The Birds and the Bees

I let myself into the house and dumped my bag in the entryway, staggering down the hall and into the living room. Spotting one of the couches first, I collapsed onto the plush leather cushions and curled up into a ball. The cool material soothed my face as I breathed in the leathery scent. I sighed with exhaustion and relief and closed my eyes. I had never been so happy to be home. And it had nothing to do with Riley being here either. As far as first days went, this one nabbed a spot in the Top Ten Worst Days of My School Life list. What a complete disaster. One bad thing after another. And it hadn’t ended with Tyson‘s front row seat to my collision with the door. No, fate had to drop one last bomb before deciding I’d had enough.
After my embarrassing little mishap, I’d thought things could only go up from there. So imagine my surprise and dismay at finding a navy blue Honda Civic parked over my truck in the school parking lot. Then imagine my outrage at finding the owner to said Honda Civic leaning casually against the drivers side door, examining his fingernails. He looked up when he heard my approach. Yes, I tended to stomp when I got so angry steam should’ve been coming out my ears. A smile broke out over his face; he was oblivious to my foul mood.
“Hey, baby,” Aidan said as I approached his car.
I clenched my teeth, the air hissing out between them as I exhaled forcefully. Keep calm, deep breaths, I chanted over and over in my mind. We were still on school property and therefore school rules still applied. Violence was prohibited, no matter how warranted it might be. Keeping calm was key.
“Aidan, what the hell do you think you’re doing?” I screamed at him once we were a few feet apart. The smile fell from his face as the first signs of anger began to cloud his features. Well, so much for keeping calm. My raised voice had roused the attention of several students who were lingering in the parking lot, crowded around cars. Heads swivelled and honed in on the two of us, clearly eager to witness the fight they could see coming.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I repeated, lowering my voice considerably. “Why is your car blocking my truck?” I asked.
“You didn‘t give me much choice, did you Noah?” he accused. “You don’t return my calls. Ignore my texts. Blew me off in class today. I figured if you couldn’t blitz out of here as soon as you saw me, you’d have to stay and talk.”
“Talk?” I said, patience fast deserting me. “You want to talk? Well that’s just too damn bad, Aidan. I’m done talking. I have nothing left to say to you. Now move your car.”
I stepped sideways to manoeuvre around his car, fishing my keys out of my bag as I went. I had just rounded the front bumper when a hand shot out and grasped my upper arm, dragging me back. Aidan’s eyes burned with fury, his nostrils flared. I’d seen this look once before. It had flashed across his face when he accused me of liking some other guy all that time ago. Right before he pushed me into the window.
“You’re not going anywhere until we’ve sorted this out,” he said, his grip tightening. A flutter of fear danced through my chest. I didn’t like this side of him. It drew out the fight or flight instinct in me. And right now it was telling me to hightail it out of there.
“Aidan, let go. You’re hurting my arm,” I said, trying to twist out of his grip. It tightened more and I winced from the pain of it.
“Seriously,” I said, fear being replaced by reckless anger when he failed to comply. “There’s nothing to talk about. I’ve told you already. It’s over. I don’t like you anymore.”
Wrong thing to say to someone who’s got a death grip on your arm. His hand tightened yet again as his teeth clenched together and I had to stamp down a yelp.
“There’s someone else isn’t there?” He spoke so quietly I had to strain to hear him, even as close as we were.
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at him. Same old Aidan. “No. There’s nobody else. And there’s no you. There’s just me. And me is going now, so let go.”
I squared my shoulders and met his angry stare. I noticed we’d drawn the attention of a few more students passing by. They’d slowed their pace to a snail’s crawl, hoping to catch some action. Seemed the tension in the air was growing tangible. When Aidan refused to budge or loosen his grip, I lost my last shred of patience. I let out a low pitched growl and yanked my arm savagely. Unfortunately, he let go at the same time and I staggered backwards into something hard. Whipping around, I had an apology on the tip of my tongue when I saw who it was.
“Courtney!” I cried out, equal parts surprised and relieved.
Courtney reached out a hand to steady me, but her eyes were zeroed in on Aidan. So that’s why he had let go suddenly. He’d seen her coming.
“Toad,” she addressed him. “What did I tell you about staying away from Noah?”
Aidan sneered at Courtney. “This is none of your business, hoe. Now keep walking. I’m trying to sort something out with my girlfriend.”
Courtney glanced at me questioningly and I shook my head, rubbing my arm vigorously where Aidan had pretty much cut off the circulation.
“Sorry, Toad. Can’t do that. Noah’s my ride home.” She gave Aidan’s car a disdainful look. “So move your hunk of s**t out of the way. It’s an eyesore.”
Aidan lifted his chin defiantly and leaned back on his car, arms folded across his chest.
