Tango

Chapter Five







I was able to leave the hospital a few days later. Much to my amusement, the doctors seemed to think that I was unable to walk by myself and I had to be escorted in a wheelchair. Scarlet and Alex were there, waiting at the front doors to pick me up and, much to my surprise, Nicholas was with them. Scarlet and Alex crushed me between them with a hug and when they were done, Nicholas too grabbed me and hugged me tightly.

There was this annoying pull at my heart when he did that. The only other time that anything like that had ever happened was when Derek first kissed me…Oh my god. Either I’m delusional or I have feelings for Nicholas.

“Something wrong Renee?” Questioned Nicholas as I pulled away from him. He looked down at me and I tried to do anything but look him in the eyes but it didn’t work too well. He gently placed his fingers under my chin and tilted my head so that I was only able
to look at him. “Are you sure you’re up to going home?”

“Yeah. Yeah I’m fine and I’m more then ready to go home. Hospital food sucks.” I grimaced in remembrance of the rice pudding. It was lumpy enough that I had chew for an average of three minutes per spoonful. It was bad enough that it made me think of math. “So what’s the rumor in school about me?” I asked, trying to take the attention off of my ‘romantic’ awakening.

Alex laughed from the drivers seat. “Oh you know, the usual. You were dating a drug lord in Vancouver and he met up with you at the club to give you your fix. Then there’s the one that you were abducted by aliens and were found in the middle of a crop circle but no one but the trekies believe that. Also there are the multiple other’s.”

“My personal favorite is that the female members of your gang met you at the strip club that you work at and they beat the crap out of you because you were getting all of the attention from the guys.” Added Nicholas with a small smirk on his face and the look in his eyes that said he has picturing me working at a strip club.

“And why would that be your favourite rumour?” I asked, a small almost unnoticeable smile on my lips although I could feel it in my eyes.

Nicholas knew he was caught and a bright red blush started to creep across his face. “It…oh…well…” He stuttered, trying to save his sorry ass from our obvious torments, which were straining to break free of the bonds of which held them captive for the time being. His face was as bright as the traffic light that Alex was stopped momentarily at and Nicholas suddenly started to fidget with the radio station, switching from pop, to rock to rap and back again.

Alex finally gave in and saved him any further embarrassment by filling me in on everything that I had missed in the classes that we had together. It turned out that, with all of the work that people had brought me, I wasn’t as far behind as I originally thought. Nicholas also added in that we were going to be starting to learn the tango in gym class on Monday.

“Having you there again will finally give my poor toes a rest. They paired me with that clod Heather. Man that girl has no rhythm and her moves are jerky. I was about ready to strangle her every day after class, if only me feet would have let me get to where she was. I don’t think that they’ll ever be the same again.”

I laughed. I didn’t know Heather all that well but from what I had heard she thought that she was all that on the dance floor. Sadly she was the only one who thought that. Lucky for Nicholas I was returning to normal society just in time. The tango is hard enough without having a bad partner.

Never was I so happy to see the house, which, I guess, could be considered mine too. It was such a welcome sight that I almost broke down and cried. When I was younger, and especially after my mother died, my family and I moved around a lot. We would stay in the same place for a while, fix it up and then sell it and move on. I was lucky though that I was always within the required distance for my school. Moving is hard enough to begin with, let alone having to switch schools also.

Had I have constantly changed schools when I was a child, I would never have met the great friends that I had. The best friend that I though I could never replace, but now I find that they are about equal with the people that are now a replacement family to me though there will always be a special place in my heart for the people who knew the true me.

There was Anita, who I have known all of my life and, up until just recently, I had told her everything. She was the first person that I told about my feelings for Derek, we went to pre-school together and even had braces at the same time. We had a rumour circulating about us once saying that we were lesbian lovers, only we hadn’t come out of the closet yet. So we played it to our advantage and I called her my Puerto Rican love slave and to her I was her little piece of hot white ass. We would walk around the school holding hands and kiss each other on the cheek. It was a big joke in our circle of friends and they all played along with us until people got the point and dropped the subject.

Then there was Pablo, computer genius at large. I swear to god his favorite movie is Hackers with Angelina Jolie, and he idolizes Bill Gates. He’s had universities fighting over him since he was in middle school and could have had whatever degree he wanted by now if his parents hadn’t refused to send him at such a young age. Although, you would be extremely lucky if you could get even two words out of him at one time whenever you were talking to him, thus resulting in a lot of one-sided conversations. His parents even thought that he was a mute until the age of 12, and then it dawned on them that he would grow up to be a hermit who never had anything to say to those who were not worthy. In all the time that I have known him, I think he’s only really talked to me three times, and that was when he was so intoxicated that he couldn’t even stand without something, or someone, to prop him up. Other then that, he only talks to people over instant messages. And he does this while breaking the codes of top-secret military files. I think that if he ever did talk while sober, there would be a whole lot of shit to be cleaned up by the government.

