by Sasha Pop
Jess couldn’t bring herself to hate Marta as she knew the root of these issues very well (after all it was on her shoulder that Marta went crying whenever she was grounded), especially after all they had been through throughout the years. She just learned to create a sort of invisible, impenetrable barrier, and never to trust others that much again.
“Hey Marta, how are you?” Jessica asked, and not waiting for a reply, quickly added “I am sorry, I have to go, Bob is waiting for me…we will catch up later, ok?”
Not noticing the slight hint of disappointment in Marta’s eyes, Jessica turned around and continued on her way. The “jock” dorm, as the student population liked to call it was just around the corner. Jessica really disliked walking through the main door, as Bob’s room was all the way at the end of the corridor, and she had to deal with all the giggles and glances that the residents would constantly throw at her, even after several months of regular visits. Plus, it also really didn’t help that Bob was anything but discreet – Jessica feared that the primal grunts he would emit during their intimate moments could probably be heard well outside the dorm. She blushed slightly, remembering how one time some childish morons had been eavesdropping outside the door, and then had followed her all the way to the exit during her “walk of shame”. Were they like twelve?
Arriving peacefully at Bob’s door without any incidents (Jessica was always relieved at not meeting here a particular basketball player that still made things very awkward, even though he pretended that he didn’t know her), Jessica lightly knocked. Not hearing any reaction, she knocked again, louder this time. “Did he leave already? I am only ten minutes late,” Jessica thought, looking at the watch. This was not like him…sure he could be an asshole sometimes, well most of the time, Jessica admitted, but he usually warned her whenever he had to cancel. Come to think of it, he had been canceling lately more than usual, citing some extra practice with the coach or a tutoring session that he was forced to attend… Not having time to give it proper thought, Jessica saw Brian, a slender running back with black hair, and Bob’s next door neighbor, slowly open the door and crawl out of the room. It sure didn’t look like they had practice today.
“Hi Brian,” Jessica addressed him. “Do you know where Bob is?”
Looking like he was caught a little off-guard by the question, Brian slightly coughed and answered:
“Um I think he had that Math tutoring again… he was complaining about it earlier. He didn’t tell you?” he asked, almost as if trying to feign surprise at her ignorance.
“Oh ok,” Jessica nodded. “Right, tutoring, I must have forgotten. Well then, see you later Brian!” On that note, she double-checked her cell phone to confirm that there had been no signs of life from Bob since the weekend, and secretly happy, headed towards the back door exit that would lead to a beautiful field of grass and flowers where she was already planning to relax under one of the numerous palm trees. Stopping for a moment at the restroom, Jessica caught herself looking at the mirror. There was little left there of the little naïve girl she had been just three years ago, she thought, with a mix of pride for the person she had become but also a hint of disappointment at her lost innocence. “At least nothing can hurt me now,” Jessica smirked, remembering how depressed she once had been when Drake broke up with her, and how silly it all seemed now. If there was any benefit from the adult relationships she had been in since, it was that she would get less attached, less vulnerable, and more in control. Or so she thought.
As she leaned in towards the mirror to fix her make-up, a strange noise that appeared to come from the other side of the wall startled her away. “What is this thing?” she thought, slightly perplexed at the banging and vibrations that could be felt near the mirror. “Are they doing some maintenance in there or something?” she wondered, after faintly hearing some voices that appeared to be coming from the men’s restroom. Starting to get curious, Jessica moved closer to the wall, placing her ear sideways in an attempt to eavesdrop better on what was going on.
“Oh…Ah…Oh…Ah….” Among all the moaning, Jessica managed also to decipher a “Take me baby….take me harder”. She realized what was going on and smiled at the scene that appeared to be coming out straight out of a cheap porn flick. It was probably some freshmen that didn’t have a room of their own where they could go and unleash their horny selves. As the moaning hastened, it was joined by a deep, primal grunt that a passer-by would probably describe as more likely to be coming from a gorilla than rather from a fellow human being.
Something about this grunt caught Jessica’s full attention. At first, she feared that somebody might be having a seizure, the instincts she developed as a part-time paramedic over the last three years always keeping her alert. At the same time, she started having the sensation that she had already heard the same grunt dozens of times before… Puzzled, she tried to remember why the noise seemed so distinctively familiar. As she headed outside to the corridor, a sudden realization struck her like a bolt of lightning. She could swear that this was the same grunt that would silence her whenever she feebly attempted to imitate an orgasm with Bob. The mere sight of a woman screaming (whether it was from pain or pleasure didn’t seem to make much of a difference to him), was enough to send Bob berserk.
“You don’t tell me…” Jessica slowly muttered, clenching her fists. “That f*cker!!”
She let go a nervous laugh, looking like she was either about to burst like an overfilled balloon or fall on her knees and start crying hysterically. Never mind that she had been close herself to dumping his sorry ass countless times before. The fact that he dared to fool her though, with a BS excuse about having some mandatory tutoring classes while he was out screwing some skank was the tipping point. How did he manage then to come back and tell her in public that she was the only one for him, touching her with the same hands that were now making the disgusting slapping noise that could be heard coming from the men’s bathroom…it made her feel sick all the way from the tip of her toes to the top of her head.
