Take it All (Blinded by Love) (2 page)

She swallowed, trying to rid the dryness that made it hard to breathe. Her lips parted, finally able to find her voice, “Caleb.” Nothing but a soft whisper fell from her mouth. She began to sob, willing him to hear the gut-wrenching pain that filled her being, hoping we would come back to her
.

He was her all. He would always be her all, and she knew it the day he unexpectedly walked back into her life. That moment when their eyes met, she knew they were made for one another; that they were meant to be. They were each other’s missing piece and he found her, in all his glory, grabbing her entire heart and soul by the hand.

Together Lennox and Caleb went places, places she never in her life thought she’d ever go. The things she saw and witnessed, no one should have to see or speak of again because once was enough. His path took them on a journey through hell, where, when given the chance to leave, she stayed and fought for him and a way out.

She did things along the way that she’s not proud of. Things she’ll never be able to forgive herself for; unthinkable things that changed her demeanour and relationships with the people in her life. Lennox, being the typical girl next door, would never, in a million years, do what she did but when it came to Caleb, she’d do anything.

She didn’t hear her door open then close with a soft click. She didn’t hear the rustling of paper on a clipboard next to her, and she didn’t hear a man clear his throat trying to get her attention. She didn’t hear anything until he spoke. “Ms. Ward, I’m Dr. Hudson.”

Dazed, Lennox shook the thoughts away and looked up the man. He was young, a little older than her by about seven years. He stood tall and his dark hair was perfectly sticking up in the front and his brown eyes were warm, in a comforting way. He was holding a white clip board in one hand and his other hand was inside his lab coat pocket. “Hi,” she said her voice raspy and hollow.

She listened to Dr. Hudson as he started talking when her eyes drifted back on the last place she saw him, silently wishing he would come back to her. “Ms. Ward,” Dr. Hudson called, stepping to the side, obstructing her view of the window. Blinking, she looked up at his unreadable face, as he closed the clip board and met her eyes again, “did you hear what I said?”

Lennox nodded, having heard what he said but turned her head away from him and sat there, looking at nothing; the room silent as if someone had muted real life. Her mind was only on Caleb.

When he left her in her room, he knew he wasn’t leaving alone, that he was taking her with him, maybe not physically, but in every other way possible. It was more than just a piece–more than a part–it was all of her.

And she let him.

“Ms. Ward, did you–”

She shook her head. “Yes, I heard you,” she said, pushing all thoughts aside, as she looked up at him, the words he spoke sending icy waves through her already numb body, and caused what little was left of her world to shatter down around her.

“I’ll give you a few minutes,” he said gently, looking at her a moment longer then turned and left her alone in the room.

When the door clicked shut that’s when it happened. She began to drown. Drowning in memories, like a surfer in a wild, out of control wave. She was in her own hell, only now she was alone; separated from the one person who mattered the most, the one person she tried to save but failed; and without him knowing it, he left her standing in the deepest, darkest pit, alone. And that’s when the gates opened and everything came flooding back.

It was Tuesday, exactly one week before Valentine’s Day, as Lennox Ward sat in the local cafe in Spruce Hill and looked down at her phone. Only five minutes had passed since the last time she checked, and ten minutes since the time before that. It was coming on eight o’ clock and she’d been sitting in the same corner booth, at the back, for almost an hour. She wasn’t sure why she was still hanging around alone, constantly checking the time, waiting for someone, who obviously wasn’t coming, to show up.

Sighing, she looked at her phone one more time, her eyes lingering on the screen like she was making sure she was in fact seeing the correct time before she pushed it away. The front door chimed and her head whipped in its direction, her eyes shimmering with hope, only to be let down as she watched a young couple walk in and up to the counter. Her eyes moved past the couple as she searched the cafe, making sure she didn’t overlook or miss anyone. Looking around, from table to table, she didn’t see anyone she didn’t recognize. There wasn’t one person who was alone, other than her, and everyone else was either with someone or in a group.

Lennox wasn’t the most patient person. When someone said they’d meet her at a certain time, she expected them to be there on time. She didn’t like waiting; it made her anxious and annoyed. Her friends and family knew this and therefore always gave her a hard time because none of them were ever on time. But sitting there, in the cafe, waiting for him to show up after already being an hour late, she had no idea why she was actually still there or why she didn’t feel the slightest bit anxious or annoyed having to wait. She didn’t understand it; it wasn’t common for her to ever feel like she did, not even with family and friends.

Her friends were the reason she was sitting there, looking like a girl stood up on a date. A date she had no idea about until two days ago, one she had refused and tried to fight her way out of, and one that, no matter how many times she tried to talk herself out of going, she couldn’t because deep down she was excited for the date. She may not have been able to admit it to her friends but Lennox was, without a doubt, looking forward to the date. Or at least she had been an hour and ten minutes ago when she walked into the cafe, ordered her favorite vanilla bean latte with a blueberry scone, and found the corner booth in the back where she started her wait.

But, if there was one thing she wasn’t overly thrilled about, it was how it all came about; how she ended up at Fizzy Wigs, in the corner booth, alone, waiting for a guy she only knew as KingK to show up and have coffee with her. And she had two of her closest friends to thank for looking like an idiot.

It had all started Saturday, a couple days ago, when Lennox, not without argument, had been forced into shopping with Londyn and Tatum. Lennox hated shopping, especially with the girls, because what was supposed to take only an hour or two, usually ended up being four, sometimes even five. She was at the last place she wanted to be, on one of the coldest days they’d had all winter, and all she wanted to do was leave and go home.

