Falling for Hudson (Marlowe series Book 2) Read online

  I nod my head and follow him backstage. After pointing out the bathrooms, he continues walking to where I assume the vending machines are.

  I flip the switch, and luckily the bathroom lights turn on. In a teeny room like this with no windows, I would have been mortified if I had to leave the door open for light and Hudson walked by. After going to the bathroom, I get a good look at myself in the mirror while washing my hands. While I don’t look hideous by anyone’s standards, I don’t look good either. My makeup is partially melted off and my hair is a disaster. I quickly wash my face, choosing to ignore what kind of harsh soap I’m currently slathering on my face. After I’m satisfied with the squeaky cleanness of my skin, I shake out my hair and pull it up into a messy bun. It’s not the best, but an improvement to what I looked like a few minutes ago.

  I head back out and find Hudson sitting back in the front row. I stifle a giggle when I see all of the snacks sitting in his lap. “I wasn’t sure what you would want, so I grabbed a bunch of stuff. It’s all crap, but it can hold us over while we’re stuck in here.” I sit down next to him and grab a water bottle and a bag of Gardetto’s.

  Yum.

  We eat in silence and take in our situation. Worst case scenario, someone won’t come and find us until Monday morning when everyone is back at school. That means including today, we’ll be stuck here five days. I’m not sure I can last on vending machine food alone for that long. I hope this won’t be the worst case scenario and someone will come in sooner. Although it might be hard to explain what we’re doing in here. With that being said, I’d much rather get in trouble for being in here and go home sooner.

  After finishing our feast of vending machine snacks, my eyes start drooping. I’m not sure how long we’ve been in here, but it must be late. Or maybe I’m just bored. I reach down for my bag and it’s gone. Frantically, I stand up and turn around in a circle. Did I leave it in the dressing room? The bathroom? I can’t remember the last time I had it. “Chloe, what are you doing?”

  I ignore him as I drop to the floor and check underneath the chairs. Not finding anything, I start to hop on the chair when he grabs my arm. I lean back and hesitate slightly. “I can’t find my purse. I thought I left it out here when I went to the bathroom. But—”

  Letting go of my arm, he smiles and brings his hand up to my face, pushing some stray hairs behind my ear. “Why didn’t you say something? I moved all of our stuff.”

  “You…you moved it?” He nods his head and I let out a breath of air. “Where?”

  He points over to the stage, but there isn’t anything there. Cocking my head to the side, I open my mouth to ask, but he replies first. “Are you done here or was there anything else you wanted to do?”

  I shake my head, and he grabs my hand and stands up, pulling me with him. I open my mouth but immediately shut it. I let him drag me wherever he’s heading. It’s not like I have anything better to do anyway. He drags me backstage, and we stop in front of a different room than we were in earlier. I wasn’t paying attention, but it looks like we’re on the opposite side of the stage from the dressing rooms. He pushes the door open, and situated in the middle of the room is a bed.

  An actual bed.

  Without even thinking, I take off running and fling my body across it. It’s not the most comfortable bed in the world, but it’s much better than sleeping on the floor or the chairs like I thought we would have to. I sigh and let my body relax into the mattress, ignoring the musty smell of it.

  “I take it you like the bed?”

  I giggle deliriously. “It’s perfect. Thank you.” He’s beaming, and I put that smile there. My body warms at the thought.

  “Your purse is on the floor on your side of the bed.”

  I fling my body across the bed and look down, and sure enough, my bag is sitting right there. Wait. My side of the bed? I don’t know why I never thought of it before, but we have our own sides of the bed. We’ve been sharing a bed together for months, and every night we go to sleep on the same sides. I’m always on the left side of the bed. Clearing those thoughts, I reach down and grab my purse to hunt for my phone. How the heck is it already ten o’clock? Have we been here that long?

  Noticing my shock, he says, “Yeah, it’s late. I thought time was dragging, but we were in the dressing room a lot longer than I thought.”

