WE ARE THE D.S (Somos la D.S - English version)

15. DISSASTER, CAKE AND WINE

Nobody says anything. Roman stands next to me and just stares straight ahead as if he is fighting with himself.

It terrifies me. I am terrified of uncertainty.

Roman is a ticking time bomb and I suspect there are so many words on his lips capable of annihilating my entire being, I doubt I can contain them.

"Why, Baelee?" he finally asks. "Why did I have to see you like this?"

I swallow a mouthful of saliva, or so I try because my mouth is dry from the pill that seems to have dislodged all liquid from my skin.

"Why did you have to sleep with that pair of idiots? Don't you even think about us?"

My thoughts are derailed for a second and I turn to meet his darkened eyes.

"About us?"

"On our family."

"And what does our family have to do with this?"

"Can't you see? You've made yourself look like a slut in front of the whole party."

"I beg your pardon?!" Indignation, pain. His words pierce me like a dagger and I struggle with what I can not to slap him. "How lost are you in those stupid village customs, not to see that I am a woman with the right to use her body as she wants?"

"Right?!? You can't be serious."

"Of course I am, it's my fucking sexuality, it's my life and if you don't like what you see you can go fuck yourself."

The pain in my chest has taken care of erasing the anger from my thoughts. Roman, he, despite having thoughts as square as a village elder, believed he would be the last person to judge me.

"Go away then!"

I take two steps away from him, but something in my system makes me stop.

"You're a fucking hypocrite! When I found out about the drugs, I was the first person to help you, I wanted you to be safe here and now you just decide I'm a slut because of the way I choose to have sex."

"You don't want to compare this situation to drugs," he points out with anger welling up in his eyes. "Besides tell me, just tell me at what point did I ask to come here, to be a part of all this? Stop insinuating that you saved me! Stop saying you're protecting me! Because with what I've seen tonight I've broken into pieces."

"What's going on here?"

Bernard's appearance barely allows me to digest his words. I dry my tears as best I can.I need to get out of here.

"Nothing, I just," I head for the stairs but at the mere movement on my part, Bernard's hand stops me.

"Baelee, why are you crying?"

"Let's just get out of here please, have your tie."

"No, Baelee, I want to know why the hell you are crying," he takes my face in his hands and with his thumb he wipes away one of my tears.

"I argued with Roman, but it doesn't matter now, please get me out of here."

"What did you tell her?" Bernard moves his face to the boy next to us.

"What the hell do you care?" Roman spits and Bernard's hands leave me.

"I care because she's my girlfriend, can you tell me what happened?" Even though Bernard tries to keep control, I know that both of them are far from that.

"You didn't seem to care when you were sharing her with someone else, or was she sharing you...? Looking at you, I think Baelee got you a replacement. An on-call prostitute to satisfy herself."