Trust Me (Finding my way) (12 page)

“
Sometimes it can’t be helped,” I tell her squeezing Tuckers thigh; he thinks last night was his fault, which is bad enough.

I watch as Sophie and Matt sort themselves out before they head out.
“You’ll call me if you need anything, right?” she asks, leaning over the sofa to give me a quick hug.

“
Of course,” I assure her.

They let Luke in as they leave.
“He’s going to shout at me, just let him,” I quickly whisper to Tucker, knowing what Luke’s reaction will be once he sees me. He doesn’t have time to say anything back as Luke walks towards us.

He doesn
’t have to say anything; I already know the routine.

“
Could you help me up, please?” I ask Tucker once Luke has taken his place in front of us.

He backs up a few steps as Tucker stands me up. Using my good hand, I lift my shirt up to just below my breasts.

“You promised me, Brooke,” he shakes his head at me. “You promised you wouldn’t go back there no matter what. How many times does this have to happen to you?” he shouts.

I lower myself back onto the sofa. Tucker helps when he notices me wince. 

“Did he…?” Luke asks quietly, flicking his eyes to Tucker. I know he’s not asking anything about him, he’s asking if my step dad finally raped me.

“
No. He tried but I fought back,” I say just as quietly. “Then Tucker showed up and stopped it.”

“
You went there?” Matt asks him, surprised.

“
It wasn’t at the house,” I answer before Tucker can.

“
Then where the hell were you? You told me he would never come here. I knew we should have moved further away,” he’s shouting again.

“
The grave yard,” is all I tell him.

“
Brooke,” he sits in the chair opposite us and runs his hands down his face.

“
He won’t go back there,” I try for reassuring, but I sound desperate, even to my own ears.

“
You’re going back there?” Tucker asks, clearly not happy with this.

“
Why were you there?” Luke asks him in return, turning on him now.

“
I was following her. She’d been spending the night there for the last week,” Tucker answers him calmly.

“
Well if you were there, why didn’t you stop him sooner? You know if you hadn’t…”

“
Enough,” I cut him off, not wanting them to get into a shouting match. “Luke, are you coming with me or not?”

“
Is he?” he asks, not breaking his glare at Tucker.

I turn to Tucker, who is in return glaring at Luke.
“Aren’t you going out?” He shakes his head in answer.

“
Okay, well I’m fine with him coming if you are?” I ask Luke, knowing he doesn’t like Tucker after last weekend.

“
It’s probably better if he comes anyway, just in case he does turn up again. That way one of us can stay with you,” Luke says finally looking at me. “If he is there, he won’t try anything if there’s two of us.”

“
I’ll make it quick, I promise” I assure him.

“
No, you take all the time you need for this. We’ll make sure it’s empty then wait by the gate for you.” Luke shakes his head at me, “Where is it?”

“
In the shoe box, under my bed.” I point to the box sticking out from under my bed and ignore the questioning look Tucker is sending me.

“
Are you ready?” Luke asks us, passing me my jacket.

“
Umm, I just need to use the bathroom and then I’m ready.” Tucker stands up and walks to the bathroom. Luke stands me up and helps get my bad arm in the jacket.

“
Brooke, what’s going on with you two?” he whispers, pulling me into a hug.

“
We’re just friends, Luke,” I whisper back.

“
He hurt you though; you shouldn’t let people that hurt you back into your life.”

“
He saved my life last night.”

“
I don’t trust him; promise me you won’t let him hurt you again.” Tucker clears his throat from the bathroom. I know he can’t hear us because we have been whispering for the very reason that he won’t hear us; he’s just letting us know he’s back. We pull apart and I smile at both of them, “Ready?”

“
Brooke,” Luke says sternly.

“
I promise,” I nod at him.

Tucker sends me a strange look; I
’m not sure what it’s supposed to mean so I just shake my head him. This seems to be the right answer because he smiles again.

It took a week for me to heal completely; Tucker only ever left my side to go to class. I know Sophie is bothered by the amount of time he spends in our room and with me, but she never mentions it. I think the only reason she never mentions it is because whenever we’re together, he’s there too.

I haven
’t heard from Luke since he took me to the graveyard, but I have heard from his dad. He rang me and gave me the number of a man that he says used to be my dad’s best friend. I haven’t called the number yet, simply because I don’t know what to say to him.

Once I
’ve paid for my lunch, I walk past the table where we usually sit and choose a table in the corner of the café to sit alone.

Sophie looks at me and frowns from the other table, but I hold my hand up and indicate that I
’ll be over in two minutes. She nods at me, but keeps watching me after she says something to both Matt and Tucker.

I dial in the number that Luke
’s dad gave me and hold my breath until I hear the deep voice of the man who used to be my dad’s best friend.

“
Hello?”

