I Do, Maybe: A Novella Page 6
“Sorry about what?”
“I didn’t know what to get you and I thought that…”
“You actually thought about it?”
“Yes, and that’s all I could come up with and I’m sorry.”
“No I mean that in a good way. You actually gave my present some thought.”
“What?” My eyes shot open.
“My Dad got me shares. Mum bought me a fountain pen with my name and date of birth engraved on it. One of my brothers got me a yearly subscription of BRW.” He breathed out a sigh. “Your present means a lot to me, Emily. I don’t have very many friends because I don’t know who I can trust. But I now know I can trust you. So thank you.”
I felt relief sweep through my body and I smiled. “You’re welcome,” I said quietly.
“Now take a deep breath and tell me, slowly, about your holiday.”
*****
From: Emily Watkins
To: Fraser Lewis
Sent: Friday 1st August, 2014 20:36
RE: Swimming
Hey Eeyore,
I’ll be competing in four events in September’s meet - 200m freestyle, 200m breaststroke, 800m freestyle and 400m individual medley. I didn’t think I’d be up to scratch for the medley but qualified second.
Piglet
From: Fraser Lewis
To: Emily Watkins
Sent: Friday 1st August, 2014 20:40
RE: Swimming
Piglet
Of course you’re up to scratch, you train hard and you’re a fierce competitor. I’ve seen the look in your eye moments before the starting gun is fired, your focus is purely on winning.
Eeyore
From: Emily Watkins
To: Fraser Lewis
Sent: Friday 1st August, 2014 20:43
RE: Swimming
When have you seen this look? I wasn’t aware you’d been to any of my meets.
From: Fraser Lewis
To: Emily Watkins
Sent: Friday 1st August, 2014 20:45
RE: Swimming
I may or may not have snuck into the aquatic centre during the short course swim meet last week. For reasons obvious I couldn’t tell you I was coming.
From: Emily Watkins
To: Fraser Lewis
Sent: Friday 1st August, 2014 20:47
RE: Swimming
You saw me swim and didn’t tell me?! I AM SO MAD!!
From: Fraser Lewis
To: Emily Watkins
Sent: Friday 1st August, 2014 20:50
RE: Swimming
:) No you’re not
From: Emily Watkins
To: Fraser Lewis
Sent: Friday 1st August, 2014 20:53
RE: Swimming
sighs I know but I wish I was.
*****
Term three break came and I spent four days at home in Melbourne before I flew back to Sydney where I spent four days with Kat and her family in their family home. If I thought Fraser’s family were rich, Kat’s family were loaded. I’d never seen a home as exuberant as theirs. Kat’s bedroom alone was as big at my entire home in Melbourne. Her wardrobe was as big as my bedroom in my Sydney apartment.
But just like Fraser’s family, Kat’s were as down to earth and friendly as I could imagine.
Kat had two older brothers, Sean and Richard, who insisted on being called Richard because he hated the name Rick.
“What about Dick?” I asked which resulted in a cushion being thrown at my head.
Sean thought it was hilarious though.
On Saturday night, Kat and her brothers invited a few friends over for “games.” When I say games, I mean tennis and basketball and billiards and table tennis and handball and air hockey and pinball and darts and pretty much any other game you could think of.
When she had mentioned to me they were having friends over for games, I thought she meant maybe Monopoly or Scrabble.
I still had a lot to learn about the world of the rich and famous.
Fraser knew I was spending a few days with Kat. He knew her brothers and trusted them with me. But when Sean and Richard’s friends, Stuart and Hugh turned up, things got a little…uncomfortable.
One guy, every time I leaned over the billiards table to have a shot, would make a remark about my “fine arse” and what he would like to do to it. He had been drinking – everyone but me was drinking – so everyone else just laughed along with it.
Kat defended me as much as she could between giggles, but she didn’t seem to pick up on how uneasy I was.
After about an hour, I decided to head upstairs to go to bed. I went quietly, not telling anyone I was leaving the games room. I doubted anyone would miss me anyway.
