Glancing up as soft lips brushed his cheek, Brad grinned. His best friend Samonia slid into the booth next to him. The student union building was crowded for midafternoon, chattering students milling around and snacking. At one table sat five local heroes, the football players. The pungency of patchouli wafted past Brad and Samonia as two hippie students headed outside.
"Sorry I'm late. Got held up in the PO." Samonia flashed a smile at him.
"No prob. There's your burger. I got hungry." he smiled at her as she laughed. Flipping her straight, long strawberry blonde hair over one shoulder, she dragged the half eaten burger across the table. A can of Dr Pepper sat on the table waiting for her.
"Anything of interest at the post office?" Brad asked.
"Nah. Ran into Tim, he wants to go see a movie this Friday."
"You're still seeing him? He has the personality of a wet mop."
"Um, Brad, remember that femi-nazi kick I went on last year with those articles? Didn’t leave me too a big a dating pool.” she reminded him.
"I think you're just looking in the wrong places."
"Besides, who are you to talk? You've been dating the queen of Shiba for months now." she snickered.
"Don't call her that."
"Well, she is." Samonia lifted her chin, pursed her lips and said in a mockingly superior tone, "There's too much ice in my water. I said five cubes."
Brad couldn't help but laugh.
"So she's spoiled. It's no biggie."
"Spoiled? No, cats who eat out of crystal glasses are spoiled. She’s beyond spoiled."
Reaching into the pocket of her green and brown jacket she removed a pack of cigarettes. Brad wrinkled his nose at her but honestly didn't mind the cloves. Hugging her was a pleasant sensation of sweet cloves and raspberry perfume, rather enjoyable. Amused, he watched her light up.
"Shit. I don't want to go to English." she grumbled.
"So skip it."
"I might. . .go to soccer practice early." she looked at her watch. Shifting her gray eyes upwards she groaned. "Here comes the Queen. I'm gone."
"I wish you wouldn't run away whenever she's around." Brad said, leaning back in his chair.
Shrugging, she noted his gray U of A sweatshirt brought out his pale blue eyes. Today his long, straight blonde hair was back in a low ponytail, and he wore his favorite pair of jeans, the old ones with the holes. Nia laughed to herself, knowing he was going to get a lecture from his girlfriend. His long, lean legs were stretched out in front of him.
"I don't like her, she doesn't like me. We stay out of each other's way. Call me tonight." She slid out the booth, kissed his cheek again and sauntered off. Edna, Brad’s current girlfriend, approached and he rose from the booth to greet her. Immaculate as usual, her straight, light blue skirt showed no signs of wrinkles; her ivory bouse hung perfectly to complement her slender figure, the navy blazer folded neatly over one arm. Her pumps matched the blazer perfectly and Brad would bet money if he asked, she’d tell him all about whichever designer they were from.
"Does she have to smoke those stinky things all the time?" she asked, waving her hand to dispel the lingering fragrance.
"I kinda like them." He shrugged.
"You would. Why you are so close to that girl I'll never know. She's so strange."
"Edna, don't." Brad could feel a headache forming. Covering one of her hands with one of his, he stared at the bejeweled gold rings sparkling up from perfectly manicured nails. Brad absently observed that Samonia's nails were usually worn short, no polish. On the ring finger of her left hand, Nia wore a silver, intertwined band that he had given her for her birthday years ago. It was the only ring she wore.
Edna smiled, her crimson lipstick bright against her fair skin. The auburn hair was swept up into a neat french twist, strategically placed strands of hair framed her fair complexioned face. No one could deny she was beautiful, with high cheekbones and elegance bred into her. So she was a little spoiled . . . Brad still cared about her.
"Where did you find those awful jeans?" she demanded, sliding into the booth. Brad sighed.
***
Samonia heard her name and turned. Seth, Brad's older twin brother, was running towards her. Waiting, she tapped her foot against he concrete, The student union faced the quad, a huge, grassy plot with a band shell, a sandy volley ball playing area, and plenty of trees for shades. Being the middle of spring, four boys were on the band shell, testing their equipment. Pairs and small groups of students lounged around the quad on blankets. A game of volleyball was in session, and several dogs were roaming the quad in search of fun.
