“I know I love you and I know you love me, so I hope you’ll answer this, what were you doing in that completely empty bar at night?” Cris asked from the other side of the bathroom door. I was showering and apparently, he couldn’t wait for me to finish.
“Donovan.”
“Did he come back?”
“Yes.”
There was a little laugh. “Are you going to acknowledge it now? Or will you keep pretending he doesn’t exist?”
“What were we talking about?”
“Seriously, you idiot!” he squealed, more excited than me. “Was he there when I came to get you? Did you kiss? Did you have sex?”
“No, yes, and no.”
“What happened this time?” His voice sounded as if he wanted me to recount only the dirty details.
There weren’t any.
Well, except for feeling his erection and being left with a frustration that would make me weep for days.
“Are you going to stop asking questions?”
“Nope.”
I let out a big sigh and grabbed the towel to start drying my hair. “We had a great night, and in the morning he disappeared, like last time.”
“Are you okay with that…?” he asked with some apprehension. He surely expected me to be shattered and crying, but far from it, I was furious because he broke his promise.
“Yes, he’ll be back,” I assured while picking up the little black dress that Cris had left on a shelf. It was very beautiful, his mother had good taste, but it was too small for me, I didn’t have such a small waist.
“How do you know?”
I walked out of the bathroom and straight to his bedroom. “He left me a note again, but this time, asking me out? I don’t know, he mentioned something about eating together and stuff.”
“And stuff,” he mocked. I glared at him, not understanding why he was making fun of me. “Donovan asked you out, girl! Donovan! Our bad boy!”
“He’s not as bad as you think…” I began, but Cris interrupted me.
“Shh, shut up, don’t ruin my sadomasochistic fantasies,” he complained, dramatically throwing himself onto the bed. “Lucky you, why aren’t there men like that for me? They’re all straight, if only they knew how good it feels when…”
“Cris!” I cut him off by throwing the wet towel in his face.
“Alright, alright, I got carried away.”
For some reason, I didn’t like it when people labeled him a bad boy. Once you got to know him, he was different, his gaze softened, his words as well, everything about him reduced to a normal guy with feelings. Only when he got angry was he more fierce than anyone else, it wouldn’t surprise me if he turned into a dangerous creature of the night under a full moon.
Cris helped me out of the car, and when I touched the ground, several leaves crunched under me. We were in a beautiful place, far from the city. A bonfire and lots of people around it with disposable plastic cups in their hands, most of them were surely already drunk.
The whole situation seemed too cliche to me, and I already wanted to leave, this is not what I expected, not at all, I thought it would be a closed place with people I wouldn’t recognize, but most of the people were from the school, and several turned to look at me when I got out of the car.
Damn.
Since Donovan left, to them, I was his ex.
“I didn’t think it would be a school party,” I said, approaching cautiously where he was grabbing the vodka bottle from a slightly distant table.
“Don’t you like the idea…”
“Let’s go,” he insisted and handed me a cup full of vodka. “Cheer up, it’s just this night and surely tomorrow you’ll be in your beloved’s arms.”
“He’s not my beloved,” I said, narrowing my eyes at him.
Just at that moment, my cellphone started to vibrate in my bra. I didn’t have pockets, don’t judge me.
“Where the hell are you?” Donovan.
He seems angry. Why is he angry? I should be the angry one.
I’m not going to answer him.
I put my phone back in my bra, and I was about to try and convince Cris to take me home when it vibrated again.
“I’m outside, come out.”
“I’m not home.”
“And I go back to the damn initial question, where the hell are you, Celina?”
“What’s wrong with you?”
The response took a few seconds, but I was surprised by how long it was and how quickly he sent it.
“What’s wrong with me? Well, it turns out that last night I was looking after you like a damn idiot without closing an eye because I was afraid you’d leave. I was forced to go and thought you might consider waiting for me because of last night. But you didn’t. That’s what’s wrong with me.”
“It was late, you said you’d be back by 5PM.”
“9PM and there was food in the fridge.”
“That’s a lie!”
Ten seconds later I received a picture. It was his hand next to the note, and I could see he was on the sidewalk of my aunt’s house. Great.
It said 9PM.
I’m an idiot. I must have been so teary-eyed that I didn’t read the note properly.
“I was wrong.”
“Fine, now tell me where you are.”
“At a party.”
“With?”
“You won’t like it.”
I didn’t get a response, I knew he must be furious.
With that last message and my heart in my throat, I tried to turn my attention back to Cris, something I know won’t last long, I can’t go two minutes without thinking about Donovan.
“Alright, wipe that slaughtered lamb look off your face and forget about him by taking a drink,” he said, poking me a little. With some hesitation, I took the cup and quickly took a big sip.
Shit, that burns my throat, it’s horrible.
Half an hour later I was dancing, hot as hell with Cris. The weirdest songs were playing on the speakers, and we couldn’t stop laughing.
Everything was blurry, and I loved the feeling of movement. I wanted to marry the vodka and Cris’s arms holding me up for the third time to prevent me from falling.