Chapter 3
Roxanne headed straight home after meeting with Chris, breaking down in the taxi on the way.
Upon reaching her home, she ran straight to her room, and crashed on her bed, beating her fists down on the soft mattress. She couldn’t believe that of all places, he showed up there. Yes he had been following her, trying to get in touch with her, but for him to show up at such a random place, which she saw as more of an errand, was heart wrenching.
It was a difficult situation she found herself in, receiving absolutely no support from her family. All of her family members blamed her for what went wrong, and in most cases even refused to believe her, blaming her for making up stories to tarnish his image and tip the scales in her favor.
She lay there on her bed until evening, when there was a knock on the door.
“Come in.” she said in a soft voice.
The door opened, and her sister’s head popped in.
“What are you doing?”
“Nothing.” she mumbled into the mattress.
“Did you get the necklace mom told you to?”
“No.”
Amber sighed.
Amber was Roxanne’s eighteen-year-old sister, a total of eight years between them, but in her whole family Roxanne was closest to her. They had a brother aged twenty-one, who was currently off at college, and mostly missing from the day to day affairs.
Amber entered the room and closed the door behind her, then went and sat on the study desk, her legs dangling.
“What do you want?” Roxanne asked.
“Help. With applications.” Amber replied blankly.
This was something Roxanne loved about their dynamic, and it always managed to pull her out of a low mood. The two would always talk to each other in a frank matter of fact way, sticking to the point. Not that they didn’t have emotional conversations, but just the understanding between them was such that most of the times not much had to be said to communicate.
“I’ll come to your room in a bit.” Roxanne replied, still lying down and covering her face.
“Are you okay?” Amber asked, noticing that Roxanne’s mood had shifted drastically since the morning.
“Not really. I’ll update you.” she answered, and lifted her head to look at her sister.
The boy cut, multiple piercings, eye liner. Amber was the exact opposite of Roxanne, the latter finding her quite hip, sometimes even thinking that Amber was way cooler than she could ever be. Roxanne had a soft spot in her heart for Amber, having played a role in her upbringing as well, and often the two would end up being each other’s therapists as well.
“Take your time. I’m here for you.” Amber comforted Roxanne, and left the room, hoping she hadn’t disturbed her elder sister.
Amber felt angry at herself as well. It had been ages since she had such a nice conversation with a cute guy. For David to suddenly appear in that moment was the last thing she was expecting.
*****
Chris on the other hand had locked his shop up from the inside, and sat on the same sofa, smoking cigarette after cigarette. He realized that he took a liking towards the girl, Roxanne, and wanted to get to know her more.
He felt utter rage towards the man who was stalking her, primarily because of the discomfort he must have been causing her, but also because he had interrupted a conversation that was going so well.
Chris had no idea whether he would get to see Roxanne again, and hoped that she would come back for the necklace which she never bought. He felt incredibly guilty as well, fearing that towards the end he might have upset her by asking too many questions.
Observing that his mind was falling into loops, Chris decided to forget about the situation for a while. Getting his car keys, he headed straight to the neighborhood bar, and on the way called his boys to join him as well.
Once getting to the bar, he decided to treat the incident in the afternoon as ‘work’, and now he was in his ‘personal’ life, so he disregarded any worries or confusions till the morning after.
At the bar, so reckless was Chris in his effort to escape his struggles, he downed half a bottle of whisky. Somewhere in the middle of the night, this random girl started to flirt with him, dropping obvious hints in conversation and getting close to him. Initially Chris responded positively.
“Oh wow. That’s such an amaaazing profession!” the girl giggled while saying, quite drunk herself.
“Haha I don’t know. Most people would get bored looking at stones all day.” Chris replied.
“But you’re such a gem, I’m sure if anyone was to work for you they’d have the time of their lives.” she replied flirtatiously, and jerked him back and forth at the last few words of the sentence.
Chris could see that by now, Lana, the name of the girl trying to get into his pants, was looking for any and every reason to touch him, and most of the times a reason was the last thing in that moment. This had always been hard to believe for Chris, being so attractive that he barely ever had to do anything. Only a smile here and there and ladies would come sprawling at him, throwing their legs open.
Despite being drunk out of his mind, for some reason, that night Chris decided to sleep alone instead.