If you were mine

Chapter three

The landing is quiet. Everything is calm, there is no sound to be heard. I had expected a lot of noise.

Might as well give myself the grand tour.

I walk out of the corridor, taking a door by my right to step into the kitchen. The place is sparkling clean, the walls and floor reflecting the lights softly. Not what I expected from a public kitchen. I always felt boarding homes were like fraternity houses, all messy boys with the added package of poor environmental hygiene and body odor. This is different. There is a large fridge set next to the second door, the one that leads to the sitting area.

The fridge is packed. There is booze and wine, soda, leftover pizza, milk, cake, chicken and a number packages containing some things I cannot recognize. There is also bread. My stomach rumbles and I figure I could just take something small and replace it tomorrow. I pull out two cupcakes and a can of Sprite and walk to one of the chairs set around a table in the kitchen. I barely go through the cake before I hear the sitting area door open up.

A guy is standing there. Average height, slim and with a head of hair that looks like he spends way too much time on it daily. The blond hair catches the light and shines brighter than mine ever will, and I can tell it bounces when he walks. We stare at each other, my mouth full with stolen cake. He raises a golden eyebrow.

"Does Sally know you're eating all her cakes?"

My eyes swell as I try to force the cake down my throat. It gets stuck and I gag, snapping open the Sprite to help push it down. He hurries to my side, hitting my back a number of times before running it in slow circles. The terror passes away. I might have been choking but I did guess right. His hair bounces.

"Are you okay?" he asks, without much concern. I nod and he lets go of my back to grab a Sprite from the fridge too. He pulls out a chair and just flops into it.

"You are the one in the basement."

I look at him. There is no weird energy around him and he seems nice. Sweet, even. Someone I can warm up to.

"Yes, I am."

"Well…" he pauses to chug down the entire can. “How do you like it?"

I unwrap the second cake and toss it into my mouth, chewing slowly. He stares at me, a smile playing away at the edges of his mouth. After a few sips of Sprite, I open my mouth.

"It is alright." I stretch out my hand. "I'm Abby."

He looks from the hand to my face, then smiles before taking it.

"I am Jake. Jake Andrews, the lodge's unofficial last born. Except you're younger than me." He tilts his head to the side and studies me. "How old are you?"

"You know that is rude, right? Asking a lady her age?"

He nods and smiles, his expression telling me he stills expects an answer. A typical last born. I roll my eyes at him.

"I'm twenty five."

"Good. I’m still the youngest."

I laugh and ask him how old he is. He tells me he is twenty one and in his opinion, that is old enough. I completely agree with him.

"Who is Sally?"

"Sally? She's the one who made the cake you just devoured."

I laugh. I was really, really hungry so maybe I might have devoured it.

"Yeah," I say when I stop laughing. "Who is she though?"

Jake looks at me, his face set in doubt.

"You have not met her?"

Does it look like I have, you silly boy?

But I do not say that. I simply shake my head. He shakes his too and gets up, stretching his hand to me. I take it and he pulls me up.

"We are all in the movie room. You did not know that because the walls are padded. So…let us go introduce you to the entire gang. Is that okay?"

I take a deep breath and adjust my glasses. I smile at him.

"Let's go introduce me."

He drags me through the doorway into the sitting area where there is a television, floor cushions, a number of chairs and a table at the center. There is also a bar hidden in the shadows of the room, right underneath a flight of stairs.

"Come on, it's upstairs."

We go up the double landing staircase with its wall of portraits. At the end of the flight is a portrait of James's father, the current head of the Caesar clan. As we get closer to the room full of people, my palms turn clammy, my anxiety kicking in without warning.

What if they think I am weird?

What if they are evil?

I hope my dressing is okay.

We get to the door and Jake rests his hand on the knob, hesitating to look back at me and confirm. I nod at him and he turns the knob.

"Hey, turn down that s**t and turn on the lights. I have a pretty thing to show you all."

Oh God, not a public announcement.

"I felt we would just slip into seats and wait until after the movie," I whispered to Jake.

