Are You In The House Alone? (plus: Love Me) (3 page)

CHAPTER 9

It’s getting really late and
Garrett still hasn’t come home. I’m getting worried that he’s not going to.
That he’s going to stay all night at a friend’s. Probably a girl’s.

I sooo don’t want that. Just
thinking about it makes my stomach twist with agonizing knots. I want him to
come home so we can talk. But I get the sinking feeling that will never happen.
He’ll go back to avoiding me again.

The thought sends a gloomy sadness
crashing through me.

The pathetic thing is, I
liked
Garrett being nice to me.
Liked it wayyy too much.

Now I just long for his presence.
Like a sad little puppy waiting for his master.

Garrett
come home
. It’s like a silent continual wish running through my tortured
brain.

While I’m sketching a picture of
Garrett (yes, I
know
I’m being
demented), I get a bizarre text from a blocked number.

Reading the message, a chill crawls
through me.
“Are you in the house alone?”

The words send shivers down my
spine.

My heart pounding wild, I stare at
the message, unable to breathe.

Breathe,
Brandy. It’s just a joke,
I try telling myself. But the thing is, I don’t
have friends like that. Friends that would write me creepy messages.

Sucking in my breath, I shakily
text back,
“Who is this?”

“Answer my question and I’ll
answer yours.”

I squeeze my eyes shut, then put
down my phone, telling myself
I’m not
going to play their game. I’m not going to be scared.

Well, that’s what I
try
telling myself.

I try to go back to my sketching of
Garrett, but my hands are shaking too bad. Now my wish for him to come home is
more like a desperate prayer.
Come HOME
Garrett
.

I get another text. My heart stops.
It’s the same message:
“Are you in the house alone?”

Too frightened to move, I do it anyway.
I run out my bedroom door, planning to run to my neighbor’s house and bang on
their door. But I barely make it out of my bedroom before a hand wraps around
my waist and I’m whisked back into my room.

Before I know what’s happening, a
blindfold is pulled over my eyes, then my hands are tied loosely at my wrists.

A husky voice whispers in my ear,
“I’m not going to hurt you, Brandy.”

The voice is almost
reassuring—almost. Only
MY HANDS
ARE BEING TIED!!!

And I’ve been blindfolded!!

So, yeah. I’m not reassured.

I’m so frightened I feel like I’m
going to pass out.

A rough warm hand tenderly brushes
my shivering arms,
sooo
gentle. The
voice whispers, “I swear, Brandy, I’m not going to hurt you.”

“W-what d-do you want?” I
frantically stammer out.

“This—” Suddenly, a hot mouth
crashes on mine.

At first I fight it, try with all
my heart to pull away. But as the kissing goes on, I start to relax a little,
since the voice keeps telling me to.

In between the seductive kissing,
“Relax Brandy,” keeps being murmured huskily in my ear, and the rough, gentle
hands keep tenderly stroking my arms. Then they pull me closer and closer as he
deepens the hot, hungry kiss, sending waves of tremors crashing through my
trembling body, and making me so weak in the knees that he has to hold me up.
But he tenderly does it—holds me—his hot, hungry mouth not leaving
mine for a second. And I can’t help it. I can’t fight it. I totally believe him
after a while of the fervent, masterful kissing. He’s not going to hurt me … or
he would have already.

The hot, passion-filled kiss goes
on and on, his tongue exploring my mouth like he’ll never get enough of it.

Slowly, hungrily he trails
seductive kisses up the curve of my neck. “I’m going to move you to the bed,”
he murmurs, his hot mouth not leaving my tantalized skin as he murmurs it.

When I stiffen he murmurs
reassuringly—again, “I’m
not
going to hurt you, Brandy.”

He picks me up and carries me to my
bed. I’m shaking, and trembling, but it’s not because I’m scared anymore. Only
scared of my feelings … because I like this. I
adore
it. I’ve never been kissed like this before. It’s … magical.
Seductive. Glorious.

His eager kisses go on and on,
driving me wild, shocking me. With a groan, he reluctantly drags his mouth from
mine. Breathless, he murmurs, “Brandy, I have to stop.”

