Unfaithful: A Modern Orc Romance

Dine and Dash

ARAYA

I have fallen into a routine over the next few days at Drun’s. I busy myself at his house, cleaning, or preparing something for dinner and I started taking walks around his neighborhood.

A car slows down when I am walking one morning, and I think they will turn into a driveway, but the window rolls down.

“Oh my god! It’s you!”

It takes me a moment to register who it is. The nurse from the hospital, oh f**k what was her name?

“Oh my god, it’s you!” I squawk back.

“Yes! Do you live here? I never noticed.”

“No, I am just hanging out with Drun.” A smile breaks across her face.

“Thank god! I am so happy to see you. I think about you from time to time. We have to get together. You and Drun should come over to my house and have dinner with my wife and I.”

I frown, “So soulmates can be anyone?” She rolls her eyes.

“Duh, your soul doesn’t care who or what you are.”

I smile at her and text Drun to see if he wants to do it. “So where do you live?”

“At the end on the cul-de-sac. What’s your number?”

We share our numbers, and I don’t give her a fake one like I did Drun the first time. I feel so happy here. I feel like I made a friend and I have not had friends in a long time.

“I can’t wait!” I say and really mean it.

ARAYA

“You are so cute.” Drun tells me as we walk to the nurse’s house. She lives just down the street so we decided to walk. The spring night is cool, and we hold hands.

I look up at him, “Why? Is it what I am wearing?”

He laughs, “Yes and you are swinging our hands back and forth. I love you so much Araya.” I beam up at him and hate that I am smaller than him because I cannot kiss him. So, I smack him in the ass instead.

“Don’t tempt me, I might just take you right here out in the open. I don’t care who sees.” My body quivers at the promise and I blush, feeling breathless.

As we knock on the nurse’s door, I blanch. I still haven’t re-called her name. When she and her wife answer, I am silently panicking. Her wife is an orc too, I wonder what they think of Drun and I, with us being an orc and human couple. I hope they are nothing like his sister. Their house is beautiful and cozy. The smell hits me and my stomach rumbles. It smells like Italian.

“Hey guys, this is my wife Sela.”

She reaches out her hands to shake mine, “It’s nice to meet you! I am so happy Drun found someone, he was such an ass before he met you, though he is still an ass but at least a nicer one.” They both laugh and I look up at him, he has always been so nice to me. I am surprised they know each other.

“I didn’t know you guys knew each other.” I look at Drun and the nurse.

“Well, Sela, knows him really, she is one of the scientists at Blue.”

I look back at Sela, she looks very,butch. The sides of her head are shaved, and she has black hair cut short. Her tusks are bigger than Drun’s and she looks muscular. Overall, I don’t get a scientist vibe but more like a bad ass lesbian vibe.

“Oh” is all I can say as they welcome us inside. The inside of the house looks amazing too, it’s not as big as Drun’s but they have a more modern style for decoration. Once we are inside and all sat at their dining table. The nurse from the hospital starts to dish out lasagna! My stomach growls at the sight. We chat for a while, and I keep hoping someone will say the nurse’s name at the table, but no one does.

I notice that Sela and her wife’s tusks are not pointed like Drun’s. I find that odd and I can’t help but blurt out;

“Drun do you sharpen your tusks?” I am not sure why he would, maybe it’s an orc thing. When the table goes quiet, I feel like I should not have asked. Is it an orc custom and I am just an ignorant human? Sela and her wife burst out in laughter, and I look around confused and mortified.

They are making fun of you.

The room seems to grow colder, and my skin is prickling with anxiety.

“No, I didn’t do anything with mine, but people do have them filed down or rounded.” He eyes the women at the table. I feel like even though Drun is responding to me I am on the outside looking in at them.

But then, it dawns on me why theirs are rounded and I turn red. I don’t say anything, but I guess if you have tucks and are going to be eating a lot of p***y you don’t want to stab your partner. I feel a bit hurt that Drun still has his sharp and he has never gone down on me.

