Kiss and Cry (14 page)

I texted mom:

Dalia: Don’t 4get Tara’s annual party is 2night. I’m going 2 Sierra’s, she offered 2 do my hair.

Mom: Have fun Honey!

Dalia: Can U drop the dye off on your way 2 work?

Mom: Sure, I can B there in 1/2 hour.

Dalia: Thx, I’ll B waiting 4 U.

Mom: OK

Sierra lived in a modern loft downtown Toronto, so we took the Toronto TTC to get to her house after school. Her mother’s name was Aria and she worked in real estate so her hours were all over the place. Aria was in love with this guy Nick in her early thirties and was about to marry him when he jilted her at the alter for her best friend Chanel. I heard the story every time Sierra’s mother got blathered. Sierra was Nick’s illegitimate kid. He never found out about her and if Aria had her way, he never will. Sierra had no interest in seeking out her father, after her mother worked so hard to support her and give her a good life. She was happy.

As expected, we had the place to ourselves. Mom dropped off the dye surprising me with a box of my original colour. We ran upstairs and Sierra threw me an old t-shirt before she started mixing the dye. I put the shirt on and sat on the chair she put in the bathroom for me.

“Say good-bye to your platinum!”

“Bye!” Then the process began, layer by layer she applied the dye to cover the blond that my mother helped me maintain for several months.

When Sierra was finished applying the colour, the box said we had an hour to wait so we went downstairs and raided the refrigerator. I took a cheese string and yogurt before perching myself on her yellow shag rug to watch television while we waited. We watched Judge Judy until my hair was ready for rinsing.

Sierra sat me back in the chair and combed my hair before brandishing the scissors, “You’re not!” I said to her. “It just grew back!”

“Let’s just try bangs! I’ll keep them long,” she suggested.

Not waiting for an answer she took liberties with MY hair and started brushing some forward and began cutting a straight line across my eyes while she told me, “I’m breaking up with Jeremy tonight.” I watched helplessly as the long locks fell onto my lap. When she finished her horizontal line, she stepped back to admire her handiwork before smiling and saying, “That’s done!”

She proceeded to the back and collected all my hair, “5 off?”

“Fuck off! Cut five off your own hair!”

“Tara wears hers short!”

“That’s Tara.”

“Three off? It will land two inches below your chin.”

“Two, and that’s it!”

“Cool, I love cutting hair.”

“When are you breaking up with him, in the end or beginning of the party?”

“Beginning, gives me a chance to land someone else! That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”

I cringed when I saw her two was really a three and that was with wet hair, “Go on.”

“Would it bother you if I hooked up with Adam? He’s single right now.”

“You don’t have to ask, of course it’s okay. That ship sailed.”
I knew it shouldn’t bother me but it did. For some reason I could never imagine him with anyone but me.

When she finished with me I laid on her bed playing with my hair while waiting for her to shower. She dressed in her bathing suit with a black floral print summer dress thrown over. Sierra looked amazing. We texted the guys telling them we were ready and then waited for them to come.

Ryan’s car pulled in twenty minutes later. Jeremy jumped into the back to be with Sierra and I took the front with Ryan. We drove to my house and they waited for me in the car while I quickly ran in and changed out of my school clothes and threw on my bathing suit with a blue summer dress. I went into the kitchen and grabbed the water bottles than bee-lined it back to Ryan’s car before my parents got home, “Okay good to go!”

Ryan studied me before placing his hand on the headrest and reversing out of my driveway. I waited for him to compliment me or make a wisecrack, but he did neither. I lost myself in his dark eyes wanting another chance to kiss him again with that six o’clock shadow he was sporting. I needed to find an excuse to run my fingers through his hair one more time. Damn it, I had to remind myself ‘never again’. I had to put what happened between us behind me.

We made it to Tara’s in record time. She lived in a white modern house with a wrap around balcony on the top floor overlooking the pool. The furnishings were Arctic cold. White leather Natuzzi sofa’s, white marble floors, with hints of grey accent pieces all over. The bedrooms had leather headboards with white diamond tuck. They furnishings appeared crisp and clean.

