Freeing (10 page)

Now here we are, driving together to Candace’s house. It’s important to me that he likes her because she’s such a big part of my life. But at the same time, I really hope she likes him because her opinion is important to me.

When I park the car, I look over at Mark, and he gives me a smile before he steps out. I take his hand and hold it as we walk up to the house. Opening the front door, I call out, “We’re here.”

As I start leading Mark through the living room, Candace walks in from the kitchen and gives me a warm hug.

When I back away, I introduce the two of them. “Mark, this is Candace.”

She smiles big when she turns to Mark. “Hey! It’s great to meet you. Come on in. We’re in the kitchen getting the food ready.”

Walking into the kitchen, Kimber is chowing down on a mouthful of chips when she says, “Hey, Jase.”

Shaking my head, I look at Mark then back at Kimber. “And this crazy girl is Kimber.”

“Nice to meet you guys,” Mark says with a grin.

The girls move around the kitchen and Kimber asks if one of us will start the grill for her.

“Yeah, I can do that,” Mark replies, and Kimber leads him out back as I stay inside with Candace, helping her get all the food to carry out.

“This is a nice place you have,” I hear Mark say to the girls as we walk outside.

Kimber flops down in a chair. “I suppose,” she says with a sigh.

“Please, just ignore her dramatics,” Candace tells Mark as Kimber just laughs. I know she loves trying to get reactions from people, and she is constantly cracking me up. If there is one thing about Kimber, she doesn’t give a shit what people think about her. I love her freedom. I’m jealous of it in a way.

“Hey, Jase, will you run inside and grab the case of beer that’s in the fridge and bring it out? There’s a cooler next to the door that already has ice in it,” Candace says.

“Sure.” I go into the kitchen to get the beers and when I walk back outside, Candace and Mark are chatting about school.

“What are you studying?” I hear her ask him.

Mark takes a swig of his beer and responds, “Same as Jase—Architecture.” She looks over at me and Mark adds, “That’s how we know each other.”

I smile at Mark as he continues to talk with Candace. I get up and walk over to the grill to cook the burgers. I keep turning my head to the two of them and love that they are having an easy time talking to one another.

“He’s really hot,” Kimber says as she steps next to me, nudging her arm against mine.

“Yeah, I know.”

I start taking the meat off the grill and then get a beer before sitting next to Kimber at the fire pit. I leave Mark with Candace since they seem pretty inseparable at the moment. Mark says something to her and she laughs out loud, tossing her head back as he starts to crack up as well. I have no idea what they are talking about, but seeing the two of them laughing like they are, makes me laugh too.

The afternoon passes quickly, and I spend most of it with Kimber, drinking and bullshitting around, all the while, watching Mark and Candace from across the backyard. They’ve been talking and laughing non-stop.

“Help me clean up?” I ask Kimber, and she rolls her eyes at me. “You are such a spoiled brat. Get off your lazy ass, and help me out.”

Sighing in exasperation, she says, “Fine.”

Candace and Mark join us in the kitchen after a while and we decide to call it a night.

Walking us to the door, she says, “It was so good to meet you, Mark.”

“Same here,” he responds.

She pulls him in for a hug and tells him, “You’re welcome anytime, and you don’t need Jase with you to stop by.”

I laugh and shake my head at her when she says this.

“Thanks,” he says.

Kimber yells her “goodbye” from the kitchen and we yell it right back. I grab Candace and give her a tight hug. She whispers softly in my ear, “He’s perfect.”

“I know,” I mumble quietly. I give her a chaste kiss and then head out. Walking to my car with Mark, he takes ahold of my hand and gives my neck a few pecks. We stop at the car and I kiss him. Seeing him so comfortable with my best friend, my only family, makes me happy, and I smile against his lips as we continue to share our slow kiss.

Mark whispers over my lips, “What’s so funny?”

I move back and look at him. “Nothing’s funny. I’m just happy.”

He wraps his arms around my waist and says, “Me too. I see why you love her so much. She’s great.”

“Yeah, she is. So are you.”

The smile that grows on his face is beautiful, so I take one last kiss before we get in the car and start driving back to my place. Since neither one of us has an early class tomorrow, Mark decides to stay the night.

After changing clothes and sliding into bed, Mark wraps his arm around me as I ask into the darkness, “Did you have fun today?”

“Yeah, I did,” he responds softly. “Thanks for introducing me to your friends. Did you know them before coming to Seattle?”

“No. I met Candace the first quarter I was here. We had a Gen. Ed. class together. I also had a Communications class with Kimber, but I never spoke to her until I found out she was Candace’s dorm mate.

“So what’s her story?” he questions. “She seems so different from you and Candace.”

Letting out a laugh, I tell him, “I don’t know where to begin with that chick. I’ve always found it odd that Candace is such good friends with her because they are so opposite.” I start laughing harder when I think back to our Communications class we had together freshman year. “Oh my God. You wouldn’t believe this speech she gave in that class we shared.”

“What?” Mark chuckles as I try to control my own laughter.

“We were assigned an informational presentation. We were free to choose our own topic, but we had to perform a demonstration. So she walks to the front of the class with a blow-up sex doll. No. Shit. Mark. Mouth open for a blowjob, big tits, sex doll!”

He’s now laughing just as hard as I am. “Are you serious?”

