FIVE: A Rude Awakening

BRITNEY ASTON

Though I hated to admit it, my mum was right. Remaining locked up in my room simply because I didn’t want to run into Travis was becoming very suffocating.

Especially when I knew well enough I was going to eventually run into him whether I wanted to or not.

So after spending a couple more hours in my room without doing anything, I eventually pulled myself out of bed, got freshened up and decided to head out.

My mum was nice enough to spam my messages with nearby places I could visit. Malls, restaurants, the bus route to take- it was all she flooded my phone with and honestly, I was glad.

Dressed in a casual jeans and crop top, I stepped out of the house and in no time, found myself not as lost as I was on my first day. My mum’s direction proved to be really helpful in navigating the city and helping me get familiar with the popular landmarks and destinations she had in mind.

Truly, London was a beautiful place to be. There were tons of places to explore and tons of things to catch my fancy when I wasn’t busy thinking about Travis. And since I was given the opportunity to give thoughts about him a break, I decided to enjoy myself in the best way I could think of.

Thanks to my mum, I was able to find myself at a nearby mall. With the aid of her card, I was able to get all sorts of things- from the ones I actually needed to the ones I just considered pretty. It was distracting and indeed, shopping was therapeutic.

After about an hour of roaming from store to store, my hands were filled with different shopping bags. For a second I almost felt guilty for overspending but quickly reminding myself of the fact that my mum brought it all upon herself by shipping me off to a strange country, i brushed the thought away, temporarily marveling at the new interesting things my bags held.

Slowly getting familiar with the way things operated, I took the bus home and in barely 20 minutes of riding, I found myself right in front of the now familiar street. Proud of myself, I quickened my steps towards the house and was only a couple of steps away from the main entrance when my phone rang in my pocket.

Struggling to take it out, I glanced at the FaceTime caller ID, a smile immediately appearing on my face. It was no one but Jane. My best friend from the U.S.

“OMG for a while I was convinced your plane vanished into thin air and you didn’t make it to London. YOU PROMISED TO CALL WHEN YOU FINALLY SETTLED IN SO WHY DIDNT YOU CALL?!”

“Hi Jane,” I laughed at her, watching her scowl at me. “I’m sorry I didn’t call. Things have just been really hectic since I got here.”

“Where are you?” She asked, peering through the screen like that could give her a better view. “Are you outside? Oh my goodness did you go shopping? Talk about settling down quite quickly!”

“My mum made me,” I replied her, showing off the shopping bags decorating my arms. “It was becoming really suffocating to stay in my room simply because I was avoiding-“

“Avoiding?” She caught on quick, making me immediately bite my tongue. “Who are you avoiding? OMG don’t tell me you’re avoiding your step dad already? Is he that awful?”

“No, no, it’s nothing like that,” i shook my head, wondering how i was going to tell her about all that happened. “I’m not avoiding him.”

“Then who are you avoiding?”

“Christ, Jane, give me a break,” I sighed, resuming my steps towards the front door. Knowing Jane well enough, it was going to be almost impossible to completely avoid the question so all I could do was just stall by walking towards the door and all the way to my room. “It’s just-“

Lost in thoughts of how to break the news to her, I pushed the front door open and walked straight into the living room. “He is okay. He really is. And he seems like he really likes my mum I mean the few times I’ve seen them together-“

“You aren’t answering my question, Britney,” Jane interrupted me, shaking her head violently. “I heard you. You said you were avoiding someone. You were staying in your room cause you were avoiding someone. Who is it? Oh is it your mum? Did you two have a fight already?”

“It’s nothing,” I shook my head, adjusting the bags on my arms as I walked. “It’s just- Ow!”

“What happened?!”

“Can’t you see?”

Two questions popping out at the same time. One undoubtedly from Jane as she watched color drain from my face, shock written all over my face. And two, from Travis as I bumped into him in the living room.

“Please, no.”

Heat rushed to my cheeks as my brain struggled to process the sudden unexpected encounter. With shaky breath, i raised my head up and just like I predicted, met Travis right in front of me, shirtless.

“What happened? Did you bump into something? Wait, do I see a shirtless man?!”

“It’s nothing!” I quickly muttered, allowing the bags slide out of my hands as I fumbled with my phone. “Um, Jane, I’ll call you back.”

“But-“

I didn’t give her the chance to object, immediately hastily ending to shove my phone back into my pocket. With her out of the picture, an exhale escaped my lips, followed by me trying to make sense out of what just happened.

I walked into the living room, engrossed in my call with Jane and didn’t realize Travis was walking in my direction until I bumped into him.

Just perfect.

“Who was that?”

“Huh?” I finally raised my head to immediately meet him staring at me. His gaze was intense and piercing but I could barely focus on his words, something else catching my attention.

He was shirtless. Just like he was the night before. Just like he was two nights before.

Clothed in nothing but shorts reaching his mid thigh, his chiseled features and tousled hair added to his impression of rugged handsomeness. It was strange and as much as I wished I could deny it, I felt a strange mix of embarrassment and attraction, my heart pounding in my chest.

“What are you doing here?” I blurted out, immediately realizing how silly my question was.

“What am I doing here?” He clearly had no intention on entertaining my silliness as he repeated. “In my father’s house?”

“I mean,” I was almost stuttering, trying my best to fix my gaze on anywhere that wasn’t his body. “I mean fine I get its your father’s house but you no longer live alone, remember? You- you can’t just be walking around naked. Put some clothes on at least.”

“Oh, I see that’s the problem here.”

I couldn’t dare look at him directly in the eye but I could sense the amusement in his tone. He was enjoying himself when I just wanted to die of embarrassment/awkwardness.

“But again, like I previously said, this is my father’s house and you don’t get to tell me what to do or how to dress.”

