Inspired song: In my arms by: Plumb
Chapter Ten- You Will Be Safe In My Arms
Tom turned off the car slowly. We hadn't talked the entire ride home. The silence was suffocating, and I was worried. Tom wouldn't look at me; his eyes were glued to the road, and more than once did I see his muscles flex and then relax.
I didn't dare move as his hands drooped down from the steering wheel, his eyes still not wavering in the slightest.
"Tom..." I whispered softly.
He didn't answer; he didn't move. "I'm sorry..." I whispered. I now wish that I had never brought him to her grave.
"Did you even think to ask me?" He hissed through his teeth, still not even glancing at me.
My eyes closed slowly, so that the tears building where forced back, and took a big breath. "I-I didn't think that it would upset you in any way"
He scoffed and shook his head.
I hesitantly took one of his hands in both of mine. He tensed at the sudden physical contact. "Please look at me" I plead.
After a moment, his head slowly turned; his blue eyes intimidated me. "I have never in my life taken someone there, ever. You're so important to me, and I-I wanted you to see where it happened, where she is. I just wanted you to know. I'm sorry" I gently let go of his hand and unbuckled my seat belt. I was about to open the door, when his hand on my arm stopped me.
"Come here" He whispered.
Hesitantly I climbed over the arm rest and into his lap. His arms wrapped around me, and pulled me closer to his chest. I clutched his shirt in my hand and buried my head in the crook of his neck. "I love you so much" I whispered squeezing my eyes tight.
He sighed resting his cheek on my hair. "I just...It felt weird being there. I don't like thinking that you don't have parents, because that makes me think of my parents and how crushed I would be if I had to go through what you have been through. Then that makes me hurt that you had to go through that on top of everything else you have ever told me. Most of the time I just forget about all of that, but when its right in front of me I just-" he sighed again "I'm sorry, I'm probably overreacting" He rubbed my arm softly.
"It meant the world to me" I said after a minute of silence. He kissed my head sweetly. "I know"
I leaned back and looked up at him "Are we okay?" I asked.
His lips pulled up in a small smile and he nodded. I smiled and placed my lips to his softly. He brushed my long hair back as he gently kissed me back. I pulled away and smiled at him wrapping my arms around his neck "You are amazing, and I don't say that enough" I told him. He smiled widely and kissed me again.
It was only now that I noticed that there were people and a dog barking in the backyard. I pulled away from Tom slowly and looked to see Dan walking around in something entirely black.
I opened Tom's door and got out; walking around the car, through the gate and into the backyard, Tom following me.
Dan was gesturing all around the trampoline to Rupert who was shaking his head.
Dan's eyes lit up once he saw me "Your back!"He came running over to us; again he was dressed in an entire black suit.
"What are you wearing?" Tom asked.
Rupert shook his head, looking at Dan pathetically, while Dan opened his arms and twirled around. "I just ordered it! It's made completely of-"
"Velcro?" I asked, unbelievable.
Dan nodded his head.
I looked at Rupert who sighed and shrugged his shoulders "You can't tell him no"
Dan pouted suddenly "I have to wait two to three weeks for the wall to come"
"Oh what a shame" Tom said sarcastically as he headed for the house.
Dan glared at Tom, but the perked up suddenly "Oh Cassie I got you something!" Dan followed back into the house.
"I am slightly frightened" I told Rupert as we followed.
I walked into the house and petted the jumping Timber half heartedly as Dan was pulling something out of a cardboard box. It was a black t-shirt; he threw it at me.
"I couldn't resist" Dan said smiling, as I pulled the shirt off my face and looked at the front, and written in white bold letters was 'Cassiebear Felton'. I fell against the refrigerator in a fit of giggles.
"What?" Tom asked curiously, as I held the t-shirt to my stomach and slowly sunk to the floor, laughing so much.
Dan smiled brightly at me "Does that mean you like it?"
I nodded my head "I-It's Gr-reat!" I said between laughs.
"Let me see that" Tom said grabbing the shirt out of my hands.
He looked at it and smiled "I love it", while I was literally lying on the ground in silent laughs.
