Push the Envelope (16 page)

“Love you, Aubrey. Thanks for coming to my rescue.”

“Shut up, Lex. You gave me the lecture last night when I thanked
you for being there for me. You know that’s what best friends are for. Now, I
rented the room for the whole weekend. The jerk at check-in even made me pay
for last night so I could get into the room now instead of waiting until this
afternoon.”

“Asshole,” I muttered, mad at men in general right now.

“How about we hang out, eat junk food, and watch movies all
weekend?”

“Don’t forget about our plans involving vodka,” I reminder her.

“Yes, and vodka. Why don’t you send your dad a text letting him
know you and I are having a girls’ weekend? I’ll let my ‘rents and Jackson
know, too. We’ll turn the phones off and pretend that the outside world doesn’t
exist for a couple days. No pressure to make a decision until you’re ready. It
will be good for me too after how freaked out I’ve been this past week.”

“Yes! That sounds like exactly what I need to do.” I opened my
phone and noticed that I had several missed calls from Drake and Jackson, along
with a dozen text messages. I resisted the temptation to open any of them and
typed out a quick message to my dad. He was out of town on a charter, so he
wouldn’t expect to hear from me that much anyway. “Can you let your brother
know I’m okay when you send your message? He’s already tried calling me.”

“Already done. Didn’t give a lot of details to Mom and Dad, but
I did let Jackson know that you were safe with me and that I had everything
under control. Now, off with the phones!”

We powered down our phones and Aubrey tossed them into the bag
she brought with us. “What did you pack?”

She pulled my favorite pair of pajamas out and handed them to
me. “Figured we’d need comfy clothes. So I brought jammies and yoga outfits. It
sounded like an emergency, so I didn’t bother with much else. And we’ll have to
order in food ‘cause I’m only going out once for supplies since I skipped
packing my makeup.”

“Wow! You left home without makeup knowing that you might not
come back tonight? You really do love me!” I joked, distracted by the idea of
my fashion-plate bestie hanging out all weekend with me in casual clothes and
no makeup, especially since her eyes were still puffy from crying last night.

“I do, Alexa. And I don’t know what happened with Drake, but I
would have sworn that he loves you too,” she said in a gentle tone. “We don’t
have to talk about it now. We can cuddle in bed and watch chick flicks and cry
all weekend. Nobody knows where we are right now, so you don’t need to think
about it yet. Now go change into your jammies and wash your face. I’ll pull up
the movies and make the first pick, okay?”

I nodded, trying to stem back more tears. I flipped on the light
in the bathroom and shut the door behind me. As I turned towards the sink, I
caught sight of my reflection in the mirror. I was a total mess with my hair
all over the place, pale skin, and dark smudges under red-rimmed eyes. How I
felt inside was even worse. My hands were shaking and my stomach was turning.
My mouth felt like I had swallowed a bunch of cotton, so I poured myself a
glass of water. I gulped a little down and my stomach rolled in protest.

I sank to my knees and crawled to the toilet, glad that I hadn’t
eaten any breakfast this morning. I spat the water into the bowl and prayed
that I wouldn’t start to dry heave. I sat there on the floor, trembling for a few
minutes until Aubrey knocked on the door.

“Did you fall in or something?” she asked.

“Or something,” I answered weakly. “I’ll be out in a minute.”

After flushing the toilet, I stood on shaky legs and changed
into the pajamas Aubrey had brought for me. I opened the door and found her
sitting cross-legged right outside waiting for me.

She jumped up and pulled me into a tight hug. “I’m so sorry I
can’t make it all better for you, Lex. I really wish I could fix this.”

I gave her a quick squeeze before pulling away. “You’re helping,
Aubrey. I don’t know what I would’ve done today without you. I don’t know that
anyone can fix this mess, but you being here for me makes a difference. Don’t
think for a second that it doesn’t.”

She smiled and steered me over to the closest bed and pulled the
covers down. “In you go, get comfortable ‘cause there a ton of Spankovision
movies we can watch.”

