Chapter 4
Adrian
It was the last class of the day; only more 10 minutes untill it ends. My head was exploding, and I could only count down the minutes. I wasn’t even paying attention to what the professor was saying. All I wanted was to be released so I could finally enjoy the weekend.
After what seemed like a hundred years, the class was over. When I left the room I met Luke and the guys in the hallway.
“So what are you guys up for tonight?” I asked.
“Jack’s gonna throw a party this weekend and, as usual, there’s gonna be plenty of hot girls!” answered Carl. Carl was a green eyed blond, but a little on the short side.
“What can I say? The ladies simply love to be around me!” Jack bragged himself. And I couldn’t really blame him. He’s as tall as Luke, has brown hair and brown eyes and being the actual quarterback of the college football team, the girls were always nearby.
“Cool.” Party and girls… what a wonderful combination!
“So, you are going?” Luke asked me.
“Hell, yeah!” I was glad to hear that tonight I wasn’t going to be home. Nothing was more depressing then staying at home on a Friday night.
When I got home, I put my stuff on the kitchen counter and went to the fridge to get a soda. There was a note at the door for me:
“Adrian: mom, dad and I went to the movies. We are bringing home some Chinese, so keep your mouth closed until then. We would wait for you, but we don’t really like you that much =p. XxxX Leah.”
That’s very mature Leah, I thought. I went to the living room to watch some TV. I was still looking for something interesting when the door bell rang. I got up to answer it. It was Vicky and she seemed really upset. Even more than yesterday.
Before I could even say a word she entered and begged “no jokes today Adrian, please. I just need to talk to Leah.”
She seemed to be holding back tears, what made me really worried.
“Come here and sit on the couch. I’m gonna get you some water.” I grabbed her hand and led her to the living room. I quickly got a glass of water from the fridge and handled it to her before sitting beside her.
“Tell me what happened.”
“Where’s Leah?”
“She went to the movies with our parents and won’t be home anytime soon. Now tell me, what happened?”
She shook her head. “No offense Adrian, but this isn’t something I would like to share with you,” she answered avoiding my eyes.
“Look Vicky I just want to help you. You know you can trust me. Please just tell me what’s going on.” I didn’t know why, but I felt like I needed to do something, to make her pain go away. The thought of her suffering made wanna hit a wall.
She looked into my eyes as if trying to figure out what to do. After a long moment she sighed. “Ok, Adrian I’m gonna tell you. It’s not like I have a choice anyway, since Leah isn’t around and I need to talk to someone, but if you make fun of me, I swear I’ll never talk to you again,” she threatened.
“Vicky I mean it when I say you can trust me. I promise.”
“I can’t believe I’m gonna do this…” she sighed defeated. “You remember Oliver, right?” I nodded, encouraging her to continue. “We were making out on the couch while watching a movie.” She didn’t look at me, but I could tell she was blushing. After a pause, she continued “and he tried, you know… to get things a little too far.”
Suddenly, the worst came to my mind. What if he forced her to do something she didn’t want to? “Did he force you or something?” I asked her, my anger clear in my voice.
“God no! I said I didn’t want to and he said he was sorry and that everything was alright.”
“Oh… ok.” I said relieved. “Sooo… you are upset with him because he tried to do… do ‘things’ with you?” I tried to guess.
“No! Will you shut up and let me finish?”
“There’s more?” If that wasn’t the complicated part, I didn’t think I wanted to know the rest.
“Things got a little weird between us he asked to talk to me. He told me he’s moving back to Ireland, and that he wanted to have sex with me before going, as a goodbye present.” At that moment she wasn’t blushing, she was lived red.
Man, this is embarrassing. Now I know why she didn’t want to talk to me about this. Well, I promised she could count on me and there was no way I was letting her down.
After the first shock, I started to wander what kind of bastard that boy was. I know I can be a jerk sometimes and yes, I slept with a lot of women, but I would never manipulate some girl to have sex with me. Only the worst kind would. I wanted to punch him so bad. How dare he do this to Vicky? She’s a wonderful girl and doesn’t deserve it.
She was staring at the floor. I calmed myself and asked “Are you in love with this guy?”
“No.” She seemed embarrassed and I was somehow relieved. She would get hurt if she loved him.
“Then what’s all the drama about?”
“Well…” she was lost in her own thoughts.
“Look, do you want it or not? It’s a yes or no question.”
“That’s the problem, I don’t know!” she answered nervous.
“There you go then.”
She looked at me confused. “What do you mean?”
“Don’t you think you would know if you wanted to sleep with someone?” For the first time during the whole conversation, she looked directly at me. “Vicky, you don’t have to do what that idiot wants. It’s all about you. Take your time, because that’s something that can’t be undone.” I said, secretly hopping that my words would make her understand that she makes the choices, not the other way around.
She still didn’t say anything, so I took one of her hands and continued, “Did you like it when he tried to touch you?” I asked in another attempt to show her that she shouldn’t sleep with the bastard. In fact, I think she should stay virgin until her honeymoon or maybe even after that.
“I don’t know,” Vicky whispered looking at the floor again.
“Vicky, if you asked him to stop that time, it was because you weren’t comfortable with it. Think what would be like to be intimate with him.” All my embarrassment was forgotten at that moment.
She stared at me for a few more moments but not really seeing me, than she finally spoke. “You’re right.”
