My Personal Hell, D. Richardson [ebook reader browser txt] 📗

ever met. The boys looked at her like she had grown a second head.” Everyone laughed again. “Then she asked to speak with me privately and told me what had happened. I was so embarrassed, I hadn’t even thought about Sarah being about that age. After that she came over regularly, almost like she became a member of the family. A couple of times she even made us dinner.” He cast a soft smile at her that she returned.

“Ailith, will you sing to me like you used too?” Sarah asked in the sudden silence. Ailith looked down at her and smiled.

“What do you want to hear?” she asked, while Cory reached for the guitar that was still leaning against the wall. He moved around and the girls turned their chairs so that they made a triangle. It looked like something they used to do often.

“Um…I want to hear ‘Ours’ again.” The older two nodded and Cory started to play.

When the music got really going the girls that were still cleaning up came to sit around them. Joining in when Ailith needed a female back up. I think most of them just enjoyed the mellow atmosphere. Though it looked like Ailith and Cory had slipped into a world of their own, smiling at each other at certain parts. After ‘Ours’ Sarah decided she wanted to hear ‘Stay Beautiful’. Though Sarah provided the back up on this one. Both girls smiling at Cory when his name came up. He smiled along, indulging them.

Between songs Dave leaned in to talk to the table.

“Sarah has always really enjoyed Taylor Swift. Those two used to practice so they could play it for her when she wanted.” Several of them nodded in understanding. I never looked away from the two of them. Something just didn’t seem right. By the third song, ‘Teardrops on My Guitar’ they had pulled several empty chairs close. Sarah stretched out on three, putting her head in Ailith’s lap, Ailith leaned back, crossing her ankles on another, playing with Sarah’s hair while she sang.

After ‘You Belong With Me’ they played ‘Back to December’. That’s when I truly got suspicious. Mostly because at first Ailith asked not to have to sing it. Even Cory shifted uncomfortably. But Sarah begged, so despite their troubled expressions they began. At first they wouldn’t look at each other, but then when they hit the chorus their eyes met as one, and true sincerity showed through. However, everyone seemed to be oblivious to their reactions to each other, and I kept my musings to myself.

And then Sarah sat up with a smile, asking to hear ‘Blank Space’ again. Cory obviously didn’t know how to play that one, but the girls helped her out. Using sticks and other utensils to play against the table and everything on them. Ailith played with Sarah while she sang really getting into the song. With the other females around her it looked like a fun music circle, all of them moving to the beat.

After the song was over Zeke said something that had me staring at him.

“You’re still my favorite ex, Ally.” He had meant it as a joke, and she turned to give him a sarcastic look. But if she had dated that brother, then why did she seem like she was closer to the other one.

“Oh, you dated her too?” Asher asked, the two of them still sitting next to each other. The other group was so into what they were doing they didn’t hear him. Drake and Dave had moved to another table to talk amongst themselves. Dalton and the other enforcers had left after the first song, confident that Ailith wasn’t in any immediate danger.

Bastion was still present though he had moved to the bar to talk to Rob. Which left just the three of us still at the table.

“Yeah, for a time anyway. Did she add you to her short list?” he asked in return. Asher nodded.

“For almost six months.” Zeke let out a low whistle.

“You lasted longer than most. Normally, she only dated someone until she found an excuse to break up with them. I made it easy for her though.” He looked at his glass with regret. Asher tilted his head back to stare at the ceiling.

“I guess I did too. She wasn’t very much fun though,” he muttered. The way he said fun left no doubt in my mind about what he meant. Zeke snorted.

“If she had been I probably wouldn’t have felt so bad about her dumping me. I only got to second base.” It was Asher’s turn to snort.

“I barely got to first.” Listening to them made me want to smile. She had held out on both of them, and I got a sick kind of satisfaction out of it.

“I can’t believe she’s still a virgin.” Asher stared at him for a moment, so did I.

About that time Ailith said that she needed to help close up. Sarah came back to the table, effectively breaking off the current conversation. Cory didn’t sit, instead choosing to stand against the back wall. He watched Ailith as she washed dishes and cleaned off the bar.

