Misguided Truths: Part Two (Misjudged #4) (19 page)

Alyssa arranged to meet with me here at eight, and I’m r
ight on time. That’s why she was calling me so many times earlier. She wants to show me around the room that me and Alexis will be using next week.

I made my way over to
the desk in the lobby, and the clerk informed me that Alyssa is already somewhere in the building, but she gave me a keycard anyways in case she hasn’t managed to make it up to the room yet.

The usual rate
for the penthouse suite costs at least a couple of thousand dollars a night, but because the owner of this place is Alyssa’s father, I managed to get myself a good deal. Five hundred dollars. Yeah, I know. It’s still a lot of cash for only one night, but I’m hoping to make it the best night of her life. It needs to be really special, and she’s more than worth the cost a million times over. In seven days’ time, I’ll be kissing those lips again, right before I make love to her.

I swipe the keycard along the sensor to room five zero seven, and push the door open, “Hi!” Alyss
a comes bouncing over to me, her excitement evident. “This is going to be perfect!” Before I even have a chance to kick my shoes off, she grabs a hold of my hand, and pulls me forward until we’re standing in the  …
whoa
. I glance around the living space, and I’m damn sure my jaw just made its way back down to the ground floor. Yep. We’re on the top floor, so I’m sure you can imagine just how cool this place really is. “Well, what do you think?”

“Yeah … yeah … it’s …” I knew that it was gonna be pretty amazing. I mean, I’ve seen these types of hotel rooms in the movies, but I wasn’t expecting it to be anything like this. Damn. There’s even a grand piano sitting in the middle of another room off to the right. “How many rooms are there?”

“I know, right? She’s going to love it!” she squeals, and clasps her hands tightly together. I step around her, and head directly toward the ceiling to floor windows up ahead. “Well, there’s this one as your main room. The room over there is more for entertaining. It has a piano, a huge TV, and all that kind of stuff. Just behind you is the bar, down the hallway we just walked through is a luxurious bathroom, the bedroom is right on through …” She stops talking when she notices my eyes widen, and I’m sure she just saw my head snap up as I glanced over her shoulder when she pointed to the bedroom. “Bedroom!” She grabs a hold of my hand again, and leads me toward a closed door, this time with a little more urgency than before.

Once I’ve peeked my head around the door to the en suite, I turn back around
, and walk right back over to her. She’s standing in the middle of the room with a wide smile firmly placed over her face, “We have champagne, rose petals, the hot tub is enormous, and there’s room service twenty-four seven!”

I let out a deep breath
, and rake my hand through my hair, “This is just beyond all of my expectations. I know you said it was amazing, but this is perfect.”

Her eyes brighten
more if that’s possible, “How long do you have until she’ll expect you home?”

“I have a feeling she already suspects something. I hate lying and keeping secrets. I’ve been really fucking off with her. I can’t wait for this next week to be over with, Alyssa,” I answer her, and the feeling of guilt tries to overcome me again, but I try my hardest to fight it back away. I guess it wouldn’t be so bad if she weren't sick, but then again, a lie is still a lie.

“The guilt you’re feeling now will be worth it, babe. I promise,” Alyssa throws me a sympathetic smile, and then reaches over, rubbing her hand on my shoulder. She’s right. It’s definitely gonna be worth it, or at least, I hope it is.

She shows me around the rest of the place, and then we make our way down to the lobby to put a reservation in place, “And it’s okay for me to stop by earlier than the official checking in time?” I ask the clerk, and se
e Alyssa roll her eyes at me. Yeah, I know. She’s told me three times already that it’s okay for me to do this.

We head through
the exit door, and I’m starting to feel a whole lot better now that things are finally beginning to slot into place. This time next week, me and Alexis are gonna be walking through those very doors together.

“What are your plans for the rest of the night?” I ask Alyssa as we take the few steps down to the sidewalk.

“I have an emergency nail appointment over in Escapade Drive,” she answers me, a look of disgust crossing over her features when she looks down to her hands.