I raised an eyebrow. I wasn’t sure if she meant it or if she was just trying to distract me from her real thoughts.
She must have seen my confusion because she kept going, “You’re totally right. He’s leaving in two days and then he’ll be complete out of my life. Who the hell does he think he is to ask me to sleep with him? He knows how I feel, and I’m definitely not ready. Like you said, I would know if I were.”
‘That’s my girl’, I thought grinning. She smiled a little and added, “thank you, Adrian. Thank you so much for making me realize that. I should’ve told you from the start, but I was afraid you’d laughed at me.”
I’d never make fun of her about this. I couldn’t blame her for hesitating, though and I’m really glad she told me the whole history. I was happy to know that she trusted me enough to tell me her problem and that I was able to help her, even if it was just showing her the obvious. “You don’t have to thank me, you know.”
“Yes. Yes I do. I feel so stupid now, but if it wasn’t for you, I’d probably do the wrong thing.”
“Well, what can I say, I’m the man” I said to light up the mood. This time, her smile reached her eyes.
“So what now?” I asked her, knowing that that SOB would want an answer.
“I’ll talk to him tomorrow and let him know I’m not doing it.”
At this point my face became very serious. “Don’t let him change your mind, Vicky.” I trusted her, but I was worried. That type of guy would do anything to get what they wanted.
“I won’t,” she replied.
We sat there staring at each other for a brief moment, and then she said, “I gotta go.”
Vicky stood up and I followed her to the door. When I was about to say ‘bye’, she looked at me and said “thank you again, Adrian.” She gave me a quick hug and then was gone.
I closed the door and went straight to my bedroom. I didn’t have anything to do, so I lay in the bed and turned on the TV, but all I could think of was the conversation I just had with Vicky. It was strange to talk to her about that kind of thing. One day they’re kids and in the other they’re talking about sex. That made me realize that Leah may be having the same problems.
I can’t fool myself trying to believe that it doesn’t bother me, but they’re both responsible girls who can take care of their selves. I can’t control their lives; I’m just the big brother.
“Brother, we’re home and we brought food!” I heard Leah shout from downstairs.
When I reached the dining room, everyone was around the table.
Sitting on an empty chair, I grabbed a box of food.
“How was your day, honey?” my mom asked.
“Well, my class was really boring,” I replied smiling at her.
“If the college wasn’t exciting, why don’t you go out tonight and have some fun, it’s still early.” Mom suggested.
Shit. The party. I almost forgot about it. I glanced at my watch. 9:30. There was plenty of time to get ready, except that… well, except that I didn’t feel like parting anymore. I guess that all that happened affected me more than I expected.
“It’s ok, mom. I’m just gonna stay home tonight and enjoy the family dinner” If you consider Chinese a family dinner at all… But that didn’t matter. Our parents worked a lot, so we just tried to enjoy the moments we could. We were pretty close and that’s why I decided to continue living here when I got in college. I would miss my family and since the campus isn’t that far, I thought it would be better just stay with them. Of course, if someone asks me I’ll deny it. I always say that I didn’t move out to save money, but that’s just a lame excuse.
“Don’t you have a date tonight, son?” My dad asked. He knew about my little adventures. Hell, who didn’t? But he wasn’t mad or anything. In fact, he used to be just like me, till he met mom. He says he fell in love with her and lost interest in any other girl, and they’re still completely head over heels for each other.
I must say it’s pretty hard to believe it could happen to me, I just can’t imagine me not wanting girls, but I can’t help but agree that it would be nice to have someone like that.
“Oh, came on, Adrian, if you keep like that you won’t be able to break your on record of bimbos!” Leah played. Mom and dad laughed.
“Shut up, sis. I told you, I’ll just stay home tonight.”
“Enough, Kids,” mom told us. “There’s something we wanted to tell you,” mom continued. “Our 25 years anniversary is coming and we are probably going to celebrate.”
“Wow, congratulations! It’s a long time.” I said.
“Yeah, totally. So, how will you celebrate?” Leah asked.
“We don’t know yet,” dad answered.
I was really happy for them. I can only hope that they have fun, because they really deserve it.
When we were all finished, we cleaned the table and I went back to my room. I texted Luke letting him know that something happened, so I couldn’t get to the party. Of course I didn’t explain what kind of situation it was. If the guys knew I let the sex life of my baby sister’s best friend affect me, I was a dead man. I don’t know exactly why I care, but the feeling is definitely there. Maybe it’s because she’s Leah’s age?
After brushing my teeth, my phone went off and I checked the ID. I was Sophie, the girl from college. Great. Just great. It was all that I needed. I had to find an excuse to dump her, considering that we already went out twice, so it was time to finish things up before she started to think we could get serious.
“Hello – cough” – I faked a cough.
“Hey, handsome. How are you?”
“Actually, I’m ill.”
“Oh… really?”
“Yeah. I’ve got this transmissible disease. I think it’s TB.”
“It sounds bad” Sophie replied.
Sounds bad? Who doesn’t know what TB is? I swear, these girls are getting dumber every day. “It is. You can get ill pretty easily if you get close to someone infected.” I tried do scare her.
“Errr. Ok, then, I’m gonna let you recover. I really hope you get better soon, but I gotta go now. Bye!” She said and hung up, not even giving me time to reply.
Works every time!
This day felt endless and even though I didn’t go out tonight, I was really tired. So I just took a quick shower and went straight to bed.