Misguided Truths: Part Two (Misjudged #4) (32 page)

She drops her hands, shakes her head, and turns around while lifting her hand up to her face, “What’s with you?”

“What’s with me? I’m not the one acting all suspicious here, Alexis,” I say, and take a seat back on the bed. When I see what’s written on the letter inside, my jaw clenches, and my fingers grip the paper so tight that it’s starting to crease up at the sides. “When did you get this?” She turns around at my question, but looks dejectedly to the floor.

“
A few days ago.”

“A few days! Why the fuck didn’t you tell me about this?” I wave it out in front of her, and notice her shoulders beginning to tense as she audibly swallows.

“Because I knew you would react like this.” She answers quietly, shrugging her shoulders.

“What the fuck did you expect, Alexis? Huh? What? You thought that I was gonna be all smiles and shit when you told me?” Yeah, I’m yelling. You would be, too. The expression that’s washed over her face now shows that she had no intention of telling me about this
whatsoever. “You weren’t gonna tell me at all, were you?”

She shakes
her head, and slumps down to sit at the end of the bed, “No. I wasn’t.”

I let out an exasperated breath, and stand before pacing the floor right in front of her as she keeps her focus on the floor,
“Why?” I ask, my voice clipped because there’s no way I control my anger over this. Not a chance.

“Why wasn’t I going to tell you?”
She asks, but this isn’t something I wanna be discussing in this moment. Nope. I wanna know what the fuck gives him the right to make demands.

I stop pacing and kneel down, holding the piece of paper only a couple of inches from her face now, “
Why the fuck did he send you this?” Damn, I wish I could get to him. Nothing would bring me greater joy than spending just a couple of minutes in a room alone with him, because I swear, only one of us would walk back out alive.

Alexis lifts her hand out, but I move it away before she takes it off of me. She seems to realize this and lets out a sigh,
“The detective gave it to me in the hall when she was leaving.”

That was last week. She’s had this for a week and she didn’t think to mention i
t? No. No, she told me that she wanted to speak with her about her mom, “She did? But you said—

“
I lied! Okay? I lied!”
Oh, she lied
. Well, it seems as though this might not be the first time she’s kept something from me. Awesome. You know what? I’m over this already. I scrunch the paper into a ball with the both of my hands and head through to the living area. “Brandon? Brandon what are you doing?”

I spin around, and she takes a step back before crashing
right into me, “If he honestly believes for a single second that you’re gonna be going anywhere near him then he’s …”
Huh
. Well, if the look that’s just crossed over her face is anything to go by then I think it’s safe to assume that she was actually contemplating this. “Oh, please tell me you weren’t even gonna consider this?”

We both look over in the direction of Alyssa’s ro
om when we hear the door opening up, and out she walks with Rye right behind her, his arms wrapped around her waist and a large grin over his face. Well, that was until he saw the two of us standing here, “What’s goin on?” Alyssa glances between us and goes to stand beside Alexis. “Alex, are you okay? What’s going on?”

Alexis starts shaking her head, and when I
hear her mumble the word nothing, my blood starts to seriously boil over. That’s right, it’s always my fucking fault. Blame me. Everyone else always seems to. Before she has a chance to try and play this down, I hold the visitation letter out to show Alyssa, “This! This is what’s motherfucking going on!”

“Brandon,
he refuses to talk unless I go to see him! That’s his rules, not mine! His!” She shouts right back at me, and takes a step closer, her shoulders slouching low in defeat.

“Then they’ll have to find some other way because there
’s no way I’m gonna be letting you go anywhere near him!”
No fucking way.

“Bu
t—”

“I said NO!”
I hiss. Alyssa and Alexis both take a step back while Rye comes to stand beside me. “I forbid you to go, Alexis. I forbid it.” I drop my head, and walk toward the trash can while silence takes over the room.

