Intertwined episode 7

🤝INTERTWINED🤝

💑EP SEVEN💑

 

Trip and his girlfriend were almost expelled from school. Itturned out they couldn’t dress fast enough to hide the evidence. Rumor had it that Trip still had a c-ndom on histhing when they were esc-rted to the principal’s office. Hewas kicked off the basketball team.I’ll bet he was furious with me. I could see him throwingdaggers at me whenever he saw me walk the corridors. Iwas devastated, but I refused to let people see how Tripbroke me.

Prom was two weeks away. I was dateless and, needlessto say, I’d still be a V-rgin by then. But then I thought Trip’splan to defile me at Prom was not something I should havebeen looking forward to anyway. I thought I should saygoodbye to my daydreams and fantasies of losing myself inbed with a man in a rom-ntic kind of way.

Maybe this time I should be cynical, I thought. Maybe Ishould take control so guys will not run me over. Theproblem with me is that I trust too much, too soon. Everyboy I go out with will save me from the shame of beingunmarriageable, as per my family’s tradition. Every guy is aPrince Charming. Every single one of them a knight in

shining armor.

“It’s not a big deal,” Cindy said to me. “Just have fun outthere. I lost my V-rginity to my brother’s best friend, in myparents’ bed, and everything was just the way it was.”

“I’m going to take control,” I said. “I won’t let these highschool boys ruin me! I will go out, and if I like the guy andthings get a little bit cozy, then I guess…that’s it, huh? Ithink I over-fantasize things.”

Cindy shrugged. “No biggie. Don’t make such a big fussover it. It’s just s€×. You gotta know what it’s like, what toexpect. Just do it and get it over with. Doesn’t mean you’llend up marrying the first guy you’ve been with.”

“Now I guess I only need to worry about who’s taking meto prom,” I said.

There were guys who tried to make conversation withme all of a sudden, knowing what happened with Trip andfinding out that Trip and I were over. I was still heartbroken. Istill felt that none of them was ever good enough to replaceTrip. Well, the Trip that I fell in love with, anyway. Not thereal Trip, who was hiding beneath the angelic disguise.

I was hurt by what Trip did, and I hated him so much Iwanted to get back at him. I wanted to show him that hewas wrong to do that to me. That he was wrong to think solowly of me.

I dropped French class because I had it with him.

“You need to replace this subject with something thathas the same credits, or you won’t graduate,” my advis**told me.

I nodded. She handed me the list of options that I had.There was Spanish class, but I’d been enrolled in Frenchfor months and all I’d learned was Oui. Then there waspoetry, but I was afraid I’d had too many false flowery wordsfrom Trip to last me a lifetime. There was music, but I waspretty sure I was tone deaf. The other option left was art. Iguessed art would have to do.

“Are you sure?” my adviser asked me.I nodded.

“Brianne, I have to warn you. Mr. Atkins is very strict,and his standards are very high. You’re a straight-A student,and I don’t want you to break that record,” she said.

I smiled at her. “I think I can keep up with Mr. Atkins.”

She looked at me reluctantly, and then she signed theform. “All right. Last period, Mondays and Fridays. Mr. Atkins loves to extend his hours, so expect to be home a little bitlater than usual.”

I nodded. Anything to get away from Trip would be fine.

Friday, I showed up for art class just in time.

“Miss Montgomery, I hope you understand that you havea lot of catching up to do,” Mr. Atkins said. “And just so weunderstood each other, I see only art and talent in this class.Everything else is just doodling. I hope you have what ittakes to stay in this class,” he said. He motioned for me totake a seat.

His class was only half-full.

“This was a full house at the beginning of the year,” hesaid. “See how many have fallen in just a few months?”

I scanned the room to pick a place. Suddenly, someonecame into the room saying, “Sorry I’m late, Professor.”

Mr. Atkins immediately smiled. “Not a problem at all, Mr.Cross. I was just introducing your new classmate, MissMontgomery.”

At the mention of my name, Travis’s head snapped myway. I smiled at him. He raised a brow, clearly surprised thatI was finally taking art class. He went to his seat and pointedat the empty seat beside him.

