Note: There's some violence in this one... nothing really savage, but perhaps gruesome enough to justify warning sensitive readers. Some characters die.
Also, in this particular story, there are almost no sexy bits. If you really only want the sex, you could just skip ahead to the Raoul's First Murder stories.
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Raoul stays at the sorority another half hour, not wanting to run off too quickly after an experience like that. But eventually, kissing and hugging all the girls goodbye, he promises to come to their Chinese New Years' party.
"Bring condoms," some whisper.
"Of course I will," he promises.
His cousin Yvonne decides he's too drunk, so she'll drive him home.
"What did you do down there?" she demands almost as soon as the car begins moving. Outside, her sorority sisters are still waving goodbye. "Some girls came up saying everyone was getting naked."
Her aggressive tone masks her nervousness. Raoul's acquaintances, even his family, do not often question him about his actions.
And they have good reason not to.
"That's true."
"What did you do?"
"Ask your friends. They'll tell you anything they want you to know."
"What about
you
? What do
you
want me to know?"
Before answering, he looks over at her. They both know that this is a warning. He lets the silence grow uncomfortable while she looks straight ahead at the road, pretending not to know he's looking at her.
"You should know that I had a good time."
"That's all?"
"Yup." He turns to look at the road. "Thanks for inviting me."
"That's fine," she bluffs. "I don't care." But a minute later she hits him, whining pathetically and changing to Mandarin. "Come on! Tell me! I'm your 'older sister!'"
"Nope."
She sighs. He's incorrigible. Since his parents died, which was almost six years ago, no one has been able to tell him anything. "You think you're the boss of yourself," his aunt, Yvonne's mother, once scolded him. "Huh," he replied, sarcastically, as if puzzled. "Just because I pay most of the bills." His aunt told him that he was still a child, and she still had to follow her rules.
"What's your enforcement mechanism?" he'd challenged. He waited while her mom and the girls had a discussion in Cantonese about what this meant, silent as they howled with disgust at his disrespect. "How can you talk to your aunt like that?" they'd spat at him. "Well? What do you have to say for yourself? What if your parents could hear you talk like that?"
He didn't blink. But at the peak of their outrage, he just said, "If it's too much for you to endure, I'll miss having you live in my home."
One by one, over the next two days, everyone except her mom apologized to him, desperate to be back in his good graces. Finally her mom confronted him in his room. None of the girls knows what happened, but she came out half an hour later and announced that Raoul was the man of the house now.
And that was that.
So Yvonne knows she's not going to win this argument.
"Well," she shrugs, in English again, "I'm glad you had a good time, at least."
"A great time."
"Good. Next time I won't have to beg you to come see us."
"Nope."
"Tell me about the club. What's happening again?"
"You remember Emma? White girl, black hair? Cheerleader at County. Maybe your year, maybe a year older."
"Yeah, I remember. Year ahead of me. She dropped out senior year."
"She showed up at the party today."
"Really? Who invited her?"
"I don't know."
"Huh. She was always kind of weird."
Raoul nods, so Yvonne goes on.
"Like, she wanted attention too much, especially from boys. She was desperate for friends. She tried to seem confident so hard, you could tell she was actually really insecure."
"She's a stripper now."
"Huh. I'm not surprised. She had a terrible reputation. I heard she had two abortions
before
she dropped out."
"She gave me a fake ID today."
"A fake ID?"
"For my birthday."
"What kind of fake ID?"
"A Wyoming driver's license in the name of Raoul Badoss. Born in 1965."
"And she invited you to go see her strip?"
"Yup."
"And so you're going?"
"Of course."
"With the fake ID?"
Instead of answering, he looks at her again. She's skinny and tall, barely a third as big as Raoul.
She looks straight ahead, unable to meet his gaze.
"And there'll be a motorcycle gang there?" she asks, her voice tight with fear.
"Did I tell you that?"
"Mom called. She heard Sam and Reza talking about it. She doesn't want me to let you go."
He snorts.
This is funny in several ways: no one, especially not Yvonne, is going to stop Raoul from doing what he wants to do. But his poor Auntie Wei will lose sleep until he comes home safe and sound. What is he going to do with her?
"Raoul?"
"Yeah?"
"Please don't go."
"Why?"
"I'm scared."
"You serious?"
"Yeah."
"I'll be okay," he smirks.
"Please, Raoul."
"Yvonne." His tone is flat and deep and dangerous.
"Please, Raoul. A motorcycle gang? With a fake ID? You could get in real trouble. You could get hurt. Arrested. Who knows?"