is why I need to speak with Rachael.

I need some advice.

It got … heated. When I say heated, I mean that it got to the point where I could have easily allowed things to have gone to the next level in our relationship. I’ve already admitted to him that I had my reservations when we first started dating, actually,
before
we started dating officially. He was used to getting anything he wanted, whenever he wanted it. Whereas I? I’ve never gone past making out with a guy before.

In fact, it was Brandon who’d stopped things from going too far tonight. His hands went a few places and mine roamed over his body, but before anything got out of control, he said it was time to head back home. He told me that he didn’t want anything serious to happen between us in the middle of nowhere. That he wanted to make my first time special. To make our first time together special. I know he meant every single word that he said to me as we laid together under the stars.

The door swings open, “Hey, what’s up?”

“Can
I come in for a few minutes?” she opens the door up wider at my request, and I go to sit down in the window seat. She doesn’t look like I’ve just woken her, but she’s already dressed ready for bed. “It’s Brandon.”

“It usually is,” she says, taking a seat beside me and letting out a small giggle while rolling her eyes. “What did he do?”

I can talk to my big sister about anything. I know I can. “I think I’m ready for us to …” Maybe I can’t. I’ve never spoken to her about this subject before because I’ve never had any reason to. I’ve dated, but I’ve never been in a relationship like this before. Especially not with someone like Brandon.

“Okay,” she nods and smiles. “Have you and he spoken about it already? To be honest, I thought you guys may have already had sex.” She shrugs her shoulders nonchalantly.

“Not in so many words, no,” I begin, fiddling with my hands in my lap, “he said he’ll wait until I’m completely ready, and I think I am. It’s just … he’s been with other women and I have no experience. What if it turns out to be a complete disaster?”

“Holly, do you love him?” I nod in response. “Well, okay. You love him and I think that by now, every citizen in the whole of Olympia knows he’s crazy about you, so, why would it end up being anything else but perfect? Have you told him you love him?”

“Not yet. What if I don’t live up to other women he—?”

“Hold up right there, little sis,” she interrupts me with a sternness in her tone. “We all have doubts but if you love each other, and you say you love him, right?”
I nod again and turn my gaze out of the window. “Then it’ll be amazing. For the both of you. I never thought I’d say this about Brandon Taylor, but I think you’ve got yourself a pretty great guy there.”

I turn back to face her as she places her arm around me. Just as I’m about to ask her if mom and dad are using the cabin this weekend, my cell phone beeps. When I take it out of my purse and open the messages, I see Brandon’s name flashing on the screen.

Goodnight, beautiful X

My smile is wide from seeing his words on the screen, and my stomach feels as though it’s doing somersaults inside. I think I also just felt my heart skip a couple of beats.

“Yeah. You know what, Holly?” Rachel squeezes me tightly. “I think you guys will be just fine.”

“Candles?”

“Already set out and the wine’s in the refrigerator,” Rachael answers when I walk back through to meet her in the hallway.

Rachael came into my room this morning and told me that our mom and dad are visiting my aunt and uncle in Seattle for the weekend. They left at six o’clock
, and won’t be returning home until late tomorrow night, which means that the cabin will be unoccupied for the whole weekend. Butterflies are whirling around in the pit of my stomach at the thought of what’ll happen between me and Brandon tonight.

Last night he said that he’ll be all mine as soon as his gig finishes at eight. What he doesn’t know is that I’ll be all his, too.

I’m feeling nervous, excited, and if I’m to be completely honest, a little nauseous.

There was a message waiting for me on my cell phone when I first woke up this morning. It was from Brandon, telling me that he’ll be able to meet with me this
afternoon for a couple of hours before he and the rest of the guys will need to head over to the bar and set up their music equipment.

“I think that’s everything,” I say, and take a final look around while grabbing the cabin key from my jacket pocket.

“Holly?” Rachael steps forward and attempts to pass something over to me. When I look down to see what’s in her hand, an audible gulp escapes from my throat. “If he has no idea what you’re planning then it’s likely he won’t have any with him.”

Condoms.

Inhaling a deep breath, I accept the small, square shaped box from her before turning around and walking towards the bedroom at the back of the cabin. I open the top drawer of the nightstand that’s on the left hand side of the bed, and stare at the packet for a few seconds before closing it back up.

