I'm sorry, I know, it's not the greatest. I'm not even sure why I'm putting it up. Zavier is met in this chappie, but I promise there'll be more interaction in the next one, if it exists. YAH :) Thanks for reading!
Matt’s shoulders started to shake with laughter as I shook my head rapidly, a grin on my face.
“Oh, no,” he said in to the phone with mock seriousness. “I’m sorry, make that one family-sized Hawaiian without the pineapple or cheese. Yeah. No cheese. Yes, I’m lactose intolerant.” I let out a small snort, clamping a hand over my mouth. Matt sent me a cheeky smirk, crossing his ankles as he listened to the person on the other side of the phone.
Within the five minutes I’d known him, Matt had somehow relieved a bit of my stress and had me acting like I’d known him for ages. We’d hardly talked, but anything that had been mentioned was light-hearted and uncomplicated. I knew that Zavier was just a few rooms away from me, but somehow I was able to push that knowledge away. The panicked feeling was still there, but it was like a woollen blanket had smothered it, a blanket Matt had provided me with.
“Oh, really?” Matt raised his eyebrows, leaning a shoulder against the wall. A small hall table was separating the two of us, cluttered with cords, letters and two pairs of sunglasses. “Well, I think that’s ridiculous. Discriminating against people with uncontrollable allergies or illnesses is a completely unreasonable act of prejudice.”
I bit my bottom lip to keep in the laughter as I took in Matt’s accusing expression. He didn’t even look as if he knew he was doing it, examining the picture of a waterfall on the other side of the corridor instead. He made an unimpressed sound at the back of his throat as the person on the other end of the line continued to babble.
“Yes, I know lactose-free mozzarella is more expensive,” he retorted. “But your company should still offer the choice. In fact, you know what? Fish and chips sound nice. And they wont hold my lactose intolerance against me. I think I’ll just buy something from there. Thanks anyway.” He pulled the phone away from his ear and pressed a button decisively, not with a second of hesitation.
“I can’t believe you just did that,” I laughed incredulously. “You wasted so much of their time!”
Matt just grinned widely, his teeth contrasting to the tanned colour of his face. “Even better, I think the girl I was talking to was new. She kept stuttering.”
“Aw, you meanie!” I stuck my tongue out between my teeth, something Sam had always teased me for. It was just a thing I did - a sort of cross between poking out my tongue, smiling and laughing. Matt just smirked, looking back down at the phone and dialling a different number. It started to ring.
“You actually gonna order this time?” I asked teasingly, folding my arms and leaning my back against the wall. Matt pouted, pretending to think about it.
“Mmm, depends,” he finally said.
“On what?” I laughed, but a voice answered on the other end before he could reply.
“Yeah, hi,” he said. “I’d like to order three family deals, please. Two Hawaiian, two vegetarian and two meatlovers. Yep. Oh, and would you make one of the cokes diet?” He paused and then laughed suddenly, as if the other person had told a joke. “Something like that, I guess I just have a lot of friends. Yeah, alright. Thanks,” he hung up.
“Why’d you order so much?”
He placed the phone back on its charger, shrugging. “We eat a lot. You, Charlie and Tessa, Charlie’s sister, are the only girls here at the moment.”
“Oh. How many guys are there?” I cracked my knuckles loudly, shaking out my hand afterwards. Max just sent me a reassuring smile, starting to walk back the way we’d come, prompting me to do so as well, much as I didn’t want to.
“Not that many. There’s me, Jay, Mike and Tyler, and Zavier. Mike and Tyler are twins, they’re only fourteen but they eat a lot. Jay, Zee and I are all more or less the same age and, well, we’ve got to keep the meat on our bones.” He winked at me, laughing as I pulled a face. “But yeah, Tessa’s asleep at the moment, so you won’t have to meet her today. She had her year twelve formal last night, came home looking like a zombie.”
“She managed to sleep through the barbeque explosion?” I asked half-heartedly. Now that we were heading back towards the main entrance, I was freaking out. Zavier would be there. He was in this house, right now. Right. Now.
“Yep, she’s like a log – sleeps through anything,” Matt laughed, taking a few more steps forward before realising I’d stopped walking.