"It's not that funny Cas" Rupert said after another minute.
I started sobering up when Timber came over and started licking my face with his long slobbery tongue. I wiped my eyes and sat up against the door of the fridge and sighed. "I love it Dan"
He smiled and shrugged "Like I said I couldn't resist"
Eight days later I was on my way to visit James. I decided to pop in on Tom's older brother unexpectantly. Tom was hanging out with Alec and Matt today, and Dan was busy watching videos of his obsession -aka his Velcro stunt-. Emma was- I don't know where Emma was. Point is I felt the need to hang out with James...without telling Tom.
It only took me close to an hour to arrive at the car place that he worked at. I parked in the front and walked around to the back, where I knew James would be.
Once I turned around the corner to where there were over ten garage doors freely open, someone wolf whistled. I stopped walking immediately. Maybe I should have thought this over more before I came.
"Cassie?" A familiar voice asked. I looked behind me and saw James with grease on his face and hands, and a confused look on his face. I sighed in relief and walked over to him.
"Hey" I smiled when I reached the car he was obviously working on.
He stood up and gave me a weird hug since he wasn't touching me with his greasy hands. "What are you doing here?" He asked chuckling "Did Thomas wreak another car?"
I laughed at his joke of how Tom is the worst driver. "No I was just wondering if I could hang out with you today?" I asked.
He sat back down with half a smile and half a smirk, his eyes creased in confusion. "I'm working Cassie"
I stepped a little closer to the car. "I know that but I'm not that big of a distraction" I smiled convincingly.
He chuckled and shrugged his shoulders, causing his sweat shirt to rise a little, and nodded to a chair behind him "Alright if you don't think I'll bore you"
I smiled and sat down on the chair, as James continued to clean the grease off of a wrench- er something like that.
"So why the sudden visit?" James asked
I shrugged "I was bored with nothing to do"
"Tom gone?"
"No, he is just hanging out with some of his friends today" I brushed some of my hair behind my ear.
"Really? I would have thought you two would be doing it like bunnies these days"
My face blushed cherry red, and I mean this has to be the most embarrassed that I have ever been in my entire life, forget telling Clay that I wasn't a virgin anymore.
James looked up at me and smirked. "God you're so innocent aren't you?"
I glared at him a little "Not that it is even any of your business, but you could be more discreetly about it"
James shrugged "You're having sex with my brother on a regular bases, I'm allowed to make fun of you for it"
"No you're not!" I disagreed "How do you even know anything?" I asked, knowing very well that Tom avoids talking with James unless its necessary.
James smirked as he grabbed another tool and started cleaning it. "Tom told Chris, and Chris and I are close. Mum was very happy and is hoping to have more grandbabies soon"
I grimaced and placed my head in my hands "Your mother knows?" I groaned.
He laughed "Yeah, courtesy of me"
Trying to change the subject away from my sex life I asked "More grandkids?"
James corked an eye brow "Yeah...Tom didn't tell you about Nick and Payton?"
I shook my head "No...who are they?"
James chuckled and stood up and started messing with something under the hood of the car. "They are our niece and nephew"
My head tilted to the side "Wait which of you has kids?"
"Walt does" James answered. "Thought Tom would have told you"
I shook my head "No he hasn't told me much about Walt actually"
After some clanking of metal James said "Well I'm not surprised that he isn't talking about Walt much, but I figured that he would have told you about Scar and such
See Tom and Walt are not very close at all. Walt was out of the house when Tom was six. But anyway Scar or Scarlett is Walt's wife and Nick and Payton are their kids"
"Why have I not met Walt or any of them?" I asked curiously.
"They live in France, where he works" James answered not looking at me.
"Oh" I said.
"Hey James Caleb's going to-who are you?" The man who seriously needed a visit to the gym asked looking at me hungrily.
James turned around from the car and looked at the man and apparently Caleb who must have been in his teenage years was standing behind him and staring at me. "Oh this is Cassie; she's just hanging out for the day"
"Ah" The man said his eyes still lingering on me. I leaned back as far as I could in the chair, trying to get away from the man's disgusting stare. "Well Caleb's working with you for awhile 'till Ryan gets here"
"Alright" James said not very interested.
