Avoiding Intimacy (Avoiding #2.5)(16)
Author: K.A. Linde

“John is my brother. He would never do that. In fact, I can’t even believe I have to justify his behavior. I know him. I’ve known him my entire life, and he would never in a million years do this. Not to me.”

“So, what? I’m a liar?” she asked, her anger rising quickly. “I’m just your lying girlfriend?”

“I take a lot of shit from you, Chyna.

You get away with a lot of shit, alright?”

he said, a bite cutting through his voice that she had never heard. “But, I would be the liar if I didn’t say that you’re making this a bigger deal than it really is. You blow everything out of proportion. I don’t get it, but I’ve endured it because I care about you. You can’t bring this shit up when you’re drunk this late and expect me to take you seriously.”

“I’m not drunk!” she cried back, infuriated. She was tipsy. She’d had a few drinks, but that was it. She hadn’t done anything wrong, and Adam wouldn’t even believe her.

“Please, Chyna, I know when you’re drunk. Stop being a drama queen.”

“A drama queen?!” she all but shouted at him. “Are you f**king serious? I come to you with this, and you call me a drama queen?”

“Yes! God, how do you think people see you?” he asked, slamming his fist in the foyer wall. “You’re a big f**king drama queen! All John had to do was look at you for you to think he wanted to get with you, Chyna. That’s how you treat everyone else.”

“I don’t know if you haven’t noticed, but your girlfriend is wanted by every f**king guy who looks at her!”

“See!” he said, clenching his fists at his sides, restraining himself. “Drama queen! You take the cake! This is my brother!”

“Then, why do you think I brought it up?” she yelled back. “You think I wanted to hurt you with this?”

“I don’t know what you wanted,” he yelled, barely holding it together. “You probably just misinterpreted whatever happened. You drank enough to blackout tonight. Do you even remember the night?”

“I can’t believe this shit!” she cried.

She was shaking from her anger. “I am not drunk! I know my limits. I try to tell you the truth. I try to be honest, and you throw it all back in my face!”

“Well, imagine how I feel!” he cried.

“I do everything for you, and you know I worship John. Yet, you still tell me that he —what? He tried to take advantage of you? Are you f**king kidding?”

“Fucking ridiculous! You can’t even trust your own girlfriend to tell you the truth.”

“From how it sounds, I shouldn’t trust you farther than I can throw you!” he yelled back at her angrily.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” she demanded, crossing her arms over her chest.

“You know what? Fuck it! Just f**k it!” he said, throwing up his hands. He ran a hand back through his hair in frustration.

“Find someone else to deal with all the drama, Chyna! I’m done! This shit is out of control. You had to bring him into this.”

He pointed his finger at her like he was going to say something else, but then he just shook his head and walked out of the door.

He walked out and left her. He left her all alone. Who does that?

Chyna grabbed her cell phone out of her bag. She was furious. Who the hell did he think he was? He couldn’t just walk out on her. She chewed on her lips, her hands shaking, as she searched for Alexa’s number. She wanted him to come back.

She wanted him to fix this.

She had been the one to mess things up, but John had been the instigator. She hadn’t even really done anything wrong.

She just had bad thoughts, but who didn’t have those?

By the time she found Lexi’s number, her heart was racing, her palms were sweaty, and tears were streaming from her eyes. How could he handle all this so callously? Why wouldn’t he believe her?

She clicked Call on the phone and placed it to her ear, slumping down into her leather sofa.

“Hello?” Lexi answered.

“Lexi…” Chyna cried. She never called her Lexi, but she just wasn’t thinking clearly tonight. Hysterics were taking over, and she couldn’t calm herself down. She needed her best friend.

“Chyna, are you okay?” Lexi asked.

“No, oh my God, no, I’m not,” Chyna told her, not able to stop the tears.

“What happened? Chyna, calm down.

It’ll be okay. Just tell me what happened,”

Lexi said reassuringly.

“I don’t know. I just…I don’t know where to begin,” Chyna said, wondering how she had gotten to this point. Had she really been all that wrong? She had told Adam everything.

“Just start wherever, C. Tell me from the beginning. Are you safe? Are you hurt?

Did someone hurt you? Do I need to call someone to come get you?” Lexi asked, nearing hysterics herself.

“No, no, I’m not hurt…not physically.

It’s just…Adam. Alexa, it’s Adam,” she whispered into the phone. It was physically painful for her to utter the words.

“Adam?” Lexi asked anxiously. “Is he alright? Did something happen?”

Chyna chewed her bottom lip and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, begging the tears to stop. She needed to tell Alexa. She needed her to know, and she needed her to understand what had happened. She couldn’t keep it all bottled up, and Adam hadn’t believed her. Alexa needed to believe her.

“Chyna, what happened?”

