Sofia
I finally get the courage to go downstairs to the TV room after sitting around mindlessly in my room after dinner. I’ve always hated being alone in my room, but now that I have somewhere far better where I can be, it’s almost a no-brainer.
It still doesn’t keep me from wringing my hands together nervously as I head downstairs. Somehow I know he’ll be there and he still makes me feel as nervous as the first time I ever laid eyes on him even though we are now far from perfect strangers.
As expected, he’s sitting on my side of the couch again but surprisingly he’s just staring in front of a dark TV. I worry that he might actually want to be on his own this time. He’s been acting strange all week after the last time we did this, even though he asked if we could do it again. I kept thinking that he would say something or bring it up during the week, but he never did much to my disappointment. And then when my parents showed up today, he’s been acting even stranger.
He turns around to look at me, and his mouth curves up into a heart-stopping smile. I swear my knees wobble when I see one of those smiles. But then his brow buries a bit.
“You’re late,” he says somewhat accusingly, but I can still see a grin underneath.
“Oh yeah? I wasn’t aware we had a set time arranged,” I decide to tease him.
He looks at his watch briefly and then back at me. “Yup, you’re exactly 15 minutes late … and five painfully long days. You wound me, Sofia,” he says dramatically placing his hand over his heart.
I chuckle even though I’m not sure if it’s a joke or not. He’s been so serious with me all week but this has to be a joke. I go to sit down next to him, leaving a decent amount of space in between us. “Well, that’s your fault. Next time, send me an invite so I can RSVP. It usually works that way.”
“Hmm. In case I wasn’t clear, it’s an ongoing daily invitation. But I’ll formally send you a calendar invite so there are absolutely no misunderstandings.” He takes out his phone and starts typing away. He holds it away from me so I can’t really see what he’s doing.
“Sounds good,” I laugh. His demeanor is completely different from earlier today and especially dinner so it kind of throws me for a loop. Although I much prefer this playful version of him.
“Okay, done. Check your email.”
I give him a sly look, wondering if he really just sent me an invite. I open it up on my phone and immediately laugh.
From: Adrian Carter
To: Sofia Durant
Invitation: Fall Asleep with Adrian
--------------------------------------------------------------------
When: Weekly from 10pm to 7am on all days GMT
Where: Couch @ TV Room (map)
Calendar: Sofia Durant
Who: Adrian Carter (organizer), Sofia Durant
Going? All events in this series: Yes - Maybe - No
Wow, that is seriously adorable. My heart does a flip at seeing our names written out together like that. I consider pressing maybe just to tease him, but my thumb automatically presses yes. Who could ever say no to him? I look up at him and he looks quite anxious.
“Did you RSVP?” he asks me.
I grin. “Check your phone.”
He lets out a deep breath when he sees my answer and puts his phone away. He reaches forward towards me and circles his hands beneath my knees. I watch him silently, not understanding what he’s doing, until he scoots me closer to him. He sweeps a lock of hair behind my ear and smiles up at me. I notice his eyes are a bit glossy and I discern a faint scent of alcohol on him.
“Have you been drinking?” I ask surprised.
“Uhm … yeah. Sorry. I was in the game room before and I served myself a whiskey. I’m not drunk or anything,” he quickly says looking at me worriedly.
I shake my head. “It’s fine. I just hardly ever see you drink so was just curious. Everything okay?”
“It is now,” he responds winking at me.
Maybe the alcohol is making him a bit looser. I wouldn’t mind feeling the same way. “Can I have some?” I blurt out before I can stop myself.
He gapes at me. He obviously thought I was going to give him a hard time about it. “I don’t think so, Sofia. I’m not in the business of providing alcohol to teenage girls.”
“Hello, I’m eighteen. It’s perfectly legal here in Spain in case you’ve forgotten. I think the US is the only country with the silly twenty-one rule,” I inform him.
“Yeah well it still feels weird to me,” he complains.
“You didn’t seem to complain about it when you moved here and could freely drink at eighteen,” I remind him.
