Always You (29 page)

"I love Clay" I whispered.

"Then you're staying married is that what your saying?" he asked condescendingly.

"Yeah" I croaked.

"Well then I guess you've made your choice, when it all goes wrong your mother and I will be here to pick up the pieces but I can't condone a teenage marriage, I love you Riley" he said his voice breaking through emotion.

"Love you too" I whispered. I heard my Mom wailing in the background and he disconnected the call.

It felt like it was killing me but I knew I'd made the right choice, I loved Clay with all of my heart. I wanted to be Mrs Preston, and Brian was wrong it wouldn't fall to pieces because Clay and I were meant to be together. In time he'd see that too.

I wiped my face and went to the nearest corner shop to buy the classifieds, on my way back to the motel I stopped and bought doughnuts and coffee's. Clay was still asleep when I got back to the room, his face had gotten worse overnight. He had two purple shadows under his eyes, and is cheek looked like he was blushing, his cuts over his nose and on his lip had healed but still looked sore and angry.

"Clay" I whispered sitting on the bed next to him, he moved to wrap his arms around me so I quickly moved the coffee and doughnuts out of the way as he threw his arm over my legs. "Clay" I said again a little louder, he opened his eyes slowly and took in my already dressed form holding breakfast.

"Hey you" he said sleepily

"Hey husband" I said smiling pretending I wasn't hurting inside, he pushed himself up and I passed him one of the coffee's and put the box of doughnuts on the bed, "I got you a jelly doughnut" I said pulling a disgusted face and faking a shudder, he laughed and picked one up taking a big bite.

"You're organised this morning, why didn't you wake me? I would have come with you" he said rubbing his hand up my leg lovingly.

"I wanted to get you breakfast in bed" I said drinking my coffee. I grabbed the paper and flicked through until I found the 'for rents' then snuggled closer to him and laid it out across my legs so we could both read it.

"You bought a listings paper?" he asked seeming proud of me.

I nodded, "Yeah, Clay I rang Brian this morning, there isn't anyway we can go home, maybe you could ring your parents and see too?" I asked hopefully.

He nodded, "I'm sorry Riley bear, they'll come around when they see that this wasn't a mistake, when they see how much we love each other everything will be fine" he said rubbing my leg soothingly.

I kissed his perfect mouth and smiled, "Yeah I know, it's just sad that it had to happen this way, but if your parents won't let us live at yours then I thought we would skip school today and get everything sorted, I don't mind this place but I don't really want to stay here too long" I said turning my nose up.

I busied myself sorting out our clothes and suitcases while Clay was on the phone to his Mom. He looked sad, when he hung up the phone he didn't even need to say what happened. I could tell by his face that they weren't going for it either.

I smiled and resigned myself to the face that we would be renting an apartment. I actually liked the idea of it, our first home, I just wish that Clay wouldn't have to pay for it and use his wages to pay the bills as I wouldn't be able to help being at school. At least we had the money from Vegas, that would pay for the deposit and rent. Clay didn't want to spend much of it though, he said he wanted to save it and use it to buy a place in a few years or at least use it as a deposit on our own place anyway as that wouldn't stretch very far now days.

I climbed back on the bed with him and we scanned through the paper and found three apartments for rent in this area. Two of them were two beds and one was a one bed, they were all furnished which was good as we had nothing. I rang Rachel while Clay phoned the agents and arranged viewings for this afternoon.

"Hey Rach" I said,

"Oh I've been so worried about you! How did it go?" she asked. I took a deep breath before answering,

"Err not too good, we're in a motel and today we're going apartment hunting if that gives you your answer" I said sadly.

She gasped "Oh no, I'm so sorry" she said meaningfully.

"Yeah don't worry about it, do you think you could get anything I miss from school today and ask Tom to do the same for Clay?" I asked stuffing the rest of my doughnut in my mouth,

"Yeah ok sure, will you be in tomorrow?" she asked.

I thought about it, "I don't know depends on the apartment hunt I guess" I said honestly. "I better go, thanks and I'll speak to you tomorrow Rach ok" I said watching Clay as he stood up and headed to the bathroom butt naked. Damn my husband is yummy!

