Finding Beauty

Chapter 48

I never got to say goodbye or tell either of them what they meant to me. I guess it will stay that way forever. I'll have to learn how to deal with that.

I'm sobbing on the couch, holding a pillow to my chest, when a knock on the door makes me jump. I'm not expecting anyone. I get up and off the couch, wiping my tears away and clearing my throat. "Who is it?" I press my eye up to the peephole and see a distorted image of Grayson standing at my door. His hair is freshly cut and his face freshly shaven. He smiles.

"Me," he answers as I open the door.

"Oh, what are you doing here? Don't you have school?" I ask, as he walks in and takes a seat on the couch.

"Yeah but it was a shortened schedule because of report cards and what not," he says already looking bored by it. "I wanted to talk to you."

"You do?" I sit, leaning against the armrest of the couch facing him. "Well, go ahead." I try to act casual and not like I was just bawling my eyes out or that I'm annoyed he randomly showed up.

His eyes scan my face suspiciously, like a lie detector. I squirm under his gaze. "Were you crying?" he asks softly.

"Yea, but it was nothing," I say shrugging it off.

He shakes his head and pauses for a moment. He opens his mouth to talk but then closes it, like he's trying to find a way to word something.

"Belle," he finally gets out. "I've really tried to be patient these last few weeks but I can't just sit here and pretend I don't have questions anymore. I need to know what happened while you were away." His face shows that he's hurting and I know he is. I've been avoiding it for as long as I can. As much as I want to tell him, I can't.

"Haven't the police told you?" I recycle the lie I told the cops. "He blindfolded me and locked me up somewhere. Then one day I woke up on the beach and-"

"Liar," he states harshly. "I know when you're lying."

"Grayson, you asked me to tell you what happened and I did. Now please just leave it alone," I huffed rubbing my temples. He's never been pushy before. When I had bad days at school, he would let me come to him, not pressure me to talk to him when I wasn't ready. Why can't he just drop it?

"What are you hiding?" he presses getting more loud with each word. The veins in his forehead bulge and his face reddens. "Why won't you tell me? I'm your best friend-!"

"I'm not hiding anything!" I shout. I stand up and start to pace the living room. I'm still trying to come to terms with everything that happened and he expects me to be able to tell him about it? "It's just a long story that I don't want to talk about right now. Can you please just forget about it...at least for now?" I ask, taking a breath and trying to calm down.

But Grayson isn't calming down at all. In fact, he seems more riled up. He covers his face, takes a breath, and lets it out, making the front of his hair blow in the breeze. He stays quiet for a while. His hands are held in prayer against his lips as he stares straight ahead. I slowly sit back next to him.

This is uncharted territory. Grayson and I hardly ever fight.

"I hate him," he mumbles. I stare at him, confused. "I hate The Beast." A certain look begins to take over his face, darkening all his features. His voice holds a violent passion. "I hope the police find him and kill him. Jail is too good for that sorry piece of-"

"Grayson!" I gasp. He turns to me and for a moment, I hardly recognize him. There is so much hate in his eyes. Pure hatred.

"What? He took so much time away from your life, Belle. He took you from your home, from me. He put you in danger. You could have died!" His eyes start to water and he bites his lip. "And now you don't feel like you can trust me enough to tell me the truth."

"No, it's not like that," I say taking his hand in mine. "I do trust you."

"Then please tell me. Please tell me what really happened. I need to know why I saw you that night out in the woods. I need to know what happened after our video chat. I need to know why you were at that masquerade. It's keeping me up at night. If you don't tell me I'm going to go crazy." His eyes plead with me and I feel myself start to give in.

"Well," I say taking a breath. "I have to warn you that the truth is crazy."

"I can handle crazy. There was a lot of crazy while you were gone with the witch and The Beast's magic roses..." he mumbles and my attention snaps back to him. My head pounds in shock.

"How did you know about that?" I thought Grayson and everyone else was untouched by the peculiar things that were tied to The Beast. A few times now I've even questioned myself and whether I imagined it all.

Grayson's eyes widen. "So it's true?"

I tell him. I tell him about The Beast's powers, the curse, Ryan Daniels in the forest, the masquerade, him deserting me on the beach. I have to now. Then maybe we could put some pieces together. I leave out the more personal parts like trying to help him break the curse, decorating the Christmas tree, dancing with him, and my feelings for him. Then, he tells me about how he found out about The Beast through his rose garden, visiting the witch, and the masquerade party.

By the end of it we are both so mind blown we just sit in silence for a while.

"So. . . magic is real?" Grayson thinks out loud.

"Yep. . . I guess so."

"But then you do know the location of The Beast and his identity, right? Why don't you tell the police?"

"Because..." I know I have to be careful with my wording now. "Because he's changed-" He cuts me off, totally disregarding the rest of what I have to say. His voice is sharp and so are his movements.

"Changed? Are you protecting him? He's a monster!" He's back to yelling and his face is red again. I've never seen him so worked up.

I know I should just drop it and appeal to his feelings, he'll never understand, but my instinct is to defend Gale. "No, he isn't! He's learned his lesson. That's why he let me go and why he hasn't killed any criminals-"

"Why do you have that look on your face?" His voice is low and even. His stare cold as ice.

"What look?"

"Dang it, Belle. Do you care about him?" Before I can react he's gripping my arm hard and his face is way too close to mine. "That's called Stockholm syndrome. You're sick if you think that he is anything but a monster for a second!"

My eyes widen. This is a truly ugly side of Grayson I have never seen before. His anger is getting the best of him, his gentle light heartedness is gone. I pull away from him. My skin crawling.

"You should go," I state. I stand up and gesture to the door as if even after spending half his life here he won't know his way around.

He stares back at me for a moment before pulling himself up. "I'm sorry," he mumbles not meeting my eyes. He plods over to the door, opening it for himself. Before he exits he looks me in the eyes and says,"I'm sorry," again. I know he means it but I can't bring myself to forgive him yet. He was acting like an animal.

I close the door after him, the thud echoes in the room and in my heart. I lean with crossed arms.

My mom has changed a lot while I was gone and so have I. But I never considered how much Grayson has changed.

Author's Note- Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this chapter vote and comment! :)

Question- How do you guys think Grayson has changed from the beginning of the story to now?