Misjudged (11 page)

“Brandon?” He looks
pale and his eyes appear haunted. “Brandon!” I try to grab his attention again, but still nothing. His head and shoulders are slouched. He looks defeated. He looks hollow. He looks like he just died.

“That was incredible acting!” I
hear one of the judge’s yell over to us while the rest appear to mutter in agreement. “Very, very impressive!” The male judge continues with great enthusiasm, but I really don’t feel so much like celebrating when I have Brandon staring at me the way he is.

The only sparkle
present in his eyes now is the one caused by the tears that are beginning to well in them. “If only it was acting,” he mutters under his breath. I don’t think he intended for me to hear what he said, but I did, and I’m glad I did. I wanted him to feel it again. “I gotta go.” His voice is hoarse, and he breaks eye contact before he heads off of the stage.

Tainted Water.

I called Brandon as soon as I left the staging area yesterday, but my call went straight through to his voicemail. A little later in the evening, I sent him a
message but I still haven’t received a reply.

I’m wondering if it’s something that I did for him to
react that way, but I don’t remember saying or doing anything that would upset him. Neil, Alyssa, and Ryan asked how my audition went and I told them it was fine. I didn’t feel the need to give them every little detail. I hadn’t even told them James didn’t show up or that Brandon was his replacement.

James popped over earlier this morning and explained the reason why he didn’t make it to the audition. I feel bad for being pissed at him now. His mom went into labor
so he needed to go and watch his kid sister, while his mom and dad went to the hospital. He left his cell phone back at his dorm, and obviously, that is why he didn’t answer my calls or reply to any of my messages.

He told me he’s going to speak with Professor Hardy first thing on Monday morning to see if they’ll give him another chance to audition.
I think it would be a bad decision if the professor and other judges don’t allow James to perform for them. What he did yesterday, putting his family first and ahead of all of his hard work and dreams, well, it’s an incredible thing to do. 

Neil and Ryan have been in and out of the dorm all day, bouncing around with
excitement for their upcoming gig tonight and singing loudly as they walked by me with numerous amounts of musical equipment.

Alyssa has only just returned home from shopping with a couple of her classmates, Jen and Kelly, and has come to
join me on the couch with a beaming smile plastered all over her face.

I wish I had her bank balance. My father and I do okay, we’re a lot more
fortunate than most, but Alyssa’s parents are loaded. Her father owns a chain of different businesses throughout Washington state, so to her, money is no object.

“Where were you last night?” She wiggles her eyebrows at me accusingly, which makes me curious as to where she thinks I was.

“I went to bed early. Yesterday kinda took it out of me so I had an early night,” I tell her. The drop in her face is making me feel a little alarmed. “Why?”

She clears her throat and narrows her eyes on me. “Are you sure?” She’s screwing her face up and looks to be trying to
read my thoughts. She grabs her cell phone and places it in front of me after tapping a few keys.

Looking at the screen, I see a
message sent from Seth at eight o’clock last night. He’s telling her that he has to work because Brandon never turned up for his shift. A knot forms in my stomach, and I feel her watching me as I shrug my shoulders.

“Maybe he was sick
or something,” I say flatly. He didn’t return my messages or calls. He didn’t show up for work. I’m starting to feel a little worried, especially when I think back to the way he looked on the stage.

“I just thought that
…” She begins, and then hesitates, before turning away.

I always know when she’s hiding something and I think this is one of those times. “You thought what?” I ask, and she lets out a deep breath before turning back to face me.

“It’s just that when I met with Jen and Kelly just now, they said they saw Brandon with a huge bouquet of flowers and talking on his cell phone when they were heading into the city yesterday evening,” her eyebrows furrow as her voice goes quiet. “I just assumed they were for you.”

“Why would they happen to mention seeing Brandon with flowers?” I wasn’t expecting my own
voice to sound so …
angry
. Am I angry? Well yeah, I think I am. At least I know he’s okay but now I know he purposely ignored my calls and messages. He bought flowers?

