I don’t tell Elise this, though. Instead, I just tell her, “No. I had forgotten until you just mentioned it. I was going to catch up on homework.”
“Andries, come on!” she complains. “I really want you to go.”
I look at her suspiciously. “No you don’t. What’s the real reason?”
A gush of air rolls of her lips. “If you must know, Tatiana doesn’t have a companion for the night, and she was hoping her dear friend Andries could be her escort, or at least save her a few dances.”
“There’s always an ulterior motive with you. I don’t like parties, and I don’t care about Carnival, so it’s still going to be a no. You can dance with Tatiana just fine. How about that?”
“Just some more of your slack I need to pick up I guess?” Her voice turns snarky. “Stop being such a weirdo and come to the masquerade. It’s the perfect opportunity to show everyone that you’ve moved on from Roxanne and are nothing but your normal self again. You need this. You just don’t know it.”
I keep myself from outwardly cringing. I’m not really moving on from Roxanne if she and I are making out in bookshops in private, am I? Thankfully, no one knows about that but her and I.
“No means no, Elise.” I can tell she wants to argue, so I make a show out of pulling my phone out and checking something. “Oh, hey, I’ve got somewhere I have to be, I’ll talk to you tomorrow or something.”
She sputters, but I make a break for it. We’re skirting too close to the topic of Roxanne and the last thing I need is for Elise to know I’m still speaking to her. I can hear Elise yelling behind me, “I’ll talk to you at the masquerade! You'd better be there!”
My poor sister. She’s out of luck on that front.
Back in my apartment, I’ve given up any semblance of focusing on anything else but Roxie and our encounter the night before. I’m lying in bed, flipping through pictures of us together on my phone, reliving our time as a couple, photograph by photograph.
Maybe part of it had been a lie, but now that I’m not so angry at her anymore, I can see that our entire time together wasn’t completely false. There had been something special between us, and it was undeniable.
I have so many pictures of us. I had wanted to capture every moment I spent with her at the time, not knowing then that I’d soon only have pictures of her and nothing else. Now, it gives me plenty to look at while reminiscing, but it’s a double-edged sword. It also makes me miss her like hell.
Moving between photos of her sitting next to me on long drives and selfies taken of the two of us, I land on a video from my birthday, one that I didn’t even remember taking of her in our room after the party. She’s shimmying out of her dress and displaying her new set of lingerie for me, prancing across the floor like a model on a runway. She is, of course, devastatingly attractive, but it’s her energy that draws me into the video too. Roxanne is happy, her smile and silly laughter as addicting as any other drug. We were happy, comfortable, free, and totally obsessed with each other.
Seeing her luminous skin against the lace of her sparse clothing has me harder than I can remember being in months. I sit the phone down the bed beside me and bite the inside of my mouth to try and make the erection go down, but it’s no use. After the kiss, and now this rediscovered video, my body isn’t going to be denied. I’ll never stop wanting her it seems.
With a reluctant groan, I unzip my own fly, pushing my jeans down my hips with one hand and holding my phone, still playing the video, in the other. Once I’m free of my denim constraints, I wrap my member in my fist, hissing at the contact. It isn’t her hand, or any other part of Roxie, but it’ll have to suffice for the time being.
I pump myself in my fist, teeth clenched and breath coming hard through my nose. I can remember what happened after that video; our limbs tangled together, and the noises she made when she came apart for me. My cock pulses in my hand hard at that thought, and it’s almost like I can hear her next to me, theway my name would spill between her lips driving me higher and higher.
I can feel my climax looming, just out of reach, when the video on the phone screen is interrupted as a call comes in.Fuck!I shove my cock back into my boxers as I read Dan's name on the screen, feeling uncomfortable at being exposed with my friend calling.
I was so fucking close. Goddamnit, Dan.
I answer, hoping that my voice is even. “What do you want, Dan?”
“Hello to you too, Andries,” he grumps. “I’m just calling to remind my good friend about my costume party tomorrow night and confirm your attendance.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose. “I already told Elise I’m not going. Carnival isn’t my thing.”
“Oh, you’re going because it’smy party, not because it’s Carnival. I demand your attendance.”
“Demand all you want. I’m not going.”
Dan’s voice becomes serious. “Either you show up at the party, or I’m coming to your house and dragging you there myself. Make sure you are wearing a mask, at the very least.”
I can tell by his tone that there is no arguing, and it makes me want to snap my phone to pieces. There is nothing I want to do less than go to a Carnival party where both my sister and Tatiana will be. Not that their company is offensive, but in such a setting there will be no escaping the idea that I should be escorting Tatiana throughout the event.
“Fine,” I grit out. “But I’m not staying the entire time.”
“Whatever you say, Andries. Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow!”
I hang up without another word, throwing the phone down on the bed beside me and pressing the heels of my palms againstmy eyes. It seems like everyone I know is insisting on bothering me today, and the one person I wanted to hear from is silent.
I guess I’d better figure out something to wear to this damned masquerade.