I showered and just as I slipped between the soft cotton sheets of Kat’s bed, I heard her bedroom door opened.
Expecting it to be Kat, I lay down with my back to the door and pulled the covers up over me. “Sorry, I needed an early night,” I said.
I heard soft footsteps across the carpeted floor before the bed next to me dipped and I felt a strong hand pull and hold my shoulder flat against the bed. I didn’t get a look at the face, but the long dark blonde hair surrounding it let me know that the guy who had been commenting on my arse all night was now trying to kiss me. He stunk of beer and cigarettes and his tongue met my cheek and chin as I moved my mouth away from his.
“Get off me!” I yelled, pushing with all my might to get him off me.
He moved his hand from my shoulder to my chest and grabbed at what would be my breast, if I had any.
He started to laugh. “You have no tits.” He laughed as he got up off the bed and headed toward the door. “Hey, she hasn’t got any tits. That’s no fair.”
“You owe me fifty bucks, pal.”
I heard more laughter from the hallway but eventually the noise was gone and I was alone.
I wondered where the hell Kat was.
Tears pooled and spilled down my cheeks and suddenly I didn’t care where Kat was. I wanted to leave.
Greg had the weekend off, considering I was with the Gold family. But he was the only person I could call.
“Is everything okay, Emily?” he asked in answer to my call.
Between small sobs I asked if he could pick me up from Kat’s house and take me back to the apartment. I would be ready to be picked up in five minutes.
He said he would be there in about ten. Before he ended the call, he again asked me if everything was okay.
“No,” I answered. “Please just come get me.”
I should’ve known. However it surprised me when not three minutes later, Fraser phoned me. I considered not answering, but I knew he’d be relentless.
“Hello Fraser.” The words were barely past my lips when he spoke.
“What’s happened? Are you okay?”
“I’ve…I just want to go home.”
“Home to Melbourne?” he asked.
“No, to the apartment.”
“What happened?”
I sniffed and took a deep breath. “Nothing, I can’t tell you.”
“Em, I’m your friend. You can tell me anything.”
“You’ll be mad at me if I tell you.”
“Why would I be mad?”
“Fraser, I can’t tell you. Okay? Please just let it go. I’ll be fine once I’m back at the apartment.”
“Emily. Wait a sec.” I heard a muffled sound then Fraser speaking. “Dad, I need to go see Emily. She’s crying and won’t tell me what’s wrong.”
“Sorry Fraser. You’re going to have to let Greg and Georgiana handle it.”
“But Dad, she’s my responsibility.”
“Fraser, you knew the terms of the agreement when you decided to take Emily on. No physical contact with her until you’ve finished school. No distractions.”
“She’s not a distraction. She’s my friend.”
I wondered if I should keep listening to this conversation. It was private, but they were talking about me, so I felt I had
a right to listen.
“Fraser, I’ll ban all and any contact with her, including email and phone calls if you breach the terms of the agreement. The answer is no. Let Greg and Georgiana do their jobs.”
I heard Fraser grunt in frustration before he spoke into the phone again. “Are you still there?” he asked.
“Yes. Don’t worry about me, Fraser. I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine. You’re upset about something and I need to know.”
“Why do you need to know?”
“Because I have a responsibility to look after you.”
“I’m not your responsibility, Fraser.”
“Do you really think so? It’s because of me that you’re away from your family and I promised your father and mother that I would look after you. But I can’t do that if you don’t tell me what’s wrong.”
I could sense the desperation in his voice. He was truly concerned for me. But there was no way I was going to tell him what had happened.
“I can’t tell you. It’s embarrassing.”
“Is it something to do with girl problems?” he asked. “‘Cause you can speak to my mum if you need to.”
I laughed. “No it’s not that. I’d call my own mum if it was girl problems. No it’s something else.”
“Please Emily, please tell me what happened.”
I contemplated it. His voice was so sincere and it was hard to remember that he was just a 15 year old boy, not much younger than the boy who had tried to kiss me. If I told Fraser what had happened, he’d laugh at me, just the same as the other boys did.
