Shiver

Chapter 14- Waking Up to Bacon

"You what?" He has got to be joking. He's just distracting me so Austin can come in here and finally kill me off.

"I said, I want to help you."

"But, why? You-"

"I know. I hurt you and I'm a prick. But, I don't know, ever since I woke up that night, not remembering what had happened to you, I felt horrible. I mean, I did then too but this was different. I didn't know if Austin had finally done the damage and you were dead or if you ran away. Once I heard that Kyle had you, I had to see for myself. But, you didn't know who I was. I was so confused." He sighed and sat down on the bed and raked his fingers through his hair.

"I know you probably think I'm an ass because I said I cared about you through all of this. But, I do. I mean, you were a nice girl and we shouldn't have done what we did. I never wanted to do it in the first place." He stopped and stared at me, waiting for a response.

Truth is, I had no idea what to say. So, I just sat down beside him and hugged him. I may not remember everything, but I do remember the times that Alec had been there for me. After all of the beatings, he was there to dress my wounds and help me get my health back. He brought me water when I needed it and he untied me to let me have a good night's sleep. Alec even brought me fresh clothes to change into.

Alec started crying a little. I couldn't understand what he was saying. I do know that I heard something about his dad and needing money. I kind of understand what he was going through. If my family was still here and we ran out of money, I would do anything to help my family. Well, I wouldn't kidnap a girl and hold her for ransom, but I could see that he didn't want to do that either. But, the question is, why did he?

"Then why did you help them?" It came out as a whisper but I knew that he had heard me.

"I didn't have a choice. You know Austin. You know how he gets if somebody doesn't do what he says. I may be his family, but that doesn't really change things in Austin's head." I was starting to understand Alex's reasoning. He was scared of Austin. Hell, I was too. But, just because he is telling me this, doesn't mean I trust him again.

"How do you expect me to believe you?"

"I don't. But, this was my only chance." He pulled my hand into his. I yank it back. "I am truly sorry Blair." And with that, he started to exit the room. I was kind of glad. I needed some time to think.

"What did he want?"

"Kyle, don't scare me like that." He was leaning on the door frame with his arms crossed, staring at me intently.

"Well?" He was glaring at me, waiting on an answer.

"I-uh, I'm not really sure. He came in asking where I found the gun and then walked out." My mouth was moving before I even thought about what I said. But, it wasn't that bad. I could have came up with a worse answer.

"Then why was he holding your hand? And crying?" I didn't know what to say. He pushed himself off of the door frame and Kyle walked away.

I honestly didn't care. He could get mad all he wanted to. I was beyond pissed at him. And you know what? He can sleep on the couch because before I could do anything else, I fell on the bed and dozed off into heaven.

I saw my mom and Kaden playing outside on the tire swing in our backyard. My dad was fixing a braid that had fallen out of my hair. When he was done, he put me onto his shoulders and held my arms out. He started running, making plane sounds as he started to charge towards Kaden. Kaden ran away from us, chuckling like the happiest kid in the world. Then, as I started to look around, I couldn't see my mom anymore behind us. I turned back around and saw that Kaden was missing too. Slowly, the grass started to change from green to a rotting-brownish color. The colors painted on the house started to dull down and the tire swing had wilted.

My dad tossed me off of his shoulders and started yelling at me.

"Worthless! Unworthy! Pitiful! Disgrace! I never wanted you! Why didn't you die instead of them?!" He then ran after me and started to choke me.

"Blair!"

"Get off of me!" I screamed. I fought back, kicking my father and clawing anything I could get a hold of. "Why are you doing this?" I started to cry, barely breathing.

"Blair, wake up." My eyes opened and Kyle was on top of me, holding my hands together. He immediately began wiping tears away from my cheeks and began asking me what was wrong. On instinct, I pulled him into me and cried my eyes out. He held me so tight and rubbed my back. I didn't care that he was in the room with me and I didn't care that he was touching me right now. As mad as I was at him, I needed Kyle. He was the only person I truly had that could understand me.

"Tell me what happened." But I couldn't. He would know that I remembered. So I just made something up, about water and drowning. With all the sniffles and tears, I'm not sure if he heard anything I said, but it seemed like he did. He then started taking my shirt off. I protested, about to punch him in the face.

"Relax. It's sweaty. I was going to get you another one." I nodded. I didn't even care if he saw me without my shirt on. I was wearing a sports bra underneath and he's seen me in one before. Once he put another shirt on me, one of his I might add, he pulled me into the covers and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into a nice sleep.

Once I woke up, the smell of bacon made me smile. I woke up, put my hair in a bun and walked out of Kyle's bedroom and into the living room. Andrew was cooking the bacon and I ran up behind him and stole a piece of bacon. He looked at me and winked. I rolled my eyes and sat next to Alec at the table. He gave me a stern look, asking me if I was okay. I nodded and chewed on another piece of bacon. Looking at my surroundings, I see that Austin and Kyle are nowhere to be found.

"Don't worry. Your boyfriend and Austin went to the grocery store." I froze. The grocery store? He left me alone with two of the three people that kidnapped me and almost killed me for the rest of the day? What. The. Hell. Run. Right now. They wouldn't think anything of it. Just run. I shook my head, getting rid of the thought. Technically, Andrew would be the only one that would really hurt me. That much I trust from Alec.

"So, anyone up for a snowball fight?"

After we had gotten dressed for outside, we ran and took our posts. We decided to go one-on-one-on-one since it would be unfair with two against one. I ran to the stack of logs and hid behind them, making snowballs while I waited for Andrew and Alec. I was glad we were actually doing this. It got my mind off of the fact that I was left alone with Andrew for the whole day. How could Kyle do that? Is he that-

BAM! And I was hit in the face with a snowball and judging by the laughs, it was from Alec. That was it. I ran after him, taking three snowballs with me. I threw one at him. MISSED. I threw another one. HIT A TREE.This was my last one and I had to make it count. So, I waited for him to stop running. BAM. Right on his nose.

Maybe this wouldn't be a bad day after-all.

Picture of the cottage