Inspired Song: Take Me There by: Rascal Flatts
Chapter Nine- Take Me There
'So you are coming right?' Blake's text had startled me from my soft position in the passenger side of Demon as Tom was driving. Over the entire trip we had barely spoken; but it was a comfortable silence. During this silence I had only thought of how much I was dreading to have yet another 'meeting' with Elijah. It's not that I don't appreciate his help, since I almost know nothing about all of the essentials that went into weddings, it's just that he acts very annoyed when I don't know what he is talking about or when I take too long in a decision. It could also be that when Eli does get annoyed, his muscles flex and his eyes become more intimidating. Yes, this morning's meeting had granted me more stress.
I glanced at Tom, who did not notice that my phone had vibrated, before I began to text Blake back. 'Yeah we are coming. And when I say we I mean Tom and I. So if you could do me a favor and not mention that we have been talking a lot lately that would be wonderful :)'
It was only a few seconds later until my phone buzzed again. 'Why does he not know Cassandra?'
Just by the way he said Cassandra instead of Cassie did I know that he was teasing me. 'Oh shut up! I haven't known Tom to be jealous, because there has not been a reason for him to be. But by saying that it does not mean that- ugh. What I mean is that I don't hang out around any other men except for actors that he knows. I just don't know how he would take it, and really I don't want to know. So keep your mouth shut'
'Uh oh, already hiding things from him I see'
'No, I'm not hiding things from him and I'm not lying. It's just...not telling the entire truth.'
'Okay, okay calm down. I won't say anything'
And before I could reply back Tom asked "Who are you texting?"
I shrugged "No one important"
He brushed my reply to the side, "Alright, now where am I going?"
I looked out the window, noticing that we were getting close to my old house."Just go about a mile or two on this road," I brushed my hand in a dismissive gesture "When you see a whole bunch of cars, were there"
Tom's eyes creased "Yeah, why in the bloody hell is this party outside in the middle of winter?"
I smirked "We are just brilliant like that"
He scoffed and rolled his eyes.
A few minutes later, he began to look around more. "Maybe you should have driven instead of me"
I laughed "Well I was until you stole my keys and insisted that you drive"
He nodded his head from side to side and sighed.
Tom's mood seemed to lift once he found the already pretty big party. It didn't occur to me that other people, whom I know, would bring other people, who I don't know. I shrugged; you can always make more friends.
We both hopped down from Demon and met at the front of the car. He laced are fingers together as we began to walk toward the fire and bunches of people. "Now you're not going to ditch me right?"
I smiled extra sweetly and bumped my hip with his "Now why would I do that?"
He rolled his eyes "Oh I don't know"
I laughed at his reaction "I won't, idiot, but even if I should, you could just hang out with Clay"
"Oh goodie" His voice was filled with sarcasm.
I shook my head "He is going to be your brother in-law, you should get to know him better"
"Well that would be fine, if he didn't freak me out"
I sighed "freak you out"
He lightly glared at me "Have you seen the way he looks at me?"
I shrugged "Fine don't hang out with him at the party. I will just go to sleep early and leave you with him all night tonight"
He stopped in his tracks, my arm being pulled back when I failed to notice that he stopped. "You're kidding right?" he asked seriously.
I patted his hand that was still wrapped around mine. "Don't worry. He just doesn't trust you yet. Like I have said before Tom, you two really should get along very well" I started walking again and pulled him again with me.
There was a thick blanket of snow that laid on the ground, but at least it wasn't snowing...yet. As we got closer to the group, I started looking around and seeing people that I hadn't seen in a very long time, and that I was happy to see again. Except then my eyes just happened to land on him.
It was my turn to stop dead in my tracks, and Tom to be pulled backwards. "Hey what's wron-" He obviously followed my line of eye sight, for his hand tightened around my own. I gulped and subconsciously moved closer to Tom.
"I didn't think that he would be here...or I don't think that we would have come" I whispered honestly. I began to walk again slowly and pulled Tom along with me "We'll just stay away from Will okay?" I asked making sure that he wouldn't do anything rash.