  I nod my head and drop my bag back onto the floor. No wonder I’m so tired. I clear my throat, and for some reason he hasn’t moved from his position near the doorway. “So…you ready for bed, then?” He doesn’t say anything. He shuts the door and starts moving toward the bed. Why is this so awkward? It shouldn’t be. We’ve slept in the same bed together for months now and it’s never been like this before. But we’ve never been this alone together either. We could do anything right now. I swallow the lump that has built in my throat and my palms start to sweat. That thought terrifies and excites me at the same time.

  Sliding onto the bed, Hudson stays as close to the edge on his side as he possibly can. We’re both lying on our backs, and there’s an invisible line that goes right down the middle of the bed. Yep, awkward. I peek over at him, and he has his eyes closed so tight. With a groan, he rolls over with his back to me and grumbles goodnight. I guess that’s what kind of night it’s going to be. I say my goodnight and roll over, facing away from him. How is it that I was barely able to stay awake a few moments ago, and now that we’re in bed I’m wide awake? I guess I’m in for a long night.

  Yippee.

  Chapter 12

  Hudson

  My stomach growls for the millionth time today, and it has nothing to do with being hungry. It’s like my body knows it’s Thanksgiving today and I’m withholding. I wish it were something that simple. Unfortunately, I will be missing out on all of it. No delicious roast turkey that has been soaking in a brine for twenty-four hours. A turkey that is so incredibly moist my mouth is salivating just thinking about it. Then there’s the cranberry sauce. We don’t have the can-shaped gelatinous mess on our table. Nope, it’s real, fresh cranberries with a hint of orange zest. Jax always pigs out on the mashed potatoes, but me, my absolute favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner is the green bean casserole. Fresh green beans that still have a crunch to them, smothered in mushrooms, caramelized onions, and Mom’s homemade mushroom soup. She doesn’t sleep and spends hours in the kitchen. Everything is always homemade and we eat like kings. I just hope my bastard bother leaves me some leftovers.

  “What do you think about me auditioning for the play?”

  We’ve been lounging around all day. After spending most of the day in bed, we moved to the theater and have been sitting in the chairs out here ever since. Opening my eyes, I expect to find her sitting on the other side of me. Did I fall asleep? Sitting up, I find her in the middle of the aisle, sitting and looking up toward the stage. “I think you should do whatever you want to do. But what brought that on?”

  She turns her head to look over at me and sighs. “For one, we’re trapped in the theater. But it’s what my mom would have wanted me to do. Plus, it’d piss Brooke off if I got the part she wants.”

  I don’t know what it is with girls always being mean to each other. I wouldn’t purposely go out of my way to make someone else’s day worse. It seems like a waste of time and energy. But what do I know? I’m just a guy. “If we put the whole Brooke thing aside, I get why you would want to do it for your mom, but…is it something that you want to do?”

  She shrugs her shoulders and turns back around to face the stage. She pulls her legs up toward her chest and hugs them to her body. “Being in here has pretty much sucked, no offense, but it’s brought me back to what I used to love. I forgot how much just being around this environment makes me feel alive. But do I think I’m ready to go up on stage again?” She looks back over at me and I nod my head. “I don’t know. And if I’m not one hundred percent sure I can do it, it’s not a good idea.”

  “Then I guess you have your answer.”

  Wi
th a small sigh, she replies, “Yeah…I guess I do.” She’s quiet after that, and I wait for her to say something more. After a few minutes of her silence, I peek over and watch as her chest slowly rises and falls. She looks so content and I don’t want to wake her, but I know I need to do something to cheer her up. I hate the constant state of unhappiness that she’s been in, and being stuck in here isn’t helping anything.

  Quietly, I get up and pick her up. I pause, but she doesn’t stir, so I continue walking her backstage to the storage room. Placing her on the bed, I pull a blanket on top of her and watch her contentment for a moment. With an idea in mind, I walk back out onto the stage. It might not be perfect, but I can make her day a little bit better, I hope.