“You may take whatever seat you’d like, MissMontgomery,” Mr. Atkins said.

I immediately headed for the seat beside Travis. He wasat the end of the row, and no one sat beside him.

“Aren’t you the outcast?” I whispered to him.

“I can be very intimidating. They think I bite.” Hegrinned.

“If they only knew how sweet you really are,” I saidsarcastically.

“Glad to see that you’re finally taking art class.”

“I had to drop French. I was taking that with Trip.”

He raised a brow. “You won’t be missing a thing. If youreally want to learn French, I can tutor you.”

“Merci, Monsieur,” I said, smiling at him.

“Why are you only taking this class now?” he asked.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Why aren’t you takingFrench class?”

He grinned. “I see. You think you’re already too good.”

“Some of your talents are innate. You don’t have to learnthem,” I whispered.

“Miss Montgomery, you will officially start on Monday, Today, you can just observe and take notes,” Mr. Atkins said,and I nodded at him.

He reminded the class about their assignments, andthen he asked them to work on their charcoal masterpieces.

To me, he said, “Look around you and draw anything thatinspires you to take this class. You can draw a paintbrush, acanvas, you can look at the paintings around you and drawin your own way…I just want to see the level of skill youalready have before you start my class.”I nodded.

Almost all the people in the class were introverts, asmost artists usually are. I didn’t think I liked Mr. Atkins thatmuch yet. The paintings around me were amateurcompared to the ones I’d seen in Mom’s galleries. I knew theonly thing that pushed me to take art class was that I didn’thave a choice when I dropped my French class.

I couldn’t think of anything else I liked about the class.But I needed it so I could graduate. I heaved a sigh and thenI looked to my right. I found Travis engrossed with hispainting. It was a tree with a swing moving with the winds.

“What’s your topic?” I asked him.

“He asked us for a happy childhood memory,” he repliedwithout looking at me.

“That memory seems eons away,” I told him as Irecognized that swing from one of their estates, from whenwe were about twelve.

“Remember, he said, ‘happy,’” he murmured.

I bit my lip. I couldn’t help feeling sad for Travis. Iremembered that he and I were just alike. We were two broken souls trying to look out for each other at best wecould.

And then suddenly, I knew what I had to draw.When I was done, my painting was just as good as anyother student’s charcoal painting, maybe even better thanmost. It was a very good painting of Travis’s face, showingthe same expression he wore when he first saw me in theclass.I didn’t know that Mr. Atkins had been watching me.

When I looked behind me, he was engrossed in his thoughts.

Then he stared at me and smiled slowly.

“Mr. Cross is the one thing you liked in this class?” heasked.

The others looked at me. That should have embarrassedme, but I smiled instead.

“Travis is my childhood friend,” I said. “It’s nice to see afamiliar face when you enter a room full of strangers.”

Mr. Atkins nodded, clearly impressed. “Well, it looks likeyou have talent after all, Miss Montgomery. Welcome to myclass.” And he moved on to the next student.

Travis was looking at his portrait. Then he said, “I looknothing like that!”

I giggled. “Sure you do.”

He stared at me for a while. “Well, since I was yourinspiration to take this class, I guess I’ll paint a portrait ofyou if he asks us to paint our inspiration to stay in thisclass.”

I smiled at him. “Why? I thought you liked art.”

“Maybe you’re not the only one who has the talent.” Hewinked at me, and I couldn’t help giggling.

Mr. Atkins sent us home about an hour after the bellrang. No wonder Travis caught up with me that day I waswalking home after finding Trip with his cheerleader. He hadjust gotten out from art class.

“How did you intend to get home?” Travis asked.

“I thought I could catch a ride with Cindy. I didn’t knowMr. Atkins would send us off so late.”

“You better get used to it,” Travis said. “I’ll drive youhome. It’s Friday today. Maybe we can have dinner first.”

I smiled. “That would be great. I haven’t eaten out inmore than a month.”

Travis raised his brow. “You broke up with Jacobs lessthan two weeks ago.”

I sighed as I gathered my stuff and walked out with him.

“Well, we hadn’t gone out for dinner in a while. He wasbusy with basketball practice. Turned out, he had tons ofextra-curricular activities on the side.”