“That’s different. I’m a guy. You’re still young and innocent.”
“I’m not that innocent,” I say crossing my arms.
He looks at me intrigued. “Really? Care to explain how so?”
I shrug, suddenly feeling weird at the turn of this conversation. “Look, if I really wanted to, I could just go upstairs and pour myself a nice hefty drink. C’mon Adrian, one sip. Pretty please?” I pout at him.
His face falls a bit and I know I’ve won this discussion. He reaches back towards the side table and hands it over to me. “Fine, you little schemer. But be careful, it’s strong and it’s not mixed with anything. So only take a small sip.”
I notice the glass is still pretty full so he probably didn’t drink that much. I bring it to my mouth and I smell the pure whiskey before I even taste it. Wow, that is strong. Regardless, I take a quick sip and try not to make a face at how bad it tastes.
Adrian chuckles and takes the whiskey away from me. “See? I told you.”
“That was actually pretty gross! I can’t believe you drink that stuff by itself.”
“Yeah, well drinking time is now officially over. For both of us.” He stands up and heads towards the bathroom behind us and returns with an empty glass. He obviously threw the rest out down the sink.
“So responsible. You’re such a dad sometimes,” I point out.
He shrugs. “You failed the first rule of drinking so I’m not encouraging it any longer.”
“Which is? Don’t drink and drive? Believe me, I’m not going anywhere at this hour,” I laugh.
“No, that’s the second rule. First rule is don’t accept alcohol from a stranger.”
I roll my eyes at him. “Last time I checked, you weren’t a stranger.”
“Let me expand then. Don’t accept alcohol from a stranger or a drink that you didn’t serve yourself or watch a bartender serve. You never know what types of things people can slip in them.”
“Okay, I’ll remember that. But obviously I trust you. You wouldn’t do something like that.”
“You trust me?” he asks curiously.
“Of course. Why wouldn’t I?” I’m pretty shocked that he would think otherwise. “Plus, if you ever did something to me you would have three crazy Durant boys come after you, plus my dad, so I think I’m covered.”
He runs a hand down his face and massages his neck. “Like I don’t know that already.”
I had been making a joke, but his response brings back the time he asked me out and told me that my brothers had warned him to stay away from me. I wonder if he still feels that he should.
“So do you want to watch a movie?” I ask, trying to change the subject.
“Um, actually I wanted to talk to you about something, if that’s okay?”
I hesitate for a second, wondering what it could be. “Yeah, sure.”
“It’s about Nico mostly and the whole Ruiz thing. I spoke to him earlier and he asked me if I could tell you. I know he still owes you an explanation.”
“Why doesn’t he just tell me himself?”
“It’s difficult for him to talk about and he didn’t want to go off about it again. You know how he gets.”
“Okay. So what happened?”
Adrian sighs. “I’m just going to tell you the shortened version, okay?”
I nod at him. He seems nervous to tell me.
“Okay, so last semester, I guess it was probably three months ago at this point, there was a house party we went to after one of our soccer matches. We had just made it into the semis so everyone was pretty excited and at the party we all got pretty hammered. Nico and Ana fought over something that night, he was especially drunk because he had scored the winning goal and people kept offering him shots and stuff. Ana stormed off and I guess he didn’t pay attention because he was so wasted and just kept partying. It got late and I went to find him to leave and he said he needed to find Ana once he realized she was gone. I told him I would help him since he could barely walk straight. We looked all over for her and someone told us they had seen her with Ruiz and we … ended up finding them together in one of the rooms upstairs.”
My eyes go wide in disbelief. “Ana cheated on Nico with Ruiz?”
Adrian shakes his head. “That’s what we both thought at first. Nico obviously went crazy and immediately jumped on Ruiz. Nico completely lost it though and I swear if I weren’t there he would have ended up killing the guy. I mean the way he found them together … that’s something no man ever wants to see. But Ana she was … barely lucid. She said she didn’t remember anything the next day so he must have put something in her drink.”
“Whoa. Let me get this straight. So he drugged her and took advantage of her?”