Creepy man walked away, and I relaxed.
Caleb walked around to the other side of the car's hood and leaned over.
"Shouldn't you be in school?" I asked after a minute of silence.
James chuckled "He dropped out about a year ago"
I blinked "Oh"
Caleb had long black hair and green eyes "Yeah, you free later?" he asked.
Both James and I laughed. Caleb's face fell at our laughter.
James sobered up a little "Maybe I should introduce her better. This is Cassie my soon to be sister in-law"
Caleb's eyes grew "Oh so you're the one who is marrying Tom?"
Confused on how he knew that I nodded my head.
Hours later Caleb left and I started helping James, getting grease on my face with my hair in a pony tail and my coat on the chair.
I had returned with drinks in my hand as James began working on a new car, when James asked a question that almost made my heart stop. "Who is Blake?"
My eyes widened. I had been ignoring Blake's texts and calls. I really didn't want to explain myself to him now that he knows about Will and I.
"He is just a friend" I said "How do you-"
"You got a new text; I thought it was from Tom so I picked it up. I didn't purposely invade your privacy" he said
I scoffed inside my head. You still looked at my phone, without my permission. Though I wasn't really upset about it.
"He is just a friend?" James asked questioningly. "The message said that he needed to talk to you"
Wow that does look bad from his point of view.
"No see Blake is just a friend who just found out something that I didn't tell him and he wants to talk to me about it and I've been ignoring him" I said sitting back down and handing James his drink.
"What's this something?" James leaned against the car staring at me.
"I don't really want to-"
"Please? Can't you trust me?" He plead.
Well he was going to be family...and I didn't have to go in great detail or anything. "Fine. I've only had one other boyfriend besides Tom. His name was Will and Will and Blake were best friends. Though Blake is a year older than Will and I. Will and I started dating two years before Blake graduated, and the year Blake was gone Will changed and became...abusive towards me. I just 'reconnected' with Blake since he graduated and I never told him, but another one of my friends did and now Blake wants to talk about it and I'd rather ignore the subject" I finished sighing, and placed my phone back in my pocket.
"Did Will rape you?" James asked quietly.
I looked back up to him "No...he just threw me into things and hit me and stuff"
James nodded and went back to work.
I must have fallen asleep because the next voice I heard was Tom's "Why is she here?"
"She just came to hang out" James answered.
"Tom?" I asked sleepily, opening my eyes a little.
He sighed "You could have told me you were coming here" He picked me up into his arms and cradled me into his chest "You have a meeting with Eli. Did you forget?"
I nodded my head and wrapped my arms lazily around his neck. I felt him sigh again. "Come on lets go"
"Bye James" I said as Tom began walking.
I heard James laugh in response.
After about a minute Tom asked "Where are your keys?"
"My keys?" I whispered softly.
"Yeah Matt drove me here" Tom answered.
I unwound one of my arms from him and dug my keys out of my coat pocket and unlocked the door. Tom shifted me and opened the door and set me down in the seat. "Sorry you had to carry me" I whispered, still not opening my eyes.
Tom chuckled and kissed my forehead "Trust me I like carrying you, I don't like having to find you"
"Sorry I was just bored" I answered.
I felt his lips on my forehead again "its okay baby"
I heard the car door shut and I fell back into a deep sleep all the way home, only waking back up when I felt that I was in his arms again.
"Are we home?" I asked as I instantly felt colder, and snuggled more into his warm embrace.
"Yeah" He answered opening the back door.
"Oh my god she looks horrible" I heard Elijah's voice say.
I pouted, still refusing to open my eyes "Hey" I protested.
Tom laughed and I vibrated along with his chest. "Just let me go clean her up and then she is all yours"
I felt Tom begin to walk again.
"Where did you find her?" Dan's voice asked quietly.
"She was with James" Tom answered as he began to walk up the stairs.
The next thing I felt was a soft mattress and the overwhelming scent of peppermint; I smiled. I didn't hear Tom's voice for another minute or so; and when I did he was laughing, before the mattress shifted under his weight. "You have to wake up"
I moaned in reply, desperately wanting to sleep more.