“
Umm…hi…I know this might sound strange but my friend’s dad gave me your number; he told me you knew my dad?” I stutter through and squeeze my eyes closed waiting for his reply because he’s silent for a few minutes.

“
Oh right. Brooke is that you?”

I blink surprised,
“Umm…yeah it’s me?” I didn’t mean for it to come out as a question, but to my surprise he laughs softly.

“
I’m Will. You might not remember me, but I came to your tenth birthday party”

“
Oh,” I can’t remember my tenth birthday. As a matter of fact, I can’t remember any of my birthdays before my thirteenth. “No. I don’t remember, sorry.”

“
Not a problem. Gosh, you must be what, twenty now?”

“
Twenty one, two weeks ago,” I answer automatically.

“
You should visit. A few of your’s and your dad’s friends live up here. He was an amazing man, your father.”

“
I know,” I sniff, as the first tear runs down my cheek.

“
We had a lot of good times together; he always spoke about you. You meant the world to him. God…little Brooke. I can’t believe it’s you. Look, I have to go but feel free to call me anytime you want to talk or anything. I’m going to send you a picture to your phone in a minute, okay?”

“
Uh…sure…bye.”

He hangs up the phone and I stare at it waiting for it to beep. What could he possibly want to send me a picture of?

A few seconds pass and then my phone beeps; I open the picture message and watch amazed as the photo loads from top to bottom. It’s a photo of my dad running across the beach chasing a football with me in his arms. The tears fall freely now as I look at how happy we were. My phone beeps again and a photo fills my screen again; this time it’s of my dad swinging me around grinning.

“
Brooke, are you okay?” I jump up out of my seat and hug Luke tightly.

“
Thank your father for me, please?” is all I say to him and I guess that he knows what I’m talking about because he laughs softly.

“
Come on; let’s go sit with the others.”

“
Are you crying?” Sophie frowns at me when I take the seat between her and Tucker.

“
Yeah,” I laugh wiping away the tears from my cheeks. My phone beeps and I open the message from Will; it’s an address followed by the message that says it’s for a pub that was my dad’s favourite. I smile and shake my head before replying that I’ll be down this weekend.

“
Who’s that?” Sophie asks leaning over to try and see who I’m texting.

“
Will. I’m going on a road trip this weekend. There’s a pub I want to go to.”

“
Are you going alone?” Sophie asks me.

I look across the table and catch Luke
’s eye. I grin at him; he rolls his eyes at me.

”
I promise not to cry and I won’t get stupidly drunk. We can stay in a hotel.” He smirks at the hotel room comment and gestures to everyone around the table.

“You can bring Kate. Please Luke, don’t make me go meet this man on my own.” I know I’m begging, but I don’t care.

“
Fine, we’ll all go. I want to meet this guy before you spend any time with him. As long as you promise not spend any time with him on your own; remember you don’t know him.”

I squeal excitedly, drawing the attention of everyone else in the caf
é. “I promise.” I smile now that I have something to look forward to, some way of being close my dad.

“
Okay. What’s going on?” Sophie asks looking between me and Luke.

“
The other day Luke’s dad sent me the number of a man who used to be best friends with my dad. I just rang him and he invited me up this weekend; he gave me the address of my dad’s favourite pub and sent me some photos. He said he knows me and he’s met me before, I just want to go up and have a look around. Its three hours away from here. Are you coming?”

She looks at Matt who shrugs and then turns back to me grinning
“Hell yes! Road trip.” She hi-fives me, making me laugh and shake my head at her.

I turn to Tucker and raise an eyebrow,
“Are you in?” I ask hopefully.

“
Sure,” he grins at me and puts his hand across my back to squeeze me. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

* * *

He
’s leaning over me; we’re touching, chest to chest, skin on skin. He lowers face to mine and our lips meet softy. I feel his hand move up my body from my leg and stopping to caress my bare breast. I let out a moan and his tongue slides in, moving against mine. I run my hand along his chest and down his back; I can feel his chest vibrating as he groans. He keeps moving inside me and I feel the pressure building up. I let out a moan when he shifts slightly, but he silences me with a kiss. I turn my head to the side as he trails kisses from my jaw to my neck. I call out his name as the orgasm takes over me.

I feel myself convulse and I snap my eyes open. Tucker
’s laying next me deep in sleep, fully clothed. “Shit, shit, shit, shit,” I groan and carefully, as to not disturb him get out of bed and sneak out of his room.

I’m completely embarrassed and a little bit in shock. I’m not actually sure what happened to me but that’s the first time I’ve ever… well have been left feeling relaxed. And of course it would happen over a dream of Tucker. I have no idea how I’m ever going to look at him in the eye ever again without blushing.

I
’m still embarrassed by what happened to me as I make my way towards the usual table full of my friends and…Tucker.

