Endless obsession

Chapter 6

  Mr Gardner's face was stoic, void of all emotion. I waited for him to say something, anything. I began picking at my fingers nervously. Maybe I shouldn't have said anything.

      Mr. Gardner placed his hand over mine, stopping my fidgeting. I looked up at him, he had a sympathetic look on his face.

      ' For the record Alex, I won't pass any judgement. Whatever you tell me will stay between us.' He removed his hand from mine, leaning back into the couch. He rested his arm on the back of the couch. His hand was mere inches from me.

       ' Thanks Mr. Gardner.'

      He put his hand up, ' Alexandra please, call me Xavier.'

       I nodded, making a mental note to try and remember that. I took out my phone and opened my picture folder. I typed the password in on the private folder I'd hidden. There was only one picture, but it was one of the pictures I swore to Maddie I'd deleted. I opened up the picture and stared at it. Tears began to well up in my eyes at the sight of it. It was a picture of Derek and I from last summer. He had both arms wrapped around me as he kissed my temple. I was laughing in the picture, I was genuienly happy at the time.

      I turned my phone towards Xavier. He took it from my hand and studied the image.

     ' This is your ex?' He asked, handing my phone back to me.

     I nodded, ' That's the only picture of us I kept.'

     ' Why did you keep this one?'

      I shrugged, ' Because this isn't the same person that's in the jail cell back in California.'

      ' So he changed then.'

       I snorted, ' That's an understatement Xavier. He changed in a very bad way.'

       ' Well, tell me what happened.'

       I sighed heavily. ' Well, he was very possessive of me. I never really thought anything of it at first. I thought it was just him wanting to protect me, you know?'

Xavier nodded, waiting for me to continue.

      ' The last month of our relationship, things started to escalate. He didn't want me out of his sight. Then a few bodies were discovered in the ocean. I didn't realize it until later, one of them was a guy that had grabbed me at the bonfire a week or two prior. But at the time, I thought nothing of it. They were ruled as accidents at first anyway.' I trailed off, remembering it all was hard.

      ' So, what does that have to do with him being in jail?' He asked, confused.

      I sighed, ' He was the one that killed them.'

      There was a long, drawn out silence. I chewed my lip nervously as I waited for him to say something. I looked up at him to find him staring back at me. I flinched slightly as he moved his hand towards me. His thumb pulled at my bottom lip gently, freeing it from my teeth. His hand didn't leave my face right away. His thumb ran down the side of my face, stopping at my chin. I could feel my heart starting to pound rapidly inside my chest. What is he doing? He took a deep breath then quickly retracted his hand.

     'I'm sorry you had to go through that Alex. Is that why.. Is that why you broke it off with him?' He flinched slightly when he said it. I guess he wasn't sure what he could ask without upsetting me.

    I chuckled slightly, ' No, ah.. It was a little before he was convicted actually.' I rubbed the back of my neck, did I really want to talk about this? ' My best friend from when I was a little kid had a gig at the festival on the beach that summer. After his band finished playing he ran up and hugged me. It was a normal thing with us. Derek didn't like it, but he tried to keep his cool. When my friend kissed me on the cheek, he lost it.' A staggered breath escaped my lungs. 'He started hitting him, over and over. He beat him within an inch of his life. There was so much blood.. I tried to pull them apart, but I just ended up getting hurt. And that's what finally made him stop. Once he'd realized he hit me, he stopped hitting Andrew.' I didn't realize I was crying, but at that point I didn't care.