“Guys, can we go yet?” Lennox sighed, following as they headed in the direction of the clothing stores she’d never buy from.

Tatum looked over her shoulder at Lennox and said, “Babe, chill out would ya!”

“I am chill; if you hadn’t noticed it’s like forty below outside, so I’m plenty chill and just want to leave already,” she huffed, pulling her purse over her shoulder as she looked at the stores they were passing. “What’re we doing here anyways? Didn’t you guys buy enough already?”

Londyn and Tatum looked at each other with a knowing look, a look that didn’t go unnoticed by Lennox. “What was that?” she questioned suspiciously.

“What was what?” Londyn said quickly, looking at Tatum and avoiding Lennox’s stare.

“That look,” she motioned between them, “the look that tells me you two are up to something, or already did something, and you don’t want to tell me.”

The girls came to a stop in front of the store and turned to Lennox. “Just need a new outfit, that’s all,” Tatum said, then with a nervous smile turned around and walked into the store with Londyn close behind, not giving Lennox a chance to say anything.

She watched her friends scatter inside and start going through racks before she finally gave in and went in after them. The store they were in was a store she’d never shop in. The clothing wasn’t for her, and the sales girls were always stuck up and rude, giving her the stink eye anytime she was dragged in by one of the girls. Lennox was a jeans and tee kind of girl. Only in the winter you would find her in a pair of Uggs and the rest of the seasons, was either flip flops or her purple chucks. She wasn’t a girly girl who always dressed up in something nice but she wasn’t a tomboy either, she was just Lennox, who dressed for comfort, yet always looked beautiful.

“Lennox, come over here for a second,” Londyn called from across the store.

Lennox spotted them to her right, searching through a clearance rack as they whispered amongst themselves. She eyed them, her bottom lip pulled between her teeth, knowing whatever it was they were up to, she wasn’t going to like it.

As she made her way over to them, she could hear them talking, “Screw comfort, she should wear something sexy,” she heard Tatum say, as she pulled out a black sparkly tube top and held it up in front of her to get a better look.

“
Tatum
,” Londyn warned, her eyes moving from her and back to the clothing rack as she shuffled through different hangers.

“If you’re talking about me, and I’m assuming you are, that top is ugly so don’t even think about me trying it on,” Lennox said dryly, leaning up against the pillar next to the rack.

Tatum rolled her eyes as she put the top back on the rack and said, “It’s not ugly, you just have boring taste, and I was looking at it for me.”

She nodded her head slowly before speaking, “Sure you were. Are you two finished? Can we get outta here yet?”

“Lennox,” Londyn and Tatum said at the same time, in the same tone, before they went back to what they were doing.

“Guys,” she said, mocking them.

She looked between the two with narrowed eyes. She knew they weren’t just up to something, but that they had already done something; something that Lennox knew she wasn’t going to be happy about. The girls had been friends for almost ten years, since they were nine and in the fourth grade. The two had moved to Spruce Hill two months apart and were placed in Lennox’s class. It had been the perfect time too; Lennox was still getting over her best friend moving away a few months before Londyn moved in. Then, once Tatum arrived, they were inseparable. They forged a bond. A bond so tight, so strong, it was unbreakable.

Their friendship was really something else. All through their childhood, into their early teens, and all the way through high school, they were always there for one another. They barely fought, other than the odd argument over something completely ridiculous, like who would win the yearly singing competition or receive the final rose on their weekly reality shows. But other than that, they were solid and always had one another’s back when it came to any and everything.

Just like the girls’ close friendship, their parents’ relationships were mirrored after theirs. Lennox’s parents, Jason and Kelli, both grew up in Spruce Hill. They went to school together from the second grade right until they graduated, eventually falling madly in love the summer before their senior year. Lennox had heard the story of her parent’s fairytale romance all her life; it was a story that she never got tired of hearing.

Kelli and Jason Ward grew up six houses apart. Kelli, from the moment her parents brought her home from the hospital, had always lived in Turner Crescent and Jason moved to town a few weeks before they started second grade. Jason always said he knew, the moment he met Kelli, that she was the one for him, there was no one else in the world he’d ever want to be with, and it took years for Kelli to come around and admit her feelings for him. It was finally the summer before they entered their senior year of high school, when their relationship transitioned into something more. Kelli, no longer able to fight her attraction or hide her feelings for him, finally took a chance. By the time graduation came, Kelli was wearing his ring and later that summer, she surprised him with the news of her pregnancy. The pregnancy only brought them closer together, strengthening their relationship, and forever connecting them in the most beautiful way.

Lennox loved the story of her parents’ relationship. When she was younger, she envisioned herself living out the same fairy tale, and she thought it might have played out with her and her best friend, Caleb, the boy who lived next door. Only that vision was torched the day he told her he was moving away, and the day he left was the last time she ever saw him. Lennox wasn’t experienced when it came to guys. She had only ever been on a couple dates, neither of them ever going anywhere. She didn’t know romance, she didn’t know what it was like to be in love, and she didn’t know anything other than what she saw between her parents. She had no experience, other than the experience she gained the night she went out drinking with Tatum.

“Lennox, look at this,” Tatum said, excited as she waved the three quarter length, light purple shirt in the air.

Lennox eyed the shirt and gave her shoulder a shrug, along with a nod, agreeing it was nice. “It’s nice, buy it and then we can go.”

Tatum grinned before she said, “Babe, it’s not for me, this is for you. It’s part of the new outfit me and Lond are buying you,” she said, wiggling her eyebrows.