Immediately missing the heat of his
body, and the glorious feel of his tantalizing mouth, I moan, “Why?”

The question spills out of me
before I can stop myself.

He laughs softly. “For one
thing—you have a boyfriend.”

Oh
yeah.
While I’d been tied up I’d been able to push that thought away. After
all, it wasn’t
my
fault I was being
kissed. I was literally
forced
to do it.

And, okay, I’d been under a
hypnotized spell. Totally enraptured.

I wasn’t thinking of …
anything
. Only,
Oh yeah baby, keep going, give me some more
of that tongue.

Reality comes crashing back on me,
making me feel guilty, guilty, guilty.

He seems to realize this. He says
sardonically, “I guess my other reason doesn’t matter now, huh?”

I shake my head, going to cry. I
cheated
on Phoenix!!!

“K. I’m gonna go.” Gently he unties
my hands.

But he doesn’t untie the blindfold.

By the time I finally get it off,
he’s gone.

And he took my sketch of him with
him.

CHAPTER 10

Monday morning I hunt down Garrett.
“You moved out of the house?!”

He did it while I was asleep, the
night he had
blindfolded
me and
kissed me wild.

He stills. Then shuts his locker.
Slowly he turns to face me. His eyes staring into mine, he slowly nods. Though
I don’t really need that—the nod. I, of course, already know he moved
out.

The morning after the kiss I’d
stormed into his room for answers, only to find he had moved out.

My heart had fallen like a brick.
And it does it again now—falls.

But I try to act angry, not hurt.
“Why?” I demand. “Why’d you do that?”

“Which?” he asks.

I know what he’s
asking—whether I want to know why he moved out, or why he blindfolded me.
But I want to know both. Not only that, I want the moved-out thing to not be
true. And I want the blindfold thing to be something ultra-romantic. Something
that will make it worth the fact I have to break up with poor Phoenix … because
I have to. Of course. I mean, I’ve fantasized about another guy’s kiss all
weekend. That’s not fair to Phoenix. I suck as a girlfriend and he deserves way
better.

“If you’re asking about the
blindfold thing, I just wanted to get your panties wet.”

He pulls me back to him as I try to
storm away. (Jerk!) I want to slug him.

He rubs a hand over his face.
“Brandy, I just wanted you to see what it’s like to be with a guy—an
actual guy.” He raises his eyebrows. “Not your gay boyfriend.”

When I start to storm away again,
he catches my shoulder and pulls me back to him—again.

“Did you feel a difference in a
specific body part on me?—you know, an indication that I was into what we
were doing?”

He grins. “It seemed kind of
shocking to you, so I’m going to assume Phoenix doesn’t get the same reaction
from kissing you—or not as eager anyway.”

He bends down so we’re eye-level,
looking into me eyes, like to make sure I’m understanding what he’s implying.

He murmurs softly, “If the guy
doesn’t get turned on kissing
you
,
Brandy—” his eyes rake over me, he shakes his head slightly, “—then
he’s definitely gay. Just face it, okay? Don’t waste your time on it.”

I growl, “You are so annoyingly
arrogant! I am
not
‘wasting’
my time with Phoenix. Just because he’s a gentleman doesn’t make him gay.”

“No. The lack of a hard-on makes
him gay.”

I growl again.

It makes him smirk, like I’m
hilarious. And adorable. “Brandy, if he doesn’t at least
try
to attack you—he’s gay.”

I start to storm off again, but he
pins me against the lockers this time, making me stay. “You want to know the
real reason I did it?”

He stares deep into my eyes. “You
wanted me to.”

I blink. Is he
insane???

He relents a little. “Well, okay,
you didn’t want
that
… but you
wanted me to kiss you. Face it Brandy, you did. But you never would have
allowed it to happen—because you have a boyfriend.”

He looks me in the eye
challengingly. “But you wanted me to do it.”

Okay, what he’s saying is probably
true. I guess. I mean, I’ve relived and daydreamed about his hot, passionate
kiss all weekend. And before that I fantasized about it. It’s true. I did.

But that sucks.