Twenty minutes of listening to Asher, Zeke, and Sarah make small talk, I was bored out of my mind. Ailith was actually the only interesting thing in the room. Turned out that she had a lot of fun while she worked. The girls seemed to use this time to rehearse new songs. A little while later she yelled that she was going to fill the ice, grabbing two blue buckets and going to the back room that sat separate to the kitchen. A few seconds later Cory followed her. Everyone else was distracted and not paying any attention, and my curiosity was bugging me. So I followed him.

I got to the narrow hallway that led to the ice machine. The free swinging door that blocked it from sight was propped open, and what I saw made my breath hitch. He had her leaned against the counter, his hands framing her face as he kissed her. At first her hands were braced behind her against the counter, but they made their way up his chest while she kissed him back. It was such an intimate moment I didn’t dare breath.

Finally, they broke apart only for him to press their foreheads together, both of them breathing heavily with their eyes closed. He finally pulled back and they starred at each other.

“I’ve missed you so much,” he whispered. She answered by kissing him again. I couldn’t watch anymore. So I backed up, heading back to my seat.

He seemed like a genuinely good guy. They looked like they had a real connection. Like they really cared about each other. Not to mention the long past together. I hated him.

Chapter 29

Ailith

 

 

 

 

I waited several moments after he had left to take a deep breath. It had been so long since I had seen him, any of them, that being in close proximity to him alone was intoxicating. It brought back everything that I had worked so hard to forget.

His smell, his warmth, his expressions, everything that I had always loved about him. We had always claimed to be best friends, despite the three year age difference, and to most it was evident. But it ran so much deeper than that, it always had, even before we ever acted on it.

Sitting together and singing while he played the guitar, all in the name of making Sarah happy, had turned into just sitting and talking. I had lied a lot about where I was back then. Just so I could spend time with the family I wished I’d had. Until eventually our conversations changed from being about nonsense to personal. Our dreams, our feelings about other things.

And then it became natural to just sit together. The idle touch here and there was no big deal, even though those touches made my heart race. He made me feel like I was always running a marathon, like I was always trying to catch my breath. And then I turned sixteen and Zeke asked me out. Deep down I had wanted to say no, but instead I’d said yes.

It had taken a while for me to figure out why. But after I did it seemed obvious to me. Just like it had seemed obvious to Cory when he found out. Zeke was the safe bet. I had no deep feelings for him, though I did care about him. It wasn’t with the intensity that I felt for Cory. There was no risk in dating Zeke.

Two months later we broke up, and nothing had changed with Cory. We still acted the same way. Then one night we had a blizzard. Zeke and Sarah had been snowed in at the school. I was snowed in at their house. Dave was out of town on business. So it was just the two of us…alone. In an empty house.

We had decided to watch a movie, to pass the time after I had called my Dad. I had lied to him, telling him I was at the school. The phone’s cut out right after that so he never got the chance to call up there to check. And there wasn’t a signal to be found so I didn’t have to worry about him calling me back.

We were sitting on opposite ends of the couch, the tension building with every minute that we were silent. And then we weren’t on opposite ends of the couch anymore. We were both in the middle. I remember that I had made up the excuse that it was cold in my head. That was the only reason he would be sitting so close to me. I was just trying to write it off as no big deal.

But then I glanced at him, only to find him staring at me. His expression was soft and intent. It looked like he was trying to make a decision. I started to stare back, trying to remember how to breath. The next thing I knew his lips were on mine.

After that everything was a bit of a blur. All I saw, smelt, or felt was him. The next morning I woke up in his bed. I was laying on my stomach, but I could feel his hand running along the skin on my back. I had rolled over and looked up at him. He smiled at me so softly that any thoughts of regret might as well have never existed. We spent three hours just laying in bed, enjoying each other, though nothing inappropriate happened. He was gentle, kind, loving. Everything I had ever wanted.

It was with regret that I’d had to leave that I felt while I drove home that afternoon, once the roads were finally clear. Three days later I still hadn’t been able to sneak over there again. That night my dad told me that we were moving in a month. Cory had sent me a single blue rose everyday that I wasn’t able to see him. Sending it with this friend or that, though never with a family member.

Two weeks after I found out I was moving I had finally managed to make my way over to