"There is no way I am doing that with someone this pretty," he whispers back and I shake my head.

Someone bangs a leg against a chair and curses. Laughter flows through the room but the darkness threatens to swallow me up. The light from the television casts an eerie glow around the room, causing my anxiety to expand until it felt like a balloon pressing against the inside of my skin. Then the lights come up, blinding me for moments. I manage to pry them open to discover seven pairs of eyes staring back at me.

I stare back. The room is extremely quiet. Jake looks at them and back at me, and slowly, I see his anger grow.

"Are you all going to just stare at her like she's a zoo monkey?"

His outburst embarrasses me. I’m not used to this kind of attention. The lady I saw earlier is sitting close to an aisle and she breaks into a fit of nervous laughter, causing the others to laugh too. Red crawls up my skin and I clench the hem of my shirt. She gets off her seat and walks up to me in a slow, sensual way. I tower over her, as she is nothing more than five foot and three inches. She smiles up and me and stretches out her hand. I stare at it before taking it.

"Hi, I'm Sally."

Ah, the infamous Sally.

The creepy lady. Something tells me she is going to be both a handful and a bit of a b***h. Well, I might be reserved, but I can handle a couple of bitches. Sally has green eyes, and her hair looks like it has not been brushed in weeks. A number of piercings dot one ear while the other is bare.

"Hi. Abby. Abby Sanders." Sally smiles and tugs at my arm.

I tilt forward, not enough to throw me off balance but enough to pull my upper body down into her personal space. Exactly what she wants. She grabs my face and plants a kiss on my lips, gently biting my lower lip in the process. Then she pulls back and smiles, licking her lips.

"Welcome," she says before tossing her hair over her shoulder and going back to her seat. I stand transfixed, barely holding on to my senses as I try to wrap my head around what just happened.

"She's a lesbian." Jakes whispers this in my ear and slips back to allow the others get close to me. Six other people approach me, five guys and one girl. The explanation is not in anyway enough for me to understand what just happened but I paste a slippery smile on my face and push through as I get introduced to everyone.

There is Christopher Thompson, the oldest resident who also happens to be a footballer and Jake's next door neighbor. Matthew, who looks at me like a snake looks at birds, with want and longing. I tell myself to try and stay clear off him. Ronny, who looks like he could take on Dwanye Johnson in a weight lifting competition, Filly, the African American with the dreads and beads, and his companion-Ahmed, the only Muslim in the fold. The only other girl comes up last, throwing dark looks at me. She is tall and slim, with a cheerleader's beauty. She takes my hand and introduces herself, while squeezing a bit to hard. Her name is Ashley.

The movie is put back on after that with the promise for further engagement. I sit close to Jake and ask him what the drama with Ashley is about. He chuckles.

"She and Sally are kind of in a relationship. With Sally's performance, she obviously got territorial. She’s nice though, just quite jealous.

I look at them, Sally and Ashley. Ashley's head is resting on Sally's shoulder, with the latter's arm around her. Anger builds up in me.

We are all adults here. If she’s got a problem with her girlfriend then she heads right up to her and fix it. Besides I can tell Sally doesn't like me too.

I wish I can empty her cake from my stomach.

“What do you do, Abby?”

The question comes from my right. In the dark, I recognize Dwayne Johnson's outline.

That's the last thing I wanna talk about. Can we all just focus on the movie?

“You seem like the booky type. Let me guess. A writer?” He leans closer, his lips forming a grin.

I laugh a little and adjust my glasses. It's not the first time someone has suggested that. One time Jamie even proposed I took an actual class in writing and see how I’d do with that. Back in college, I did have some interest in the world of fiction but I never had the time to really dive into it.

“Maybe.” I tell the big guy. “In a parallel universe.”

He chuckles. “I’d love to meet that Abby too.”

I kow this type of game they were playing. One which involved getting to know the new girl in the house and see who gets to figure her out first. I’d played this game a lot in college after I joined several clubs and voluntary associations.

I’m not in the mood to begin all that again. I came here to get a breathe of fresh air, let go of the past and think about the next f*****g big step to take in my career.