“You can leave me here,” I say quietly to Kade as we get to the bottom of the building. “I can just about make it up the stairs by myself.” I’m covering all bases, trying to keep us secret for now which luckily, he doesn’t seem to mind. “But thank you for tonight, it’s been… well, unexpected by awesome too.”
“Okay, well much as I’m sad to let you go, I’m also looking forward to seeing you again.” He grabs my chin and kisses me all over again. I will never get tired of the sensation of his lips against mine. It feels phenomenal. “I will message you when I get back to my room, to say goodnight.”
I pause and bite my bottom lip, just looking up at him. Here we are, we’re in love. Who would have thought it? How many people get their dreams to come true? I must be the luckiest woman alive.
“Right, okay that sounds wonderful. And I look forward to seeing you again.”
“Yeah me too. It’s been good, Lucie.”
And there it is… the end of the most perfect night ever.
11
Kade
Ring, ring… ring, ring… ring, ring…
“Urgh, what is that?” I groan as the noise forces me to wake up. “Is that my phone?”
I glance over to Hector’s bed, but he isn’t there. He has a girlfriend on campus who he occasionally goes to stay with. Typical, I could have invited Lucie back to mine after all. I didn’t want to because it’s all so new and I don’t really know what’s going on between us, but now I wish I had. It would’ve been fun and we could have had another good time in the morning. I get the feeling that was Lucie’s first ever time, and I want to make sure that she had the best time ever. I would like to give her an even better time now.
I push myself into a standing position and I scrabble around for my cell phone. I dropped it somewhe
re when I got in last night, after messaging Lucie and I don’t know where it went. I kick my clothes around the floor and soon find it tucked under my bed. I moan with dismay when I realize that it’s my dad calling.
What can he want at this early hour? I rack my brains trying to think. What have I done now?
“H… hello?” I answer cautiously while chewing the inside of my mouth. “Dad? Is everything aright.”
There’s a storm cloud on the other end of the phone, I don’t have to be able to see him to hear it. My heart races faster, it’s always hard for me to remember my misgivings when I go through life barely recalling what I do most of the time. I act on impulse, I don’t even think about it. That’s always a nightmare.
“What the fuck is going on, son?” he demands, rage flooding from his mouth. “What is this?”
“Erm…” Oh God, I don’t want to ask, but I’m going to have to. I need to find out. “What do you mean?”
“I have received a letter from the college this morning about your low grades. You’re skipping class and acting like an idiot. I think it’s safe to say that I am not impressed. What the fuck are you doing?”
Is that even legal? What the hell are the college sending my father letters for? I’m a damn adult, surely, I can make my own decisions, even if they’re shitty ones? Then again, he does donate a lot of money to the college so maybe he has extra rights and part of that is putting me under the spotlight without me knowing.
“I… I’ve just been having a good time,” I reply feebly. “I work too, I just want to have fun. That’s all a part of the college experience, isn’t it? I need to… to have a good time now before I start work.”
“You won’t be working for the family business if you don’t get off you ass. You need to work while you’re there. You have to get this qualification or you aren’t going to take over the company at all.”
My heart sinks, I don’t think this is an empty threat. He really sounds serious. He can’t take the family business away from me, that’s all I have. That isn’t just my back up, that’s my sole plan. If he takes it from me I don’t know what I’ll do with my life. I gulp loudly as I try to think of a way out of this.
“I am trying,” I lie. “I might not be at every single class but I think that’s a real exaggeration…”
“It says here that your attendance is twenty two percent. And in the last few months it’s been eight percent.”
Shit, I didn’t realize it had gotten so bad. That’s a shock to even me. “Oh, right, I see, I didn’t think…”
“No, and that’s your problem, you don’t ever think, do you, son? You live this easy going life where nothing comes hard to you and I think you assume I do the same. Just because you don’t see what I do, doesn’t mean I don’t do anything. I work very hard to maintain things, I’m a very busy man and it is a lot of responsibility. How the fuck am I supposed to trust you with this responsibility when you can’t even take care of yourself?”
I’m stunned into silence. I don’t know how to reply to this, it’s a huge shock after I had such a good night with Lucie. I thought I’d be sorting out my personal life today, not my college fuck ups.
“You need to sort this out, today, Kade, I’m not messing about. The letter basically says that you will end up being kicked out of college if you don’t pick things up and I don’t want that shame brought on the family or the business. I think even you can get that through your thick skull. Sort it today!”
As he hangs up the phone, leaving me in a pit of despair, I don’t know what to with myself. This is a mess, I’m going to have to at least make some effort to show my dad that I’m trying. I don’t want him to snatch my future away just because he thinks I can’t hack it. That isn’t the case, I can I just haven’t tried. I thought I could do all my trying when I got into the business. I would get my fun out the way and put my head down.