She throws me an apologetic f
rown. “They mentioned it when I told them I was pissed that Seth had to work because Brandon hadn’t shown up. We were supposed to be going out for dinner. That’s when they told me they saw him. I thought it was because he was spending time with you.” Her face certainly isn’t wearing the same positivity as it was just a couple of minutes ago.

“No he
…” I stop speaking when I hear the main door swinging open.

“Alex, I need to ask you a huge
favor!” Ryan comes bounding towards us with a worried expression crossing over his features. “The van we hired to move all of our equipment just broke down.” He has his hands in front of him and looks as though he’s praying. This is kinda funny to watch.

I know what’s coming. He wants to
borrow my car, but he knows how I feel about his insane driving. He should never have been given a license.
Ever.

“Can I please, pretty please, pretty please borrow your car?” Ryan’s on his knees now and Alyssa and I both burst out laughing at his desperation. “I love you, Alex! You’re my number one girl, you know this!”

Ryan has his eyes clenched shut and I’m really finding this is all far too amusing. The atmosphere soon alters, though, when we see Neil walking through the main door, with Brandon behind him.

Alyssa flashes me a wide-eyed look before
messing Ryan’s hair as she stands up. Grabbing her many shopping bags from the side of the couch, she makes her way over to her room.

Neil throws me an amused grin of his own when he sees Ryan begging
, and then heads into his room with Brandon following him. He doesn’t even acknowledge me. I must have done something. Christ, he didn’t even look at me.

“Yes, you can borr
ow my car.” My voice is quiet and when I say the words, Ryan leaps up and throws himself over the back of the couch as he embraces me. “Calm down!” I laugh as I scramble from beneath him and head over to my room to grab the keys.

Taking them from by
bedside table, I head back out and see Brandon standing by the main door. He’s watching me, his lips are formed in a tight line, and he looks uncomfortable. I thought I was finally getting some of the answers to my long list of questions, but I realize that after what happened yesterday and with what Alyssa told me, the list has gotten even longer and I don’t think I will ever have all the answers.

Turning
towards Ryan’s room so I can give him my car keys, from the corner of my eye, I see that Brandon’s gaze is following me. “Neil and Ryan just went downstairs.” He says in a deep and steady voice.

“You ignored me yesterday.” I turn to face him and hesitantly walk
towards him, closing the gap between us. “What did I do wrong?” I see his face twist at my question. He closes the door and walks over until he’s standing right in front of me.

Alyssa walks out from her room but obviously sees us both and goes straight back inside again. I’m glad because I want to get things cleared up with him.

He’s already told me he doesn’t have a girlfriend and that he hasn’t looked at or touched another woman since he met me, so the flower thing isn’t really an issue for me, well, not really. I trust him, and I believe that he feels the same about me as I do about him, but I’d really like to know why he walked away and ignored me yesterday.

He places his hand over mine and takes th
e keys from me with a sad smile, “You didn’t do anything wrong.” His voice is unstable as he squeezes my hand, before he takes a step back and turns to face the opposite way.

“I thought we were going to try and be friends?” I walk around him so I can see his face again. “You walked
away yesterday, and you ignored my calls and messages. I don’t understand.”

“I must’ve left my cell somewhere
…” He moves his eyes away from me, and by the tone of his voice and what Alyssa told me, I know he’s lying to me. I just don’t get why.

I shake my head at what he just said. “You had it with you last night, when you were carrying a large bouquet of flowers,” I assert, and can’t help the accusing tone that has taken over my voice. His shoulders tense and he’s starting to look angry.

“What? Are you stalking me now or something?” He spits out while raking his hands through his hair. I’ve noticed that every time he gets stressed or upset about something, he does this.

I really don’t think I want to hear his answer
but I need to know “Where were you going? Tell me, please?”

“I need to get back downstairs. We still have a lot of equipment to get loaded up.” He swirls the keys around in his left hand as he tries to walk past me
but I grab hold of his arm, and as I do, I feel his muscles tense. He’s standing to the side of me now with his eyes narrowed on mine as he looks down.

