“I crave your lips.” His breath was sweet. “Give me but one taste and I shall ask no more.”
“No, David.” I turned my face slightly. His hand pushed it back to the position in which he had originally placed it. “Why do you insist on this?”
“Why else would I crave your lips if I didn’t already know the sweet nectar that they possess?”
“No,” I said shutting my eyes to keep from starring into his hypnotic blue gaze. “It’s forbidden.”
“It is as forbidden as is the illicit fruit of Hades and, yet, even he has eaten from it.”
“Excuse me.” A familiar voice interrupted.
David stepped back from me and turned slightly, staring wide-eyed and with a clenched jaw at the person behind him. I slowly peeled myself off the white hallway wall.
I took a side step to see whom the voice belonged to: Gabriel.
Oh
no
, I thought to myself. I could see them hauling Gabriel away in the back of a police car already.
“I need to speak to Isis…
alone
.” Gabriel stressed the privacy he intended.
David’s face expressed concern and anger.
“It’s okay,” I said to David. “I’ll be alright.”
David turned and walked to the glass windows across the way observing Gabriel’s every move.
“You got a watch dog now?” Gabriel teased.
“What’s on your mind?” I ignored his comment.
“You are, doll,” he smirked. “I came to see you.”
“What the hell were you on yesterday? You scared me half to death. I was ready to call an ambulance.”
“You love me, don’t you?” Gabriel was being asinine.
“No, actually I don’t,” I sounded harsh and aggravated.
“Yes, you do,” he grinned.
Gabriel grabbed my face with both hands and kissed me against my will. I gripped his hair and started pulling on it in an attempt to pull him off me. After about a minute, finally, he pulled away.
“That hurt,” He smiled.
“You’re an ass.” I grunted, wiping my mouth.
I glanced in David’s direction. He gave me a spiteful glare and hit the paned glass window. He strode angrily toward the exit, then heaved the school door shut with such force that the glass slowly began to crack in a diagonal wave.
I pushed Gabriel aside and ran for the door, but the force that David had bore on it was so great that it wouldn’t open.
I saw David’s car race by.
“Dammit!” I hit the door with the palm of my hand. The crack on the glass raced a few inches further down.
I knew exactly what that kiss must have looked like to David.
Chapter 8
I turned to glare at Gabriel in disgust. He walked toward me with a smile of victory on his face. I was enraged that he would do that to me after I was honestly worried about him.
Suddenly, there was an awful bitter taste on my lips. Like the taste of those pills I had taken twice before, but worse.
“Are you high?” I examined Gabriel’s red bloodshot eyes. His grayish skin turned rouge with nervousness.
Gabriel turned his sight away from me.
“No.” He rubbed his eyes and retrieved a bottle of eye drops from his pant pocket. He turned to the wall to apply the drops in each eye.
“Forget you… liar,” I said, looking out the glass doors in hopes of seeing David’s car back in the parking lot.
I gave my back to Gabriel and walked toward the front office where I was sure he wouldn’t follow.
“Wait!” Gabriel cried out.
“Leave or I’ll get the office to call the campus police,” I threatened him.
“Isis, c’mon, babe.” He raised his hands in a pleading motion.
“I’m not kidding.” I walked to the office.
Gabriel tried to open the exit doors. They were stuck. He pushed and pulled until one of them—the one that wasn’t cracked—gave. I watched him walk to his car and sit there. It looked like he was talking to himself, but it was such a long distance from the entryway that I couldn’t be sure.
Letting my mind ease enough from the anger I felt toward Gabriel to simmer, I decided to phone David. He didn’t answer. Of course he wouldn’t answer. I wouldn’t have answered me either. He thought I had just made out with my ex-boyfriend right in front of him after he had openly expressed what he felt for me. I would have been humiliated and furious.
“Shoot.” I clicked to end the call. “Now what?”
My feet dragged me to the cafeteria where everyone was accounted for except for David and me. I sat next to Andy silently recalling what had just happened, my blood boiling again. I threw my phone on the table and grimaced.
“Hey, hey.” Andy greeted me. “Where’s your Romeo?” She craned her head around searching for David.
“He left.” My teeth were clenched.
“You had a fight?” She was surprised.
“Worse. Gabriel showed up…” I gave her a synopsis of what had happened in the hallway with Gabriel and how David had raced out of the school.
“I can think of a few adjectives he’s used to describe me by now,” I told Andy, regarding David. “He probably thinks I’m the most horrible person on the face of the Earth. What should I do?”
“Call him.” Andy pushed my phone in my direction.
