“What did you think?” she asked.
“Um, you have nice taste in furniture?”
“Seriously David, do you like it?”
“Of course I do Trina. It's a nice place. You don’t need me to like it though. You have to like it.”
“I do like it. I love it,” she said smiling. Something about the way she said it though, made me wonder which one of us she was trying to convince.
Dinner went by ok. I just did my best to make conversation with Trina. Christopher joined in occasionally, so he at least pretended to be human, but I could tell he didn’t really want me there. I helped Trina clear the table while Christopher went and sat in the lounge room.
“Listen, I’m going to head off home,” I said, thumbing over my shoulder toward the door. Trina’s face fell a little as her mouth formed an ‘o’ but I could see Christopher was eager for me to leave.
“Are you sure you don’t want to stay for dessert?” she asked.
“Oh no, I bought that for you. You have it later or something. Thanks for dinner Chris, it was really nice,” I said, noting the twitch in Christopher’s jaw when I shortened his name. I know I shouldn’t have been goading him, but the guy’s a bit of a jerk.
I moved over to Trina to give her a kiss goodbye. “No, I’ll walk you down,” she said. Linking arms with me and walking quietly to my car. As I got to the driver’s door, she sighed. “You really don’t like him do you?” she asked.
“I’m sorry Trina, but no, I don’t.”
“He’s not always like that though.”
“I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t be with him if he was Trina.” I leaned in and kissed her cheek, before hugging her tightly. “I’ll see you at uni ok?”
“Sure,” she said, standing back as I got in my car.
“Go back inside, I’ll wait until you’re through the door,” I told her.
She nodded and ran back into the apartment building, waving at me before she stepped inside.
A couple of weeks later, we were studying for an exam, and Trina suggested we study at her place. I had planned to leave before Christopher got home, but we were so busy that I forgot to check the read out on my phone.
He was pretty pissed off when he arrived home and saw me there, but I tried to act normal and excuse myself soon after he arrived without looking like I was fleeing from the sight of him.
About ten minutes after he’d arrived, he came and sat at the table with us, swigging on a bottle of beer he’d gone and fetched for himself from the fridge.
“Couldn’t you have studied at the library or something?” he said, looking over all the books and papers we had spread out on the table.
“What’s wrong with studying here?” Trina asked. He simply shrugged in response.
I stood up and started gathering my things. “Don’t worry, I’ll go,” I said, trying to keep my calm while I packed everything into my backpack.
“No David. This is my place too. Christopher, why are you being so rude?”
“I don’t want him here,” he said plainly.
I huffed out my breath. “Listen mate. I don’t know what your problem with me is, but you’re going to have to deal with it. Trina and I have been friends since primary school, I’m not going away just because you say so.”
He rose up from his seat so he was towering above me. “My problem is that you go around, fucking a different girl every week and then come sniffing around mine. Don’t think that I don’t know what you’re doing. You’re just lying in wait until the moment she has a lapse in judgment and fucks you – then you’ll dump her too. She’s not yours David. She’s mine.”
“Dude, you are seven kinds of fucked up right now. You’re acting like I’m some kind of predator or something. If you think Katrina’s choice of friends is that poor, then I’d hate to think what the truth behind your intentions really are.”
“Don’t question my intentions,” he spat.
“I don’t need to. I already know. You think she’s some kind of prize that you’ve won. I see the way you talk to her. The way you order her around. She’s not going to just roll over and let you take over her life. She’s too smart for that.”
“Get out of my house.”
“You can’t kick me out when I was already fucking leaving.”
“Maybe not, but I can tell you to never come back. I don’t want you in my house, and I don’t want you around my woman.”
“That’s enough!” Katrina yelled. “Stop talking about me like I’m not even in the room. David is my friend Christopher, and this is my house too. If I want him here, he can be here.”
“He doesn’t come back, and that’s final!”
“Fuck you. I don’t even want to come back,” I said and stormed out of the room. I could hear yelling and carrying on going on behind me as I took off down the stairs, seriously annoyed that someone who claimed to love Katrina could disregard her friends so easily.
I put in a call to Monica and drove straight over to her house, hoping to lose myself between her legs for the night.
Monica lived in a share house about five minutes away from Trina’s apartment.
“Monica, your fuck buddy’s here!” her housemate Erica called out over her shoulder the moment she opened the door to me.
“Well, hello yourself,” I smiled.
“Hey, you know I love you Dave. I just like to tell it how it is,” she laughed.
“Yes you do.” I stepped inside just as Monica came bounding down the hallway and jumped into my arms, wrapping her legs around my waist.
“Needed a bit of a pick me up after the dinner huh?” she asked, grinning at me.
“You don’t know the half of it,” I said, walking us into her room and kicking the door closed behind us.
The moment we were on our own, she crashed her mouth into mine with a hunger that she always displayed in the bedroom, then broke away, grabbing at my shirt and leaning back, forcing me to drop her on the bed.
She sat on the edge and grinned at me, reaching out and pulling me closer by the waist of my pants.
Undoing the button and zip, she reached inside, rubbing at me to wake me up before she freed me.