“They were for my girlfriend, Alexis,” he answers in a flat tone. “That’s where I was heading last night, and that’s where I always go when I’ve been with you.” I let my hand fall away from him and watch as he walks
towards the main door.

“Yo
u lied?” My voice is a whisper and I feel nauseous. He lied this whole time. This whole freaking time! I’m angry. I’m upset. Damn, if I could bear to even touch him right now, I’d kick him in the balls!

He opens the door and turns back around to face me, with a
hardened expression and cold eyes. “Yeah, I did,” he replies in a low voice, before walking out of the door.

“Are you okay?” I feel Alyssa’s hand on my shoulder
and I’m guessing she heard everything. She pulls me in and embraces me tightly. “He’s an asshole, Alex. You can do so much better than him.”

I want to cry. I want to scream. I want to break his nose. I just want
… I just want him. He led me to believe that he didn’t have a girlfriend. If I’d known, I would never have … I would never have spent time with him or gotten my hopes up. I liked him. Dammit, I still like him.

***

Neil and Ryan headed over to the bar a little after five, so they could get their equipment ready for when they play their set at nine. I really don’t think it’ll take four hours to get everything set up, but I noticed they both started to look a little more nervous as the day progressed. I think it’s most likely they’re having a drink or three to help settle their nerves beforehand.

“Alexis Rose Harper!” Alyssa shouts over to me from the
doorway of her bedroom. “You’re not going out dressed like that!” Her nose is turned up, and she looks at me disbelievingly as she surveys my outfit.

“What’s wrong with what I’m wearing?” Is she for real? Fair enough, it’s a Saturday night, but I
really don’t see anything wrong with being comfortable in my jeans and tank top.

She shakes her head and vanishes into her room before appearing moments later with several things in her arms. “Here!” Her face lifts in
to a wicked expression as she begins holding some items of clothing out in front of her.

“Put these on!” S
he orders as she hands them over to me with an amused grin that widens when my mouth drops right down to the floor.

“I am not wearing those!” I protest and shake my head
, while trying to pass them back to her. She really expects me to wear a short, black leather miniskirt with an all too revealing spaghetti strap camisole? No freaking way!

“Oh yes you are! You need to fit in with the crowd, and I’m sorry to say this, but what you’re wearing is so not going to help you do that. Of course, that is unless you plan on visiting a nursing home en route?”
She grabs hold of my shoulders and ushers me over to my room so I can change.

An hour or so later, after I tried, but miserably failed, to win the argument, I find myself staring at my reflection in the floor length mirror and can’t quite believe that it's, well…
me
. I never wear clothes like these, ever.

“Alexis, you’re a freaking siren!” I can see Alyssa flashing a wide grin at me through the mirror as she finishes pulling a few strands from the wispy, high ponytail she’d perfected just a few moments ago.

I tried to draw the line at overdoing the make-up, but Alyssa appears to very much dislike the word no today. She has made my eyes black and smoky and my lips a deep red, to match my top, apparently.

“There! You’re done
and you look hot!” She states as she pulls me to the door and passes me a shopping bag. “That guy is going to go nuts when he sees what he’s missing out on!”

That is what this is all about? “Alyssa, I’m not dressing like this for that reason. He’s obviously made his decision. I’m not going out of my way to try and get even, or whatever you want to call it. It’s not
who I am.”

I was actually starting to have fun playing dress up
but she’s just reminded me of him. Who am I kidding? He’s always been in the back on my head. I was just trying not think about him.

Opening the bag she just passed me, I feel my eyes open wider.
“No way am I wearing those!” I say, shocked to have her assume that I would even entertain wearing thigh-high, black, leather boots. What the hell has gotten into her? “Alyssa! Are you trying to make me look like a fucking hooker?” I’m mortified.

“Don’t be so ridiculous, Alex! You look hot! So hot
in fact, I may just have to turn gay!” She laughs her response while pushing me down until I’m sitting on the couch, where she places the whore boots onto my lap.