Page 7 of Ask No Questions

“There are two guys involved in this. There’s Derek, who was my boyfriend. We dated for about a year, and at first, he was the perfect gentleman. I told him I haven’t ever…” I stopped suddenly, realizing how awkward this was to talk about with my older brother. He nodded at me, encouraging me to continue.

“Well, I told him that and said I wasn’t sure when I would be ready. He told me he was fine with that, and he wasn’t dating me just for that reason. I’m an idiot, I know! After about six months of dating, he started getting more persistent, and me telling him no after the Homecoming dance certainly didn’t make him happy.”

This was the first thing that got a reaction from him. He scowled and shook his head. “You should never feel pressured to do something you aren’t ready for, especially with someone you’re supposed to trust!”

“I know, but my friends told me I was crazy for not sleeping with him, and if I didn’t hurry up, he was going to leave me for someone willing. Derek was the top of our class, president of the student government and captain of the lacrosse team. Gorgeous in a very preppy, pretty boy way. He walked around looking like he stepped out of a Ralph Lauren ad.”

I almost laughed aloud when he rolled his eyes.

“I was stupid and listened to my friends. I thought I was lucky he picked me, and I didn’t want to lose him… I can’t believe I’m telling you this!” I groaned and dropped my face into my hands. “Please don’t laugh, okay?”

“I promise.” I peeked up in time to see him completely straight-faced. He wanted to hear this as much as I didn’t want to tell him.

“I went to Victoria’s Secret the week before the party to get something... Anyway, I decided I was going to surprise him after the party. He kept telling me it was time to take our relationship to the next level, and I thought I was ready.”

I could feel the blush heating my cheeks. I couldn’t believe I was sharing these details with my brother.

“I was searching the crowd for him to tell him to meet me upstairs when I overheard some girls talking about him. They mentioned his name and a girl named Heather who they were friends with. They were talking about how daring Heather was to sleep with him, even though he was dating Neil Reynolds’s daughter. They obviously didn’t know who I was, so I asked them to repeat what they said. I wanted to confirm it was Derek O’Connell, my Derek, and it was. He slept with this girl because I wouldn’t sleep with him. He told me he loved me and was going to wait for me, but apparently I’m not worth the wait.”

A single tear escaped and slid down my cheek. I quickly wiped it away, but I knew it was too late, Brandon had seen how affected I was by Derek’s betrayal.

“Aubrey, I’m sorry you got hurt, but you’re so lucky you figured things out before something happened that you would have regretted for the rest of your life.”

“I know I should be grateful, but it still hurts.”

“Do you want me to go there and beat him up for you?” He sounded serious, but a little smirk gave him away. “I’ll do it. I swear. I might be skinny, but I can throw a decent right hook.”

I started laughing so hard I was crying again and had to focus on breathing for a few seconds to regain some composure. “Anyway, I turned away from those girls to find Derek so I could confront him. Before I took a few steps, the music cut off, and Peyton was standing at the balcony of the second story overlooking most of the party. She stood there waiting for everyone’s attention before she held up the present I got for Derek and announced to the entire crowd that I was sleeping with him, as if owning lingerie was proof enough. I was shocked and humiliated, of course.”

Brandon shot forward and grabbed the table. “Wait… little Peyton actually did that? Why would she do something so malicious? More importantly, what does she know about that stuff?”

“I never got the chance to talk to her about it. I never wanted to. My best guess is that some of her older friends put her up to it. The only thing I could think to do at the time was to run. So, I turned and pushed through the crowd to the back gardens before Mom or Neil tried to stop me. I ran to the bench in the very back of the yard and stopped there. I could hear that the music had started up again. Mom switched right into damage control mode.” I rolled my eyes. “I knew she would be furious with me rather than Peyton, and I couldn’t go back and face those people. I didn’t want to see her or Derek or Neil, so I sat on the bench for about thirty minutes. I don’t know for sure since I didn’t have my phone with me, but I could keep track of the songs that played.”

I realized I had been staring down at the table the whole time I had been telling him what happened. I looked up at him and saw that his expression hadn’t changed, but his jaw clenched as what I said sank in.

“So, you found out your boyfriend was cheating on you, Peyton publicly humiliated you, and Mom was… or is… mad at you? That’s messed up, Aubrey! She has no right to be angry with you. You did nothing wrong!” The waiter came with our food, and Brandon sat back, his face darkening.

“Brandon, that’s not all of it. That’s not even half of why she basically kicked me out. What happened with Derek sucked, but there has been something else going on for a few months that Mom wouldn’t listen to me about. I told her in the beginning when weird things started happening or I found a note, but she ignored me every single time.”

Our food sat untouched as Brandon looked toward the beach, glaring and obviously upset. I decided to lay it all out now before he thought about all of the worst-case scenarios.

“Someone was stalking me.” I waited to see if he gave a reaction, but he sat motionless, listening. “At first it was short messages. Nothing too graphic. I thought it was a secret admirer, to be honest. They usually just said how pretty I was, or that I looked good that day. They were odd and appeared in random places. On my windshield. Then in my locker. I thought it was weird and finally told Mom what was happening when a note was inside my car, sitting behind the wheel on the dashboard. Mom said it was probably Derek and blew it off. I asked Derek, but he had no idea what I was talking about, and he didn’t seem to care either.”

“Why didn’t you tell someone else?”

I glanced at him but ignored his question. He was going to get more upset when I finished telling him.

“I didn’t put that much thought into it once they blew it off… until I got home from dance practice one night, and there was a note on my bed. I turned it over, and it was a picture of me in the studio, taken that night. I showed it to Mom, and again she told me it was Derek playing a prank. Pictures were showing up almost every day, pictures of me at the studio, at school, even at home. I saved them all, hoping if I showed Mom or Neil all of them at the same time, they would admit something bigger was going on.”

I paused to take a few breaths before getting to the worst part.

“The week leading up to the party, things escalated. The notes turned more suggestive and vulgar, and the pictures of me were taken from inside the house. Some were of me undressing or in the bath. I started getting calls from a man at unknown numbers; at least I thought it was a man. It sounded like the voice was being distorted. Anyway, he left messages sometimes, just saying my name over and over again or whispering things he had written on the notes.”

Brandon leaned forward, startling me enough to cause me to pause. “Aubrey! Why didn’t you call me or the police? Why didn’t you tell me what was going on? I would have flown out. I would have listened to you. This creep was in the house, in your room, and Mom wasn’t listening. I can’t believe all of this was happening and neither of you mentioned anything to me.”

My blush burned with his angry words. I assumed he would be freaked, but I didn’t expect he would get so angry. “I don’t know why I didn’t tell you. Mom wouldn’t believe me, Derek ignored it, and I guess I thought I was being overly dramatic or something.”

“I’m not Mom. I would have believed you. You would have been here a lot sooner if I had known you were in danger!” He huffed, leaning back again, and resumed staring at the ocean, clearly angry.