Misguided Truths: Part One (2 page)

Pushing myself forward when I hear the bathroom door unlocking from the inside, I watch Holly hesitating in the doorway when she sees me standing in front of her.

She throws me a small smile before she immediately goes to walk by me and towards the stairs.

“Wait, Holly.” I have no idea what to say to her. I just know I wanna be around her. Of all the chicks to walk into the bathroom at that precise moment, it had to have been her
, didn’t it? Of course it did.

“Why?” she asks while eyeing me with caution.

I shrug my shoulders once and walk slowly towards her. She seems pissed.
Shit. I’m pissed.
We’d most likely be having a fun time together if it wasn’t for what happened with Heather earlier, “I thought that maybe we could hang out together or something.”

She shakes her head and turns back around, pausing to let someone by her on the top step. I watch them exchange words and despise the way his eyes are roaming over her. Shit. I really need to get a grip of myself.

The guy stops and goes to stand right beside her. If my memory serves me correctly, I think it’s one of the guys from her class.
Chad.
This feeling … I don’t know how to explain it. I feel like someone’s just punched me hard in the goddamn stomach. I’ve never felt this way when I’ve seen other girls chatting to guys like him. Captain of the football team. Straight A student. Shit, no.

No … I can’t be.

I am.

I’m fucking jealous.

And, now she’s smiling back at him. This party seems to have taken a dramatic turn southwards, amongst other things. He glances over his shoulder and throws her a wink as he walks away, telling her that he’ll meet her downstairs.

I don’t fucking think so, punk.

I wait for him to close the bathroom door before I make my way over to her again, “You’re not seriously going to spend time with that guy, are you? You know he’s a player, right? You know him and that … Vanessa? … Shit! What’s her name? The one with the ginormous breasts and—”

“You don’t … h
ow do I put this? Okay. You don’t really think you can judge the guy, do you? I mean, you don’t exactly hold a lot of respect for women, Brandon.” I risk another quick glance at her and see that her eyes are boring into mine, and her eyebrows are raised up high. “Why do you care so much, anyway?”

“How would you know whether I respect women?” I didn’t expect for my vo
ice to sound as sharp as it did when I just asked her this.

“Hea
ther? Do you respect Heather?” she starts to slowly walk over to me.

“Why are you bringing Heather into this?” I feel my brow furrow with confusion. What kind of question is that anyways?

“I saw you both in the bathroom, and I saw the way you just spoke to her downstairs. I’m not judging you, but your reputation isn’t that great. You can’t honestly say that you have respect for women when you take them up to someone else’s bathroom and fuck them at a party, then disregard them like trash right afterwards.”

Way to offend a guy.

“I have respect for women, I do. But, I don’t see why I should be judged on my actions and how I handle things when those said women clearly have no self-respect for themselves.”

She eyes me for a moment with ser
iousness crossing over her face. Yeah, I think I just made my point. Brandon, one. Holly, nada. When I think she’s about to back down and apologize, she starts laughing instead, “Goodnight, Brandon.”

“Wait!” “You don’t believe I have, do you?” I call after her as she continues on her way to the bottom of the stairs.

I follow her and hear her letting out a breath. Watching her as she lifts her hand up, stroking a stray strand of her long, blonde hair away from her face, she catches me staring when she turns back around. “It really doesn’t matter what I think.”

“Actually, it kinda does …” I take another step closer towards her. “I have respect for women.”

“Okay,” she nods, but I can tell she still has her doubts on this.

“You don’t believe me?” I can tell she doesn’t, and it’s really starting to fuck me off.

“No.” It’s now her turn to shrug her shoulders. “Sorry.” She smiles apologetically. It looks like I’ve already blown my chances with her, even before being given a single damn one.

“I’ll prove it,” I tell her and cross my arms over my chest, making sure to keep eye contact with her. Usually I don’t give a damn what other people think
about me, but she’s not just some other person.

I like her.

“How?” she asks, lifting her chin and staring directly into my eyes with intrigue.

Thinking about this for a moment or two, I decide that t
here’s only one way to show her, “Go on a date with me.”

“You’re crazy!” she says, shaking her head almost instantly. Amusement begins to spread over her features and into her eyes again.

“Please?” I cock my head to the side. I guess I knew she wouldn’t agree, but it was worth a shot anyways. “You know you want to.” I wink at her.

“No!” s
he laughs again, harder this time, before she goes to turn back around.

W
hen she reaches the bottom step, I decide that I’m not gonna let this one drop, and so pursue her.

“Okay, I get it. You know that you’ll enjoy my company way too much and then have to admit that you’re wrong about me. Then, you’ll have to eat your words and apologize for judging me,” I shout after her, knowing that it’s a pretty cheap shot on my part, but hey, what else can I do? “You’re afraid you’ll fall in love with me!”  I stand and wait for her to answer.

The people in the hallway are beginning to stare as they glance between the two of us. She notices this, too, turns around with widened eyes, and that’s when I see her cheeks beginning to blush before she turns away from me again.

“I said goodnight, Brandon!
” she calls back to me.

“I dare you!” I shout out even louder this time. For some reason, this makes her stop in her tracks. I think I’ve actually managed to persuade her on this. I know she likes a challenge and that she’s pretty competitive over things. So, I’m pretty sure that I’ve got her on this one.

She’s stopped walking, and so I close the space between us and place my hands in my front pant pockets as I near her.

Holly turns around, “Fine. Fine! One date. But, only so you can prove that I was right all along and so you can show me how much of a pig you really are,” she says, with a smirk crossing over her lips.

“I’ll pick you up at seven tomorrow night,” I lean forward and whisper into her ear. Our bodies are only a couple of inches away from touching one other’s. My gaze fixes on hers, and my mouth widens into a grin when she narrows her eyes on me. “It’s a date.”

