Page 58 of Scarred King
“I’ll take you there. It’s the safest place for you apart from here.” He stands in front of me and strokes my shoulder.
“Don’t touch me.” I shake his hand off me and he removes it. I open the door to the garage, he follows me out, and we both get on the motorcycle without saying a word. For the first time since I've met him my mind overcomes my body when we are physically close, and all I want is to put as much distance between us as possible.
The garage door opens, and he drives away fast. The Volvo follows us all the way to the campus parking lot. He stops at the entrance and looks around tensely.
“What time do you finish?” he focuses on the Volvo.
“Evening.” I give him a general answer, hoping that he’ll leave me alone.
“Elena, I need an exact time,” he raises his voice.
“Six,” I reply and start walking away.
“Don’t leave the campus until you see me here,” he calls after me and I run inside.
I look for Johanna in the lecture hall, but I can’t find her anywhere. Five minutes after the second class starts, she slips into the hall with flushed cheeks, noisily moves past the students in my row, and sits down in the chair next to me.
“What a night,” she whispers in my ear.
“Shhh…” I whisper impatiently.
“After you left, no one would tell me what happened,” she continues whispering, “but there was a smashing party going on.” She giggles and the student sitting on her other side asks her to be quiet. “They took out all the good alcohol and Tommy gave everyone some white powder and then…” she gets quiet for a minute and I nudge her with my shoulder, “and then I went upstairs with him.” She gets closer to me and sticks to me like glue. “I never saw anything like it… even in the porn I used to steal from my big brother. I thought I would faint, it’s so—”
“Shut up.” I raise my voice and the professor looks in my direction.
“Sorry,” I apologize quickly and push Johanna away. This time she understands that she needs to keep quiet.
During the break I try to get away from her, but she keeps following me. She looks sharp and energetic. I sit down on the grass and she clings to me again.
“At first it seemed sick, shocking even,” she says excitedly, and I realize that she is still talking about the upper floor. “But very quickly you understand that it's an animalistic passion. Pure physical passion—”
I groan. “There’s nothing pure about that place,” I say annoyingly.
“Well, maybe not pure, but intense.” She lays her head on her backpack. “Intense physical pleasure of two people who take advantage of each other.”
“It’s not mutual advantage.” I'm getting angry.
“Yes, it is,” she insists. “The man gets the woman’s body for a limited time and in return the woman gets a lot of money.”
“Disgusting.” I open my textbook and hope that she will get the hint and stop talking.
“You’re so judgmental!” she says angrily.
I raise my head from the book. “Can we either stop this conversation or change the subject?”
“Fine,” she says and just when I think she has stopped talking, she starts again.
“I didn’t know you’re with him,” she whispers. “He is so different and strange. He is scary on one hand, but on the other, he seems to care for you.” She strokes her golden hair. “I didn't think that he is your type.”
“He isn’t.” I cut her off abruptly. "He’s far from being my type. “I made a mistake, and gave into my stupid physical instincts and now I need to fix it.”
“Then why are you sleeping at his place and not our apartment?”
She just won’t let go. “Because I made a mistake,” I stress each word. “And now, if you don’t mind, I want to read.” I go back to my book and she finally stops talking.
Half an hour passes, and she is still quiet. I raise my head from my book and see that she is fast asleep. I try to wake her up for several minutes. When she finally awakens, she pokes around in her bag in a panic and then proudly shows me a small bag with some white powder.
“This will fix me for today,” she says, stands up, and runs off to one of the buildings.