Baby Just Say Yes

When Rayleigh got home that night, as she took her makeup off and changed into her pajamas, she felt conflicted about Brian. She wasn't quite sure how she felt about him anymore.
One one hand, she still cared about him in a romantic way, to a certain degree. Of course there was the physical attraction she felt towards him, and the fact that he was now too old to legally date her, making him a sort of forbidden fruit, didn't help matters much. He seemed to have the same personality, as well. He'd been gentle with her, explaining his reasons, not jumping off the deep end and getting angry when she told him how she felt about the fact that he hadn't contacted her for three years. Instead, his face had become overtaken by pain, like it hurt him to know he'd caused her that amount of pain. And that part of him she knew was genuine. Matt told her from time to time that he still talked about her, and that had been what she'd gathered hope from.

But there was another part of her, and she wasn't sure how much of it consumed her, that didn't want to be around him. She didn't want to invest her trust in him again only to be abandoned. Three years ago, she'd been a completely different person. She had been young and naive, believing that they'd be together forever, even if he had never asked her to be his girlfriend. Now she realized that would probably never happen. She knew he still cared about her to a certain extent, but Matt had told her six months after he'd stopped talking to her that he was seeing Val's sister, whom she had never met. She wasn't sure how she felt about that. While evidently he'd moved on in life and had pursued other romantic interests, she'd stayed the same insecure girl. She hadn't had a boyfriend since him, hadn't kissed anyone or hugged them.

She layed down in her bed, not putting too much hope in Brian that he would text her back. She didn't want to fall again, because she wasn't sure if she would survive the crash landing if he left again. Just then, she heard her phone vibrate on her nightstand. She looked at it, and instead of alerting her to a new text message, it read 'Incoming Call: Brian. Her eyes widened in surprise, but she flipped her phone open, walking out to her balcony.

"Yeah?" She asked him, her voice coming out husky in her sleepiness.

"I didn't wake you up, right?" He asked, sounding unsure of himself.

"No. Why? Would you hang up if you had?" She questioned, coming off more mopily than she'd like to.

"No." He admitted. "I've missed talking to you, Ray."

"Then you never should have stopped." She snapped. "You didn't have to."

"Ray, I'm so-"

"Don't." She said. "Don't you dare apologize for something you're not really sorry for."

"I mean it." He insisted. "I made a mistake."

"You're damn right." She told him, her voice rising. Realizing that her parents might wake up, she lowered her volume. "And I don't know if I can forgive it."

"Ray, please. Michelle and I aren't really going out, okay?" He told her.

"What do you mean? Matt told me--"

"I told Matt to tell you we were dating." He explained. "I wanted you to be able to move on."

"So you figured that if I thought you had forgotten about me I'd do that?" She scoffed. "Sorry to break it to you, Brian, but your genius plan backfired."

"I never expected you to forget me." He said. "We've had something special for far too long for either of us to simply forget and move on. But I hoped you'd move on."

"I didn't." She told him simply. "And yet you did."

"You don't get it!" He told her, his voice becoming more desperate.

"Get what?"

"I never moved on, Ray. I don't even see Michelle that often. Just whenever I see Val, every couple of weeks or so."

"Then explain to me why you stopped talking to me. Give me the truth. Don't I deserve that, at least?"

"Ray, I don't know if--" He started, cutting himself off. "I don't want you to hate your parents even more."

"That's not possible." She told him. "Tell me what they said."

"He told me he'd hire a hitman, Ray." He told him.

"You could take them down." She said. "You're strong, and besides--"

"Not on me, Ray. You." He told her. "He said if I didn't leave you alone, he'd hire a hitman to kill you."

"What?" She asked, surprised. "Are you sure that's what he meant?"

"Rayleigh, I wouldn't make that up. I recorded it on my phone if you don't believe me." He told her. "That's why I don't want to talk to you."

"It was three years ago, Brian. Surely--"

"Ray, I don't know if you realize how serious this is." He said. "I am not going to let your sicko father kill you just because of me."

"He's not--wait a second, someone's knocking on the front door." She said, putting her phone down on the balcony. She didn't hear him tell her not to get up. She opened her bedroom door to see her father walking hastily down the stairs to the foyer, where he opened the door to let a man dressed in black into the house.

"Where's her room?" She heard the guy ask.

"Up to the left." Her father whispered quietly. "Be quiet, don't let Abby hear you."

"Are you sure you want me to do this?" The man asked.

"Yeah." He told him, walking back up to the bedroom he shared with her mother. She ran back to her bedroom and to the balcony and picked up the phone.

"Brian, you weren't kidding." She told him. "He's here."

"I'll be right there." Brian said, hanging up the phone. She turned around just as she heard her bedroom door open, and she slipped the phone into her pajama pants. She saw the man dressed in black, wearing a black ski mask, enter her room.

"Hello, Rayleigh." The voice said. Her eyes widened when she heard the voice, because she knew exactly who it was.