Alright, I really need to just calm the fuck down.

Since when do I get all worked up over a date anyway?

That’s right.
Never.

Never, because I don’t date. I went on one back when I was sixteen and it was a complete fucking disaster. That one time was so bad that it was enough to put me off going on another one for a very long time. Besides, my lifestyle right now suits me just fine.

I know I have a reputation for being a player, but the people who labelled me this aren’t particularly correct in their assumptions. Fine. So, Heather and I hooked up last night and the weekend previous, but that doesn’t mean shit. I do have respect for women.

Well,
some women
.

I
do things with different girls, but they happily oblige to please me in return, and it never usually goes past receiving a blowie or me touching her up in the back of a car or someplace. I’ll admit that I’ve slept with a few women, but how many eighteen year olds these days haven’t?

Exactly.

People around here, though, seem to think that I go out partying every weekend and sometimes even hook up with more than one girl in a night. That’s a lie, but I don’t see why I should need to prove those narrow-minded people otherwise.

I’ve always told myself that they can assume whatever they want about me. It doesn’t make a difference what they think and won’t make me change how I plan to live my life.

Well, I’d always thought those things up until around fifteen hours ago, when Holly accused me of those exact things. She’s one person who I do want to know the truth. I’m not a bad guy, and I don’t disrespect women. Now, all I’ve gotta do is try and prove this to her.

The front door bell sounds, making me throw the two shirts I couldn’t decide on wearing from out of my hands and over on my bed.

I check my watch and see that I have a little over an hour before I need to leave to go and pick Holly up. There’s no way in hell I’ll be late. Something tells me she’ll revel in the fact otherwise. I take the stairs two steps at a time, wiping my palms on my trousers as I make my way over to the front door.

“Hey, man!”

“Rye, what are you doing here?” I open the door up wide and watch as both he and Neil walk by me. They make their way into the hallway and through to the main room. I cuss under my breath and close the door back up behind me.

“We’ve got tickets to that gig over in Seattle tonight, remember?” Shit. Fucking shit! “Don’t tell me you’d forgotten about one of the biggest music event of the year, bro?” Neil looks astonished as he glances back over his shoulder at me.

“You forgot? And, what the hell is that?” Rye asks, taking a step forward and screwing his nose up at me. “Dude. Are you wearing cologne?”

The gig they’re talking about is one of the biggest music events this year
, and all of our favorite bands are gonna be there. We’ve been literally waiting months for this one.

“If you’d forgotten then where are you heading?” Neil presses.

“I, um … nowhere in particular … I was just gonna see what was going on in town,” I answer, checking my watch again. I now have less than an hour to be ready and out of the door.

Neil and Rye exchange glances and don’t appear to
believe me for a single moment, “Well go and finish getting ready and then we’ll head out there. You never know, there might be some pretty hot chicks to grind with!” Rye adds, raising his brows in such a way that it becomes obvious that he plans on getting lucky tonight.

“I …” I begin,
realizing that the only way I’m going to get rid of them is to tell them about my date. “I have plans, and—“

“Yes you do. With us in Seattle,
” Neil interrupts.

I’ll just tell them. I mean, what’s the worst that can happen?

“I have a date.”

For some reason, the looks they’re both throwing me
right now don’t surprise me in the least. Of course they know I don’t date, but I’m not really appreciating the fact that they’ve pretty much doubled over with laughter and are having to lean on each other to keep themselves upright. They continue to howl for more than a couple of minutes,
at least.

I wait impatiently for their laughter to calm, crossing my arms across my chest to show
them that I’m unimpressed by their reactions to this, “You? A date? Alright, what gives? You don’t date, bro.” Rye says, his face becoming a little more serious when he notices that I’m getting even more pissed with him.

“Yes,” I answer. “A date.” I walk over and stand in front of the mirror that’s hanging above the fireplace, spiking my hair up a little higher. Chicks dig spikes, apparently.

“Who with? Man, you never, and I mean never ditch us or a huge gig like this for some chick,” Neil accuses. “Either you’re shitting with us, or you’re … or you’re shitting with us!” He begins to laugh again.

“Holly. I’m going on a date with Holly.”

Well that sure wiped the smiles off of their faces. Both sets of eyes are planted firmly on me as I make my way back over to the main door to show them out.

“Holly as in Holly, Holly? Holly as in the same Holly who …? How the fuck did you even get yourself into that one?” Rye asks, looking stunned now. I know what he’s thinking, but it’s way too much fun to see both of their reactions to explain the exact reason as to why she agreed to go out with me tonight.

“Holly Grainger?” Neil pauses by the door. “Rachael’s sister, Holly?” I grab the handle and pull the door open, not missing the glances they’re throwing each other as Rye walks by me and out onto the porch.

“So, where are you taking her?” Neil sounds a lot more interested now. “Anywhere nice?”

“Rafael’s on Broad Walk.” This earns a low whistle to escape from his mouth. “I managed to get us a table.”

Rafael’s is one of the best, if not t
he
best restaurants on this side of the city. They’re usually always fully booked, but one of the guys who works in the kitchen owed me a favor. Due to who I’m going on a date with and because of what I have to prove, I decided that tonight was a good a time as any to call that favor in.

He looks impressed, nodding a few times as he walks through to join Rye on the other side of the threshold.

I attempt to close the door, but as it nears the frame, it hits something. Rye’s foot, no less, “You do know that she won’t put out, right?”

“Yeah. I know,
” I nod. His mouth falls wide open in what I can only assume to be pure disbelief. He takes a step back and I gesture a salute, before closing the door on them completely.

Alright. It’s almost show time.