Finally, after a series of calming breaths, Becky gathered the courage to take tentative steps towards the Goths. The other two who she didn’t know by name sat facing Kell. The three of them sat slumped over their coffee mugs, enraptured in deep conversation. Could she do this? Would they welcome her or simply ignore her?
Sensing a presence in their midst, the Goths slowly turned their eyes towards her. The despairing looks on their faces said it all. When they turned to look at who had dared approach them, she was greeted with expressions of varying levels of scepticism. She was definitely not welcome, she quickly surmised. Before she could open her mouth to make up an excuse, her eyes darted around the table, searching for a trace of recognition, at the very least from Kell.
The thing was, even he had such a baffled look on his face, that she lost all her nerve and bolted like a frightened bunny from the diner without a backwards glance.
The next day in life drawing class, Becky did her best to avoid Kell. Thankfully, he hadn’t attempted to talk to her about the less-than-flattering event.
***
Frustrated, Becky pulled the quilt up over her face. Putting the upsetting memory out of her mind was no easy feat. After tossing and turning quite a bit, Becky eventually did drift off to sleep.
Chapter 3
The next morning, Becky woke up to unfamiliar yet pleasant stirrings in the near distance. Slowly, the distinct smell of fresh coffee permeated through her still sleepy mind. Soon the sound of clinking plates and running water could be heard from somewhere within the house.
For a hazy moment, she believed that she was back in her granny’s home. Any minute now, there would come the soft padding of slippered footsteps in the hall, followed by a gentle tap on her door. Granny would then pop her head in to wake Becky up for breakfast!
It didn’t take long, though, for reality to come crashing through her pleasant musings. Reality, in the form of heavy masculine footsteps, followed by abrupt pounding on her door.
“Up, sleeping beauty,” hissed a none too pleasant voice. “Your audience awaits!”
***
“Did you really have to wake her so soon?” Kell asked with an exasperated sigh when Crispin appeared in the kitchen, looking quite self-righteous and ready for battle.
Ignoring him, Crispin sidled up to the kitchen counter and poured himself a cup of coffee. “You’d let her sleep all day, wouldn’t you?” He tossed his long dark mane over his shoulder.
“I just mean, it’s early yet. There’s no hurry. Besides, it’s Saturday,” Kell said with a frown as he casually flipped through the newspaper, and various flyers.
Crispin shrugged indifferently. “I just assume we get it over with. You know, get it done quickly and efficiently before things get… uncomfortable.” He then pulled up a chair, purposely dragging it across the floor.
“What are you talking about, Crisp?” Dorian cringed at the unnecessary sound, looking up from a flyer he had been studying.
“That’s what I’m talking about!” Crispin snapped, snatching the flyer away from him. “Bed, Bath and Beyond? Really, Dorian? Making long-term plans already?”
“What the freak, man?” Dorian scoffed, snatching it back.
“Settle down, guys,” Kell said, taking a deep calming breath.
“I will not settle down!” Crispin hissed, pointing his index finger at the mangled flyer, opened to a page displaying a set of the most un-Goth-like flowery bedding. “For fuck’s sake, Dorian is already picking out duvets for her.” He paused for a scowl of distaste. “Now see here, while you two dolts are obviously already smitten by this silly twit of a girl, I most certainly am not! I refuse to accept her. I will not have it! She cannot stay here!”
“Good morning,” Becky said quietly from the door, looking in at the men clothed in varying shades of black. She had just mustered up the courage to come downstairs, lured by the delicious aroma of freshly brewed coffee, something that had been severely lacking during her stay at the dorm, when she’d overheard them talking. In fact, she couldn’t have avoided it since Crispin’s melodious voice carried through the house like that of an opera singer.
Her first plan had been to turn around and go back upstairs, but what would be the point in that? To pretend she hadn’t heard him would be a fruitless endeavour. She may as well face the music.
“Well done, Crisp,” Dorian said sarcastically.