“Talking to you has already made me feel better,” I confess. It was true. What had me in tears only minutes ago barely seemed significant. “Maybe I overreacted.”
“Tell me what happened and I’ll tell you if you overreacted.”
I told him and going by his reaction I hadn’t overreacted. Within minutes of ending the call to him, Kat and Mr. and Mrs. Gold were in the bedroom.
Sean, Richard and Kat got grounded for the rest of the year, which was a punishment to me also, as Kat was my only source of a social life and Mr and Mrs Gold fussed and worried over me until Greg arrived to take me back to the apartment.
With Greg driving me back to the apartment, I texted Fraser:
Sorry I broke a condition of the contract. But I didn’t know there would be other boys there.
Fraser texted back moments later:
Forget the stupid contract. I hate stupid contracts!!
And then:
But the terms of the contract still stand.
Kat phoned me the following day, apologising profusely. I could barely get a word in edge wise as she begged for forgiveness and made me promise we would still be the best of friends and that she’d do anything, absolutely anything to keep me as a friend.
I reassured her that I wasn’t angry at her and that our friendship would remain as firm as ever.
“Did Fraser tell you what he did?”
“What? When? No,” I said.
Kat laughed. “He called Stu’s parents and said that unless Stuart was judicially disciplined, he’d take legal action and slander their sons name all over the papers as a bully and a drunk and sex offender.”
“A sex offender? He didn’t try to have sex with me,” I said.
“Fraser was furious. So anyway, Stuart has to spend the next month at the zoo shovelling elephant crap.” Kat laughed.
“Can Fraser do that?”
Kat was still laughing. “Em, Fraser Lewis can do whatever the hell he wants.”
I found myself laughing with her.
“So I was thinking, maybe we should take a trip to the zoo next weekend.”
“Are you forgetting you’re grounded?”
“Damn. Oh please go for me and take photos of that idiot up to his knees in elephant poop. That’s a sight I really need to see.”
I laughed and for some stupid reason agreed.
*****
From: Emily Watkins
To: Fraser Lewis
Sent: Thursday 23rd October, 2014 16:48
RE: Nationals
Hello Eeyore
Finished second behind my arch nemesis at national cross country meet today. That’s three times I’ve watched her fat butt cross the line in front of me! I might take you up on your kneecapping offer.
Piglet
From: Fraser Lewis
To: Emily Watkins
Sent: Thursday 23rd October, 2014 16:56
RE: Nationals
Piglet
Congratulations, second place is still quite a feat and there’s always next year.
Eeyore
From: Emily Watkins
To: Fraser Lewis
Sent: Thursday 23rd October, 2014 17:01
RE: Nationals
I’m thinking about dropping running to focus on my swimming. Do you think that’s a good idea?
From: Fraser Lewis
To: Emily Watkins
Sent: Thursday 23rd October, 2014 17:04
RE: Nationals
Piglet, only you can make that decision and I’m sure you’ll make the right one.
From: Emily Watkins
To: Fraser Lewis
Sent: Thursday 23rd October, 2014 17:07
RE: Nationals
Some help you are.
*****
November came around quickly, and with my running schedule finished and only one more swim meet, I was looking forward to going back to Melbourne for Christmas and New Year.
My birthday fell on a Thursday that first year I was away.
I had decided not to go home for the weekend considering that we were so close to Summer break.
As usual I went for my evening swim and when I returned to my dorm room, Kat and a few of the girls from my running and swimming teams surprised me with a birthday party.
I blew out my fourteen candles. I made the same wish I had made since I was ten years old, ‘I wish you were here, David’ and I opened my presents. One present caught my particular attention. There was no card with it and it was small, simply wrapped in white paper with a thin red ribbon. As I slowly tore the paper off, a small black, slim case was revealed.
Inside the case was a solid white gold bracelet. It was elegant and beautiful. There was an engraving on the band in a curved calligraphy.