We arrived right at 6:30 p.m. as the pizza was being delivered. We called up, “Tara! The pizza’s here!” She came running down the stairs two at a time in just her bikini with a wrap around skirt. Her parents were on vacation in Florida for four weeks, so I was planning on spending the first two weeks with her, and Sierra would spend the last two. We were going to be partying all the time!

She grabbed her little purse on the table in front of the door and handed the pizza guy the money. He fished four boxes out of his pizza warmer and handed them to her before leaving. She carried them into her kitchen and laid them out on the island opening them for us to help ourselves.

Tara and I found ourselves alone in the kitchen, once the guys hoarded down eighty percent of the pizza. They started walking around checking out the pool. Tara was looking at my hair, “I like the brown better! You let Sierra cut it?”

“You know her, once she gets her mind set on something there’s no stopping her, do you like it?”

“Love it! It’s sexy!”

“Thanks, Did Sierra tell you she’s breaking up with Jeremy?” I informed her.

“Oh please, tell me not tonight!”

“Tonight.”

“At the beginning or end of my party?”

“She wants to do it at the beginning, she asked me if it would bother me if she hooks up with Adam.”

“What did you say?”

“Of course it won’t bother me. That ship sailed.”

“It bothers you.”

“Hell ya. I gave him my virginity. I don’t want any girl to ever be with him, it doesn’t matter who it is, but it’s worse if it’s a friend.”

Ryan came from around the corner, “Still obsessing over asshole?”

“Would you like a drink?” asked Tara.

“Something strong,” he requested.

She poured him orange juice and gave him the bottle of vodka, “Help yourself.”

“Thanks,” he said. He took the bottle and was very generous with it. He threw in ice chips and left us alone.

“I sense tension,” Tara said intuitively.

“After the pool we sort of got physical in the car.”

“That’s a good thing isn’t it?”

“No, he said it can never happen again.”

“What did you guys do?”

“We just got each other off.” I started pouring myself a screwdriver too.

“How was it?”

“The Bomb!”

“So why don’t you guys want to do it again?”

“He doesn’t want to screw up our partnership. He’s very serious about wanting to win Gold.”

“I get that, he’s so Alpha! If you have chemistry though, why not take it to another level.”

”He think’s it will negatively impact our partnership. He doesn’t want to take any chances.”

“So tonight?”

“I’m staying stag! Men are trouble. How about you and Carter, is everything all right? I haven’t had any emergency texts from you.”

“It’s getting boring. I planned on finishing with him too.”

“When?”

“Tonight! I don’t want to be tied down if all my friends are single. I want to have a good summer too! Do you think it will look tacky if we both break up with them on the same night?”

“Ya, I’d hold off a few days if I were you. You don’t want to piss him off too much in case you want to get back together with him after the summer is over.”

“Good point Dalia, I don’t know what I’d ever do without you.”

“Let’s find Sierra and see if she’s still going to do it.”

“Too right.”

One Drink Later

It was starting to get dark out, and the air was hot and humid for June. Sierra and Jeremy where nowhere to be found but Tara’s parents bedroom door was locked and we could hear raised voices so we closed the sliding door and joined everyone poolside.

We turned on the patio lanterns and Adam was acting as party DJ. He played soothing music, making for quite a romantic setting. Periodically I noticed him looking over at me, no matter where I was standing, but I chose to ignore it.

I was on my second drink and feeling pretty fine as I socialized with acquaintances I met through Tara. Tara was busy sending mixed signals cozying up with Carter even though she had full intentions to break up with him in the next day or two. I didn't think she was being fair about it considering his days were numbered.

After sometime, I decided to sit down next to Ryan who was parked on a lawn chair by the pool. I took a big sip of my screwdriver to increase my courage before asking, “You didn’t say anything about my hair, you don’t like it?” He sat up and reached towards me touching it. I peered into his chocolate eyes and a chill ran down my spine making me shiver. His eyes darkened.

He took hold of my wrist and brought me into Tara’s house. He swept me off my feet at the base of her stairs and carried me up choosing the first bedroom he found. He placed me gently down on the bed but didn’t join me. He smelled of alcohol mixed with cologne, and I liked it. “I want this damn it, I want to make love to you over and over again, day after day until IT doesn’t work anymore or you can’t walk and then I want to take you in other ways. That’s what I want. But what I want and what I should do are two different things. This isn’t in our equation.”

