Chapter 18: When Opportunity Comes Knocking
“Honey, what is the pyrimidine base in a DNA?” Was the first thing my dad asked as soon as I closed the front door behind me, Raymond having left the last of their luggage at our doorstep.
“Not this again!” My mom gave a dramatic eye roll. “We just got back from a 4-hour drive, aren’t you the least bit tired?”
“Just catching up with our daughter, Tasha. Being a good dad and watching out for her isn’t a crime.” Dad defended himself, which simply made me and my mother groan. Being a good dad, my ass! We both knew it was him being a typical dad and bringing out the guns at the sight of another man around his precious little princess.
“It’s cytosine and thymine, dad,” I answered on a sigh. Well, two could play this game.
“Very good, Akira!” Mom praised me enthusiastically and then turned to dad. “If your scrutiny is over Dmitri, can we go unpack? I’m hungry, and where on Earth is Eva?”
“Almost done, honey.” He turned back to me again, looking at me like the police would a potential criminal. I resisted the urge to squirm. He was a very intimidating man. “And what is the coolant used in a nuclear reactor?”
Now that, I had serious confusions about. “Umm… graphite?”
“Liquid sodium,” Dad answered seriously.
“Sorry.” There! All the proof he needed as reasons for why I needed tutoring.
“Are you done, honey?” Came my mother’s stern voice from the kitchen this time. “Hurry up, I need help unpacking.”
“Coming!” He called back and went towards the stairs. That was a very, very close call.
I was about to head to my own room but stopped short when I heard the click of a lock and the front door open very quietly.
“Why, hello, Bloody Mary.” I called from over my shoulder just as Eva was shutting the door.
She gasped and dropped her keys, gave me a glare as she picked it up. She looked exactly as I expected—hair disheveled, lipstick smudged and clothing wrinkled. “Where was it this time? A hotel room or a pigs sty?” I raised an eyebrow as she glared at me.
“None of your business, sissy!” she whisper hissed. “And how come mom and dad are home today?”
“Long story.” I shrugged. “But you better get to your room before they see you all ruffled up.”
“Ruffled, huh?” She gave me a too wide smile as she came towards me with her hands held up, palms forward.
“Ew! Cooties!” I cringed, sprinting up the stairs with Eva hot on my heels.
"Hmm…" Tania, my manager/editor mused as she assessed the rough draft in front of me. It was Sunday morning and I was sitting opposite Tania Hemlock and waiting for the editing to begin. Well…her advice, that was.
After that session with my dad and Eva chasing me all over the house, I sneaked into my room to contact Henry but when I checked my mobile I found that I had a message from him saying he was down with the flu and wouldn't be able to make it. So I spent almost the whole of yesterday scanning the draft into my laptop from my own personal scanner, and then I had to email the whole thing to Tania, who being the amazing editor she was, read the whole thing overnight. Tania’s Publication House is a small one. She took care of most of the work herself. For her, reading a couple hundred pages was like stealing candy from a baby! Though I honestly didn’t know why people keep using that expression, stealing candies from a baby was not an easy job. They could wail your ears out.
But it did give my parents enough time to unpack and make dinner and also have a long chat with Eva, who in return, got all emotional and cried like a baby wanting some freedom to do stuff an independent twenty-six-year old was allowed to. Too bad I was busy scanning my draft to make a bowl of popcorn.
But I had mom's special spaghetti for dinner after Eva got grounded and got pampered with loads of new clothes and perfumes and jewelry, which my grandparents had sent for us as early Christmas and New Year gifts. Mom and dad sucked at hiding presents.
So by now, it was safe to say that I'd been too busy to think about Ethan and mystery girl, but now, sitting idly while Tania checked my work, kept talking me back to the conversation we had.
“Oh? So Dylan gets a ‘She’s just another nerdy student of mine, pestering me for info’, while my parents get a fake ‘boyfriend’?”
“It was necessary! You don’t know Dylan like I do—”
“Oh, not again! I really don’t want to know what went down between you and Dylan, but I’m pretty sure it has something to do with a girl.”
This thing about Dylan really had me confused. What was the rivalry between them anyway? Did Dylan steal Ethan’s girl or the other way around? And if Ethan has a girl, then why screw around with me? And who on earth was that brunette? Was he really serious about me meeting her soon? Maybe she was the one they were fighting over?