"Come on, let me see those beautiful eyes of yours" Tom whispered, caressing my cheek softly. I leaned into his hand, but didn't open my eyes. A moment later his hand was removed from my face and replaced by a cold wash cloth. I groaned and blinked my eyes open to see his handsome face inches from mine.
"What are you doing?" I asked hoarsely.
He smiled down at me "You have black grease all over your face, which is cute, but it really shouldn't be on your face"
I yawned "Okay" my eyes started closing slowly.
"No" He said shaking me lightly.
I groaned but obliged and sat up. "Well if you're going to be so annoying."
Tom chuckled and when he finished cleaning my face he kissed my lips lightly before standing up and holding a hand out to me. I took it and stood up from our bed. I took my coat off and threw it on the bed before I walked down the stairs with Tom.
Eli was sitting at the kitchen table looking through his binders.I sat down across from him as Tom went and started cooking dinner I suppose. Elijah's beautiful brown eyes glance back up at me.
"Sorry for my lateness" I said folding my arms on the table.
He sighed "it's alright I suppose" He placed an extremely heavy white card in front of me. "I need for you to approve of these before I print out the rest and send them"
Tom and I had to write all of the people invited last week and their addresses for Eli. It was annoying looking up everyone and thinking of everyone. I came up with sixty three people...Tom came up with two hundred and seventy six. I only recognized a total of fifty names on his list.
I shook my head, still waking up a bit, and looked down at the invitations. They were a pearly white and had an elegant script explaining time and day and such.
I nodded my head at them and gave them back to Eli, who was rummaging for something else.
After a minute he looked back up at me and asked "Now what type of flowers have you thought about?"
At the same time Tom, who I thought was ignoring us (he easily got bored with the details), and I said "Lilies"
Eli's eyebrow rose "Lilies are not common for winter weddings" He spoke softly, yet I could tell that he was a little annoyed.
"I know, but I don't care" I said.
He sighed and again began flipping through his binder again "Alright, if that is what you want"
I smiled, proud of myself for knowing something.
"Okay I need to know who is going to be the groomsmen and bridesmaids" He told us.
I looked back as Tom licked something off of his fingers, and looked at us interested. He cleared his throat "Oh um...I hadn't thought about it actually"
I smiled at Eli "I know mine" I looked back at Tom who was playfully glaring at me, yeah okay so I liked being a 'teacher's pet' if you will.
"Alright Cassie" Eli said waving his hand for me to tell him.
"Well Emma is going to be the maid of honor and Sarah and Taylor are going to be the bridesmaids" I answered without missing a beat.
Eli wrote the names down and looked back up at Tom who was back to cooking "Any thoughts?" He asked him.
"Um...uh Dan, Chris, and...Alec" He answered after a while.
I blinked in confusion "What about Rupert?" I asked incredulously.
"Cas, Rupert is going to be filming when all this is going on. I think that we will be lucky if he can even come"
I threw my hands up "And no one thought to tell me?!"
He looked slightly guilty "Um...forgot? Blame Rupert, not me"
I nodded my head. It was Rupert's fault for not telling me.
"Best man?" Eli asked.
"Alec" Tom answered. My teeth tightened up just at the name.
"Okay now I'm going to need a meeting with the girls sometime next week, the boys can be later. We will go out to a few shops and pick out some bridesmaids dresses and we will look at some wedding dresses and-"
"No!" I answered my voice in a higher octave.
Everything stopped making noise, except for Dan in the other room. It was just the three of us breathing.
"What?" Eli asked, a little outraged.
"No wedding dresses" I answered, breathing in faster.
"Why?" Eli asked through clenched teeth.
"No. I J-J-Just No, No, No!" I shouted.
Eli's eyes widened and I heard Tom set something down and walked over to the table where he kneeled down beside me. "What's wrong Cas?"
I ignored his question shaking my head rapidly from side to side.
Eli blinked and said "Alright, that is up to you when we get one"
I couldn't stop shaking my head 'no' and breathing rapidly. I was supposed to go wedding dress shopping with my mother.