Adria's Choice

Chapter 6

"Are you sure about this?" she whispered when she parked her black Vios outside our gate.

I turned to her and laughed. "Good Lord, you make it sound like we're going to have a one-night stand. You're just going to sleep over at my house like—" I stopped as a thought suddenly occurred to me. "You've never slept over at another girl's house before?"

She bit her lip and shook her head. I don't know if she was aware of it, but her face was very expressive, and her vulnerability, as reflected on her face, was quite disarming.

I grabbed our empty coffee cups and motioned for us to get out of the car. "Well, it's like this. We dress up in our jammies, jump on the bed, braid each other's hair, and talk about boys," I joked.

I unlocked our gate and turned to find her staring at me with huge, round eyes.

"That sounds marvelous," she breathed.

Oh man. "I was just kidding about the jumping on the bed part and braiding each other's hair!" I quickly said. I started to walk towards my house and she finally followed me after locking the gate behind her. "But you can wear one of my pajamas and we can talk about boys," I said over my shoulder. "Except maybe about Tom," I said almost as an afterthought. I threw the cups in the garbage can outside our house.

She giggled as we entered through the door. "You don't remember the night you came over to my house? We spent the whole night talking about our experiences with him. Don't you remember when you said you almost did it with him but the moment you saw his, uh, member, you panicked because it looked so ugly?"

I leaned against the door. "Are you serious? I told you about that? Shit, I really was so drunk—"

"Ehem."

Lexie and I both jumped at the interruption and I turned to face my mom.

"Uhm... Hi, mom. How long have you been standing there?" I asked, quietly praying that she just got there.

She ignored my question. "Hi, hija," she said as I kissed her on the cheek. That was weird, mom never called me hija. I just ignored it and introduced Lexie.

"Hi tita, I didn't know Adria's your daughter!" she said happily.

Wait, what?

Lexie saw the confused look on my face when she turned to me. "Papa introduced me to your mom when we met her and your dad at the mall," she explained.

"Alden panicked when he saw us so he sat us down and told us everything, under oath of secrecy and he said Kria knew anyway," mom continued. My parents and Karyl's friends had also become very close throughout the years.

I didn't miss the sad look in Lexie's eyes despite the smile she flashed my mom. "I'm going to sleep here tonight. I hope that's okay, tita," Lexie said.

Mom patted her cheek affectionately. "Of course. You're always so polite, Lexie. Goodnight, you two, and don't stay up too late." She started to walk back to their room.

Lexie and I turned toward the stairs to go up to my room when mom spoke up.

"And Adria, I was there long enough to know you're still a virgin. You don't know how relieved I am to know that!"

There was no other acceptable reaction to that but to laugh hysterically with Lexie as we ran to my room.

— OoOoOoO —

"So, was Tom your first?" I asked as I braided her hair, while she sat on the old lime-colored stool in front of my aged dresser. The color contrasted sharply with the pink color of my room, and I loved it. Before we settled down for the hair braiding, I drew the line on jumping on my bed.

When she entered my room, she just stood by the entrance, looking all around with huge eyes. I hurriedly chucked some underwear and bras into my used-clothes bin, cleaning up as much as I could. I recalled her spiffy-clean her apartment and how much of a perfectionist she was, and I felt a little blow to my ego. But after looking at the clouds and stars on my ceiling, she held both of her hands together as if in prayer, and squealed how much she loved it. Well, imagine that. I instantly relaxed.

"You really don't remember anything about our conversation that night?" she asked while examining my meager makeup collection, mixed with my considerable one of paints and brushes. When painting in my room, I'd sometimes just sit on my stool and enjoy the gorgeous view from there. I racked my brain for memories. "I remember calling John then you telling me that Tom is, uhm...not generously proportioned," paraphrasing her words that night. ("It's as big as my pinky finger! Hard!") I tied her hair deftly. "Done!" She tilted her head to look at herself and smiled at my reflection in the mirror.

"This looks great! Where did you learn how to braid this well?" she asked. She then made me sit down so she could braid my hair, too.

I motioned to the dolls lined on the shelf, the one hanging from my ceiling. "As you can see, I've had a lot of practice. Also, my mom and I would sometimes braid each other's hair." I watched as she expertly flicked my hair left and right into a fishtail style. "How about you? I think you're better at this than I am."

She widened the gap of the elastic band with her teeth before answering. "Well, I told you I wanted the attention growing up, right? So I practiced different hairstyles and makeup looks on myself a lot."

It didn't need to be said that she didn't have anyone else to practice on.

She ignored the momentary silence. "Well, Tom was my first. I was so afraid but he was so charming and persistent. Besides, I've been living alone for the past three years and I've seen porn and sex videos, on the internet," she hastily added when she saw my raised eyebrows, "so I was curious anyway." She rolled her eyes. "Honey, you're not missing out on anything. Sex isn't what they all make it out to be." She finished braiding my hair. "Well, at least with Tom anyway. I think. Based on the movies."

I couldn't help it, I started laughing.

She chuckled before continuing. Her tone was distinctly lower this time. "He was so suave, you know? He was such a gentleman. Would you believe his gaze never strayed to my breasts, not one time when he was courting me? He dressed up great, not like one of those badly-dressed men our age. He'd show up with flowers, he'd research the things I like. He just...swept me off my feet," she finished with a sigh.

"Are you sure we really dated the same Tom Patrias?" I laughed, even though my heart felt like breaking again. "I taught him that. I taught him to give gifts on special occasions, or to just give gifts out of the blue. I taught him that he has to find out the things I like and to surprise me with them, even just a simple rose, or a bar of my favorite chocolate, or a new set of paints I've been meaning to buy." I sighed heavily. "He used to be such a sloppy dresser. Ripped jeans, overused shirts, ratty shoes. Then I started talking to him about fitting in with the corporate people, and he started to try dressing up for me. Or at least I thought it was for me." We both went silent.

"He's an ass," Lexie declared with finality. "And we should refuse to be sad about him again. We're too pretty to ever cry again over an asshole who didn't know what he had when he had it." She winked and smiled at me in the mirror.

"Tada!" she said, with a pat on my back.

"Wow! The braid is amazing," I gushed as I tilted my head this way and that. There was no hair out of place, the braid done to perfection.

I kept touching my hair until she swatted my hand away, protesting that it'd get ruined before we got to take a photo. She whipped out her iPhone and quickly took photos of us making several goofy faces. That was one of the weirdest nights of my life. And if I'm being honest, one of the most fun I've had since the break-up.