Lexi demanded.

As much as she wanted to tell Lexi, her stomach twisted at the thought, and her heart hammered in her chest wildly. “Oh, God, Alexa. I can’t talk about it. It’s awful. We got into a horrible argument, absolutely horrible argument. My chest hurts unlike anything I’ve ever imagined,”

Chyna whispered, her voice pained. “He was so calm at first, and then the floodgates opened. We both just screamed at each other. I don’t know what I’m doing!”

“Oh, Chyna,” Lexi murmured softly.

“I’m so sorry. Did you guys break up?”

Chyna stopped to consider the question. Oh my God, had they broken up?

Was that what had just happened? “I don’t know. Yes. No,” she moaned, wishing she knew the answer. “Maybe. He was so mean to me. I don’t know what we are anymore…”

“Maybe it was just a misunderstanding,” Lexi reasoned. “Tell me what happened.”

Chyna sniffled a few times into the phone. She might as well start from the beginning. Here goes nothing. “Adam’s brother, John, lives in the city, but he’s a businessman who travels all over the world. He’s not here much, so I’ve never met him.” Chyna began setting the scene for Lexi. She wanted her to understand.

She wanted her to see what she had gone through—how he had been her type and how it had all gone horribly wrong.

“Well, he was in town for the weekend, and Adam wanted to introduce me to him. I thought it was a big step.”

Her tears renewed, and she broke down on the phone.

It had been a big step. Adam adored John, and he had wanted them to be around each other. He had forced them around each other, but John had taken it too far. Chyna sniffled a few more times before continuing.

“The three of us went out and had a few drinks. I tried to be low-key and handle my liquor. I wanted to make an impression,” Chyna said, summarizing the weekend for Lexi in one swoop.

It didn’t matter how much time they had spent together because she had tried to be smart about it. She had tried to be smart about John, but she had found out that he hadn’t wanted that from the start.

She had certainly made an impression on him, but now, it was clear that it wasn’t the right one.

Chyna took a breath before speaking again. “John turned out to be very similar to Adam. I mean they’re brothers, what was I expecting? Well, you know Adam.

He’s just a really nice guy. And well, his brother was exceptionally charming that night.” God, he was so charming all weekend. “I mean…not that Adam isn’t charming, but—” She broke off, not wanting to finish that train of thought.

Adam was gone. He had walked out on her.

“No, I get it,” Lexi told her.

Chyna’s thoughts fluttered back to John and the kind of person he had been when in Chyna’s presence. Lexi needed to understand that. Chyna hadn’t meant for it to go as far as it did.

“Anyway, John knew the right thing to say about everything. He was an accomplished businessman. He’d traveled the world. His family adored him. He’s such a smooth talker, and by the end of the night, he had me eating out of his hands.”

She had been eating out of his hands all along, but tonight had been the worst.

The kiss with Nitya…the tattoos…when he kissed her. She shuddered, not wanting to think about it, but she knew she had to continue.

“Oh, Chyna, you didn’t…do anything with him, did you?” Lexi asked, clearly terrified of the answer.

“What?” Chyna snapped, knowing how offended she sounded. She hadn’t done anything! John had done everything! She had done the right thing by stopping it before it went any further. She had told Adam, yet he had still left her! “No! I wouldn’t do that to Adam! That’s the point. Argh! That’s the whole f**king point, chica!”

“Sorry, C, I had to ask,” Lexi apologized quickly.

“No, I know,” she grumbled. She was being defensive. It was all still too fresh.

“Just angry, and with everything else tonight…I can’t.” Tears stung her eyes, and she wished Alexa were there to hug her. “Lexi, you have to know it wasn’t me.

John’s the kind of guy who gets whatever he wants, takes what he wants. You know those kind of guys!”

They were the kind of guys she had always gone for. They were the ones she had let take her home. Lexi certainly knew what kind of guys she was talking about.

She had seen Chyna with them far too often. Lexi had been with them herself.

Wasn’t her Jack just the type?

“Well, it soon became apparent that I was what John wanted,” Chyna told her, thinking back to the pool with his eyes roaming her body, the club with his hands on her body, and tonight, with his tongue down her throat. It should have been apparent what was coming. She should have fought against it harder. “I should have seen it coming from a mile away.

And when I did see it, it was too late.

Adam didn’t believe me. He refused to see it. He loves his brother so much that he was blind to him—blind to his arrogance and f**king stupidity.

“I think if he actually knew his brother, he would have never left me alone with him. But he did leave us alone. John was smooth, but it wasn’t anything I hadn’t seen before. Before Adam, I would have gone for him any day of the week.” She figured that went without saying, but she had to say it. She needed to see the contrast. “But I’m different now! John had his hands all over me as soon as Adam left the room, but I turned him down.