I’d frozen, having recognised Zavier’s deep voice echoing from outside. My heart was in my throat and I felt like I was going to puke. He was outside.
“Candice? You okay?” Matt took a step toward me, causing my wide eyes to flash up from the ground and meet his soothing brown ones. I just stared at him, unmoving.
“You’re nervous,” he said after a moment, a Spanish accent warming his words. I swallowed and nodded, dropping my gaze and trying to push down the contents of my stomach. When had I last eaten? I wasn’t sure, but there was enough in there to throw up.
“There’s no need to be, chicka,” Matt murmured, moving closer. His arms wrapped themselves around me, pulling me into the embrace. “I know you’re scared, and I know this is all new to you.”
I didn’t move for a minute, not even to hug him back. His warmth was comforting, and although I hardly knew him, the familiarity he brought started to decrease the pounding in my ears. After a few frozen moments of him humming quietly, I slowly brought my arms up and wrapped them around his waist, leaning my head against his chest. His arms tightened reassuringly in response.
“It’s going to be okay,” he whispered soothingly, rocking back and forth a bit. One large hand came up and rested on my hair. Normally, rocking and petting would make me feel like I was two, but right now I honestly didn’t care. I needed comfort. I felt panicked; I wanted to run.
“Candice,” Matt pulled away, holding me at arms length, his hands enveloping my shoulders. His eyes searched my face for a second. “Look, I know Zavier will hate me for this, but I’m going to offer anyway. If there is anything I can do, anything at all, that will help you feel more comfortable, all you need to do is ask, okay? I’m a big boy, I can handle Zee. But if you’re scared or hurting or feeling lonely, just ask, alright? My dad runs a dairy farm, so I am the king of comfort eating ice-cream.”
That had me releasing a shaky laugh, blinking through tears I hadn’t even noticed I’d started to shed.
“You mean you’re not really lactose intolerant?” I giggled, wiping my eyes.
Matt just laughed, shaking his head. “My parents would’ve disowned me if I was.”
“Why?” I asked, sucking in a breath shakily, hoping he’d distract me. I’d never been a huge crier, but whenever the tears came, it wasn’t pretty.
“Well, the farm’s been running in the family for a fair bit now, and the only other person who could inherit it is my cousin, who lives in England,” Matt explained with a small smile. I nodded again, starting to calm down a bit.
“So you have to take over when you grow up?”
“That’s what’s supposed to happen. Everyone knows I don’t really want to though, so whether it’ll actually happen or not is still sorta,” he tipped his hands up and down, as if they were scales. “Eh. Half and half, I guess.”
He looked down at me again with warm eyes. “You alright now?”
“Yeah,” I took another big breath, rubbing my eyes once more. “Does it look like I’ve been crying?”
“Nope, you’re very subtle.” He grinned as I looked up at him. I shook my head, smiling. “You ready to go? We can’t delay it forever, chicka.”
“Yeah, I know,” I murmured. Matt didn’t say anything more, just wrapped an arm around my shoulders and continued to lead me back to the main entrance.
The backyard was clear of smoke now, a blackened barbeque sitting on the decking, next to an outdoor setting. I could see Charlie and a young, blonde boy laughing as they sat on some chairs, talking to the people opposite them. The people were out of our view. Matt stopped walking, pulling me to a halt as well. I looked up at him questioningly.
“Charlie told me about your - ” he lowered his voice slightly. “Your plan, or whatever you want to call it. Candi, I have to tell you right now. It’s not going to last very long. But I’ll help you out for as long as I can, okay? Just to humour him, he really needs to learn to chill. Just be careful about it, okay? He can get pretty angry.”
“You’ll help?” I whispered, feeling my heart lift slightly. He nodded and I couldn’t help but smile, throwing my arms around his neck and stretching onto my tiptoes.
“Thank you,” I whispered into his shoulder. “Thank you, so much.”
“Just be safe,” he murmured back, leaning his cheek against my head. A loud scraping back of chairs sounded from outside and I tried to pull away, but Matt only held me tighter.
“Don’t turn around. Zavier is about to come in, he’s going to be pissed that we’re hugging. Just play along, alright?” He breathed, almost too quietly. I nodded my head ever so slightly, flinching as the sound of a glass door being slid back violently.
