Chapter Twenty-One
Xavier
A week had passed since I’d last seen Holly. She’d been very clear about the fact she needed time to clear her head and think things through, so I’d made sure not to bother her. I’d have expected her to have called by now, but clearly I had misjudged the situation. I’d have to talk to her eventually and the longer we left things, the more awkward it was going to be when we did finally talk. But I wasn’t going to be the one to call her.
Thankfully I had plenty to busy myself with. Work had been busy all week, and today we were getting things ready for a back-to-school festival that was going to be happening at the park. It was some big event that happened every year, and the fire station always got involved. It was a lot of fun spending time with the kids, and I always loved to see their excited faces as we did demonstrations with them and showed them videos. We also took them through a lot of safety procedures and took them on a bit of a journey to make them realize what it was like to be a real fireman. I was setting up with Kenny, and he was making some joke about Holly and me at the club.
“I knew you had a thing for her,” he said. “Although, I don’t blame you. Little Holly is very attractive now.”
“She sure is,” I mumbled.
“Oh, so you actually admit that you think she’s hot?”
“I never said I didn’t.”
Kenny laughed. “You are in a seriously bad mood today. Mumbling and grumbling and getting irritated so easily. This isn’t like you. What’s up with you, man? Don’t tell me you got burned by her?”
“If you play with fire, you’ll get burned. You’re a fireman, you should know how the saying goes,” I said.
He laughed. “So, is she the fire in this scenario?”
“Does it matter?
“Okay if you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine. But you don’t have to be so grumpy.”
“Sorry, man. Ah, I don’t know what’s going on. Can I ask you a question? Do you think it’s wrong for me to be thinking of her in that way?” I asked.
“Wrong? Why would it be wrong? You’re both single. Hell, even I thought about her in that way after seeing her in the club.”
I shook my head. “That’s not what I mean. It’s different with her and me.”
“Why is it different? Because her dad looked after you for a while? Come on, man; he’s not your father. He wasn’t then, and he isn’t now. And she’s not your sister. If that’s what you’re getting at.”
“That’s what I’m getting at.”
“She’s not, though. I don’t know why you are worrying so much about this. If you like her and she likes you, then I don’t what the problem is.”
“I suppose. It’s just . . . it's not as straightforward as that.”
“It should be.”
“Do you mind not saying anything to anyone though? Holly feels a little weird over the situation.”
“Of course I won’t say anything. But . . . does that mean that something actually happened between the two of you.”
I looked at him and shrugged, not wanting to give him an answer. Although, truthfully, it felt good to finally talk to someone about it. I’d been going out of my mind keeping it all to myself, and I felt like I going to explode if I didn’t tell someone.
“Something happened!” he said loudly, and I shot him another look. “Something happened, didn’t it?” he whispered.
I nodded. “Oh yeah. So now that we’re crossed the line, we’re a little confused about what to do about it. I haven’t spoken to her in like a week.”
“Shit, man. Well, for what it’s worth, I don’t think you should worry about it so much. Anyway, it’s just sex. People make such a big deal out of that.”
I laughed. “Like you having sex with Andrea? Since when are the two of you into each other?”
“Since the night of the club. I don’t know what happened. I mean, I’ve known her for years, and we’ve always just been friendly with one another. But something happened that night, and before I knew it, we were dancing together a little closer than friends would do.”
“You were practically dry humping the girl,” I said and chuckled at the memory.
“Did she look like she was having a good time?” Kenny asked.
“Actually, she did.”
“Well, there you go. I don’t force myself on people that aren’t interested. She was keen. I was keen. And the rest is history. If only I had known she’d be that good in bed, I would’ve tried my luck with her ages ago.”
“Have you seen her again?”
“No, of course not. I’m not looking to date anyone. You know that.”
“Does she know that?” I asked as I remembered Holly telling me how many guys had hurt Andrea in the past. I didn’t want Kenny to become just another statistic in her life.
“Of course she knows. You know me, I’m outright and honest. We both knew that it was nothing more than just a fling.”
“Pity, the two of you look good together.”
“Yeah, we did, didn’t we?” Kenny said and grinned. “I’m sure we’ll end up hooking up again. Who knows? That’s the fun of it I guess.”
I sighed. For the first time in my life, I wished I was a bit more like Kenny. He never took anything seriously, and his entire life was just one big carefree adventure.
“Good for you, Kenny,” I said and patted him on the back. He looked at me strangely but didn’t get the chance to say anything because our captain had spotted us and was walking our way.
“Hi boys, how’s it going here?”
“Almost done with the setting up. Should be good,” Kenny said.
“Make sure you give out the pamphlets we printed too.”
“We will.”
“Okay, I better get going. I just wanted to let you boys know that we are running drills on both Saturday and Sunday, so I hope you don’t have any plans because I need you all there.”
“Sure, no problem,” Kenny said.
“No problem,” I said and smiled.
We waited for him to walk away before looking at each other and groaning.
“Seriously? The whole damn weekend?” Kenny said. “He’s so annoying. Today is Wednesday, and he tells us this now. What if we really did have big plans this weekend? I don’t understand why those drills can’t be scheduled so that we at least know when they are coming. This drives me crazy.”
“I think he likes to feel like he has some sort of control over us.”
“Well there goes my weekend,” Kenny said.
I sighed. It was annoying, but it was probably a good thing for me to keep as busy as possible. The last thing I needed was to think about what happened with Holly. I felt sexually frustrated just thinking about it, as well as annoyed that we were now not even on speaking terms.
“Uh oh. Your girlfriend is heading this way,” Kenny said, and I looked up to see Holly and Rick walking towards us.
“You said you wouldn’t say anything,” I hissed at Kenny.
Kenny chuckled. “Relax. I was just joking around with you. I’m not going to say anything. Hell, she’s hot man.”
I punched him on the arm and then forced a smile on my face when they got near.
“Hi, Rick, Holly; nice to see you both.”
“Ah, I was hoping you’d be here,” Rick said. “It’s nice that you guys always get involved at this festival.”
“Hi,” Holly said shyly.
We stood there talking to them a little bit, and I tried not to look at Holly who seemed to be pretending to be busy looking at our setup. Then she picked up her phone and spoke into it even though I was sure I hadn’t heard it ring. She waved goodbye and pointed at the phone as if to say that she had to take the call and walked away.
“Well, that was awkward,” Kenny said the moment they left, and I sighed.
“Yeah, she clearly has no interest in talking to me again.”
“Whatever, dude, you deserve better than that.”
“Yeah.”
I pretended not to care, but I couldn’t help but feel a pang of pain in my heart at the way that she was treating me. I’d always been good to Holly. I’d protected her from the bullies when she was in school, and I’d always looked out for her. She’d made it clear that she wanted to sleep with me that night. She was the one that had initiated it in the first place, so I wasn’t imagining it. Maybe she just wanted to try me out for size, and now that she’d tried me, she wasn’t interested in taking it further. Perhaps I was just not her type. Kenny was right. I deserved better than her.