Rouge (8 page)

“In this university, there
are certain gifted lecturers and professors who should be thanked for their
generosity and exceptional talents which they display on a daily basis. Today
we want to recognize several of those special people, the first being Mr.
Joshua Harrison of the Geology department.”

A round of applause erupted,
and Joshua climbed onto the stage, stopping beside Mr. Bradshaw. Hunter gave a
loud cheer from the back.

“Mr. Harrison has given the
Geology department quite a name this past month, having generously donated his
findings to the museum for the sake of his students.”

As Mr. Bradshaw spoke on
about Joshua’s contributions to the university, Hunter watched his cheeks fill
with a color as red as her hair. He stood tall and handsome for his age, his
pale eyes like diamonds against the velvet navy backdrop behind the platform.
Hunter hadn’t ever thought of Joshua as attractive - because he was ten times
older than her and also the man who raised her - but she had to admit he looked
a confident vision on the stage.

“And so, as a personal thank
you, Mr. Harrison, the university would like to present you with this plaque-”
A young woman in a short beige dress handed Mr. Bradshaw a translucent
rectangular plaque, “-As a reminder of your efforts for our university. We hope
you will continue to bless us, Mr. Harrison. Would you please show your
appreciation.”

The audience applauded
loudly and there were several whoops from those Joshua knew personally. As he
shook Mr. Bradshaw’s hand and smiled modestly at the audience, his eyes fell on
Hunter’s.

She clapped and grinned and
became filled with pride. Joshua gave her the smallest of nods – his eyes
glimmering like blue opals – before he stepped off the stage and joined the
others.

Mr. Bradshaw began his next
speech in which the woman in the red dress was thanked for her contributions to
the psychology department. Eli bumped her on the arm and she turned to see him
holding two drinks.

“Here,” he gave her a glass
and she took it hesitantly. “It’s champagne. Or, as the French call it,
champagne.
”
He lifted a pinkie off his glass and straightened his shoulders.

Hunter chuckled. “Kind of
illegal, don’t you think?”

“I like to take advantage of
the unsupervised liquor at these sorts of events,” he shrugged. “So are you a
student of Mr. Harrison’s?”

Hunter didn’t answer
straight away, as another round of applause erupted. She was grateful for the
pause so she could think of her answer carefully. Usually, when someone asked
about her relation to Joshua, she answered with ‘he’s my guardian’. But the way
Joshua introduced her to Mr. Bradshaw and Mr. Akerman earlier still made her
blood boil furiously. He had no right to label her as his daughter. She wasn’t
- and never would be - his daughter, and Joshua knew that. He was okay with it.
It just irked her.

“No,” she said. “He’s uh...
he takes care of me. My parents died in a fire when I was only a few years old,
and Joshua’s been my only family since.”

Eli’s expression was that of
confusion, but Hunter wouldn’t know because she refused to meet his eyes. A lot
of people grew uncomfortable around her when they learned the tragedy of her
parent’s death and the fact that Joshua was the only family she had. She
expected Eli to say something like ‘I’m sorry’ and try to change the subject.

“That explains why you call
him Joshua then.” He took another sip of champagne.

“He doesn’t like the name
‘Josh’,” she said with a smile. “He thinks it makes him sounds like an
eighteen-year-old quarterback.”

“So then you’re not a
Harrison?”

“I am,” she shrugged. “It
avoids questions.”

“Right, got you,” he winked.
“Do you miss your parents?”

Hunter looked up into his
eyes, those strange, tortoise-shell eyes, and saw the sincerity in them. Eli
wasn’t just being polite. He really cared.

“Yes... and no. I never knew
them, so I don’t know what it’s like to have parents. It’s more of a...
longing. For a mother who teaches me to do my hair and a father who has to
approve of all my boyfriends before I can date them. I can’t get that from
Joshua, he’s too...”

Eli blinked, waiting for her
reply. Another professor was called and thanked for his contributions.

“He’s just... Joshua.”

“You must be very close.”

“It’s complicated,” she told
him, her eyes on Mr. Bradshaw. “We aren’t very alike. Kind of the opposite,
actually. But I do love him like a friend. He’s been there for me all my life,
provided for me, given me everything I could have wanted.”

“Except what only your real
parents could give you?”

Hunter found herself
pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to talk to Eli, at how readily he
understood her.

“Exactly,” she said. Eli
smiled at her and shied away from her gaze. “You didn’t answer my question
before.”

“Which question was that?”

“The reason why you’re
here.”

Eli’s soft features suddenly
hardened. He stared down at his drink and swirled the half empty glass so the
champagne almost slipped over the lid.