“You’re telling me he hadn’t taken you on a date in awhile?”

“He picked me up, we grabbed a bite or two. We had icecream sometimes. He picked me up at the mall. We were ina relationsh¡p. Did we have to go on dates all the time?”

“I’m not a fan of relationsh¡ps. But I believe he shouldhave taken you out on real dates at least twice a month. Youknow? Go to the movies, and have a nice quiet dinnertogether, go to the fairs, go stargazing.”

I laughed. “Wow! Travis Cross! No wonder you’re theultimate heartbreaker on this campus.”He grunted.

“Now, since your ex-boyfriend was not such a great fanof rom-nce, let me take you out on a date you deserve.”

I laughed. “Date? I didn’t think—after our educationaldate—I would go out with you again.”

He raised his brow. “I am, after all, your safety guy. Partof my job is to pick up your shattered pieces and put themall back together.”

I laughed. “Well, good luck with that.”

***

I tried to look okay, but I wasn’t. I was scared about a lot ofthings. I was scared that I wouldn’t find the right guy by thetime I was thirty-one, and I was scared that Trip wouldn’t bethe last guy who would cheat on me.

Damn, I was even afraid that I would die a V-rgin. Or ifnot, I was afraid that the person I would lose my innocenceto would treat me like I was unimportant the next day,would think low of me, or worse, would cheat on me with afilthy slut like Trip did.

“Did you hear the news?” Cindy called me that night.

“What news?”

“A girl was dumped in the fields a mile from school.”

The hairs in my neck rose. “Really?”

“Yes. They don’t know who it is yet. They’re trying toidentify her. They’re still finding out whether or not she wasfrom town.”

“Geez! I thought this was one of the safest towns thereis.”

“I know. It’s nerve-wracking, right?”

Just then, I heard a stumbling noise outside my door.

“What the heck…” My heart pounded in my ribcage.

The door opened and Travis barged into my room. Hewas breathless, like he had been running, but his facebrightened as soon as he saw me sitting on my bed.

“There you are!” he said, his voice full of relief. “Youweren’t answering your phone!”

I looked at my mobile and realized that I had twentymissed calls, all from him. I left it on silent mode, which waswhy I didn’t hear him calling.

“I’m sorry. It’s on silent. Why? What’s wrong?”

“They found a girl somewhere. She hasn’t beenidentified yet. I just thought I’d check up on you. And whenyou didn’t answer, I rushed here.”

I smiled at him. “I’m here. I’m not that girl.”

Travis took off his jacket and sat on my couch. “Youreally had me worried.”

“I’m okay, Trav.”

“You shouldn’t be alone here.”

“As if I have a choice,” I murmured.

“I’m still here, you know!” Cindy said on the other line.

“Sorry, Cindy. Travis dropped by. I’ll catch up with youlater.”

“Sure. He sounded really worried! That’s very sweet!”Cindy said before she hung up.

I stared at Travis. “What were you saying?”

“You shouldn’t be alone here,” he said.

“I’m not alone,” I said. “I’ve got two maids livingdownstairs.”

“That’s not enough to keep you safe.”

“I’m safe. And besides, I always believe in fate. You haveto go, you have to go.”

He raised his brow. “Well, I promised your brother Iwould take care of you. That means I will fight fate to keepyou alive.”

I smiled. “That is really sweet.”

“No. It’s just me keeping my promise. I told you, I don’tmake promises I don’t keep.”

“Relax, Travis,” I said. “I’ll be fine. I’m not so fragile, youknow.”

“Nevertheless, I’ll stay here until they find out who thatgirl is. And if they find that she’s a local, that means wehave a psychopath within a few miles’ proximity, and I’llmake arrangements for you to stay somewhere safer thanhere.”

“Thomas wouldn’t be that paranoid, you know.”

“Thomas always believed in the goodness of people. I’mthe cynical one, remember? And unfortunately for you, I wasthe one who lived.” There was pain in his voice.

I sat on my bed quietly for a while, just looking at Travis.

He was handsome beyond belief, but his eyes were sad, hissoul broken.

