Misjudged (19 page)

I nod and he moves his hands higher up, until his fingers are brushing lightly into my hair. “Do you trust me?” He searches my eyes and I notice a look of relief wash over his face when I nod another yes.

He moves around until he’s
standing behind me and then I feel my scarf being loosened from around my neck. “Brandon, what are you doing?” I go to turn, but he stops me by placing his hands on either side of my waist.

“Making sure it’s a surprise,” he answers casually, like he’s doing one of the most normal things in the world or something.
“I don’t want you to see where I’m taking you.”

“You’re blindfolding me?” Is he freaking serious? “Brandon I don’t
…” I try to protest but when he’s pressing hard up against me and breathing into my ear the way he is, there’s really no room for discussion so I simply obey.

“
Good girl,” he laughs while nibbling on my ear and all I can think about is what he did with that mouth last night. “Alright, can you see anything? Anything at all?” I shake my head because I really can’t. This is actually pretty exciting.

He places his hands on my shoulders and starts spinning me around and around.
“Brandon! Cut it out! I’ll fall!” I practically shriek at him. His hands are gripping at my waist now and my hands are on top of his, as I try to get him to let go of me. Is he crazy?

“I’m making sure you don’t know whi
ch way we’re heading that’s all,” he chuckles as he spins me around a couple more times. “Oops.”

Yes, oops! I can’t see where the hell I’m going
and now I’m stumbling all over the freaking place. “You’re a jackass!”

“But, I’m your jackass,” he answers while placing his arm tightly around my waist, and steering me to God only knows where.
My jackass. I think that works for me just fine.

***

“How much further is it?” My voice sounds whiney and that’s perhaps because I’m actually whining. I’m sure we haven’t been walking for as long as I think we have, but I’ve almost fallen five times, and each time, he’s had to catch me before I landed on my ass. He did seem to find the whole thing very amusing though.

“We’re here,” Brandon replies, and I notice a tinge of nervousness in his voice. Turning me to my left, he
unties the scarf from around my eyes. I squint when I open them, and once they have adjusted to the daylight again, my mouth drops wide open at the site before me.

I’m speechless and can’t even manage to mumble a thank you. “Here, come and sit down.” He ushers me over to the picnic blanket that’s laid out in front of the small building by the lake.
The lake.

Crossing my legs as I sit down, I glance around at all the
wonderful food that he’s set up around the blanket. There are strawberries, bakery goods, and champagne. He’s really gone to a lot of effort today. “Brandon, this is …”

He’s watching me with
his stunning blue eyes and the smile over his face is most definitely reaching them. “That’s why I had to get you away from campus. If you’d have seen me going back and forth with it all then it wouldn’t have been a surprise.” He shrugs his shoulders while grabbing two glass flutes from the basket beside him. “Last night was—”

“Nice?” Okay, I shouldn’t have said that
because the look on his face is reminiscent of the one I felt crossing mine when he said that nasty little word to me a couple of weeks ago.

“You’re never gonna let me forget that, are you?” He grimaces as he pours some champagne into each of our glasses. “Alexis, it was
—” He’s interrupted by the sound of his cell phone ringing. He looks frustrated and clenches his jaw while grabbing it out from his shirt pocket.

He checks the caller ID and sighs, before throwing me an apologetic look. He st
ands and walks over to the wall before taking the call. Okay, my heart is speeding because if I think he was going to say what his eyes were telling me, then last night meant as much to him as it did to me.

He must have gone to so much effort with all of this and I’m wondering if he spent the entire morning setting this up. If that’s the case, then I think we might be heading in the right direction.  At the back of my mind, I thought he may have gone to visit Holly’s grave
stone.

I watch as he paces the ground in front of me
and feel a little uneasy by the body language he’s displaying. He looks tense, one of his fists is clenched at his side, and he’s gazing up at the sky and looking completely distraught. He’s speaking quietly, so I’m not actually able to hear what he’s saying, but whatever it is, it’s making him the complete opposite of what he was just a few moments ago. Gone is the laidback, carefree, and sweet guy that did so many romantic things for me this morning.

