Life With The Boy Next Door - Lissie (brene brown rising strong .TXT) 📗

1

Even though the whole college thing hadn’t worked out, Alice knew that her life with Cale would. She couldn’t handle being away from him, so he had brought her home. And they were moving to Colorado to get away from the memories. But for now, Alice Nichols was just waking up to experience her final day as a Nichols child.
She woke up smiling and rolled over to check her bedside clock. 7:00 AM it read in wide red script flashing across the blank face. She tossed back the covers and stood up, feet flat on the floor. Before anything else, she splashed warm water on her face, cleared out her sleepy eyes and put in her new contacts. She was pleased that she didn’t have to wear glasses anymore; now people could see her light grey eyes more clearly. As she got older, her eyes stopped appearing green and changed to an almost translucent grey colour instead.
A knock came at her bedroom door and she looked up, smile widening.
“Come in” she said, walking out of the bathroom and meeting her visitor.
It was her mother, looking happy and tired all at once. Annabelle, after all, had done much of the wedding preparation, while Alice hung out with Cassi and jokingly avoided Cale. She said that having him around for the wedding plans would be disastrous because he could never make up his mind. He was worse than any girl when it came her turn to be the bride.
Annabelle hugged her tightly to her and smiled, kissing her cheek.
“Honey, you’re only nineteen and already getting married, I can’t believe it!” she exclaimed, sighing to herself.
Alice laughed and patted her back.
“Believe it, Mom. ‘Cause it’s happening today” she said, blushing in spite of herself.
Annabelle saw it and laughed.
“All right, come on downstairs with your dressing gown on. Em’s already here to help to get you ready” she told her, pulling her daughter’s gown off the hook attached to the back of her bedroom door.
Alice obediently slipped it on and followed her mother downstairs. In the living room sat Cale’s mother, waiting to bestow her excited smile upon her soon-to-be daughter-in-law. She stood up and threw both arms around Alice’s neck, kissing her on both cheeks.
“Cale said to tell you that he loves you very much and is looking forward to seeing you at the altar” Emily said, smiling secretively.
Alice blushed a second time and nodded.
“Thank you, Emily” she murmured, sitting down at the kitchen table.
Her mother started to fuss around her, brushing her long hair out and experimenting with ways to do it up. Trying to also help, Emily knelt on a cushion in front of Alice and started on her wedding makeup.
“Can I have something to drink, please, someone?” Alice asked stiffly, her speech impeded slightly because she wasn’t allowed to really move her mouth.
Emily chuckled at her face and jumped up to pour her a glass of water from the tap. Returning it to Alice, her cell phone buzzed from where it sat in a clip at her waist. She picked it up and held it to her ear.
“Yes, this is Emily you’re speaking with” she said, then paused to listen.
She grinned and handed the glass to Alice.
“No, son, you cannot speak to her at this very moment. We are all rather busy doing her up to look beautiful for the day, all right? You’ll be able to see her and talk to her in a few hours, just be patient, boy. Goodbye, Cale!” she sang, hanging up the call.
Alice smiled and tipped the glass up to her mouth, allowing a thin trickle of water to slide down her throat. Her mouth left a lipstick mark on the rim of the glass, and she giggled nervously, only the second time in her life she’d ever actually giggled. Annabelle sighed and rolled her eyes, reaching out and taking the water out of her clumsy daughter’s hand.
“Be neater, darling” she murmured, patting her lightly on the knee.
Alice kicked her foot up in the air and laughed, seeing the look of utter adult exasperation on her mother’s face.
“Calm your farm, Mama. Please, I’m not going to die right here on the spot if some of my lipstick comes off. That’s what Emily is here for!” she exclaimed happily, grinning down at Emily.
She smiled back up at her and got to work on her toenail polish. The colour was a rich red, matching Alice’s practically scarlet hair. Alice wiggled slightly on her seat, before catching her mother’s eye and remaining completely still for the rest of her physical makeover.


