Just Perfect! (Persaud Girl) Page 11

  She had politely gone to the buffet and eaten too much, and now her entire GI tract was in knots. She could not even eat the brunch that Isadore had set up. Just thinking about the pancakes and eggs and capers and pickles that had been waiting for her and Andie when they arrived a couple hours before brought a green, sour feeling to her stomach. All she had managed to get down was a cup of ginger tea.

  “Up to taking a dip, Sam?” Klao asked from the deck chair next to hers.

  “Absolutely not!” Samantha declared. “If I move at all I’m going to throw up!”

  “Food poisoning and exams going into perpetuity were so not what I had in mind when I invited you up here!” Klao turned over to her back. “Is this what I have to look forward to for the entire holiday?”

  “Just two more days, KoKo!” Andie reminded her from the picnic table, where she and Bianca had set up a mini study shop. “Then I will be free to do whatever you want.”

  “Speak for yourself!” Bianca responded, highlighting in her orthopaedics text. “I will never have summer holidays again for the rest of my life!”

  “And you can blame Bianca for me being sick!” Samantha added. She carefully turned to her side, and prayed that the sour feeling in her throat would not morph into ‘throw up’. The last time she had felt so horrible, or thrown up so much was after ‘the incident’ with Jeremy.

  “Aren’t you feeling any better at all?” Bianca asked, concerned.

  “Not in the least,” Samantha admitted. “How come you not sick?”

  “Because I have the intestinal fortitude of a swine!” Bianca told her. “I can eat anything.”

  “I’m glad you said it and not me!” Samantha murmured.

  “Soooo!” Andie turned from her Monetary Economics notes. “What did you think of Courtney?”

  Samantha winced. “C’mon, Andie…”

  “C’mon what?” Andie repeated. “Do you like him, or don’t you?”

  “I don’t like him!”

  “What’s wrong with him?” Bianca asked. “He’s good looking, he’s bright, he’s going to be a successful doctor …”

  “He’s short, he’s fair, he’s young….”

  “He’s not Micah!” Klao added.

  “What?” Samantha pulled off her sunglasses and glared at her cousin.

  “It’s obvie, Samantha!” Klao repeated. “The only reason you don’t like Courtney is because he is not Micah!”

  “Don’t be stupid!’ Samantha rolled her eyes. “Me not liking Courtney has nothing to do with Micah. He’s just not my type.”

  “Not even Denzel Washington would be your type!” Andie muttered. “Not while you’re still hung up on eediat Micah.

  “Whatever!” Samantha pulled her sunglasses on again.

  “So have you heard from the prodigal boyfriend since you’ve been home?” Klao asked.

  “Not yet, but he’ll come crawling back eventually,” Samantha informed her cousin. “When he realises that he cannot live without me.”

  Andie looked at her sister, positive she was losing her mind. “What?”

  “It has been almost two months. His bout of insanity can’t last forever. I am sure he’ll soon get over whatever his issue is and ask me to make up, and then I’ll forgive him and all will be right with the world once more.”

  “You’d really take him back now?” Bianca asked. “After his ugly girlfriend tainted him?”

  “I don’t think she could have tainted him that bad,” Samantha disagreed. “Besides, I invested too many years of my life in him to let him go without a fight.”

  “You ‘invested’ a little over two years!” Klao reminded her. “He’s sloppy seconds now, Sam!”

  “I don’t think Samantha is in a position to talk about sloppy seconds!” Andie tittered. She poured herself a glass of lemonade from the pitcher that Isadore had brought out earlier. "That would be the ultimate case of the kettle calling the pot black!"

  “Watch your mouth!” Samantha snapped.

  Klao did not miss a beat. She looked from Andie to Samantha. “What’s going on?"

  "Nothing’s going on!" Samantha declared, giving Andie the evil eye.

  "Except that Samantha has a secret!" Andie said smugly.

  "Andie!"

  "You have a secret?" Bianca immediately forgot her Orthopaedics text. "Talk up now!”

  "I don’t have a secret, Bianca..."

  "Oh since it’s no longer a secret, I can tell them!” Andie decided. “Samantha hooked up with Jeremy Malcolm!"

  "Andie! What is wrong with you?"