"Hey, can you look at my carburetor?" he asked. "It's making some kind of funny noise."
"Sure."
"Where's Brad?" he asked.
"With her royal highness." Seth made a face. He wasn't fond of his brother's girlfriend either.
Having known the twins since they were children, their houses were next door and they had always vacationed together, the three were inseparable. At sixteen Seth and Samonia had briefly been a couple (for a weekend) but decided they were better off as friends. They knew each other too well to be anything more.
Now, at 23 they were all seniors at the University of Arizona. The twins' major was music, Samonia was independent.
"I wish he'd find a girl that we could you know, hang out with." Samonia said as they walked to his car. He nodded. The lush green trees were in full bloom, as were the various wildflower scattered around campus, yellow daffodils, small white daisies and the random purple wildflower no one seemed able to identify.
"I know. She very proudly told me the other day that he was becoming a 'gentleman'."
"Brad's always been a gentleman." Samonia said, irritated. "She means whipped."
"Oh but now she's grooming him or something. For our birthday this weekend she got them tickets to some ballet."
Samonia laughed.
Brad didn't like the ballet or the opera, both of which he had been drug to before by Edna. She, Seth and Brad went to hockey and soccer games on the weekend eating bad hot dogs and drinking flat beer from paper cups.
"Oh well. It can't last forever." Samonia chuckled.
"What about you and Tim?" Seth asked. She shrugged.
"Till something better comes along, he's it I guess."
***
Samonia looked up from her notebook and caught her breath. The door closed behind the most beautiful man she had ever seen. Over six feet tall, shoulder length dark, wavy hair, muscles rippling through his T‑shirt, jeans, proud, arrogant walk. Dark eyes, he smiled at her, making her heart race.
Brad glanced up when the door opened as a guy walked. Glancing at Samonia he did a double take. Awestruck, she stared back at the newcomer. Kicking her gently, her attention snapped back to Brad.
"Sorry." she murmured. The new guy took a table near them in the student union. "Brad, he's gorgeous!" she hissed. A funny twinge hit Brad in the chest.
"He's a guy Nia. You've seen them before."
"Yeah, but he's....beautiful." she lit her clove cigarette. "Damn, I want him."
Brad almost choked on his soda with laughter. “Down girl.”
Seth slid into the booth next to them.
"Hmm, looks like someone found a new target." he said, reaching over for one of her potato chips.
"Damn straight." Samonia murmured. "I gotta get him into bed."
Brad started choking on his soda as Seth almost fell out of the booth laughing.
"We still on for Friday?" Brad asked. Samonia nodded, her deep blue eyes still on the newcomer. Her strawberry blonde hair fell around her shoulders, gleaming in the light of the sun shining through the window, she leaned forward in anticipation. Her teeth rested on her bottom lip.
"I gotta meet him." she said suddenly. Matthew stared at his friend.
"You really want him."
"Yeah I do. I gotta find out his name."
The twins watched as their tall friend jumped up and ran up the stairs to the post office, her jeans clinging to her full hips. Neither noticed the new boy studying them.
***
About an hour later, Nia popped open the hood to Seth's car and started tinkering. Hearing footsteps behind her she didn't look up, but knew it wasn't either twin.
"Need some help?" a deep, mellow voice asked. Brushing her hair from her eyes, she inadvertently smudged oil across her cheek.
"Oh, no thanks, it's my friend's."
Her eyes widened slightly. It was the hunk from the student union building.
"I saw you leave the student union in a hurry a while ago. Everything ok?"
"Um, yeah." she smiled sheepishly. "I wanted to check out his car before I had soccer practice."
"You're on the team?" he asked, his dark, luscious eyes traveling over her muscular body. Up close she could see his straight, even white teeth, full, sensuous lips, the wave to his layered, shoulder length dark hair, so dark it was almost black.
