Sweet Nola

Chapter Eight

Nola threw a party at her house and invited her closer friends. The beta orbiters of international students showed up as expected, Asim, another Indian and a Korean called Jeong Un Lee. There was a boxing gym member who was Italian. He had a Grecian physique and was near seven feet tall. Eleanor was over for the day as well.

Nola had invited Nicole but she turned down the invitation with cryptic, vague texts, citing some reason with being with her boyfriend. She was pretty but it was hard to believe she had a boyfriend. Nola felt for sure she was on the spectrum. Perhaps not fully fledged autistic but lightly. Nola texted her she should bring her boyfriend over but she still declined. It was a shame; she was sure to have fun if she came.

Nola and some others sat in the sitting room in the dark watching a DreamWorks animation.

Allie's head laid on Nola's shoulder and she would occasionally stroke his flaxen hair like a cat. Lauren was in her room playing a videogame with the Korean and the two Indians. The movie audience could hear muffled shouts coming from her room.

They had ordered four extra-large pizzas from Deliveriloo and Nola knew that whoever was doing the cycling would probably be cursing at the back breaking order.

The doorbell rang. Nola exhaled a heavy heave as she uprooted herself from the couch to answer the door. Allie slapped her on the butt and called her fat ass. She gave a surprised shrug before jumping onto the couch to tickle him to an apology.

"Shush! You're ruining the good part." Nola's ripped Italian friend shushed them which Nola and Allie then apologised for. His arms and calves were as thick as tree trunks. He was a soft, kind man who always wore a wife beater. His name was Alfonse del Rossi.

Nola opened the door and saw a man her height who wore a sailor cap.

"Ben!" She blurted out, eyes wide in surprise and shock.

Ben had already known it was Nola once he picked up the food from the fast food restaurant. Her name was listed on the food receipt and Nola was a unique name, a unique name for a Belarusian. He cursed her when he saw the amount of pizzas he had to stuff into his hot bag especially the two 1.75 litres of Coke and Fanta. The coincidence of meeting her also made his heart thump in anxiety.

"What a coincidence. Why are you here?"

"I live here! We're having a party right now. Join us." She said this without a single sign of hesitation and without leaving Ben any time to consider, she grabbed both of his arms and led him in. He was stupefied and got dragged in before he could form a single sentence.

"Come!"

Come, Ben thought, her words echoing in his head like a headache.

"Let me..." he stammered," -take off my shoes at least," seeing that she didn't wear shoes in the house.

Nola acted a bit forceful, knowing from experience with Nicole that sometimes you have to expend more energy with low energy people. Some people come naturally, some need a little push and others need to be dragged over mountains of corpses.

"That bag must be heavy, I'm so sorry. Forgive me."

Ben glared at her. Did she drag me into the kitchen so I can serve the pizza directly to her and her guests?

"Thirsty? Let me get you a glass while you take out the yum-yums."

He let out a light chuckle. Yum-yums. She was such a naïve, bubbly person. Ben stood in the corner and dropped the giant square box of a bag gently onto the ground. Can't be damaging precious customer food, he thought. He suddenly felt very depressed. These students were living the ideal life while he spent his time either staring at meaningless computer garble or delivering food for less than minimum wage. On a good day he would make twenty-four euro during the peak hours, 6-8pm.