I surprised myself by giggling in response. We’d called the
movie rentals at hotels Spankovision ever since we’d discovered that they had
porn during a road trip with her parents in middle school. Of course we’d
rented one and were stunned by what we’d seen. We were even more surprised the
next morning when we were asked about the movie we’d watched the night before.
Our blushes must have given us away, and her brothers had teased us mercilessly
the rest of the trip about the whole thing. The easiest way to stop the guys
when they were on a roll was to join in and make fun of ourselves too. If you
can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Or something like that.

Aubrey beamed at me, enjoying my reaction to the memory. “Since
I get first pick, we’re doing a girlie movie. I’m sure I’ll end up watching
enough of your action flicks later to make up for it. Maybe we’ll get lucky and
my movie will even put you to sleep.”

I nodded tiredly and hugged one of the pillows to my body as the
movie started. I tried my best to stop thinking about what had happened with
Drake and enjoy the movie, but it was so hard to do. A love story was a really
bad idea. As I watched the couple on screen fall in love, I couldn’t stop
myself from wishing life were as easy as it seemed in the movie. Boy meets
girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back. Would our story have a happy ending
too? I just didn’t see how it was possible without any trust. And thinking that
those awful lies about me were true showed that Drake didn’t really trust me,
let alone really know me at all.

Thoughts swirling round and round in my head, I closed my eyes
in an effort to block everything out. It must have worked better than I’d
planned since I woke up several hours later when the hotel door slammed shut,
pulling me from a deep sleep. The sound startled me and I jumped out of bed.

“Oops, sorry!” Aubrey apologized. She was standing there with
her hands full of grocery store bags and a drink carrier from Dairy Queen. “I
thought I could catch the door with my foot, but I missed.”

I pulled the drinks from her hands. “You brought me my
favorite?” I asked.

“Yeah. I figured you wouldn’t really be hungry, and Dairy Queen
banana milkshakes always worked for your dad when you were sick.”

“You are so sweet. Thank you!” I exclaimed while unwrapping a
straw. There was something comforting about drinking it, and I needed all the
comfort I could get right about now.

“I got enough supplies to last us a couple days,” she said,
pulling a bunch of my favorite junk food from the bags along with a big bottle
of Three Olives vodka. “And if you get your appetite back, we can always order
pizza, too.”

I glanced at the dresser and realized she’d left her phone here
while she was out. “You didn’t bring your phone with you? That’s not safe,
Aubrey! What if you’d had car trouble?”

“Oh please. I know everyone in town. If I’d had any problems,
someone was bound to find me, or I could have walked to the closest house and
called for help. It’s no biggie. Besides, I was only gone for like thirty
minutes.”

I looked at the bags and back at Aubrey. “Thirty minutes? The
store is only a couple blocks away, and Dairy Queen is right next door.”

She looked at me sheepishly. “Well, I wanted to run back to the
dorm to grab a couple things, but I changed my mind when I got there.”

“Why?” I asked, confused by her answer. “What could have
possibly made you decide not to run inside after driving back to campus?”

“I saw Drake’s truck sitting outside the dorm, so I didn’t pull
into the parking lot. I didn’t want to run into him, and I certainly didn’t
want him to see me because then he’d want to know where you were.”

“Drake was there?” I shrieked, stunned. Just hearing his name
hurt.

“Yes. Parked right at the curb with the engine running.”

I sat back down on the bed and glanced at my phone. “That means
he wants to talk to me.”

Aubrey picked up my phone, tossed it into her purse, and zipped
it shut. “It won’t hurt him to wait for you. Maybe it will give him time to
understand how badly he hurt you. And you need some time to decide what you
want to say to him. I’m not giving you this back until Sunday morning. So don’t
even try to convince me otherwise. I see that look on your face. No caving yet.
If you guys stay together, you need to make sure he understands that you won’t
put up with crap like this. You’ve heard my mom’s advice on relationships
almost as often as I have.”