"Yeah ok see ya" she said hanging up.

I jumped up and ran to the bathroom to watch Clay shower. "You just going to watch me or are you going to get in here and wash my back?" he said seductively making my insides squirm. I stood up and pulled off my clothes as quick as I could and jumped into the shower being careful not to get my cast wet.

A couple of hours later we were walking down the high street, Clay said he had something he needed to sort out. He dragged me into the bank, "What are we doing in here?" I asked confused, he smirked at me and dragged me to the nearest free banking assistant.

"Hi, I have an account with you, I've just got married recently so I wanted to add my wife onto my account please" he said to the lady.

She smiled "You two are a little young to be married" she commented,

Clay smiled "Some people think so" he said shrugging and holding my hand tightly.

"Ok I'll need proof of who you are, so like a bankers card and driving licence for both of you, and your marriage certificate" she said smiling. Clay handed over all the relevant things and she got to work updating Clay's account to add me on. We would need to come in again in a couple of days to collect my cards as we didn't have a permanent address.

We still needed to check out if our marriage was legal but that was further down on the list of priorities. It didn't really matter if it was legal or not, if it wasn't then we'd just do it again when I was old enough. First we needed to sort out the whole homeless situation. We had plenty of time to check it out once we were settled in our new place.

We quickly bought a sandwich and ate in the park before making our way to the first apartment. It was one of the two beds, we literally walked in the door before Clay laughed and turned around and walked out, "Nope not for us" he said pulling me back out of the door. The place was a tip, the walls were cracked and the ceilings were yellow where the person who lived there before was a heavy smoker.

We went to the next one, the other two bed was just as bad. Oh crap it's going to take us forever to find somewhere! Clay looked at me disappointed he was obviously thinking the same as me. We followed the agent to the last apartment we had to view today, if this one was no good we would maybe have a to look a little further out, we couldn't go too far out though because Clay had already been offered an apprenticeship as an engineer for a really great firm so he needed to be able to commute. The job was his dream job and when he was fully trained in two years he would be earning really good money.

As we pulled up outside the next apartment I was surprised at how nice it looked from the outside. It was clean and the area was nice, there was two allocated place's to park and a little garden area that was shared with the three other apartment's in the building. I glanced at Clay who was looking a little hopeful as we climbed the stairs to the first floor, apartment 2A.

I was trying not to get excited in case the inside didn't match the outside but as soon as the door opened excitement bubbled over. The hallway was nice, it was plain cream and it had a hardwood floor with doors leading off to the bedroom, kitchen, bathroom and lounge. I noticed that everything was cream, and that the wood floor stretched through the whole apartment but there was rug's in each room which made it feel warmer. The place was fully furnished so it had everything apart from bed sheets and towels, we could literally move straight in.

The agent said that we would be allowed to redecorate if we wanted to which was even more exciting. I could hear Clay chatting to the agent about the monthly bills, which apparently were included in the rent, but I was too busy looking through every cupboard and draw in the kitchen, looking at all the saucepans and cutlery and plates that we would have. This place was perfect and I could see Clay and I living here happily.

I looked at Clay trying not to jump up and down in excitement, "You like this one?" he asked really pleased, I nodded so excited I could burst, he laughed and turned to the agent. "We'll take it" he said shaking hands with the man. We had to go back in to the agents office in an hour with the deposit and then it was ours.

We decided to wait until the following day to collect our clothes and stuff as it was late afternoon and our parents would be home from work soon. We went back to the motel and paid for another night, the same woman was flirting with Clay shamelessly making me laugh.

As soon as we walked through the door to our room I pushed him roughly making him sit on the edge of bed, "Whoa! Riley bear jeez, is somebody a little impatient?" he asked smirking. I smiled seductively at him and turned on the TV to the music channel, lucky for me there was some R & B song by J Sean, I started to peel off my clothes slowly making his eyes go wide and a bulge start to appear in his jeans as I swayed seductively to the beat grinding against him. He moaned and grabbed me throwing me down on the bed roughly. I laughed breathlessly as I wrapped my arms and legs around him, pulling him to me. "You really are amazing you know" he said trailing little kisses down my neck, I giggled as he 'marked his territory' on my neck as usual.

