From Innocence to Arrogance

by Ezekiel King

  “Here you go, lads, and the girls said thank you. They are loving you two for buying us champagne, so thank you so much,” Holly said as she smiled and placed the two glasses down on her garden table. “Do you like the garden? The pond is my dad’s pride and joy,” Holly said as she stared into the distance that was her garden.

  “Why is the pond his pride and joy?” I asked without thinking. I could have slapped myself for speaking without thinking, especially to a girl as beautiful as Holly.

  “Oh, because he loves his… Coy Carp. I think that’s what they’re called; he collects them,” Holly explained as the breeze caught Holly’s hair and moved it back gently. She looked angelic, like a model; I had thought as I stared at her. “Anyway, guys, comeback inside when you have finished. It’s a bit cold out here for me,” Holly said as she turned to go back in through the glass doors.

  “Holly, you’ve got a text message, go inside and read it,” I said as confidently as I dared. Holly went back inside as Chris turned to face me.

  “You are funny, Cyrus,” Chris said as he looked at me in shock.

  “I want to know what she is going to say. If she don’t like me, I’m going to drown myself in that pond,” I joked as Chris finished his joint and laughed at me. We picked up our champagne flutes and made a toast; while in fact, I made a toast ‘to the finer things in life’ before we ‘clinked’ our crystal flutes together and took a big sip of our champagne.

  “Errr… Chris, why do rich people drink this shit… it’s too fizzy and taste too sharp,” I said in disgust.

  “I don’t know, probably because it’s expensive. We spent a £100 on it, so we might as well drink it,” Chris replied.

  “You can say that again!” I agreed.

  We got up from the garden chairs, ready to go back inside, when Chris’ phone ‘bleeped’. Chris took the phone out from his pocket. “Is it a text message?” I asked eagerly.

  “Yes, it’s a text from Holly,” Chris replied showing me the screen. We both peered at Chris’ phone screen as he pressed ‘read’ to open the message.

  “I like Cyrus; and my mate, Charlie, likes you, Chris,” we both read at the same time. I was ecstatic that she liked me. I was also happy that the little blondie with the green eyes liked Chris.

  “You jammy bastard, that Charlie is okay though, she’s cute,” Chris said as we walked back into the living room to join the three girls. When we got back inside, I felt nervous again. I wanted Holly to fancy me and not Chris, but now I knew she did it made me feel really nervous. I didn’t know what to do with myself. In through the doors leading back inside the house, I sat down at the glass table. One of the girls were sitting at the table texting or clicking something on her phone. I couldn’t help but think how beautiful Holly was; she was over the other side of the living room sat on the big corner piece sofa, talking to the short blonde girl that had let us in—her name was Charlie. I guessed they were talking about Chris and me; it was the little blonde one that Holly said liked Chris.

  “Chris, I might have a vodka and coke, mate; I’ll have some champagne later,” I said to Chris, purely to make conversation. I wanted to talk to Holly, but I didn’t know how to go about it.

  “Cyrus, drink the champagne. We have had a good month, and we are celebrating; plus we’ve got some gorgeous girls here,” Chris said as he leaned over to me so Daisy couldn’t hear a word of what he’d said. The girls had turned most of the lights off in the living room by the time we had come back into the house. The dimly lit living room, combined with the music playing in the background provided the perfect atmosphere. The short blonde girl got up from the sofa and walked towards me, leaving Holly sitting on the sofa alone. “Cyrus, do you want to go and speak to Holly?” Charlie asked.

  “Yes, of course,” I replied as I got up; holding my champagne flute and walked over to the sofa.

  “Hi, Holly,” I said as I sat down beside her.

  “Hi, Cyrus,” Holly said as our eyes met.

  “I’m so glad you didn’t say you liked Chris,” I said, thinking I should get that out there as quick as possible.

  “Really, Chris is lovely, but I don’t like him like that. When I saw you, I thought you are hot,” Holly explained confidently.

  I was flattered. “When I saw you when I came in, I thought the same about you; especially when I saw you shaking your bum in your little shorts,” I said flirtatiously. Holly giggled instantly.

