Arianna Rose: The Awakening (Part 2) (24 page)

H
is sleek,
black
Infiniti G37 Sport Coupe was unmistakable.
Undoubtedly freshly washed and waxed,
s
he reached o
ut for the passenger side lever,
careful not to mar the flawless finish
, and the internal lights illuminated the interior
.
For most, the overhead lighting would have been unflattering, but not Kevin.
Kevin was arguably the most popular boy at Harbingers High School, and for good reason. 
He captained both the basketball an
d football teams,
maintained a solid B plus average in his academic studies
and was charming beyond his years.  Women of all ages swooned and fawned over him.  He was beautiful.  He
towered
at six-foot-four-inches tall and
weighed a substantial two h
undred and twenty-five pounds.  But despite his powerful physique, he was wide-eyed and fine-featured with looks that flirted with feminine prettiness.  His eyes were a deep, chocolate brown and fringed with long lashes.  He wore his sandy-blond hair styled expertly into a spiky faux-hawk.  His face rivaled any movie star she had ever seen.  And if his face and body were not enough to frenzy the women around him, his unique smile put them over the edge. 
When he spread his full lips and showed his blindingly white teeth, his smile revealed a single dimple in the center of his right cheek.  This anomaly provided genuine character to his near-perfect appearance. 

He flashed his signature smile at her as she seated herself in the passenger side of his car.  But something about the way that he smiled seemed forced, phony even.  For reasons that were unclear, she found it cocky.

Her guess was that his womanizing career had entitled him to that cocky smile. His reputation was no secret to her, or anyone else for that matter.  But she had long since considered herself invulnerable to his lures, to his charm.  Yet, she was sitting with him in his car on a school night when she should have been home sleeping.  And she had defied her father.  Her temples began to pound and she replayed his courtship of her, how he’d been so polite and sincere.  He’d said all the right things, had expressed interest in her interests.  He had sought her out, selected her over the multitudes jockeying for his attention.  He had made her feel special.  But she did not feel special any more.  In fact, as he smiled at her, he seemed smug, and she felt certain she had manufactured most, if not all, of his sincerity.

“Hey,” he said cheerfully. “I’m so glad you decided to come.”

A moment of pure panic seized her
.  She suddenly wanted nothing more than to slip out of the car and teleport back to her house.
Of course, neither was an option.  Instead she muttered, “Yep. Me, too,” and stared at
the clock mount
ed on the dashboard.  It read 12
:08 p.m.
  Her stomach sank to her feet.

“You look hot.  And you smell phenomenal,” he said and raised his eyebrows mischievously. He then surprised her by leaning
across the center console and brush
ing
his nose against the nape of her neck
.  He
inhale
d
the sweet blend of vanilla, caramel and coconut, her signature fragrance, that she had applied perhaps a bit too generously.
  She supposed his gesture was meant to be some kind of seductive move to entice her.  But she did not feel roused in the least.  Rather, the fluid, flagrant way he flirted annoyed her.  He was smooth, too smooth.

“Thanks,” she replied halfheartedly. “So, where are we going,” she asked hoping to change the subject to a platonic topic.

“I was thinking we would
go
over to the Rec Center
and hang out, y
ou know
, and
get to know each other better.”

She shuttered at the thought of going there.  By day, the East Fallkill Recreation Center was a designated area for activities. 
At night,
however, it was a popular haunt for local teenagers.  Beer and various other alcoholic drinks were brought and consumed in abundance
,
and sexual intercourse, in all its forms, invariably occurred.  Melissa guessed that talking was the last thing that he wanted to do.  She immediately
tried to rebuff
his invitation.

“Why don’t we go to the diner in town?  We can talk there
,
and eat.  I’m starved,” she suggested.

Kevin tipped his head imploringly in Melissa’s direction and pushed out his lower lip in exaggerated disappointment.

“I was really hoping we could talk privately
.
  You know, just the two of us.  I want to be with just you.”

He reached his right hand over the center console and gently squeezed her knee.  Instead of promptly removing it though, he let his hand linger a moment too long.
She felt her stomach churn nervously.  She wanted to tell him to forget about it, that it was the diner or home for her, but felt powerless to reject him outright.  Doing so would instigate social repercussions she did not want to endure.  His reputation for womanizing went hand in hand with one that was less familiar, and not discussed as often.  His penchant for revenge was eclipsed only slightly by his flirtatious ways.  She felt compelled to agree with him.

“Fine, I mean, whatever,” she heard herself say.  “The Rec Center it is. But I can’t stay long. If my dad gets up and sees that I’m gone, he’ll ground me until graduation.”

“Wow.  He sounds tough.”

“You have no idea. 
Since my mom died, h
e takes the whole parenting thing
way
too seriously,” she chattered nervously.
 
“
I mean, it’s like extreme parenting or something.  He has to know where I am every minute of the day.  He worries so much.”

She felt like she had to exaggerate her father’s protectiveness to set some kind of time constraint on their time together at the Rec Center.  Her father was a perfect excuse. 

“I’m surprised you came out tonight.  All the other times I asked, you said no,” he said
ignoring the comments about her father
.

