A Step to Love

Jake and Mr. Roberts, Mr. Roberts, Alex and Jake and Mr. Roberts and Alex and Alex, Jake and Alex.

I shrieked silently. What the hell was going on?

I stepped out of the car. Walked, and walked until eventually I reached where I had been avoiding coming. This was the moment of truth. I knocked three times, cursing myself for I had forgotten there was a doorbell. I waited until eventually someone opened the door.

“May I help you?” a guy probably around my age asked. His hair was blonde, his frame was tall and thin, his eyes were the color of chocolate as were his lashes. His lips were in a straight line, not showing any emotion to my presence. “You.”

I frowned. “I thought you moved out.”

His eyes sent a sneer through them. “I’m back.” His eyes went to my long dress, rested on my breasts before showing me another cold glare. “What do you want?” he asked, in a much uglier version of “may I help you?”

“Is Brody here?” I couldn’t believe I was asking this question. I looked around the background, but everything seemed too dark. There wasn’t a soul inside besides this dude.

“You’re looking for Brody? To send him to jail again?”

I shot my gaze to his direction and stepped forward, causing him to get startled. “I did what I had to do, Meddler.”

He stepped forward, too, causing me to back down and then he started closing the door on my face. “Well sorry to tell you he’s not here.”

Just when I thought he was lying, Brody’s figure appeared behind him and I yelled his name, halting him to a stop. Halting both of them to a stop. Then I added, “If you try and close a door on my face again, I will make sure your penis goes to Siberia while you stay in here.” I didn’t mean to sound like a bitch, but this guy seriously irritated the crap out of me.

While I was with Brody, all he did was criticize me. For everything, including my family situation, which, by the way, wasn’t meant for him to know, but he had asked and Brody just couldn’t seem to turn down a question like that.

“Lilly,” Brody breathed, walking up to the door and pushing his little brother away from the door. Graham was never exactly around. He had moved out, as Brody had told me they day he got me the mare. He left because he wanted to try and be more independent. Guess that didn’t work out too well for him. “What are you doing here?” he asked.

Suddenly, he hugged me as my defenses went up. I shifted nervously in his arms and my nose caught up the scents I had forgotten during these months.

“Lilly?” He held my shoulders in his arms like trying to wake me up from a bad dream.

I fixed my posture. I saw that Graham was still staring at us and I worked up on ignoring his presence. “Not to state the obvious, but I came to look for you.”

“You saw me at the park, didn’t you?”

I pursed my lips. “How did you know?”

He smiled his cute-baby-face-smile at me. He shrugged. Although little time had passed, he looked somehow changed. More serious, perhaps, more focused, more mature… “I saw your little scene with Alex. And I have to admit it felt good to see you puke in his mouth.”

I groaned. Great. “Yeah, it didn’t felt very good to me.” I remembered the last time I had seen him before my date with Alex. He was scared, worried, regretful… “Why are you here?”

“Ah, so that’s why you’re here? To get the dirt on me?”

I nodded. It was sort of true. He smiled again and gestured me to his living room. His brother disappeared from the door, probably to a much better angle where he could still get a shoe-in of the conversation.

I started as we sat. He offered me something to drink, but I had refused. I felt my guard up, and way up. “How come you’re not in jail anymore?”

He, on the other hand, grabbed a cup of orange juice for himself. He sipped. “Jenny busted me out.”

“Hm?”

“She talked to my parents. My parents were really hesitant about it because they thought I needed to pay for my actions. And I thought so, too. Lilly, I swear I didn’t mean to do what I did. I was reckless and just plain imm—”

“I forgive you for lying to me, and I forgive you for telling me you loved me and not actually meaning it.” He looked guiltily. “But I don’t think I’ll even forgive you for taking a life because of selfish needs. That’s just not the way I work,” I told him. He nodded.