Caleb looked genuinely sincere and truthful; I had no clue what to believe. Enough had happened tonight and I still hadn't completely recovered from being scared out of my mind.
"I will tell you the whole truth if you promise to stay here and not think anything different of me," I nodded quickly. I was lying to him, if it were to be true; it would change my view of him completely.
I still wasn't sure what I was doing. I had known this boy for barely a week, and he had already bulldozed through my friendships, my relationship, my mind, and my life.
"Look, I know Jake told you that I killed someone and how I fought, but it's not completely true," I listened closely trying not to move so he would keep talking. I still wasn't sure why both brothers were suddenly confiding in a girl they had just met.
"I told him I killed someone, I didn't want him with me anymore," I wasn't sure this was a typical brotherly relationship; not a lot of brothers also act as a manager to help another fight. "He used to beat me up to make me stronger," he continued, obviously becoming more comfortable telling me.
I wasn't sure I had ever seen this side to Caleb. It involved no smirking or hidden meanings. He was being absolutely open. "I hid from my him half my life," I felt genuinely sorry for him.
"What's the thing about Annabelle?" I asked, remaining delicate and not wanting to anger him even more since just her name alone was enough to make him flinch.
"She and I were together for a few weeks," he told me, "until Jake came into the picture," I felt a strange feeling in my chest when he told me about him and his brothers fiancé being together before, "I guess he's just a jealous brother and she's an angry ex girlfriend."
"I told them I killed someone to keep them away from me, but they keep harassing me, saying that I'm dangerous and that I should be in prison." I had to restrain myself from wrapping my arms tightly around him in an embrace.
Although he had quickly become a pain in my ass, nobody deserves what Jake is throwing at him. The way Caleb had spoke seemed more truthful than Jake did, but that still didn't mean I fully believed him. How could I when I didn't know the real truth?
"And because he can't get any evidence of it, he's been trying to get to me for other things like stalking and harassing," Instead of restraining myself this time, I wrapped my arms tightly around him, like it was the last time I would ever hug someone.
This was the first time we had been this close and it felt nice, no false actions, like our kiss.
He switched subject pretty quickly, "we have the house to ourselves tomorrow," he said, smirking. There it was; he was back to his usual smirking and annoying Caleb, and I wasn't entirely angry about it.
"How come?" I replied, searching for why almost everyone would be out of the house on a Saturday. "Kylie and Clara have a science fair, which my parents will be taking them to."
"Night princess," he said as he walked back out of my room, leaving me in the darkness until I finally turned around and laid down, holding my phone in my hands. I stared at the empty messages screen. I was expecting at least a text from James or Flora asking if I was okay, but it was silent, they hadn't said anything.
I also wasn't allowed to text my mom because it would be dangerous for me if my father tracked her phone and found my number. My eyes slowly closed with my hand still wrapped round my phone.
✿
"Ready for our lazy day!" Caleb shouted as he bounced on top of me, waking me up in the process. I groaned loudly before attempting to turn over, only to be held down by his legs. "I thought the whole point of a lazy day was to be lazy, as in not moving out of bed."
"You can move out of the bed to the sofa downstairs," he shouted as I sighed at him, attempting to shove his heavy, hard body off of me but failing miserably.
"No!" I shouted, grabbing and gripping onto my bed covers, not letting him take me downstairs. Suddenly, in a quick, swift movement, Caleb had me over his shoulder, giving me only one, singular view.
I smirked to myself as he carried me down the stairs. "You're such an idiot," I shouted as he placed me down on the sofa, smirking. Not one day would I believe that I would actually be friendly with Caleb; the world was probably more likely to end.
"What do you want for breakfast then?" He shouted as he was walking to the kitchen. He was being surprisingly nice today and I have a feeling it's because of what he had told me last night.
"Pancakes!" I slid over to the kitchen to see him leaning against the counter. He looked unimpressed by my decision for the delicious, buttery food. "What? I haven't had them in a while and I really want some," he laughed at me and turned to create the pancake mix.
