Stoned (The Stone Series) (9 page)

“That’s funny. You left here to go to Connecticut and I did the opposite. I couldn’t wait for the big city and all the promise it held. Did you feel homesick at first?”

“Not at first. It’s where I met Alex, you know. He was my roommate freshman year and we hit it off right away. The worse part about being away was September 11
th
. I had just started at school and then the attacks happened and I couldn’t reach my parents, my sister, my cousin or any of my friends who were still in the city. I didn’t know if any of them had been in the Towers that day.” Damian takes a long drink of wine and turns to look away from me, experiencing the fear of that day all over again. He continues, “I lost friends that day, guys who skipped the college route to go into their father’s businesses, others who were in school in the city but interning in the Towers. I didn’t know that my father was away on business and not at his office in Tower One until the next day.”  

“That must have been terrible, I’m so sorry. I remember watching the news coverage on TV with my dad but I was only nine at the time. I remember being scared that my dad would go there to help. He’s a cop” I report but Damian seems a world away.

************

It was only the second Tuesday of school, only the third time the day’s classes would be meeting and Damian was already bored out of his mind. He briefly thinks that his friends who went straight to work in the city had the right idea. The only problem Damian would have had with that same plan was his father. That’s what sent him running off to the Ivy Leagues of Connecticut even if it was daddy’s school first. 

He had three classes back to back starting with Women and their Sexuality at 8am. The only up side to this was that Alex was in the class and the teacher, Professor Blake was hot and dressed the part. For the last two classes she had worn black leather, the first time a skirt the next time pants. Both times her shirts revealed a sizeable pair of tits and her ass still looked firm even though she must be in her mid-thirties.

Damian arrives to class with Alex and they find their seats. After the first class when they tried to sit with the hottest girls they discovered none at their level of required hotness so they deserted those seats and on the second class opted for seats right in front of the hot professor. Damian thought she looked at him for just a bit longer than necessary when he raised his hand with a smart ass answer. Maybe having a May December fling would be good for him; he could learn a thing or two from an older more experienced woman. He’s heard about professors doing it all the time, maybe this class will turn out to be good for something after all.

Damian was no virgin, he had his share of flings and one night stands with the girls who ran in his circles back in the city. Without fail one of them would be drunk or high at the clubs and would follow him to a backroom or a bathroom for a quickie or a blow job. What he never had was a repeat liaison with a girl to learn what she liked and to hone his sexual skills on. He knew the basics and thought he got the job done well but he never worried about the girl’s pleasure, as long as he got off what else mattered?

About an hour into the class Professor Blake is going on about
pornography and erotica and their effects on women’s sexuality when a ruckus brakes out on the campus grounds outside the window of the classroom. Professor Blake goes to the window, opens it and tells the students to keep it down. At that moment another professor, one whose class must have been next door comes running in. “A plane just crashed into the World Trade Center” he yells then runs out.

Damian’s world began to crash around him. He was still sitting at his desk but he felt like he was floating above his body. He knew he had to get out of there, call home but he couldn’t make his body work. Alex put his hand on Damian’s back and it snapped him back to life. He stood up to leave and Professor Blake asked, “Where do you think you’re going? Sit back down.”

“My father” was all Damian said as he rushed out of the classroom already dialing the number on his cell to his father’s office in Tower 1. The call never got through. Damian tried his house phone but that call never went through either. He called Tate then Brook, trying their apartment in the city, their cells and work numbers, none went through. He ran back to his dorm and turned on the TV and powered up his lap top.

By then Flight 11 had already crashed into the north face of Tower 1, well above Damian’s father’s office on the tenth floor. The plane entered the core of the building, severing all three stairwells. Combustibles and the remains of the plane were ignited by burning fuel. People in the North Tower were trapped by fire and smoke in the upper floors .Damian hears the reports that people below the severed stairwells started to evacuate immediately so there was a good chance his father was already safely out of the building.

But he couldn’t help the thoughts his mind keep having, he thought about his father lying in the rubble dead, about his sister maybe on a class trip now trapped inside the burning building. His mother could be having breakfast at
Windows Around the World
with her friends, Tate and Brook could have been anywhere in or around the Towers. That made him think of his friends, how many guys did he know that would be in that building today? Dozens at least.

He continues to listen to the TV while he tries to call everyone in the city he knows to no avail. He vaguely remembers Alex coming back and asking if he wanted company but he brushed him off saying he wanted to be alone. Alex respected his wishes and left him.

Not twenty minutes after the first plane another, Flight 175; crashed into the south face of Tower 2 and a massive evacuation began below its impact zone.

At this news Damian lost it. He became crazed and ransacked his dorm room, he threw and smashed the matching white digital alarm clocks and softly illuminated lamps that looked to be filled with water. He always wondered if it was real water, he found out today when they smashed and wet the floor. He flung the lamp from the desk through the window and after flinging the phone to the ground he stomped it to death. That’s when Professor Blake walked in after hearing the fiasco inside and trying the door only to find it open.

She called his name over and over then waited for him to calm down. Damian was breathing heavy, his lungs unable to take in enough oxygen, his chest was heaving up and down and he was covered in sweat. Professor Blake went to him and he collapsed to the floor from the human contact of her hand on his shoulder.