Still in shock and disbelief, but determined to find out the truth, the blonde decided to ambush her soon-to-be ex-boyfriend right after he was done with his dirty deed. Bouncing like she had a nervous tic from one leg to the other, as if she were speaking in front of a large audience, Jessica kept staring intensely at the men’s restroom door. The few people who dared to walk by her at that moment intuitively kept their distance, and even the cockiest jocks who would never let an opportunity to throw a sly comment about her appearance go by kept their large mouths shut. Time was passing, however, and nobody was coming out. Jessica’s patience was growing thinner with every second, and she was emitting more and more the aura of a raging bull.
The few logical thoughts that made their way to her mind at that moment, like the fact that Bob never really lasted that long with her in bed (so it most likely couldn’t be him) were thwarted by the suspicion that he found somebody that he considered hotter than her and for whom he was willing to try harder, which insulted Jessica even further. As she was about to reach her breaking point and storm the men’s bathroom, disregarding all the rules and regulations of etiquette, the door slightly opened, as if somebody was trying to peek from the inside whether the path was clear.
Freezing dead in her steps for a moment, Jessica held her breath for what was about to come next. Slowly and quietly, a tall and handsome masculine figure emerged. Contrary to her expectations, it was not Bob, but rather another well-built guy wearing suspiciously tight leather pants with a metal-spiked belt, and a colorful v-neck with a matching necklace, who looked quickly left and right several times before exiting the restroom, as if to see if anybody was watching. The guilty look on his face, almost like he had just escaped prison and the messy hair on his otherwise perfect grooming were a dead giveaway that he had been up to no good just a few moments ago. The young man noticed that Jessica was standing right there in front of him, her murderous stare still strong, and pretended not to see her, quickly
beginning to walk away. Jessica observed the strange way in which his hips moved with every step he made, and the excessive grace with which his arms bounced. He was probably one of those metrosexual guys who spend entire days dreaming of becoming a model. Either that or…Jessica gazed again at his peculiar way of walking, and the way he was dressed, so fashionable that the girl wouldn’t put past her asking him where he got those flashy shoes if the occasion was different.
He was so different from the rest of the dorks on campus who often wore flip-flops with socks, to the point that maybe… no, most likely, he had to be gay. Jessica had a feeling that she had seen him once before, but where? Finally it dawned upon her, after much mental effort that it took in her distressed state: she had read about this guy before in the school newspaper, he was starred in an article about some play that he had the lead role in as the captain of the Theater Club. Patricio Edwards was his name; she remembered. Although a lot of girls at U of M had a big crush on him, apparently he never had a girlfriend before because he “never fell in love with that special someone yet” as he described in the interview that Jessica read. There were even rumors that he was gay, but nobody knew for sure.
“I guess you can never trust the gossip,” Jessica thought, slightly calming down, a little embarrassed for jumping to conclusions so quickly. “I would never imagine that somebody with such a soft face could grunt like that. I wonder who the lucky lady is?”
The “lucky lady” didn’t make her wait long. Slowly, the door to the men’s restroom opened again, and this time another manly silhouette appeared, repeating Patricio’s shady behavior of carefully looking side-to-side before exiting.
“Oh. My. God.”
On the inside of her head, Jessica was already pulling out her hair and banging her forehead against the wall. On the outside however, she remained calm and motionless – that is before she locked eyes with the blond muscular quarterback that was widely acknowledged as being the pride of the school by most of her peers. Finally, she just started laughing hysterically, the accumulated tension too much for her to handle.
“Jess…what are you doing here?” Bob carefully asked, not sure if she knew what was going on. He received no reply – instead Jessica’s laughter intensified to the point of tears coming in the mix.
“Um… are you alright, can I help you?” he tried to make his tone of voice as nice and sweet as possible but to her ears it felt like he had thrown acid on them. Jessica turned against the wall and started hitting it with her tiny fists as if suffering from a bout of manic depression. As Bob stepped closer to grab her shoulders, Jessica hit his hand hard, disgusting by his mere presence.
“Can you help me? You are asking if you can you help me?” the blonde pre-med repeated as if she were possessed. “Shouldn’t you be helping poor Patricio instead? He sure seemed like he was having trouble walking earlier,” Jessica retorted, spitting on his feet while Bob just stood there, speechless. She knew it - she knew everything, and he realized that no tutoring session would be able to save him this time around.
“Jess…I can explain,” Bob said, trying to find a way out of this, despite not knowing what he was going to say next. “Well, I can’t explain… but I have meant to tell you! I wanted to tell you…” his voice trembled.
“Explain?!?” Jessica interrupted, almost pitying him for his pathetic look, if only she weren’t filled with hatred for him. “Explain…that you cheated on me…with a guy?” As she emphasized the last part, her hysterical laughter resumed once again, and she felt her legs faltering, just wanting for her to fall on her knees powerlessly and start crying. But she would not give him the satisfaction.
