Been Away Too Long

TWACK

Moments after the wrought iron fire poker connected with her captor, Victoria heard a thump as the target fell back against the floor and the sound of a familiar, male voice yelling, “AH, FUCK, WHAT THE FUCK, V?”

Squinting open her eyes, she glanced down at the man lying at her feet, her tall blonde form towering over him, raising the poker in anticipation of another strike. But as her eyes fell upon the man she slowly became aware that she recognised him. Instead of delivering a decisive blow, she dropped the weapon and fell to her knees, her hands moving instead to cover her mouth when she realised what she’d done.

“Dustin!” She cried, muffled through her hands. “What are you doing here?”

“Saving your life,” he mumbled, holding his jaw in his hands. “Fuck, this hurts.”

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry Dustin, I just woke up in this bed and I didn’t know what to think. I thought someone had found me in that cave and kidnapped me,” Victoria explained, looking around the room for something to help with his pain. “I never expected you to be here. I thought your dad got a new job out of town.”

“He did, but I had to come back to see you Vicky, what my dad wants be damned,” Dustin told her, looking up into her sad green eyes. “I got him to agree to let me volunteer with the Park Rangers out here for Spring Break by telling him it would look good on my college resume but really I wanted to see you.”

“Why is there nothing in this damn place?” Victoria growled, wheeling her head around again in vain, as if some new appliance might have magically appeared when she wasn’t looking. “There isn’t even a freezer for ice.”

“Yeah, this is an old, abandoned shack that isn’t used any more. It fell into disuse when the new cabins were built. We only brought you here because it was the closest place and it didn’t seem like a good idea to move you too much until we figured out how injured you were,” Dustin said, standing now, still holding his jaw with one hand and closing the door to the outside with his other. “I think I’ll be fine. Nothing feels broken, it just hurts like a bastard.”

“Dustin…I don’t even know where to begin…” Victoria admitted, staggering up onto her own feet as well and limping over to the bed and sitting on the edge. “I have so many questions about me…about you…”

“Take it easy,” Dustin replied soothingly, sitting on the stool opposite her and placing a hand on her bare knee. “I’ll answer anything you want to know.”

“Okay…you said you came back for me and then you found me in that cave. Were you out looking for me?” She asked suspiciously. Dustin had always been enamoured by her, and while they were dating Victoria felt the same about him. But since he’d left, Victoria had **** herself to move on, to think of other men.

“No, no, I never planned for us to be reunited like this. I didn’t even know you were staying nearby,” Dustin explained with a laugh. “I was working with Jennifer, investigating a colony of long-eared bats living in the cave when we heard the sound of someone screaming. That’s how we found you.”

“Jennifer? Is that the Ranger that you’re volunteering with?” Victoria asked, biting her lip as she looked down at Dustin’s hand on her leg. “You said ‘we’ brought me here, but you’re the only one here now.”

“That’s right, she’s the Ranger in charge here and the one who made the decision to bring you here, but then she left to get medicine and tell Emily at the Ranger Station that you were here,” Dustin clarified, staring, mesmerised by Victoria’s very presence. “I told her I knew you but not that I knew your parents or that we used to date. I didn’t know why you were up here and I didn’t want to get you in trouble in case you weren’t meant to be.”

“Oh, no, I’m staying up here in Heather’s cabin for Spring Break. We went for a hike, but I got separated from everyone else,” Victoria elaborated, her eyes widening as she thought about her friends. “I bet they’re worried sick about me. I should really let them know that I’m alright.”

“Here, you can use my phone,” Dustin suggested, pulling his mobile from his pocket and quickly punching in the lock code so that Victoria could use it. “Do you remember any of their numbers?”

“Only Ashley’s,” she said, looking over to her clothes on the chair by the fire. “What about my phone? Where is it?”

“Cracked. I think you must have fallen on it when you fell. We tried looking through it earlier, but it wouldn’t even turn on,” Dustin told her, frowning sympathetically. “Just use my phone.”

“Okay,” she agreed, deciding that any ability to contact her friends was better than no ability to contact her friends. As she typed out her message, she continued to interrogate her ex-boyfriend, asking, “So, if Jennifer left to go back to the Ranger station, did she leave you here to look after me? Why were you outside? With the door locked?”

“Ha, it almost sounds like you think I **** you, but you know me well enough to know that’s more something my brother might do than I would,” Dustin joked, and Victoria laughed nervously along with him, still typing out her message and wishing he’d just answer the question. “Jennifer rang to say she was on her way back, but I didn’t want to wake you, so I stepped outside to take the call. I simply locked the door so you couldn’t leave while I wasn’t looking because I didn’t want to lose you again.”

Victoria feinted a smile as she hit send on the message detailing exactly where she was and with who and why and then **** herself to give her only contact with the outside world back to Dustin.

“Thanks,” he said, graciously accepting his phone back. “Do you mind if I ask you a question now?”

“Sure, I guess you deserve one after everything I’ve asked,” Victoria agreed, though she was startled when this meant that Dustin moved from the stool to the bed, to sit beside her, his hand still on her knee.

“Are you seeing anyone right now?” He asked eagerly, his face inches from hers.

Victoria leaned back a little and bit her lip, wondering how Dustin would handle the news of her having moved on rather than pining for him as he had for her. But it seemed even worse not to mention Gavin and give Dustin any false hope.

“Sort-of,” she replied, compromising. “Do you know Gavin Westher?”

“Westher…hmm, the name sounds familiar,” Dustin said thoughtfully. “I think we’ve met but I don’t know him well. Is he your boyfriend?”

“Yes, again, sort-of. But I think you’d like him,” Victoria confessed. In truth, she wondered if she really had gotten over Dustin. Half the reason that she liked Gavin was that he reminded her of her ex-boyfriend; smart and sensitive and nothing like the jerks who she usually dated and just wanted her for sex. Or at least, that was who she’d thought Gavin was, until…

“What happened?” Dustin asked, interrupting the blonde’s thoughts. “How come he’s only ‘sort-of’ your boyfriend?”

“He cheated on me,” Victoria said, feeling that it was a mistake to tell him but unable to think of a good lie.

“Oh V,” Dustin pouted, raising his hand from his jaw to stroke Victoria’s head, moving strands of hair from her face, his other hand warm against her knee. “Still falling for assholes.”

“No, it’s not like that,” she argued. “At least, he wasn’t-”

“Sssh,” Dustin cut in, looking deep into her bright green eyes. “V, I want you to be with me again. I don’t care if we have to make it work long distance. Doesn’t this feel like fate to you? I come back at the exact same time that you come up here for two weeks? Forget about Gavin, you and me, that’s what’s meant to be.”

“Dustin…I don’t know,” Victoria whimpered.

Victoria was deeply unsure of what she should do. She had given Gavin the ultimatum of choosing between her and Chloe, but just because Gavin chose her didn’t necessarily mean that she had to choose him. And she had no way of knowing what decision Gavin had really made since they’d never gotten that far. But something about this meeting with Dustin also just felt…off.