  “I know. How embarrassing. Charlie didn’t even tell us that she was answering the door,” Holly explained.

  “Cyrus, you are a bit younger than me, aren’t you?” Holly asked. Shit, I thought to myself as I realised this could be a deal breaker. Think fast, I told myself.

  “What makes you say that? How old are you?” I asked as I tried to deflect her question as best I could.

  “It’s nothing bad, you’ve just got such a cute baby face that it makes you look young, but I can tell you are a bad boy! And I am 18,” Holly explained.

  “What makes you think that I am a bad boy?” I asked liking the fact she could tell I was different.

  “Well, you are wearing all designer clothes; and when you got rolling papers out of your pocket, you had a ridiculously huge pile of cash on you. I saw it when you took it out to get the rolling papers,” Holly explained.

  Holly and I sat talking for hours about everything from our families to school to close friends and about our dads. We seemed to get on so well, it was like we had known each other for years. We sat drinking champagne for the first hour until the bottle was empty. “You are really beautiful, Holly,” I had said before leaning in to kiss her. Holly’s lips were soft as I slid my tongue into her mouth as I held her by the back of her neck and slid my hand through the back of her thick, soft dark hair. We stopped kissing and sat back and smiled at each other—the attraction was mutual. Holly liked the chubby, mixed-race drug dealer, and I liked the well-spoken, curvy, tanned posh girl with the big tits and matching house.

  “Cyrus, I want to show you something,” Holly said as she got up and grabbed me by the hand. As I followed Holly, she led me back towards the front door that Chris and I had come in through. While getting up, I could see Chris and Charlie were sitting at the glass table talking. They both looked a little bit drunk and in deep conversation while he was rolling a joint. I followed sexy Holly towards the front door.

  “You have to take your trainers off,” Holly ordered as she started up the luxurious red staircase.

  “Shall I come with you?” I asked, just to make sure I had the right and of the stick. I had to pinch myself to make sure that this stunner actually wanted me to follow her upstairs.

  I felt like the cat with the cream as I followed Holly upstairs, eyes fixed on the back of her tiny shorts. At the top of the stairs, she turned and opened a door and switched the light on. The bedroom was fit for a king—a big king-sized bed that almost came up to my chest in height, a mirrored-wardrobe opposite the bed and big oak bedside tables with a big-screen TV suspended on the wall. “Come on,” Holly said as she walked through the room to open a door that was in the room to the left. I followed her in the room to find it was an en-suite bathroom with what must have been a five-person Jacuzzi in it. “Cyrus, I would have took you in the hot tub in the garden, but it’s not private enough with them downstairs. I want us to be alone,” Holly said as she started to kiss me again passionately. The bathroom was as big as my living room in my house. When I first looked into the en-suite, I could have just stood there and looked around, but Holly didn’t give me chance. “Cyrus, put the Jacuzzi on while I run downstairs. I’ll be back in a few minutes,” Holly said before leaving the room excitedly.

  I was left in the bathroom, feeling tipsy while staring around at the spotlessly clean, white-tiled room. The floor tiles were speckled with tiny pieces of gold. The bathroom had a walk-in shower at the back to the left that was enclosed behind big glass doors. In front of the shower was a toilet. Right of the door when entering the e
n-suite was the sink with a mirror above it, which had lights built into the frame. In the back of the room on the right was the giant tub that was the Jacuzzi. I walked over to the tub, leaned inside to push the chrome circle down that was a slightly raised drainage hole to make sure it would hold water I was about to put into it. Turning the first oversized tap, water gushed out into the tub, like a small power waterfall pounding the base of the tub. I checked the water temperature to see if it was warm.

  I heard Holly as she came through the bedroom, and I turned to greet her. She was holding a pink-coloured bottle of what looked like wine and two glasses. “I brought these up, so we can have a glass of rose together if you want?” Holly asked as she re-joined me in the bathroom.

  “Why not?” I replied. I was tipsy and in her house; it was the nicest house I had ever been in. I probably would have agreed to anything she would have suggested.

  “You didn’t put any bubble bath in there, did you, Cyrus?” Holly asked as she put the bottle and glasses on the side that housed the sink.