Because now I can’t get his hot,
steamy mind-blowing kiss out of my head.

I moan. “You’ve ruined my life.”

He raises his eyebrows. “You have
no idea.”

CHAPTER 11

I sit in my first period class not
able to focus. My head is swimming, wondering what Garrett meant by agreeing
with me that he ruined my life. He sounded sort of miserable about it. What was
he talking about??

Also swimming around in my brain is
that stuff he said about Phoenix. Those were things I didn’t have a clue about.
I had absolutely no idea if Phoenix’s body parts were secretly doing astonishing
things while we were kissing. Or if he was truly “into” kissing me. He
certainly never seemed as eager as Garrett about it … but hey, who is? Well,
okay—me. About kissing Garrett. I’d been very, um … “into” it. Which is
why I have to break up with Phoenix.

 
Only I don’t
want
to. I don’t want to hurt him.

But I know I have to.

(Sob.)

CHAPTER 12

When the bell rings, I find Garrett
waiting for me outside of my classroom.

I freeze seeing him, though my
heart speeds up.

My knees go all wobbly just from
the realization that he’d been standing here, waiting for me. (Also, thoughts
of his hot passionate kisses flash through my brain, igniting everything inside
me.)

But hey, the guy had terrified me
with a scary message, then seduced me, then
MOVED
out of the house. I’m kind of pissed at him. (Understatement.)

And maybe the words “pissed at”
should read: “shattered by.”

Well, no. Both apply.

Pissed and shattered—that’s
me.

Shakily, I try to walk around him,
but he blocks my way. “Let me explain something, Brandy,” he says all hot and
coaxing.

He pins me against the wall since I
keep trying to squirm away from him.

His eyes linger on me, then his
warm breath heats up my lips as he murmurs, “The text wasn’t meant to scare
you. I mean, that wasn’t the intent—not exactly. I just needed to get you
out of your room for a second.” He rubs the back of his neck. “Sorry I scared
you. And blindfolded you.”

He says it all contrite. Like a
little boy that knows he did something wrong—like ate a bunch of cookies
his mom told him not to.

Sadly though, face it: I’d have him
do it again in a heartbeat. But I don’t tell him this. Of course. The dude
moved
out of the house right
after he did it. It’s like a slap in the face. Or a slug in the gut.

My eyes annoyingly welling up with
tears I ask huskily, “Why’d you move out of the house?”

He eyes my pooling tears and runs a
hand over his face. Slowly, he backs away, unpinning me from the wall.

“I did something bad, Brandy. I’m
sorry.”

Then he walks away.

CHAPTER 13

Okay, I have no idea what Garrett
was talking about. What he did that was “bad.” Unless he just meant he broke my
heart.

… well, at least he’s sorry about
it.

(Jerk!!!)

I play it over in my mind all
day—well, that … and everything else about the guy.

Geez, I’ve got it bad!

CHAPTER 14

All day at school Phoenix and I
have been awkward around each other. It’s weird. I know why
I’ve
been acting strange—guilt and
the horrible knowledge that I have to break his heart. But why is
he
acting so weird?

“Phoenix,” I tell him in the
cafeteria when we’re finally alone. “After school I have something to tell
you—it’s kind of … heartbreaking.”

“I have something to tell you too,”
he says.

But before we can say anything else
we’re bombarded by our friends as they sit at the table with us.

Phoenix’s eyes look deep at me,
then they flit away.

What
the—??

Did he get blindfolded and kissed
too?

He’s kind of acting like it.

CHAPTER 15

Up in my room, after eating a bunch
of cookies, Phoenix gazes at me, then ducks his head, looking away. “Brandy,
I’m gay.”

My stomach drops. “But—but
we’ve been
dating
for
two
years
.”

He nods. “I know. Marcus pointed
that out on the band trip. He made it clear—if I haven’t been all hot and
sexually after
you
—you,
this
hot
, amazing girl …”

“Wait!” I furrow my brow. “
Marcus
helped you figure this
out? Marcus Conner?? Phoenix, he’s gay.”

Phoenix rubs the back of his neck.
“… Yeah.”

He peeks into my eyes. “I know.”