“Always the charmer, Crispin,” Kell muttered, leaning forward on the table, digging his hands through his hair in an effort to keep from strangling his insensitive housemate.
“Good morning, indeed,” Crispin said, ignoring the grumblings from around the table, turning his attention instead, to the very cause of his early morning rant.
He couldn’t help but flinch at the very sight of her. Granted, she did appear less-than-worthy of so much strife and upheaval, being so slight and puny in stature.
Look at her, standing there in her pink pyjamas. How dare she appear so… so vulnerable? That mousy shoulder length hair all tousled about. Eyes downturned, looking as sad as ever, lips all aquiver.
“Ready for your trial, little dormouse?” he hissed, snapping out of his unsettling thoughts.
“Trial?” Becky repeated, taken aback by the hostility in his voice.
“Come on, give the girl a break,” Dorian said, looking quite embarrassed. “At least, let her wake up properly before you attack her.”
“I’ll give her a break, all right,” Crisping spat. “Across my knee, I will!”
“That’s enough!” Kell shouted, shooting straight up from his chair. His abrupt reaction caused everyone to flinch, especially Becky who had to force herself from bolting from the room. She did not manage, though, to stop an involuntary whimper from escaping her throat.
“Shit,” he said with a frown, looking from her flustered face to his housemates. “Are you happy now, Crispin?”
“Don’t look at me. You’re the one who lost it!” Crispin said indignantly.
“Aw, come here, love,” Kell said, going to her side. “Let’s get you some coffee.”
Becky could only nod. After all, it was why she had come downstairs in the first place. She stood by as Kell reached into a cupboard and took out a mug, filling it to the brim with the heavenly scented brew. It had been so long since she’d had a good cup of coffee. The stuff back at the dorm couldn’t really be considered real coffee by anyone’s standards.
“There’s cream and sugar on the table.” He encouraged her to sit in the chair nearest his.
“I’ll get her some toast,” Dorian offered, needing to prove that he had nothing against her.
“Oh, here we go…” grumbled Crispin.
“Becky… my name is Becky,” she said with a tentative smile. “Thanks, that would be nice.”
“Of course, it is, Becky,” Dorian said with a playful wink.
“It’s raining awfully heavy,” she said absently, looking out through the window which faced the backyard.
“Let’s just hope you have an umbrella in that suitcase of yours,” Crispin said, pretending to read the newspaper.
“Quit being such a total dick,” Dorian scoffed, placing two slices of toast in front of Becky.
What had she done, she wondered, as she buttered her toast and took a bite. What could she have possibly done to upset Crispin so? Strangely, though, it didn’t bother her as much as it should. Any attention, even his ill-tempered kind was a welcome change from none at all. Sad really, no wonder there were so many cases of people with low self-esteem being suckered into joining cults and gangs.
“All I want is to rent the spare room,” she said after taking a soothing sip of coffee.
“All you want?” Crispin mocked, snapping his newspaper in half. “What about what I want? Which is you, gone from here! Doesn’t that count for anything?”
“I…” Becky gasped at a loss for words.
“Right then,” Kell said, squaring his shoulders, sitting back in his chair. �
��Since we’re getting nowhere here, why don’t we go ahead and vote on the matter?”
“Vote?” she repeated warily.
“Sounds like a plan,” Dorian agreed, pushing away from the table.
“Fine… let’s,” Crispin said, getting up and stalking into the living room.
Taking pity on the poor confused girl, Kell dropped a hand over hers. “Finish your toast first.”
“I couldn’t possibly now,” she said with a nervous frown.
The Trial
“Now then, shall we begin?” Kell said with a resolute sigh, taking a seat on the couch between his housemates, facing a very nervous Becky.
“What’s this all about?” she asked, sinking back into the oversized armchair.
The three pensive Goths sat staring at her with very different expressions on their handsome, gaunt faces. Expressions ranging from that of pity, guilt, and undeniable disdain. The latter belonging to Crispin, of course.
