The Tribuo - 34. Part IV, chapter 6

-VI -

Tuesday

I woke up because my alarm was screaming bloody murder. I swore softly and got out of bed. Next time I decide to become someone with eight-to-five job, I’ll tell Seth to kick me first. It took me about half an hour to take a quick shower, brush my teeth, and get dressed. Now I could kill for a cup of coffee.

I made my way into the kitchen. Oh, thank God… Coffee was made. For an Observer, Seth could be quite tolerable sometimes. He glanced at me while I was busy filling the mug with caffeinated goodness.

“Headache?” he asked.

“Actually, no,” I said. “Just thirsty a bit, but that’s about it…”

I drank more coffee and looked at him thoughtfully.

“Did we talk about something important last night?” I asked finally, and he blinked.

“You don’t remember?” I could tell that he was trying not to laugh.

“No,” I grumbled.

“Well,” he shrugged. “You were asking me if I’d like to know why you were getting wasted…”

“Ah,” I winced. “Right… Okay, I gotta go. I am going to stay with Emma until Sunday night.”

“How is Emma, by the way?” he asked and I shrugged.

“She seems nice, but she is really tense… And she is obsessed with her weight… Oh, and yesterday she asked me if I believed in love at first sight,” I frowned. “I am not sure why.”

“She could’ve met him,” he shrugged.

“I hope not,” I sighed. “I was trying to intercept that… And then that guy called me… The boss… Said that I had to get back to work.”

“How dared he,” Seth said without a smile. “I mean, calling his secretary while she is out, enjoying coffee during work hours!”

“Oh, shut up,” I grimaced. “I’ll call you if something happens.”

“I know,” he nodded.

RUSSELL

By the end of the day on Tuesday, I felt like beating my head on the wall. First of all, I didn’t get much sleep, since I was hanging outside until the lights in Brian’s room went off, and that didn’t happen until almost two in the morning. I didn’t fall asleep until almost three, and I had to get up at six-thirty because I couldn’t miss my first class this morning, thanks to some idiotic test.

So the entire day I felt like one of those living dead characters that sway around the graveyard, scaring the crap out of whoever happened to be there. And an hour or so ago, while we were sitting in the last class of the day, Brian and I reached for something at the same time, and ended up touching each other’s hands. And several minutes after that, we just entwined our fingers under the desk and didn’t let go until the end of the class. Nobody saw, nobody cared. Ugh, look at me… I am like some high school girl, writing in her diary. “And then he held my hand, and Oh… My… God…!”

So right now, I would be a happy camper if someone decided to run me over with a truck. That would make things so much easier… Not for a driver, of course, but for me. I was walking across the parking lot, thinking of what the hell should I do, when I saw that biology teacher I ran into yesterday. What was her name… Emily? No, Emma! She didn’t see me, and I almost walked away, when I saw Brian who was heading towards me. I panicked.

“Emma!” I yelled and she looked up.

She saw me and came to a dead stop. She looked like someone who was scared to death.

“Hey,” I said when I got closer. “Sorry for startling you…”

“It’s okay,” she muttered. “It was just unexpected, and I was thinking about my class, and then…”

I glanced behind me. Brian stopped in the middle of the road, watching her and me with a puzzled frown. Okay, I thought. Okay…

“…so it’s okay,” Emma finished and I blinked. What? I didn't hear a single word that she just said.

“Hey,” I said after pure inspiration hit me with a nauseating wave. “Do you wanna have dinner or something?”

Now she looked like one of those rabbits that they show on Discovery channel. The ones that are about to be eaten by a gigantic snake. I frowned. Why the hell is she reacting this way? Am I really that awful?

“S-sure…” she stuttered finally. “Umm… When?”

“How about Wednesday night?” I offered and glanced back again. Brian wasn’t there. Good. I was expecting to feel relieved, but instead, I felt like kicking all shit out of something.

“It’s tomorrow,” she said.

Tomorrow? Oh yeah, I guess she’s right.

“Or any other night,” I shrugged. Why am I even doing this? First of all, she is clearly not interested in me. Plus, she is a professor here. And let’s admit it, she is one of those women that I usually wouldn’t even look at twice -- too skinny, too tense, too pale.

“Right,” someone snorted in my head. “Those are the only reasons you are not interested in her…Could it also be the fact that you can only think about Brian lately? About his…”

I gritted my teeth and shut that damn voice up.

“Tomorrow night is good,” Emma said in a small voice.

“Great,” I nodded absent-mindedly. “How about seven o’clock? If you give me your address, I could pick you up…”

She told me her address, stuttering on almost every single word. I wrote it down, thinking that tomorrow night would be interesting. Two people who couldn't care less about each other are going out for dinner. Well, sometimes life is stranger than fiction though, right? I just might be surprised.

After I walked her to her car, I considered hanging outside again. Then I realized that if I did that, I wouldn't get any sleep again, so I just went home. When I got to the apartment, Brian was already there. He was sitting at the table, typing something on his laptop. He glanced up when I walked in.

“Hey,” he said indifferently.

“Hey,” I said, trying not to think about the fact that his indifference made my teeth ache.

I kicked off my shoes.

“Do we have any food?”

He shrugged.

“Don’t know.” More indifference.

I sighed and went into the kitchen. We had some food. I pulled a pack of hot dogs out of the fridge and winced. Good God, the expiration date was three weeks ago. I threw them away. Okay, what else do we have… Ketchup. Lovely. What else? Huh, that’s it. I closed the fridge and opened the cabinet above it. Oh, sweet! SPAM!

Brian looked up and blinked when he saw me walking into the living room, digging into the can of SPAM with a fork.