"Captain actually." she said proudly.
"I'm Kevin Areslega. Just arrived."
"Samonia. My friends call me Nia."
"Well Nia, it's very nice to meet you." he held her hand firmly, longer than necessary.
"The pleasure is mine." she let her sapphire eyes roam over him openly. Oh yeah. She wanted this one. Talk about a stud.
"When is your next game?" he asked.
"Saturday night. At the stadium."
"I"ll try to make it." he smiled smoothly before wandering off. Nia's eyes were glued to him as he left.
***
Composing his new song at the piano, Brad’s eyes drifted through the room. The walls were covered with Seth’s slasher film posters. Most of their parents things had been put in storage or moved to one of the other houses. The gray carpet remained, but Seth had repainted the walls in the living room from a light pink to neutral ivory. “Sissy colors.” he had grumbled. The boys furnishings filled most of the rooms now, along with an ever changing assortment of randomly thrown book, beer cans, soda cans, pizza boxes and clothing, usually contributed by Seth.
Absorbed in his music Brad, didn't hear the phone ringing. Edna was on his mind again.
Edna was. . .unique, he decided. The sex was good but not the best he'd had. That wasn't why he had started dating her though....come to think of it why *did* he start dating her? At this point he honestly couldn't remember. Intelligent, sophisticated, worldly, beautiful for sure but. . .something was missing and it was really starting to bother him.
Of course the constant bickering didn't help. Always she was trying to correct him on something. A comment, an opinion, the other day she had gotten on his case because he picked up the wrong fork at her parents.
And at least three times a week she accused him of being in love with Nia. That was really annoying. Nia was his best friend, other than Seth, and the trio was inseparable. Her brief fling with Seth had disturbed him and he was glad when it ended.
So what if he did have unresolved feelings for Nia? She was a beautiful person inside and out, not that Edna wasn't, but Nia accepted people the way they were. Nia would claim her nose was too pointy but Matthew loved the way it turned up just a little at the end. Though she despised makeup, sometimes Nia would try to cover the few little freckles on her nose, but Brad loved the pixie look they gave her. When they were kids she had worn her hair braided on each side, like Laura Ingalls Wilder, and he called her pixie girl for months until she beat him up. That was when he first fell in love with her.
Her hair was thick and straight, but she wore it in a ponytail most days when she couldn't think of something else to do with it. Brad loved to run his fingers through it when they were watching tv. Often he would massage her shoulders, sitting on the couch as she sat on the floor, and over the years he had learned to braid her hair. Sloppily, but it was amusing for them both.
In certain lights, her eyes shone blue as a sapphire, but in others they turned darker than ink. Always laughing, sometimes mysterious. After all these years, Brad still had trouble guessing what she was thinking.
His birthday was coming up and he had a feeling Edna would be dragging him to another play or foreign film. Truthfully he didn't really mind them on occasion, but it seemed more and more they spent their dates suffering through foreign films he had no interest in. He could speak French and Spanish fluently, but she loved these strange Italian movies that usually he dozed off during.
Nia didn't care much for movies, but usually would watch whatever he was without complaining. When they hung out, if they went to a movie, he usually chose it. Occasionally she would a find a movie she loved and make him watch it repeatedly with her. Generally she seemed to be only half listening anyway, lost in her thoughts. Her notebook or laptop was never far, and she got into these moods where'd she just sit and write for hours without noticing what was happening around her. Whatever they were doing, even nothing, a comfortable silence hung between them.
Finally he realized he had stopped playing and the answering machine was going. Quickly he reached over and picked up the phone.
"Hello?"
"Brad, what took so long? I told you I would call you at seven."
"I was practicing." he snapped. Edna was quiet for a moment.
"Well, I didn't mean to disturb you. I thought we could see a late movie tonight."
"I have to finish this piece for class tomorrow Edna, I can't." he sighed.