“Start as you mean to go on,” we said in unison, wagging our
fingers at each other just like her mom did whenever she said the same thing.

“You’re right. I don’t even know what he could say that would
make his accusations forgivable, but I can’t talk to him until I figure out
what I want to do. God, Aubrey… He made me fall in love with him and then he
crushed me. Shattered my heart into a million pieces. How are we ever going to
move on from this?”

“I’m not sure, sweetie. Let’s just take it one day at a time, I
guess. Tonight, don’t even think about it. Let’s just hang out, watch movies,
and eat junk food. I even grabbed swimsuits so we can hang out in the hot tub.
Don’t make any decisions you’ll regret until you’ve had time to process what
happened. Okay?”

I nodded my head in agreement. “But make sure you hide that
phone better because it’s killing me right now not to call him, knowing that
he’s trying to find me.”

“Girl, please. You know you aren’t getting it away from me until
Sunday. So don’t even bother trying. And none of your puppy-dog eyes later
either. A day and a half isn’t going to kill you, especially after storming out
the way you did. You’re too much of a softie, so leave it to me to be your
backbone this time around.”

And she really was. We spent the rest of the night and all of
the next day doing anything but talking about my relationship problems. We
managed to polish off the bottle of vodka and then passed out to sleep it off.
I tried a couple times to talk her into just checking my phone to see if he
left any more messages, but she wouldn’t hear of it. She knew me well enough to
know that I wouldn’t be able to resist calling him. Even while drunk, she
insisted that a total communications blackout was the way to go, and she
wouldn’t budge an inch.

chapter
15

Sunday morning finally rolled around, and I just lay in bed,
staring at the ceiling for a while after I woke up. My stomach cramped when I
realized that I was going to have to face everything today. I was glad that
Aubrey had made me wait since I was a lot calmer than I had been on Friday. And
stronger, too.

I rolled over to find Aubrey watching me from the other bed.
She’d spent the whole weekend showing me exactly why we were best friends,
dropping everything to help me through this mess. I was so lucky to have her in
my life.

“Thank you, Aubrey,” I whispered in a heartfelt tone.

“Dude, save the gratitude. You know you’re going to repay the
favor someday,” she teased, lightening the mood. “Hell, the way I go through
guys, I’m due for someone to stomp on my heart soon as payback. Karma’s a
bitch.”

I chuckled as I looked at the clock before locking my eyes onto
hers. “It’s time,” I said, taking a deep breath to calm my nerves. I held out
my hand, knowing she’d understand what I meant.

She shook her head at me as she got out of bed and went to grab
the phones. “Nope, let me check mine first. I want to make sure that there
isn’t some horrible news waiting for you before I hand your phone over to you.
Go hop in the shower and get dressed. If we’re going to leave our little
hideaway, you might as well get ready first.”

“I don’t know if I can wait,” I protested.

“Well, that’s just too damn bad. You need to be ready for
anything, and the only way that’s going to happen is if you’re showered and dressed
before you check all the messages I am sure are waiting for you on this,” she
said, waving my phone at me. “Now run along and make yourself presentable or
I’m not giving it back.”

“Argh! Fine,” I grumbled as I stomped into the bathroom. It
pained me to admit that she did have a point. If there was bad news, then I
would be more prepared to face it after I’d gotten ready for the day. The last
thing I wanted to do was confront Drake looking like crap. If things were going
to end between us, I wanted to at least look good enough that he’d regret
losing me for being such an ass.

I took the quickest shower in history, ready to just get this
over with. I could hear Aubrey’s voice through the bathroom door and threw on a
robe so I could find out who she was talking to. I found her sitting on the
bed, phone pressed to her ear with her hand over her mouth, looking stunned.

“Jackson, she just finished her shower. Can I call you back?”
she asked. After listening to him for a couple minutes, she replied by saying,
“Yeah, I hear what you’re saying, and I’ll let her know.”

“What?” I asked as she ended the call.