  “No, just water,” I answered, not quite sure why she’d asked. It did cross my mind to put some bubble bath in, but I didn’t want to start touching stuff. It seemed cheeky.

  “That’s good because if you put too much in, it will cover the whole of upstairs in bubbles when I turn the jets on. I wanted us to soak in the tub with a glass of wine, Cyrus,” Holly said as she switched the lights off in the bathroom, just leaving the light coming from the large frame around the mirror and open doorway.

  The room looked so romantic. Holly opened a bottle of some lavender bathing oil and poured some into the Jacuzzi which was now full. As I poured us a glass of wine each, Holly slid her shorts down to the floor. I couldn’t help but to watch as she took her shorts completely off and her small matching belly top to which left her standing there in her matching peach-coloured bra and thong. I was left lost for words. Her tanned skin looked so soft and firm, her hips were curvy, and her chest looked even bigger now that she had taken her top off. She put her hair to the side in front of her and climbed into the tub elegantly. “Cyrus, get in here with me,” Holly said softly. After giving Holly her glass of wine, I got undressed, leaving only my boxer shorts on. “Cyrus, have you got another pair of boxer shorts?” Holly asked as she saw me about to get into the hot tub in my underwear.

  “No, why?” I asked.

  “So, you will get them wet; you might as well take them off,” Holly suggested coolly—she had a point. Having wet boxer shorts when I got out the tub wouldn’t be the smartest thing I had ever done, so I took them off, covering myself slightly with my hands as I climb into the Jacuzzi. Now under the cover of the lavender-smelling water. Holly leaned across and pressed a button that made the hot tub start to vibrate quite fiercely. The powerful jets caused eruptions of bubbles on the surface of the water. This is the life, I thought as I looked across at Holly. The lighting in the room was perfect; it was dim and low-lit, so was the beautiful girl across from me. She had gorgeous eyes and hair and the most perfect smile. Being massaged by the powerful jets, Holly and I sat and spoke while drinking rose.

  “I could get used to this,” I said as I started to feel more relaxed.

  Chapter 10

  I awoke the following morning with a sore head from all the wine I had drunk the night before. I rolled over to see Holly was still asleep next to me in the giant queen-sized bed in the room we had come through to get to the Jacuzzi. I wondered where Chris was. The night before was a blur as my brain started to wake up properly. I remembered bits of what had been said between Holly and me. I had images in my head of what had happened before we had fallen asleep. I was in need of a glass of orange juice and some breakfast. I planned to find Chris and go for breakfast with him. The night before had been great, but today was another day.

  I hoped Chris’ uncle would buy the £20,000 worth of stolen cigarettes he had ordered. Also I hoped Jabber would buy the £10,000 worth if Jason had sorted it out with him. For me, that was better than anything. “Holly,” I said in a soft voice to wake her. Holly moved slightly and rubbed the side of her face. Clearly she had awoken with the same sore head and hangover that I had.

  “Good morning, Cyrus,” Holly said as she lifted her head from the pillow.

  “I’m going to go and find Chris. I’ll leave you to rest, okay?” I said as Holly put her head back down on the pillow. I found my clothes hung over the ottoman at the bottom of what I can only guess was her mum and dad’s bed. I put my clothes back on and started down the thickly carpeted staircase.

  I found Chris asleep on the big, black corner-piece sofa in the living room. He was spooning the blonde girl that had answered the door to us. The glass table in the back of the room was a mess; champagne flutes and empty bottles of vodka and coke scattered on top of it. “Chris, it’s time to get up, mate,” I said in a far-sterner voice than I had used to wake Holly. I nudged him by his shoulder to wake him. “Chris, get up, mate; we’ve got a big day today,” I said again in the same tone. Chris woke up, looking groggy. I watched as he scanned the room as I had not quite sure where he was.

  “Cyrus, what time is it?” Chris asked as he squinted and stretched. The girl in front of him was still sleeping as he got up, trying not to disturb her too much, which he didn’t achieve due to his size. She stirred slightly and clearly didn’t know what was going on.

  “Chris, let’s go, let’s go get breakfast and start work,” I said, keen to get the ball rolling in terms of business. Along with the sale of my stolen cigarettes, I also had to get a new batch of cannabis from Jason and his Uncle Jabber.