“You still miss him, don’t you?” I asked, standing up frommy bed and sitting next to him.

“Don’t you?” he asked back.

I sighed. “Every day.”

I realized that I was…sad, too. Very sad. And I felt alone.Thomas was not the only one who left me. My mother andmy father did, too. And all I had left was…Travis. Thiswonderful, beautiful boy who pledged to take care of meforever.

I couldn’t help it. Something came over me. I stared atTravis. He was staring at me intensely, too. And somehow, Isaw him in a different light. Something about him was sodeeply enticing and exciting that I was not able to stopmyself. I lunged forward and gave him a k-ss on the l-ips.I closed my eyes. My l-ips still on his, I wound my armsaround his neck. It seemed like time and space froze in thatone magical moment…that one magical k-ss.

And then when it moved again, it moved in fast forward.Everything went so fast. I felt his arms around my wa-ist ashe pulled me to him. I felt his l-ips gently bruising mine inheart-stopping k-sses.

I didn’t think, I only felt. And the intense emotion I feltwas nothing like I had ever felt before…with Trip, or with anyother guy. And now, I realized that I wanted something. AndI wanted it with Travis.

“Take me, Travis,” I whispered. “Please…”

And just like that, I felt him stop. He pulled away fromme. His face was flushed and his breathing rugged. His eyesclosed and he raised his face, as if he was steadyinghimself, trying to get ahold of his emotions.

“I mean it,” I said quietly. “Better you than some randomguy…than some boyfriend who will cheat on me.”

He opened his eyes and stared at me disbelievingly.“What…what are you…asking from me?”

I took a deep breath and boldly said, “I want you…to…bemy first. I want to know what it is like. I want you to be the one to show me.”

He closed his eyes again. When he opened them, Icouldn’t read them anymore. They were deep, all emotionshidden. He almost looked mad.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have k-ssed you,” he said. “I guessI forgot who you were.”

“Who am I, Travis? Some silly little girl who doesn’t knowbetter? Thomas’s little sister? I’m not young anymore,Travis! I’m the same age as you! And I’m a woman already!I’m not a girl anymore! Stop treating me like one!”

“What do you want me to do?”

I opened my mouth, but no sound came out. Suddenly, Icouldn’t say it. I couldn’t ask him again.

Travis’s eyes narrowed. “See? You can’t even say it outloud! You don’t know what you want, Brittany Anne!” hesaid in a frustrated tone, calling me by my full name. Hestood up from the couch and headed for the door. Then hestopped and looked at me again. “Why me?”

I took a deep breath and struggled to say something…anything… coherent. “Because…you’re safe. Somehow, Isee you as my angel. You’ve always been there for me, totake care of me. And I didn’t want to throw away my…V-rginity to someone I didn’t know and would never know inmy future.”

He stared at me icily. “You read too many rom-ncenovels,” he whispered hoarsely. “I’m no angel, Brianne…especially not in bed.” He turned toward the door again. “Ipromised to keep you safe until they found out whether thegirl was a local or not. I’ll sleep on the couch downstairs. Idon’t think it’s wise for me to be in the same room as youright now.”

And he closed the door behind him.

I threw myself on my bed. I felt embarrassed beyondbelief. Moreover, I was afraid that I might have destroyedmy friendsh¡p with Travis.

How could I have done that? I’d already asked him to bemy safety guy, and now I’d asked him to be my…deflowerer! And even Travis didn’t want me. His k-sses sentme spinning like no other k-ss had ever done before. Andmindlessly, I’d decided I wanted it to be him. The safe guyto give myself to for the first time. Because I knew he wouldtreat me with respect, would not k-ss and tell.I knew him. He wouldn’t be gone from my future. Hecould never cheat on me because he wasn’t my boyfriend.And whenever I thought of my first time, I would think ofhim dearly. I wouldn’t loathe myself or the guy. I wouldn’twant to turn back time and take it all back.

But he didn’t want me. Because I was a V-rgin? I wasinexperienced? I knew nothing about pleasing a guy! I wasboring! No man would want me. Not even Travis, who wassupposed to be a player…who craved a woman’s companymore than anything else. I wasn’t good enough…not evenfor him.