Intellectual: A Young Adult Romance

by Katie Wright

  Casey jogged over to me, "Hey," he seemed to be less angry. In fact he had somewhat of a grin on his face.

  "Hey, is my car done?" I was impatient. I didn't have time to stand there while he argued with his girlfriend. I can't believe he has a girlfriend. I'm still in shock.

  He seemed embarrassed and I thought maybe he had blushed but it could have been there already. "Well, sorry I kind of got tied up."

  "Yeah with your girlfriend." He looked back at me with an expression I couldn't place. He seemed sort of mad. "I saw," I said to fill space. I thought maybe he was wondering how I knew? I really wasn't sure.

  He nodded his head and bit the inside of his mouth, "Yea well, it's done, sorry." Now he just sounded flat. No more emotion in his voice. He pushed a button and lowered the car. He jumped in and pulled it out of the garage, I followed.

  He got out and kept the door open for me. The only thing I thought of to say was, "Thank you."

  "No problem." He said and closed the door when I had situated myself. He strode away back into the garage. I pulled out of the lot and drove home. And that was it.

  Chapter 7: What a Day

  So it was officially Monday and I was driving to work at seven in the morning to get there. I realized that Friday had been a blessing in disguise. Yes, I did get stuck on the highway for an hour and half but thank goodness my car broke down then and not today.

  I drove to the library and parked my car in the back lot. I didn't know exactly what I would be doing today but that didn't bother me. Archiving usually meant putting things in their right boxes and wrapping them in protective special archival bags and such.

  I made my way inside and found Meg, remember my boss, at a desk which was covered with a large stack of boxes.

  "Hey Meg," I said trying to get her attention.

  She turned around and when she realized it was me she smiled, "Hey there, ready for your first day?"

  "Yeah, sure." I was ready, ready to make some much needed money.

  "Good. Well I talked with Dan today. Dan Fleming has worked here for I think maybe a year or so. You're going to work primarily with him because he needs help. There's a lot of sorting through newspaper articles and deciding which ones will stay. You know that kind of stuff."

  She and I walked towards a corner stairwell that spiraled up to the second floor. We went up the stairwell which looked over a balcony to one section of the library. Meg went right down a passageway towards two double doors. They were open where a man that seemed to be in his mid twenties stood.

  He had dark rimmed eye glasses on and a nondescript face. He wasn't ugly or anything just plain I guess. His hair was a wavy dirty blonde color and I couldn't tell what his eye color was but they weren't recognizable. When he looked over at us I suspected they were hazel or brown. His mouth also had very thin lips, not kissable, at least in my mind. Well if I was working with him at least I knew I wouldn't have any trouble. I only got extremely nervous around people I was attracted to and he was not someone I would ever be attracted to.

  "Hey Dan this is your new assistant Heather," Meg introduced us.

  Dan smiled and stuck his hand out, "Nice to meet you Heather."

  I shook his hands which were soft from lack of manual labor I supposed, "Hi, nice to meet you too."

  You may be thinking why I am giving this guy such a hard time. I'm not I'm just prepping myself. If I look at all his flaws I won't feel like a newcomer and outcast. I will realize that I could do this job once I get into it.

  Meg smiled and said, "I'll let you tell her what to do I'll be downstairs labeling those boxes."

  "You're still working on the Murrell collection?" Dan said surprised. Who was Murrell?

  "Yeah but I'm almost done. I wish some of us got assistants," she laughed and left us.

  I thought there was going to be an awkward moment but Dan jumped right in with questions about me. I was happy to supply him answers at least he didn't let the ball drop. His questions made me feel comfortable asking him and soon we were having a nice conversation.

  Dan made me start working on newspaper articles during the early 1900's. He was looking for specific stuff that if I went into detail about I'd probably bore you too death. It was a tedious task but made the day go by fast.

  By the end of the day I almost felt I hadn't disregarded enough of the articles but when Dan came to check them he thought that I did a great job. He asked me if I'd like to go to happy hour with him and the other people whom I haven't met yet. I declined though because I had made plans with Jane to go out tonight.

  Yeah probably not the best idea since I do have work tomorrow but the reason I couldn't get in touch with Jane this weekend was because she was down at the shore with her family. I think she did tell me but I forgot. Now we were going out Monday night and hopefully I wouldn't run into my cousins or their friend.

  "So is he cute?" Jane and I had already had two shots of something. We asked the bartender to surprise us. And he did and now the room was already spinning.

  I spilled to Jane in the car that I was working with this guy Dan. I didn't like his looks at first but then after talking to him for awhile I realized he wasn't such a bad guy. In fact he was very personable and didn't bring up anything disgusting like some people I knew.

  "No not really but he's really nice. I'm glad I'm working with him," I started drinking my rum and coke.

  Jane shrugged her shoulders, "So when am I going to get to meet him?"