  Bianca did a double take. “Hooked up? What do you mean hooked up?”

  “You don't know what 'hooked up' means, Bianca?" Andie rolled her eyes.

  Both Klao’s and Bianca’s eyes were wide. Bianca’s hand flew to her mouth. “You mean you slept with him? You slept with Jeremy Malcolm?"

  Samantha could not be redder if she tried. "So much for not telling anybody, Andie 'Judas' Persaud!"

  “You hypocrite!” Klao accused. “You walk around acting like the second coming of the virgin Mary, and turn your nose down on the rest of the world and you have been having sex all this time? And with Jeremy Malcolm?”

  “Samantha, how could you!” Bianca was beyond flabbergasted. She and Samantha had always declared that they would never have sex before they were married. While Andie had toyed with the idea, and Klao had already crossed that hurdle, she and Samantha were hopeless romantics who believed in true love – not ‘fly-by-night-pitch-by-day’. “Do you have a thing for Jeremy? Is that why you and Micah broke up?"

  “No!” Samantha declared. “And I have not ‘been having sex’. It only happened once, after Micah broke up with me. I was in a really bad place, and Phillip, took me to this wretched club to cheer me up. Jeremy was there, and we got drunk on tequila and…. It was just a big, big mistake…”

  "And you were never going to tell us?" Klao was feeling very betrayed. "I can't believe you! If I had sex with Jeremy Malcolm, I would tell you. In fact, I'd tell everybody! He is like a walking, talking, living, breathing sack of utter and total manhood. He puts the 'mmm' into 'yummy'!"

  “You and Jeremy Malcolm!” Bianca shook her head. “That is so awesome! You two are a match made in beautiful people Heaven! He is smoking hot!”

  “Look, there is no 'me and Jeremy Malcolm'!” Samantha was beginning to get annoyed. “What happened between us was a onetime thing brought about by a masochistic situation! It happened once, and it will never happen again. I don’t even like him, much less love him. I only love Micah, and he and I are going to get back together, whether he likes it or not!"

  "Do you think Micah will take you back after you tell him about your little rendezvous with Jeremy?" Bianca asked.

  “Why wouldn’t he?” Samantha snapped. “It won’t matter!”

  “Of course it won’t matter, sissy!” Andie said sarcastically. “I mean, why would Micah care that the great love of his life slept with another man? I mean, you dated him for two years and kept your precious virginity under lock and key for all that time. Then you break up for two weeks, and Jeremy Malcolm, like Captain Kirk, gets the chance to boldly go where no man had ever gone before -- a privilege, no doubt, Micah hoped would have been his. It won’t be a big deal at all.”

  “You keep your eyes in your book!” Samantha snapped. “I don’t know what is wrong with you and why talk so damn much! I should cut out your tongue and strangle you with it!”

  “You know what you need to do?” Bianca suggested. “You need to stop obsessing over Micah and concentrate on Jeremy. Since he has already gone to what is supposed to be 'one man's land', you might as well let him be your boyfriend!”

  “You need to be committed!” Samantha declared.

  “There’s no possible way he could be a worse boyfriend than Micah!” Andie opined.

  “And one thing you have to give him credit for is that no one has ever seen him date an ugly woman, so there is no way he woulda left you for
Ronica.” Bianca pointed out. “You and he are going to be TATTLER’s newest golden couple!”

  “When did all of you suddenly become the president of Jeremy Malcolm’s fan club?” Samantha asked. "Have you forgotten who we’re talking about here? This is the same creep who walked around campus, detailing all his ‘conquests’. He’s rude and obnoxious and disrespectful to women... Andie, have you forgotten what he did to you and Nathan?”

  “That was three years ago for God’s sake, Samantha!” Andie rolled her eyes. “You and Nathan need to grow up and get over it!”

  “Besides,” Klao added, “nobody stays immature forever, not even Jeremy. He might have changed, and you must have seen something in him, else you wouldn’t have slept with him.”

  “It was the tequila, Klao,” Samantha reminded her. “That was all it was. I am not talking about this anymore!" She closed her eyes indicating that the conversation was over.