“If there was, I wouldn’t have spent the night. I have no idea what rumors you’ve heard about me but I wouldn’t hurt you or anyone else like that.”
I gritted my teeth, my grip tightening on the arms of the chair. I didn’t care if I sounded like a clingy cheerleader. If Ethan thinks he can do whatever he wants with me, then I sure as hell can do the same to him. Just because I was a girl didn’t mean I didn’t get possessive. Ethan didn’t know what he got himself into. He was mine and I’d fight real dirty with whoever wants to steal him from me.
“I can’t believe it!” I jumped up in my seat, so startled by Tania’s excited yell that I barely managed to suppress a scream myself. My thoughts had a very bad habit of wandering around, especially when the topic of pondering was Ethan.
“What? What’s wrong?” I asked, worried.
“I can’t believe you finally did a doggy style!” Tania explained a bit too excited. Then she looked at me expectantly, waiting for an explanation.
“Well…” I raked my creative little mind for explanations and boom! “I saw this new video on the web and I really liked the position for some reason, you know that I was kind of partial to this position because of the name but I saw it and… I kind of liked it. Well, technically, the position gives better penetration angles.”
Buying my explanation, she went back to pointing out my mistakes and making a final draft. It took about an hour to go over the whole draft, but it was when everything was packed and ready that I got the biggest surprise of my life.
“What do you think about becoming a professional writer?” Tania asked me out of the blue.
“A professional writer?” I was a writer, true, but a local one, which meant that my works were usually published in Imphal and sometimes in towns near the border of Montana. But being a professional would mean that my work would be known all over the world. “Of course, I’d want that. It’s what every writer dreams of, a universal appreciation.”
“Akira…” Tania looked at me seriously. “…you’re a great writer, scratch that, you’re a brilliant writer, but you usually stick to your comfort zone. I want you to break that, I want you to write a real life story. It can be fiction of course, but focus more on the storyline than the sex. Not telling you to omit it, just telling you to keep it on the sidelines. You get what I’m trying to tell you, right?”
“Yeah… I guess… but why do I have to write this? People here like to read Miss OG’s writing,” I asked confused. It was why I was accepted in the first place. Writing an erotica wasn’t a crime, but it takes very careful planning or something beautiful can turn into something vulgar and disgusting. And women liked a storyline that can make them cry. Boys… they liked the action. But why was she telling me to write a real story all of a sudden?
“Because there is a huge competition coming up in a year’s time for the small publications houses all over the States and I plan to send your story to the competition.” Tania commented.
Everything was hazy for an instant, like I just woke up from a really good dream and still couldn’t understand if it was a dream or reality. It took some mindless gazing at Tania, then at the draft in my hands and finally a pinch on my arm to wake me up from the stupor. But then the fog cleared and the smile that stretched across my face could give an Argentine horned frog a run for its money… or not? You get what I mean? No? Okay.
“Okay, Akira, I get that you’re excited but enough with that creepy smile already!” Tania complained with a grimace. “I just had breakfast.”
But instead of caring for what she said, I jumped up from my chair and did a little happy dance all around her office, which simple included me jumping up and down like a retarded money, throwing my hands in the air and screaming “yes”. It wasn’t everyday that such an opportunity comes knocking at your door… or the publisher’s office.
“Akira!” I finally stopped when Tania used her “serious” voice on me. “Good grief, child! Get a hold of yourself. I haven’t sent in your entry yet and you haven’t even started writing! So save the excitement for after you win, if you win. Now shoo! I have work to do.”
“Okay ma’am!” I gave her a dramatic salute and ran out of her office before she could hurl any pointy objects at me.
I said a few hellos to the people who work there, people I worked with, before I exited the building, waving occasionally. No one could dampen my mood after the surprise Tania had given me. I took the stairs two at a time, a spring on my steps. I was that excited!
But I should have watched where I was going because I usually entered through the back door to prevent being noticed, but the said back door was located in a cliché alley where, during the night, thugs and drunks reign. But what awaited me right outside the door was something… or someone I hadn’t imagined.
Before I knew what was happening, someone pushed me hard against the closed door as soon as I exited, pain shooting through my head as it hit the cold hard metal, and a very familiar face filled with menace, right in front of me.
“Where is she?!” He yelled at my face.
What the hell?