In Love with the Enemy

Chapter 6

Ria

Suzie and I hardly got any sleep last night or this morning. We were both up so early and ready to leave. I am hopeful for this weekend really. I don’t want to think about anything even though I know its that time of the year when I fail to get any sleep.

‘Flex, time to impress, come and climb in my bed………….’ Suzie’s ringtone fills the room.

“It’s Kris……” she says while looking at her screen before she picks the call. “Hello.”

I look at the time on my phone, its 10:45am. Kristen is on time which is shocking, she is usually the last one to get ready, Suzie and I were ready to actually leave an hour later than agreed.

“Yes, we are ready, coming just now.” Suzie says and then cuts the call.

“Kris is downstairs waiting for us.” Suzie says with a big smile.

“Let’s go.” I smile at her and then move towards our window to close it, we don’t want anything crawling in while we are away.

Suzie and I pick our packed bags and head for the exit. We have four bags with us, each one of us carrying an extra bag that have the things we bought yesterday.

As we are walking down the stairs of our hostel building, we see two vehicles parked out front. Why are they two vehicles and not one?

Kristen is standing in front of a red dirt 2009 Jeep Grand Cherokee where she is hugging a blonde guy. The guy pecks her real quick before she turns to face us. Suzie and I both look at each other and then smile, that must be the new boyfriend.

“That must be him” Suzie whispers.

“I think so, his cute.” I whisper back.

“I am glad you guys are ready.” Kristen smiles brightly.

“We are actually amazed by how punctual you are.” I say in a teasing tone, Kristen is always late.

“Well Chase made sure I was up in good time.” She smiles,

“I thought this was supposed to be a girl’s trip?” Suzie asks.

“I never said that.” Kristen gives us both a guilty smile, I knew something was up all along.

“Okay so who are we going with?” I ask.

“Let me introduce you guys to everyone.” She says before she turns around and starts walking towards the jeep.

The blond guy that Kristen was with before approaches us first.

“Hello ladies,” he brightly smiles at us. “I am Chase.”

“Hi Chase,” Suzie and I say at the same time.

“Let me get those.” He gestures towards the bags.

Chase looks very familiar. I think he plays soccer on the university team. I have seen his face somewhere. Kristen, Suzie, and I keep getting closer to the rest of everyone else.

There is a guy who is leaning against the jeep with his left arm around a girl’s shoulder who is about my height, blonde shoulder length hair and a bit rounder around the hip arear. She removes the guy’s hand from her shoulder and then approaches us.

“Hi, am Angie and that’s my boyfriend Mateo.” she gestures towards the guy behind her who smiles and waves at us.

“Nice to meet you Angie and Mateo, I am Suzie.”

“And I am Maria.” I introduce myself with a small smile.

“Am glad to have finally met you both, I have heard so much about you two in the past weeks.” Angie says with a huge smile.

“Good things we hope.” Suzie says making us four laugh.

There is another vehicle, a grey 2011 Land Rover Discovery 4 which is parked in front of the jeep. A familiar face approached us, and Suzie immediately rushes to give him a hug.

“Nate it’s been forever.” Suzie says as she let go of him.

“It has been a long time ey. I was actually wondering if you still went to Boston University.” he jokes and they both laugh. Suzie then turns around to face me.

“Remember Maria.” she asks him.

“Yeah, I remember her from Fresher’s bas…” I cut him off before he finishes his sentence.

“Hi Nathan or is it Nate now?”

He laughs. “Nate is alright.”

I had to cut him off before he finished saying the most embarrassing story from freshmen’s year. Suzie and I went to the fresher’s bash and both drank alcohol for the very first time and got really drunk. It’s painful to remember because we surely embarrassed ourselves. That was the night we met most of our friends today.

My cheeks gave it away as they turned pink.

“That night was something.” he cuts himself short assuming I am still embarrassed to talk about it.

“So, do you ladies want to jump in the Land Rover with me and my pal or you want to be with Kristen?” Nate politely asks.

Suzie and I glance at each other quickly making a decision to jump into this vehicle with Nate. His fun and cool, we don’t know the other two guys just yet so we can stay in this car, besides it’s just an hour drive.

I turn back and realized that Kristen, Angie, Mateo and Chase are already in the Jeep. Suzie and I jump into the back seat, I take the seat behind the driver’s seat, Suzie next to me and Nate in the front passenger seat. Now only the driver is missing.

“Suzie how’s Business management going?” Nate asks.

“It’s going well,” she smiles.

Nate and Suzie start having their own conversation while I wonder where the fourth person is. If I recall very well, Suzie and Nate were flirting back in first year. Suzie liked him back in first year and I wonder what stopped them from being together. They hang out for a few weeks and then I just never heard her talk about him ever again.

“Who’s driving?” I ask Nate who then points ahead at the windshield.

“Leo is driving, his just checking everything is alright.”

Did he just say Leo?

The same Leo I have been purposely avoiding the past few weeks.

My heart starts beating fast, my palms get sweaty. Why am I feeling nervous?

“Is he one of your friends?” Suzie asks.

“Yes, Leo, Chase, Mateo, and I are close. We play soccer together and Leo is our captain.” Nate explains.

Fuck!!

I knew I had seen Chase’s face somewhere, but I didn’t know Nate played soccer. Just then, the bonnet closed unveiling who was hidden behind it and I get goose bumps. It is him, the person I have been avoiding.

Shit, how did I get myself into this mess.

‘Calm down Ria, you don’t owe this guy anything. Just relax.’ My inner voice reckons me to calm down.

No one knows I have been avoiding him except myself so why am I panicking?

Leo comes round after closing the bonnet and then jumps into the driver’s seat.

“Leo, this is Suzie and Maria.” Nate introduces us to him.

“Hi Leo, it’s nice to meet you.” Suzie smiles at him. I admire how happy she always is to meet new people. I wish I could do the same in this situation.

“Nice to meet you, Suzie.” He smiles at her, “I already like your energy.”

“Thank you, there’s more of this than you think.” The three of them laugh.

Now it’s mt turn to acknowledge him. Should I greet him like it’s the first time I am meeting him, or should I recognize that we have met before? While I am battling with that, he beats me to it.

“Hi Maria, I have heard so much about you from Kristen.” He gives me a flat smile that doesn’t even reach his eyes.

What the hell, is he pretending to not know me?

“I wish I could say the same.” I return his smile.

He turns around and faces the front and starts the engine.

Why does his reaction hurt?

His face didn’t show any emotion of being surprised or shocked that I was there. It’s like he didn’t know me, and we were meeting for the first time. The few times we have met he always seem happy to be in front of me but today……….. he just brushed me off.

oh, Lord.

Must I spend the next three days with him?