Astonished at her bluntness, Bob remained standing where he was, looking petrified. He considered apologizing again, but it seemed to be far too late for that. Right now, the main priority was to protect his reputation. Having her break-up with him was one thing, but if the blonde blabbered about what she saw to anybody, soon he would be the laughing stock of the entire school.
“Hey listen…I know I was wrong…but can you keep quiet about what you saw?” Bob struggled to look her in the eye, but luckily for him she was covering her face with her hands, hiding a dangerously empty look in her eyes.
“Keep quiet?” Jess repeated as if to taunt him. “Sure, I will keep quiet that you are a sick f*g!”
She never had had anything against gay people before, in fact she sympathized with their cause, and even her best friend Philipp was gay, she suspected. However discovering that her own boyfriend preferred men to her was enough to make her close to losing her mind, by humiliating the very essence of her womanhood and making her feel like a total failure. But even more than that, it created a burning feeling of disgust inside of her for everyone on the planet that bore the XY chromosome.
Seeing how defiant and out of control she was, Bob was getting ready to resort to desperate measures. He could not simply drag her to his room and beat some sense into her – there were some potential witnesses on the other side of the corridor that would notice them. However there was a real chance as well that these same witnesses would overhear their conversation soon enough if he didn’t do something about it quickly.
“Listen, I have some pictures of you…of us together, that trust me, you don’t want me to spread around,” Bob threatened.
Jessica got what he was hinting at, but at that moment nothing could scare her anymore, she didn’t care if he was bluffing or not – she had hit an all-time low.
“F*ck you.” She had enough of this. For the next two minutes, she stood there using such an offensive lexicon to unleash her ire that would make a construction worker seem like a Ph.D. graduate in comparison.
“Never talk to me again!” Jessica finally stomped hard with her foot and dashed past Bob towards the back door exit of the dorm.
“Remember the pictures….” Bob weakly muttered, not daring to get in her away.
Chapter III
Outside, the campus that just an hour ago seemed to her so pleasant and friendly, now resembled Hell on Earth for Jessica. “I need to get away from here. Now!”
Realizing that if she drove in her current state she would probably run somebody over, Jessica messily grabbed her phone. “Who to call, who to call?” she thought, as she scrolled down her contact list. Philipp? He really didn’t know what a girl needed in such a situation, plus, seeing a guy was the last thing Jessica wanted for the foreseeable future. Maybe Liliana, her lab partner to whom she had gotten close to over the past year? That wouldn’t work either; she had no experience with guys and besides she rode a bicycle anyway. Marta, it had to be Marta, Jessica quickly decided. Tonight, she needed to forget everything, and who better to help her do that than the girl who first started drinking over heartbreak all the way back in ninth grade.
“Marta, are you still on campus?” Jessica inquired with impatience.
“Hi Jess…yes, what is going on?” Marta was surprised. It was almost always her who had to call the blonde lately whenever they were to meet up.
“I will explain later…come get me, we are going out tonight,” she said, sarcastically laughed to herself thinking that it would be just like during “their good old days”.
“But it is Tuesday…I don’t think there is anything happening on-campus tonight,” Marta answered, even more perplexed. The bookworm Jess insisting on going out? Something smelled very fishy.
Meanwhile Jessica was having trouble to keep herself from cursing at her friend’s stupidity in her agitated state.
“Look, you know a thing or two about Miami nightlife, right? Just come get me, I am behind the jock dorm,” Jessica concluded, and without waiting for a response hung up. She felt like praying that she was near this cursed building for the last time….
***** three hours later *****
Miami had no shortage of night clubs, but Marta knew that they had to go somewhere special tonight, after seeing the disheartened condition that her blonde friend was in. Having only bar
ely understood what had happened (in her hysteric state, Jessica was so dyslexic that her story about all men being gay and scum barely made any sense), she could tell it was something serious, so at least for that night Marta was willing to put her own jealousy issues aside, genuinely pitying her childhood bestie.
As they were riding in Marta’s new orange Infinity, Jessica blasted the speakers to full power and opened the sunroof, preparing to stand up and dance to the latest Rihanna hit. The pair was beginning to attract the attention of fellow drivers, looking more like a bunch of drunken high school girls who took their parents’ car for the night than the college students at an elite institution from respectable families that they were during the day. At a red light, Jessica took the opportunity to grab the already half-empty bottle of Martini she had taken from her dad’s mini-bar and pre-gamed before the trip to take a few more gulps. As a taxi cab pulled on their right side at the intersection, Jessica began waving her hands and throwing overtly seductive glances at the driver. At first, the poor middle-aged Latino man couldn’t understand what was going on, and Jessica started to lure him in with a finger gesture, pretending like she was about to take off her shirt. Once she had his full attention and the light turned green, the blonde premed stuck her middle finger through the window, flicking him off.