If there was any humanity left in her, she wouldn't abandon this poor guy. "Hey, are you okay?" Zen called out and immediately regretted her decisions. She had this unhealthy habit of poking her nose into other people's affairs –now a drunkard of all people – when it didn't require her to. And as a result, would often get herself tangled up in their mess and in the end, incarcerate herself. She thought she'd left this habit in high school but nope, it had been sitting in silence all for this moment.
"Who are you? Are you one of Kai's friends?" the man asked.
"No. Who's Kai?"
"Strange. I don't recall you drinking with us," he continued, trying to get up once again and failing miserably.
Like the kind angel she was, she hurried in to help the poor man who looked to be the same age as her in getting to his feet. "I'm just a nobody. Let me help you," Zen said. It had taken all her strength to lift his body off the ground without losing her balance in the process. She took a step back to support his weight and, unfortunately, stumbled over an empty bottle that just had to be lying around at the exact same spot where she tripped, as if it knew she was heading in that direction and was secretly scheming to punish her for reasons unknown.
"Ah!" Zen screamed, reeling back together with the man until her waist hit the railing from behind. Just as she exhaled a breath of relief, she turned her head back from the side but was not prepared for what she saw next. Her eyes were unconsciously drawn to his lips that were mere centimetres from her own. He had the most alluring lips she had ever seen in a man.
Streaks of moonlight filtered through the glass window above, and like a skilled painter painted his face with a gentle stroke of its brush, leaving her awestruck with the soul-gripping masterpiece. Midnight black hair in a ragged undercut style streamed down his head with front bangs obscuring half of his face.
He was an embodiment of a summer storm, with a tinge of spice thrown in for good measure.
"Fuck," the man cursed, snapping her back to reality.
Zen rapidly blinked her eyes, her mind unable to come up with an explanation to wrap up the feelings she felt for the strange and majestic individual.
"I'm feeling dizzy," he said, his body swaying and leaning backwards.
Zen clung to the man's sleeves in a desperate attempt to keep him from falling, but for a man who had an athletic body and height that could pass for a model, his weight was too much for a petite girl like her to handle. She eventually fell on top of him, her lips dangerously crashing into his unexpectedly soft ones.
For a moment, time froze. Then she realized the position they were in. Her left hand laid flat on the ground while her body was sprawled on top of him like a lizard looking for prey and her other hand seemed to have unconsciously wandered farther down an intriguing part of the man's body and had invaded a very private property that should've otherwise been closed off to strangers.
"Get off of me," the man shouted, shoving her away from his body.
Shocked, frightened and guilt-stricken, Zen abruptly stood up and apologised repeatedly. "I'm really sorry. I was just trying to help."
"Stop with your excuses. You think I don't know what you're trying to do," he yelled at her angrily.
"What?"
"This is why I hate gays like you."
Wait, what? Hold up. Rewind.
"Gay? Me?" Zen pointed a finger to herself, taken aback by the accusation.
"Yes. You. Just so you know, I'm not gay. You think you can take advantage of me when I'm drunk?" He wobbled to his feet and then glared at her with full intensity.
"Excuse me," Zen tried to appease him. "You got me all wrong. I'm not-"
"Shut up!"
The words instantly struck a nerve. Zen's once calm and collected face was replaced by a murderous scowl. "How dare you raise your voice at me? I don't even know you!"
"I don't know you either. Stop bothering me."
"I tried to help-"
"You tried to take advantage of me, you worthless gay."
[I can't, with this guy and his obnoxious attitude.] Zen darted her eyes towards the ceiling, hands gripping her waist in fury. The thought of hitting the guy in the face and breaking his entire front set of teeth felt very tempting, but she had so many problems piling up at the moment and didn't want to stack more on top of what was already there.
"Listen here, you homophobic asshole." [ What's the use of being handsome if he's worth only this much?] Zen pointed a finger at him. "I'm not gay. I was just-"
"You're gay. Don't you look at yourself in the mirror?"
"Stop cutting me off!"
"You're just ooomfhhghh-"
"Don't tell me you're about to throw up right now?" Horror was written all over Zen's face at the possible upcoming disaster. "Don't get close to me," she yelled, but her words fell on deaf ears.
The man stumbled in her direction, almost as if he was intentionally aiming for her. Trapped and frozen on the spot, Zen watched wide-eyed as the man seized her shoulders in a vice-like grip, and without giving her any time to prepare, he puked his intestines out all over her tiny body, showing no remorse for his sickening misconduct.
Zen could only close her eyes and wince in disgust, and would continue to do so until that supposedly warm welcome gesture from the homophobic stranger was over. She should never have come here in the first place. [Curse that dog, curse that warden, curse that bottle, curse everything!]
