Metamorphosis (11 page)

Dylan texted me a brief good
morning each day before class, but after our Wednesday evening text exchange
grew outrageously long, he called on Thursday claiming his fingers were still
sore from the night before and unable to perform. I preferred the phone call to
the texts anyways, I loved hearing his voice and his warm, hearty laugh always
brought a huge smile to my face. I couldn’t help but asking him teasingly if
there were other parts of his body incapable of performing on consecutive days,
which he assured me there weren’t. I was glad he couldn’t see the bright shade
of red I turned the moment the words left my mouth. My brashness probably
shocked me more than it did him, and I was a tiny bit proud of myself for being
able to conjure up a witty comeback. Our conversations were easy and
comfortable, never forced or awkward. We talked a lot about our childhoods and
families. I learned that he was born and raised in Chicago and that he was the
oldest of three kids, he had a sister four years younger than
him
(
,)
and a brother two years behind her. All of his immediate family still lived in
the Chicago area even though his parents were divorced. He had come to Houston
because of the scholarships he had been offered by the University of St.
Thomas, and he had an older cousin that lived here that virtually allowed him
to live
rent free
. He also said he had been ready for
milder winters; as the oldest male in the family, especially after his dad
left, he was always the one in his house in charge of shoveling snow or
de-icing doors and windows. With each revelation about himself, Dylan became
more and more attractive. He seemed to be someone who truly valued his family
and he most definitely had a successful future ahead of him with his work ethic
and drive.

I told him the little there was to
tell about the events of my life leading up to college-ballet, music, soccer,
and school. That about summed it up; I always knew I wouldn’t be a good
character to base a book on unless it was one of those children’s
book
that had one word on each page describing the action
depicted above it. In that case, I would have a four page book ~ awesome. Maybe
it could be lengthened to six pages if we added ‘sleeping’ and ‘eating’- even
more awesome. I was honest with him about my lack of experience, socially and
sexually, but downplayed my parent’s controlling, irrational method of
child-rearing
. I just left it at “They are different” and
“We aren’t really close,” which proved to be more accurate than I ever
imagined.

By Saturday morning I was more than
concerned that my parents had not attempted to contact me one time since I had
left their house after our big fight - not a call, a text, an email… nothing. I
toyed back and forth with the idea of contacting them, but I wasn’t quite sure
if they were still that mad
at me or if they were
disappointed in me or what exactly their problem was
. It pissed me off
actually. For eighteen years, they controlled nearly everything I did or said
and when I stood up for myself just one time, they let it all go? Let me go?
They didn’t even care enough to make sure that I had arrived safely. Were they
happy that I was finally gone so that they were free of my burden? That’s
exactly how I had felt many times over the years, like a burden had been placed
upon them to raise the most perfect child ever. When I didn’t win first place
at a music competition, or when I graduated salutatorian instead of
valedictorian, or any other time that I didn’t excel in something immediately,
they made me feel as if I failed them on their mission. Well, screw a bunch of
that. I was tired of carrying their burden of being sucky ass parents to Matt.
Truth be told, they were sucky ass parents with me too, they had just jumped
from one end of the spectrum to the other. I decided calling them would only
upset me in some way and for now, it was probably best if I waited for them to
reach out to me.

I decided that I needed a little
retail therapy to help me get out of my funk over my parents, not to mention my
clothing options were still limited with what I had bought the previous
weekend.
Evie
had a headache and wanted to take a nap
before we went out that evening, but she let me take her car to the mall.
Shopping by myself was a new concept for
me; my mom or
Evie
had always accompanied me before. I felt a
little lonely not having someone with me and I missed
Evie’s
honest assessment of clothes I tried on, but I knew that one thing I really
needed to work on was learning how to make choices for myself, no matter how
big or small. Choosing clothes that I wanted to wear seemed like a harmless
place to practice my
decision making
skills. A few
hours later I headed back to the dorm with several bags in hand and a pleased
smile on my face, feeling confident that I had excelled at my self-assigned
task.

Evie
was in the shower when I got back
to the dorm so I decided to make us a quick snack before getting ready. Once I
heard the water turn off, I called out to her, “Hey Eve, I’m back! Didn’t want
to scare you!”

“Hey Sam! Did you find anything
good?” she yelled back.

Instead of continuing the
conversation through the walls, I walked into her room. “Yeah, I found a few
things. I can’t wait to show you, I hope you approve,” I said. “It was no fun
without you there though! How’s your head anyways?” I asked concerned.

“I feel better. I don’t know what
happened, I just had this awful pain behind my right eye and then this nagging
headache developed. Maybe I spent too much time looking at my computer screen
last night and this morning, who knows? The aspirin and nap took care of it and
I am as good as new now,” she smiled a bit hesitantly.

“Okay, if you’re sure… we don’t
have to go tonight if you aren’t feeling up to it,” I offered.

“Don’t be silly, Scarlett. I’m
fine. It was a headache and it’s gone, now drop it,”
Evie
warned and turned to her closet. “What are you wearing tonight?” she asked
changing the subject.

I knew that the conversation was
over, but there was still something that didn’t feel right.
Evie
had experienced several headaches in the last few
months which
was odd for her, she never was one to feel bad or get sick. Her parents had
been concerned as well, but much like she just did to me, she assured them that
it wasn’t anything serious and would resume to her usual cheerful self. I
promised myself to insist she see a doctor if it happened again.

“I bought a new dress today that I
want you to see. What about you?”

“I’m not sure yet…”
Evie
continued to sort through her options hanging in the
closet. “But you better get moving, we need to leave here in like an hour!”