“Why not?” I argued. “It’s what we both want!”

“You’re making this harder for me!”

“Am I?” I teased. “How about if I remove my dress for you?”

“Stop,” he said sternly. I tossed it towards his feet.

“No,” I continued sliding out of my bathing suit. Now I laid before him naked.

“Take me,” I tempted him. This was so Adam and Eve, because of the way he was staring at me and my sinfulness. Resisting all temptation he deserted me in the bedroom. I laid in bed shocked that he would just leave me, staring at the ceiling for several minutes before I heard the front door slam. What was his problem? I raced to the front of the house to make sure he didn’t get in his car. He left by foot and I was relieved. I snuck back to the bedroom without anyone seeing me and got dressed in my bathing suit.

I joined everyone back at the pool. Sierra was talking to Adam and Tara was locked onto Carter for dear life. I decided to go for a swim and dived into the deep end doing a few laps before getting out. I couldn’t have been in there for more than half an hour, forty minutes at most. The heated water was refreshing against the humid air.

When I got out I reached for a towel that was laying on the fence and looked around the pool. Ryan still wasn’t back.

I decided to go searching for him, checking inside the house, and then outside. There was no sign of Ryan in the house so I started down what appeared to be a deserted street with the exception of a parked car that appeared to have steamed windows in the distance. My heart sank. I briskly walked towards the car, fearing my suspicion would be substantiated. His chocolate brown hair and muscular body couldn’t be mistaken, he was taking someone else.

Sleeping Over

I froze when I saw what appeared to be his face in the rear window. He was keeping a look out to make sure he wasn’t caught.

He saw me see him.

I turned in the opposite direction and ran as fast as I could until my legs wouldn’t carry me any further and then I found a soft patch of grass and collapsed to my knees where I broke down and cried.

Later, I don’t know how much later there was a car driving really slowly down the street. It slowed more when it was parallel to me, then it stopped. Tara came running to me,”Oh my God, We’ve been so worried!”

I didn’t want to move. She called over to the car, “I need help.” The car was thrown into park and Adam got out of the back seat and came over to us. He picked me up and carried me to the car. I cried into his shoulder.

Tara got back into the front seat and turned to me, “What happened?”

I couldn’t speak, I wept until I couldn’t do it anymore. I really liked Ryan and I felt humiliated that I made a fool of myself in the bedroom and he just picked up another girl and did things with her that I wanted to do with him. Adam held me the entire time, and then when I was finished he carried me to her parents bedroom and placed me in their bed. Tara said to Adam, “I can’t stay with her, there’s still too many people downstairs. Can you stay with her until I get rid of everyone?

“Sure,” he reassured.

“Make sure Ryan doesn’t come in,” Tara warned.

“You can count on that,” he said assuredly. She turned to leave locking us in the bedroom.

He climbed into bed with me and stroked my hair while I suffered from embarrassing sobbing hiccups that I couldn’t stop. I had calmed down significantly when we heard the knock on the bedroom door. Ryan’s drunken voice called out, “Dalia?”

I cowered into Adam not wanting to see Ryan, “She’s not here,” he said.

“Open the fucking door Adam, I know she’s in there with you!”

“Tara told me to guard her from you. You better back the fuck off!”

“She’s MY partner,” he claimed angrily.

“Maybe you should have thought of her before you left the party to bang another girl,” he said spitefully.

We heard footsteps and then Jeremy’s voice, “Come on Rye, you better sleep this off. Go home before you do more damage. We called you a cab, it’s here.”

“Jer, I’m not drunk. You of all people have got to believe me.”

“Okay, I believe you, but Dalia doesn’t want to see you just like Sierra doesn’t want to see me.” Jeremy said.

“Why doesn’t Sierra want to see you?” Ryan asked.

“Bitch broke up with me tonight. Can you believe it? What a shitty fucking night!” Jeremy complained. Their voices along with their footsteps slowly disappeared and Adam stayed with me until Tara could take his place. When he left, I fell fast asleep.