SETH
I left for practice early the next morning with Emily still in my bed. I made sure to leave her a small note with the breakfast and lunch I prepared for her. And since I was a greedy bastard who wanted her to forgive me for the stuff I said yesterday, I put a few red roses next to it.
These roses were the ones my mother grew in Emily’s house garden. I was in charge of the gardening now while she was away. If she found out I snipped a few, she’d probably have my head for dinner.
I didn’t see Emily most of the day which was usually the case.
And then when I saw her after lunch, Carson’s paws were on her.
I ignored it for a few days until he started acting like he was her boyfriend. He would wait for her in the morning in the student’s parking lot, he’d carry her backpack.
He even gave her his chocolate pudding, every single day. Who the fuck does that?
Since Emily’s inferiority complex meter was so high, she didn’t think she was attractive enough that Carson would hit on her. She brushed it off as Carson being polite.
She needed to buy a new mirror. I’d probably get one each for every room in her house.
The days went by.
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.
Friday was the last straw, I’ve had enough with the asshole who was a human equivalent of a golden retriever, following around Emily, hungry for any kind of attention from her.
It was driving me up the wall.
I couldn’t be overly friendly to her at school, I couldn’t tell this Parson to fuck off so what did that leave me with? Stealing her secretly, and enduring this dude fawning over her in public because I was too chicken-shit to do it myself.
I saw Emily and Carson talking during lunch. Their closeness brought a surge of jealousy spurring inside me.
He drove a freakin’ new model of Mercedes G-wagon that was most likely a hundred and fifty grand, his last name was Heinrich, even his last name had ‘RICH’ in it. Dude wore limited edition Nike Air Jordan to school, a pair of fucking shoes that costed same as my food budget for months.
How was I going to beat that?
They looked like a cute couple. Emily with her curves and Carson with his big, burly meaty paws. But the more I kept looking at him, the more I thought he was best suited on a rack in Toys R Us, like in a play area where kids play with teddy bears.
Yeah. I was definitely a hundred percent better match for Emily. The polar bear could go back to Artic Circle which is where he came from.
“You look like you’re going to kill somebody.”
I looked up at my friend Sky, momentarily distracted by my constant stalking for Emily. She’d left the lunch area, and the big boy had followed her.
“Do you think I could hire a hitman on the dark web for five hundred bucks?”
“Five hundred bucks?” Sky asked me, chewing her food slowly.
“That’s all I can afford right now. Need this hitman asap.”
“Whoa!” Sky laughed, and then narrowed her eyes at me. “this best be a joke.”
I sniggered. Sky was fun. She was the first-ever friend I made when I moved to this town, and I thank my lucky stars that she didn’t see me as anything more than a friend which was a rare case when I was involved with the opposite sex.
“You’re better off killing that person yourself, and using that money to fix that goddamn car.”
“Ouch.” I gulped down the flavored milk.
“Be honest with me, Seth. You and Emily-Mae a thing?”
I spurted and coughed so hard; the kids around started to look at me. I lowered my voice. “We’re not. And how do you figure that?”
Skylar rolled her eyes. “Because you two are very subtle?” She gave me a sarcastic look, “I’ve seen you two give hungry looks like you can’t wait to rip your clothes off each other. And Emily’s never been interested in ice-hockey for years not even when her brother was on the team…Nuh-uh, and suddenly, she shows up at the bleachers four times a week, sits in a corner, and does her work? Then the star player of the team looks up at the bleachers and winks at her.”
“Shit.”
“And then she blows the star player a flying kiss. I can’t be making this shit up.”
“I thought I was in stealth mode.”
“You’re not buddy.”
“What are the chances that more people know what’s going on?” I asked, having completely forgotten that I hadn’t spilled the bag to Skylar unknowingly.
“Are you fucking her?”
“No!”
“What about fellatio and cunnilingus?”
I snorted, I told myself not to ever drink any liquid in Skylar’s presence. She could make me choke on my food.
“We might have done all that,” I admitted.
Sky sighed. “You’re playing with fire.”
I looked down at my half-eaten grilled cheese sandwich, and suddenly I didn’t have an appetite. “I like her, Sky. Who am I kidding? I more than like her. Seeing her with that guy, and not being able to tell him to back off is screwing with my head.”
“Emily’s dad is friends with the town mayor. They go for golf together or some shit.”
“What are you trying to tell me?”
“I’m telling you that Diego Vásquez has a lot of power in this town so when he finds out that his daughter is crawling into bed with the housekeeping staff, he’s going to make sure your life is ruined. He doesn’t have to try, Seth, all he needs to do is dig up some dirt you left behind in Connecticut, and Voila…he’s got enough to kick you to the curb.”