  ***

  After double-checking everything in front of me, I head back to where Chloe is lying down. I go back into the storage room and find her right where I left her. She looks so peaceful, and I’m hesitant to wake her. She rarely gets a peaceful rest like this, and she needs it. I can’t even count how many times I’ve been woken up from her stirring and mumbling. On the nights when she gets wasted, she sleeps like a rock, but it’s not quite the same. That’s partly why she does it. That, and she gets to forget while she’s awake too. Neither one of us slept much last night—not from her nightmares, just from the ridiculousness of this whole situation.

  We’ve been trapped in this giant theater, yet the walls feel like they’re closing in on me. My chest tightens with the thought of not getting out of here, and I worry that my fear is written all over my face. Claustrophobia is a real bitch, and you never know you have it until you’re experiencing it. I get chills just thinking about it and shake those thoughts off. I know I told Chloe that my parents probably haven’t even noticed I’m gone, but I’m freaking out that they just might have. I don’t want to add any more problems to their plate.

  “Chloe.” I wait to see if she’ll stir, and when she doesn’t I gently reach out and shake her arm a little. “Hey, Chloe, it’s time to get up.” She rolls over and grumbles while pushing my hand away. I chuckle and shake her again. “Hey, c’mon, I’ve got a surprise for you.”

  She stirs slightly and opens her eyes. “A surprise?” I lean back and laugh. I should have led off with that and saved myself some trouble. “Yeah, a surprise. Now get up and come with me.” She smiles sleepily and I pull her up from the bed.

  I lead her out onto the stage, and when she sees everything I set up, she stops dead in her tracks and gasps. I didn’t have much to work with, but I did the best I could. I rummaged through the other storage room and pulled some old props out. On the center of the stage I laid out an artificial grass rug. On top of that I put out a blanket, and I found an old picnic basket that I filled with our vending machine feast. While scavenging for other props, I came across an unopened bottle of wine. I’m not much of a fan, but anything to make our time a little more fun works for me. The fake moon was already hanging from the ceiling for A Midsummer Night’s Dream and all I needed to top it off were some white Christmas lights. That and of course some music. I used to run the sound system for every play before we started getting serious about the band, so I know my way around the equipment.

  There’s sniffling behind me, and I drop her hand to turn around. Her right hand is across her mouth and tears are pouring down her face. Oh no no no. I did something wrong. What did I do wrong? I reach for her and she backs away and shakes her head. I take a step back and hold my breath.

  Wiping away her tears and clearing her throat, she smiles up at me. “I can’t believe you did all of this.” I open my mouth, but she puts her hand up to stop me. “We’re trapped in here, and instead of freaking out like I am, you did this amazingly sweet thing. How did you even do all of this?”

  Moving forward, I grab her hand, forcing her focus on me. “I’m freaking out just as much as you are right now. I’m trying to be strong for the both of us because I know you need me. I wanted to do something special for you since we’re missing both of our families today. And I’m very familiar with the storage rooms here, so I knew what I was looking for. I didn’t go to any extra trouble.”

  “Thank you. Everything has gone to shit, but you’re still trying to make me feel better.”

  I nod my head and pull her toward the picnic I have set up. As we take a seat, she looks around expectantly and I pull out the picnic basket. “I know it’s not Thanksgiving dinner, but I grabbed a little of everything.” I start laying everything out on the blanket and put out a couple of bags of Funyuns, Cheez-Its, Lays potato chips, some meat sticks, Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies, and M&M’s. Chloe’s nose curls up at the M&M’s. More for me, then. “And I can’t guarantee this will be any good since it’s a few years old, but I found this in the prop room and apparently it’s never been opened.”

  She cocks her head to the side, and her eyes light up when I pull out the bottle of wine. It’s a pear wine from RoxyAnn Winery, so it has to at least be sweet, right? Her grabby hands swipe the bottle from me and attempt to open it up. When she spots the cork, she hands the bottle back to me and bounces back to the other storage room.

  That was weird.

