Be With Me

I gently closed the door behind me, careful to be as quiet as possible. My steps were hesitant and light. The slight creek of the floor board caused me to stop in my tracks. Everything remained silent. I started walking again. I repeated these steps as I walked in the apartment. If I made the slightest noise, I was dead.

Vanessa would hear me, I was sure of it. If she heard me, I was dead. I had been at Starbucks longer than I thought, half an hour to be exact. I spent the walk home trying to come up with a believable excuse. I thought of every possible thing that I could. Anything that would get me out of trouble.

But every plan that I had left my head the moment I heard her voice.

“What took you so long?”

I froze mid-step. My muscles were tense. My heart was pounding in my ears. Things couldn’t have gotten any worse. I had just been caught.

“What’d you mean?”

I slowly turned around, coming face to face with the warden. Her arms were crossed over her chest tightly. Her perfectly arched brow was raised in suspicion. Her lips were tightly pressed in a straight line. Her hair was pulled back into a tight bun—preventing me from focusing on anything but her face. She couldn’t have appeared more serious if she had tried.

I disregarded how she was able to sneak up behind me. The only thing on my mind was how I was going to get out of this alive. I couldn’t even focus on what she was wearing. I didn’t notice that her off the shoulder top revealed her pink bra strap. All I could think about was how much trouble I was in.

“I mean,” her footsteps were slow as she walked towards me. “Why were you gone so long? I sent you to the Starbucks that was only a few blocks away. Why were you gone for over half an hour?”

She now stood in front of me, observing me every move. I looked away from her. My eyes became fascinated with the paint on the wall. Intensely staring at it, I tried to ignore her gaze, I failed. My skin crawled under her gaze. I felt anxious, jittery even. I wanted to walk away.

But I couldn’t. if I walked away, I would look even more guilty than I already was. at this point, she wanted me to admit that I was doing something wrong. She would have every right to be mad if I admitted it, but I wasn’t going to.

Instead I was going to do what every guy did. The one thing that told our girlfriends that we were guilty without us having to say it. Despite how much worse it made the situation I was going to do it. I was going to play dumb.

“Are you serious? You’re questioning me because I got back later than you wanted; you’ve got to be kidding me,” my eyes, narrowed slightly, were giving her the “are you serious” look.

“You should be happy I even went out in the cold to get your coffee. Do you have any idea how cold it is outside?” I threw my free arm into the air as I ranted. As my voice became louder, she became angrier. A fight was going to ensue, as was expected.

“Why are you being so defensive about this? I asked a simple question, took you so long”

“Why are you tracking how long it takes me to buy coffee?!”

“Because it doesn’t take an hour to buy it!”

We were both yelling now. Arms were flailing and voices were strained. A fire burned in Vanessa’s eyes. Her nostrils were beginning to flare. Her fists were tightly clenched as her arms hung at her side.

I didn’t want to fight, but it was the only thing that I could think of. I couldn’t admit that I was late because of Natalie. We had already been in a fight about this subject. It was only a run in then; she would be enraged if she knew that I conversed with her at Starbucks.

“How would you know, I always buy it!!” I yelled.

She opened her mouth to speak but fell short. She resembled a fish as she opened and closed her mouth looking for a response. She huffed as she held her mouth closed, cheeks poking out temporarily. She muttered a curse under her breath before walking around me. I heard her light footsteps a few more times before they stopped.

“I told you before to stop feeding me bullshit and you’re doing it again. Whatever fuck it, and fuck you. I just hope whatever you were doing was worth it, cause you won’t be doing anything else around here,”

Her footsteps became heavy as she stormed off. The bedroom door echoed through the now silent apartment. Silence and hostility hung in the air. No sound could be heard—only my breathing. It mixed with the tension in the air heavily. I hung my head with my eyes closed, defeated.

The sound of “Beautiful Monster” began to fill my ears. I opened my eyes as the song continued. I followed the sound into the living, find Vanessa’s phone on the table in the living room. The screen glowed as it filled the air with music.

I set the coffee down on the table before picking up the phone. Unknown flashed across the screen. I pressed the green button before holding the phone up to my ear.