"I never get to see you anymore. You're always off writing music or with your brother and that girl ‑"
"Edna, I have to go." Brad hung up the phone. He was just not in the mood to talk to the woman. Maybe it was time to break up. All she did was whine and nag and he couldn't take it anymore. Lately whenever they were together he wanted to just yell 'Shut up!'. Maybe it was time to get out. In the past, he had frequently taken his dates out with Seth and Nia, even though they weren't a couple. But with Edna he couldn't do that, cause neither his twin nor Nia liked her. Maybe they had a point.
Hanging up on people was out of character for Brad but he was so fed up with her crap. The more he thought about it, the more he decided to end it.
Looking down he realized he had finished the score. Chuckling he wrote the last few notes and slid the piece into his backpack for the next day.
The phone rang again, but this time he checked the caller id. It was Nia.
"Hey, I just got out of the shower. Can I come by?" she asked.
"Since when do you ask?" he laughed. He could almost hear her smile.
"Be there in a few."
"How was practice?" he asked.
"Tell ya when I get there. I got a movie too."
"Ok."
After they hung up Brad wandered around the room thinking. Standing at the window he studied Nia’s old Victorian styled house next door. He could see her out int eh backyard now, weeding out the garden. Next week she had the pool guys coming to treat it and ready it for the season. The twins had a lot of memories with that pool.
His parents and Nia's parents had been friends for years when Nia's parents were killed. They were fifteen, and her parents were returning from a vacation in Barbados when their plane malfunctioned and crashed.
When the phone call came, Nia, Brad and Seth had been in the living room, watching movies. Nia's aunt had been visiting to watch her while Nia's parents were on vacation.
Brad held Nia as she wept through the night, falling asleep on her bed with the girl in his arms. Seth had stayed as well, sleeping on the floor of her room. For weeks she had had nightmares, and Brad spent more and more nights at the house to comfort her. Finally the nightmares left and Nia grew stronger.
Senior prom finally rolled around and neither had a date so they went together. Matthew had experienced a recurrence of his childhood love for her, when he had once dreamed of marrying her. Childhood dreams were an unpredictable thing though, and the most pure. Stunning that night, in one of a kind gown that she had seen as a wedding dress, and had it remade in sapphire blue with gold lace, full skirted and so feminine. The star of the night, Brad had been bursting with pride to be her escort. When the other girls showed up in heavily sequined dresses, Nia had stood out, spotlighted by her flair, and Brad was the envy of every boy there.
Brad's life was full of memories with Seth and Nia. Summers spent at the lake, their families renting cabins across the stream from each other, slapping sun screen on each other, Nia sneaking up on the twins and shoving them in the icy water. At four, they had all learned to swim together.
Their fathers had been involved in computer development, and met working for the same corporation, making tons of money as they developed faster and faster computers. Now, the twins' parents were retired fairly young in Florida, leaving the boys to run the house. Matt's parents had taken his friends deaths hard, the fathers had been best friends, always secretly hoping Nia would marry one of the twins.
Nia's aunt had stayed to take care of Nia, but when the trio was nineteen, had been killed in a car accident. Since she had reached her majority and inherited everything her parents had made, Nia kept the house. She couldn't bear to leave it, and kept pictures of her parents everywhere. Her mother’s Victorian furniture still filled the house. Pale primrose carpet complimented the rose patterned wallpaper downstairs. Knicknacks from around the world were displayed on the mantle and endtables.
At the tender age of twelve, at a birthday party, playing Spin the Bottle, Nia's spin had ended on Matt. Protesting it would be like kissing her brother, she escaped the punishment. Later that night though, awkwardly, out of curiosity, they had kissed in her bedroom. Neither was sure about what they had felt and it was never mentioned again.
Brad was brought out of his memories by Seth coming in.
"Man I'm starved. I gotta order a pizza."
"You always order a pizza."
"I love pizza." Seth grinned.
"Well, order two cause I'm hungry and Nia is coming over. She just got out of practice."
"Maybe I should order three." Seth laughed, impressed by any girl who wasn’t afraid to eat in front of a guy.
