My night had started shitty. From 5 to 12, I stand around at the front desk in one of those cookie cutter business lodgings. You know: checking guests in, answering questions and taking phone calls? The majority of our clientele are consultants and salespeople who conduct business in the city across the river. Tonight was mostly business men getting in before seeing their clients in the morning. They're the worst. Always demanding things and trying to get an upgrade for non existent incontinences.
I'm working my way through college as well as holding this full-time pain in the ass job. I know I was hired for my looks more than my brains. Five four with long flowing brown hair and deep green eyes; my body is still in tone condition from my days as a track and field star. I have a nice round face that hasn't seen a blemish in over four years. The service jacket I'm required to wear makes it look like my 26C's are struggling to burst out from their confinement. I keep asking to get a larger size, but my manager doesn't think it's a problem.
All night long I get men leaning over the counter, with eyes blatantly turned downward. Without a moral conscience, they leer at my chest as they speak. The desperate ones try to find out when my shift ends and some even suggest I come up with the room service to 'relax' them from their 'long, hard' journey. Pigs!
Tonight had been particularly bad. Traffic was at a crawl and the local airports were all experiencing delays. Since I'm the first person they can vent at, I was inundated with complaints, accusations of poor quality service, and out-and-out flirting. I kept my anger in check and did my best to move those assholes along without showing any more emotion than a friendly, civil nod. What else could I do? The last thing I needed was ruffling someone's already bruised feathers and getting fired for it. So when I came home after my shift, I was not in a good mood.
My apartment is just outside the University campus. It's one of the reasons I work so hard. I like my privacy. No roommates to deal with. No surprises or loud noises in the wee hours of the morning. My fortress of solitude--you might say--after a frustrating and exhausting night. So when I walked through my door to find my brother and a stranger in my living room, I realized my shitty night wasn't about to end.
Jacob got up from the easy chair to walk towards me, arms extended out and a welcoming smile on his face. The jerk had the nerve to act like this was his crib and it was I who was just visiting. Despite being four years my junior, he's much taller than me. His hair had been dyed blond, spiked with enough hair gel to serve an entire boy band. His puffy coat looked ridiculous as he had pulled up his sleeves to reveal bony arms. I saw a tattoo of some obscene naked woman and wondered if dad had already given him hell for it. The spoiled brat I remember from childhood was turning out to be an even bigger asshole as a young man. Even from here, I could smell the alcohol and cigarettes from his breath; another thing that will not go well with my parents. "Liz! Sis! It's so good to..."
"Jacob," I growled as my temper finally found someone to flail. "Get the fuck out! What ever you're scheming, I want no part of it." I kept the door open and stepped aside to avoid his embrace and his nimble fingers. Jacob was the rebel in our family. He didn't have a job, but always seemed to find the perfect sucker to mooch off. And when he couldn't con anyone, he would just out-right steal at the first chance. To Jacob, the whole world owed him a living and he liked to live big. The bastard was not bright either for he had no comprehension that his actions were wrong in any way. After all these years, he still didn't understand why everyone was so distrustful toward him.
"Oh, sis." He stopped a few feet, out of reach from me and away from the door. He eyed my balled fist with a healthy dose of caution. "I'm hurt." His smile sank into a thin line of disappointment, but his eyes flashed with cunning. I knew he was already planning to get around my hostility for something.
"You'll get over it," I sneered as I thumbed outward towards the empty corridor. "Just go! And take your friend with you."
"Ah," he said, looking back at the tall young man lying on his side across my petite couch. It looked as if he had been sitting before he fell over. His large black coat could have been a large blanket, but it seemed to fit him fine. I couldn't see much of his face as his black hair was shielding it. "You see, I can't. Felix here...well...he's the foreign exchange student I'm suppose to be guiding."
"Guiding?" I eyed him suspiciously.
"Well, yeah. Remember the Patersons?" I nodded. They were the next door neighbors of our parents. Nice couple. They never had children of their own, but they were always having foreign students staying with them. "Well Felix here is the new one and they asked me to show him around." He grinned. "So I did."
"You showed a High School student around a University?" The jerk nodded enthusiastically, his devious and arrogant grin unconsciously appearing across his mug. Oh, how I wanted to smack it! "For what?"
"Well, I thought we hit some of the parties, and..." Jacob shifted his feet a bit, realizing that he wasn't making a good impression with me. He kept forgetting he lost my respect long ago. My disgust grew as I imagine the song and dance he must have put on for Mrs. Paterson to agree to this. "The Alpha Sigma Whatever had this great mixer going on..."
"You went to a Frat party?" My jaw dropped open. That nailed it. He morally incompetent.
"We're both eighteen," he whined.
" They serve alcohol there. You're not twenty-one! You could have gotten arrested!"
"They didn't stop us." He shrugged. I groaned as I looked at the unfortunate soul on my couch. Felix had not moved a muscle since I came in. The poor guy must have had the dumb luck of looking well over twenty-one while trusting my scheming brother. Jacob probably used that along with the fact he was a foreigner to get inside. I turned back to give my younger brother a dark look. He shrugged again and continued on. "
Anyway
, I bet some guy that 'old' Russia boy here could out drink a Senior and...um...lost." A scowl went across his face. It was the first genuine expression from him I had seen all evening and that made me even more angry. "So I found myself with this semi-comatose idiot and no money to get home. I was sort of wondering if you could loan me a few bucks."