“
I’m with Brandon on this.” I hear Rye say when I turn back around. He nods at me, places his hands on Alyssa’s shoulders, and steers her back toward her room as I walk back through to ours. I think this discussion is over.

When I walk inside the dorm, I see Alyssa and Rye lounging around on the couch, but as soon as they see me, Rye sits up a little straighter and I notice Alyssa’s eyes widen some, “Oh, hey,” she says while keeping her eyes on Rye. “You’re back early.”

“Yeah, it was pretty quiet so Layla sai
d I could knock off for the day,” I answer, and walk slowly toward them while glancing over to our bedroom. The door’s wide open, but I don’t see her inside. “Is Alexis not home?” I ask, furrowing my brow when I turn back to face the two of them.

“She headed to the library,
” Alyssa answers, keeping her gaze fully focused on the widescreen now. “I don’t think she’ll be too much longer.”

I take my cell
from my shirt pocket and go to call her, but when she doesn’t answer, I send her a quick message so she knows that I got off work early, and to see if she wants me to cook something for the both of us tonight.

It’s been a two weeks since I
was discharged from the hospital, and we’re slowly getting ourselves back into a routine. Well, kinda. Alexis started back at college on Monday, and I worked my first shift back at the bar yesterday. Yeah, Layla’s a pretty cool boss all things considered.

She knows what’s been going on, mainly due to Rach keeping her updated about everything, and she’s happy for me to be back there. College? Well, I’m yet to go back myself. Actually, yesterday was the first time I’ve left the building in the two weeks I’ve been back here. Why? Well, I think
you’ll understand me when I tell you that the other students have taken it upon themselves to draw their own conclusions over what happened. Am I being paranoid? Maybe I am, maybe I’m not.

If I’m gonna be honest, I
wasn’t too happy when Alexis told me that she’d decided to go back to her classes, but she reminded me that it was her decision to make. Yeah, I know. Miss. Independent strikes again.

The cops have been here a couple more times since they took my first witness statement, but not a lot more has come to light. He’s still refusing to talk, but I think he knows just as much as we do that
he’s gonna be spending a hell of a long time behind bars for what he did.

Once I’ve taken a shower, I make my way back through to our room and grab
some pants and a shirt from out of the closet. Before I manage to throw on the shirt, though, I hear the main door close and head straight out, “Hey.” I say and rake a hand through my still dripping wet hair.

Alexis stills
when she sees me walking toward her, and after a couple of moments, she smiles, “Hi.”

When I get closer, I notice her eyes are red, and her smile isn’
t filled with its usual warmth, “What’s wrong?” I ask, and wrap one arm around her waist while brushing my other through her hair and across her cheek. “Have you been crying?” She shakes her head, and steps away from me while shrugging out of her jacket.

“No.
I’m just a bit tired.” I feel my eyebrows beginning to furrow as I turn around, and watch as she walks straight through to the kitchen without as much as another word.

Alyssa
instantly hops up from the couch, and walks after Alexis while I take a seat down opposite to Rye.
Huh.
“I wouldn’t worry man. It’s probably hormones or something. You know what women are like at the best of times, never mind when they’re up the duff!” I laugh when I see him starting to shake his head.

“Yeah. You’re probably right. I guess this is something that I’m just gonna have to get used to
, huh?” I sit back in my seat and cross my arms up behind my head.

“Rather you than me, buddy. Rather you than me.” A sm
irk crosses over his face, and he focuses his attention back down on the sports magazine that’s resting on his lap. “I mean, take Alyssa, for example. That girl’s bad enough without injecting her with some baby juice. I don’t even wanna imagine what she’ll be like if she ever has kids.” He shudders, and his face starts to fill with horror. He doesn’t seem to be finding this conversation as amusing anymore.

Alexis has had moments in the past week when she’ll be absolutely fine one minute, and then go completely crazy the next. I don’t mean throwing objects, or screaming offensive
things or anything. She’ll be calm and collected, and then all of a sudden she’ll either start crying or run to the bathroom so she can hurl.