“An emergency nail appointment?” I laugh out, and she digs me in the ribs. “Really, though? You class your nails as an emergency?” She shrugs her shoulders, and as I turn to
face her, I hear my cell phone ringing out from my pocket. Honestly? I was gonna ignore it, but now that Alyssa’s cell is also sounding, I reach inside and take it out.

A: I love you. X

I rake my hand through my hair, and swallow, hard. If I didn’t feel bad before then I sure do now. She’s sitting back at the dorm, most likely on her own, sending messages to tell me that she loves me, while I’m here, hiding shit from her. Alyssa is eyeing me warily, and I shake my head as I hold it up to her so she can read it for herself. She grins as she pulls out her cell phone, but her smile fades when she checks the screen.

“What? What is it?”
I ask, but she places her index finger over her mouth to shush me before she takes the call.

“Alex! How’s … how’s it going?”
Oh, shit
. “Um, I’m having dinner with Jen and Kelly, remember?”

She’s not on the phone for very long, actually, I didn’t hear her say anything else apart from the fact that she was out to dinner,
“What did she say?” I ask when she checks the screen again, and her lips are beginning to purse into a frown. “Alyssa?”

She shakes her head
, and waves her hand in the air, “It’s nothing, I think my signal must’ve died or something.” She places her cell back inside her purse, and I see excitement flitting back into her eyes. “This time next week!” She pulls me to her, throwing her arms around my neck.

“I owe you one, Alyssa,” I tell her, and place a kiss on her cheek before taking a step away.

“No, you don’t. Just make sure she has an awesome time, or I’ll kick you in the balls, you hear me?”  I laugh when she points her index finger right at me, and laugh even harder when a look of distaste passes into her eyes, her lips turning south as she studies her hands. “Ugh! My nails are hideous!”

Once we’ve said our goodbyes, I head straight back toward campus. Now that t
hings are going to plan, and I know that keeping secrets from Alexis is gonna be fully worth all of this in the long run, I’m starting to feel a whole lot happier about everything.

I break into a
jog as I near the campus gates because I wanna make sure I’m home before she falls asleep tonight. The past few nights when I’ve arrived back at the dorm, she’s already been asleep. Do I miss spending time with her? Let’s put it this way, if I’m away from her for even a half hour, I go nuts.

There’s nobody in the living area when I push
open the main door, and when I glance over to Alexis’ bedroom door, I see it’s fully closed.
Shit
. I’m too late.

I make my way over and grab the doo
r handle, gently easing it down so I don’t wake her. Huh, that’s funny. It’s locked, “Alexis, are you sleeping?” Nothing. I lean in closer. I don’t wanna disturb her, but at the same time, I don’t really wanna be having to sleep on the couch. The door only locks from the inside, and so if she isn’t awake then I haven’t got a hope in hell of getting through to the other side. “Beautiful?”

Taking my cell from out of my pocket, I go to dial her number. Is it so bad that I wanna hold her in my arms tonight? No, I didn’t think so either. Seven missed calls from Rye? How did I miss these? I clear the screen and tap in Alexis’ number. If Rye’s calls were so urgent then he would’ve left a voicemail. I can hear her ringtone sounding out through the door, so I know she’s inside. Her cell phone goes everywhere she goes, “Alexis?”

I stand and stare at the screen for a couple of seconds. Yeah, it just went through to the voicemail.
Come on, Alexis.
I lift my head when I hear the door opening up, and I instantly panic when I see her. Her cheeks are tear streaked, her eyes red and puffy; sore even, “What the hell happened?” I take a step forward and lift my hand to cup her face. Why won’t she look at me? What in the hell? Why is she stepping away from me? “Alexis, shit! What the fuck …?”

“There you are bro! Dammit, what the fuck did you do to her?” I step back and see Rye charging straight over from his room, and I’ve gotta say, he doesn’t look so fucking happy either. What did I miss? “She lost it man! I tried to call you to see why she was going all crazy shit on me!” She was going what? I turn my attention back on Alexis.

“I didn’t do—”

“He broke my heart, Ryan,” I did what? But I wasn’t even here. Why is she shrugging her shoulders and looking at me like she wants to castrate me? Oh, no. No. No. No. There’s no way in hell she’s gonna be removing any of my body parts, especially not Pinocchio and his friends. “Just like you and Neil said he would. Well, congratufuckinglations, Brandon. I applaud you.” I don’t understand.