“Are you sure you’re ready?” I hear Rachael speak behind me, but don’t turn around. I gaze out of the window and take in the breathtaking view of the lake. Tomorrow, we’ll wake up together and be able to see this very view from the bed.

“Yes. I’m ready, Rach,” I finally turn to face her and see that she’s studying me. “I love him.” I reassure her.

She nods and walks over to stand beside me, wrapping her arm around my shoulder while giving me a small squeeze. “Then it’ll be amazing.”

I glance to the side to look at her and see that she’s smiling at me, “Yeah. I know it will be.”

***

On our way back from the cabin, I called Naomi and arranged to meet with her for lunch. Brandon messaged to say that he’d meet with me at three o’clock, so I still have a little time to catch up with her before he arrives.

We decided to meet inside the small coffee shop on the lower level of the mall at two o’clock, though it’s almost two thirty already.

“Sorry!” I apologize to her as I slide into the booth, sitting myself on the seat opposite to her. “The traffic was crazy.”

“That’s okay,” s
he pushes the chocolate milkshake over the table towards me with a knowing smile. Raising her eyebrows suggestively, she continues. “So, tonight’s the nig—”

“Ladies!” Ryan’s voice interrupts her as both he and Neil approach our table. “Mind if we join you?”

We both move over to give them some room to sit down. Neil takes a seat beside Naomi, and Ryan makes himself comfortable in the seat next to me.

We sit and talk for a while, mainly about Neil and Ryan’s upcoming trip to Europe. They sound really excited about exploring other cultures and a small part of me is envious of the both of them.

I still have another year left of high school before I graduate, but I’d love to travel for a while before going onto college.

“Here comes lover boy!” Naomi’s voice draws me away from my thoughts, and I lean around Ryan to look for him.

He’s walking through the entrance doors with the rest of the band, and I see him eagerly glancing around the place. When his eyes land on mine, he beams one of his widest smiles solely over on me. My breath catches and my heart rate picks up its speed.

His tight, short sleeved black tee and baggy khaki pants make him look edible. His hair isn’t styled in its usual chunky spikes, but instead, i
t’s sweeping over his forehead and resting on his eyebrows.

While the rest of the band walk straight over to place their orders, Brandon h
eads directly over to our table, “Rye.” He says, with a slight sternness in his voice while raising his brow at him.

Ryan immediately takes the hint and stands, allowing Brandon to slide in and sit beside me before he sits back down on the edge of the booth.

“Happy Anniversary,” he leans over and whispers into my ear as he places his arm firmly around my shoulders. He begins to nuzzle into my neck, which sends warm, delicious tingles throughout my entire body.

“Oh, come on, guys. Get a room!” Ryan teases as he rests his elbows on the table.

Naomi begins to giggle, and as she opens her mouth to speak, I kick her leg under the table as a warning. Her eyes widen, and her mouth drops open with astonishment.

“What’s goin’ on?” Brandon glances between the two of us with a quizzical look entering his eyes.

“Nothing,” I answer him with a smile, and watch as his eyes begin to narrow on me with suspicion. I turn to whisper in his ear. “I um … I have a small surprise for you, that’s all.”

He leans away slightly and searches my eyes again. Biting down on his bottom lip, a s
mall smile etches over his lips, “What kind of a surprise?”

I feel my cheeks beginning to heat and continue to stare into his eyes, though before I can answer him, his cell phone starts playing ‘My Time’ by ‘Fabolous and Jeremih’.

“Hold that thought, I’ll be right back,” he places a quick kiss on my lips after checking the caller ID, and then leaves the table, summoning Corey, Gaz, and Sam to follow him as he walks out to the sidewalk to take the call.

I take a sip of my milkshake and listen to Naomi moaning about having to babysit for her kid sister again tonight. A few minutes
have passed by, and when I look up, I see the four of them walking back over to join us.

My smile falters when I see Brandon raking a hand through his hair. He looks stressed about something. He always does this when he’s upset.

He briefly makes eye contact as he takes his seat beside me, though the frown over his lips and the sorrowful look in his eyes is making my stomach churn.