His jaw was still clenched tight, but he nodded all the same.
When we immersed the crowd, my excitement began to boil again. It just made me happy that Tom was going to get to meet my friends. And it could have something to do with the fact that I hadn't seen more than half of these people in almost half a decade.
My eyes were scanning everywhere for Taylor. I wanted to see her first because being Taylor she would know the lay down about where everyone would be. Though my thoughts sort of came to an abrupt halt when from behind us I heard a familiar voice say "You bitch"
I smiled brightly and turned around to face Trent and funny enough Clayton. "Hi Trent"
He just glared at me and moved his eyes between Tom and I. I shook my head at him being impatient and introduced them "Tom this is Trent, Trent this is Tom. Trent is one of Clay's best friends so I unfortunately had to grow up with him"
Tom and Trent shook hands. "I am a very big fan of yours" Trent began. Now let me stop here so this makes sense to you. Trent is as much of a Harry Potter fan as Clayton and I are. There that should clear a few things up.
Tom chuckled "Well it's always nice to meet a fan"
Trent smiled before he called for Richard. My eyes widened. "Richie's here?" I swallowed and began backing up with Tom.
But before I could get too far Clayton pulled me into a big bear hug "Aw come on Cas Richie is just dying to see you again." Clay teased.
I rolled my eyes and started kicking my legs so that Clay would set me down on the ground "Oh I am so sure that he wants to see me"
Tom just looked utterly confused about the whole thing as I began to walk toward him again, just as Richie jumped on Clay's back. "Clayton!" The crazy brunette shouted as Clay grunted and leaned forward a bit just out of surprise. I giggled, same old Richie.
Although suddenly Richie's eyes glued to mine and he jumped off of Clay and ran towards me. "Cassandra!!"
I moved quickly behind Tom, and just as Richie was about go around him when he suddenly backed up to look at Tom. "Holy shit its Malfoy guy"
I snorted "Malfoy Guy, come on Rich"
Richie began throwing his arms all about, which means that he is close to being drunk, then he looked back and Clay "You were serious"
Clay just shrugged half heartedly and Richie turned back to me. "You mean my half sister is serious marrying a famous person, who she's been dying for since she was like what ten?! Oh now you're gonna get it" And that was how I got chased in a figure eight until I was lifted against my will.
Tom was laughing a little "Wait half sister?"
Richie started pouting at me "You didn't tell him about me?? I'm crushed"
I rolled my eyes, and Richie began twirling us around. "Oh my God! Put me down now!"
He did eventually put me down, but being the partially drunk Richie that he is he ended up jumping on my back. See I can actually hold Richie because he is one of the skinniest people you will ever meet.
I blew some hair out of my face as Richie put his chin on my head.
Tom was waiting patiently with an amused smile/ smirk on his face.
"He is not my real half brother, because I don't have one.-"
"Cassie" Richie whined.
"You hush, you may be four years older than me, but you can't push me around anymore!" I huffed "As I was saying Richie here's parent's moved to Australia his last year of school, so Richie lived with us for one long year. So he insists that he is family."
He gasped "I am family"
I rolled my eyes "Trent, Richie, Mo, and Flint treat me like a sister, which is very annoying" I was trying to unlock Richie's Legs from my waist, but becoming very frustrated when he wouldn't let go. "Clay!" I whined, and he came and pulled a half intoxicated Richie off of me.
Once I caught my breath and pushed my hair behind my ears I looked at Tom who was smiling, clearly amused. I rolled my eyes at him, reached for his hand, and turned us around; when Clay shouted "Cas, Blake was looking for you"
"I'll find him later!" I shouted as I dragged Tom off away from my crazy 'half brother'.
Once I could finally breathe and calm down a little I sighed "Sorry about that"
Tom smiled and put his arm around me "Don't worry about it, I found it very entertaining"
I rolled my eyes at his word choice.
"Who is Blake?" Tom asked after a moment. I tensed slightly, until I realized that his voice just had curiosity in it. I shook my head trying to get thoughts that should not be in my mind out.