“I did what? I don’t get—”

“Evening, guys! Oh my God! What happened? Alex, are you okay?” I glance over my shoulder when I hear Alyssa. She’s heading straight over and doesn’t seem to have a clue about anything that’s going on either.

Before I have a chance to turn back around, Alexis dives forward and starts grabbing handfuls of Alyssa’s hair, “Fuck!” Has she completely lost her mind? I grab Alexis by the waist, trying to pull her away, but she’s not making this easy for me. “Let her go!” I snap, and grab a hold of her arms, gripping her tighter this time. With a little more force, she finally let’s go of her. I glance between the two of them, and see Alyssa holding her head. Yeah, I would, too. That must’ve fucking hurt some. Alexis’ fingers were turning white from the strength of the grip she had on her. While I have a hold of Alexis, Rye goes to stand beside Alyssa.

“Why did you attack me?” Yeah, I’d like to know the same fucking thing. And, while we’re at it, I’d also like to know what the hell I did wrong for her to accuse me of breaking her heart.

“You first! How was the hotel, Alyssa?” Alexis hisses. The hotel? She knows about that? “Did she exceed all of your expectations?” No. She doesn’t honestly believe that …
huh
. I release her arms and take a step back. She followed us? She thinks that me and Alyssa …? Wow. Well, she’s most definitely just proved how much she thinks of me. She thinks I was fucking her best friend in a hotel room. Wow. Yeah, this kinda hurts.

“Guys, what’s she talking about?” Rye glances between the three of us
, and I think the look over both mine and Alyssa’s faces must be pretty identical. Mainly from disbelief.

“Your things are in her room now,” she says, her tone flat. She walks a
way, but I’m frozen to the spot and I see her turn back around, her glare focused solely on me. “I fucking love you. I would do anything for you, ANYTHING!” She’s screaming now, and I see Alyssa shaking her head as she follows her toward the hallway.

“Alex, we didn’t do anything!” Alyssa’s upset. Oh, I know the feeling. “It was for you! It was all for you!”

How could she think that I’d do that to her? I thought I’d proven how much I wanted to be with her and how much she means to me. But, I guess I was wrong. Man, how could I have been so wrong? Should I put her out of her misery? Spoil the surprise that I’ve tried so hard to keep under wraps so she’d have the best fucking birthday imaginable? Yeah, I need to. She has no idea what she’s just done. She’s shaking her head at me, and I can see the hatred in her eyes.
Wow. Just. Wow.

“Alyssa spoke with her father and he agreed I could book a room for an affordable price. I haven’t got thousands to spend on a room, Alexis. I haven’t worked because of obvious reasons. I wanted to make your birthday special. I wanted to make your first time,
our
first time special.”

Her face falls, but the damage has already been done. She knows what I’ve been through and how hard it was for me to move on. To move on with her. I told her everything. How could she doubt me? How? No,
I don’t know how either.

She walks slowly back over, and in her eyes I can see she has a million questions running through her mind. Yeah, well, likewise, “But you lied. You lied about being in class today. You lied about where you were going tonight! You haven’t been coming home until the early hours, and you called me ALEX!”
And there it is.

You’re so wrong, beautiful.
I keep my eyes on hers, but I really shouldn’t. I wanna beg her to trust me. I wanna shake her until she listens. But, there’s no point. What’s a relationship without trust? I’ve never treated her any different to the way I did Holly. In fact, I put Alexis ahead of everything. Holly? I put my music first, and I’ve been regretting my actions for every day she’s been gone. Yeah, it’s time to go, “Alyssa, can I grab my things, please? I think it’s time I moved back over to my dorm.”

Alexis rests herself against the doorframe, but she doesn’t say anything. Not a word. Rye takes a seat on the arm of the couch, while I follow Alyssa into her room to grab my things.
Shit
. Look at that. All of my clothes, everything. All thrown over Alyssa’s bed, and a few things are on the floor. She was most definitely a woman on a mission, huh?