"Thank you!" I smiled as he began mixing the ingredients. Suddenly, my phone started ringing and thinking it was my mom, I answered it straight away without looking at who was calling.
Big mistake.
"Hello" I said into the phone as I waited for the reply.
"Hey, it's James, can you come round to mine later, we need to talk?" I sighed heavily as I had almost forgotten about James and the drama going on with us at the moment. He sounded blunt, causing me to quickly agree and hang up.
"Hey Caleb, don't wait for me after breakfast, I need to go see someone."
"You're going to go to see that idiot after he punched me in the face and knocked you over," he pointed to the now purple and yellow bruise that had come out clearly over his eye.
"He punched you because you kissed me-" I started, "and he knocked me over by accident because he was punching you for doing it," I laughed, trying to make it sound better than it actually was.
James didn't really care for me that night, even though it was an accident, he didn't exactly jump to check if I was okay. It was like I was just a trashcan that had been knocked over and he didn't bother to pick it up.
"I just don't see why you need to see him after what he's done," Caleb was really starting to care for me for some reason and I'm sure that's why James was more angry than he let on.
"Anyway, bon appetite," Caleb shouted as he placed a perfectly circular and sugary pancake in front of me.
"Thank you Caleb," I said as I began to eat away at the sweet pancake he had made. I was surprised he went to this much effort for me, seeing as he seemed angry that I was going to see James later.
"So how was it?" I masked any emotion on my face and looked at the pancakes as if they were the worst tasting things I had ever eaten. "It was a bit plain and I didn't really like the taste." His face turned down at my reply.
"I'm joking," I got up and smiled before walking towards him. "They were amazing, thank you." I'm sure me thanking him was for a lot more than him just making me breakfast.
• • •
My car pulled up outside James' house, and I felt like I was going to be sick. Why was I more scared to talk to my boyfriend than Caleb?
Before I'd even climbed out of the car, James opened the front door, obviously waiting for me and sprinted towards me as I climbed out. He hugged me like he hadn't seen me in a year and I was too shocked that it took me a few seconds to register what he was doing to then hug him back.
"I'm so sorry!" he whispered with his head buried in the crook of my neck. I nodded against him, not understanding why he had to be so sorry about punching someone I had actually kissed. Surely it was me that should be apologising.
"It was wrong of me, I was jealous and angry and I didn't even notice I knocked you over, please forgive me?" He gave me a sad smile and it was too hard not to forgive him when he did that.
"I'm sorry too, for kissing Caleb," I said quickly before he tried to kiss me. Practically reminding him that if he kissed me, he could be kissing Caleb and that's probably something James wouldn't want to know about.
"Where are your parents?" I asked as we walked into the silent house then into his room. Although I had been here hundreds of times, something felt different. It felt like we had just started dating as strange, nervous butterflies crept into my stomach.
"They've been with friends in Florida, so I have the house to myself for a while." I nodded; slightly annoyed that he didn't even bother to tell me. I could've stayed here and avoided ever having to live with Caleb and the kiss that we shared.
In my mind, I selfishly blamed James for the kiss but it wasn't his fault. For some morbid reason, I actually wanted to kiss Caleb. And I liked it.
We sat on his bed to watch some TV, with my head resting against his chest, like what we seemed to do every Saturday. And like every Saturday, just watching TV wasn't the only thing we ended up doing.
At this moment, I was straddling over him and was kissing him deeply, like I hadn't kissed him in a while. Maybe it was because of the guilt, or just that he had actually apologised for what he had done.
However, out of the corner of my eye I noticed a strap peeping out underneath the couch, which was conveniently next to his bed.
After ignoring it, we continued to kiss before I started to undo his shirt, with my eyes still wandering over to the strap I had suddenly invested my interest in.
That was until my curiosity won, and I pulled myself off of James to pull out whatever it was peeking out from underneath the couch. "Hey!" James called, but I ignored his voice as I pulled the strap to reveal what I thought I would never find in his room.
It was a red-laced bra, and was labelled as Victoria's Secret. My heart plummeted as I felt my stomach drop. It was the same bra I had bought Flora for her birthday last year.
"What the fuck is this?"