Page 13 of Orlando

“What do you want, Orlando?” she asks, her arms folding across her chest and pushing up her tits. Tits that are bigger than they used to be.

“I… ah… Where are you going?”

“Home.”

“School’s not finished,” I tell her, like that makes a difference.

Aleeka tilts her head. “I think your mom is right. Stay in school, Orlando. You need the education.”

“You wanna skip? Come with me. I wanna show you something.” I pull my keys out of the front pocket of my jeans.

“Where?” she asks.

“You’ll see when we get there,” I say, taking her hand as I lead her over to my car.

“I need to be home as soon as school’s out,” she tells me.

“I don’t remember your dad being that strict with your curfew before.” I open the passenger door to my Range Rover.

“It’s not that… I just have things to do.”

“I’ll make sure you’re back here in this lot before the last bell,” I assure her.

“Promise?”

“Promise.” I make a point of drawing a cross over my heart with my finger. Aleeka rolls her eyes at me. She does get into my car, though. I jog around the front and climb into the driver’s side. “Buckle up, princess,” I tell Aleeka while pressing the button to start the ignition.

“Why am I doing this?” she asks. I don’t think she’s asking me exactly.

“Because you have the hots for my old man, and since he’s married, I’m the consolation prize.” I grin.

“You’re nobody’s consolation prize, Orlando. You’d be more like the Grammy or Oscar or something,” she says, and I almost want to believe her. But then, if that were true, she wouldn’t have fucking ghosted me.

“Just not yours, right?” I ask her.

“You don’t want to be my Grammy,” she says quietly.

“You sure about that?” I fire back and then turn on the radio. This conversation is getting too fucking serious. “So, Chicago? How was it? Did you make any remarkable friends? Boyfriends?”

“It was different. I didn’t go to school there. I homeschooled. So, no, no new friends and no boyfriends. What about you? Any great loves?” she asks me.

“Great loves? No.” I shake my head. “Why’d you homeschool?”

“I just did.” She lifts a shoulder. “What was it like being on tour?”

“You been stalking me, Aleeka?” I smirk at her.

“No. Your face was in the headlines, on news channels. It was hard not to notice,” she says.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were leaving?” I ask as we pull onto the highway.

“I… I don’t know,” she says.

The rest of the drive is silent, neither of us filling it with chatter. I pull up to my house. This wasn’t where I was going to bring her. But then, something came to me. We need a reset. I need a reset.

“Why are we here?” Aleeka asks. She looks nervous.

“Ignore the security. My pops… ah… got a promotion,” I say. “Come on.” I get out of the car and Aleeka follows me up the front steps. Taking her hand in mine, I push through the doors and lead her upstairs to my bedroom.

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