It is late afternoon on a Saturday, and we are at the living room table in Julie's house, trying to do some calculus exercises. But it's hard to concentrate when a girl makes so much noise in a room not far from where we are.
"This is disgusting."
I say after a while. Julie says after a while:
"In time, you get used to it. And it's better to study here than in your apartment, where Chantal and Sean are almost the same, only on the living room couch in front of us."
...
Julie decides to make popcorn.
"Hello, girls!"
They go downstairs. Chris is with that redhead girl I saw in the hall the other day, one with long wavy red hair, and he continues:
"Julie, you already know, and this is Molly, my sister's friend. Molly, this is ..."
He stands behind the girl and looks at Julie, asking the girl's name. Julie looks at me and turns to get something from the fridge, and when I look at Chris, he is terrified. I think the whole thing is funny, but Julie says:
"Emma! Imissed you."
She walks over to the girl and kisses her on the cheek. The girl looks at me and says it's nice to meet you, and I say the same.
He goes to the door and gives her one of those kisses I pretend not to see because I'm so embarrassed.
His hair is all messed up, and the fact that we heard everything that happened in his room a few minutes ago doesn't embarrass him a bit.
As soon as the girl leaves, he goes to the fridge to get a soda. I frown at him as he walks past me, he laughs, and as soon as he receives the soda, he starts up the stairs but turns to me and says:
"Hey, no need to get all angry. You could have gone upstairs too if you wanted to. Emma loves a threesome!"
All I can say is:
"Fuck you, Chris!"
I reply angrily, and he continues on his way to his room, laughing at what I just said. Julie comes over to where I am and offers me some popcorn.
"Why is he such a bastard with women? I'm sorry, but that's what I think."
Julie looks at me, shocked by what I have just said, but I continue.
"I try to get along with him, especially since he is your brother. Sometimes I think he is becoming a more likable guy, so he acts like a jerk to me, like now."
I know he ended a relationship wrong, but that doesn't give him the right to be so stupid.
Julie listens, then tells me:
"I know I told you that he had a bad breakup, but I didn't want to tell you the details at that time. Because he asked me not to tell anyone about it. But now it doesn't matter anymore, and he doesn't even think about it that much. My brother wasn't always like this, and I'll tell you everything that happened with him five months ago."
Current Days
"Where is your brother?"
"Why?"
Julie quickly gets up from the sofa in her living room, throws a magazine on her lap onto the coffee table, and comes towards me.
I still insist:
"Your brother, where is he?"
"Ouch! What has he done now, Molly?"
"He just ruined the best day of my life."
"He's taking a shower in my room, but what..."
I don't hear Julie finish her sentence and go straight to meet him. I walk into the room, and he is just getting out of the shower.
I know this because he is only wearing a towel, and his hair is still wet.
My heart beats shamefully out of rhythm the instant I look at that defined abdomen in front of me, and everything I was going to say gets jumbled in my head.
I do my best to focus on my anger. I stop facing and ask the first thing that comes to my mind:
" Why are you taking a shower in Julie's room?"
Oh, shit! Is that all I can say right now? He looks at me with a look of disbelief but explains:
"My bathroom is under renovation."
He crosses his arms, slightly obscuring my view, and I thank God for that. He looks at me with a strained face, saying:
"But that doesn't interest you. After all, what are you doing here?"
I regain my composure and say, pointing my finger:
"You just ruined one of the best days of my life. I thought you were getting better, that you were Becoming a likable guy, and suddenly you open the door and talk a bunch of shit to my fiancé and me and..."
"You're engaged?"
Julie comes shouting through the door. We hug, and Chris interrupts us:
"If you wanted to tell me you were engaged, you didn't have to make all this fuss here and interrupt my shower."
I turn around quickly.
"I haven't finished what I came to say."
He smiles that enigmatic smile that hides some unattainable truth behind it, which I cannot decipher.
"After all, what has my brother done?"
Julie is looking at Chris as she asks the question. She has been witness to our lack of affinity since the day I picked him up that day at the airport.
"I didn't do anything!"
She turns to me, ignoring her brother. I say:
"He just acted like a jerk to Colin and me this morning. We were coming back from the Village and...."
"Oh my God! Did you spend the night in the Village?"
"Yes!"
I say excitedly, and Chris interrupts us once again:
"Listen here, I have to change to go out, if you two are going to stay there...."
I interrupt him:
"He just walked out the front door and asked us, in other words, to shut up so that he and one of those girls he always brings to sleep in the room with him could rest in peace at ten-thirty in the morning."
"Oh, come on, Chris. In the living room again? You know I wouldn't say I like it when you do that."
I look at him, feeling vindicated. He stares at me and doesn't even notice what Julie says. He then walks toward me, standing only inches away from me. Since he is a little taller, I stand up to face him so that he understands once and for all that he doesn't intimidate me, even if it is a lie. He then looks at me smiling and says:
"I think you are jealous!"
Now he has crossed the line, he leaves smiling, and I want to go after him, but Julie holds me back, laughing.
I hate him, but even though I love Colin with all my heart, unfortunately, Chris has a huge influence over my body, and I think somehow he knows this and uses it against me.
"You are like two children! You know that he only does this to annoy you, don't you?"
I eventually admitted it to Julie:
"I know."
"But let it go and tell me everything!"
I start to tell her about my fabulous night with Colin.