“I did. He won’t answer.” The corners of my mouth pulled down. “I can’t believe Gabriel is such an idiot.” Streaming tears of rage fell from my eyes.
“I felt sorry for him too,” I admitted. “I was worried about him, especially after last night’s phone call.”
“Did he sound, you know… crazy?” Andrea narrowed her eyes, biting her lip.
“To the extreme,” I acknowledged, taking a napkin from Eryx who had most likely been questioning why David wasn’t present.
“Thanks, Eryx.” I wiped my eyes.
“And my brother?” Eryx asked.
I sighed. “He left… upset. Gabriel showed up and something happened that set him off.”
“I see.” He retrieved his mobile from his pocket. Eryx held the phone to his ear and waited. “No answer.” He relayed. “What was it that happened?”
Embarrassed, I looked down at the table as I spoke. “Gabriel kissed me.”
“Jealous fool,” Eryx shook his head, turning his eyes up toward the ceiling. “He’ll be back.” He sounded sure. “I doubt he can stay away for long.”
Eryx’s comment brought me a faint smile. He knew his brother better than I did. That had to count for something.
The teacher’s ongoing literature lecture lasted longer than usual today. Andy entertained herself with a mystery novel she had hidden behind her textbook. I kept my eyes on the door, hopeful that David would walk in at any moment, and knowing that he would be upset. The door never opened.
Placing myself in his position, I would have reacted the same way. Here was the poor guy spilling his guts out about his feelings and another comes and steals the kiss for which he so eagerly begged. I felt guilt although I knew I wasn’t at fault for the incident.
Gabriel had severe problems. Avoiding him would be my best recourse, but if he kept showing up unannounced it would be hard to stick to my game plan. I wondered what sort of drugs drove a person to behave this way. The thought of him with a gun in hand gave me nervous shivers. He wouldn’t be dumb enough to bring it on school grounds if what he had in mind was confronting David at some point in time. Or would he?
On another note, I started wondering about Claire and her affairs. Why was she taking long meditative baths? Something big must have been going on with her, but what? She would put up a wall against her problems to protect me from emotional stress, but what she didn’t realize was that I stressed all the same with or without knowing the reason to her silence. Stubborn as she was, she wasn’t going to tell me even if I drilled her for an answer. She’d deny anything was wrong even if someone held Gabriel’s handgun to her head.
Moving back to David, I was tempted to send him a text message explaining the situation. That would have been too impersonal. I needed to speak to him directly. There was this feeling that was eating away at my core that I couldn’t explain. My stomach felt like it was churning and my chest felt anguish. I wanted to tell David that what he saw was not as it seemed. I needed to tell him I was sorry for causing him pain although it wasn’t my fault. Then again, I did feel at fault because I allowed Gabriel to speak to me. I had already agreed that I would have no dealings with him and yet I deliberately did so.
During lunch, Andy tried to make conversation but I wasn’t in the mood to talk.
“Try calling him again.” She finally desisted from trying to make me talk about trivial things.
“What’s the use? He’s not going to answer.” My fingers ran over the keys on the phone.
“Ask one of his brothers then.” Andy tried to help. “I’m sure they won’t mind.”
“No. I’ll just try again tonight.” I set my cell phone down beside my untouched salad.
I wondered if David would show up for his afternoon classes. Turns out he didn’t. I walked home alone—against Andy’s imploring—in the nice cool breeze, clearing my mind of everything and everyone during my stroll.
The red Toyota was parked in the driveway when I got home from what seemed like the longest day in the history of my school life. Claire was listening to classical music lying on the couch with cucumber slices over her eyes. That meant only one thing—she had been crying.
“Mom?” I sat beside her on the couch. “What’s wrong?”
She removed the cucumber slices off her eyes. “Nothing, hon. I’m just relaxing for a while.”
“Why are you home from work early? Do you have a date?”
“No, I don’t. I have an eternity’s worth of accumulated vacation time; I decided to take half a day today and the whole day tomorrow.”
Her eyes were glossy and not that puffy. A sign she had indeed been sobbing. I decided to confront her.
“Why is it that you always want me to tell you my problems and you never tell me yours? I’m not a pigtailed little girl anymore. I know when there’s something bothering you.”
Claire gave me a crooked smile. “There is nothing wrong with me. I just need a little anti-stress time from work.”
“Things going okay with you and The Judge?” I tried to pry open whatever she was keeping inside.
“More than okay. He’s a very nice man.”
“That’s it? He’s just nice?” I narrowed my eyes.
Mom shook her head. “He’s got some other good traits, I suppose.”