While I pick at the strawberries, he finally makes his way back over with bleakness written all over his face. “Hey, what’s wrong?” I jump to my feet and head straight over to him, while searching his eyes and trying to figure out why he looks the way he does. “Brandon?” I shake his arms when he doesn’t respond to my question.

Letting out a sigh, he rakes his hands through his hair before bringing his focus back on me. “I’m so sorry, I have to go. Listen, I’ll be back in a few hours. Dammit! I’m so sorry, beautiful.” He cups my face with his right hand, and looks really upset.

“Wait, why?” He’s leaving? But we only just got here.

“A buddy of mine just got a call from someone back in Olympia, he thinks …” He swipes his hands over his face and seems really stressed out. “They said they have some information that might be able to help me.”

“Then go,” I tell him. “Why are you still even standing here?”

He lets out another deep breath and closes his eyes, although I do notice his shoulders relaxing a little bit. “Because I don’t want you to think that …”

“I know but listen,
I’ll be here when you get back. Just go! You could get everything you need to help clear your name, just freaking get outta here! I’ll clean all this up,” I insist, and notice his eyes beginning to brighten again.

“Seven o’clock, be ready!” He kisses me on the cheek and heads
towards the clearing. “Wear what’s in the bag!” He calls to me over his shoulder, before turning around and running back up into the campus grounds.

***

It took me three round trips between the dorm and the lake before I’d collected everything up. The dorm was empty when I got back at around two-thirty, and the first thing I did was look inside the bag. I decided that packing the food up and into the refrigerator could wait until after I’d seen what he’d bought for me.

All I can say is wow. When I opened it up, a
gorgeous, shimmering red, knee length dress was sitting in my hands. I checked the tag and gulped when I saw where he’d purchased it. It was from one of the same small, but expensive, boutiques where Alyssa likes to spend her money.

I haven’t heard anything back from Brandon yet, but he told me he’d be here at seven, so
I’ve gotten myself ready for when he arrives. The dress fits me perfectly and is much more conservative than the dress I wore for Corey’s party. I can’t wait to find out where we’re going. The mystery is almost killing me, that, and the fact that I’m starting to miss him already.

It would be amazing if he receives everything he needs to help clear his name today, then it might help him move on and start enjoying his life again.
I don’t mean for him to completely forget about Holly, there’s no way I would ever expect him to do that. For a twenty year old guy, he’s had so much to deal with, and I can see how much it bothers him every single day. He should be happy. He deserves to be happy.

“You look stunning, Alex
,” I hear Neil say as he walks out from his room. He looks exhausted and also a little stressed out. “Are you going anywhere nice?” He sits himself down on the couch while facing me.

“Brandon’s picking me up in roughly ten minutes and taking me out somewhere, although I have no idea where,” I state
, while I pick up my earrings from the breakfast bar and start putting them in.

He raises his eyebrows at me. “Alyssa told me he had something special planned for you today. She said a treasure hunt or something?” He cocks his lips up
and I’m glad that he also seems to be coming around to the idea that Brandon and I are spending time in each other’s company.

I nod and smile before going to check my hair in the mirror that’s hanging up by the main door. It’s just turning seven o’clock, which means he’ll be arriving any minute. I would say I’m excited about it, but that would be too weak of a word to describe what I’m feeling.

While waiting for Brandon to arrive, I sat with Neil and explained to him about Brandon receiving a call regarding things in Olympia. He seemed surprised that Brandon hadn’t gotten in touch with him or Ryan about it. He asked how things were going between the two of us and I think I made it known how serious my feelings for Brandon are becoming.

We sat and
suffered through some garbage on television together, and every so often, I checked my watch. He did say seven, I’m sure he did. Maybe things just ran a little over. I really hope he brings some good news back with him.

I wait.

And wait.

Neil excuses himself to go and meet up with Alyssa and Ryan over at Corey’s place,
so I find myself sitting alone and still waiting for Brandon to show. It’s almost ten o’clock and my imagination is starting to run wild. I have a really bad feeling.