"Just an old friend" I slightly shrugged as to not knock off his arm. "Now we need to find Taylor"
He leaned down a little bit "Alright, and why is that?"
I turned my head and pecked his cheek quickly "Because I need to tell her that she is going to be one of my bridesmaids"
"I love how you're not asking her" He said laughing to himself.
"Why ask when you already know the answer?" I shot back at him as I continued to look through the crowd, but I stopped searching when my eyes landed on a strawberry blonde.
"Lindsey!" I shouted, and she turned around smiling at me.
I ran over a hugged her tight. "I haven't seen you in forever!" I smiled hoping up and down in my boots. Lindsey was one of my really close friends, but I hadn't even talked to her since graduation.
"I know, although I saw you on a certain television screen" She winked at me and then looked behind me and her mouth opened a little. "You brought him?!"
I looked behind me and reached out for Tom. "So much for not ditching me" He mumbled before we got back to Lindsey.
"Tom this is my friend Lindsey, Lindsey this is my fiancé Tom" I introduced them.
She blinked at me "fiancé?"
I held up my left hand and wiggled my fingers.
"Oh my god, that is gorgeous!" She grabbed my hand and stared at my engagement ring intently for about fifteen seconds before she looked at Tom and burst "I'm going to hug you"
Her arms wrapped around him before I could even get a good laugh. He looked at me awkwardly as he hugged her back.
"Cassie you are the luckiest girl that I have ever met" Lindsey said once she pulled away from Tom. "Seriously only you could get him"
I stared puzzled at her, was that an insult or a compliment? Or was it both? I shook my head, once again clearing it.
"Alright well I will see the happy couple later" Lindsey smiled before she flipped her long hair over her shoulder and walked off.
"Are you okay?" Tom asked, once again grabbing my hand and pulling me closer to him.
"Yeah why?" I replied.
He kissed my hair "You keep shaking your head"
"I might be getting a head ache...it's nothing crucial" I smiled up at him. I began my search for Taylor once more, craning my neck above the crowd.
"Hey baby, why don't you just text her?" Tom laughed lightly.
I stared at him slightly shocked, why hadn't I thought of that? "When did you get so smart?"
"Very funny Cas" He shook his head.
I smiled as I brought out my phone and began texting Taylor and mumbled "Love you too"
Once I finished texting the quick message to Taylor, I noticed that Rupert had texted me. Curious, I opened the picture message. It was a picture of a Velcro suit that you could by online, and he wrote 'Save me from him'.
I laughed and showed it to Tom. He took my phone from me to see it better, but then he handed it back "You have a new message"
It was from Taylor 'I'm near a white car'
Well that helps a whole lot. I brushed my hair behind my ear and was about to text her back when a familiar voice called "I swear if I didn't know you, I would think that you have been avoiding me"
I looked up to see Blake's shaggy brown hair. "I'm not avoiding you" I put my phone back in my pocket. "Um...Tom Blake, Blake Tom"
Tom smiled politely as they shook hands "It's nice to meet you"
Blake nodded "Likewise I'm sure"
I wasn't sure if it was just me or all three of us, but I could feel this type of tension forming between us. "Um so is Spence here?" I asked Blake.
"No, he just found out that his girlfriend is three months pregnant" Blake put his hand in his pockets.
"Seriously? How did she hide it that long? Wait who the hell is he dating now?"I asked shocked.
"Her names Amanda um I think Wood is her last name. I don't know she doesn't live around here"
"Wait Amanda Wood?" Tom asked "She's pregnant?"
I slowly turned my attention to my lovely fiancé "And how do you know her?"
"I've met her a few times, she is a friend of Rose" He shrugged.
"Oh...Ah! Do you realize that we actually have a connection now?" I gaped at him.
"Yeah because I never thought that we had a connection before"
Blake chuckled, his cute dimples indenting in his tan skin. I smiled despite myself, when I could feel a pair of eyes on me. I looked behind Blake to see Will off in the distance staring at me.
His eye brow was up in curiosity as he looked between Blake and I. Oh god.
My hands clamped up and my throat tightened. I backed up, not taking my eyes off Will's.