"That's enough!" Zen shouted, pushing the man who later fell on his butt. And without a word, she spun on her heel and skipped down the stairs, quickly grabbed her things and dashed out of the building.
"So, that's what happened," Zen finished narrating the entire story. "Uh... Kate. You can close your mouth now," she continued, weirded out by the way Kate was staring at her like a dying fish out of a pond.
"I can't believe this." Kate wiped the non-existent drool from the corner of her mouth and slammed her hands down the coffee table where they both were occupying on the floor.
Zen continued to towel-dry her hair as she listened to Kate's over-dramatic descriptions of her story from her point of view. The awful stench of half-digested liquor vomit from earlier lingered inside her nose even after ruthlessly scrubbing her face and body clean in the shower, almost emptying an entire bottle of her cousin's newly bought floral-scented shower gel in the process.
"I can't believe that actually happened. I just can't." Zen moved her eyes to Kate who appeared to be lost in her own world, probably picturing some barbaric scenes of that undeniably good-looking stranger who had nothing but shit lodged up his brain.
Before Kate's imagination spiralled farther and farther away from the truth, which was possible given that Kate was the type of person who would ramble on and on about what someone said until a new issue dropped in front of her eyes and shifted her attention.
As far as Zen knew, the story of her ludicrous encounter - which she oh so carelessly given her cousin to feast on - with that bigoted homophobe would stay stuck in Kate's mind for at least a week or two, so she supposed leaving Kate alone with her fantasies and going to sleep was the best idea at the moment.
It had been a tiring day and the next day was bound to be even more tiring. She had to search for a new place, go to university, hand in her assignments, take back her remaining stuff from the dorm, the list was endless.
"I'm going to bed, Kate." Zen didn't care if Kate was listening as she placed the towel on the table and stood up.
Kate immediately noticed the movement and pulled Zen back to the wooden floor. "Wait. Tell me more," Kate whined.
"Kate, I need to sleep," Zen responded, tired and slightly irritated.
"I'll let you sleep, but not until you tell me something I'm really dying to know." Kate gave her a very determined look.
"What is it?"
"So how was it? How was your first kiss?"
"Kate!" Zen fought the urge to rip the flesh from her face. Kate's question had completely thrown her off-guard. There was nothing she could do to wipe out that naughty, dirty smirk Kate was giving her as she awaited her response.
Zen was never what people would call strictly feminine but she had her own sophisticated way of how she wanted to experience new things. A kiss, for example, would've appealed to her more had it been done in a nice romantic setting in the presence of nature, such as on a nice beach under a setting sun, or in a field full of flowers by the hillside, or simply in her own private room - if she had one in the future - with plenty of food served on the table, and of course, all of this should be done with the one person she would spend the rest of her life with.
To tell the truth, she had mixed feelings about her first kiss being stolen so unexpectedly, so easily, and under such outstandingly shocking circumstances by a drop-dead gorgeous guy any girl in her shoes would consider having won a million-dollar lottery ticket, but she had to admit it wasn't that horrible. She didn't particularly enjoy the kiss in any way, per se, but she didn't entirely hate it either. But stating that out loud would never make her cousin shut up about it and that was the last thing she wanted.
"You're not going to tell me?" Zen heard Kate speak, interrupting her thoughts.
"It's past one. I really, really need to sleep," Zen replied, finally succeeding to wipe the grimy smirk off her cousin's face.
"But I'm quite curious. How could he accuse of being gay though?" Kate burst out laughing all of a sudden.
The spite-filled twinge of pain that struck her chest was so sharp that Zen tightly shut her eyes and winced in silent agony, her hands balling into fists. It was only a matter of seconds before her self-control burst into flames. And three, two, one...
"That's what I've been thinking the whole time," Zen finally released her aggression, hitting the table repeatedly with her fists as she spat out every single syllable with venom. "How can he think of me in such way? That I'm a what? Gay? I have tremendous amount of respect for gays but why me? I. am. not. a. man. Is he blind? Of course, he was drunk, but not blinded. How could he take me for a guy, let alone one who attempted to harass him? I'm sure there's something wrong with his head. That homophobic ass..." Zen ranted on.
Now it was Kate's turn to remain silent and gape at Zen in utmost fascination. It had been years since she saw her cousin practically raging like a flaming hot jalapeno straight out of the fire pit. "Zen, calm down."
"How can I calm down when he insulted me like that?" Zen snapped her head at Kate, her eyes flashing like daggers.
"Why are you looking at me like that? I'm not him," Kate said, shifting a small distance away from Zen. "Just forget about it. Why are we even worrying over a hopeless drunkard? That guy probably won't remember what happened last night," Kate stuttered, hoping Zen would cool down. Her cousin could be undeniably scary when she was angry.
"You're probably right." Zen sighed in defeat. "But Kate, tell me this. Do I really look like a man?"
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