The finals began within the first two weeks of December. All my classes ended in the second week, so I had a good amount of time in the first week to study. My grades improved back to their average high B range. I didn’t have to worry about scoring a crazy score to successfully pass my classes. I planned a maximum of three hours of studying per day with hour-long resting between them. Everything went well. When Friday came, I backed off, learning to rest my mind. I knew everything I needed to know, so it was pointless to continuously study the same subjects I read for days.
I used my resting time to bother Yosefin with my attention. She was studying at the time but didn’t mind the welcomed intrusion. My curious sister barged into my room to catch me talking with Yosefin. I had to introduce her to my sister then, which led to the whole family getting to see her. Everything went well as virtual greets can get. No one embarrassed me or made her feel uncomfortable. Yosefin promised in private that she’d meet my family in person after we finished our finals.
Since the cat was out of the bag, Yosefin and I returned to our private video call.
“Do you think they’ll like me?” Yosefin asked as she angled her phone on her desk to get a good shot of herself. I did the same before answering her question.
“Yes. They will.” She tightened her mouth to not smile and looked down for a moment. “Why are you making that face?”
“I’m nervous.”
“Just be yourself.”
“Bro, that’s the worst thing I could ever do. You know me. I’m odd, outgoing; I’m not a girly girl.” She rolled her sleeves to point at the tattoos on her right forearm. “Would they be comfortable with my tattoos?” All I could think about was my dad’s point of view of women with tats. If he saw her tattoos, I strongly felt he would ask me stupid stereotypical questions.
“My dad won’t like it.”
“Shit.”
“Don’t worry about him. You’re my best friend. He’ll notice your friendly personality and forget your looks.”
“I’ll cover what I can when I come over.” The thought of hiding her awesome tattoos made me shake my head in disappointment. But if she believed it to be the best choice, I wasn’t going to advise against it. Her comfort was more important than what I felt she should do.
“All right.”
“Yeah,” she sighed yet chuckled for a quick moment. “First impressions are everything. I want them to see I’m friendly.”
“Well, you’re already there. They know how much I see and talk to you. You’re good.”
“If you say so. Anyways, have you found out what kind of career you are interested in? I’m still searching my niche.” I quickly searched for my notebook under my bed to read what I had put down.
“Uh, police officer.”
“Very funny, Josh,” she said sarcastically. “I can’t see you as an officer.”
“That was my last choice option.”
“What’s your first option?”
“Game programming.” She let out a long, loud gasp, then told me it was her first choice too. “I don’t know if all be able to do it. I think I should focus on getting my associate’s first.”
“That is what my papa told me. We can focus on our degrees later when we transfer. There are a lot of classes to complete for this AA.”
“No kidding.”
I leaned back in my chair to reflect on the entire fall semester. There were so many highlights of my life. First was meeting, Yosefin, an old, almost forgotten classmate from my past. Next, it was her outgoing, adventurous charisma. She took me on wild mental rides I would never have thought I would do consistently in a million years. Then there was Kat. What a fun yet horrible shit show that was. She was the definition of a real-life succubus. I haven’t talked to her since leaving the apartment. For the last few weeks left in the first semester, she never once spoke a word to me. There were instances where I noticed a couple of indirect glances when I was minding my business, but according to Yosefin, Kat tried several times to look at me when I wasn’t looking. Each glance was met with Yosefin’s watchful eyes.
“Josh!” Yosefin said. My mind flew out of my daydreaming like I got jumped scared. I flinched so hard that my phone fell flat on the table. “Did you hear me?”
“Sorry. I didn’t. What did you say?”
“Never mind. It was nothing.” Her smile made it seem like it wasn’t. Whatever she said to me lingered on her face. I watched her keep that smile, then it became bigger when she said, “It’s nothing, Josh. Stop looking at me like that.”
“Not until you tell me what you said.”
“Fine. I was complimenting your smile. I like the way it looks.”
“You know, I’ve smiled so many times before. Mind if I ask why you’re telling me now?”
“Maybe because I haven’t been too open with you.” I leaned forward out of my chair from being extra curious.
“What do you mean by that?” I asked, raising my left brow as far as it could.
