Page 43 of Save Me
“You can’t have me, though,” I sigh, feeling exasperated by his inability to see how insane this is for him, for both of us. “And I can’t have you; don’t you get that yet?”
“Beth, you’re not marrying him, even if I have to kill him with my bare hands. I will get you out of this!” he says, still with a confident smile on his face.
“How?” I demand, throwing my hands up in the air over this ridiculous conversation.
“Haven’t figured it out yet, but I will,” he replies just as he stops the car a few meters away from my house. The rain begins to hammer against the car, causing my head to feel solid, as if a full-blown migraine could attack at any moment from all of this stress. As if sensing my tension, he cups my face and places a feather-light kiss to my lips.
“God, I knew you were trouble when I saw you telling Kyle he stank!” He chuckles cheekily while I try to work out what the hell he’s talking about. However, it only takes only a few seconds to realize that he must be talking about his sister’s party.
“You were there?! Spying on me?!” I gasp, trying to act affronted, but can’t help the giggle in my own voice. “You must have thought I was a right bitch!”
“I was waiting for Bodhi and his secret stash,” he explains with a casual shoulder shrug, and still with a mischievous grin on his face. “And I couldn’t help watching you. I think I knew even back then that you were bound to ruin me.”
“I hadn’t even met you! And then you called me a ‘filthy thief’!” I berate him, before folding my arms indignantly over his appalling behavior on that morning.
“What can I say? Men are fucking idiots when they fall for someone,” he says with a wide grin spreading all over his gorgeous face.
“Apparently so,” I sigh sadly, thinking of Oliver and his weird obsession with me. “Listen, if you’re hell-bent on helping me, Oliver mentioned my grandmother and her having been taught the Mayfield ways from a young age. He also showed me a feather-shaped birthmark on his wrist. My father has the same birthmark, which would indicate it’s not a birthmark at all. Perhaps you can try and find out about it somehow; I’ll do the same.”
“Definitely,” he confirms with a nod, looking resolute and less like a cheeky, little boy. “But first I’m walking you to your door.”
“No way, Xander,” I reply in a fluster while shaking my head much too hard for my impending headache to handle. “He’ll tell Oliver and then I’ll have security on me and all kinds of crap coming my way.” He opens his mouth to argue, but this time I lift my fingers to his lips to stop him. “He’ll keep us apart. Just let me handle this!”
“Because you’ve done a stellar job of that so far,” he replies, looking and sounding deadpan. “I want to give Mal a piece of my mind too.”
“I understand, believe me, I do too, but you can’t. Please, Xander, please just keep your distance for now. Promise me!” I know I’m now beginning to talk so rapidly, I’m not even sure if I’m making sense anymore. But he has to understand and do as I say, for both our sakes.
“Fine,” he eventually relents, even though it obviously pains him to do so. “But one day soon, Beth, this is coming out and I won’t hold back.”
“Ok, fine, good,” I breathe out with a sigh of relief, feeling thankful for my reprieve, even if it is only temporary. “I’ll see you at school.”
I smile, then look at him one last time before forcing myself to get out. It’s beginning to rain and the warmth of both him and his car is far too inviting, but I have to get back to reality, one I would rather take a bunch of sleeping pills to escape from. I’m most likely going to walk in to find Mal doing his nut, no doubt having had a fuming Oliver on the phone. He will have been growling at him over the fact that his daughter had demanded to go to the beach instead of returning straight home.
“I wish you could save me,” I mutter to myself as I watch him drive away with the rain making me even wetter than I already am.
Chapter 15
Beth
When I finally force myself to open the door, readying myself to face Mal and his angry, purple complexion, I am shocked to hear…nothing. It’s deathly silent, eerily so.
“Mum? Dad?” I shout but get nothing back other than the sound of the storm outside. Perhaps the running film that is my life, is turning from a creepy Thriller and into a horror, whereby I’ll be attacked by a girl crawling out of the TV. To be honest, I’m not sure which is worse.
Thankfully, the electricity is still working, so when I press down on every light switch within reach, I let out a long breath of held air. I soon begin wandering around the bottom floor to find some sign of life, even if it’s only in the form of a note. My quest is a series of dead ends, so I go upstairs, shouting out for anyone, but still get nothing. Finally, when I open Riley’s door, I smile when I see my baby brother donned in headphones, looking deeply engrossed in his Xbox game.
“Riley!” I shout at least three times, waving at him before he finally sees me and practically screams. His reaction has me belly laughing for the first time today, even after he throws a cushion and a scowl in my direction.
“Where the hell have you been?!” he snaps, ripping off his headphones before relenting into smiling back at me. “Mum and Dad left earlier on, saying you’d be back any minute, but that was at least two hours ago! I tried calling but you didn’t pick up.”
“Sorry, I didn’t know they were going out,” I reply with a grin, glad to be having some normal interaction with someone inside of this house. “I take it you’ve been ok on your own?”
“I guess,” he answers with shrug. “I just worried you might have been drowning again or something.”
I bite my lips together when I consider how close his fears were to becoming a reality when I had lost hold of my senses back at the beach.
“Ahh, I didn’t know you cared!” I smile genuinely, but all I get back is a fake curl of his lips before he returns to shooting people on his game. “Where’ve they gone, anyway?”
“Mum made them go out for dinner,” he informs me, aggressively tapping on his controller to continue shooting whatever monsters are currently prowling across his TV screen. “Then she’s making him go out for drinks with some of Dad’s employees.”