Friend-Zoned (18 page)

Nat and I have just walked
into our apartment after a long day’s work.
We stopped to get burgers on the way home. It was a burger kind of
day.
You know, the kind of day were psychopaths send you expensive
flower arrangements and your friend across the street ignores
you?
Yeah, that kind of day.
We enter and put our things down on the dining table. The only
light on in the house is the kitchen down light. We leave this on
so it looks like someone is home because we get home late some
nights. Like robbers don’t know people do
that.
You’re such a bright
bulb.
As soon as I step in to the
kitchen to flip the rest of the lights on, I freeze.
I can hear something in my bedroom. It sounds like shuffling
footsteps.
Anxiety chews at my gut.
Craptastic.
I stop Nat with a
hand on her arm, when she turns to look at my petrified face I
motion to my bedroom and put a finger over my mouth.
Immediately, her eyes widen and she listens. When she hears what I
hear, we have a silent conversation.
She makes a phone with her hand and puts it to her ear.
Let’s call the cops.
I point to my wrist in the universal sign of time and shake my
head.
No, it will take too long for them
to get here.
She puts her fists up in a boxing stance.
Should we fight them?
I use my
index and middle finger to point in both my eyes then wave my hand
around the room.
Sure, if we can find
something to fight with.
A thump comes from my bedroom and we both stiffen in fright. I grab
the closest thing to me. I don’t even look at it. It’s long and
thin. I see Nat grab an encyclopedia off my bookshelf and holds it
high over her head.
We tiptoe to my bedroom door holding hands. My heart is racing a
mile a minute. This is not Bear. I know Bear sounds.
We stand at the door with our weapons raised and wait. The door
opens.
It’s
on.
I reach behind my head with my
weapon and smack the tall person over the head repeatedly. Nat does
the same with her trusty encyclopedia. We do this while shrieking
our heads off.
The tall person has fallen backwards. I stand over them and
repeatedly hit them on the legs and chest with my long defensive
instrument as hard as I can. The man is yelling, “Ow, stop it!” and
“Fuck, Tina, quit hittin’ me!”
Wait.
Robbers don’t usually know the people they’re robbing, right?
I reach over with a shaking hand and flip on the light.
Max is on the floor in a fetal position moaning and groaning. He
has a bloody nose and busted lip.
I haven’t even noticed Nat has disappeared til I look behind me.
Ghost has her wrapped up in his arms, one hand over her mouth. And
get this. He looks like he wants to burst out laughing.
Of all things!
I want to hit him, so I do.
I reach over and smack him right over the head with my stick thing.
Which I now see is a mop.
He rubs his head and his body shakes with silent laughter. He says,
“What are you gonna do, clean me to death?”
Ghost releases Nat and we both crouch over Max. I’m can’t believe
we beat him up.
“Max, honey, are you okay?” I touch his face and he looks up at
me.
He must the worry in my eyes. He responds, “Fuck, am I proud of
you.”
Um,
what?
“What?” I don’t hide my
confusion.
Max whispers, “Didn’t even quit fighting. Not for a second. Balls
of steel, teeny Tina.” He smiles big revealing blood stained
teeth.
Oh, yeah. He’s left the
building.
I turn to Ghost and sigh,
“Can you get him on the sofa so I can clean him up?”
He smirks at Max but nods.
I go into the kitchen to retrieve my first aid kit when someone
knocks on the door.
Just
great.
I have two would-be breaking
and entering suspects in my house and one of them is bloody and
bruised.
I hear Nat opens the door and Molly steps inside. She looks at
Ghost then Max and says, “Sounds like a party I wasn’t invited
to.”
I rest my forearms on the kitchen counter, lean forward and chuckle
“I’m so sorry about the yelling, Molly. I hope we didn’t wake
you.”
She takes in my exhausted appearance and tuts, “Child, you need to
sit yourself down before you fall asleep standin’ up. Let Molly
make you a tea and fix the boy up.”
I take her hand in mine and kiss it. I quietly say, “Thanks, Miss
Molly.”
Molly makes tea for me and Nat. Ghost declined and she brought Max
a glass of water and some aspirin. She takes her time cleaning
Max’s wounds with peroxide. And when he doesn’t flinch she pats his
cheek and tells him, “You earned yourself some cupcakes, young
man.”