“Sit down,” she instructed. She must have seen the fear in my
eyes because she moved quickly to reassure me. “No, it’s not bad. I’m pretty
sure you’re going to be relieved to hear what Jackson had to tell me.”

I flopped down onto the bed and waited for her to continue.

“First with the not-so-great news. Jackson and Drake were in a
fight. Neither of them is really hurt, but things got physical between them
after you left on Friday. Drake tried to get past Jackson to get to you, and
Jackson stopped him long enough for you to get away.”

“And they’re both okay?” I asked.

“Yeah, just some cuts and bruises. Jackson said Drake wasn’t
really fighting back. He just kept trying to get to the door. My brother was
really pissed, so Drake got most of the damage.”

“What else did Jackson have to say?”

“Well, that’s where the good news comes in. You know that my
brother would do just about anything to protect you from being hurt, right?”
she asked.

“Yes, he proved that after everything happened with Brad.”

“Exactly. He wouldn’t let Brad anywhere close to you after that
douche fucked things up. But he told me that he thinks you need to hear Drake
out.”

“What?” I exclaimed. “How did they go from fighting to Jackson
being on Drake’s side?”

“You know he’s on your side, just like I am. He didn’t give me a
whole lot of details because he said it would be best if you talked to Drake to
hear it from him instead of one of us. But the fact that he thinks you should
see Drake at all says a lot to me.”

“And where is Drake now?” I asked.

“Jackson said he’s still waiting at the dorm for you to come
back. He hasn’t left since he got there, only about half an hour after I left to
meet you.”

“But that was two whole days ago!”

“I know. Jackson tried talking him into going back to the frat
house, but Drake told him he wasn’t leaving unless it was because he knew where
you were so he could go get you. Jackson has been bringing him food, and Faith
took pity on him and let him use our bathroom. She told Jackson that he’d
stopped to check our room each time he came inside and just stared at your bed
with a sad look on his face.”

“And Jackson wouldn’t even give you a hint at why he thinks I
should talk to Drake?” I asked, unsure what to think of this turn of events.

“He just said that, while he didn’t agree with the way Drake
handled the situation, he did understand why he flew off the handle after
talking to him. Judging by the number of messages I had from Jackson, Faith,
and Natalie, I’ve gotta admit that I’m really curious to know what he said
because it had to have been pretty convincing for everyone to be so persistent
in trying to find us. And that’s not including how many times Drake called me
and sent text messages, practically begging me to have you call him. I can only
imagine how many messages you have from him,” she said as she handed me my
phone.

I powered it up and opened up my text message notification
message first. Holy shit, Drake had sent me nearly one hundred messages in two
days. I had about a dozen from Jackson and a few from Natalie and Faith each.
There were also several from my Dad, which I opened first. He had gotten my
message on Friday and just wanted to let me know he was thinking of me. By the
time I got to his last message, he was worried because Drake had called him to
ask if he knew where I was. It was from last night, and he wanted me to call
him ASAP.

I looked up at Aubrey, who was watching me with concern in her
pretty blue eyes. “My dad knows something’s up. Drake called him last night.”

“Uh-oh. You better call him first so he knows you’re okay then.”

I nodded in agreement and decided I’d better do it now before I
freaked out from reading all of Drake’s messages. I dialed his number and
waited for him to answer.

“Alexa, honey, is everything okay?” he asked worriedly.

“Hi, Daddy. I’m okay,” I answered.

“What’s going on? Why doesn’t Drake know where you are?”

“We had a fight, and I’ve been with Aubrey while I tried to
figure things out. I’m sorry he bothered you with this,” I apologized.

“That’s what dads are for, to be bothered with things like this.
Why didn’t you tell me about the fight? I’ve been worried sick all night,
wondering what was going on.”

“I’m really sorry, Dad. I sent you a message right before I
turned my phone off. I just needed some time to get my head straight before I
figured out what to do.”

“Alexa Marie, you can’t run away like that without me knowing
where you are. It just isn’t safe,” he chastised.