“
Hey, where did you rush off to this morning?” he asks me as I take my seat next to Sophie.

“
I had to…umm…I had some stuff to take care of,” I answer, not looking up from my plate.

“
Are you okay, Brooke?” Sophie asks me quietly. I shake my head at her. I see her stand up from the corner of my eye and she pulls me up with her; we walk over to the vending machine out of earshot of everyone.

“
What’s wrong?” she asks looking at me, but I don’t meet her gaze.

“
I’m pretty sure I had my first orgasm,” I tell her quietly.

“
And that’s a bad thing because…” she asks, frowning at me.

“
I was asleep, it woke me up. I was dreaming about..we…we’re…I had a dream that I was having sex with Tucker and I woke up because I was…you know…coming,” I whisper the last word.

I
’m not sure what I expected her reaction to be, but laughing so hard she has tears running down her face  wasn’t it. I clear my throat to get her attention.

“
I’m sorry it’s just…you’ve never…and then you get woken up by…and over Tucker,” she says through her laughing.

“
It’s not funny. We’re friends and I can’t even look at him. What am I going to do? You have to help me. I have to stay in a hotel room with him tomorrow night,” I plead.

“
Umm, I don’t know. Just don’t tell him,” she says suddenly serious.

“
Well obviously,” I say dryly, just imagining the field day he would have with that information.

“
Look, I’ll think of something. You’re coming to that party tonight right?” I nod at her. “Well, we will just have to find you someone to hook up with, that should get it out of your system,” she smirks.

“
Great,” I mutter.

“
So…was he any good?” she asks smiling mischievously. I glare at her. “Well at least it keeps the nightmare away,” she smirks and heads back to the table grinning at everyone, letting a laugh slip out every so often.

“
What was that about?” I hear Matt ask Sophie as I sit back in my chair and start talking to Luke about the tonight’s party.

“
You’re going right?” I confirm.

“
Of course, it’s supposed to be a good one,” he replies.

We both turn to see what
’s happening at the same time while Matt’s choking on his drink hitting his chest as Sophie laughs.

I glare at her; in this moment I swear I could kill her.

She smiles sheepishly at me “Sorry, it’s too funny not to,” is all she says.

Matt looks up at Tucker and then to me and starts laughing again.
“Matt,” I warn.

Tucker just watches us all confused.
“What’s so funny? I didn’t grope you again or anything did I?” he asks looking worried, making Sophie and Matt laugh harder.

“
No, it’s nothing, don’t worry about it,” I assure him without actually looking at him.

“
If I did, I’m sorry,” he says again.

“
You didn’t. You kept your hands to yourself,” I tell him only adding fuel to Sophie and Matt’s laughter. “That’s it. I’m going,” I say and then leave.

I decide to skip the rest of my classes and head into town to buy something to wear to the party.

***

Once I
’ve finished getting ready, I step out of the bathroom and walk past Sophie and Matt who are sat on her bed waiting for me.

“
Is that what you’re wearing?” Sophie asks taking in my black dress.

“
Uh…No. This is what I’m wearing on the way there. I’m going to put jeans and a t-shirt on when we’re in the car,” I reply dryly.

“
It’s a bit BDSM isn’t it?” she asks.

I smile to myself at the description she just gave it. My dress is black, strapless and has no back to it just straps of black lace with a strip of black leather in the middle of each strip, criss-crossing up my back.

“Come on, let’s go and no more dirty comments please,” I beg as we head out to Matt car.

When we arrive, the party is already in full swing. We head straight into the kitchen to get some drinks; obviously we have some catching up to do.

An hour, four beers and four shots later, Sophie’s pulling me towards yet another group of guys.

“
Is this really necessary?” I groan to her as she adjusts my dress for me before we reach them.

“
Yes. You just need someone to distract you; you’re spending too much time with Tucker. That’s what the problem is here,” she says impatiently as I focus on standing upright without swaying.

“
Right, so that’s why every time he walks into a room you’ve been literally dragging me away into another room,” I reply dryly, but slightly slurred.

“
Oh god. No more drinks for a while for you,” she says looking me over.

“
I missed lunch,” I snap.

“
Hey Brooke, having fun?” Ethan asks joining us. He watches Sophie with amusement as she adjusts my dress in different ways to make the best of my breasts.

“
I was until this one decided to take over me,” I say not attempting to stop her. I tried once and got a lecture.

“
What exactly is she doing?” he asks not taking his eyes from mine.

“
Her mission is to make sure I have sex tonight,” I announce amazed that Sophie hasn’t caught on to the fact that we’re not alone.

“
I’m not even going to ask.”

“
Thanks,” I reply gratefully “Hey, you wouldn’t mind helping me out would you?” I ask.

“
Uh…what did you have in mind?” he asks nervously.

“
Distract her so she leaves me alone, please,” I beg.