“I’ve always asked you about the things you like about me and not the other way around.” She was right. Most questions were about how she looked to me. I assumed she wanted another opinion, yet she had always been attractive to me.
She continued saying, “You’re a cute-looking boy, you know, right? I don’t think anyone can top the way you look to me.” It sounded like a lie. I scoffed and denied being good-looking, but she added, “I’m super serious. Dude, you’re hot to me.”
There were no words for me to say at that time. I froze like a deer in headlights. Completely flabbergasted. When I snapped out of it, I said, “I don’t know what to say.” My face blushed so badly that I nearly broke a sweat. “You got to be exaggerating.”
“Nope,” she said, pitching her voice an octave high. “Hey, do you mind doing this one thing for me?”
“Yeah?”
“Can you let your hair down? You always have it in a bun.” I removed the hairband, holding my hair back, then used a hair pick to even out the length. Her eyes blew open, including her mouth. The expression reminded me of clickbait thumbnail videos on the internet, but her reaction was genuine. “Okay, now I got to see you in person with it down.”
“Maybe during finals week.”
Once finals week came, we forgot about the whole conversation about my hair. The tests were long and tedious. In all three of my classes, everyone had to go through the full length of the period. No one was allowed to leave. Sitting for hours made me so bored. All I wanted to do was take the exams and go home.
No one could talk or use their phone to pass the time. Some students, like Collin, resorted to napping. Others decided to sit in silence. Yosefin took the third option. Our professor had seating arrangements that made all students sit apart. Two per table. I sat near the wall of my table all by myself until Yosefin scooted her chair against mine. I was surprised and worried that she would get called to move away.
“Are you nuts?” I whispered as softly as I could.
“She won’t care. No one around us is working, so we’re good,” she said, holding my left arm near her chest so she could mess around with my hand. “Just don’t make a scene.” For a small moment, I felt uncomfortable that she was messing with me in such a way with a room full of people. Once I saw no one cared to look at us, I stopped feeling uneasy. She didn’t do anything weird like holding hands. All she did was individually mess around with my fingers. “So, any plans after this?”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“Home.”
“You’re so boring. How about we go to the din, yeah? It’s been months since we had fun there.” The thought seemed intriguing. I wanted to go home to nap, but seeing her excitement made me reconsider it.
“Okay, but I’m a bit tired.”
“You’ll wake up once we play some games.” I checked the clock to see how much time remained. There was an hour left in the class, and half of the class was still taking the exam.
“I’ll take my nap right now.”
“Sweet dreams.” She let go of my arm to put them under her head on the table.
I laid my head down on the table. An hour felt like ten minutes. Yosefin’s cold hand woke me up before the professor told the class to get out. I stayed in my chair till the last person headed out.
“Finally!” Yosefin cheered. “Let’s go.” She pulled me out of the seat and held me by my hand out the door, keeping her eyes on me. “We’re finally free!”
“Yes!” The second she turned around, something caught her eye to her left. She stopped smiling, and I felt her hand grip tighter. “Yosefin?” I took a step forward to see what she was staring at.
“What do you want?” Before I could check to see who it was, she leaned to my ear to whisper. “It’s Kat.” She let go of my head to cross her arms.
“Is he in there?” Kat asked in a quiet voice.
“I am,” I said, cutting Yosefin off from whatever she was about to say. I got a stern glance from Yosefin like I wasn’t supposed to react. Something about that quick look made my heart skip a beat. Even though it was short, it made me nervous about how she would act around Kat. The last time they spoke, they yelled at each other over the phone. “Uh, what’s up, Kat? Do you need something from me?”
“I miss you, Josh.”
“Oh, please,” Yosefin cringed by letting out a fake gag. “No, you don’t. You miss how much he makes you wet.”
“No! I do miss him! I made a mistake.”
“Several mistakes.” Yosefin’s voice slightly growled when she snarled. “You made several mistakes, you whore!”
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me! What type of bitch would take advantage of someone for pleasure? You didn’t even bother to become his friend!” People around us started to stare at them. Their gazes gave me a sick feeling in my stomach, so I asked Yosefin to tone it down a bit. “You know what.” She walked up to Kat with her arms still crossed, then the unimaginable happened. In a blink of an eye, she gave Kat a hard, quick slap to her face. “Fucking, bitch!” Three people behind me gasped then overreacted with awes to rile up a fight.