Adrian gulps and then nods. “Nico was so distraught. He blames himself for everything that happened and thought she deserved better than him. I also don’t think he’s been able to get over the image of seeing her with someone else. Ana was so torn up about it too, even worse than Nico I think. She thought it had been her fault and pushed Nico away out of guilt. They fell apart and she ended up breaking up with him.”
“But they were so perfect for each other. Poor Ana. I can’t imagine what it must have felt like for her waking up the next day and not knowing what happened to her. I feel so bad for both of them. Does Ruiz even realize what he did to them?”
I feel a knot in my throat and my stomach burns with acid. I feel so angry at Ruiz for breaking up a loving relationship and so sad that this happened to them. My eyes fill with water and I try to hold back the tears.
“I know, darling. I know.” He runs his thumb over my cheek and then pulls me into his chest. “That’s why I went so crazy that day when I saw him talking to you. If something like that happened to you … I know I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself either. So please be careful and stay away from him, okay? Remember what I told you.”
“Oh god, I feel awful. I didn’t mean to make things worse.” I pull back from him and shake my head.
“You didn’t, Sofia. If anything, I think you sparked something in Nico. For one, he got to kick Ruiz’s ass again that day and even though he kind of checked out afterwards for a while, he finally reached out to Ana since it happened and now they’re talking again. So I think you were a silver lining in a way.”
“Really? Is that why he’s been in a better mood lately?”
“Yeah. He just told me today. Actually, he’s planning on asking her to go out with him and wanted to know if we would go as well so it’s more of a group thing.”
“Me? He wants me to go too?”
“Yeah. I think it would be fun, like old times. We can all hang out together and just have a night out,” he smiles at me.
“That does sound nice actually.”
“Cool. I’ll tell Nico and we’ll set it up.”
He seems really excited about it so I smile back at him. I haven’t been out in a really long time, but if it’ll help Nico I have no problem with it. I just hope I don’t have to witness Adrian flirting with other girls or making out with them. That would be a total bummer.
“What’s wrong?” he asks me.
Shit, I really should start hiding my emotions more. “Nothing, I’m just tired. It’s been a long day with my parents home and then this Nico thing.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean. Do you want to go to sleep then?”
I nod at him trying not to do it too enthusiastically. He doesn’t move though and I feel myself blush at how we’re going to do this. Last time we kind of fell in place after fighting for our spot.
“Do you think your parents might find out about this?” he asks worriedly.
“I doubt it. They never come down here.”
“You sure?”
“I’m pretty sure they forgot this room exists. Worst-case scenario, we can say we fell asleep watching a movie. I have my alarm set early anyway. I’m going shopping with my mom in the morning. Apparently my clothes fit me too big,” I roll my eyes just thinking about it.
He chuckles. “That’s good. Why do you not seem happy about it?”
“I just don’t like going out shopping. It takes hours and all the clothes to try on … the whole process is so tedious. I’d rather order a bunch of stuff online and if it doesn’t fit just send it back and call it a day.”
“Damn, Sofia. You really aren’t like other girls.” He moves to the side of the couch and pulls me by the waist against him, keeping his arm wrapped around me as he lays us down. He sighs and runs a hand down my arm, his warmth instantly engulfing me. Wow, I really missed this. “On the plus side, I’m sure you’ll look great in your new clothes. Not that you don’t do now.”
I laugh. “You don’t have to sugarcoat it. I know I look like a bag lady.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, little lady. You always look perfect to me.”
Holy crap, this boy is so damn sweet sometimes. No wonder he always gets all the girls. “Thank you, Adrian,” I whisper not really sure how to respond to that.
“No, thank you. For trusting me. It really means a lot.” He squeezes me a bit tighter and then lets his arm fall back and drape over my waist. “Good night, darling.”
I think I just died a thousand deaths. That just became my new favorite word and I really hope to hear it a million more times. But even if I never heard it coming out of his mouth again after tonight, I would still feel like the luckiest girl to ever fall asleep next to Adrian Carter and have an ongoing invitation for it.