Aaron had been my friend since we were in diapers. Our moms had even told us once that we had our own language when we were little. I knew absolutely everything about him and the same went for him about me. He knew even more about me than Anita did. He was always able to read me like an open book and he had that brotherly defence mechanism in him that couldn’t be stronger even if he were my real brother. In fact he almost beat the crap out of Derek more times then I can count when we were younger, and again when Derek and I started to date. I always joked around with him when he got that way, saying that he was an over-protective pit-bull.

Now I had Scarlet, Alex and even Nicholas, and in the few short months that I’ve been here I feel more at home then I have in a long time.

“Happy to be home?” Asked Scarlet, as if reading my thoughts. It was creepy how she does that sometimes.

“Yeah. I really am and I’m really hungry.” I sighed, emphasizing the bit about food, hoping that she would get the point. Sadly, I don’t think that Scarlet is very good at hints, or she just chose not to hear that part because she walked away from me and into the house, being ever so graceful as she tripped up the stairs. I smiled as she let out a stream of very loud curses before actually heading inside.

Her mind must have been on her injured foot because when I got to the front door, shortly after her and Alex, there wasn’t a single light on anywhere and all of the curtains were drawn. I suppose Scarlet’s foot was more important then what could happen to the rest of her if she stumbled in her darkened house while heading in. Alex seemed at ease, walking toward the kitchen without turning on a light herself. I, on the other hand, was not as accustomed to said house, therefore I was not yet able to trounce around it in the dark without hitting a large piece of furniture yet. I suppose Nicholas was with me on that one since I heard his slam some part of his anatomy into something hard.

I suppressed a giggle and turned on the first lamp I came to. Looking at Nicholas, I was unable to keep it under wraps. He was now hobbling around the front hall, clinging to his knee and swearing in French under his breath.

I walked over to him and gently pressed on his shoulders. “Sit.” I ordered him.

He sat on the third step of the stairs leading to the second floor and simply looked at me waiting for an explanation.

“Roll up your jeans and let me see your knee.” I said as I kneeled in front of him.

Nicholas gave me a questioning look but eventually did what I demanded while dramatizing the amount of pain he was in. Once his knee was revealed, I looked his straight in the eye and asked, “Does this hurt?”

“Does what hurt?” He questioned me, giving me a ‘you’ve had too many meds’ look.

“This.” I said, and I poked him sharply in the assaulted body part. All while keeping eye contact and smiling sweetly at him.

“Yes!” he yelled in pain, quickly pulling his knee out of my reach. “Are you absolutely insane? Of course it hurt. I thought that you were going to kiss it better or something. Not make the pain worse!”

Once again I swallowed any laughter that was trying to escape. “I’m sorry.” I managed to get out, “I’ll kiss it better if you really want me to.”

Nicholas pouted at me but reluctantly moved his leg back to where it originally was and lifted it up closer to me. Gingerly I leaned down and gave the offended joint a soft kiss.

“There.” I then whispered, “All better. Roll you jeans back down and let go find the others. Somehow I get the impression that they have something planned in the kitchen.”

However when I got to the kitchen, only Scarlet was there, with the lights on thank God, and mixing something in a large metal bowl. There was no one popping out from inside the refrigerator, not one person under the table. My heart sunk a little, but then again it was my own fault for jumping to conclusions. No welcome home party for poor little…Renee.

“Hey,” I said, “what are you doing?”

Scarlet turned her attention away from her mixing bowl and towards me. “Baking brownies.” She stated and went back to stirring. “Alex is choosing a movie in the living room. You should go and stop her from picking Harry Potter again. If I’m forced to watch that one more time I think I’ll kill her.” She said without looking up at me. “Nicholas can you grease that pan for me that’s over there?”

I left before I was recruited to wash dishes and went to find Alex. Before the door swung close behind me, I could hear Nicholas grumbling about ‘women’s work’ and how he would never be caught dead in a pink apron’, much like the one that Scarlet had on over her clothing.

Twenty minutes later, Alex and I were preoccupied with ogling at the hotties in the Harry Potter movie, but we were soon forced to change our pick as we were both pelted in the head with pillows by Scarlet and Nicholas both.

“I said NO fucking Harry Potter Alex!” Yelled Scarlet as she was trying to chuck pillows, laugh and balance a tray of brownies and drinks. Alex just laughed merrily and went to the DVD player to switch movies. In truth, we had only put on the movie to annoy Scarlet and had gotten caught up with the European guys. We had really picked out the latest raunchy teen comedy to play, something about Europe too if I remembered correctly. All I know was that I hadn’t seen it but I had been wanting to ever since it was released onto video.

