Chapter Twenty-Seven:
"Stop it already," I said, getting annoyed.
"But I'm really sorry," she told me.
"Me too," he said.
"I just got so jealous and we aren't really dating. Hell, we're just best friends. We tried the dating thing and it didn't work," she confessed. I dropped my fork and gawked at her, like she had just shown me a third nipple or something.
"Are you effin' kidding me," I asked in disbelief.
"Yeah, sorry. She does that a lot and usually the girls bolt right out of here thinking she's my girlfriend, but you are the first to stay and deal with it. She's usually just joking, but you fought back and she let her anger out," Keanu told me. I had already pulled out my cellphone. I wasn't going to stay in this nuthouse another night.
Hell to the no.
It rang twice before Sebastian answered.
"Hey, how are you doing," he asked me.
"Have you lost your damn mind, Bastian," I yelled at him.
"What's wrong," he asked.
"This nut job has a nutcase for a best friend, that's what's wrong," I told him. I heard them protest my references to them, but I ignored them.
"I need to have my own place. I can't intrude on anyone anymore. You have your psycho girlfriend and this piece of work has his girlfriend-like best friend. I'm in need of some normality. I need my own space and time to myself."
"You know we can't do that," he told me, solemnly.
"I'm not going to stay here another night," I told him.
"Jesus, you are perfectly safe with me," Keanu said, aggravated. "So Aly scared you a little bit. Boo hoo. Get over it. Let me talk to him," he continued and tried to take the phone away from me. I grabbed his finger and twisted it. He fell to his knees and then I kneed him in the chest, holding back a lot, of course. He went down and Aly went to his aid.
"Don't touch my things," I told him.
"What just happened, Raven," Bastian asked me.
"Why in the hell did you knee him," Aly yelled.
"Really? You come barging into the room ranting and raving like a jealous girlfriend when you're not dating him and I'm the crazy one? You are both insane. I'm out of here," I said and got up. As I stood, I remembered something. Something very important.
"I can see your tight ass, Raven. Funny because I don't see a stick up there," muttered Keanu, from where he lay on the floor. I ran out of the kitchen with my cheeks flushed. I was lucky to have been turned away from him. I needed my shorts and I would be out of here.
"Raven, stay there. I mean it," Bastian ordered.
"Sorry, cupcake, but you save your orders for your psycho girlfriend," I told him and hung up.
He was doing a shitty job of protecting me anyway. I found my shorts and pulled them on. I pulled on my bra, just to have some sort of support. I needed clothes and fast. I decided that going shopping was my best bet and then I would just rent a hotel room until I decided what to do. I grabbed my dirty clothes and my purse and walked to the front door. I heard Aly fussing over her friend as he tried to get up to stop me. I knew that Sebastian would yell at him for letting me leave, but I didn't care.
I got in my car and headed downtown to do some much needed shopping.
~~~~~
I hated this. I would buy a bunch of things and then be forced to put them in my car. The trunk was now packed with boxes and bags. I really needed to by some deodorant and makeup. I felt so naked as I walked around without my wig or contacts. I luckily had shades to obscure my view of the ogling people, but that didn't stop some of them from recognizing me. I decided to call it quits after I found a wig shop and made a purchase. I could do the rest of my shopping later.
I withdrew some money from my bank account before I rented a room at a nice hotel with decent security. They helped me take my things to my room. Once there, I took a shower and ordered room service. One of the maids was even kind enough to get me a stick of deodorant. I tipped her handsomely for it.
It didn't take me long to get bored of being stuck in my room and I decided that maybe I would go shopping again. It was still early and I had nothing better to do.
I was strolling down the avenue when I heard multiple, extremely loud shouts of my name. I recognized Bastian's voice and stiffened. I wouldn't look. I couldn't look, but then I heard another voice, one I hadn't expected.
It was Keanu. Why is he with Bastian?
I started walking in the opposite direction away from them. There was a chance that he wasn't sure it was me. I had my wig with me, but I hadn't bothered to put it on. I went to a nearby store and pulled it on. It was the best I could do and it wasn't too sloppy. Then I pulled off my overshirt and stuffed it into my bag. I walked out like I had just got done shopping and strolled past the stores for the umpteenth time.
I heard their confusion from my distance, but they went into the store looking for me. I sighed in relief and waved at the shop owners that had seen me several times already.
I was hoping to see the guy I had been eyeing. The real reason I had been walking back and forth pretending to be searching for something. It was just a few shops away. He was in a barber shop, I believe. I saw him glance up at me and I pulled off my shades to smile at him. He smiled back, but I heard that awful sound and halted. I heard them calling my name again and my heart began to race. I wanted to believe they were just shouting my name.
"Do you see her," Keanu asked and Bastian didn't confirm nor deny. I walked quickly in the direction of the barber shop and when I reached it, he pulled me inside and draped a cover over my shoulders. I heard the guys nearing the shop. I wanted to see, but the guy covered my vision with his face. His lips touched my cheek. I was shocked, but I understood the gesture. He was covering me, making it look like we were making out. The sound of footsteps passed the shop and were gone.
The guy pulled back, checked to make sure they were long gone, and moved me further into the shop. I smiled at him as he sat me down in a chair. He fixed my wig without a word.
"I'm Raven," I told him.