“Get up, you need to come with me this instant” she ordered and Damian not able to make a decision of his own obeyed and followed her to her car. He didn’t notice the make, model or color, he just climbed into the front seat. They didn’t speak and they didn’t make eye contact. A few minutes later they were exiting the car and walking into a hotel. Damian thought that maybe she lived there or that she was going to make him stay there after what he’d done to his dorm room. He thinks about calling Alex but then she is opening the door to the room and he gets a glimpse inside.

************

“Day? Damian, are you okay?’ I ask with worry in my voice. He looks at me as if he’s only just realized I was sitting here.

“Oh, God Sydney, I’m so sorry. That was rude of me. I’m sorry, I was just thinking…” he trails off.

“Hey, it’s okay. You’re the one who said we all have demons remember?”

“Yeah. It’s just that day, it still haunts me. Then other things…things that happened because of that day that…changed me. I don’t know, forget it, I don’t want to think about it. Hey, do you want to go? I don’t think I can eat anymore. You can show me your paint colors and all the things you got today. I’d love to see what you’ve done.”

“Yeah, it’s late anyway. I have two finals tomorrow in the afternoon and I want to be able to at least get the bedroom
finished. So I have a busy day ahead of me, I should try to get some sleep.”

Damian lives more money than necessary to cover the bill and a very generous tip before we exit the building only to be photographed again by the paparazzi. We climb into the back of the Bentley and I am overwhelmed with tiredness. I hadn’t felt it in the restaurant but now that I am sitting with my leg brushing against Damian’s all comfy cozy I am overtaken by it. I put my head on his shoulder and he leans into my head, kisses my forehead then inhales my hair deeply.

“Thank you for tonight by the way. I had a great time.
Once
was amazing, it was my first Broadway experience.” I yawn with the back of my hand covering my mouth.

“I’m glad it was with me. I had a wonderful evening as well, thank you for joining me. I’m sorry I spaced out back there on you” Damian says as he clasps my hand and entwines our fingers then places them in his lap. He rubs his thumb over my hand and I can’t help the sigh that escapes me.

When we arrive at the apartment Damian gets playful and picks me up, carrying me into the building saying, “Come on little girl I think you need to be put to bed.” It makes me giggle like I used to as a little girl when my dad used to do the same to me to get me up the stairs and into my bed remotely close to my bed time. When my dad still lived with us in our little cozy house, the house where my room was a safe place.

He carries me into the elevator then places me down on my feet but brings me into his arms for a bear hug again inhaling my hair. He takes my hair clip out and his breath catches when my hair falls softly around my face.

“You’re very pretty, you know that don’t you?” he asks.

“No! Now my roommate, she’s pretty. Her friends, all these girls who are models, they’re pretty. I’m just…okay.”

“I don’t know who made you feel this way about yourself but I promise you I’m going to make you see yourself as I do and when I get my hands on the motherfucker who ruined your self-esteem I’m going to beat the shit out of him and enjoy every second of it” he snarls with anger not at me but at someone and something he can’t even imagine.

As we exit the elevator he takes me by the hand and leads me to my door. “May I?” he asks as he punches in the code to open my door. I nod giving him permission. When we step inside we find Pete and the other two men who painted my room earlier today cleaning up, preparing to leave. I don’t know why they are here so I look at Damian confused but he smirks at me letting me know he had his hand in this too.

Damian and Pete clasp each other in a man hug and exchange words too quiet for me to hear. The men leave and Damian leads me into my bedroom. It is exactly as I imagined it; my sketch has come to life before my eyes. My walls are b
lue, the ceiling is a shade lighter, the spaces of wall where the built-ins are is painted dark blue and all the trim is white. There is beautiful dark w
ide plank bamboo flooring throughout the space with my area rug I purchased placed in front of the bed.

The wardrobe with wood sliding doors is installed on the wall across from the windows, the two nightstands are placed one on each side of the bed with table lamps on both, an alarm clock and iPod docking station on one, the double chest of drawers is located across from the bed with the flat screen TV hanging flush on the wall above it. The blue silk drapes with blackout liners are hung from the ceiling and puddle perfectly on the floor.

The bed is the focal piece of the room with soft bedding and an assortment of euro shams and linen decorative pillows. It finishes off the calm soothing feeling of the room. The bed makes me want to climb in naked under the cool smooth sheets and fall into an uninterrupted sleep. And for the first time I’d like to have a man next to me naked in that bed, the man who is standing next to me now. Mr. Perfection, Damian Stone.

I turn and look at Damian, wondering if he can read my mind, he has a smile from ear to ear plastered on his face like a child. “Did you do this?” I ask him.

“No, you did. You are amazingly talented. I see why Alex asked you to work with him. This is your sketch come to life; these are all the things you bought. I just had the muscle come in and put it all together for you. But the idea and the design were all you. You are really good, honestly. I’m not just saying that because I’m trying to get you into that bed with me again” he playfully admits.

I smile and ask him if he honestly meant what he said, that I’m talented? He pulls me into his arms and kisses my forehead then the top of my head before he tells me that he did and that he also meant it when he said he’d love to get me into my bed again. At that statement he nuzzles my neck and starts to nip at it making me squirm and giggle. We fall onto the bed together and he stops and looks into my eyes that I’m sure are bulging out of my head because he is laying on me on my bed and I can feel his weight on me. I know if I wanted him to let me up he would but he’s so much stronger and heavier than I am that if he didn’t want to let me up there would be nothing I could do about it, just like in the big house all those years ago with Ryan.