“You just don’t get it, do you?” Crispin gave his head ashake.
“Apparently not,” she agreed, frustrated. “Tell me then, whyshould it bother me?”
“Because it bothers me!” Crispin shouted, half lunging out ofhis seat, effectively scaring the living daylights out of Becky.Instead of interceding, Kell held Dorian back and allowed Crispinto voice his opinion. He had a right to, after all, that’s whatthis trial was all about.
“I don’t want you here,” Crispin lowered his voice to amenacing whisper. “Your very presence offends me. Everything aboutyou reeks of the mundane. You represent everything I’m against. Theonly thing I might consider you worthy of is perhaps a lazy roundof… vanilla sex.”
Becky flinchedat his hurtful words. While not quite understanding the vanillareference, the inflection in his voice was effective enough.Suddenly she realized just how uncomfortable she might feel, livinghere with the likes of him.
“Hey,” Kell growled, having heard enough. “You’ve crossed theline, Crispin.”
“Merely making my point,” Crispin said, taking a step back witha satisfied look on his face.
“He does have a good point, Kell,” Dorian added with obviousregret. “She is rather cute. I mean, I can’t promise that I won’tbe tempted either. Besides the obvious sexual tension, the reasonwe all moved in here together in the first place was because of ourmutual Gothness. We wanted a place where we could be ourselves, andnot be judged for it. You said so yourself, Kell.”
“Yes, but we are not animals, are we?” Kell challenged themwith a glare. After a calming breath, he turned his attention backto Becky. His housemates were right. Could he trust himself not tomake a play for her? Probably not. Everything about her reeked ofsensuality, innocence, and all that good stuff. “Yet, you both makeperfect sense,” he added regretfully.
The finality inKell’s words effectively crushed Becky’s hope for a nice place tocall home. At that moment, she wished that the ground beneath herwould open up and swallow her whole. She was doomed. Her fate wouldbe to wander aimlessly throughout the next four years of her life,friendless and homeless. Visions of sneaking into the collegelibrary at night to sleep, and showering in the gym facilities,crossed her mind.
“Becky, please understand…” Dorian said, dragging his fingersthrough his shaggy mohawk. “We wouldn’t hurt you or anything, butwe are grown men. Just look at what happened last night whenCrispin barged in on you in the bathroom. What if you had been… youknow?”
“Thanks for bringing that up,” Crispin said in a snarkyvoice.
“I’m just saying that it could have been worse,” Dorianinsisted. “I mean, I wouldn’t want to make you uncomfortable. Forexample, I know I like walking around naked every now and then.”Crispin and Kell grimaced at the image he painted.
They went onand on for what seemed liked hours about the many reasons why shewas not welcome. By the time they were finished, Becky couldn’thave felt worse or have made herself smaller by shrinkingimpossibly further into the armchair. How could she have been sodesperate as to have imagined that she would fit in here? Or thatKell would stick up for her? He hadn’t lived up to her initialexpectations at all. Obviously, he wasn’t interested in herfriendship. Had he simply been polite or was it more like whatthey’d eluded to, maybe it was just about wanting to get into herpants. Desperate for any form of attention, she’d obviouslymisunderstood his interest for kindness or something more. Howpathetic of her!
Pulling herlegs up into her chest, Becky buried her head into her knees andunsuccessfully resisted the urge to give into a case of theshudders.
They were right. She hadn’tconsidered that sharing a house with three grown males would be aproblem. She had just assumed that they would be mature enough tohandle it. Especially being Goths. Somehow, she was under theimpression that they would be fair and open minded. Apparently,even Goths were slaves to their sexuality.
“I’ll go pack up and leave,” she said after a few uncomfortablemoments of silence.
“Have something to eat first,” Kell said, feeling like acomplete shit head. “You hardly touched your toast.”
“Yeah, come on, let me put another couple of slices down foryou,” Dorian said, quickly vacating the room.
A tad takenaback by his easy victory, Crispin frowned at the sight of thegirl’s shaky little form. He winced at the unrelenting sound ofthunder, and the large incessant raindrops, drumming at thewindows. He shouldn’t even care, but the thought of her wanderingaround aimlessly in the rain, dragging that humongous suitcase wasa bit… saddening, even to him.
“I’ll call you a taxi as soon as you’re ready,” he saidstiffly, following Dorian into the kitchen.
“Come, have another cup of coffee,” Kell offered, gesturing forher to follow.
Reluctantlypadding up behind him, she reached out and tugged on his shirt.“I’m sorry, Kelley,” she said with eyes downturned. “I was wrong tohave come here.”
“Oh, it’s all right, love,” he said, taking her small hand inhis much larger one. He encouraged her to sit down at the kitchentable. “You had to try, right? No harm done.” She looked up at himthen with such vulnerability in her eyes, her tousled hair indisarray, giving her the appearance of a scared little animal. Herdelicate little hand felt cold and slightly clammy. When sheabruptly pulled it away from his, it stung him a little. Sadly, herealized that it was her way of saying that he was no longer of anyhelp to her. He wished he could have saved her the inevitabledisappointment. He wasn’t anyone’s hero, least of allhers.
Dorian hadalready refilled her cup of coffee and placed two slices ofperfectly toasted bread in front of her. The three sombre Gothshelped themselves to fresh cups of coffee, and then sat quietlyflipping through the morning paper as if nothing amiss hadtranspired. Truth be told, none of them were actually reading aword of it.
Sadly, amidstthe strife, the coffee no longer tasted good to Becky. In fact, hertaste buds felt like sand paper. Her mouth was as dry as thedesert, and truth be told, she couldn’t taste much at all.
Devastationwill do that to a girl, she thought with a laboured sigh. Then asif things couldn’t get