"We should really go see Taylor now" I said quietly.
Blake looked at me confused, but Tom agreed almost too soon. Had he seen Will too?
As we walked away, towards the cars (to find a white one), Tom let out a little huff "I don't like that guy"
"Blake?" I clarified.
"Of course, who else would I be talking about?" His muscles began to flex, and we walked faster.
"Why don't you like Blake?" I asked curious.
"Did you see the way he was looking at you?"
"What? Maybe you need to get your eyes checked. We are just friends. He knows that, I know that"
"Just because you are just friends doesn't mean that he doesn't want more" He replied.
"Look I don't want to talk about this anymore" I sighed, and started walking towards the nearest white car. "My head is starting to hurt; we'll find Taylor and then leave okay?"
He ran his fingers through his hair "Yeah sure"
I pulled my phone out to check and make sure that Taylor hadn't text me again when she wasn't near the first white car we checked.
And after the next two, Tom's phone rang. He stopped to look at the caller I.D. "It's my agent, hey I'll meet you at Demon" He kissed my cheek before he started walking the other way and put his phone to his ear.
Once I had passed three other white cars, there was only one left. As I walked closer to it I could hear light moaning sounds. A shiver ran up my spine, I put my hands over my eyes. Once I passed to the right side of the car I peeked through my fingers and saw Taylor making out with some blonde guy.
I coughed "Well this is a lovely scene"
Taylor and who I now recognized as Chase, a guy in Carson's year, pulled apart both with annoyed looks on their faces.
"That's not a pretty face Tay" I said just to annoy her. "Hey Chase"
"Hey Cas long time" He nodded in my direction.
"Yeah" I agreed before I turned back to a fuming Taylor "Look I just came to tell you that your one of my bridesmaids kay? I'll text you with details sometime in the near future"
Taylor's face brightened up. "Seriously? Yay! I'm so excited!" She gave me a side hug. Geez her mood swings.
Chase looked surprised "You're getting married?"
"Yep, nice to see you again; you two can um...continue what you were um doing" I said awkwardly before I started heading back to Demon.
Once I opened the door to my house and flipped on the lights. Tom fell onto the couch. "I think that my fingers are finally thawing out" he said.
As I breathed in the familiar scent, I half expected to see Callie running towards me, and then I remembered that she would never run up to me again. But yet this thought brought me to another idea. "Hey before we leave tomorrow I want to show you something."
He rubbed his eyes and then looked around "Sure, hey where's Carson?"
"Carson? He's in New York" I said as I went into the kitchen and got two sodas out of the fridge.
"New York? Why is he in New York?" Tom asked.
I sat down next to him and handed him a soda, and grabbed for the television remote. "I didn't tell you?"
"Um no" He said expectantly.
"I swear I told you" I said half to myself and shrugged "A couple months after my father died he went off to 'pursue his dreams'. Carson always wanted to be a photographer. He got a job in New York and he moved there"
"Hmmm is he good?" Tom asked taking a sip of his drink.
"Yeah, here he has one of his old portfolio's here. I'll get it." I got up from the couch and walked one of the wooden shelves on the side of the wall, and removed a black leather binder and brought it over to Tom.
When I sat back down I turned the television on and started flipping through the channels, not really seeing anything good on.
"Wow he is brilliant, why didn't you ever mention this before?"
I shrugged "I didn't really believe that Carson would actually make a career out of it"
After a few minutes of Tom flipping through the binder and me flipping through the channels, He breathed "God..."
"What?" I asked leaning next to him to see what he was looking at. There were many pictures of me from when Carson used me as his practicing tool.
Tom looked at me "You are just, you're beautiful"
I could feel my cheeks start to burn with the blush creeping up my face.
He looked back down at the binder and continued to flip through the section that was completely dedicated to me. "I mean you're always beautiful, but these literally take my breath away. Have you ever thought of being a model?"