  When she comes skipping back out with her bag in hand, I have no idea what she’s going to do. She plops herself back down on the blanket next to me and starts digging through her bag. She motions for me to hand her the bottle and pulls out her keys. “Chloe, I don’t think—”

  Waving me off with her hand, she lifts the keys and I finally spot it. She has a freakin’ Swiss Army Knife keychain. She quickly maneuvers out the corkscrew and pops the bottle open. I’m so impressed I can’t even say anything. I look like an idiot with my mouth hanging open, but I’m pretty sure I just fell even more in love with this girl. She takes a long chug from the bottle and looks up at me. “What?”

  Closing my mouth and wiping away the invisible drool, I say, “Nothing. You’re like a Boy Scout. Except you know…a girl…and freakin’ hot. And…uh…not a Boy Scout ‘cause you’re not a boy, but you’re awesome, and did I mention hot? And I’m shutting up now before I ramble on a little more.”

  She laughs and nods her head. “My dad got this for me a few years back before I started high school. He told me, ‘Chloe, I always want you to be prepared for anything. Worst case scenario, you shank a boy that doesn’t know the meaning of the word no, and best case scenario, you’ll always be able to open a good bottle of wine.’ At the time I thought he was crazy, but I can’t tell you how many times this little thing has come in handy.”

  She hands over the bottle and I chug it. The fruity liquid slides down easily and actually tastes pretty good. Must be those Oregon pears. I don’t know anything about wine, but I wouldn’t mind drinking a few more bottles of this stuff. I hand the bottle back over and start digging into our feast of snacks. I’m used to a food coma on Thanksgiving from stuffing myself so full of delicious food. I just hope I don’t go into one this year from all of the junk we’re consuming. My body isn’t used to eating like this.

  We eat our snacks in silence and pass the bottle back and forth. It empties a lot quicker than the packages of food sitting in front of us. I’m feeling a slight buzz, but there wasn’t enough wine to make it last very long. It’s going to be a very long night and an even longer weekend. I just hope someone comes in here sooner rather than later. I don’t think we can handle being stuck in here all weekend. I guess we’ll just have to make the most of our situation and hope for the best.

  Chapter 13

  Chloe

  We’ve been trapped in this damn building for a day now. Thanksgiving came and we missed all of it. I don’t necessarily miss the festivities, but oh how I miss the food. Instead we’re sitting here snacking on our delicious vending machine feast yet again. Yes, Hudson made an amazing picnic, and I appreciate all of the trouble he went to. It’s super sweet and I can’t thank him enough. But when we finally get out of here, I’m going to figure out how to roast a damn turkey. I will make an entire fucking
Thanksgiving spread and devour all of it. My body will rebel against me if it doesn’t get all of the fixings this year.

  Since there’s no liquor in sight and there isn’t anything better to do, I figure we might as well get to know each other a little better. Our relationship or friendship, whatever you call this, has been pretty surface so far. I contemplate the perfect first question.

  With a smirk, I ask, “Who’s your favorite celebrity crush?”

  Hudson’s mouth falls open and he shakes his head. “Are you kidding me? We’re locked up in here, most likely not leaving until Monday morning, and you want to play twenty questions?”

  Crossing my arms across my chest, I nod my head as I reply, “That’s not how you play twenty questions; that’s a different game. All we have right now is time, Hudson. I’m out of alcohol, so I can’t numb my mind right now. I need to think about anything other than my parents being dead. Do you have a problem with that?”

  “Nope,” he says.

  “Okay. So answer the question. Who is your favorite celebrity crush?”

  He hesitates slightly and taps his forefinger against his chin. A wide smile breaks out on his face and he answers, “Umm, I guess Miranda Kerr.”

  Throwing my head back, I let out an uncontrollable giggle. “Are you kidding me?”

  “What, do you have something against former Victoria’s Secret supermodels?”

  “No. It’s just mine is Orlando Bloom. If they were still together we could have made quite the team breaking them up and sweeping them off their feet.”

  “That’s kind of twisted.”

  With a smirk, I add, “Whatever. You like it.”

  “If it gets me Miranda Kerr, then hell yeah I like it.”

  Boys and their supermodel dream girls. Maybe a little bit of the arrogance that Jax struts around with rubbed off on Hudson. At least it’s just a little. “Ha-ha, you’re so funny. Your question.”