The rest of the night was spent with the five of us in a heap on the floor, Ben joining us halfway through the first movie, with our arms and legs all tangled together with pillows and blankets. If someone had just walked into the room they might have mistaken it for a fully clothed orgy. We all fell asleep at some point in time on the floor together. All I know was that I was more comfortable than I had been in days with my head on Nicholas’ chest, my arms around his waist, my legs over Scarlet and Alex’s head on my shoulder. I had forgotten how nice it was to just be with people and have them comfort you without knowing it by just being there. Listening to the rhythm of Nicholas’s heartbeat put me into a deep, satisfying sleep that my body had been carving for such a long time. Even though I had been unconscious in the hospital, it wasn’t the same. Here no nightmares plagued me and I dreamt sweet dreams until I woke up.

Now waking up was a different story. I heard that the television was on as I drifted slowly into waking and could feel that I wasn’t the only one awake. As I fully opened my eyes and allowed them to adjust to the glaring light, I was met with somewhat of a disturbing scene.

There on the screen was what I can only guess was a secretary and her boss going at it on his large, important looking desk in the middle of the day. I quickly averted my eye to searching for who was watching it, hoping that it was no one but knowing different. My line of vision finally fell onto the only two males in the group. Nicholas was fully awake and alert, I knew since I was able to see fully for myself, as was Ben while he held Scarlet in his arms. Oh yes, the boys were watching some disgusting pornographic movie, while us girls were sleeping oh so innocently. They were also so engrossed with it that they had yet to notice that I was awake also.
Deciding to let myself be known. “She’s so faking that orgasm.” I said as the woman on screen screamed her release. My tactics worked because both of them jumped at the sound other than the woman screaming, “Oh Bob!”

Quickly Ben changed the channel to a documentary on how grass grows and tried to redeem himself. “This was what we were really watching Renee, honest to God.”

“Yeah,” Added Nicholas, “It was a commercial so we switched it and…”

“And you decided to keep it there to make sure the woman was alright. Right?” I snickered. “Honestly guys, you are disgusting but I was telling you the truth.”

“About what?” Asked Nicholas.

“That she was faking her orgasm. You see, there are three types.” I said, carefully moving Alex onto a pillow and sitting myself up against the couch so I could face Nicholas eye to eye. “There’s the normal orgasm where the girl cries ‘Oh, oh, oh.’ Then there’s the religious orgasm where she yells ‘Oh God, oh God, oh God.’ And then there’s the fake orgasm, where the girl screams ‘Oh Nicholas, oh Nicholas, oh Nicholas!’ You see? She was faking it.”

Both boys looked absolutely floored as I did my little impressions. I ran my hands down my body and threw my head back with each cry escaping my mouth in short gasps of imaginary passion. But Nicholas started to look extremely scary as I did the last one. The triumphant smile that I had on my face instantly fell as I got the look of pure death from him.

“Oh, you are so dead.” He said, his face showing nothing but fury. And before I could move or say anything, he was on me, tickling my sides without mercy. I tried to get away but only succeeded in kicking Scarlet and Alex awake and then having them laugh instead of helping. Then, as I was dieing from laughing so hard, Ben recapped the whole conversation for them, including the appropriate actions, and they laughed even harder.

So there I was, on my back, on the floor, trapped in between the couch and Nicholas, who had straddled my waist to gain better access to me. And that was where Sidney found me a few minutes later, screaming at Nicholas to stop while I had tears running down my face from laughing so hard. It was there that Sidney promptly grabbed a mouthful of Nicholas’ jean-clad ankle, bit down and pulled.

- - - - - - -

The next Monday at school was overwhelming to say the least. Everyone wanted to know the truth about what happened from my own mouth, despite the fact that they had been told soon after it originally happened. I lost count by second period of how many times I had had to recount my tale of hospitalization and to tell the truth I was getting tired of it. I also had a whole lot of homework to catch up on, which I did have a lot of help with from Nicholas and everyone else.

I also was expected to jump right back into gym class. We were continuing off from where Nicholas had told me, the tango. In all honesty, it was difficult, but Nicholas was an amazing partner and I caught on fast. In no time we were somewhat making our way around the gymnasium doing steps that could pass for ones of the tango persuasion. Needless to say I was extremely happy when class was over and I could continue on with my day and give my poor muscles a rest. All I cared about after that was a nice shower and sleep.