“No joke. She tried going for a sense of modesty by throwing one of her t-shirts over it. I swear, I was about to piss my pants when she laid that thing face down on the demonstration table and began giving that doll, with its ass all exposed, a thorough body massage. Everyone was cracking up, but she kept a straight face and proceeded as if she was giving some political speech.”

“What did your professor say?”

“Nothing. He just let her do her thing as if what she was doing was completely normal.”

“Oh my God,” he says as we both lie there in my dark room and laugh together.

“But that’s Kimber. She doesn’t care what people think about her, and she is totally unpredictable, whereas Candace is reserved, quiet for the most part, and extremely focused. The two of them are an odd combo.”

“So how do you fit in to that?”

Laughter aside, I roll over and lay my head on his chest. “I hang out with Kimber a lot, only because Candace rarely goes out, but we don’t have a deep friendship at all; more like buddies. It’s nothing close to what I have with Candace.”

“I don’t think many people have that. You’re lucky.”

“Yeah,” I whisper. “It’s a lot like what I had with my sister, well, except the physical stuff,” I joke. “But she gives me what Jace used to when I had her.”

I pull my head back and look Mark in the eyes when he says, “Tell me something about her.”

It’s always hard for me to talk about my sister, but I want to share her with him, so I take a hard swallow before I open up. “We were best friends. It was always like that with us. We did everything together. There was this one time, we were young, maybe ten or eleven,” I say and then pause when I feel the sadness well up in me along with the happiness. It’s a strange conflict of emotions that causes my throat to slightly constrict.

Shifting and tucking my bent arm under the side of my head, I continue, “We had dug up a pail of mud down at the creek that ran through the back of our neighborhood. Jace thought it would be funny to make mud pies and blow them up with firecrackers on one of our neighbor’s front porch. The lady that lived there was always crabby, so needless to say, we didn’t like her that much. Jace found one of the leftover boxes of Black Cats from the Fourth of July, and we set those suckers off.” I start laughing at the memory. “That shit was so loud, and there was mud flying everywhere. That crotchety, old woman opened her front door and Jace and I ran as fast as we could, laughing our asses off.”

“You guys sound like trouble,” Mark softly chuckles.

“We really were.”

“Did you guys get caught?”

“Yeah. Our mom made us go over and clean up the mess. We had to use toothpicks to poke out the mud that slung into the window screen. It was a bitch of mess, but so worth it.” My smile fades when the sadness takes over. I hate that memories are all that I am left with. “I miss her,” I breathe out.

Mark doesn’t speak, he just holds me tighter in his arms. I lie quiet for a while until I finally say, “But when I’m with Candace . . . she just makes it easier.”

“I wish I could have met your sister.”

Mark doesn’t say anything else and neither do I as we lie there holding each other. Sharing this part of myself with him is hard. It’s hard when I share it with Candace too. But it’s also nice, being able to talk about her. I don’t do it often, but she’s a big part of me, so giving that to Mark makes me feel closer to him. And I want that—the closeness.

We spent the night wrapped up in each other’s arms, and it was the most intimate thing I have ever done with someone. I know I’m completely falling for this guy.

Looking at him now, sleeping next to me, I lean over to kiss his bare shoulder. When I do, he begins to stir and wake up. I tangle my legs with his and pull him in tight.

“Morning,” he grumbles with his eyes closed.

I laugh and ask, “Coffee?”

“Please.”

I can tell this guy is not a morning person, so I give him time to wake up. I slip out of bed and go into the kitchen to start a pot of coffee. While it’s brewing I pick up my phone that’s lying on the counter and see I have a missed text from Candace.

Had fun last night. The three of us should hang out soon.

I start typing out a response when I hear, “God, who are you texting this early?”

I look up to see Mark as he strolls lazily into the kitchen and straight to me. “Just Candace,” I say as he wraps his arms around me. When he nips my jaw, I tell him, “Coffee’s ready.”

“Oh, good.” He grabs one of the mugs I’ve already gotten down and pours his cup, drinking it black. “I’ve got to head out soon. There are some errands I need to run before my eleven o’clock class.”

“Yeah, I have a ten o’clock Structures class.”

We go sit on the couch, and I drape my arm over him as he leans into me, kicking his feet up on the coffee table. I love that he feels relaxed with being here.

“So I was going to run by the Athletic Club to pay my deposit, if that’s cool with you.”

“Yeah, that’ll work. We should meet up Wednesday morning. It’s my long workout, so I’m there for a couple of hours and then run after.”

“Perfect. I don’t have any classes on Wednesdays, so I’m free.”

We spend the next half hour lying around and finishing off the pot of coffee before Mark heads out. I have a full load of classes today, so I quickly take a shower and get cleaned up before driving up to campus.

Walking into Candace’s bedroom, I hear the shower in the bathroom. Sitting at her desk, I decide to check my bank account to make sure the money from the bursar has been deposited. I’ve been able to get through college without help from my parents. I came here on an academic scholarship and have been able to qualify for several grants along the way.

“What are you doing?” I hear Candace ask from behind me.

Staring at the screen, I say, “Nothing really, just messing around. I just finished my last class and thought I’d come chill with you.”

I turn around and see her putting on her underwear and bra. “You going somewhere?”

“Yeah, there’s a party at Jack’s fraternity tonight, and he asked me to go.”

I can see that there isn’t an ounce of happiness behind her words. “You sound thrilled.”