“Right. My... my father is a
good friend of Mr. Bradshaw. He’s a very successful business man and often
attends benefits such as this. He drags me along in hopes I might gain contacts
and make a name for myself.”

“You don’t sound too pleased
about that,” she noted.

Eli sniffed angrily. “I
don’t think he understands that I have no intention of following in the family
business.”

“Which is?”

“He’s the Chief Executive of
a law firm in the Upper East Side. He’s very public about power and wealth,
thinks the world revolves around it.” Eli watched Mr. Bradshaw hand the last
plaque over to a short, fat man who was sweating like a pig and then announced
that he would like to take a moment to explain some of the plans for the
university this semester. “He never used to be like that though,” Eli continued.
“Ever since Mom left, he hasn’t been the same. It’s like she took all his
feelings with her, so all that’s left is greed.”

Hunter felt a pang of pity
for Eli. He and his father were clearly very different, even if she’d never met
the man. And without a mother to turn to, who did Eli look up to?

“I’m just sick of it, you
know? He’s always trying to change me, but he doesn’t understand that I’ll
always be who I am. No amount of boring benefits can mold me into a goddamn businessman.”
His gaze moved now to Mr. Bradshaw, who was closing his speech and stepping off
the stage. The noise grew as though someone had turned the volume dial up.
Joshua was talking with Mr. Bradshaw, and then Mr. Akerman joined them.

Eli snorted. “I hope Joshua
is a confident man, or my dad will tear him up.”

Hunter looked to Eli, and
then back at Mr. Akerman. Suddenly it clicked.

“
That’s
your dad?”

Eli glanced at her, some of
the hate replaced with alarm. “Did you meet him? God I’m sorry.”

“He wasn’t that... okay, he
was kind of rude, but-”

“He’s always rude.” Lifting
his glass, Eli swallowed the rest of his drink and leaned behind Hunter to put
it back on the table. Wincing, he moved away from the plant and shot the green
fern an evil glare. “I hate fake plants,” he said. Hunter laughed at him.
“What?”

“Nothing.” She glanced back
at Joshua, conversing with Mr. Akerman and Mr. Bradshaw, in his element with
the important men, and hoped he didn’t kill her for this. “Do you want to get
out of here?”

“What?”

“You want to get away,
right? It’ll piss off your dad, and Joshua’s already claimed his award.” She
followed his lead and skulled the rest of her drink. “Come on! I’m saving you
from these boring benefits you hate so much, and you can thank me by buying me
a coffee.” She looped her arm through his before he could object and pulled him
to the elevator.

A car beeped a sharp, low pitch as the
driver slammed his foot on the brakes. Hunter and Eli laughed to themselves,
gripped their coats tightly and ran to the other side of the road where there
were no cars to run them down. Hunter almost slipped on the ice covering the
road and they laughed again, louder this time, clinging to each other before
either of them fell and were run over by the busy New York traffic. Lights
gleamed all kinds of colors around them and the remnants of the snow storm
brightened the streets as if the roads were coated in sugar.

“I can’t believe we’re doing
this,” said Eli as they dodged the walkers and couples along the sidewalk. “My
dad’s going to kill me.”

Hunter sighed and shook her
hair away from her face, the coffee Eli had bought her clenched in one hand.
She loved the city of New York, especially at night when the lights were bright
and the cars were less. At ten-thirty, there weren’t so many people crowding
the streets. Most were men, women and children enjoying a Sunday night out with
their family.

“Relax,” she replied. “I’m
sure your dad will forgive you.”

“He probably didn’t even
notice I left.”

Hunter raised her eyebrows
at the snap in his tone.
Jeez, he really hates the guy.
She couldn’t
exactly blame him though; he wasn’t the kindest man she’d met. And nothing like
Eli.

“All my dad cares about is his
girlfriend, his money and his job. I have no place in his life, except to
embarrass him.”

Hunter felt like saying he
was lucky to even have a father, but then Mr. Akerman didn’t sound like a very
good example. Hunter had always envied people with parents, but she never
considered their relationship. Was it worth having a father who used you as a
tool for his career and stopped you from following your dreams and ambitions?
That, she’d never know.

“Sometimes I wonder how he
could possibly hate me so much. And his girlfriend is even worse. She’s only
with him for his money.”

“How long have they been
together?”

“Three years. My mother left
when I was nine. That’s when Dad’s true stone-cold career-worshipping
personality came out. He used to pretend to care for me, take me to the museum
and out for dinner on his days off, but then he just stopped caring altogether.
He went out with a few different women before settling on Melissa.”