“Hello?”

“Hello. Is Ms. Vanessa Adams available,” the woman’s voice sounded familiar to me as it filled my ears.

“She’s…currently unavailable at the moment,” it wouldn’t be professional to tell them that she was locked in her room, bitter. “I can take a message though,”

“Okay. Can you tell her that Maya called for Mr.—”

“Maya?” a slight smile formed on my lips as I interrupted her. “I didn’t know you could sound so professional,”

“Excuse me?”

“It’s Justin,” I laughed.

Her laughter began to fill my ear. “I can sound professional when I want to Mr.—I’m my girlfriend’s assistant,”

“Watch it,” I laughed.

“Anyway,” she spoke as she began to calm down. “My boss is doing another photo shoot next week and wants her to be one of his models,”

“Alright, I’ll tell her”

I removed the phone from my ear prepared to end the call. I stopped when I heard Maya yell telling me that she wasn’t finish. I held the phone up to my ear once more.

“There’s a catch,” she began “he wants to be all creative and what not, so this is a three day photo shoot. It’s going to be in Australia. We’ll pay for the hotel and her accommodations while she’s there, she’ll only need to pay for her flight there and back. I need to know if she will be attending or not as soon as possible. If she’s not attending then I have to book another model. So please tell her girlfriend to answer her own damn phone next time,”

“And the professional Maya goes out the window,”

“I would’ve said worse but my boss was in the room for most of the conversation. Anyway, can you tell her to call me back as soon as she can,”

“Sure, sure,” I nodded. I didn’t know when I would get a chance to tell her but I would tell her.

“Thanks Justin—”

“I’m leaving,” the sound of Vanessa’s voice drowned out what Maya was saying.

I turned around facing a new Vanessa. She had changed from her comfortable clothes into something more stylish. Her hair was now down in its natural wavy state, brushed. A hat sat atop her head just as a beret would. She had managed to put on more make up in the few minutes that she was in her room.

“Where are you going?” I questioned.

She rolled her eyes as she adjusted her purse on her arm. “Fuck you Justin,” she breathed.

She started for the door—heels clicking on the hardwood floor—ignoring my gaze on her. She opened the front door stepping into the hallway as she held the door open. She turned to face me, her gaze cold and hard.

“If you must know, I’m going out. I don’t know when I’m going to be back because I’m going shopping with my boyfriend’s credit card,”

My eyes widened as I stared at her. I knew how much of a shopaholic Vanessa was, not to mention her expensive taste. My wallet was going to suffer for this fight.

“So fuck you, and don’t wait up,” her exit became more dramatic by the slam of the door.

I stood there, frozen and shocked. I didn’t know how to feel about the situation. She had stolen my credit card, and taken it upon herself to go on a shopping spree. This was all because I came home later than she wanted me to. if I had brought Natalie into this I wouldn’t be alive.

“Damn,” Maya breathed. The sound of her voice brought me out of my trance. I had completely forgotten that she was on the phone with me. “Sounds like you fucked up,”

“You have no idea,” I sighed. My fingers ran themselves through my hair as I shook my head. This was the last thing that I wanted someone else to hear.

“Believe me I do—you know what; you sound like you need a pick me up. You should come with me to this practice,”

“I’m not really in the mood for anything…”

“Come-on, I promise you’ll like it,”

“…what practice?”

“Okay honestly, it’s a practice for this group that Natalie’s in. There actually really good. They perform different places and what not, but they hold open practices once in a while. It’s fun to watch, and I try to go and support her when I can, and it’s just fun to watch. So will you come?”

I sighed as I thought over what she said. Natalie was the reason why I was in trouble right now. I had already been out with her once today, twice was pushing it. Going out with her again could only cause more drama.

Despite this, I wanted to go. I wanted to go out of spite. I wanted to do something to make Vanessa angrier than she already was. I wanted to prove to her that she couldn’t control me, she couldn’t control who I decided to hang out with.

“If you’re thinking about whether or not Natalie would care, trust me she wouldn’t. And if she does, then I can handle her. So what’d you say?”

I didn’t hesitate. “What time do you want me there?”