  “Samantha Persaud Malcolm…” Klao mused. “Mr and Mrs Jeremy Malcolm…”

  “I will step in your face!” Samantha warned.

  “C’mon Sam, don’t lie!” Klao insisted. “Haven’t you thought of it at all – being with Jeremy Malcolm forever? Having that absolutely gorgeous man all to yourself? Being the one to tame the wild beast that he used to be? What stories you would have to tell your children!”

  “I thought I said I was finished talking to you about this!”

  “But you can’t be!” Bianca pleaded. “You have to tell us about all that happened that night! Since I am maintaining my celibacy vow, I have to live vicariously through you!”

  “What the hell is wrong with you people?” Samantha felt her face growing hot as she recalled the more vivid moments of ‘the incident’.

  “You’re blushing!” Klao clapped gleefully. “That means you did enjoy it, and it was totally awesome, and you do want to hook up with him again!”

  “No I didn’t, no it wasn’t and no I don’t!” Her face was getting hotter and hotter, and she did not know if she was nauseous from the food poisoning, or because Klao kept badgering her. “Jeez, Klao, what is with the inquisition?”

  “I am Klao Melissa Persaud. Inquisitions are what I do!” Klao reminded her. “And you don’t need to perjure yourself! Sleeping with who you claim is your sworn enemy does not exactly constitute a crime of moral turpitude. Besides if you like him, you like him, and we are not here to judge!”

  “You all need Jesus!"

  "We need Jesus?" Andie declared. "You’re the fornicator, and we need Jesus? Losing perspective from that high horse of yours, aren’t you, Samantha?"

  “For the last time, I am not talking about this anymore!” Samantha repeated. “It was just a bad thing that happened. I do not like Jeremy, and I have no desire to ‘hook up’ with him again. Now I am the oldest, and I am pulling rank. Andie, study. Bianca, read. And Klao, just shut the hell up!”

  Her sister and cousins realised she was not playing. Andie and Bianca turned back to their books, and Klao retrieved the new novel she had picked up in the airport t and began to read. Samantha closed her eyes, and brought back ‘the incident’ to her mind. It had been playing over and over in her mind since she had gotten home and had nothing else to think about. It played in exact order of occurrence – the tequila, the club, the cab, his apartment… She wondered if Bianca and Klao and Andie could possibly be right. Could she be Jeremy’s girlfriend? Could she be the one to tame the beast? Samantha turned on her side. Never! She thought. The day she fell in love with that cretin was the day she would request to be checked into Ward 21. Then she thought of her Uncle Michael and Aunt Kim, Klao’s parents. They had met in Medical School when they were just her age, Samantha thought, and they loved to tell their children and nieces and nephews how much they disliked each other initially. Then Aunt Kim would look at Uncle Michael with a dreamy look that always ‘traumatised’ Klao, and declare, “There is nothing quite as passionate as intense hate turned into intense love!”

  Samantha wondered if she could ever intensely love Jeremy Malcolm. There was something intense happening the night of ‘the incident’, but that was not love, was it? Love should cause a warm, syrupy feeling in the bottom of her tummy, not the green, grainy, bile-y feeling that was currently moving in the wrong direction of her oesophagus. Samantha sat up in a hurry, and in the process managed to kick Klao squarely in the small of her back.

  “Oww!” Klao screamed. “Samantha, what the hell? I haven’t done anything!”

  “I think I am going to be sick!” Samantha declared, before she proceeded to projectile vomit all across her cousin and grandma and grandpa’s freshly polished pool deck.

  ***

  Monday, May 12

  Samantha opened her eyes when she heard Andie moving around in the bathroom. She got out of bed and knocked on the bathroom door.

  “Where you going so early?” She asked her sister.

  “It’s not early,” Andie said, as she brushed her hair into a ponytail. “It’s quarter to ten and I have an eleven o’clock study group over by the business school.”

  “Can I come?” Samantha asked. “I don’t have anything planned, and I don't want to stay here and have Mommy and Nursey hover over me.”

  “Are you feeling better? Because I cannot deal with you and your stomach flu today. I have my exam tomorrow.”

  “I’m fine!” Samantha assured her. “I’m sure the last of whatever poisoned me came up yesterday. So can I come?”

