This is a slow start to a series, but it will start heating quickly in the next chapters. i would love to hear from female readers if the fact that the story is written in the first person, from the point of view of a man, is preventing them from connecting with the story or the characters.
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"I can't believe it's almost the end of the semester! I thought I would've had more of an adventure by now," She said, approaching us.
She was smiling, half teasing, half coy, her eyes locked on Jonathan, waiting for a reply to her obvious come on. I was standing right there, talking to Jonathan, having already been in a conversation with Jonathan, before she had walked up to us. To this day I'm not even sure she had noticed that I had been standing there, talking to fucking Jonathan.
Jonathan turned his head slightly to look at her, his perfectly cut hair falling stylishly across his perfect tanned face. He looked like the poster boy for rich preppy New Englander in his polo shirt and white shorts, which is exactly what he was.
Without missing a beat, utterly polite, he said:
"Well you should go into town with Richard here, I'm sure he could show you the sights."
He turned to me before continuing,"you'll show her around, right, you're not doing anything today?"
And then he turned and left, leaving the crestfallen girl standing there, mortified and embarrassed.
I too stood there, uncomfortable in the sudden silence.
To break the silence, I mentioned to the bus stop nearby.
"I was going to go into town. With the bus. If you want to come." I managed to say.
"I...I think I have..." she mumbled.
"I promise it'll be more fun than staying here and dealing with them," I said, motioning towards a gaggle of girls who were looking at us.
The girl shuddered and grabbed me by the elbow, pushing me towards the old gate and the nearby bus stop.
"Let's get out of here. But the bus? What' s wrong with you, don't you have a car?"
No, I didn't have a car. I had a bus pass though, and when the bright yellow bus trundled up to the stop I guided her up the stairs and into a pair of empty seat.
She sat and stared out the window, trying not to touch anything. The thing is, she was quite pretty, and I became very aware that I was sitting next to this perky blonde barely covered by a summer dress. And she was going to spend the afternoon with me. I suddenly became nervous.
We were both on a semester abroad in a small coastal town in Spain. Our university had arranged for classes to be held in an old monastery on the edge of a small tourist town. With room and board on the premises, most of the students had simply stayed put and rarely left the compound, more interested in the petty intrigues of who had done what to whom. Apart for drives to the local beach in rented SUVs that daddy had paid for, the student body was shockingly inert.
Kelly. That was her name. We were both in English Lit class.
I briefly glanced out the window. The sky was a perfect blue, the Mediterranean a slightly darker blue in the distance, the view cut by golden hills capped in green olive trees. As the little bus rumbled down the narrow roads that snaked through the picturesque hills that overlooked the small town, I gathered up my courage.
"So Kelly," I said, "do you know what you want to do in town?"
"No. I don't care," she replied, sullen.
I will be the first to say that I was an introvert. I was the skinny geek that no one talks to because I was not rich enough, or buff enough, and deep down I despised these rich spoiled brats who inherited a chance at an education my parents had sweated for, that I had sweated for with part-time gigs while studying.
She was sitting there with her hair perfectly done, in a dress that probably cost a ridiculous amount, a little purse clutched in her soft and manicured hands. I was in my board shorts and a T-shirt with Darth Vader walking an AT-AT printed on it.
And yet, from the height of my nerd-dom, I had the rare moment of clarity. This girl I was so ready to both despise and masturbate furiously to once this day was over, this poor girl was heart-broken and humiliated.
Jonathan was dick. Jonathan had dumped her in my lap. Blessed be Jonathan.
I resolved to cheer her up in the only way I knew. I took her to the library.
Our little bus had made its way through the streets of the touristy part of the town, past bars and shops and internet cafes that catered to the Anglo crowd which flooded the beaches every summer. We stayed on as the bus revved up and made the slow crawl up to the Old Town, the part of the city which jutted out into the sea on a small peninsula. The bus stopped under the towering walls that surrounded the Old Town. There was no going further. The streets behind the walls had not been made for modern vehicles.
"Come on," I said, and got off the bus.
She followed, blinking in the harsh afternoon sun.
We walked through the tall gate of the Old Town and onto the cobblestone streets within. I guided her past the tacky tourist shops selling tin swords and painted jugs made in China. The air was slightly cooler here, in the shade of the stone houses that towered over us. Brightly painted shutters contrasted with the smooth whiteness of the old homes, the blue sky a distant strip of light.