“You can thank Daniella for that.  She talked me into it.”

Daniella, one of Melissa’s best friends, was largely responsible for her agreeing to meet Kevin.  Daniella, ever the romantic, had helped convince her that Kevin was something he was not.  She would not blame her friend in the morning, but intended to dispute her every fanciful idealization of him.

Thoughts of the next morning, and yearning for the evening to end already, swirled in her head. She did not dare speak of them.  Instead, she
sat quietly as he drove
,
and became increasingly uneasy as they approached their destination.
When he finally
pulled his car into the driveway of the
East Fallkill Recreation Center, h
er stomach roiled anxiously
.  He tested the engine of his sports car and sped down
the long pathway past tennis courts, baseball fiel
ds, a stout concession building
and
a football field,
before reaching a play area
.  Just beyond the playground, the pavement e
xtended into an expansive lot.  Both the lot and the playground were
poorly lit and provided little exposure during the infrequent police patrol spotlight searches.  

He slowed then stopped and
shifted the car into park
before switching
off the headlamps. 
She felt nauseated and dizzy, and contemplated calling it a night when he
leaned toward
her without warning.  She did not know if he was moving in for a kiss, but was relieved when he
rested his elbow on her arm rest.
  He touched
his index finger to her chin and
smiled
his blindingly white, single-dimpled smile
,
t
he
n
said, “Hey, I’m sorry about your mom.  How old were you when she died?”

She stiffened
at his touch,
at his mention of her mother.  Her mother was not a subject she was comfortable discussing in general, much less with someone unfamiliar.  She reluctantly
answered, “I was seven.”

“
Huh.
  That must have been rough.  I bet she was as beautiful as you are.”

Melissa
felt her cheeks flush and was grateful for the extraordinarily dark night sky. She did not like shameless
flattery
together
with
mention
of her moth
er.
She
contemplated a curt response
,
but came up empty. 
Try as she may, the words she longed for, ones that would put him in his place, would not come.
As she tried to formulate
a retort
, Kevin surprised her.  Without warning, he closed the distance between them and pressed
his lips
to
hers.

At first his kiss was confident and gentle.  Quickly, however, it transformed from being
unexpected
to offensive.  His lips began crushing hers.  His tongue probed for hers as his hands seemed to multiply
,
and explore intimate parts of her.

Her
body
went rigid
.  He was advancing on her too quickly, and without permission.

“Hey! Quit
it, Kevin!” she
exclaimed and pulled away from him.

He backed off
, but only
slightly.
He leaned in to kiss her again and cupped her breast in his hand.

“I’m serious! Get off!” she continued more forcefully.

“I just find you so beautiful.  I have a hard time behaving myself,” Kevin argued impishly
and made no effort to remove his hand.

“I want to go home!  Now!” she yelled
and shoved his hand off her.

“Are you kidding me?  What are you some kind of tease?  You come here in the middle of the night with me, looking the way you do and smelling the way you do and expect me to act like a saint?” he accused.

Her
mind reeled
.  She couldn’t believe he was actually accusing
her
, as if she were wrong for not wanting to be groped
. “Hey, don’t blame
me
. I thought we came here to get to know each other better
, like you said
.”

“Ha! That’s cute. I love the naive act,” he said bitingly.

“Naïve,” she started but was interrupted.

“Yeah, I think you need to go home now.  I’ll take you home,
gladly
.”

She didn’t understand why he was being so mean all of a sudden.  He had wanted to be with her.  He had made the effort to get her with him in the weeks leading up to the present.  None of it made sense.  She did not know what to do and wondered whether she should get out of his car and walk home.  He seemed abnormally angry given the circumstances.  Her hand grazed the lever on the passenger side door.  She was about to pull it when he switched on the headlights and slammed the gearshift into drive.  He stepped on the accelerator and his well-equipped sports car responded immediately.  The car lurched forward and sped down the driveway and out on to the main road.  Once on the main road, he obeyed the speed limits, but they traveled silently. 

The silence was so laden with tension, Melissa felt like screaming.  By the time they’d reached Blackstone Drive, the frustration she’d been feeling had
risen to a point where she did not trust herself to speak without crying.  Kevin stopped the car several houses away from hers and turned off the headlights. 

He did not say a word.  And he did not flash his trademark smile.  Instead, he stared straight ahead.  She looked at him searchingly, but he refused to meet her gaze, so she climbed out of the car.  She had just shut the passenger side door when he abruptly pulled away.  She watched him go, watched him reach the stop sign at the bottom of her hill and turn his headlights back on.  She heard the sound of spinning tires kicking up gravel as he sped off into the night.  She stood for a moment, after his car had vanished, and felt the tears she had held back for the entire car ride well.  She tried to blink them back, but it was no use.  She cried silently as she turned and began walking up her hill. Her night had been disastrous.  In her heart, she had known it would be; she just hadn’t wanted to admit it.  As she approached her house, she realized her disastrous night was about to get much worse.

Nearly every window was lit.  Only her bedroom window was dimmed by her father’s silhouette, which disappeared as soon as he saw her.  Her heart sank as she walked up her driveway to the front door.  It opened before her key was in the lock.