Calling his cell phone, it goes straight through to voicemail. The messages I’ve sent over the last couple of hours obviously wouldn’t have gotten through to him yet. What’s taking so long?

Something’s going on. There must be.

Grabbing my purse from the coffee table, I head over to his place. If he’s there, great. I’ll slap him in the face a couple of times and leave again, but my instincts are telling me he hasn’t even come back to campus since he left earlier this afternoon.

I’ve been standing by his main door and knocking repeatedly, for the past twenty minutes. Nothing. I think I need to make a call.

I feel sick
and my whole body is trembling as I grab my cell phone from my purse with my shaking hands, and make a call to Neil.

Reliving the Past.

“Alex, just think!” Even though Ryan’s tone is low, I can tell that he’s snapping at me. He never snaps at me. This must be bad. “What were his exact words?” His tone is a little softer now as he stands in front of me, with his hands placed on my shoulders. Staring into his eyes, I can see the worry and concern within them. 

“I don’t
know. A friend of his called and told him someone had gotten in touch and they had information. I don’t remember if he said a place or …” My voice is weak and tears are brimming in my eyes, as I try to think back to when we were at the lake.

Ryan steps back, turns around, and only just manages to restrain himself from slamming his fist through the opposite wall. We’re standing outside Brandon’s dorm and he, Neil, and Alyssa all got here just a couple of minutes ago. They came over as soon as I called Neil, and all of their faces have been grim ever since they approached me.

“THINK!” Ryan shouts harshly as he lurches forward, and grabs me by the shoulders with a little more force. He looks just as scared as I’m feeling.

“He didn’t say a place!” I scream back at him
and tears begin to flow down my cheeks. “He just said …” I close my eyes and lean the back of my head against the door. My stomach is tying itself in knots. Why they hell did I encourage him to go? They’ve already explained that it’s dangerous. Shit! Why the fuck did I tell him to leave me?
Oh God, please let him be okay.

“Ryan, getting angry isn’t going to help,” Alyssa speaks so
ftly. When I open my eyes, I notice she has a hand on his shoulder and see him immediately taking his off of me, before stepping away. “Alex, did he say anything else?” I shake my head at her question as the bile fills my throat.

Neil is pacing the hallway and punching numbers rapidly into his cell phone. I’m guessing he’s trying to reach all of their contacts back over in Olympia. If he can get a hold of at least one of them and spread the word, then perhaps they’ll be able to tell us about the meeting place or something. 

Checking the time, I feel tightness in my chest, “Maybe he just got delayed …” My voice trails off when I see all of them watching me. I notice that each and every pair of eyes are grave. “We … need to go and help him! It’s almost midnight … and … and he’s been gone practically all afternoon!” I try to shout through my sobs. Alyssa places her arms around me and pulls me into a tight embrace, and although I should feel comfort from this, I don’t.

“Anything?” Ryan’s clenching his jaw as he turns and looks
towards Neil. Neil’s shaking his head and glancing between the three of us. “Fuck.” Ryan sounds defeated now, and his shoulders slouch low as he looks down to the floor.

“Oh my God!” Lifting my hands up to my mouth, my whole body begins to shake. “Do you think that he…?” I cry,
a lot.
I can’t hold it in anymore. My whole body convulses and Alyssa squeezes me tighter. “I should have …” I can’t breathe, my airway feels restricted, and my mouth and throat have gone completely dry. I cling tightly to Alyssa as though my life depends on it.

N
eil’s cell phone starts to ring, “Is it him?” I immediately pull away from Alyssa and head straight over to Neil. “Dammit, Neil! Is it him?”

He shakes his head with sorrowful eyes as he
reads the message on the screen, “Alex, we need your car,” he says flatly, with his eyes turning dark. I nod and glance over at Ryan, who is now standing behind Neil and reading the message over his shoulder. “None of the guys have heard from Brandon since they told him about the meeting.”

“He went on his own?” Fuck! “Did they say where the meeting place was?” I ask and see Neil nodding in reply.