“Yosefin!” I shouted in a quiet voice as I pulled her away from Kat. “Why the hell did you do that for?”
“Let me go! I want to give her another one!”
“Ugh! Bitch!” Kat grunted. They tried to fight in the middle of the hallway. Two bystanders had to restrain Kat. I was strong enough to hold Yosefin in my arms even though she nearly broke free multiple times. “You’re just as problematic as me!”
“Do not compare me to you. I wouldn’t use him for my pleasure!”
“You’re a manipulator too! You tried controlling his opinion of me before we even dated!”
“Josh, ich werde dieses Miststück umbringen! (Josh, I’m gonna kill that bitch!)
“Settle down,” I begged, trying to fight against her breaking out. A side door to my left led into a stairwell separate from the main ones most people used. I took her there to make her settle down.
“Let me go, Josh!”
“Not until you calm down.” She continued to wriggle in my arms until she exhausted herself. “Stop it!”
“Let me go,” she said exhaustedly. Twice, she tried to push me away. We stumbled into the wall where I cornered her. I used my body as a barrier she couldn’t get out of. “Okay, okay! I’m good.” She calmed down enough that I felt comfortable giving her some space.
“Do I have to keep you in this corner?” Instead of a straightforward answer, she gave me a strange smile. She bit the corner of her lip and looked around the room behind me before looking into my eyes. “Do I?”
“No,” she answered, smiling with her lips in. “I’m good.” I stepped closer to make myself seem more intimidating. I didn’t smile nor break my gaze. She seemed to find it funny. All she did was chuckle and shake her head. “I’m done acting like a madwoman.”
“Are you?” Those words were put to the test when Kat barged through the door.
“Let me talk to him,” Kat begged. Yosefin kept quiet with her arms crossed. Her smile became a judgmental stare. I saw the upper part of her lip curl in like she was gnawing on it from the inside. “Josh...”
“She doesn’t have the right to call you by that name,” Yosefin mumbled quietly through her teeth.
“It’s just a name,” I told her, then focused my attention on Kat.
“It’s special to me,” she said, raising her voice and softly yanking my shoulder back. “Do not let her say your name, or I’m going to break her teeth.” She took Kat, saying my nickname to heart. My name became exclusive to two people in my life. Her anger was stressing me out. I thought at any moment if Kat said my nickname, Yosefin would beat the living shit out of her.
“Yosefin,” I said, massaging her shoulders and arms. “Will you do me a solid?”
“What is it?”
“Behave.” For a few seconds, I could see her think deeply about whether to comply or not. Her eyes stayed forward. She didn’t blink nor make them fidget. “Will you do that for me?”
I watched her walk over to the wall to my left, where the doorway was. She rested her back on it with her head turned to the right, facing Kat, and said, “You have my word. I’ll behave like a good girl.”
“Thank god,” I sighed in relief then turned my attention to Kat. “What do you want?”
Kat apologized for everything she did to me from the things we did together, including how she negatively talked about Yosefin. She also wanted to start over again, erase all the sexually intimate times we shared to begin a “normal friendship.” The problem with that was I didn’t care for her anymore. I moved on. I knew if I tried to rekindle a spark between us, things would probably return to what it was. Nothing but dirty pleasure.
“Kat,” I said, walked over to the staircase that headed downward, then glanced back at them. There were no words I could think of to tell Kat in a polite way I didn’t want to be her friend, so I told her bluntly. “I don’t want to be your friend.” I saw Yosefin’s eyes pop open. She covered her mouth and looked at Kat, who had her head down.
“Fine. But you’ll be missing out,” Kat said.
“I highly doubt it,” Yosefin said instantly after Kat’s statement. “Es gibt viele Fische im Meer für ihn. (Plenty fishes in the sea for him.)
“What the hell did you say to me?”
“Shoo,” she said, waving her hand.
Kat stormed out the door with her left forearm over her eyes. A small part of me felt sad that it had to end with her crying.
“Damn,” I said, feeling bad.