A stand off? Was he really just going to sit there until he got his way. I shook my head in despair. Unbelievable. I guess I could call a tow truck and have his car removed that way. I turned to say this to Courtney but stopped short at the mischievous half-smile on her face. Oh, God. What crazy scheme was she thinking up now?
“You‘ve got insurance, right No?” she asked.
“Uh, yep.” My mind raced to find out where this was going. Why would I need insurance? What was she about to do?
“Good.” She took the keys from me and marched over to my truck, unlocking it and getting in. Aidan’s cocky expression faltered.
“What does she think she’s doing?” he asked.
That’s what I wanted to know. Surely she wasn’t going to drive over Aidan’s car.
Courtney popped her head out the window. “Move it or lose it, moron,” she said, revving the truck’s V8 engine.
Aidan scoffed, trying to call her bluff, but I wasn‘t sure there was a bluff to call. Which was why I scrambled well out of the way, and had he been smart he would have followed suit.
Did he not know that Courtney Keller was one step this side of crazy? I watched as Courtney tapped the pedal with her foot and my truck lurched back, stopping less than an inch from the side of Aidan’s car. He let loose a yelp and jumped away from it.
“Are you crazy?” he screamed at her.
“You have no idea,” she shot back. “Last chance. Move it, or I’ll run it over.”
Maybe it was the evil grin on her face, or the sight of my huge Dodge Ram dwarfing his Honda, or the fact that Courtney was revving the engine again. Whatever it was, it was enough to get Aidan’s a*s into gear. He dove for his car, jamming his foot in the door in his haste to get in and get it out of harms way. I heard a string of curses as he fumbled with the key in the ignition. A moment later his little car rumbled to life and he shot it forwards to safety. Opting to slow down rather than brake, he wound down his window and stuck his head out.
“We’re not done yet,” he said to me. “We’ll finish this later.”
Then there was only the squeal of tyres as he peeled out of the parking lot.
Now as I lay here on the couch, I couldn’t help but wonder what that meant. We’ll finish this later. Finish as in he’ll finally accept that we’re over and move on? I sighed wearily. I highly doubted that. Great. On top of Serena wanting payback and Tyson’s unnerving presence, I could add my ex boyfriend turned stalker to my list of problems. Was this merely a taste of what the rest of the year was going to be like? If so, I probably wasn’t going to survive it.
Riley’s footsteps on the stairs alerted me to his presence but I couldn’t be bothered getting up to say hello.
“No?” he called for me from the hallway.
I grunted loudly in response.
He chuckled, and I heard his footsteps draw closer until I could see him out of the corner of my eye.
“Wow,” he said, taking in the sight of me. I admit I must have looked rather peculiar bunched up on the two seater, clothes twisted and hair in my eyes.
I let out another grunt and he laughed some more. I noticed that during the course of the day he’d shed his 5 o’clock shadow and ditched his suit in favour of a pair of denim cut-offs and a black singlet. How weird. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen him out of a suit. He looked younger. Less intimidating. I squinted at his bare legs, which were at my eye level.
“When was the last time your legs saw the sun?” I muttered. More laughter from Riley. I made a half-hearted attempt to rid myself of my shoes without using my hands, which were trapped beneath my body. One fell off and hit the floor while the other one hung precariously, caught on my toes. Riley snatched it off my foot and dropped it with the other one. He then picked up my legs and sat beneath them, laying them out across his lap.
“I’m afraid to say it, but uh, how was school?” he asked, peeling my socks off.
I wriggled around until I was on my back and stared at the ceiling. “Great,” I said, my tone flat. “But you know, I was thinking about those new companies. Why don’t we just move to Japan?”
“Uh, well, because first of all, the project is in China. And second of all, wouldn’t you miss all of your friends here?”
I let out a derisive snort at that. “All of my friends? Lets see, there’s Courts. And then there’s Courts. Oh, and I almost forgot one: Courts.”
“Come on. I’m sure you have a lot of friends.”
I shook my head slightly. “Oh, I guess you could count my ex boyfriend since he’s practically stalking me now. Do stalkers count?” I asked. But it seemed Riley had stopped absorbing information at the word boyfriend. His body jerked like it’d been shocked and his breath caught in his throat.
“You have a boyfriend?” he sputtered, looking at me like he‘d never seen me before.
“Had,” I corrected. And what was the big deal? I added silently.
Riley lost all semblance of speech, his mouth flapping open and shut. I could see a flurry of emotions warring for dominance over his face before he settled on disbelief. I nudged him with my foot.
“Jeez, relax. I’m almost eighteen. It’s not that unusual that a girl my age would want to date.”
“Yes,” Riley said, recovering slightly. “It’s just that you’ve never mentioned a boyfriend before. Ever.”