Max smiles and splits his lip again. He turns to me and says, “Hear
that, Tina. Molly says I get cupcakes.”
I chuckle as Molly takes her leave. I hug her for a long
time.
Best neighbor
ever.
As soon as I shut the door I
point a finger to Ghost. “Explain.”
Ghost leans back on the sofa and shrugs, “Nik wanted you protected
so we came to see how secure your apartment is.” He points to
himself. “And here we are. Inside your apartment. So, it’s safe to
say it’s not so secure.” He looks at Max and says, “I didn’t want
Max to come but he insisted.” He looks at me and smirks “And you
beat him up.”
I feel panic swell in my gut.
Oh, Nik is going to kill me. I beat up his brother. Who is now
slightly loopy on my sofa.
I fall into a dining chair with my shoulders slumped.
Today has not been a good day.
I cover my face with my hands. Ghost starts to talk again, “Listen,
I’ve taken note of everything you need for your place to be
secured. I’ll get all the stuff tomorrow and install it during the
day. When you get home tomorrow night, I’ll be waiting for you to
show you how to use it.” He squeezes my knee, I remove my hands
from my face and open my eyes. He says softly, “You don’t want to
fuck with Omarr. He’s unpredictable. We’re just taking precautions.
If today went as planned, you won’t ever hear from him again. But
we’re not taking the risk. He’s taken a liking to you, Tina.”
Nat reaches over to take my hand and says rasps, “That sucks,
babe.”
I lower my head and nod. I say dejectedly, “Okay. When you find out
how much the security stuff costs just sent an invoice over to the
store and I’ll pay for it.”
His eyes narrow and he tilts his head. He looks at me for a few
seconds then shakes his head softly and orders, “Okay, so get your
shit. We’re leaving.”
Excuse
me?
“Excuse me?” I reply.
He glares and repeats slowly, “Get. Your. Shit. You aren’t staying
here tonight.”
I don’t know what to do about this. I don’t want to stay anywhere
else. This is
my
apartment!
So I say the first stupid thing that comes to my mind. “But I have
a cat!”
Ghost looks to Bear who is sitting on Max’s lap staring stupidly at
him. Max is staring stupidly right back at Bear.
He asks patiently, “Do you have a cage for your beast?”
I nod.
He nods right back as if to say
I don’t
see what the problem is.
Nat squeezes my hand and I look up at her. She gifts me a
sympathetic smile. I’ll go. For her.
I sigh and say quietly, “Okay, let me pack some things.”
Nat stands to walk with me and puts an arm around my waist. It’s
not a big gesture but the significance is great. She’ll be my
crutch when I need help standing. I always have her care and
support.
We each pack a bag, I pop Bear in his cage, and then we’re
off.
***

I just assumed Ghost would
take us to a hotel.
I definitely was not expecting to find myself at Nik’s for a
sleepover.
As soon as we enter the house, a smiling Ceecee comes over to see
us and I panic.
OH SHIT! I BEAT UP
HER DAD!
She takes one look at
daddy-o and her face crumples. Max quickly walks over to her,
kneels, and asks “Would you believe me if I told you Tina did this
to me?”
WHAT THE FRICK,
MAX?!?
I’m absolutely devastated that
he would throw me under the bus like that. My heart pounds and my
neck heats with nervousness. I
love
Ceecee. Now she’ll hate me.
I’m shocked when Ceecee narrows her eyes at her father and puts her
hands on her hips and asks warily, “What did you do to Tina?”
Max chuckles and shakes his head as he says “Daddy was very silly.
I went into Tina’s house without asking and she thought I was a bad
person trying to take things.”
I’m even more shocked when a now frowning Ceecee comes over to me
and hugs me one handed around the waist. She looks up at me and
says, “You must’ve been really scared, Tina.” She scowls at her
father and sternly commands, “Don’t ever do that again daddy, she
must’ve been really scared!”
Bless
her!
Max looks properly chastened and
says, “Believe me, sweetie. Never again. I might lose a leg next
time.”
I look down at her concerned face and smile, “I was really scared,
angel. And I’m really sorry I hit your dad. I thought I was
protecting myself. If I knew it was your dad, I would’ve never hit
him.”
She smiles up at me before looking past me and squealing, “IS THAT
A KITTY?!”
I chuckle at her enthusiasm. I make introductions. “Ceecee meet
Bear. He loves hugs so you better cuddle him well, okay?”