Neil closes his eyes and I can no longer see any emotion over his face. “It was … um, at the same … at the same place that he found Holly.”

No. Shit. No. Please no
. “We need to leave! We need to go now!” Shaking my head vigorously, I feel the tears dripping through my shirt as I grab onto Neil’s arm and pull him towards the main doors of the building. “We need to go!” I scream at him, before my legs give way and I fall onto my knees.

“Neil, go and grab Alex’s keys
and we’ll meet you at the car,” Alyssa tells him as she tries to help me up onto my feet. “Where did he find Holly?”

Why would he go and meet with someone he didn’t even know, at the same place he found her? Why didn’t he just sit back and think for one fucking minute that things didn’t seem
right?

“Outside a bar, on the other s
ide of the Seattle,” he replies while walking briskly away from us and over to our building.

She died here in Seattle? I thought wh
at happened was back in Olympia, “Can you stand on your own now, chica?” Alyssa asks, while letting go of my arm slowly.

“Alyssa, what if we’re already too late?” My voice breaks a
s I ask the question. I turn to face her and notice the woeful look in her eyes. My stomach rolls and I burst forth with more tears. I don’t think I could handle it. My chest is hurting too much as it is. If we’re too late, then I’ll have lost the one and only guy I’ve ever fallen in love with.

***

Alyssa, Ryan, and I met Neil by my car in the college parking lot. There was definitely no way I could drive. No way at all. Although I know it’s no use, I keep calling Brandon’s cell but it’s still going straight through to the voicemail. Some part of me wants to leave him a message, just in case he switches it back on before we get to him.
If we get to him.

I feel like I’ve died inside.
Why couldn’t I have protested and demanded that he stay with me? I shake my head at my own question because I already know the answer to that. I knew how important it was for him to have the information he’s been looking for, and I didn’t want to be the one to hold him back. My eyes are sore and swollen and the tears have dried up, but I think this is only because I haven’t any left in me.

“It’s right over there,
” Ryan points from the front passenger seat. I snap my head to see where he’s looking, and as soon as Neil slows the car, I jump out before he even manages to park completely.

“Alex, no. Stay here,
” Ryan grabs my arm and tries to hold me and stop me from running towards the side alleyway that Neil is heading down. “Listen, just, please. Don’t do this.” He glances to Alyssa who’s now holding onto my other arm. Ryan nods at her, and then turns and walks after Neil.

They expect me
to just wait over here? No fucking way. Fighting my way out of Alyssa’s grip, I march straight over to the alleyway they just headed down, but pause when I see bloodstains on the pavement.
Please God. No.

“Ryan!” I scream out for them to come back. Slumping to the pavement, I run my han
ds over the dried blood. We’re too late. “Help him, please?” I beg him as I rock back and forth on my knees, while hugging myself and wishing for the pain to stop. 

“He’s not down there,” Neil tells us
, as both he and Ryan appear back out from the darkness. “I’m gonna go check and see if anyone from the bar saw or heard anything.”

Ryan has tears
forming in his eyes too, and his lips are formed in a tight line, “We’ll find him, Alex. I promise.” He wraps his arms around me and I grip onto him with everything I have. We stay like this until Neil reappears from the bar.

“Did they?” I demand from him as soon as he walks out of
the doors. “Did they see anything?” Standing right in front of him now, I anxiously wait for some information as he takes a deep breath, while keeping his eyes trained on mine. It’s almost as though he’s searching my face and trying to find the right words to say. “Tell me!”

“They saw about five guys run out of the alley and jump into a van at around three
o’clock,” his voice is unsteady as he answers me. “When the manager went out to see what was going on, they saw a guy matching Brandon’s description. Alex, they said that he was unconscious and—”

“What?” Why is he even hesitating? “Just fucking tell me, Neil! Where is he?”
My fists are clenched at my sides and I’m getting really frustrated by the way he’s trying to shelter me from knowing anything else.

“The bar manager found him and called 911. An ambulance came and took him away
,” he averts his eyes to anywhere around him but on me as he speaks. “Alex, from what they told me, it doesn’t look good.”