I was worried that she would tire soon, but she followed easily as we climbed up through the city. The whole place was on a hill, so we were always going up or down. The only things level in this place were the steps. I remembered that athletics were quite important at our University. Chances were that she was in better shape than I was.
A small plaza opened up in front of us, a tiny church taking a whole side. Opposite the church was a palace, a private home of some long dead noble. A cafe and a bar shared the rest of the plaza. I guided her towards the broad doors of the palace, for it had been turned into my favorite place in the whole town: the library.
Not just any library. Kelly couldn't help but gasp a bit as we pushed through the door. The tall ceilings were painted with cherubs and gods, the trims gilded. Chandeliers hung from the ceiling. The afternoon sun shone though stained glass windows the size of a man. Room after room was filled with bookshelves and thick oak tables on which books were artfully stacked. I lead her up a flight of stairs, past small chambers where chairs and sofas had been placed, where the silent locals were happily reading. Up another flight of stairs, smaller this one, to more rooms that had been converted in to reading rooms. The higher we went the smaller the rooms, old servants quarters now housing a collection of faded sci-fi novels (my favorite). There was a small section of books in various languages, but I liked to browse the strange old books.
I waved hello to a smiling old lady, who returned my wave and cheerfully said hello. We politely asked about each other's health, in Spanish. She smiled at Kelly and looked at me warmly, an amused glint in her eye. She was my favorite librarian here. I came here a lot.
"You speak spanish?" asked Kelly.
"A little," I replied.
Truth was, I liked to learn, and I wasn't going to spend a month in a foreign country without cracking open a language book. Kelly seemed a little impressed.
As soon as the librarian left us alone, I grabbed Kelly's hand and pulled her down a short hallway which ended with a stout wooden door with a clear "no entry" sign tacked to it. I pushed it open and pulled Kelly through, quickly shutting the door behind her.
"What are you doing?" she exclaimed, looking slightly horrified.
"This way," I whispered, her hand still in mine.
We were now in a tiny spiral staircase, so old that the stone steps had been worn down by hundreds of years of use. Thin windows let air and light in. I led her up the stairs, trying to be quiet. Kelly followed without resistance, silent as well.
The staircase punched through the floor of a tiny room, barely bigger than the stairs, capped by an old roof framed in wood. If you reached up you could touch the old tiles that protected us from the sun. The room was really an extension of the stairs, a ring of wooden boards a few feet wide that extended the stone rim of the top of the stairs. All along the walls were windows, or square holes in the walls really, since they were open to the elements. And before us, through those windows, was the city, and beyond it the sea. We were at one of the highest point in the Old Town.
Kelly had a big grin on her face.
"This is incredible!" she whispered.
"Right?" I said, proud.
Kelly let go of my hand, which I only now realized I was holding. She walked around the room, staring out the windows to better see the view.
I sat on the steps and watched her.
Her legs were long and tanned, barely hid by her thin dress which fell at mid-thigh.She was wearing a soft and layered sun dress, green and blues and golden patterns interwoven together. From my seated position I could see frightfully far up that dress, especially when she leaned out the windows. Thighs, golden thighs...
From what I could see she was willowy, with small breasts that barely filled the top of her dress. Her blonde hair fell to her shoulders, straight and light, framing her long slender neck and oval face. She lacked the sharpness that I had seen in the other girls in her clique, her smile too broad and open to carry the permanent sneer that graced the others. Her eyes were green, I noticed. And she was looking at me.
"Now what?" she whispered.
"What do you mean?" I asked, stupidly.
"I was promised an adventure," she replied, a determined look on her face.
Later I realized that she was on a mission to prove stupid Jonathan wrong, that she didn't need him, that she would have the best time ever without his stupid face in the picture.
"Let's go back down," I said, since I was a moron.
We snuck back down, making our way out of the library. We spent the next few hours exploring the castle that topped the rocky outgrowth the Old Town was built on. From time to time Kelly's hand would find her way in mine as we climbed steep staircases and hopped over old fortifications. Just as naturally she would let go. And we spoke, we chatted about this and that, about the books we had read for the course and the ones we read for pleasure. It was a lovely afternoon, if I may say so myself.
We were on the far side of the castle wall, overlooking the open sea, when I had an idea.
"Do you want to go swimming?" I asked Kelly.
She looked over the city towards the town beach crowded with tourists.
"Meh," she replied.
I grinned.
"This way," I said, and grabbed her hand.