Ghost opens the cage and Nat takes Bear out and puts him on the
ground. Bear strolls right up to Ceecee’s chair, looks up at her
and meows.
I realize he hasn’t had his dinner yet so I open my bag to pull out
a few cans of wet food, hand them to Ceecee and say, “You think you
can feed him, honey?”
She looks up at me with a face full of awe; you’d think I just told
her we were taking a trip to Never Land.
She whispers, “Really?”
I act as casual as possible. I toss my arms up in a forget-about-it
motion and say, “Oh yeah, he’ll love you forever if you feed
him.”
Just as I finish saying this Bear hops onto Ceecee’s lap, purrs
loudly and rubs his cheeks on the cans of food in her hand. She
looks up at me and smiles so beautifully. You can’t buy happiness
like that. Bear is going to be well loved tonight.
Ceecee rolls her way over to the kitchen and Ghost motions for Nat
and I to follow him.
Ghost opens the first door on the left hand side of the hallway. He
escorts me in and I look around. It’s a beautiful guest bedroom.
The walls are a rich burgundy color, it has a black feature wall
behind the huge sleigh king bed on the right hand side of the room.
There is a built in wardrobe on the left side. Long burgundy
curtains cover the whole opposite side of the wall. There are
framed tasteful prints around the walls and a door in the top left
hand corner. Ghost points to it. “Shower.”
I nod. Great, I really need a shower. Badly.
They leave me and I shut the door. I’m so tired I could fall asleep
standing up. I force myself to snap out of it, taking my underwear
and pajamas from my bag and head to the shower.
It’s a neat bathroom. Everything is in its place and there is
decent soap and shampoo in the shower. It’s all manly fragranced,
though.
I turn on the shower to hot. I want it to scorch my skin. I like my
showers blistering hot. It makes me feel clean. I undress, hop in,
and wash my body and hair in record time. I only sang ‘Working 9 to
5’ once. That’s how I know.
I wrap my hair in a towel and put my clothes on. I love my pajamas.
They’re a tank and short shorts combo, silky satin and the color of
copper.
I take my hair down, brush it and dry it with a hairdryer I found
in the one of the drawers. And I’m finally ready to sleep.
I walk out of the bathroom over to the bed and face plant.
***

I come home from the club
pretty late tonight.
I walk into my bedroom and see Tina face down spread eagle on my
bed. I’d recognize that ass anywhere. Her shorts are so short I can
see the swell of her butt cheeks.
I actually turned around and looked at the doorway to my
room.
Am I in the right
house?
I go back out as quietly as I
can and find Ghost. He tells me Tina’s apartment isn’t secure so he
brought Nat and Tina here.
He tells me Nat is sleeping in Max’s room and he’ll share with Max
because he’s concussed and needs to be woken every hour
tonight.
What the
hell?
I ask what happened and Ghost
tells me that Nat and Tina went all Rambo on him. Tina beat the
shit out of Max with a mop. I actually burst into laughter.
Ghost tells me Tina’s cat is somewhere in the house, most likely in
bed with Ceecee. And that he put Tina in my room because I wasn’t
home at the time.
I call bullshit.
I think my friend is playing matchmaker.
I bid him goodnight, go back to my room and take in Tina’s sleeping
form.
My fantasies are coming to life right before me. If only she would
lift her head and invite me over. This is slightly awkward. I
usually sleep naked. I probably shouldn’t tonight
though.
Perhaps she won’t
mind.
Nope. Not a good idea.
I go into the bathroom and shower quickly. I walk back into my room
naked and think about what I can wear to bed. I don’t wear
underwear a lot of the time but I do have some boxers
somewhere.
After searching the drawers for a few minutes I find some plain
black silky boxers.
They’ll do.
I walk over to the bed, pick Tina up, pull back the covers and
settle us both in. She doesn’t even stir.
Poor baby. So tired.
I pull her
body back into mine so her back is firmly joined with my chest. I
put my arms around her waist, push my knees into the back of hers
and inhale the scent of her hair. She smells like me.
I like that.
I like that Tina is in my bed with me and we haven’t had sex. It’s
more than that with her. I want to be her protector and the one who
she comes to with her problems.
She feels so good against me. So soft and lush. I could get used to
this.
Contentment washes over me.
I smile into her hair, inhale once more, and fall into a peaceful
sleep.