“I was with Aubrey the whole time, perfectly safe at a hotel. I
didn’t even leave the room once. And I had no idea Drake would call you, making
you worry about me. I absolutely would have told you more if I had known he’d
do that.”

“Just promise me you won’t ever do something like that again,
not without telling me where you are, okay?” he asked.

“I promise, Dad. I should have thought to let you know where
Aubrey and I went, and I won’t ever make the same mistake again,” I swore to
him.

“Now, what’s going on with you and Drake? Do you need me to come
home early? I can try to find someone to come up here and pilot for me,” he
offered.

“I really love you for that, Dad, but you don’t need to come
back now. I haven’t talked to Drake yet, but I’m going to call him now. I just
wanted to talk to you first to make sure you knew I was alright.”

“Okay, honey. I don’t need any details, but I hope everything
goes well when you talk. Between you hiding away all weekend and the way he sounded
on the phone, I’m guessing the fight was a real doozy.”

“It was, Dad, but Jackson has talked to Drake and told Aubrey
that I should give him a chance to explain. That has to be a good sign, right?”
I asked hopefully.

He was silent for a moment before answering. “Yes, Alexa. If
Jackson is urging you to talk to Drake, then that’s definitely a good sign.
Will you send me a text to let me know how things go?”

“Sure. I’m going to call Drake now. Love you.”

“Love you, too. Talk to you later,” he said before disconnecting
the call. I looked down at the phone in my hands, scared to open the messages
Drake had left me.

“It will be okay, Lex,” Aubrey encouraged me. She came over, sat
down next to me, and gripped my free hand.

I started with the first message and slowly worked my way
through the list. They began fairly angry, with him asking me where the hell I
went and telling me that this wasn’t over yet. Around the time Jackson must
have talked to him, the tone change abruptly to asking me to please call him
back and apologizing for his behavior. Yesterday’s messages practically begged
me to at least let him know that I was safe so he wouldn’t worry. He told me
that he was going crazy not knowing where to find me and that he knew he’d hurt
me. Tears rolled down my cheeks as I realized that the depth of his pain
matched mine.

The second-to-last was a message from about thirty minutes ago,
telling me that if he didn’t hear from me this morning he was going to call the
police to file a missing persons report. He’d already asked and they’d told
them he had to wait forty-eight hours. The last message came through as I was
reading the rest, and I was bawling by the time I finished reading them all.

Drake: Baby, please come home. Jackson told
me he finally talked to Aubrey & you’re safe. I get that you’re mad and
hurt, but please come back so I can see you. I know I fucked up big time, and
you don’t owe me anything. If you don’t want to talk to me yet, I promise to
leave. I just need to see you with my own eyes.

It was the longest text he’d ever written me. I had several
voicemail messages from him as well, and I played them all in succession, their
tone echoing the texts I’d already read. My box was full by Saturday afternoon,
which must be why he’d sent so many messages. Once I was done, I looked at
Aubrey and realized she was crying too.

“You ready for this?” she asked.

“Not really, but it’s not like I can feel any worse after
talking to him than I do right now,” I said as I dialed the number and held the
phone to my ear.

“Alexa,” he breathed into the phone after picking up before the
first ring was even done. He didn’t say anything else. He just waited for me to
pull myself together so I could speak.

“Drake, I need to see you, too,” I choked out in a raspy voice,
my throat sore from all the crying I had done.

I heard him heave a big sigh on the other end of the phone.
“Where are you? I’ll come to you right now.”

“I’m at the Holiday Inn, but I can have Aubrey bring me back,” I
protested.

I could hear tires squealing in the background. “No, I’m already
on the way. Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be there as fast as I can.”

“Okay,” I agreed. “I’ll text you the room number.”

When the call ended and I’d sent him the text, I turned to
Aubrey. “Drake is on his way so we can talk.”

“Do you want me to stay? If I leave, you won’t have a car here
in case your talk with him doesn’t go well,” she warned.