  “Suit yourself,” Andie shrugged. “But hurry up if you’re coming. I have to stop at Nathan’s flat before I meet the group.

  Samantha had a quick shower and brushed her teeth. She pulled on a distressed pair of Izzy jeans and a white tank with delicate lace around the neckline, and pulled her hair into a high ponytail. She looked like she was going to a go-see at Izzy.

  “I just remembered that I do not like going anywhere with you,” Andie commented as she got into the car.

  “What are you talking about?” Samantha asked.

  “I have been up for an hour and a half getting dressed, and you take half hour and still end up looking better than me!” Andie explained.

  Samantha shrugged. “Yeah, because I’ve got it like that!”

  Andie rolled her eyes and backed her Red Toyota Altezza, her twentieth birthday present from her parents, out of the driveway. Twenty minutes later, she parked in the Post Graduate Flats parking lot, and both girls got out of the car. Nathan was waiting for them.

  “Hey pretty girl!” He greeted Andie. Samantha smiled. Nathan always called Andie ‘pretty girl’. They were so cute as a couple, Samantha thought. It was evident they were going to be together forever. She was, for an instant, jealous of her sister. So far, she was 0 for 2 – a failed relationship and a one night stand she would much rather forget.

  “Samantha, welcome home!” Nathan greeted her. He gave her a huge, warm hug.

  “Thanks, Nate,” Samantha returned.

  “How’s NYU?” He asked.

  “Awesome!” Samantha replied. “I’ve done all my core courses and I have just one semester to go. How ‘bout you?”

  “It’s all over, and the fat lady has sung, thank God!” Nathan told her. “And I have an interview at Foreign Affairs next week. Looking forward to that.”

  “You have it, boyfriend!” Andie assured him. “I have faith in you.”

  “Thank you, girlfriend!” Nathan gave her a quick kiss on the lips. Samantha’s stomach turned, perhaps because she had left the house without eating, but mainly because she was a bit turned off by Nathan and Andie’s public display of affection.

  “Do you have the past papers you promised me?” Andie asked.

  “Uh-huh!” Nathan replied. Samantha and Andie followed him inside to his post graduate flat, a far cry from the cramped little box on Preston Hall that he lived in as an undergraduate. Samantha looked around. It was usually quite homey, but today it was very sparse.

  “You've done a lot with the place since C
hristmas!” She commented sarcastically.

  "I'm moving off in a couple of weeks," Nathan told her. "I found an apartment close to New Kingston. Most of my things are there."

  "Really?" Samantha was impressed. "Your very first bachelor pad. Congrats!"

  "It's really nice!" Andie added. "And I didn’t even help to decorate! My boyfriend has a queer eye!”

  “Only a queer eye, mark you!” Nathan reminded her as he searched his boxes for the Monetary Economics past papers. “Andie, get your sister something to drink, please.”

  Before Samantha could politely decline, someone appeared at the door.

  “Nate, you have the marking scheme for EC10C…”

  Samantha gasped when she realised who the speaker was. She turned and found herself face to face with the love of her life.

  Micah was equally surprised to see her.

  “Samantha!” He gasped. “You’re home!”

  Samantha could not reply. A lump had formed in her throat from the horror of seeing him again. He looked just the same way. His ugly girlfriend had not rubbed off on him at all. He even looked as though he had been working out. He looked strong and muscular beneath the grey T-shirt and light blue jeans he wore.

  “How are you?” He asked.

  “F-fine…” She managed to stutter. “And yourself?”

  “I’m good…” Micah responded. “You look beautiful – then again, you always look beautiful. May I…”

  Samantha closed her eyes as he leaned forward and pressed a light kiss to her cheek. He smelled like Micah. His lips felt like Micah’s. For a moment, it was as though they had not been apart. He had not called her that wretched Friday night and told her he did not love her anymore. Of course he still loved her! How could he not? They were made for each other…

  Thenshe appeared. She was tall and ridiculously thin, with thick, messy dreadlocks. Her fair skin was marred by huge pockmarks, and her dress looked like it was made from a hemp sack, and she looked cross-eyed. She looked like one of those girls who was trying – really, really trying – to be ‘roots’.

  “Nate has the marking scheme, boo…” she began.