[ twenty ]
I tried calling James several times after our call ended, but I eventually figured he was ignoring me because he wasn't picking up. I was proven wrong when, from my bedroom, I could hear him calling out to me. He was standing outside the gates of Toni's house, yelling frantically, "Arista! Arista, come outside so I can take you out of here." By this time, the sun had already set over the horizon and I knew Toni's neighbors wouldn't take James' yelling well.
I buried my face in my hands in embarassment.
The next thing I thought to do was to ask him to leave. I raced out of my room, trying to get to the front gates before Toni could. I wanted to avoid a argument between the two Real Madrid team mates.
But I was too late. Toni was already on his way to meet James, a look of annoyance clear on his face. "Do you need something?" He asked rather harshly.
"I want Arista to come out here." He replied with his jaw clenched in anger, and added more loudly. "Arista! I came to get you."
I hurried to Toni's side, saying to James in a pleading tone, "Please go home. I know you're only trying to help me, but I'm fine here."
There was a look of hurt in James eyes as he spoke his next words. "You come to live with him so easily, but you never wanted to do that with me." He accused, forcing memories to be brought back. "For years I struggled for the chance to even date you. I begged for a chance, but he just gets one without even asking. You must really enjoy hurting me, Arista."
"So this is you coming here with a wounded ego?" I crossed my arms over my chest.
James shook his head. "I'm here to stop you from making more mistakes."
"Keep talking." I glared at him. Sure I had made many mistakes since we dated, but he had no right to come and tell me what I had permission to do. "You're just sinking yourself deeper, James." Digging his own tomb, as my mother often said when someone was getting themselves into trouble.
As he and I exchanged several words in Spanish, Toni remained quiet. He surely had no clue what was being said between the two of us.
"Arista, please..." He begged, a hand outstretched in between the bars of the gate for me to take. "Come with me."
"James, I don't want to accept anything from you because you have a girlfriend. Do you know how wrong it would look for a woman to accept gifts and an apartment from you?" I explained to him. It wasn't just that I was rejecting his offer to be mean, I genuinely didn't want to cause problems for him. I added, "People are going to talk if I move into an apartment you rented for me. I don't want to be labeled as the other woman, especially not when its not even true." At least if it were true, there would be no reason for me to argue it.
"I knew you would be difficult about this." He sighed, though by his words he sounded like he had a trick up his sleeve. "And you forced me to do this, Arista."
"Oh, what are you going to do?" I challenged, "Jump over the gate and get me? We're not children anymore, James. You can't just pick me up and carry me over your shoulder like you used to. I'm twenty one years old and can do as I please."
"Oh, but this is something better than that." He shook his head. "I called your mother."
My heart dropped at his words. "Hijueputa."
A smirk formed on his lips when suddenly my cellphone rang in my pocket. All color seemed to drain from my face in that instant when I got it and checked the screen to find it was my mother calling. Surely she wasn't calling for a friendly chat. She and my father were very devoutly catholic and I had been raised the same, which had also been the reason why I declined James' idea for us to live together when we were younger.
With Toni it was different though, because he was only helping me after I lost my job. The fact that we were on the verge of possibly starting a relationship had nothing to do with it.
I hit the answer button and brought the phone to my ear hesitantly. "Hello, mom?"
"Arista," She instantly began in scolding mode. To her it was just the same if I was twenty one or one hundred, I was to obey her because she was my mother. "James just called and said you're moving in with a strange German man! What is that about? What do you think you are doing?"
"He's not a strange German man..." I tried to explain, all the while glaring at James who grinned a victorious grin. "Well...he is German, and he is a man. But he's a friend who's helping me now that I lost my job." If I were to tell her that we were interested in each other, I knew she was capable of dropping everything in that instant and catch a flight to Madrid just to scold me face to face.
"Eso si que no." She said, that's not going to happen. "Do you actually think that man won't want anything in return? You're young and pretty, Arista. You need to take care of yourself. Go pack your things this instant and go with James. He already told me all the trouble he went through to help you. Niña malagradecida." Ungrateful little girl.
"But mom..." I tried again.
"Pero nada." But nothing, she scolded. "What better than getting help from a trusted family friend like James? We know his parents and he's a good boy, he has always been good to you. But that German man? What will I tell the police if you suddenly disappear and we can't find you? That my daughter was living with a German man whose name, phone number, and address I don't know? You don't know this man. What if he's a rapist? Or worse, a murderer?"
"Mom," I began firmly. "I am not a child. I will not go with James."
When she saw that she wasn't able to convince me, she resorted to pity, making me feel bad. Sighing, she said, "Arista, I just want you to be okay. And I trust James. You'll be fine with him."
"I'm sorry, mom." I told her. "But I already made my decision and I think I'm old enough to know what's best for me." With that, I hit the end button before she could continue to argue with me.
As though he hadn't just heard the phone conversation between my mom and I, James waved me over, "Go get your things so we can get out of here." He probably hoped that I would end up listening to my mom.
Instead, I turned and went into the house with Toni, leaving James outside. Sometimes you need to be cruel to be kind.
-
got that last line from 'awkward' ^.^
uhm. novela confrontation between arista, james, and to a very minimal extent toni. i was going to save the update for tomorrow possibly, since i updated late last night. but i can't help myself.
so i hope you all enjoy the update. i worked pretty hard on it.
ps, i included a picture of arista (portrayed by camila sodi) above, so that you can all see what she looks like ^.^
thank you!
i love you.
-clary xx