Hunter threw her empty
coffee cup in the bin and wanted to say she was sorry for him, but nothing came
out of her mouth.

They walked in uncomfortable
silence for a few minutes until the mood was lifted when they passed a man
strumming his guitar on the sidewalk. Eli dropped a twenty in his guitar case,
and he smiled gratefully up at him.

“That was nice,” Hunter said
as soon as they were out of earshot.

“I’ve learnt to give a lot
since my father became rich.”

“At least you use your money
wisely.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Joshua has a lot of money
too. He uses it for expensive things though, like a nice apartment and good
clothes.”

“Do you have a job?”

Hunter nodded. “I work at a
restaurant downtown. Ever heard of Red Palace? It’s Chinese.”

“Nope, sorry.” He wrapped
his coat tighter around his neck. “So… do you actually go to college?”

Hunter laughed. “How old do
you think I am?”

Eli blushed. “I don’t think
I want to answer that now.”

“I finish school in the
summer,” she said. “From there, I’m hoping to get accepted into Hamilton.”

“Cool,” he nodded. “What do
you want to study?”

Sighing, Hunter looked at
the concrete ground as her heels crunched over the remnants of snow. She didn’t
want to admit to Eli that she had no passions or goals or any kind of path to
walk down, but what could she say?

“I... I’m not sure yet.”

He smiled at her, and it
wasn’t a pitying smile, but one that said he related.

“Everyone’s like that these
days. I know I want to follow something to do with animal rights, but I also
love music. And I know I don’t want to go to college, even though my dad keeps
pressing it.”

“Joshua is the opposite.
He’ll nudge me in a certain direction, which in this case happens to be
Colombia, but since he’s not my dad, he doesn’t get to run my life.”

“And he works in the Geology
department at the university?”

“Yep. He and Dad used to
explore rock formations all over the world before I was born. Things like
volcanoes and mountains and caves by the sea. They loved it. Joshua still
misses that part of his job, but he always says that he had his chance to
explore and passing on the knowledge to those more enthusiastic is something
he’s really passionate about.”

“No offense,” Eli said, “but
I find anything to do with rocks nowhere near enthusiastic.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” she
replied with a smile.

Not far from the hotel, she
and Eli passed a small theatre with old-fashioned golden light bulbs and grand
sandstone pillars. The moment Eli saw the ‘
NOW SHOWING
’ sign, he gasped and nearly gave her a
heart attack.

“We have to see this!” he
exclaimed, pointing violently at the poster.

“What is it?”

“I have absolutely no idea,
but it looks pretty exciting.” Eli snatched her hand before she could rebut and
yanked her inside the theatre.

It was classic and held a sort
of mystery, like old things you find in an attic. The carpet was a royal
scarlet and the candy bar was small, selling expensive candy. The silent film
that Hunter had never heard of before had only just begun.

Eli graciously offered to
pay for the tickets, but Hunter bluntly refused; he’d already paid for coffee.
They bought a box of popcorn and hurried into the theatre. The screen was
showing credits on an ancient slide that stopped and started, lines and dots
appearing on the screen at random. Hunter and Eli took two squeaky seats near
the back and realized after a moment that they were the only people in the
theatre.

Her eyes drifted to Eli on
her left, watching the way the movie played in the reflection of his glasses. A
smile broke out on her face at how simple he was, and how she didn’t know him
at all and suddenly she was having the time of her life. Without worrying about
where Joshua was or the scolding she’d get when she got home, Hunter enjoyed
the escape for the brief period it lasted with her new friend.

“I’d never seen a black and white movie
before now,” said Hunter as they stood outside the theatre trying to hail a
taxi. While they had relaxed into another world inside the warmth of the
theatre, the storm outside had begun to rage again. Hunter tried to keep her
wild hair behind her ears and not in her face as cars zoomed past. The streets
were almost deserted, the cars too afraid to brave the flush of snow about to
pour down on them. It was quite late into the night, after all, and not the
warmest of weather.

“I’ve always loved them,”
Eli smiled, as if reminiscing a time long ago. “They have a certain elegance
and simplicity that modern movies lack.”

“I prefer the decade
classics –
Pulp Fiction, Ferris
Bueller
,
Terminator,
stuff like that.”

“
Ahh
,
the ‘epics’ right? Let me guess… you like classic rock and vintage T-shirts and
you have a secret poster of Indiana Jones in your bedroom.”

Hunter dropped her arm and
gaped at him sarcastically. “Oh my God, how did you know?”

Eli shrugged, smiling
crookedly. “It’s a given.”