I thought about it. He was right. When he was away on business our few conversations were limited to the essentials: How are you, still breathing? House still in tact? Truck still in one piece? Haven’t broken any laws? Good, good, check back in later. Heck, we mostly communicated through voice messages. And when he was here, we spent the time falling over each other trying to keep the mood light and happy. Our time together was always too short for our talks to turn to more serious topics. I think we both feared getting into an argument and him leaving again on bad terms. It always seemed easier to stick to neutral ground. And while I’d been on a few dates, Aidan had been my first official boyfriend. I had wanted to tell Riley, but could never find the right time to steer it into one of our short talks. It wasn’t one of those things you just threw out there after commenting on the weather. “Hey, Ry, how’s the weather? That’s great. By the way, I have a boyfriend now. How’s work?” Yeah, not smooth at all. Although seeing as it didn‘t work out between me and Aidan, I’m glad I kept it to myself.
“Well you’ve never asked,” is what I settled on saying.
He nodded his head, lost in thought, but stopped abruptly as something struck him. “God, you don’t bring them back here to,” he looked meaningfully at me. “You know.”
“What?” I said, incredulous. “No. Ew. And what do your mean, “them”? It’s not like I have a harem of guys panting after me everywhere I go.”
“Of course not,” Riley rushed to say. “But when I’m not here it’s just you,” he finished, looking at me pointedly. I stared back blankly, not quite getting it.
“Alone,” he clarified. “By yourself. No supervision. Am I making any headway here, No?”
The light bulb went off in my head as I realised he was hinting that lonely meant seeking out company which usually meant company of the opposite sex. I kicked at him with my foot.
“God, Riley! Just because you’re not here doesn’t mean I jump at the chance to abuse your trust and automatically start prowling the streets for someone to satisfy my raging teenage hormones.” I put up my hand to cut off what he was about to say. “Not that I have raging teenage hormones.” I pointed to myself. “This lonely girl is still a virgin, and I plan on keeping it that way for a little while longer.” The moment I said it my cheeks and the tips of my ears burned red. Had I just informed my brother of my sexual status?
“Oh,” Riley said, suddenly looking a bit uncomfortable. He cleared his throat and looked at the ceiling. “Good for you.” He gave my foot an awkward pat.
After a moments awkward silence, he spoke. “Do we need to have the talk about the birds and the bees?” He cringed as he said it.
I clamped my hands over my ears and started wailing before he could say anything else, and kicked at him with my legs. Call it a childish response but I did not want to be having this conversation with my older brother of all people. What we’d covered already was enough to make me want to seek out therapy for the foreseeable future. If he started with the birds and the bees I’d need therapy for the rest of my life.
“Okay already, I get it,” he said, holding my legs down.
I only stopped making noise because I’d run out of air and was inhaling for round two.
“Fine, we won’t go there. But is there anyone you want to -”
I cut him off before he could finish, more than eager to put this embarrassing subject behind us. “Mom already had the talk with me, like five years ago, so I’m all set. For life,” I added firmly.
“Great,” Riley said, and by the look of relief on his face he was even more glad than I was to be staring away from dangerous territory. Any talk of sex with his baby sister had him flustered and tongue tied. I remembered not long after our parents had passed away I’d gotten my first period. I was a late bloomer at thirteen. Riley had almost fainted when I’d asked him to run to the store and get me something. But he’d gone out and come home in record time, shoving a huge grocery store bag through the crack in the bathroom door. I’d peeked inside to find one of probably every single feminine product stocked on the shelves at the supermarket. There was enough in there for over a years supply. I could only imagine what it looked like to see a twenty one year old male frantically grabbing women’s hygiene products off the shelf and rushing for a checkout.
“Tell you what,” he said, rousing me from my thoughts. “There’s a tub of Ben & Jerry’s in the freezer. I’ll order in Chinese and we can just camp out in the lounge and watch movies all night.”
I gave him a sceptical look. “Really?” I asked. “You’re not too busy?”
He opened his mouth to answer, but as if on cue, his cell phone began to emit a tinny rendition of Jessie J’s Price Tag. I waited for the inevitable response: Phone to ear, Noah on backburner. But to my shock Riley didn’t even glance at the display. He simply turned it off and buried it under the couch cushion.
“What?” he said, looking at my disbelieving expression. “If it’s important, they’ll leave a message. Just remind me where that is later.”
With that, he got up off the couch in search of the house phone and our stack of take out menus.
“What do you want?” he called over his shoulder.
“One of everything,” I called back.
I stretched on the couch and felt a smile begin to creep over my lips. I inhaled long and deep, willing the days stress and tension out of my body. A feeling of contentment washed over me as I relaxed fully for the first time that day. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe things weren’t so dire and today was just a one off. I could only hope as I pushed off the couch in search of that tub of Ben & Jerry’s. Because lets face it, there’s nothing like desert before dinner.