Love Behind Lies

Chapter 26

It was dark when I realized that Sam was gently trying to wake me up. I opened my eyes and looked at him. He smiled at me and I smiled back, happy. We were both sitting on the couch still, but my head was now resting on his legs. I looked around and saw a mess. There were plates and cups all over the place. Either everyone must have eaten quickly and quietly, or I was completely knocked out sleeping.
“Richard and Thomas brought some food back after you fell asleep. We haven’t had time to clean it up yet,” Sam informed me. “Your dad said he would clean it up before he went to bed. So we can leave the mess. I thought you might want to be more comfortable and sleep in your own bed.”
I nodded my head in agreement and Sam moved me off his lap, stood up, and then helped me up. We walked back to my bedroom and on the way back I could hear Thomas and my dad talking in the kitchen. I was scared to sleep in the bed that Brent and I were in earlier so I insisted on sleeping in the other bed. Sam rolled down the sheets and fixed the pillows for me before I crawled into bed. Sam went back to the other bed to lie down, leaving me cold and lonely.
I was up for a long time after that. I couldn’t fall asleep. The memories of the past day kept haunting my thoughts. I twisted and turned and I still couldn’t fall asleep. Awhile later, Sam started to move. I kept still so that I wouldn’t wake him up. Then I felt the bed dip down and as a body lay down next to me. My stomach exploded with butterflies as he pulled me into him and wrapped his arms around me.
“I’m here now, Catherine.” Sam’s voice was quiet and smooth. I could barely feel him gently kiss the back of my head.
After that, I slept like a rock. I don’t know what it was, but as soon as Sam was next to me all the bad memories went away and everything went back to normal again. That was why I was slowly but surely falling in love with Sam.

Saturday morning was brutal. As soon as I woke up all the memories flooded back into my head and I squeezed me eyes tight and moved away from the body lying next to me. When his arms pulled me into him and struggled to get away. “Catherine,” the voice said, but then I remembered I wasn’t with Nick and I wasn’t with Brent. It was Sam. So I slowly relaxed and let Sam pull me into him.
“You okay,” Sam asked me.
“The memories keep coming back,” I whispered as tears stung my eyes. I rolled over and buried my face in Sam’s chest. He squeezed me tight, showing no signs of ever letting me go.
“I got you now, Katie. Don’t worry. You’re safe now.” Sam assured me. I relaxed a little and held in my tears. The two of us laid there as I calmed down and Sam held me. It was perfect.