The girls haven
’t come back through to join us yet, and they’ve been gone for around twenty minutes already, “I’m gonna go and check on her. They’ve been in there a while now.” Resting my hands on the edge of the couch, I push myself up to stand and walk through to the kitchen.

“I shouldn’t have gone there … Alyssa, he looked horrible. He didn’t look or sound like th
e same guy and … he was so different ...” What the fuck have I just walked into here? Alyssa has her back to me, and her arms firmly wrapped around Alexis. “He said he loved her, and he … he fell in love … he wanted me.”

“What did you say?”
I hear Alyssa ask her, and I know I should be stepping in here, but I’d really like to know what all of this is about. Who the fuck is declaring their love for my fucking girlfriend?

“What could I say? Neil that’s the sweetest thi
ng someone’s ever said to me?” she lifts her head from off of Alyssa’s shoulder, and her eyes widen when she’s sees me standing in the doorway. Me? I can’t move let alone speak. “Brandon.” She sounds upset, and she’s starting to look worried. Yeah, well, she should. I still don’t move or say anything because I can’t. My blood is literally running cold, and I’ve already started to clench my jaw so tight that I think my teeth might shatter at any given moment.

Alyssa spins around
, and closes her eyes while rubbing Alexis’s arm, “I’ll leave you guys to talk.”

“Why bother? It seems like you know a hell of a lot more than I do about anything that’s been going on
already,” I grind out, and ball my fists by my sides, not once taking my eyes away from Alexis. “Why don’t you stay and watch the show?”

“Brandon, please don’t be mad with me,” Alexis steps forward
, but immediately stops when she sees me shaking my head at her. “I had to go there.”

“You lied,” I spit out. “You both lied.”

“What’s going on?” Rye asks, stepping beside me.

A
fter everything we talked about the other day, she still went to see him. I don’t take my eyes off of her, and she’s watching me pleadingly. It feels like someone’s just ripped off the blood supply to my heart, and the airway to my lungs.

“Guys can you
give us a couple of minutes?” She glances between both Rye and Alyssa, but I think I’ve heard enough already. She promised she wouldn’t go. She swore she’d stay the hell away from him. Hasn’t that guy done enough already?

“
Don’t bother,” I turn away and head straight toward our room, slamming the door behind me. I sit on the bed, lay back, and stare up at the ceiling. She told me that she understood why she wasn’t to go there. She promised me. She promised me on this.

She deceived me. Just
like he did. And, just like Holly did. Every person in my life who actually meant something to me, the ones I cared for the most, have betrayed me. My mom and dad, Neil, Holly, and now Alexis.

I close my eyes when my head starts to spin out of control, and keep them closed when I hear the door opening up and footsteps drawing closer. The bed dips
, and I feel a warmth over my hand, but I move mine away from hers. She can’t pretend that this didn’t just happen. Not this time.

“Brandon, I need you
to understand why I went there.” She sounds sad, but I think it’s more of the case that she’s upset that I found out about this.

“No,
” I say, and open my eyes. “You’re just like the rest of them.” I move off of the bed, rest my hands on my waist, and stare down at the floor.

“I neede
d to go and see him, Brandon,” she gets back off of the bed and comes to stand right in front of me. Stroking her fingers along my jaw, she turns my face until I’m looking directly at her. I don’t stop her, but I don’t encourage her either. “He wouldn’t talk.”

“Are you sure that’s the o
nly reason why you went there?”
Not her as well.

She narrows her eyes with confusion
, but keeps them on mine. “What are you talking about?”

“Do you h
ave feelings for him?” I grind out, and keep my hands down by my sides when she drops hers away from my face. “Well? Do you?”

“What?” she s
teps back and shakes her head some more, but honestly? She lied to me about this, so why in the hell should I believe her now? “How could you even ask me something like that?”