“It’s nothing really,” Dorian said, shuffling uncomfortably in his corner of the couch. “Think of it as an interview of sorts.”
“An interview,” she repeated. Well, that didn’t sound so unreasonable
“It’s a trial, Becky, on whether you’ll be allowed to move in here,” Kell explained softly.
“Yes, and it must come down to a unanimous vote,” Crispin piped in, crossing his arms defiantly. “You see, you’ve lost the battle already. Since I’ll never agree to let you stay. So you may as well pack up and leave.”
Just as he’d voiced his opinion, a loud crack of thunder literally shook the entire house. Relentless rain drops pelted the windows, and if that weren’t bad enough the lights flickered threateningly.
“Oh, my…” she gasped, cowering further into the chair. “Okay, how do we start?”
Kell cleared his throat and sat forward in his seat, resting his elbows on his knees, lacing his fingers together. “Why don’t we start by having you tell us a little about yourself?”
With an indifferent shrug from Crispin and an encouraging smile from Dorian, Becky began. “Well, okay… my name is Rebecca Sparks, but you may call me Becky. I’m a first year Fine Arts student at the University of Kingston. I’m new to this town, and I don’t really know my way around yet. I haven’t made any friends other than Kelley.” She paused, losing her nerve, realizing how utterly pathetic she must sound. “I don’t know what else to say.”
The three Goths could only stare at her, dumbfounded and at a loss for words. Crispin pretty much rolled his eyes while Dorian raised his pierced eyebrow contemplatively.
Kell nodded thoughtfully and then frowned. Was she serious? Or was this an act to gain their pity? Whatever it was, it was working on him, at least.
“Why do you want to live here, Rebecca?” Dorian asked, tilting his head. “I mean, you do realize that you’d be sharing a house with three guys, right?”
She frowned a bit and looked a little conflicted over the matter. It hadn’t really crossed her mind at the time, that it would be a problem. After all, there had been strange guys coming and going from the dorm all the time. At least here, with these guys, she figured they would eventually get used to each other.
“Call me Becky, please. Rebecca just sounds too formal,” she said with a reluctant smile. “As for your question, I guess I hadn’t really given it much thought. The fact is, I really just want to move out of the dorm. It’s not a very pleasant place to live. It’s very cold and impersonal. Besides, I felt a little unsafe over there,” she explained, looking pointedly at Kell.
The thought of her being unsafe curdled Kell’s insides terribly. To his credit, he remained mostly expressionless, except for the barely detectable twitch of his right eyebrow.
“Kelley seemed nice enough. When I noticed him putting up the ad in the student services office, I didn’t see the harm in giving him a call.”
Kell inwardly winced at the way she’d said his name. Kelley… No one ever called him that anymore. He was Kell. He was cold, hard, unapproachable and undeniably Goth. Yet somehow, coming from her, it sounded… right.
“Fine, Becky, I get that. But did you realize at the time, that you’d be sharing a house with the three of us? Surely you must have. It said so right in the ad,” Dorian explained with a worried frown. “Won’t that be… uncomfortable for you?”
“No, not really… should it?” she asked warily.
The three of them couldn’t help but chuckle and exchange knowing glances.
“Well, I should think so,” Crispin said, giving his head a quick shake, waving his hand over her in a dismissive manner. “I mean look at us… we’re Goth. You are not. You wear blue jeans and Hello Kitty pyjamas, for Pete’s sake. Besides, you’re a girl. How in the world do you believe this can work?”
“I don’t mind that you’re Goth. To be honest, I don’t see it as an issue.” She shrugged, glancing down at her pink pyjamas. Self-consciously shuffling in her seat, she unwittingly flipped up her shirt to better study it, inadvertently showing off a significant flash of belly button. “What’s wrong with Hello Kitty?”
Her innocence and obvious naivety cracked the three dumbfounded Goths up to the point where even Crispin had to leave the room for a moment to gather his wits.
“What’s so funny?” she asked with a wary smile, wanting in on the joke. It had been so long since she had a reason to laugh.