“That’s more like it,” she purred. “Let’s see if we can take your mind off things.”
As her mouth closed around me, I closed my eyes, focusing on the wet warmth of her tongue as it danced along my shaft. I shut my mind off from what happened at Trina’s place and threaded my fingers into Monica’s hair as she worked her head back and fourth.
The sound of Trina’s ringtone, sliced through the room and jolted me out of my spiral toward ecstasy.
“Ignore it,” Monica purred, running her tongue around my tip, causing my eyes to roll back in my head.
The phone stopped singing momentarily, only to start up again seconds later.
“Monica,” I groaned pulling back from her and tucking myself away. “I’m sorry. She obviously needs me.”
“What about my needs David? I need you inside me. Why can’t she wait?”
“I’m sorry,” I repeated, grabbing my phone from my back pocket and leaving the room to answer it.
“David!” Trina’s voice called out the moment I connected the call.
“What’s up?” I asked, heading out the front door and back to my car.
“Come and get me David. I need to get out of here. Please come and get me.”
“Alright, I’ll be there soon.” We disconnected, and I turned back toward the house as I heard my name called.
“Are you seriously taking off on me?” Monica asked me.
“I’m sorry. She needs me.”
“You’re fucked up Dave. You’ve still got a fucking hard on from my mouth, and you're running off to help another girl.” I shifted on my feet uncomfortably as she continued to berate me. “You know what? I thought I could do this, but I can’t. I thought I was ok being the girl you screwed around with, but I’m not. I want more from you David, but I know I’m not going to
get it.”
“I’m sorry Monica. I can’t give you that,” I told her, genuinely feeling sorry that we had reached this point.
“Then don’t come back David. Find yourself another fuck buddy.” She then turned away from me and went back toward the house, her shoulders shaking from her sobs. I felt so horrible watching her cry and not doing anything about it, but I needed to go to Trina. I needed to make sure she was ok.
I drove back over to Trina’s. I don’t know what had happened in the ten minutes between the phone call and my return, but she was waiting outside for me, saying she had calmed down and was willing to stay.
“Seriously?”
“Yeah, I guess I was being a bit dramatic.”
“He just insinuated that I was trying to get inside your pants and banned me from your house.”
“I know. I’ll talk to him about it. He’s being ridiculous. I don’t know - he’s just getting really angry about stupid stuff lately. I'm not sure what’s gotten into him, he’s snapping over really little things. Maybe it’s just teething problems from living together.”
“Trina,” I sighed. “I don’t like the sound of this. Why don’t you just come and spend the night at my place? Talk to him in the morning when he’s calm.”
“No, it’s fine. I’m sorry I worried you,” she said and then went back inside. I looked up at the building and could see Christopher’s silhouette leaning against the edge of the balcony watching us. A shiver ran down my spine as my dislike for him grew even stronger.
Chapter Fifteen
After my altercation with Christopher when he banned me from his house, Trina had assured me that it wasn’t so anymore. She claimed to have spoken to him and told him that I was her best friend, and that she would have me over whenever she wanted to. I really wasn’t sure if she was telling me the truth, as each time she invited me over, Christopher was at work. But, I chose to overlook it as I wasn’t interested in hanging out with him anyway.
Since Monica and I were no more, I ended up resuming my old habits, going out to the uni bars and nightclubs with some friends. The only change now was that on Friday afternoons, I’d go to Trina’s, eat pizza and watch a movie with her before Christopher came home. It seemed to be the best way to still spend time together without the discomfort of me and Christopher in the same room.
“Oh my god! Why are you making me sit through this girly movie?” I complained as the couple on the screen struggled with their attraction to each other yet again.
Laughing at me, Trina answered, “Because it was my turn to pick – you made me sit through that horrible action movie last time, so consider us even.”
“Fine,” I grumbled. “But I need more beer to get through this, do you want one?”
Shaking her head no, she lifted her legs from my lap, so I could stand. I headed over to the fridge and took my sweet time. I wasn’t a huge fan of these girly movies, but I put up with them from time to time for the sake of my friendship.
Just as I untwisted the cap of my beer, I heard a key enter the door and click it open. “Ah shit,” I said under my breath, knowing this wasn’t going to be good.
I spun around and locked eyes with Trina, who looked white as a ghost. Suddenly, my heart started to thud loudly in my chest as I watched her start to fret. Her eyes darted from me to him as she swallowed hard and tried to speak.
“You’re early,” she pointed out, her voice all shaky as she flicked her worried gaze toward where I was standing in the kitchen.
Christopher followed her line of sight, his face darkening as he spotted me. I swallowed hard, sensing that the shit was about to hit the fan and placed my beer on the bench top and locked eyes with him in challenge.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Christopher bellowed at me. For a big guy, he was surprisingly fast. I literally had zero chance to respond before he marched towards me, planting the full force of his fist into the side of my face. Pain exploded through my sinuses and behind my eye, causing red and yellow lights to flash across my vision. I rocked back on my heels before I slowly fell.
“No!” Trina screamed, covering her mouth in horror as I dropped to the floor. “What are you doing, Christopher?! Get away from him!”