Over at the big house down the long, winding lane, Cale had just woken up and dragged himself out of his warm bed. He stood in front of his full length mirror, commissioned by his mother when he was seven years old, and critically examined his reflection. His inky black hair was falling into his emerald eyes as usual, and he looked bone tired and world weary. He shrugged and let his mind work backwards through the events of the night before, watching with half closed eyes as his strong, wiry muscles flexed as he subconsciously relived what had happened in the forest nearby.
The glowing yellow eyes in the pitch shadows, the rustling leaves beneath his curling black claws, the growls tearing from his throat, snarling out from his clenched jaw.
Cale shook his head and blinked at the mirror, lazily scratching his head. Lifting his right arm, he froze, noticing only now the long, narrow scar showing all the way up the length of his forearm.
“Oh, crap” he muttered to himself, lightly tracing along the red line with one finger.
He sighed and tipped his head back, rocking on his heels. The wound he had sustained from an errant hooked claw he hadn’t been watching for would only remain like it had if it was deep enough when he received it. But he didn’t really remember any pain from the gash, and this was only the aftermath. Later on that night, he knew he would really get in trouble with Alice; she would be his wife by then. He knew she would see the scar and know at once that he’d been outside, in the middle of the night, gallivanting and preventing supernatural crime. As she called it, “being a wolfy, way furrier version of Superman.”And he knew she would be in her own right to say it, and then to complain about it. He had promised her that he wouldn’t put himself in danger in the months leading up to their wedding. But he couldn’t help it last night. The silver, waxy moon in the sky was full and gleaming, and the moon tides called his blood, pulling him and singing to him, calling him to the wilds.
Cale huffed out a hard puff of air and turned around to face his messy double bed. It was true, he had been waiting for this day since he was fourteen years old, but now there were hundreds of monarch butterflies storming in his stomach and he felt like he was going to throw up.
A knock on his door turned his head to seek the intrusive sound. He sighed again and walked over to pull it open. He wouldn’t be sick; he would stand tall, strong, and take it like a man.


Alice stared through the tinted glass of the limousine window, wary nerves building up inside her stomach. In her hands, she clutched her pretty bouquet of bright red roses, the long green stems jutting out of the bottom and poking her in the ribs. At last, she shook her head and grasped the door handle, pushing the door open by herself, ignoring the well meaning offer from her chauffeur. She smiled at him as he helped her out, and blushed as he gave her a small whistle. She laughed and thanked him, picking up her skirts and following her mother and Emily into the small white chapel.
They led her through into the small back room, where her father was waiting for them. Jared smiled down on his daughter and gently hugged her, being extremely careful not to smudge her makeup or damage her hair, swept into an elegant, princess-like updo. He kissed her cheek and took her hand, tugging it through the crook of his right arm.
They waited for Emily and Annabelle to hurry into the church, and then the wedding march began. Unknown to Alice, Cassi had already taken her place at the front of the chapel, led up there by Cale’s father. When she glimpsed her older sister gliding up the white aisle on their father’s arm, she stood up much straighter, a grin of pure, absolute delight vivid on her face. Alice gave her a tiny wave, which she returned, before glancing over at Cale. He turned around slowly, so that he now stood side on, his eyes firmly focused on Alice. The jewel green brightened even more and he winked at her as she came closer and closer to him. Jared handed her over to Cale in a fatherly gesture as old as time’s tradition, and stepped back. He looked into Cale’s face and seemed to be saying to him, I am trusting you now with my daughter. Don’t let her down; don’t let me down. Cale nodded and held Alice’s hand securely in his own.
So the pastor began and they could both feel the butterflies thrumming in their stomachs, but they ignored them and instead concentrated on each other. They had the rest of their lives to play with the butterflies.


2

Hours later, Alice Vreeland woke up in a hotel suite in Fiji. That was putting it loosely, but the view was great. She got clumsily out of bed and fumbled her way over to the low door. She pushed it open and wandered out through the open gap, letting it swing lightly closed behind her. Alice rubbed her tired eyes and walked down the beach to the water’s edge. The warm, shallow waves lapped at her feet and washed up over her ankles. Without thinking, she lowered herself down and sat on the wet sand, allowing the water to soak her up to the waist. She crossed her legs and stared at her toes, the nails still scarlet from her mother-in-law’s colourful ministrations more than a day and a half ago.
Alice shut her eyes and tipped her head back to the rays of the dawn sun, just peeking over the edge of the horizon. Her mind was partially blank, a simple white slate with nothing painted across its surface. She was bleeding, but no one was up this early in the morning to see the red evidence swirling away in the sea’s soft current. She’d forgotten he wasn’t really human, forgotten he was a supernatural creature. She hadn’t realised how bad the pain she was in would be. She felt like curling up in a ball and dying. Every muscle in her body was contracting horribly whenever she moved, and there were no relieving intervals. Everything hurt and she didn’t know what she could do to make it stop.


Back at home in New Hampshire, Cassi woke up at a strange hour and tiptoes into her parents’ room, circling round the bed to her mother’s side. Annabelle instinctively heard her child’s heavy breathing and opened her eyes to find Cassi staring at her in the dark of the bedroom. She sat up and lifted her youngest daughter onto the