“An hour? Why so soon?” I was
confused. I looked at the clock and confirmed that it was only 6:30. Last
Saturday we didn’t leave until close to 9:00.

“Didn’t I tell you last night?
Jess wants to go grab dinner at this new restaurant beforehand. We are supposed
to meet them around 8:00.” She walked out of her closet still in just her bra
and panties and holding two different sundresses. “Which one? The pink and
yellow one with a low cut neckline that whispers “Please fuck me” or the red
and black striped one with a shorter skirt that screams “Fuck me now!”

“Let’s go with the whispers and
the please for tonight. We are still on preppy college boy duty, right? I sure
hope so since I’m meeting Dylan there. Plus we don’t want your inner Dominatrix
scaring them away,” I snorted. “We’ll save the other for the night we are
hunting deviant, misunderstood rocker boys.”

“Then we need to do that soon,”
she retorted with a playful frown. “Because I look hot in this dress.” She held
the red and black one up across her body while staring at her image in the
mirror. “
Hmmpph
… I guess you’re right. It may be a
bit much for tonight.” And she threw it back into the closet.

Moments later I jumped in my own
shower to soap, shampoo, and shave. After I carefully applied my makeup and
styled my hair in two long braids, I nodded an approval at my image in the
mirror. Moving to my closet, I chose a white eyelet matching bra and thong set.
I knew that I was a long way from being ready for Dylan to see me in my
panties, but just knowing what I had on under my clothes made me feel sexier
and more confident. My dress was a gauzy white sundress with a sweetheart
neckline and a hem that fell mid-thigh. Again, I wore my boots and accessorized
with a long turquoise necklace that hung low on my chest. A few minutes, and
one last look in the mirror later, we were headed out the door.

We weren’t in the car five minutes
when
Evie
approached the subject I knew she had been
anxious to discuss all day, the conversation I had dreaded.

“So what are you going to do about
Ash tonight?” she asked with a little too much sweetness in her voice.

“What do you mean exactly?” I
asked, playing dumb with the same over-the-top sugary tone. She glared at me
warning me that she was serious. I sighed loudly and slumped my shoulders
forward.

“Oh,
Evie
,
I don’t know.” I confessed. “I’m just going to act like nothing happened, I
guess. What else am I supposed to do?”

“How do you feel about him? You
know, now that you’ve had a week to process everything that happened and now
that you’ve been talking to Dylan more and more.”

“Confused. I feel completely
confused about the whole thing. I mean, like I told you before, there is this
intense attraction that I feel towards Ash. It’s not just physical,
its
… more. I just don’t know how to describe it. But
obviously, it’s not just me that he has that effect on, girls throw themselves
at him all the time, and from the way Jess talks it’s always been that way. I’m
just one of many gullible girls that easily fell victim to his charm. I’m not
silly enough to think I’m anything special to him, despite what he says.”

Neither of us said anything for a
few moments. I wasn’t sure if I was trying to convince
Evie
or myself that it really wasn’t a big deal to me… that he wasn’t a big deal to
me. There really was no reason he should be. I had literally spent less than
twenty four
hours with the guy, I hardly knew anything about
him, and the things I did know were like flashing neon signs telling me to stay
away. But yet not a day had passed during the week that he didn’t creep into my
thoughts at some point. I saw those incredible greenish-blue eyes staring into
me, I heard his voice whispering in my ear, felt his breath on the back of my
neck. It almost seemed the harder I tried to stop thinking about him, the more
I did. I was still curious about the reason for the text, but doubted that I
would mention it to him unless he brought it up.

“I think you should just have fun,
Scarlett.”
Evie
said, interrupting yet another daydream
I was having about Ash. “If there truly is some undeniable attraction between
the two of you, then
ya
’ll
will
end up together with a magical, fairytale,
happily-ever-after. But you know as well as I do that it takes a bunch of other
bullshit in between to get that point - a bunch of unnecessary angst, some
preventable misunderstandings, and you both need to make some ill-advised and
senseless decisions. So right now, I think you should just let everything
happen and stop over thinking all of it… I know that’s easier said than done.”
She stopped and gave me a heartening smile. “You know I just want what’s best
for you, Sam. And right now, Ash is right in that you need to experience a lot
more of what life has to offer. Plus, who else is going to help me sample all
of the book boyfriends?”

I smiled back at her, so
incredibly thankful that I had such an amazing friend. She always knew the
right thing to say to me to both comfort me and lead me in the right direction.
“You’re right
Evie
. I’m going to try my best to just
take that night for what it was, which when I think about it now, really wasn’t
much of anything.” I thought about what I had just said and hoped that I would
be strong enough to resist Ashton Walker.

I changed the subject to improve
the mood before our night out began. “Speaking of our book boyfriends and the
contest, you are participating in the competition tonight aren’t you? I don’t
like pity wins.”

“Absolutely. Last week was just a
warm-up round… just letting you get your feet a little wet.”

“My feet weren’t the only thing
getting wet.” I joked in a mock sultry voice. “No, seriously,” I continued. “So
tonight we are doing preppy college boy again since I kind of don’t have a
choice with Dylan being there and all, but what’s next and when?”

“Hmmm… I haven’t thought about it
really. I’ll start working on it though.”
Evie
looked
downright giddy thinking about our next adventure and we hadn’t even started on
tonight’s
.

We sat in comfortable silence
until we got to the restaurant. I was in such a good mood and was suddenly
really looking forward to the night ahead. After finally finding a parking
place in what seemed to be the next zip code, we hoofed across the parking lot
to the front doors. People were loitering
outside,
some sitting on benches while others were smoking cigarettes. I hoped the wait
for a table wouldn’t be too long, the place looked packed and I was starving.