“SPAM?” he said and I shrugged.

“It was either this or ketchup.”

“I thought we had hot dogs.”

“They were green,” I nodded. “And I don’t know much about food, but I am pretty sure that green is not the right color for a hot dog.”

He sighed and closed the lid on his laptop.

“Let’s go,” he said shortly, and I finished my SPAM.

“Where?” I asked after licking the fork.

“Buy food,” he answered with another sigh. “I am getting hungry, and since you just finished the last edible food in the apartment…”

“There is ketchup,” I said.

“Funny,” Brian nodded without looking at me.

*****

“So, who was the girl?” he asked when we were filling our cart with insane amounts of Macaroni and Cheese.

I looked at him. He was looking at the box of noodles as if it was the most fascinating thing in the world. I was about to say, “What girl?” but then I remembered. Holy crap, I forgot all about Emma…

“Oh,” I said. “Emma. I don’t know what her last name is. She is a biology professor.”

“Where?” he asked, and I just sighed.

“At Harvard,” I said and he rolled his eyes. “Our school, dumbass. I ran into her yesterday and spilled her coffee.”

“Ah,” he nodded.

“I am taking her out tomorrow,” I said and threw another box of Mac and Cheese into the cart.

“Ah,” Brian said again. “Well, this should last us for a while. Let’s go.”

*****

We got back home, and Brian immediately went into the kitchen with two boxes of Mac and Cheese. I sighed. Great, I am going to be the one putting all this crap away. As always. I was shoving the boxes into one of the kitchen cabinets, and Brian just whistled something, while making food.

“So,” he said suddenly. “You gonna sign up for biology?”

“Huh?” I frowned at him and shoved away the last box. “No. Why the hell would I sign up for biology?”

He threw a quick glance at me.

“Oh… Well, I figured since you are getting together with the biology professor…”

“No,” I said. “I am just taking her out for dinner.”

“On a date?” he asked as indifferently as before, but his shoulders got tenser.

“I guess,” I said carefully.

“And she is actually dumb enough to go out with a student?”

“It’s just dinner,” I shrugged, trying to figure out why the hell I felt guilty all of a sudden. “I just feel bad for almost knocking her off her feet yesterday… She splattered that coffee all over her skirt.”

The last part was a complete lie, and I have no idea why I said it.

“Oh,” he said. “Cool.”

I stood there like an idiot for almost five minutes, and Brian hadn’t said a single word.

“Well,” I said finally. “I am going to bed. I am tired as hell.”

“Night,” he said absent-mindedly.

“See you,” I muttered and went away.

I almost closed my bedroom door, when there was a crushing sound from the kitchen, followed by Brian’s loud: “Son of a bitch! God…dammit!!”

I frowned and went back into the kitchen. When I got there, I stopped dead in my tracks for a few seconds. It looked like he somehow managed to explode the entire amount of Mac and Cheese that he was making. Seriously, that shit was everywhere -- on the stove, on the walls, on the floor, and even on the ceiling.

“Jesus…” I said incredulously. “What did you do?!”

He looked at me from underneath his dark bangs and scowled.

“Go to bed,” he said shortly. “I’ll clean it.”

“What did you do?” I repeated.

“Dropped the damn thing,” he muttered.

He dropped it, right. Usually when someone drops something, it ends up on the floor. Well, the stove too, I guess. But how in hell would you get it on the ceiling?! He looked like he was about to murder someone, so I didn’t say anything else and went for the rags.

“I said go to bed,” he hissed when I came back.

“Shut up,” I said without looking at him. “I know how you clean. We’ll end up with thousands of mice by tomorrow.”

He muttered something under his breath, but didn’t argue. It took us probably forty-five minutes to clean all the mess. Cleaning all that cheese off the stove was a bitch. Finally, I dropped my rag into the bucket, and looked at Brian who was trying to get macaroni off the ceiling with a mop.

“Get a chair,” I said. “Will be easier.”

Instead of getting a chair, he just threw the mop into the corner.

“Screw it,” he muttered gloomily. “I’ll do it tomorrow.”

“Which means I will end up doing it,” I nodded.

“I said I’ll do it!” he said sharply, and I just looked at him. “Go to sleep already!”

I was about to say something, but then wisely decided against it. Brian had never had a lot of patience, and right now he looked like was about to explode. I shoved him aside and stepped closer to the sink. My hands were covered with cheesy substance. I started washing them, and suddenly, Brian’s arms were around me, and he was kissing the back of my neck. I froze on the spot, cold water running down my fingers. My heart was beating so fast, I could literally feel it in my throat.

I turned around, about to push him away, but instead, I ended up burying my wet fingers in his hair. I pulled his head up, and when I saw how dark his eyes were all of a sudden, I couldn’t speak. He cupped my face in his palms, and before I knew it, his tongue started caressing my mouth. God, it felt good…

He shivered when water from my fingers ran under the collar of his shirt, but he didn’t pull away. One of his hands tangled up in my hair, and the other one started running down my chest. I moaned, I couldn’t help it. Then I felt his fingers unbuttoning my shirt, and finally, I had enough strength to push him away.

“Stop it,” I said, and he just looked at me. “I don’t know what the hell this is… But stop it, okay? I am going to bed.”

I stumbled out of the kitchen without turning off the water. He’ll do it. And if not, I couldn't care less. He hadn’t made a single sound while I was making my way to my room. Then I heard another crush from the kitchen that was followed by his cursing. Whatever he managed to break now, he’d have to deal with it on his own.

…It was almost four in the morning when I finally dozed off, and when my alarm went off at 6:30 again, I seriously contemplated suicide.