“So where did you meet?” Sela’s wife asks, pulling me from my muddled mind.

Drun answers and I am thankful, I have my mouth full of food and my head is heavy with thoughts. “We met at the karaoke bar off of Phillips highway.” If he was ashamed to meet me in a bar, he doesn’t show it.

“Oh, I love that place!”

“Of course, you do.” Drun rolls his eyes.

“What was a grump like you doing in a place like that?” Their conversation keeps going and the nurse touches my elbow. I look at her and she has worry on her face. “How are you doing?” she asks.

“I am okay.”

“Your scar is healing nicely,” looking at my head she smiles, proud of her work. “How is the baby?”

“Good, I still don’t feel pregnant.” In truth, I haven’t been thinking of it.

“Well, you are still early but I see you are getting a tiny bump. I look down frowning, I had not noticed at all, and with me buying new clothes that I have to try on first I don’t think anything is tight.

“So, your morning sickness is gone?”

“Yeah, I am so happy it is. I like the taste of food going down, not the other way around.” I laugh. She smiles at me knowingly. “What?” I ask.

“When do you think your morning sickness went away?”

I take a moment to think. It was sometime in the hospital, but it would come back every so often. I think maybe when I spent more time with Drun. I am guessing I was less stressed and that helped. “About a week or two ago. I don’t think I can pin it down.” I see her glance at Drun, and I feel left out of something yet again.

You are not like them. You may be carrying one of their own, but you are different.

The dark thought creeps up my skin and I try to shut it away, but it seeps into my skin before I can react, filling me with worry. But it doesn’t go away, it only stays wedged in the forefront of my mind.

“Has that one guy been giving you trouble?”

I shake my head, “No, he is gone for good.” The statement pings my heart. Eric is gone for good. Ten years gone for good. Any love between us, gone for good. I try not to cry or show anything and smile at her. I have to let go of that part of my life, of Eric. I will… in time.

The rest of the night moves on and I fall deeper into the cold depths of the void that I had locked away. I am no longer talking with them. I am on auto mode. I smile and joke with them and eat but I am not there. They are talking to a ghost. Not even the ghost recalls the nurse’s name.

ARAYA

Drun and I walk home, and the sky is a beautiful soft pink. We hold hands but he doesn’t know I am not there still. Even though he is holding my hand, I cannot feel his touch. Once we are back at his house, I feel exhausted and want to sleep. Shredding my clothes, I let Drun know I am tired and going to bed. He kisses me on the forehead and wishes me a good night, stepping into his office. Checking my phone, I see a missed call from Eric.

My heart jumps and I call him back once I am alone in the bedroom.

“Hello?” He answers and his voice brings back so many memories from our years together.

“Hi Eric, you umm called?”

“Yes, I have been trying to reach you for weeks, but my phone was shut off. I was able to get a new line with my same number finally. How are you?”

I smile in the darkness, but I feel guilty that he could not reach me. It was my fault; I was the one who changed the locks and shut his phone off. “I am fine. Are you okay?”

“Yes, I just want to let you know how sorry I am for how I acted. I wasn’t thinking and when I found out you cheated on me. I was heartbroken.”

His words dig into me, and I cry silently so Drun doesn’t hear. “I am so sorry Eric. I feel so badly that I hurt you. I am so sorry.” I keep repeating.

“Araya, can we meet up?”

“Yes, of course.” I jump at the opportunity to see him.

“I am at my dad’s, and he misses you too.”

“Okay.”

We plan to meet tomorrow morning and I go to sleep with that heavy on my mind in another man’s bed, pregnant with his child. I am not sure what I am doing or where I belong; I don’t fit in with orc, and my child won’t fit in with Eric and my life.

At dinner, I was laughed at and Drun’s sister hates me because I am human. How do I know I will be fine after I have the baby? I don’t, even Drun admitted he would have never thought to be with a human. I am unsure of what I should do.

I let the void drag me down to quiet my thoughts.