I looked at him as if he should be welcomed into a mental hospital. "No, you have to be skinny to be a model"
Tom wrapped his hand around my hip/ waist and then pulled it back and showed about two and a half inches in length."You are skinny Cas"
I rolled my eyes "I don't want to be a model"
He looked back down at the photographs "Well you have the talent"
The door opened a second later and Clay walked in. "Oh I wondered where you went" he mumbled.
Clay started walking towards the kitchen, but that didn't stop me from noticing that he had a black eye. I jumped up. "Clay what happened to you?"
I tried to fuss with his eye but he was too tall for me to really get a good look at it and he also began to swat my hand away. "Blake and Will got into a fight, it's nothing really" he started walking back to the kitchen.
Tom closed the binder and placed it on the coffee table deeming this more interesting. Well of course he would find it interesting two men that he doesn't like fighting each other, he is probably disappointed that he didn't get the chance to see it.
"Wait did Blake...find out?" I asked hesitantly.
Clay shrugged "Will started yelling at Blake for no reason, that anyone knew, and then Taylor ended up saying some stuff that well...you can imagine"
"Bloody hell..." I mumbled.
I looked at Tom who sat there looking very amused.
"Most people were amazed that they were fighting each other actually" Clay said getting some ice out of the freezer.
"Why?" Tom asked.
"Because Blake and Will were best friends" I answered.
"Ah, that explains why I don't like Blake"
Clay laughed from the kitchen "Blake isn't like Will Tom. Blake is more mature, though that could be that Blake also is older than Will" Clay came and sat in the reclining chair. "I should know, I get along better with Blake than I ever did with Will"
Tom looked confused again "So what do you all just have the same exact friends?"
Clay laughed again "Oh god no. Blake moved here and I became his 'mentor'. That's how he met Cassie, and Cassie introduced him to her and Carson's friends. We don't have the same friends; it's just that most of our friends are connected in some way"
Tom laughed "I can't stand my brother's friends"
"How many brothers do you have?" Clay asked.
"Three...I'm the youngest and we are all pretty far apart"
"Really?" Clay asked interested, and for once in not a rude manor.
"Yeah three years, six years, and twelve years"
"Walt's thirty six?" I asked, about the one brother of Tom's that I haven't met before.
Tom nodded.
Clay blinked "Hmmm, well you learn something new every day" He stood up and began walking towards the back door "Cas can I talk to you for a second?"
"Sure" I called. I smiled at Tom, they had actually bonded and I was happy that they both were being civil, and followed Clay.
When we had reached the back door, that Clay was making sure was locked he said "So is he sleeping in Carson's bed?"
I looked at him incredulously "No of course not, he is sleeping with me"
"Cassie" Clay warned.
"Oh come on. We live together and we are about to be married, chill out"
"But I don't like the fact that-"
I sighed "Look I didn't really want to tell you this but you know I'm not a virgin anymore Clay"
His jaw tightened "What did you say?"
I sighed again "I'm twenty three years old, and, like I have said already, about to be married"
He opened his mouth to protest but closed it again and after a minute said, "Fine, but no funny business"
I rolled my eyes as he walked to his room.
Wow that has to be the most awkward conversation that I have ever had with him.
In the morning as we were about to get into to Demon, I demanded that I drive.
"Cas I know how to get home from here" Tom argued.
"But remember I want to show you something?" I asked.
"Oh right" His keys were thrust in my hand as we traded sides of the car.
When we got to the 'main road' instead of turning left, the way we would usually go, I turned right.
"And where are we going exactly?" He asked, slouching in the passenger seat. He was, for some reason, tired.
"We'll be there in a second, just relax." I said. I had never actually driven to where we were going, I had always walked. And just the memory of being in a car on this road shook me up a little.
Once I saw the two crosses I slowed down and pulled over to the side of the road and parked.
I got out of the car and walked over to Tom, who was confused until he saw the crosses, and shrunk back into the seat. "No Cas"
I pulled on his arm "Tom I want you to meet her"
"Cassie I can't, it's weird" Tom gulped.
"Please Tom" I looked deeply in his blue eyes "Please, for me?"
He relaxed a little, and I was able to pull him to my mother's grave, so that for the first time, he could properly meet my mother.