Page 139 of A World Apart
The traffic still doubled the drive time, and it was well after 11:00pm by the time we rolled up outside my apartment building. I gratefully tipped the driver and tiredly pulled myself up the stairs, looking forward to my bed, the anticipated post-concert crash well in effect now.
The apartment was dark when I put my key in the lock, Becka must have gone to bed, so I quietly locked the door behind me and toed off my boots. I walked into the living area and flipped on the light.
A man I didn’t recognise popped up from behind the sofa. He was very, very naked, a fact not at all disguised by the hands he clutched over his… well.
“WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?!” I screamed, grabbing the closest thing to me, a hefty Stanley tumbler from off the counter, holding it aloft like I was prepared to brain him with it.
“Kaiya, stop, it’s ok!”
“Becka?? What the fuck is going on?” I didn’t take my eyes − or my aim − off the naked guy, or Becka − also very naked − I noticed as I glanced in her direction. Confusion made my arm sag a little, the Stanley tumbler lowering to my side.
“Ben, put your pants on.” Becka turned to the naked man, holding an arm out to him as if to, what, comfort him?
Hang on a minute.
“BEN!?”
“Ky, stop shouting,” Becka pulled a t-shirt on to cover her nakedness; not her shirt, I noticed. “This is… well, this is… Ben.”
“Um, hi.” Ben waved at me awkwardly after hurriedly pulling on a pair of blue jeans.
“THE Ben?!” I aimed this at Becka.
She nodded, a little sheepishly, while ‘the Ben’ waved at me again.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “You motherfucker!”
Chapter 44
“Ithink I should go,” Ben said, nervously eying me.
“Wait-” Becka reached out to stop him, “your shirt-”
“Keep it, I’ll put my jacket on.” He moved around the sofa, never turning his back to me, grabbing a leather jacket I hadn’t noticed when I came in off the counter next to me. I followed his movements, turning to keep him in my line-of-sight watching as he pulled on a pair of sneakers.
“I’ll call you,” he said to Becka over my shoulder, before looking me in the eyes for the first time. “Nice to meet you, Kaiya.” He opened and closed the door faster than I could think of anything appropriately threatening to say.
As the door snicked shut, I turned back to Becka, slamming the tumbler down on the counter.
“You got some ‘splaining to do Lucy.”
She rolled her eyes. “Oh chill out, I was much cooler than this when I caught you and Jihoon butt naked in here.”
“That’s not the same, and you know it!”
“It’s not that much different,” she muttered, pulling her trousers back on.
“There are a couple glaring differences,” I said, argumentatively.
Becka held her hands up to cover her eyes as she took a deep breath.
“Can we talk about this in the morning?” She slid her hands up into her hair and it was then that I saw how red her eyes were.
“Have you been crying?” I asked, horrified. “What did that fucker do to you? I’m calling the cops-”
“For fucks sake, Ky!” Becka shouted, startling me and pausing me in the process of pulling my phone out of my pocket.
“Just… fucking stop. He didn’t do anything. Nothing I didn’t want him to do, anyway.” She sat down on the sofa heavily. I moved round the sofa, but opted to sit on the coffee table in front of her. Because, well. Ew.