After everyone was up and ready to leave, we all piled into Brent’s car and headed to the airport. The past three days all blended together, and I didn’t want to remember any of them.
Everyone was pretty much silent as we walked around the airport trying to find our gate. I stayed near Sam as much as possible. I never had to worry about Brent either. It seemed as if he was almost trying to stay away from me, but I was okay with that. I didn’t want to deal with him right now either.
I five of us waited for our plane home. Nick was brought to his by the police as the plane was finally pulling up to the gate. We all boarded the plane, including Nick, but he mostly just kept to himself. I sat by Sam, my dad and Thomas sat next to each other and Brent sat alone.
I slept for the majority of the flight and when I woke up I played some card games until we finally landed in Indianapolis late afternoon.
As we departed the plane, I took a big sigh of relief, happy to be home. The drive home was silent once again, but I didn’t mind it. The silence was relaxing. We had all squished into the car since we had added an extra body, but it didn’t last long because we dropped Nick off first. He hadn’t said anything to any of us since we got on the plane which was probably for the best.
My mind wasn’t wandering much either, so my stress level was down. I didn’t want to think about Brent and I really didn’t want to relive what happened between me and Nick. I just wanted to home, away from everyone that’s betrayed me. I want to feel safe again.
The next thing I knew we were pulling into my driveway. Sam was probably going to end up sleeping over tonight and I had to do something about Brent. I actually missed his voice.
Brent turned the car off and we all got out. We were silent as we walked to the front door. My dad was the one who knocked on the door. My mom answered and was overly surprised by his presence. Oscar, William and Margaret came to the door to see what was going on and eventually my mom made us all come inside and sit on the couch. We had a lot of explaining to do.
I was happy to see Margaret. I missed her a lot. I will have to talk to her about all my boy trouble. She would know exactly what to do.
We all settled down in the living room. We all decided my dad should start with his side of the story. As he went on in his explanation, the rest of us would most likely fill in the gaps.
Everyone sat in the living room for almost two hours. By the time the story was completely finished it was almost dark outside. My mom couldn’t believe the story, but she was just happy that everyone was safe.
One by one, everyone got up and left the room. After about ten minutes, Sam, Brent, and I were the only ones left, and it was silent. I couldn’t take the silence anymore and I was really tired, so I stood up and began walking to my room.
“Cat,” Brent said at the same time Sam said, “Katie.” The two boys were innocently staring at me as I turned around.
“What,” I asked.
“Can I talk to you,” Brent asked.
“No, I don’t trust you anymore.” I replied, guilt filling my heart. I still loved that boy and didn’t want to hurt him.
“I won’t do anything to hurt you, I promise. I just want to gain your trust back, Cat. Please.”
I hesitated. I wanted to give in, but only a little. I looked at Sam, who shrugged, not knowing what I should do.
“I’ll wait for you Katie,” Sam said after a few seconds, giving me the go ahead for Brent to talk to me.
“Fine,” I said.
Brent stood up. “Can we go to your room,” he asked.
“Sure,” I said even though I was scared he was going to do something I didn’t want.
We walked up the stairs, leaving Sam in the living room. When we reached my room I walked in and sat on my bed while he sat on my desk.
“Cat, I am so sorry.” Brent said, looking me straight in the eyes. “I didn’t mean for any of this to go down. I knew it was going to happen, just not like that. Do you understand what I am trying to say?”
I nodded my head.
“I still love you, Cat. I know that I forced you to love me from the beginning and I didn’t expect us to fall in love like this.”
I still said nothing.
“I don’t really know what else to say. I just want to be with you again, Cat.” Brent sounded like he was about to cry.
“Brent, I can’t do this.” I paused. “I understand why everything happened the way it did, but I just don’t think we can do this,” I told Brent.
“Please, Cat, no. Don’t do this to me,” Brent begged.
“After everything that you did to me, you expect me just to move on like nothing ever happened?”
“I don’t want to lose you.”
“Brent, I trust you. I love you. But, I think that we need to take a break from each other right now. I need my space and time to collect myself again. You can come over and we can hang out, but I can’t commit myself to you right now. I need to recover.”
“Fine. I understand. Just promise me that you will still talk to me. Call me if you ever need help. We can even hang out sometimes. Please promise me.”
“I promise. Just give me some space.”
Brent nodded, stood up and sat down next to me on my bed. My heart jumped, only because I was scared.
“Trust me, Cat,” Brent whispered. I tried to relax, but it wasn’t working. The memories were coming back.
Brent’s arm came around me and he pulled me towards him. I was shaking and my whole body was tense. “Relax,” Brent told me. I tried to relax slowly and eventually I let my whole body settle and ease. I put my head on his shoulder and took a deep breath.
He promised he wasn’t going to hurt me, but my mind was still racing. I remembered my confusion when I first met Brent. I remember thinking about how I thought the whole thing was a scam. How it just came out of nowhere. My instincts had been right. The whole thing was made up. It was a huge trick to get my dad back.
As I thought all of this through, I could feel my eyes closing and my body falling asleep. I was surprised that sleep had come easy, considering that I was unable to sleep unless Sam was with me last night.
Brent must have picked me up and laid me down so that my head was on my pillow because when I woke up a little bit after I was confused and the lights in my bedroom were off, but I could see someone sitting in my chair at my desk. My heartbeat picked up and I tensed up.
“It’s okay Katie, I am right here.” Sam’s voice was always reassuring.
“Where did Brent go,” I asked.
“He left after you fell asleep. Are you two on better terms,” Sam asked.
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“Do you still have feelings for him?”
“Well yeah,” I said.
“Do you want me to come lay next to you,” Sam asked, changing the subject.
“Yes, please,” I replied.
I heard Sam stand up and walk over to be bed. He laid down right next to be and wrapped his arms around me, squeezing me tight. I rolled over and kissed Sam on the lips. When I pulled away, his hand came up to my head and he kissed me again. His other hand slide down my side, to my upper thigh and I wrapped my arms around Sam, trying to get closer to him.
Sam never seemed to loosen his grip. His hand on the back of me hear was intertwined with my hair and he kept trying to pull me closer to him. The hand on my upper thigh had a strong grasp and he pulled my leg over his body. He rolled me over and now I was on top of him. Every inch of my body was touching his and the hand on my upper thigh moved to my lower back, under my shirt, making my skin tingle. At first, his touch there scared me, reminding me of Nick, but then I realized I was with Sam, someone who actually cared about me.
I broke the kiss long enough to take a quick breath, but then Sam was pushing my head towards his face again. My hands were on either side of Sam’s face, until I moved one of my hands down his side to his waist. I slowly slid my hand under his shirt and brought it up to his chest. I let it rest there, just like his hand was resting on my back.
I slowly pulled away from his face, my lips tingling, and I laid my head down on his chest. “I love you,” I whispered. I pulled my hand out from under his shirt and wrapped both my hands around his torso.
“I love you too, Catherine,” Sam said, his voice husky.
Sam gave me a tight squeeze and gently kissed my forehead. He rolled me off of him, but just enough so that we were lying on our sides, facing each other. Then he pulled me in close and just hugged me. I took another deep breath and closed my eyes. I was so content right now. I felt so safe. Sam kissed me one more time before we both fell asleep.