Her protests were futile. As I scrambled to get up, Christopher grabbed the back of my shirt and dragged me to the door, throwing me unceremoniously out into the hallway.
“Stay the fuck away for good this time!” he yelled before slamming the door and flicking the lock.
Sitting on the floor, I kicked at the door in frustration and gingerly touched the side of my face as it streamed blood from a cut on my cheek.
Suddenly, I heard Christopher bellow “You!”
My heart leapt into my throat as I jumped to my feet and pressed my ear against the door, suddenly scared for Trina. I could hear her protests through the door and started to jiggle the handle, knocking to get his attention away from her.
That’s when I heard a loud crash, and the horrible tinkling sound of broken glass hitting the floor. For a moment, the world seemed silent except for those sounds and the blood rushing through my ears. “Trina!” I yelled, punching at the door so hard that it started to splinter.
Desperately needing to get inside, I stepped back and kicked out, thankful that the door wasn’t solid when my foot went through. I ripped back the panelling until the hole was big enough for me to fit my arm. I scraped and cut my arm as I pushed it through the jagged hole until I could reach the knob and unlock the door.
All I could hear was Christopher yelling, but I couldn’t hear anything coming from Trina. I moved against the wall quickly but quietly, until they came into view.
Christopher had her on the floor and all I could see was blood all over her as he pulled at her clothes, yelling at her for being such a stupid bitch.
Thinking fast, I grabbed a heavy based frying pan as I passed the kitchen before rushing at him from behind, swinging the pan at the side of his head with enough force to knock him out.
Pushing his slumped body to the side, I did my best to cover Trina’s dignity before lifting her up gently. I got her out there as fast as I could. I don’t even remember her being heavy. I was so pumped up on adrenalin that she felt weightless in my arms.
I drove her to the hospital at emergency speed, dumping my car to the side of the emergency entrance, knowing full well there was a possibility of getting towed and rushed her inside.
“Please be okay Trina,” I begged as I carried her from the car toward the emergency room. “Don’t leave me Trina. I love you.”
Epilogue
“You can go in and see her now,” Mrs Mahoney says as she touches my shoulder to jolt me out of my thoughts.
“Is she awake? Is she ok?” I ask wide eyed.
“She’s awake, but she’s groggy. Come with me.”
I follow Mrs Mahoney along the corridor until we find Trina’s room. It has four beds in it, and Trina is in the one closest to the window at the end.
Mrs Mahoney pauses before opening the curtain for me. “I just want to warn you. She's pretty beat up.”
“Ok,” I say immediately, not really caring what she looks like. I only care that she’s going to be ok.
She steps aside. “I’ll leave you two alone,” she whispers.
I step through the curtain and get my first glimpse of her. Tears immediately spring to my eyes as I take in her swollen, bruised and bandaged face and body. “Trina,” I choke out.
“You look like shit,” she comments to me, her voice dry and scratchy sounding.
“Well, you look gorgeous baby girl,” I tell her, moving to sit down next to her and take her hand. “I am so so sorry Trina. I tried to get back in there as soon as I could.”
“It’s ok, you weren’t to know. None of us knew.”
We sit for a moment in silence. “The police came while I was in the waiting room.”
“What did you tell them?”
“What I saw.”
“Ar
e they going to arrest him?”
“I have no idea. They’ll probably want to talk to you first.”
“Hmmm,” is all she says.
“How do you feel?” I ask.
“About as good as you look,” she laughs before grimacing in pain.
“Do you need me to do anything for you?” I ask.
“Just don’t say I told you so.”
“Never Trina.” I reach up and gently stroke the hair on top of her head and press a soft kiss on her forehead. “Never.”
She closes her eyes and hums contentedly as I continue to caress her hair. “Thank you for saving me,” she whispers.
“Any time,” I tell her, sitting with her until she drifts off to sleep. As I look over her beaten body, I realise I’ve been kidding myself. While I’ve been trying to convince myself that I’m not boyfriend material, my feelings for Trina have only grown stronger.
Now I know. I am one-hundred-percent, to-the-moon-and-back-again in love with Katrina, and there is no point trying to deny it to myself any longer. Now my only fear is – does she feel the same way too?
***
When visiting hours are over at the hospital, I’m forced to return home and get some rest myself. Having the person you care about in the hospital is nothing like what they show in movies – you can’t just sit vigil in a chair beside their bed and sleep uncomfortably when you need to. The nurses don’t come by and go ‘Aw, he’s watching over her’. They come by and tell you to leave – no excuse, or they’ll have security escort you out.
In the long run, it’s best that I go home. I need to explain to my mum what has happened. I feel so bad when I walk through the door, because I know my mum is waiting for me, and I’m looking pretty bruised and beaten up, plus - I’m still wearing my bloodied shirt.
“Oh my God! David! What happened to you? Is Katrina ok?”
She rushes over to me and checks my face and hands, looking over me the way mother’s do to check that you are all in one piece.
The Beauty in Between: Too Close (A Beautiful Series Novella) Page 10