“Amicitia,” I said, reading the engraving.
“What the hell does Amicitia mean?” Kat asked.
“I don’t know,” I answered.
“I’ll Google it,” Jenni called from the back.
“Any idea who it’s from?” Kat asked smiling and winking.
“No, I have no idea,” I answered flatly. Kat knew all too well that the jewellery was from Fraser.
“Amicitia is Latin for friendship,” Jenni said holding her phone out.
I slipped my hand through the bracelet. “Friendship,” I said quietly.
Chapter Five
I was woken up by my mobile phone beeping loudly beside my bed. It was text message from Fraser. I half opened my eyes to protect against the glare of the screen and looked at the time. It was 12.01am.
I wanted to be the first person to wish you a happy Valentine’s Day.
His text made me smile. I replied:
Thank you, although I can assure you, you have no competition. Happy Valentine’s Day to you, too. I hope you don’t get a big head with all the girls screaming for your attention.
What? Sorry, I can’t hear you!
Lol, good night Fraser.
Good night Piglet.
Valentine’s day turned out to be a good day. It was a Saturday and although there were happy couples displaying their love for each other in public places, I didn’t feel left out.
I went for a run in the morning; Greg followed me on his bike, because he couldn’t keep up with my running pace. He was fit, but he wasn’t fourteen-year-old fit.
It was just after 11am when I got back from my run and I received my first delivery,
a large box of assorted chocolates, the card simply read ‘Happy Valentine’s Day.’ I opened the box of chocolates and popped white chocolate into my mouth. I headed toward the bathroom. I knew the chocolates would be from Fraser and I intended to call him after I’d showered.
Dressed and ready to do some homework, I went back out into the living area to grab my phone and headed towards the study. I called Fraser, but it went to message bank. I didn’t leave a message. He’d see that I’d tried to call. If he didn’t call me back, I’d try again later.
A few hours later there was a knock on my door. I opened it to a large bunch of flowers.
“These just arrived for you.” I recognised the voice, although I couldn’t see Greg behind the massive bouquet.
“Thanks, bring them in.” I stepped aside to give Greg plenty of room to move.
Greg placed the vase down on the table. It was a white vase full of roses. Their beauty was intoxicating; their scent quickly began to fill the room. I couldn’t take my eyes from them. I started counting the bright red flowers. 100…200…300? I counted them again. 300. 300 long stemmed red roses. The card simply read, ‘from your secret admirer’.
I grabbed my phone from the table and called Fraser’s number.
“Hey,” he answered. He was puffing for breath but I didn’t ask about that.
“Please tell me you didn’t send me three hundred long stemmed red roses.”
“I didn’t send you three hundred long stem….”
“Because only a lunatic would send three hundred long stemmed roses to a girl for Valentine’s Day that he’s only met once.”
“That’s right, it’s utter lunacy.”
“I know how expensive they are, my dad sends Mum fifty roses for her birthday and they cost him hundreds of dollars. I can’t even imagine how much this cost you.”
“But it wasn’t me. It was your secret admirer.”
“Oh Fraser,” I sighed.
“Happy Valentine’s Day, Piglet.”
“Thank you, Fraser.”
*****
From: Emily Watkins
To: Fraser Lewis
Sent: Wednesday 6th May, 2015 19:02
RE: Lost
Hey Eeyore
If you could do any job in the whole wide world, what would it be? I’ve always wanted to be a veterinarian. There are two reasons for this choice of profession:
1) I love animals
2) When I was little we had a dog called Pooch. He was an English Bulldog. He was ugly as all sin, but I loved him. When I was 6 years old, he got hit by a car. His back legs and hips were broken. Mum said we’d have to put him to sleep. When we took him to the vet, he said with a few pins and a bit of rest he’d be good as new. And he was right. Pooch was back to normal in eight weeks. I remember the feeling of gratitude I had towards the vet, he’d saved my Pooch. It was then that I knew I wanted to save other people’s Pooch’s. I wanted people to feel that same feeling of gratitude toward me.