“Don’t look sad. You had to tell her off. Kat would have resorted back to her ways.” Yosefin said as she slowly came down the steps, taking heavy stomps to reach my level.
“How can you be so sure of that?”
“If we had a friendship,” she air quoted, “like that and you did all that stuff to me,” she said, pointing at her chest. “If you did that to me,” she emphasized the last word. “I would try everything to keep it going.”
“Really?” I chuckle.
“Yeah,” she blushed with a contagious giggle. “I think any woman would.”
“Good thing I got out of it.”
“Thank goodness,” she praised while gently holding my right arm with her arms. “Let’s go play some games, ja? I wanna try out that fighting game they brought in.”
“Sure, but I warn you. I’m extremely good at it.”
“Good. You can coach me.”
*ONE WEEK LATER*
My doorbell rang when I turned into the foyer to head upstairs. Vanessa had just reached the first floor coming down the steps when it rang. She asked me if it was Yosefin at the door because our door window had a design pattern that blurred the glass pane. I couldn’t tell, so she blurted out if it was Yosefin behind it.
“Ja... it’s me,” Yosefin answered.
Vanessa opened the door on my behalf. Yosefin’s outfit looked comfy. She had on a black beanie, a black zipper jacket with the word ‘You Rock’ on it, black sweats slightly conformed to her legs, and high-top shoes with thick white soles on the bottom. Her hands were in the pocket of her pants. I felt like she was doing that to hide some areas of her tattoos. The weather outside wasn’t that freezing, but it could be the reason why they were covered.
“Hello, Yosefin,” Vanessa said after she closed the door and then offered her hand to be shaken. I saw Yosefin’s arm hesitate twice before she shook it. “I’m Joshua’s little sis, Vanessa.”
“Hello, Vanessa. It’s nice to finally meet you.”
“I love your accent. It sounds immaculate in person.” Yosefin gave me a big smile and thanked Vanessa for the fangirl compliment.
“Come on, Yosefin. Let’s go meet my parents,” I said. Her happy smile turned into a nervous one. She didn’t want to move when I tried to guide her to the kitchen. “Yosefin?”
“I’m sorry,” Yosefin said with her hand over her mouth. “I’m nervous.”
“Nervous about what?” Vanessa asked. Yosefin looked at me, then tugged on her sleeve.
“Does she know?” Yosefin whispered out of earshot from Vanessa.
“Yeah. She knew about them in the first month I’ve known you.”
“Ah!” Vanessa lightly shouts. “Can I see them? Joshua says they’re cool.” Yosefin looked at me as if she didn’t know what to do. I told her it was fine, but she feared my dad would walk in on her. “Aw, you shouldn’t care about our dad.” Vanessa grabbed Yosefin’s hand and exposed her arm to see a portion of the artwork.
“Hey, hey,” Yosefin panicked, turning around so her back would face the living and family room.
“Whoa... These are freaking awesome, Yosefin.” Yosefin’s frightened voice made me jump between them to add an extra privacy wall.
“Vanessa,” I said, pulling down Yosefin’s sleeve. “Leave her alone. Go watch Dad cook or something.”
“Fine. Geez,” She walked away towards the family room.
“What an asshole. I’m sorry about that.”
“It’s fine,” Yosefin chuckled out through her nose. “I think that was a sign for me not to hide them.”
“Don’t. Let’s stick with the plan you wanted to do.” We walked through the living room to enter the kitchen. She held my arm almost like she snuggled when we were at that park near her home. The left hand took a grip on my bicep. Her right hand held my forearm. “Are you ready?”
“Yeah,” she said before taking a big gulp.
“Mom, Dad.” It took some time for their attention to focus on us because of the demand for cooking. I focused on my dad’s face more than my mom’s due to his position on people with tattoos. “Look who’s here.”
“Hi,” Yosefin said with a voice crack. She let go of me to slap her hands over her mouth in response to how she sounded. I took the opportunity to clutch her close by her waist side. My sudden move made her look at me with her hands slowly moving away from her mouth.
“Guys,” I said, looking into Yosefin’s eyes. “This is my best friend.” Slowly, like a giant turtle on the run, a smile came.
“Hello, Mr. and Mrs. McEwan,” Yosefin said with a clear, strong voice.