  My itinerary for the day meant that I did not have the time to be lounging around with the girls, regardless of how prestige they were. “Okay, let’s go, mate, is Holly still asleep?” Chris asked after making sure he had everything.

  “Yes, mate, I would be as well if I didn’t have so much to do,” I replied. Back in the car, we sat exchanging stories about the events of the night before. Chris told me he had an interesting night, but it wasn’t quite as interesting as mine. We laughed and joked about the finer details of our intimate encounters. I told Chris that after our Jacuzzi together, Holly had showed me her dad’s watch collection. He had solid gold Swiss, German and French watches, some of them were diamond encrusted, but all of them were pristine and housed within a case sitting on individual cushions. “He’s a senior aircraft engineer,” Holly had told me.

  We carried on talking about the night before, talking about possible future outings to Holly’s house over breakfast. Our topic of conversation changed to business quickly.

  “Ring your uncle, Chris, and see how much he wants to spend, so I can get the cigarettes ready,” I said as we finished our breakfasts. We were in a decent café near town, the type that has plastic tablecloths and middle-aged women with hairnets whizzing around the tables with full English breakfasts and tea and toast. It wasn’t a dump of a café, and the place was clean and tidy. I decided to call Jason even though I was sitting next to Chris. I figured he was still a little groggy from the night before; and I was going to be talking about cigarettes, not cannabis. Plus, Chris was busy trying to call his uncle. We both sat there with our phones pressed against our ears with empty breakfast plates in front of us and half-empty cups of tea. “Hi, mate,” I said as Jason answered his phone.

  “Are you okay, Cyrus?” Jason asked in reply.

  “Yes. I was just wondering if you have sorted the new stuff out. And if you have spoken to your Uncle Jabber about the cigarettes?” I asked speaking slightly mumbled and cupping the phone with my hand, so Chris couldn’t hear my every word.

  “Yes, it’s sorted, you can come and pick up your weed in the next hour, and my uncle wants £10,000 worth of cigarettes,” Jason said as though he had just remembered.

  Yes! I thought to myself.

  “Okay, I will bring them to yours when I come to pick up my stuff,” I said before hanging up the phone. I was already feeling giddy inside w
ith the morning’s productivity so far. I had only been awake an hour.

  “Cyrus, you better give me £2,000 because you love me, and I introduced you to Holly, because my uncle said he wants £20,000 worth of cigarettes at 2:00,” Chris said, now off the phone and smiling as he leaned back in his small wooden chair contentedly.

  Chris and I looked out of place in the café. We were still wearing our new designer jeans and T-shirts that were made by the same designers, but different colours and patterns. I still had my new jeans and trainers on. There were mainly old people in the café reading newspapers and drinking tea. I liked to go for breakfast whenever Chris and I were together early enough, which wasn’t often.

  Back in the car, we headed back towards our side of town.

  “Chris, drop me at mine. I’m going to get a shower; then I’ll have them cigarettes ready for your uncle for 2:00, and I will give you £2,250, not 2,500; we will meet in the middle,” I said as I smiled at Chris and puffed on my cigarette. It was at this time that I felt the first feelings of my standard of life improving. My skin felt soft and smelled of lavender. I felt well rested from sleeping in the quality of bed I had slept in. I didn’t feel hungry anymore as breakfasts had seen to that—I generally felt good within myself. My agenda for the day was to serve Chris’ uncle his batch of cigarettes, then Jabber his batch of cigarettes and pick up the cannabis and give it to Chris and Daniel. Then I planned to get an early night after working out how much money I had to the nearest pound.

  The weather was cool and windy for a summer’s day as I stepped out of Chris’ tiny car to go into my house. “Bye, mate, I’ll see you in about an hour,” I said as I peered in through the open door before closing it. “Back to normality,” I said to myself as I opened our poorly constructed back gate. The place looked small and depressing as I walked into our garden. I knocked on the back door by tapping on one of the nine pieces of glass in the top of the door. The door was wooden at the bottom and had individual square pieces of glass in the top. My brother, Daniel, answered the door.