Damaged Beyond Repair by Kashmira Kamat (KittyKash) (ebook reader below 3000 .txt) 📖

Alana

"Have you heard of this band called Oblivion?" I asked Nina while we were seated in the university cafeteria.

    "Of course. Everyone knows about that band. They play in clubs and sometimes they even have outdoor gigs. Good music." Nina peeled the wrapper of her cheeseburger and took a bite.

   She was acting like she may have heard about them, but I knew Nina too well to know that she had probably stalked the shit outta that band and had magazine cut-outs of the boys stuck somewhere in her journal that consisted of every possible hot men that walked planet earth.

   "Do you know anyone called Troy from the band?"

   Her eyes lit up. "Yeah. He goes to our university."

   Double take on that one. "He what?"

   "Yeah, Troy goes here, and so does another one of their band members, Christopher. Thought you knew about that already. They travel a lot, and there are rumors that Troy was kicked out of his previous university because of "malicious" activity." She put malicious in quotes. "I thought you knew about that already."

    "How was I supposed to know?"

    "Duh. Because he is your ex-boyfriend's cousin."

     What the fuck?

    "What are you talking about?"

   "Troy Masters is Rowan's cousin. He moved to Carmel a few weeks back, I thought you knew about that since you and Dwight are like bffs. Wait, didn't he fill you in? You seem clueless." She poked the straw into the strawberry milk cartoon.

    "Dwight and I haven't talked in ages. We only text each other for Christmas' and Birthdays', I get a tons of invitations from him for his house parties but I don't attend those, so yeah, after my breakup with Rowan, things got pretty awkward."

    I was lying. Things had definitely gotten messier, but even after Dwight's repeated advances at "making things better", I'd chosen to keep myself away from that family. I didn't even remember the last time I'd seen Minnie, I'd spoken to her on the phone several times, but I'd avoided meeting them only because I was a coward. I knew I would brawl into tears at the sight of the little girl who I had dreamed would be mine someday.

I didn't want Dwight or anyone to console me and sugar coat what I already knew, that I could never be a part of that family.

     "I kissed Troy." There I said it.

     She spurted the milk out of her mouth like a spray which spilled on her t-shirt. "What the actual fuck? You kissed Troy Masters?"

    "Lower down your voice!" I said, took a deep breath and explained her what happened and why I hadn't returned to her forty texts and fifty phone calls.

     "Why are you looking at me like I'm some kind of a criminal?"

    "I think this would be a better sitcom than The Big Bang Theory. Maybe you should consider writing an auto-biography." She cracked as she wiped the spilled milk from the table.

   "In due time." I joked.

   "So who is a better kisser? The older one or the younger one?"

   "Definitely the older one. Hands down." I could feel the blush creep slowly towards my cheeks.

    "How could you only keep digging the Masters' boys?"

   "It was a co-incidence."

    Nina wasn't listening because her eyes were trailed behind me. "He is coming here."

    "What?"

      She started her countdown. "Five. Four. Three. Two..."

      "Alana, can I talk to you for a minute?" Troy said as he stood by our table with the same overconfidence dripping his voice.

   Nina had forgotten her cheeseburger, because apparently this drama was far interesting than a cheeseburger.

    "Talk about what?" I asked.

     Troy picked up a mozzarella stick from my plate and took a bite, "Stuff that I can only talk in private." To Nina, he said, "Hey there chubby cheeks."

Nina didn't seem offended.

    I eyed her. Private or not, she would without a doubt hear the end of it. I rose to my feet and followed Troy out of the cafeteria, feeling eyes bore into me. We rounded the corner and came to a halt where the student body was almost nil. Troy leaned against the side of the wall. I was feeling uncomfortable by every passing minute. The clock was ticking. I folded my arms.

     "Look, Yo. This is going to sound ludicrous, but..." He lowered his voice. "The other day at the bar when we...you know, when we kissed, there were some people, more precisely some girls who witnessed it and recorded a video of us getting it on. Now that shit is about to go viral and trust me, you and I both know that nothing happened that night when I took you back to my apartment, but they think we screwed each other. You understand what I'm sayin?"

  "Go on." I needed to brace myself for whatever was coming next.

  "I have a gig comin' up soon, and I don't need the tabloids making a big deal out of it. Because things ended badly where I studied before with one of girls I slept with told the dean that I...well...she told him nasty stuff that I didn't do..."

  "Did you sexually assault someone, Troy?"

   "That's fucking crazy! It was between consenting adults, alright?" I watched as rage took over him. He rummaged a cigarette and a lighter from his jacket pocket, lit it and took a long drag. "It's like getting knocked up by someone else and insinuating that I'm the one who contributed the swimmer. I'm always cautious what with women trying to make me the daddy of their babies so they could get tons of money. Why would I feel the need to do something like that when I can get whoever the fuck I want. Plus, if I was a rapist, I would have taken advantage of you when you were in my apartment."

  "And what part do I play in this?"

  "I came to Carmel to get some peace, and I don't need any more controversies surrounding me. If you decide to be my girlfriend than you can stop people from calling you names and guys from slipping their phone number in your bag, and I can stop gold-diggers from throwing themselves at me. That's not good for the reputation of my band." He blew out a puff of the smoke. "That's killing two fishes with one stone, Yo."