***

Alyssa uses her cell to call all the nearby hospitals as she tries to find out which one he was taken to, while Neil starts the car. When she said Brandon Taylor into the phone, it suddenly occurred to me that I didn’t even know his last name.

Neil drives
towards the university hospital because it makes logical sense that they would admit him into the closest one.

I just stare out of the window. Neil’s words keep running through my mind, over and over
again like a broken record.

It doesn’t look good.

There were five guys? Five guys on one? The nauseous feeling rips through me while I try to imagine what he must have felt like when he realized it was a set up. When he walked away from me, although he seemed a little hesitant, he had hope in his eyes. I can’t believe I told him to even come here.

If he’s in the hospital, then they’ll be
doing everything they can. Okay so, he was unconscious, but at least he wouldn’t have been able to feel any pain, right?

When I feel the car slowing down, it snaps me out of my thoughts and I see Neil
pulling up into a parking space just by the emergency doors of the hospital.

“Did you have any luck on the phone?” I turn to Alyssa, and see
her biting her nails. She never bites her nails, not even when she maxes out one of her many credit cards and has to call her father for a new limit. She’s thinking exactly the same thing as I am.

She shakes her head at me as we all step out of the car.

Neil seems to be handling the situation a lot better than the rest of us. Ryan looks worried as hell, and Alyssa, well Alyssa is looking really concerned too. She keeps giving me a sorrowful look whenever I make eye contact with her.

Hurrying
towards the front desk, Neil moves me aside and asks the woman sitting behind it about the possibility of Brandon being here. What if he’s awake and all alone? I tap my fingers on the desk impatiently as the attendant appears to be taking her sweet ass time. Should she really be working here if all she can manage is to type two freaking words per minute?

I’ve really had enough of this!

“Listen, lady!” I snap while pushing Neil out of the way. “How would you feel if this whole situation was reversed and it was you standing here, wondering if the guy you’re madly in love with is still alive? Is Brandon freaking Taylor in this hospital or not?”

“Fourth floor, room
four zero five.” She mumbles under her breath as she hands us a small bottle of antibacterial spray each. “You might not be able to see him—”

We don’t wait around to let her finish. Oh, I’ll be able to see him.

As we ride the elevator up to the fourth floor, all three of them are eyeing me cautiously. I’m guessing it’s because they just witnessed my patience completely running out. This is only the second time this has happened, the first being with Matt last week.

“You fell in love with him?” Neil’s eyes have widened some as he reiterates his question, “You’re in love with Brandon?” I dip my head at him and turn away from his gaze. It’s the first time I’ve admitted it aloud, and I would do it a million times over if it meant that he’d be okay. I love him. There. I said it.

Exiting the elevator, we walk towards his room and I pause, close my eyes and take a deep breath before reaching for the door.

“I’m sorry
but you can’t go in there right now,” A nurse approaches us with a soft voice and places her hand across the door to his room, blocking our path. “Are you a relative?”

“I’m his girlfriend,” I state firmly as I hold my head up a little higher. She nods, and then points over to the seats in the waiting area just opposite to his room. “Why can’t …?”

“If you would just take a seat, I’ll explain,” I don’t like the tone of her voice whatsoever. She takes a seat beside me, but Alyssa, Neil, and Ryan remain standing. “I’m not supposed to give patient information out unless it’s to family, but we haven’t been able to locate his next of kin, and I feel bad for him. Poor guy, he’s all alone in there. So, for now, if anyone asks, you’re his wife,” she instructs in a hushed voice. I don’t even have time to contemplate what the repercussions of lying could possibly be, or what Brandon’s reaction might be, not that it matters so long as he wakes up. I’m brought back from my thoughts as she continues, “Mr. Taylor suffered some very serious injuries and until the swelling around his brain settles, we won’t know if—”

“No, no! I need to see him, please? Let me just—”

“We’ve stabilized him. He was unconscious when he was brought in and we’re keeping him in a medically induced coma until the swelling reduces. He’ll be taken for a brain scan to see if there’s any long term damage in due course.”