“Matt,” a deep voice ground out. His voice. “You have three seconds to let go of her, or I swear - ”
I felt Matt’s cheek lift away from hair, a warmth gone missing, but I didn’t move.
“Right, yeah. Sorry, Zee, she was just freaking out and needed a hug,” Matt shrugged his shoulders casually, pulling his arms away from my body. I didn’t turn around, watching Matt’s face as he looked over my head. A low growl sounded from behind me and I felt my heart freeze.
Did they have a dog or was that just the sound a pissed-off psycho makes?
“Why were you even with her?” Zavier managed to say, his voice sounding controlled. “I thought she was in the bathroom. Charlie?”
“She was, seriously! Maybe Matt just bumped into her when she was coming out - ” Charlie protested, but Matt cut her off.
“She was helping me order the pizza. She wasn’t ready to meet you yet,” he said. “To be honest, she’s not really ready to meet you now either.”
A harsher growl tore through the room this time, only silence following. Matt’s expression didn’t move – it was still challenging; serious.
“Get away from her, Matt. Now. You do not have the right to decide when she is ready to meet me, and you will not take her away from me. She’s mine!” Zavier snarled. Suddenly a large hand was on my wrist, tugging me around and away from Matt. It took all of my concentration to keep my eyes trained on the ground as I stumbled slightly, determined not to look up at my kidnapper. Instead, I righted myself and decided to study his shoes. Converse – like mine.
“I’m going - ” Zavier ground out, taking a few deep breaths. I felt my heart clench; the sound of his deep voice, the size of his shadow – this man was big, and most likely strong. A lot stronger then me. “To take Candice upstairs. No one, no one, is to go up there unless I say it is okay. Do you understand?”
There were a few murmured agreements and then the large hand, which had been enveloping my wrist, moved to behind my back. He wasn’t touching me, thank goodness, but its presence was still there.
“Come on, Love,” Zavier muttered softly, guiding me forward. I sent Matt a desperate sideways glance, but he just shook his head subtly, then mouthed something at me.
“What?” I mouthed back. He raised a finger and tapped his temple, then repeated the word.
‘Remember’.
Remember what? I felt irritated with myself as I let Zavier guide me up the stairs and into another large corridor, this one carpeted. What was I supposed to remember? Just be safe was what he’d told me. But how was I supposed to control my own safety, Zavier was stronger then me. Zavier.
“Zavier isn’t interested in hurting you. He’s going to be possessive, protective, and overattentive… Not talking to him, not looking at him, avoiding any sort of contact, it’ll all push his limits. And if you want to get even more extreme, refuse to eat or sleep. Give up something that’s vital to your health.” Charlie; she’d tried to prepare me for this, but I hadn’t really been able to envision it properly – how could I just ignore someone? What if Zavier grabbed me and forced me to talk to him? I found it hard to imagine the man behind me being caring and overly attentive – he had already come across as an aggressive maniac and I’d only known him for ten minutes.
“Here,” Zavier interrupted my thoughts, stepping to my side to open a door, letting me go through first. I still kept my eyes downcast, but from their corners I could make out his tall figure and what looked like brown hair. We walked into a large rumpus room, with beanbags, two couches, a TV, a pool table, a few desks and a drum kit in the corner.
“Do you want to sit on the couch?” Zavier asked, stopping to look down at me. I didn’t respond, staring at the black carpet beneath my feet. If this didn’t work, I was in serious trouble. Serious, serious trouble.
“Yeah?” Zavier probed after a moment of silence. He then walked the few feet between us and the couches, sitting down one comfortably. I could see his long legs now – he was wearing black jeans. I stood there uncertainly for a second, before slowly making my way over to the couch opposite his, perching on the edge of the seat uncomfortably. I didn’t make a sound, just sat there.
“Are you alright, Love?” Zavier asked, leaning forward and resting his arms on his knees. I glanced sideways, noticing the large glass windows that were almost like walls. Outside, a large backyard could be seen.
“Candice,” Zavier tried again. I almost felt bad for ignoring him; I’d never been one for the silent treatment. But this was my psycho kidnapper; he deserved it. I looked down at my hands, fiddling with my fingers. A low growl sounded opposite me, and I couldn’t help it. My eyes flashed up and met with his.