The shower was fast in coming, thank god. After class I was treated with the small pleasure of taking a nice long one. I had been surprised with not having my next class due to the fact that our teacher had an appointment and, since we were old enough to not cause complete havoc in the hallways, were permitted to not have to go. They called it a senior privilege. So I took my time getting undressed and I granted myself a leisurely shower, letting the water just warm my skin. However, there was something off while I was neatly folding my clothes and wrapping a towel around my naked body. It felt as though there was someone watching my every move. I looked around as I walked to the shower stalls, and when I was satisfied that there was no one there, I walked into the shower and dropped my towel. I lathered, rinsed and repeated with the shampoo, something that I usually didn’t do, and I generally just took my time. But, as good as it felt, there was something that still just wasn’t right.

As the hot water rinsed my hair, I had that weird sensation again that someone was watching me. I could feel their eyes on me, unblinking. It sent chills up my spine. So as soon as I was finished with my hair, I turned off the water and reached for my towel. I had seen Alfred Hitchcock’s movie ‘Psycho’ and I thought of the scene in which the lady was in the shower and the person came in and stabbed her as I dried myself off. It was really freaky and I had taken baths with the bathroom door locked for weeks after. As I stepped out of the shower I knew that something was out of place. With my towel wrapped around me I walked towards the door, half expecting to not see anyone. I was right, there was no one there. But even as I was turning around I could still feel eyes watching my every move, drinking me in. It was sickening. And it only got worse. As I stepped back into the showers I realized that my clothes were no longer on the stool where I had first put them. And my dirty gym clothes were missing as well. I had seen then while I was walking to and from the door. So someone must have taken them while I was checking out the rest of the change room! That could only mean that they were still here with me, still watching me.

I had no idea what to do. It was the last class of the day and no one would even know that something was wrong because I didn’t have class. My only hope was that someone would see that I wasn’t with everyone else and think ‘Gee, where could she be?’ and then send someone to look for me. Sadly, I knew that that would not happen. Most seniors drive to school and when they don’t have a class they leave school grounds. I know that I had done it myself in the past, sometimes whether or not there was class.
So I sucked it up and did the only thing I could in a situation like this one. I put on my shoes that, thankfully, were kept where I had left them, I tightened the extremely too small for my liking towel around my body, and I walked out into the partially deserted hallway of Our Mother of Mercy Catholic High School.

My hair was dripping wet and making little runways of water down my back and chest, chilling my thoroughly to the bone. The towel seemed, in my mind, to be getting smaller and smaller with every step I was taking towards the center of the school where I hoped I would run into a friendly face before my face was beet red. It seemed that Lady Luck was not on my side today though. The first person that I ran into was the principal. Oh yeah. I said it, the principal of my Catholic School.

“Mrs. Brandon I can explain.” I started to say, but I was quickly silenced with the raising of her hand. She then turned on her heel and started towards her office, expecting me to follow her without complaint. It’s amazing how much can be conveyed in a conversation without on of the people saying even one solitary word. I could tall from Mrs. Brandon’s facial expression, or lack there of, and her body language that she was greatly disgusted and appalled with my behaviour. Her shoes were making a tight clicking noise on the laminate flooring; it was that tight sound that you knew was a teacher even before you saw her.

This had to be the most embarrassing moment of my life. In order to get to the main office, I had to walk past many classrooms with open doors and through the common area where all my friends were sitting with the rest of our class. All conversations quieted as I meekly scuttled past them with my head hung low and my ands keeping my towel securely in place. My face was so hot that I’m sure the cooking class could have fried an egg on it at that very moment.

Once we both entered her office and were both seated, she started into me. “Miss. McTavish, I am absolutely disgusted with what I just witnessed in the hallways of my school. If someone had just told me that something of this calibre would happen in my school I would have laughed and swore that that person was living in a dream world. But to witness it myself, I am almost at a loss of words. This is enough to expel you from my school all together and would probably keep the other schools in this area from accepting you as well. You are just lucky that I am a calm woman and I am going to give you a minute to explain yourself to me before I do expel you.” Her face was livid and patches of pink were showing up on her face and neck from the frustration she was feeling.

I took a deep breath and started into my story. I was able to tell her in les than a minute what had happened, how my clothing was taken from me and I had no choice but to leave the change room to try and find someone who could provide me with pants and a shirt so I could at least go home with some dignity to put on real clothes.

Mrs. Brandon’s face slowly relaxed and pity replaced the anger she was harbouring towards me at that moment. Without a word to me, she got up from her chair and went to the closet that was in the corner. She opened it and took out a huge plastic box. After she opened the lid, I was able to see that there were all sorts of clothing in it, school uniform articles too. I gave a sigh of relief as she handed me a sweater and a pair of pants.

“Now, I don’t ever want to see you prowling the hallways of my school dressed like this ever again. You understand?”

“Yes ma’am.” I replied as she left her office so I could change in private. I swear, that as the door clicked shut, I could hear laughter coming from her and the secretaries.