“The chief of police was my dad’s friend. He made sure the record files are wiped clean after I did my time. They don’t have anything written on it. It’s gone, Sky. That’s the only reason I got this scholarship in the first place.”
Sky slurped her coke loudly. Sometimes I think she did it on purpose to irritate other people. “Can I give you some advice?”
“No, but you’re probably going to give it to me anyway.”
“So when you joined this school, your aim was the Stanley cup. I think that’s what you should keep aiming for.”
“And what? Forget the girl?”
“Forget this one.” She suggested, “I know how harsh that sounds, especially when you’re so completely pussy whipped but nothing good will come out of this, trust me. When Emily finds out that you spent a year in juvie, she’s not going to want to continue whatever it is that’s been going on between you two.”
I crumbled the piece of wrapper. “Asking for your opinion was a mistake.” I stood up with the half-empty tray.
She raised her hands, “I’m being honest with you, jock boy. You think this is some kind of a movie? Have you been planning to drive off into the sunset, elope with your seventeen-yo-old girlfriend with Kathy Perry’s Teenage dream playing in the background?”
I stood up from my seat. “I forgot what a bitch you can be sometimes, Sky. My apologies.”
“Hey!” She called out, “Reality sucks but it is what it is.”
As much as I hated agreeing to her, I knew she was right.
* * *
I was making preparations for Emily’s birthday. It was in another week. Just a week before she finally turned eighteen. I remembered her telling me how lonely she felt on every birthday even though her dad and brother gave her gifts and took her out to dinner. I wanted to do it my way this time. It wasn’t going to be in seven-star hotels with lavish dinners. I’d planned to cook for her and I hoped like hell that she would like everything that I planned.
* * *
EMILY
The door to the studio was unlocked. As always.
Seth was reading a book when I walked inside, he looked up from it.
Something was not right, but I didn’t point it out.
“How was your day?” I smiled climbing onto his bed. “I just—”
He didn’t give me time to complete the sentence, I was pushed onto my back, pinned against the mattress, his fingers slowly worked to undress me until I was completely naked underneath him.
I loved it when he took control of the situation like that, he braced himself with his arms on either side of me. I spread my legs around him as his lips crashed down over mine, his tongue lapped over my lower lip hungrily like he’d been waiting his whole life to do it.
I pulled at his boxer shorts which he yanked off almost angrily, tossed them aside, and settled between my legs.
A low moan escaped my mouth, we’d never done this before. I arched my back when he sucked on my nipple, his fingers straying down to my core.
His breathing was roughened, and the green in his eyes had turned darker, either that or my mind was playing tricks.
He plunged a finger deep making me gasp in pleasure. “Tell me, baby, does Carson know how wet you get for your housekeeper boy?”
My eyes shot up to his.
He laughed humorlessly, and then he whispered the next words, “Does he know that you get down on your knees and suck off this said housekeeper boy willingly?”
“Seth!” I said in warning.
Suddenly, I knew what was wrong.
He was drunk. His minty breath did not give it away but if I paid attention, there was the light scent of alcohol there.
Seth grabbed my face, a little roughly than usual. “If he touches you, I’ll kill him.” He smoldered my mouth with a possessive kiss and then pulled away to lick a trail from my neck to my collarbone where he bit gently. I circled my arms around him, loving the painful and pleasurable scrape of his teeth on my skin.
Before I could try to make sense of what was happening, he nudged my legs apart and brought his cock to my entrance. He pushed inside me a few inches.
Finally, it was happening.
Before my birthday!
He withdrew and then pushed forward some more, but he wasn’t even half-way inside me when he stared down at me in horror. His pupils dilated as he looked down at where we were joined.
I moaned, “Start moving.”
Seth withdrew completely and got out of bed. He began dressing up frantically, and I didn’t miss how he was on a verge of a complete breakdown.
“What’s wrong with you?”
His jeans were still undone when he yelled, “the fuck was I thinking?” He covered his face with his hands as if in shame. “I promised I wouldn’t have sex with you until your birthday! And I…”
“It’s okay…”
“No! It’s not okay! You’re messing with my head!” He said it in an accusing tone like I’d done a crime, “Everything used to be fine until you showed up into my life…and now…I don’t even know what I’m doing anymore…I can’t concentrate in my class, not on my fucking game! What am I doing?”
I was baffled by his barrage of words. Our relationship was strained recently but it hadn’t been this bad.
My blood turned to ice when he grabbed his old suitcase from the closet and began dumping his clothes in it.
“What…what are you doing?”
His eyes leveled with mine, they were bloodshot and hurt. “I’m leaving this studio. I don’t want to live here anymore.”