Passion's Killing Floor

“Ada, I knew you would love it. I’m really happy you’re getting along with, what’s his name, Ville? Are you guys going to meet up any time soon?” Danni pestered me on our way to the college campus. She’d convinced me to take classes so that when my parents money ran out, I had a back up plan.

“We’ve only been talking for a few days.”

“Bullshit! You two have been talking for three weeks. And neither of you know what the other looks like!”

“Dan, it’s not about looks. We’ll know when we’re ready. Anyway, I hardly have time to meet up with anyone coming now. My sister and her husband are going on their second honeymoon. I offered to watch my niece. I’ll be occupied every minute with that kid.”

“Mindy? How old is that squirt now, anyway?” she asked, grabbing my hand as we walked across the street -a habit I’m not sure she noticed.

“Five, I think. What’s worse is she doesn’t talk at all. She flat out refuses to and ends up pointing to things or doing it herself.”

“Hmm, well you know I would always be willing to watch her for a couple of hours so you can meet your man.”

“Danni! I don’t even know if he’d accept. Anyway, I’m not entirely ready to meet him.”

“Well, why not?!”

The class building was just ahead and I started walking faster -hoping to end this conversation with Danni quickly.

“Just because.”

“B- oh my god!” she grabbed my arm tightly, making me stop. “You like him!”

I could feel my cheeks redden at her words and she gasped, covering her mouth with her gloved hands. I started walking again, begging to get to the building quicker for once in my life. She caught up to me with a Cheshire cat grin plastered on her face. We got to the building -much to my relief- and she gave me a quick hug and a peck on the cheek -reminding me to meet her at lunch.

I made my way into the building on my way to my English class. It wasn’t very interesting, I’d learned most of it on my own about the English language, spoke it well enough to get by. But nearly every major required it, and our teacher insisted that what we learned in here was crucial to our futures, as the world was becoming quickly dominated by the English language. I sat in a seat near the back so while I was on my laptop “taking notes” the teacher wouldn’t notice my lack of interest and attention in his class.

Setting my bag on the table, I pulled my laptop from it and plugged it into the table power strip so the battery wouldn’t die as fast that way. The computer logo appeared as it booted up. Other students piled into the classroom as the time reached nearer to ten. A boy sat next to me, opening his computer and pulling up an internet page of something Sci-Fi looking. I turned back to my own screen and opened my messenger and a browser. As I typed in the address a message popped up on to my screen; Ville.

“Hello, darling. Having a good early morning?”

“I wish. I’m in my English class, sitting next to the nerd of the century and preparing to listen to my teacher drone on about how to properly speak the English language.”

“Sounds lovely. I’ve heard about a few of your classes so far, what are you others?”

“Well, it’s the Academy of Fine Arts, so, everything is art related. I’m working on my Bachelor of Fine Arts. We have the Basics Studies -Basics of Artistic Work, Intro to Art History, Information and Communication Tech; Language Studies -Oral and Written Skills on English, Text Comprehension, Oral Skills; Independent Work and stuff.”

“I could never survive so much school -it was never my thing. As I’ve said before, music was the only life I ever saw fit for myself. That and owning a sex shop.”

“So I’ve heard. The mention of the shop, I recall our first conversation -where we talked about sex for quite a bit.”

“I remember very well. Let’s not go there again, shall we? At least, not today.”

“Let’s not. Out of utter boredom and lack of anything else to do -and face it, I look gorgeous today- I’m sending you a photo. No need to return, I just need someone to see how pretty I feel today. *sarcasm*”

“Try not to sound so self-centred, darling. HA! Most wouldn’t put up with it, but you know all too well I do because I do the same. But I don’t object.”

“Wonderful. Just a sec.”

I brought up the web-cam and snapped a picture of myself, the guy sitting next to me staring at me out of the corner of his eye, uploading it to the messenger page.

“Tada.”

“Lord, you are not mistaking when you say gorgeous. Actually, gorgeous doesn’t even put a dent in how astounding you look.”

My cheeks grew warm and I just knew my face was the colour of cherries. I was tempted to hide my head in my arms, because I felt like everyone in the room now saw how much I was blushing.

“Oh stop. You’re making me blush!”

“I cannot deny the truth.”

My god, could this man get any more adorable?



“He called you gorgeous? Oh my god, you must meet him!” Danni said, shoving more food in her mouth.

“Dan! For the last time, no! I’m not ready and I just haven’t the free time for it lately,” I said, poking around at my salad with my fork.

“Then make some, get the kid a baby sitter next week.”

“It’s in two weeks, but I’ve got to get prepared for her and hide everything. Not to mention I have three tests and a couple of quizzes to study for. We’ll meet when we’re fully ready.”

She sighed and ate more food, shaking her head at me. Danni, I loved her but she could be a pain in the hind end sometimes. I checked my watch, we had half hour before classes started again. The whole next part of my day would be spent in my art classes, in pure bliss and self expression of any form I wanted. And a little talking to Ville. Of course. It made me wonder what he did during the day, as I never hear him say anything about what he’s doing. Other than sitting in a Starbuck’s or on his couch. Though, being a musician, I guess he didn’t have much to attend to during the day with that career.

“Okay, stop thinking about the man and let’s go! We’ve got a way to walk and fifteen minutes to do it. Up, up, up!”

We put our garbage in the b ins and left the warm shop, heading towards the next building for our classes. I pulled out my smokes from my pocket and lit one up. Danni sighed loudly beside me.

“Those things aren’t going to help your asthma or lungs, but I suppose it’s better than your pot smoking days. God, that stuff stunk. You smelled like skunk all the time.”

I nodded in agreement. Our differences in opinions about drugs almost ruined Danni and I and our friendship. My opinion was to try everything once, to get it out of my system, and there was always something new so I’d never be finished. I could always be curious. However, she had never even touched a smoke in her life, barely a drink. I’d probably still be “experimenting” or hooked if it weren’t for her… or six feet under dirt. I stomped out my smoke when we got to the building. I just thanked god Danni and I didn’t have any classes together. No doubt she’d ask questions and pester me all day about talking to Ville.