Jeez. Is he that against me suddenly? I guess he’s got more beautiful, more experienced women to please him now.
I push him against the railing of the staircase. “Hold onto that, you moron!” I huff because he keeps pushing me away. “Lift your foot. Fuck sakes. How much did you drink?”
“I told you! I don’t want your hands on me. How hard is it to understand!” he shouts at me.
“I heard you! Ok! I heard you loud and clear!” I shout back, fighting tears at the harshness of his rejection.
But still, if I step away now, he’s just going to fall down the stairs and break his damn neck. I’ve got half a mind to let him.
It takes almost fifteen minutes to get him to the top of the stairs. He holds onto the wall as I guide him, rage fuming inside me, toward his bedroom.
“Come on, you idiot, you’re almost there,” I huff, slipping my arm around his back.
“Dammit, girl!” he snaps, trying to move away from me for the hundredth time. But I don’t let. I grab onto his shirt and pull him with everything I have until he is right next to the bed, then I push him hard so that he falls onto it instead of onto the floor. Except he’s still fighting against me and ends up dragging me on top of him.
He literally lifts me, clean off him, holding me in the air above him like a rag doll.
“Leila, I told you! I only want Athena! She’s the only one I can ever be with again!”
My eyes shoot wide as shock slams into me. “What!?” I stammer.
“Athena! Ok. I don’t want you. Only her…” His words falter. Muddling into each other.
He drops me onto his chest, and the air is knocked out of me.
“Hey!” I slap him lightly on the cheek, still lying on his chest. “What did you just say!”
“Athena is the only one…” he whispers, his voice fading and his eyes closed. I stare at him for a moment, still not quite believing it. But he said it more than once.
He starts snoring softly.
“You need to sleep on your side!” I groan, worried about how drunk he is. I wiggle off him, kneeling next to him on thebed so I can try to roll him over. He swats me away, grumbling something I can’t understand. I manage to roll him by propping my back against his hip and using my legs to leverage strength.
He flops onto his side and carries on snoring.
My mind is repeating his words, but my heart struggles to believe them.
Leila, I told you! I only want Athena! She’s the only one I can ever be with again.
Leila must have been the girl at the bar.
The pictures my father sent me were misleading then. Only half a story. The girl came onto him, but he said no.Is that what happened?
My father lied to me again.
Will he ever stop lying?
I sigh heavily as I climb off his bed and scrunch my nose, staring at his sleeping form.
What am I supposed to make of all this?
I turn away from him and head to my own bed. At least I’m not angry anymore. I’ll be able to sleep.
In the morning, I wake up and head down to the kitchen, half asleep, padding barefoot on the heated floors in my sweatpants and crop top, unable to feel the cold outside.
I walk into the kitchen, rubbing my eyes and yawning. I didn’t sleep that well after all. I wasn’t angry, but I was so confused about what Adrian had mumbled in his drunken state. I’m the only girl he can ever be with again. What does that mean? Or was he just so drunk he didn’t know what he was saying?
I pull the fridge open in a daze, and when he speaks behind me, I almost jump right out of my skin.