"Kadin," he said, in a sexy voice. "I couldn't be sure if you were the same girl that had been walking back and forth all day, but when you smiled at me, I knew. Why were those guys chasing you?" He sure didn't beat around the bush. I flushed. I wanted to be honest with him. His stark crystal blue eyes just beckoned pure honesty out of me.
"It was my coworker and my bodyguard," I told him and the silence that filled the previously bustling room was palpable.
"Why do you have a bodyguard," he asked me.
"I needed the protection from crazy stalkers," I said. Everyone seemed to sigh in unison. What did they think I had one for? I laughed. "I just got tired of being kept and got rid of my leash."
"Well, we all deserve our freedom," he told me.
"Yeah, well, my freedom comes at a price," I said, meeting his eyes in the mirror.
"What is that," he asked.
"My safety," I told him. He suddenly looked shocked and I didn't know why.
"You're..... you're her," he said and rushed away to pick up something from the front table. He brought it back and I saw that he had a magazine. It wasn't one of my finer pictures and then he showed me another. It was the cover of a girly magazine and it was me wearing nothing, my hair was long enough to cover my breasts and the guitar I was holding was covering my bottom half. I looked pretty sexy in it, to be honest.
"Yeah, well, about that," I said, frowning.
"I love your music," he said.
"I'm glad you do," I told him. "Do you work here," I asked him, noticing he wasn't exactly dressed to work in the barbershop. He wasn't wearing the matching clothes of the older men surrounding me.
"My Kadin doesn't work here. He just likes to help out his grandpa," an older man walked up and told me.
"That's nice of him," I said to the old man.
"I am Vincenzo. You are a beautiful young woman, why do you cover your hair with that wig," he asked me. I shrugged and pulled it off. My hair came tumbling down in waves. "Bella," Vincenzo whispered.
"That's a lot of hair," said Kadin.
"Yeah, it took years to grow it out," I said. "You know what I do, Kadin, but what do you do, when you aren't working with grandpa?"
"Kadin is a very smart boy. He's a computer geek," Vincenzo said with a proud smile. I smiled as Kadin blushed.
"Grandpa, I'm a computer programmer, not a geek," he said. "I write programs for multi-billion dollar companies."
"That is really neat," I told him, bringing his attention back to me.
"You want to get out of here," he asked me, obviously still embarrassed by his grandpa's statement.
"Sure, where to," I asked. I put on my wig again and then we walked out. I had walked to the strip of stores for the exercise, since it wasn't too far, which meant I had no transportation.
"Where are you staying," he asked me. I told him the hotel and then he frowned as he thought up a plan. "How about, now you are more than welcome to reject this lame idea, but my place is perfectly safe," he told me.
I thought about it. It wasn't very smart to go off with some random stranger, but a guy who helps out his grandpa in his spare time couldn't be that bad and he wasn't overly built, like Sebastian. I knew how to defend myself against a man, but I could freeze up like I had that last time. No, that was because I was being held captive in my own home.
I nodded and smiled. He walked me to his car and I sighed in awe. It was a beautiful car and it was bright red. I wasn't sure of the make or model, but I knew I liked it. I got into the vehicle with a smile on my face.
I just hoped I wasn't making the worst decision of my life by trusting Kadin.
~~~~~~
We went up to the topmost condo apartment and he opened the door to the smell of burnt something or another.
"Senor Kadin, I so sorry," said a hispanic woman, as we walked in to the residence.
"What's wrong, Rosa," he asked her.
"Tu hermana, she refused to let me ayuda, um, como se dice," she switched to Spanish.
"Que paso con la hermana," I asked her. She looked shocked that I knew Spanish.
"Ella no quere ayuda," she told me.
"She said that your sister wouldn't let her help," I told him. He sighed and led the way to the kitchen. There, in the middle of the flour coated floor, stood a young girl, maybe around sixteen years old and she was covered in many different ingredients.
"Kadin! I have some cookies in the oven, but they are almost done," she said. I smelled the air. I grabbed an oven mitt and pulled the cookies out before they burned.
"They were actually done about five minutes ago, but I think I saved them," I said, explaining my actions. When you have a chef father, cookies are a neccessary evil.
"How did you," said Kadin as his sister asked, "Who are you," somewhat hotly.
"Kimberly, be nice," he told her.
"Is she your new girlfriend," she asked him. I blushed as Kadin began to stutter an answer to his younger sibling.
"What...but..no...," he said.
"We are just friends, Kimberly," I told her. She turned to me and frowned.
"Why are you here," she asked me.
"I was hiding out from my more troublesome friends," I told her.
"Is that why you are wearing a wig," she asked.
"Kimberly," Kadin reprimanded.
"Yeah," I told her and pulled it off. She gasped as she realized who I was.
"Brother, you didn't tell me you were friends with Venus," she shouted at him.
"He didn't know until he had helped me out. Now, I own him one," I told her, looking up to her brother.
"Kadin," she said pulling on his shirt sleeve. He bent down to let her whisper in his ear and he smiled at what she told him.
"Kim, here, would like an autograph, if that's alright," he told me.
"Anything for the baking queen," I said and picked up the now cooled cookie. I ate it and it wasn't half bad. She cringed as I ate it and I smiled at her. "These are delicious," I told her. She sighed and then ran off.