  "Ah, I don't know he wanted to go to happy hour with me tonight but I couldn't you know."

  Jane shrieked like I don't know what and started clapping her hands happily, "Oh you should invite him out with us one of these nights."

  I didn't know if I was that comfortable with him yet, "Well maybe after I get to know him a bit?"

  "Yey!" She started waving her hands in the air. We were getting a couple of looks from guys at the bar. I guess Jane's drink was hitting her faster than mine. Yes I was buzzing but I had control of my limbs.

  "So have you seen or heard from Cara lately?"

  Jane made this 'o' face and grabbed my arm, "I forgot to tell you!"

  "What?" I exclaimed.

  "Cara's seeing that Rich guy."

  Now I was confused, what Rich guy?

  "What Rich guy?"

  "The guy she was at the bar at a couple weeks ago. You know he had the blonde hair and everything.

  "Oh," I said. Cara normally did this when she had a boyfriend or was seeing someone casually; diss your friends for your new boy toy. It didn't bother me anymore like it used to.

  I looked over at Jane who was chewing on her straw and scoping the guys in the bar. I looked around quickly and didn't notice anyone of mild interest.

  I tapped Jane on her arm, "I forgot to mention something to you."

  She squinted her eyes and took the straw out of her mouth, "What?"

  "You know Casey?"

  She nodded.

  I continued, "He has a girlfriend."

  "No freaking way!" Jane seemed just as surprised as I had been.

  I shook my head, "Yeah he has a girlfriend. Apparently he lives with her." My voice sounded disappointed even though I knew I was perfectly fine. Why would I care if Casey was with someone already?

  Jane started at me, "Well how did you find out? I can't believe it, he doesn't even act like it!"

  I was happy I wasn't the only one who thought that. When Brian told me and I said that he gave me a strange look.

  "I said the same thing to Brian. But then he said something weird like he thought Casey should be single."

  Jane still looked confused, "Yeah but how did you find out?"

  "Oh this past weekend when I took the car to the garage," I took a sip of my drink. "He was talking to some girl. Well not really talking more like arguing."

  "Oh shit," Jane slapped my arm. Yes, it did hurt. "So maybe he will break up with her. It's weird though. Why wouldn't he mention her to any of us?"

  "Pro
bably because he doesn't want to be with her. Maybe he was already planning to break up with her?"

  Jane gave me a peculiar look, one that closely resembled Brian's, "Yeah, maybe."

  Casey came home to an empty house. Lucky for him, he thought. He sat down and turned the tv on. Then he turned it off. He didn't want to watch tv or stay at home. He knew he should take advantage of the situation and relax but he couldn't. He had gotten so used to Terry being there he thought it oddly quiet when she wasn't.

  He assured himself he did enjoy being by himself when she wasn't there but it was still uncommon not to see her lying on the couch bitching at him for something. He shook those thoughts out of his head.

  For the past couple nights she had come home late and he had no idea what she had been doing during the day. He didn't want to know either. She tried to be with him last night after she had gotten home at three in the morning.

  Their argument on Saturday was spurred on by the fact that Casey had taken her applications, filled them in, and sent them out. When Terry found out she was very angry and started to tell him to stay out her life.

  He recalled everything she had said, "Stay the fuck out of my life! I'm not ready."

  Casey tried not to raise his voice but it couldn't be helped, "Well I'm sorry I was trying to help. How long were you planning on loafing off of me? Why don't you find something to do with your time?"

  He was being too easy on her but he could never get truly angry at her. Plus he had been in the garage and even though the noise was covering their argument he couldn't have an out and out there.

  Terry hissed at him, "Maybe I will find something to do with my time." She mumbled to herself as she walked away.

  Casey hadn't heard her but instead looked up and over to see Heather looking over at him. She caught his eye and then looked back to her cousin.

  Casey wiped a hand on his face as he remembered the memory. Heather had a strange look on her face after her cousin left her to wait for Casey. Casey felt embarrassed for some reason. He wanted to explain himself to her but knew she didn't care anyway and therefore didn't owe her an explanation.

  He needed to get out of the house tonight. It was Monday night and normally he would be hiding in his room reading a book. But tonight it was just too quiet. He looked at the clock and decided to go to the bar. At least he could entertain himself with a drink or two.

  Jane had finally gotten me to go out and dance with her. Being that it was Monday night, not as many people were on the floor. I really didn't like going dancing unless I was drunk and lost all my inhibitions or there were a lot of people hovering around me covering my dancing skills or lack thereof.

  A couple of guys tried to grind up on me and unlike Jane I was very uncomfortable when strange men tried to dance with me. She handled it like a pro and even if the guy was a bad dancer she usually made it look great. I on the other hand looked terrible either way. I finally pulled myself off a guy and said I had to get a drink. He tried to follow me and ask if he could have my number but I told him I was taken.