“Then why go? Why didn’t you tell me that he kissed you? Why wait for him to humiliate me the way he did? First Holly and … and now you. Did you sleep with him like she
did?” I growl, noticing her face instantly dropping into a frown, and she doesn’t even attempt to answer me. “Holy fuck! You slept with him?” I feel my gut immediately starting to twist tight.

“It wasn’t like that. I promise, we
didn’t do anything! He was just …”

I throw my arms in the air and go to step around her. I can’t stay here. Not now. Not ever again. Was I feeling humiliated
before? Yeah, of course I was, but not as much as I do now. She has tears rolling down her cheeks, but the last thing I wanna do is wipe them away. I’m done with pretending. I’m done with being the prop in all of their games and lies. I’m done with …
I’m done with
her,
“And then it all makes sense!”

“What does? Brandon, please will you just—”

“Was he worth it, Alexis? Was he? No, don’t tell me. I don’t wanna know … I … he must’ve been. He took you out from right under my nose. He took the both of you. Fuck I’m such an idiot! What did I do that was so wrong? All I ever did was love her. All I ever fucking did was love you!”

“Will you please listen to me? I know you’re hurting, but I’m not Holly, Brandon. I’m not her
! I need you to listen to me!” She grabs my shoulder when I start throwing a few things in my bag. I won’t let her do this to me. She knows the shit I’ve been through. I bet they were laughing about this the whole fucking time. All of them. “Brandon, what are you doing?”

I step back as soon as I’ve fastened the zipper on the bag
, and throw it over my shoulder. When I reach the door, I turn back around, my eyes resting on her stomach. A sharp pain rips through my chest, and I actually think I wanna cry. I thought we were gonna have our happy ever after, but there’s no such fucking thing. Not in my world. I was delusional to think that I could ever have even the tiniest piece of happiness in my life.

“Brandon, please don’t walk away,” I watch her place her hand across her stomac
h, and I slowly walk back over to her. She’s upset, I see that, but I need to know one more thing.

Lifting my hand, I stroke my fingers over her stomach. This was gonna be a new beginning
for us. A new start where we could try and put everything behind us, and look forward to our future together, “Who’s the father?” My voice isn’t filled with anything. No emotion. No nothing. When she doesn’t answer, I lift my gaze up to meet hers, and then she slaps me. Hard across the cheek like I’m the one who’s in the fucking wrong here. I shake my head, because when I look at her, I see a different person standing in front of me. She’s not Alexis. She’s not the girl I fell in love with. To me;
she’s nothing
. “Yeah. I thought so.” I back away, and then pick my bag back up from off of the floor before heading to the door.

“Do you really believe that this isn’t your baby?” I hear her voice tremble, but don’t turn around. I walk out from her room
, and place my room key on the breakfast bar on my way out.

Earlier, I had everything. I had the girl of my dreams who I was gonna marry someday, and a
baby on the way.
Our baby
. Now, I have nothing. There’s nothing left to make everything bad that’s happened in my life worthwhile. Not anymore.

***

It’s been four hours since I left the dorm. Alexis has tried to call me a couple of times, but I didn’t answer. Not a single time. I don’t wanna talk to her. She betrayed me. The one person I needed to be on my side. The only person I wanted in my life.
Gone.

Just when I thought thin
gs were finally gonna work out, everything was swiped away from me again,
by him.
Even while he’s sitting inside a cell someplace, he’s still managing to fuck everything up and come between us. Well, I guess he got what he wanted. He finally won.

They hurt me. The people I cared about the most were the ones who screwed me over. Well, I’m not gonna allow for that to happen again. As I see it, friendships and relationships are overrated. Believe me, I just learnt this the hardest way
fucking imaginable.

I don’t need anybody else, and I’ve made a decision. From now on, I’m
gonna be just fine on my own. All my life all I’ve ever wanted to do is care for the people I love, make them happy, be there whenever they’ve needed me to be, care for them, love them. But, it’s not worth it. They’re not worth it.