“What?” I finally looked up at him immediately catching the familiar smirk on display. “You can’t just-“

“Can’t I?” He interrupted me, immediately taking a step towards me. “Can i seriously not?”

I swallowed and took a step away from him only to have him immediately take one closer towards me again. Realizing the effect he was quickly beginning to have on me, I shifted my gaze from him again, trying to fix my attention on anything but him.

“Does it disturb you? Do you really not want me to walk around the house like this?”

Was that even a question?

Afraid my eyes would do the talking when I was determined to regard him with nothing but silence, I shut my eyes and immediately looked away. Only to have him tilt my chin with his fingers so I could face him, my eyes opening immediately.

“Huh?”

I could barely come up with word even if I wanted to, my entire attention now fixed on him. His lips kept on stretching into a wider smirk, his cold hands refusing to leave my chin almost like he feared I was going to look away from him.

I couldn’t though. Even if I wanted to. Not when he had suddenly cast an unexplainable spell on me.

“Travis? Oh, there you are!”

Our short moment of silence was suddenly interrupted by a high pitched voice, Travis finally freeing my chin from his grip to take a step away from me. Without his cold hands on me, I let out a deep exhale, suddenly realizing I’d been holding my breathe the entire time.

“I was looking everywhere for you. You said you just wanted to get water.”

Struggling to maintain composure, my gaze shifted towards the girl responsible for the interruption, my heart immediately twitching.

She was pretty, I had to admit. Blonde, a nice smile and a pretty figure she effortlessly showed off in just the underwear she was clad in.

“Sorry, my bad,” Travis muttered, walking up to her to wrap his arms around her waist. “I got distracted for a little while.”

“Who is she?” She reciprocated his gesture, wrapping her arms around his neck to give me a quick suspicious look. “I don’t remember seeing her here when I walked in.”

“She’s my dad’s wife daughter,” he replied barely sparing me a glance. “And no, she just got here.”

“Oh, I guess that makes sense then. Hi, nice to meet you!”

I barely paid attention to her greetings, my gaze suddenly fixed on something else. Barely a second after she acted friendly towards me, she returned her gaze towards Travis, pressed her body against his and in return, he placed a kiss against her lips.

It was a quick peck on the lips. But a kiss that lasted long enough for all sorts of emotions to stir in me.

There was so much tongue action in display, their hands roaming around each other’s bodies. Their intimate display lasted a good while, a strange feeling making its way to my chest.

Finally, I was able to make sense of the feeling in my chest as nothing but disgust, pushing me to finally look away from them and give them the privacy they so desperately needed.

Ignoring them, I bent to gather my shopping bags now all sprawled against the floor. They suddenly looked more than ever, each bag an uncomfortable distance from the other.

“Do you need a hand?”

“What?” Immediately recognizing the voice, I looked up. Just as I predicted, it was Travis standing in front of me, arms stretched in my direction. “What? No, I do not.”

“Are you sure?”

“Aren’t you supposed to be with your girlfriend?” I asked without thinking, not hesitating to turn around to check if she was still there. “Oh, did she leave to your room already? Shouldn’t you be with her then?”

“Uh, firstly she isn’t my girlfriend,” he replied plainly. “And no, she left already so if that’s what you’re worried about, no one’s waiting for me.”

“She isn’t your girlfriend?” I had to ask, confused all over again. “But you both were- who is she then?”

“Oh she’s- Josie, no was it Georgia? Nah I think it was Jordan. Yeah, that’s her name. Julia.”

Bewildered was an understatement for how I felt. “What?”

“What?” He arched a brow at me. “Why are you oooking at me like that?”

“Um, I don’t know,” I almost couldn’t believe my ears. “Probably because I just watched you have a full makeout session with a girl that isn’t your girlfriend. Or no, a girl whose name you don’t even remember?”

“Wait what?” He looked at me like I was uttering nothing but gibberish. “I don’t understand you. You’re pissed? At what exactly?”

“Just forget it,” I huffed, reaching for the last bag. “And no, I do not need your help. Thank you.”

“Okay I think you’re overreacting now.”

“Am I?” I raised my brows at him, pausing my steps though I’d promised myself not to. “Overreacting?”

“You do remember when you and I hooked up it was under similar circumstances,” he folded his arms. “I didn’t know a thing about you. Not even your name. So why is it suddenly a big deal to you? Where’s this moral compass suddenly coming from?”

His words felt like a sharp punch straight to my gut.

“I don’t have to remember her name,” he continued. “No strings attached. I’m doing her a favour by sleeping with her already and there’s no part of that deal that includes me knowing her name or literally anything about her.”

A mixture of surprise and disgust washed over me, my already terrible opinion of him taking a nosedive. I couldn’t express how I felt about his attitude without seeming unreasonable so instead, I decided to hide under an umbrella.

“But isn’t it disrespectful to do all that here?” I voiced out. “Clearly, you shag all sorts of girls but would you be bringing them all here?”

“Depends,” he shrugged. “I mean, this house pretty much belongs to me too so I have no reason to not bring them here.”

A lump developed in my throat as I uttered my next words. “Even with me here?”

“You’re just going to have to get used to it, darling,” he shrugged again, his nonchalance on full display. “It shouldn’t be that hard.”

“But-“

“But hey, I remember you saying you don’t want to ever see my face,” he interrupted me to remind me of my stance. “So it shouldn’t be a big deal to you. As long as you do a good job at avoiding me then, no matter the amount of girls I bring over shouldn’t matter to you. Right?”

His words stung me and I could feel anger bubbling within me. Realization hit me, leaving me with the conclusion that there was no point talking to him.

So with a glare, I turned on my heel and stormed out of the living room to head back to my room, reminding myself to do every single thing in my power to avoid him as much as I could.