“That doesn’t sound like a promising future. You’re supposed to be giddy about it like you always are.” I pursed my lips.
“Well, today I feel tired of being myself. I just want a little quiet.”
I popped my lips, blowing her a kiss. “That’s my cue. I’ll leave you alone.” I placed her slices of cucumber on her eyes again. “I’m cooking dinner tonight. Don’t worry about it, okay?”
“Thanks, baby,” she smiled.
From my room, I dialed David’s number again. The phone went directly to voicemail. I thought he might have blocked my number. Was he that upset?
Rummaging through my school bag, I found the white box with the poem inside. I took the other pieces of paper he had written on and placed them inside the box too. They were my treasures now… mine to keep forever, even if David never came back. At least I had that to hold on to.
Why did things have to be so complicated between us? Why couldn’t he just be human and normal without the pressure of those rules of his? Stupid laws.
“Fettuccini Alfredo, madam.” I swayed the plate back and forth in front of Claire.
“Yummy.” She lifted her eyebrows. She sounded livelier than she had this afternoon.
“Salute!” I raised my can of diet soda to hers.
Claire giggled.
“You know,” she started, “I heard nominations for Miss Spring are up and running. Why don’t you campaign?”
“Pfft.” I rolled my eyes. “Yeah right, Mom.”
“Why not?” She twisted her fork in the pasta.
“I’m not pageant material. Besides, I wouldn’t be caught dead waving on a hay bale with petroleum jelly all over my teeth.”
“Oh, c’mon Isis. It’s not even a pageant. You’d make a beautiful Miss Spring.” She paused. “I was Miss Spring when I was sixteen and so was Grandma Eva. It’s a family thing.”
“First of all, it’s called The Miss Spring Pageant, so don’t try to sell me on that one. Secondly,
no
.”
“You should be more involved in school events like I was. It’s something that you’ll love looking back on when you get old like me.”
“I’m too tied up with dual-enrollment to do anything else. You know how hard I’ve worked to keep my GPA. Not to mention that school is almost over. There’s nothing I can join in now. Soon I’ll be off to college and out in the real world where beauty pageants and popularity contests aren’t going to pay my bills.”
Claire gave me a strange look. “How old are you again?”
“Old enough to take into consideration what
you
had to go through. I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, Mom, and one day, it’ll be my turn to take care of you. I want to be ready for when that day comes. I want you to be proud of me, like I am of you.”
My mom’s eyes reddened. She had been on emotional overload these past few days. Maybe it was her monthly gift giving her a ring. She remained quiet for a long time before she spoke again, asking about my day—something that was a safe zone for her, but not for me.
I closed my eyes trying to forget the day’s events. “It was really, really boring.” I contained my fury as I spoke, reminded of Gabriel and his stupid romance tactics.
Dinner ended with me volunteering to do the dishes. Meanwhile, Claire announced she’d be taking a long shower as opposed to a long bath. There was nothing I could do to better her emotional state. It was her internal battle, and I had to sit it out. I felt the impotence of being young.
I sat at the wooden kitchen table watching the digits on the microwave clock change. I thought about asking my mother for the car to pay an unannounced visit to the Ebony Estate, but it was close to ten o’clock, and I knew she’d say no since it was a school night.
I dialed David’s number while climbing the stairs. Once again his phone took me directly to the voice messaging system. He was avoiding me. His cellular was either turned off, or he was purposely ignoring my calls. I gave up for the night and went to bed.
My phone rang at around two in the morning. I patted around the nightstand with my eyes closed.
“Hello?” I answered groggily.
“Hi,” Gabriel replied.
Irritated, I smacked my lips and hung up. I turned to my side and the phone rang again.
“What?” I answered.
“I need to talk to you.” Gabriel’s tone was broken.
“Forget it.” I hung up again.
Again my phone sounded off.
“Ugh!” I growled. I turned the phone to vibrate and watched it tremble on the nightstand continuously as the calls kept coming—the humming sound was easy to ignore.
I don’t think it took me that long to fall back asleep. I was almost to the dream state when Claire shook my arm to awaken me. The cordless phone was in one hand and the other hand on her hip.
“It’s Gabriel.” Her eyes were furious. “I told him you were asleep, but he keeps calling. If I wouldn’t know him any better I’d say he was drunk.”
With a little fear due to Claire’s irritated face, I took the phone from her hand.
“Tell him I said this better be the last time he calls at this hour,” Claire snarled as she left the room.
I glared at the phone in my hand then heard the door to Claire’s room slam shut. She was furious.