She was serious, wasn’t she? Kell couldn’t help but be fascinated by this girl’s total lack of awareness of how potentially dangerous a situation she could be putting herself in. Watching her sitting there in her silly PJs, so at ease with the three of them, three virtual strangers, he was suddenly glad that it was he whom she’d attached herself to. At least here with him, she’d be safe. From harm anyway. He suddenly cringed at the thought of her showing up on someone else’s doorstep.
Eventually, after he stopped laughing, Dorian continued. “Where do you come from, sweetheart? Your hometown, I mean.”
“Toronto…” she said wistfully.
“Toronto? So why then come all the way out here to Kingston? You could have gone to OCAD,” Kell commented, perplexed. He too, originated from Toronto, three years ago. At the time, he had been recently orphaned. With too many memories haunting him and having had enough of the big city scene, he applied to Kingston University. After being accepted, he had moved out here and bought this old Victorian home with his inheritance, hoping to rent it out to fellow students. Then along came Crispin, and Dorian.
Just the fact that they were curious about her reasons for being in Kingston, warmed Becky’s heart. Finally, here was someone who cared enough to ask.
“You’re right, it does sound odd. But you see, I received a very generous scholarship to attend Kingston University. In Toronto, I was living with my granny until recently when she had to sell her house. She’s getting older and more frail. Consequently, she needed to move into a retirement facility. She didn’t want me to feel obligated to take care of her. She wanted me to go off to college so that I could live my own life,” she frowned as she said the last part. “Gran often talks about her own college experience with such fond memories. I think she wanted me to have the same but…”
“But what? Don’t leave us hanging, love.” By now Kell was completely enraptured by her story.
“It’s not been that nice an experience for me,” she admitted with a frown. “It’s been… lonely.” She had to stop when her lips started to quiver.
“Dear God, this can’t be happening,” Crispin said, burying his face in his hands.
“Shut it, Crisp.” Dorian elbowed him in the ribs.
“Wow…” Kell raised his eyebrows, dragging his hands over his face. How in the world was he supposed to remain unaffected by such an admission?
Needing to voice her concerns, she stifled her emotions and continued. “I, uh… I don’t know my way around very well. I took a taxi here. I’ve already checked out of the dorm. I don’t have anywhere else to go. Please, just
let me stay here,” she begged, forcing her voice to remain stable.
“Now hold on just a minute, sweetheart,” Crispin snapped. “This little lost kitten act of yours will not work. It simply will not work!”
Averting her eyes from Crispin’s accusatory glare, Becky looked to Kell and Dorian for some form of support, but on their faces, she only saw expressions of turmoil and distress.
“I can pay you. I have money from my scholarship. I’ll simply redirect the funds. Please…”
“That’s not the point, love,” Kell finally said, inching forward on the couch. “It’s not merely about the rent. It’s about you living here with us.”
“I know that part already. I’ve told you it doesn’t bother me that you are Goths. There were lots of Goths in Toronto. I never had a problem with them.”
“You just don’t get it, do you?” Crispin gave his head a shake.
“Apparently not,” she agreed, frustrated. “Tell me then, why should it bother me?”
“Because it bothers me!” Crispin shouted, half lunging out of his seat, effectively scaring the living daylights out of Becky. Instead of interceding, Kell held Dorian back and allowed Crispin to voice his opinion. He had a right to, after all, that’s what this trial was all about.
“I don’t want you here,” Crispin lowered his voice to a menacing whisper. “Your very presence offends me. Everything about you reeks of the mundane. You represent everything I’m against. The only thing I might consider you worthy of is perhaps a lazy round of… vanilla sex.”
Becky flinched at his hurtful words. While not quite understanding the vanilla reference, the inflection in his voice was effective enough. Suddenly she realized just how uncomfortable she might feel, living here with the likes of him.
“Hey,” Kell growled, having heard enough. “You’ve crossed the line, Crispin.”
House of Goths Page 3