“So which school do you go
to?”

“Jackson,” he said, rubbing
his hands together and blowing hard.

“Seriously?” she gaped. “How
come I’ve never seen you there before?”

“You go there too?”

“Yeah, but it’s a big school
and I keep to myself mostly.”

“Me too.” Eli stopped waving
down taxis for a moment and instead peered at her with a frown. “Actually, now
that I think about it, you do look familiar. You were-”

Hunter put a hand up to
silence him. She knew it would come up sooner or later. If he recognized her,
it would be as the ‘school slut’. And not because of what she looked like, but
because of the rumor. “Go on, say it. I’m the girl who got caught with the
Principal’s son between her legs on his father’s desk. I’m the one who has no
real friends because all the girls hate me and all the guys just want to root
me. And I’m fine with that. I’ve learned to live with it for the past year and
a half. And you know what, I-”

“Hunter!”

A taxi drove straight past
them and as it did, the tires rolled through a puddle of ice. Before Eli could
shield her, the snow had sprayed their entire front, soaking them to the bone.

“I was just going to say,”
Eli chuckled, wiping himself down. “That you’re the girl with the beautiful red
hair I catch a glimpse of every now and then.”

Biting her lip, Hunter
wished the puddle of snow that soaked her coat had washed her down the drain
with the rest of the sewerage. “Oh,” she muttered, gathering her hair and
flicking out the snowflakes. “Uh, thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” he smiled.
“But about that other thing-”

“Forget I mentioned it,” she
snapped.

“I never believed that
rumor. I mean come on, anything that comes out of Benny Layman’s fat mouth is
always garbage, right?”

Hunter smiled. Of course,
she knew the rumor was complete bullshit, but to hear it from someone else was
a release like no other. Ever since it started at the beginning of her junior
year, Hunter had lost any and all respect from the student body and lived her
life alone. Not being able to prove that it was all a lie – because the
Principal’s son never denied it – ate away at her every day after that first
month of hell, but it made her stronger. It also made her more aware of how
many asshole guys there were in the world who only wanted her because she was a
slut.

A
taxi finally slowed beside them on the curb and Eli opened the door for her.
“So... tonight was fun.”

Hunter ducked inside the
warm exterior. “Are you sure you don’t want to share a cab?”

“No, thank you. I have to
get back to the benefit anyway.”

“Well,” she sighed, “good
luck with your father.”

“Same for you,” said Eli,
pushing the bridge of his glasses further up his nose. “See you around, yeah?”

“I hope so,” she smiled and
he shut the door and waved.

“Where to?” grumbled the
taxi driver.

As Hunter gave the address,
she watched Eli grow smaller in the pure white snow falling down around him and
waved goodbye.

After a deep breath, Hunter swiped her
key-card down the lock on the door handle and eased open the apartment door.
Pearl-blue light spilled onto the floor of the stairwell, the distant
commentary of a late football game the only sound from inside. As Hunter closed
the apartment door behind her and dropped her key-card in the bowl beside the
coats hook, she noted that it was colder inside than outside in the storm. In
his anger, Joshua must’ve turned down the heat.

Hunter rolled her eyes.
Typical,
she thought.
He just has to make things worse for himself, doesn’t he?
Now I have no choice but to argue with him, or I’ll end up with the flu again.

“Joshua,” she called
guardedly. She turned to the kitchen and her heart almost leapt out of her
chest when he materialized in front of her, his eyes hard and a lemonade
popsicle in his hand.

With no words to say and
surprise masking her uncertainty, Hunter watched him pull the ice-block out of
his mouth and smile at her.

“Popsicle?” he asked softly.

She stared at him, wondering
– as she often did – if Joshua might have lost it this time. He was always
scary when angry, masking it behind this false, generous frontage. Hunter only
had to wait for him to lower the boom.

But she didn’t want to wait.
She was tired and practically frostbitten, and the cold temperature of the
house didn’t help her temper one bit.

“Are you insane?” she
hissed. “It’s freaking snowing, and you’ve got the temperature lower than an
icebox in here!”

Joshua shook his head
slowly. “Keep your toes on Hunter, it’s not that bad. Really, after spending
all night frolicking in the streets with your new best friend, I thought you’d
be used to it by now.”

She turned in the kitchen
and crossed her arms. “Could you get it over with please? Go on, you know you
want to.”

He waited in silence, sticky
drips of lemonade melting down the stick and creeping closer to his fingers.

“Come on!” she shouted. “Get
mad!”

Joshua’s face changed from
content to murderous in less than a second.
Here it comes,
she thought
and braced herself.