“What is it?” I take a hold of his hand as I ask
, and peer over towards Corey, Gaz, and Sam. They’re smiling brightly and seem really happy about something, though I can’t hear exactly what they’re saying as they chat with Ryan and Neil.

“Holl’s, it was the manager from the bar we’re playing at tonight …
they, um … one of the other bands cancelled and they’ve had to make some changes to the slot times …” he begins. His voice is low, and his eyes aren’t anywhere as bright as they were when he first walked in here. “They asked us to play from eight … ‘til eleven.”

“What?” I hadn’t expected my voice to be quite so loud, drawing the attention of everyone seated around our table. “Well, you told them no, right?”

He turns to look at me, and his eyes are filling with regret. “What? No. We told them yes. I mean, it’s our first gig and—”

“Brandon, it’s our two month anniversary!”

“Holl’s, we couldn’t turn it down. Listen, tomorrow. We can always do something—” he stops talking when I stand up and try to squeeze by him. “Where are you going? Holly, please? Come on, be reasonable here.” He places his hands on either side of my waist, though I instantly shrug him away from me.

“Reasonable?” I practically choke out. “You think that I’m the one who’s being unreasonable
here?” I shake my head as I exit the booth and make my way towards the exit.

I understand how important the gig is tonight, I really do. But, why does our relationship always have to come second? This isn’t the first time he’s put the band before me.
Before us
. And, I’m pretty certain that it won’t be the last.

The cold air hits me as soon as I step outside, and I wrap my arms around myself to try and keep warm. The door swings open as I lean against the window, and I see Brandon walking over until he’s standing right in front of me.

“What’s goin’ on?” he lifts his hand and brushes his fingers across my cheek. I break my gaze from his searching eyes and move my head to the side. “Holly, talk to me.”

“You really have to ask w
hat’s wrong, Brandon? Really?” he takes a step away from me and lowers his hands, now placing them in the front of his pants pockets.

“This is huge for the band, Holl’s. It’s fucking huge. What am I supposed to do? You want me
to tell them no and let the guys down?”

He sounds frustrated,
“But it’s okay to let me down?” My voice cracks when I ask.

“We need this gig, Holly,” h
e speaks quietly through his teeth without looking at me. “It’s important.”

“More important than our relationship?” I ask. I’m starting to feel hurt from his words. He shakes his head, keeping his eyes focused on the ground, and I hear him let out a sigh.

I look over my shoulder and through the window towards our friends. Neil’s turned around in his seat and is watching us, mouthing the words ‘You okay?’ over at me. I give him a small smile and nod, though I’m sure he’s still not overly convinced that I’m telling the truth from the way his eyebrows are now furrowing on the two of us.

“Right, let’s get back to it!” Corey says enthusiastically as he,
Gaz, and Sam exit through the doors. “Looks like we’ve got a few more songs to perfect before tonight!” He pats Brandon on the shoulder as he walks behind him and makes his way towards the white truck.

Brandon turns to look at me, and I’m not overly sure whether he’s angry or upset, maybe even a bit of both. He leans
forward and whispers in my ear, “Please don’t be mad with me, Holly.” Placing a kiss on my cheek, I don’t reciprocate. I’m finding it hard to keep myself from crying through the disappointment I’m feeling.

“If I was to tell you that I have something special planned for tonight, would th
at help you change your mind?” he lifts his head, but his eyes answer for him and are telling me that he’s already made his decision. “I didn’t think so.” My voice is quiet, and I inwardly curse myself when I feel my bottom lip beginning to tremble.

“Holl’s,” h
e steps forward, but I move away and open the door to go back inside. “I’ll call you when we’re on a break.” He says from behind me.

I pause in the doorway and turn back around. Shrugging my shoulders is the only thing I give him. He breaks his gaze from mine and turns back around, slowly making his way towards the van while shaking his head.

“What was all that about?” Naomi rests her elbows on the table and leans towards me as I take my seat again. “Did you guys just have your first argument?”

I rest against the seat and nod at her, not trusting my voice to be strong if I say anything. We’ve never spoken to each other in this way before. I know it wasn’t exactly a full on blazing shouting match, but it still hurts. We’ve never disagreed on anything.

Tonight was supposed to be our night.

Ours.