An hour later we walked into the agents office and put down the deposit on the apartment signing for six months. Once we were signed Clay grabbed me and lifted me off the floor, I wrapped my arms and legs around him as he spun us in a circle laughing. "I can't believe as of tomorrow we will officially be moved in to our own place" I squealed with excitement.

He kissed me hard and I kissed him back hungrily, "How about we go out for dinner to celebrate?" he asked putting me down on my feet.

"Yeah ok, why not" I said cheerfully.

We walked to the nearest restaurant hand in hand chatting happily about what colours we would paint our place and I was even starting to get excited about food shopping. Clay admitted that he had never even been food shopping before, bless him.

We got a table and ordered our food, "We still need to go get our stuff so we'll have to chose a time when my Dad and Brian will be at work so there's no more trouble, I hope they haven't burnt it or anything" he said jokingly.

I shook my head "Don't say that, you never know you might be tempting fate" I said narrowing my eyes at him jokingly.

"Hey we'll need to buy some bed sheets and towels and stuff tomorrow too" he said, he had a big grin on his face and looked ecstatically happy.

As we were eating desert my phone rang, I looked at the caller id it was Blake. I stared at it in shock, with everything that had gone on in the last couple of days I had completely forgotten about him. "You gonna answer that?" Clay asked smiling at me. I gulped and shook my head, "What's wrong Riley bear?" he asked holding out his hand for the phone.

I couldn't speak so I put the phone in his hand, he gasped and snapped the phone open, "What the fuck are you doing calling her?" he spat down the phone angrily, then he just gritted his teeth and snapped the phone shut muttering expletives under his breath. He handed me back the phone, I just looked at him shocked. Why the hell would Blake be calling me? He really is crazy after everything that's happened. "He hung up" Clay said clenching his jaw tightly. "We need to go back to the police" he said taking my hand and playing with my wedding ring absentmindedly.

I nodded, "Not today though ok? I don't want anything else to happen, I can't take anymore Clay, please baby" I said giving him my puppy dog face.

He sighed, "Ok fine but if he calls again we go straight to the police ok" he said sternly looking at me intently. I smiled jeez I was so in love with my husband.

My phone rang again and Clay snatched it up his eyes flashing with anger, he looked at the caller id and calmed down handing it back to me "It's your Mom Riley bear" he said smiling sadly.

I answered it quickly, "Hey" I said cheerfully, I was so happy to hear from her, I didn't think I would be able to speak to her again so soon after what Brian said this morning.

"Hi honey, how are you? Where are you? Are you and Clay ok? I've been so worried" she said babbling.

I laughed, "Slow down Mom, we are both fine, we are currently sitting having dinner in a restaurant, are you ok? How's Brian? Has he calmed down since this morning?" I asked hopefully.

"Brian's so upset honey, he's sorry about what he did to Clay but he still won't accept it, I've been trying to reason with him but" she said quietly trailing off. She didn't need to finish the sentence, I knew it was useless.

"Ok well there's not much we can do about that, he'll come around eventually" I said sadly holding Clay's hand trying to appear unconcerned.

"So how are you two getting on as a married couple?" Mom asked forcing happiness.

I grinned "Great Mom, we found a place today, we're moving in tomorrow" I said excitedly.

She gasped "You found a place? What sort of place? Where? Oh my gosh my little girl is a married woman who has her own place" she said sounding tearful.

I laughed at how strange that sounded, "It's on West street, it's a one bed apartment and it's just perfect Mom, it's already furnished so we have hardly anything to buy" I said excitedly.

"Already furnished? That's great Riley, what sort of thing do you still need to buy?" she asked.

"Well linens aren't included so we need towels, bedding and tea towels, that kind of stuff"

"Oh Riley you sound so happy, is your place nice?" she asked.

I grinned "Yeah Mom it's just perfect, you'd like it, maybe you could come and look at it later in the week if you want" I suggested looking at Clay who was smiling and nodding at me.