  I turned around and luckily noticed Casey sitting at the bar all alone. Thank goodness for me, even though I normally didn't like seeing him. The bad dancer seemed to not believe me and followed me to the bar. I grabbed Casey and pulled him around. He seemed surprise and so was I when I gave him a hug.

  "Hey babe," I said loud enough in front of the creepy guy who did follow me to the bar.

  Casey gave me a strange stare and noticed my desperate look, "Hey hun." He gave me a kiss on the cheek. That I was not expecting but it didn't matter the creepy guy seemed to get the picture.

  Before creepy guy left however he turned to Casey, "Better keep that one on a leash."

  Casey offered two raised eyebrows in response then said to the guy as he pulled an arm around my waist, "Don't worry I don't plan on letting this one go." Then Casey did something more unexpected than the kiss on the cheek. He nuzzled his head at my neck and started kissing me.

  I in return ran a couple of fingers in his hair to make it appear that I was really comfortable with Casey nuzzling himself into my neck. The creepy guy seemed to buy that and left.

  Then Casey pulled away and to my chagrin his arm too. He chuckled to himself and then looked at me.

  "What the hell was that all about?" He asked with a smirk. He wasn't annoyed but he seemed genuinely curious.

  I rubbed my forehead, "Um, he followed me off the dance floor. I couldn't really take him anymore he was getting a little touchy feely." Casey nodded and looked down and up. If I didn't know better I would have discerned he was giving me a discreet once over.

  Then he said, "I wouldn't blame him in that outfit." Okay so I guess he wasn't trying to be that discreet.

  I may have blushed or maybe it was the alcohol but suddenly I felt hot.

  I rubbed my neck and tried to avoid eye contact.

  "What if I hadn't been here what would you have done then?"

  I shook my head, "I don't know try to avoid him the rest of the night."

  Casey looked past me real quick and back. I meant to look over my shoulder when I felt my body being lifted up and onto Casey. I looked over at Casey to ask him what he was doing when I felt his lips on mine. He didn't try to open my mouth with his tongue or anything but his lips felt urgent. I let him kiss me and then I was about to kiss him back was when he decided to pull away.

  I tried to look at him, "What was that for?" My voice sounded too weak and I was sick of it. I should have been disgusted that Casey had grabbed me in that way and kissed me. How dare he?

  Casey looked around, "Sorry your little friend was coming back."

  I nodded and started to pull myself off of him when Casey's arms pulled me tighter and closer to him, "Maybe it isn't such a good idea if you jump away from me like I'm fire because then he probably won't believe us."

  I nodded because he did have a point. Then it hit me, Casey kissed me. Granted it was for show but still he had done it. I licked my lips and tasted the strange alcohol on them. I looked at him peculiarly and realized he didn't look very good. What had he had to drink?

  "Casey?" I questioned him.

  He was turning his glass in one hand while holding me in another.

  He looked up somewhat dazed and flushed, "Yeah?" Why is it every time I spent anytime with this man he was already drunk? Okay the first couple of times no but always at the bar. He had become drunk very quickly and I didn't know why. It probably had to do with that freaky girlfriend of his.

  I pulled myself off of him and looked at him or up at him since he was on the bar stool. "Stay here," I began, "I'm going to get Jane and then we're taking you home."

  I ran off to find Jane grinding between two guys. Yeah I hated this kind of dancing and I hated interrupting it. I yelled to Jane and my face must have looked urgent because she pulled herself immediately off of the two guys and followed me back.

  "What's wrong?" She started to ask when she saw Casey who was now putting his head on the bar.

  "Oh, no, no, no," I took his arm and Jane took the other. Together we managed to get him back to my car.

  "Do you know where he lives?" Jane asked.

  I shook my head and stared at my drunken passenger, "Um no I'll call Brian."

  I pulled my phone out and prayed Brian would be awake.

  "Hello," I heard the groggy voice on the other side ask.

  "Hey Brian, it's Heather, I need to take Casey home how do I get there?"

  "Why are you with Casey?" Now he sounded more awake.

  I didn't feel like explaining now but it would be worse later when he was completely awake, "Me and Jane were at the bar and we saw Casey. Who is really drunk right now and I didn't want him to drive so we took him out to my car. Now how do I get him home?"

  Brian took my excuse for what it was, the truth, but for some reason I didn't think he saw it that way. He told me how to get him back home. Casey's house was actually a little further than Jane's. I decided to tak
e him home after her. Maybe he would be a little more sober when we got to his house.

  "Are you sure?" Jane asked. "What if he's too much to handle?"

  "Yeah, maybe," I glanced next to me. He seemed to be sleeping. "Let him sleep a bit and then help him to the door." I didn't want to tell Jane the other reason why I was taking him home after her. I didn't want her meeting his girlfriend. Figuring in someway he'd be less embarrassed or something I opted to take him home myself.