Chapter 19 #5
More disappointed than aggravated, I went back to the bedroom I was apparently sharing with Kulti just as he was coming out, a toiletry bag in his hand.
It was easy to forget how much taller than me he was, how much bigger in general too, but I didn’t notice it much then either, especially with my little sister acting like a jackass pulling away my focus.
He went into the bathroom while I grabbed clean underwear, a regular bra I could slip out of once I was under the sheets, my nightshirt, and my own toiletry bag out of my duffel.
I could shower once the German was done.
While I was at it, I pulled out some clothes for my run the next morning.
On a piece of paper by the television, I jotted down the Wi-Fi password.
Just a few minutes later, he came back into the room, his face a little damp but everything else the same.
“I’m going to shower. The TV remote is on the dresser, and the Wi-Fi password is by the TV, all right?
” I asked, already edging around him to go to the bathroom so I could take a shower.
It’d be a miracle if I didn’t fall asleep inside, but I was so used to showering at night I wouldn’t feel comfortable going to bed without one.
“I’m fine,” he said, putting his things back into his bag.
“Okay, I’ll be back, then.”
Less than fifteen minutes later, I’d blown through one of the fastest showers in history, brushed my teeth, and put on my pajamas.
Back in the room, Kulti was sitting on the edge of the full-sized bed in a thin white undershirt, the lower part of his bicep visibly wrapped in some kind of plastic, and his jeans were still on.
He looked up as I entered the room and gave me an expression that was mostly a smile as he peeled off a sock.
“Are you fine?” he asked after I dropped my pile of dirty clothes by the door and crouched to grab a pair of knee-high socks from my bag.
“Yeah, why?” I straightened, making sure my double extra-large T-shirt, basically a muumuu, wasn’t tucked into the waistband of my underwear.
He peeled off another sock. “You’re mad over your sister,” he said casually, tossing the two surprisingly long pieces of cloth onto my pile of clothes.
I started to argue with him, telling him I was fine, when I realized I’d be lying and he’d know it.
I threw my own pair of clean, striped socks up to the top mattress, my bare toes wiggling in the carpet.
I didn’t have the cutest feet in the freaking universe; I mean, they weren’t ugly, but they’d been through hell and back with me. I wasn’t often barefoot.
“Ah, yeah. I’m a little mad she decided to hide out in her room.” I sighed, scratching my cheek with a sad smile. He had leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, his forehead furrowed. Reiner Kulti on my bunk bed. What a vision. “It’s rude, and I’m sorry. I’m sure you’ll get to meet her tomorrow.”
The German shrugged like he was completely indifferent about whether or not he got to meet Ceci, and I couldn’t blame him. Why would he care? “If she’s going to upset you, I would rather not. She sounds like a brat.”
“She’s not a brat,” I defended her. “She’s just…
a pain. It’s been hard for her to grow up with me and Eric.
We’re close, my brother and I, but there’s almost seventeen years between the two of them.
There are ten years between me and her, and she almost killed my mom during the delivery, but we don’t ever talk about that,” I added, imagining Kulti bringing up the subject to get a rise out of her.
“She’s the only one that’s never shown an interest in soccer, so she thinks everyone is disappointed in her for being ‘normal.’” I snickered. “She says it like it’s a bad thing. You know how it is, how much you have to give up. It isn’t like what we do is easy or anything.”
His eyes drilled into me, straight into my chest. In understanding? In kinship? I wasn’t positive until he nodded slowly, solemnly, like he was remembering every single thing he’d sacrificed in his life for the dream he no longer had. “No, it’s not an easy life, Sal. Most don’t understand that.”
“Right? I get enough crap from other people; I don’t want it from my sister too.
I just want her to be happy. I couldn’t care less if she’s good at soccer or not.
Anyway, my mom likes to say that you always fight with the people you love the most, so oh well.
My dad and I are always bickering about something.
I guess she’s right.” I walked over to the ladder on the side of the bunk beds, hands gripping the sides of it.
“You have a brother, right?” I asked, knowing damn well he definitely had a brother, an older one.
“Yes,” he answered, scooting back further onto the bed.
Something weird stirred in my chest watching him sitting on my bed in his pants, thin shirt, and big bare feet.
It was so homey, so natural. For so long, I’d had to remind myself that he was just a regular man, but seeing him there like that really nailed it home.
It was so cute. He was so cute.
“I haven’t seen him in three years,” he added unexpectedly.
I looked at him through the rungs of the stairs. “Jeez. Why?”
“We’ve never been close. He has his own life, and I have mine.”
How lonely did that sound? Sure, I wanted to strangle my sister sometimes, but she was usually in a good mood at least a handful of times a year. “Not even when you were little?”
Kulti hunched his shoulders up casually, settling back against the two pillows propped on the wall. “I left my parents’ home when I was eleven, Sal. I haven’t seen them for longer than a month at a time since then.”
The “holy shit” was apparent on my face, it had to be. I’d known he’d gone to some soccer academy before his career took off, but he’d been eleven when he left home? That was one of the neediest times in a kid’s life. He’d been so little. Jesus.
“You were there all the time?”
He nodded.
“Didn’t you ever… get lonely?”
Kulti studied my face. “At first, but you get over it.”
Get over it? At eleven? Good gracious. Where was the nurturing?
“Do… you still see your parents?” I asked, not sure whether I was going into territory he didn’t want to get into or not.
A small, sharp snicker came out of his mouth. “My mother called me a few days ago saying she’s ready for a new house.”
I had to fight back a wince. Him buying it for her was implied, wasn’t it?
“It’s nice that you take care of her.” I trailed off, not really sure if it was nice or not, or whether he genuinely wanted to provide for them.
Because, I mean, who demands a new house?
Where the hell do you get the balls to do that?
He blinked and confirmed my suspicion that he might have been getting forced into buying his mom a house. Feeling uncomfortable that I had brought up something a little sensitive, I reached forward and ran my index finger up the sole of his foot, surprised when he jerked it away violently.
I stood there and watched him with a big dumb smile on my face. “You’re ticklish?”
With both knees now to his chest, he scowled. “No.”
“Ha.” I laughed. “That’s cute.”
He didn’t look like he was amused.
I gripped the bars and smiled over at him before climbing up to the bunk bed, conscious to keep my long T-shirt tucked between my thighs on the way up.
“Will you get the light, or should I turn it off? I’m ready to go to bed, but you can leave it on.
It won’t bother me. The remote is by the dresser. ”
“I’ll get it,” he said, the mattress making some creaking noises as I heard him settle in.
Getting comfortable, I pulled the sheets up to my chin and rolled onto my good shoulder, facing the wall. “All right. Night, Rey. Wake me up if you need something.” I yawned.
From below, the German said, “Good night, schnecke.”
“You’re not calling me a shithead or anything, are you?” I yawned again, drawing the sheet up higher to cover my eyes.
“No,” he replied simply.
“Okay. If you want to go home tomorrow or if you’d rather stay in a hotel if you aren’t comfortable, let me know, all right?”
“Yes.”
One last lion-like yawn made my chest expand wide. “Okay. Night, night.”
He might have said “Good night” again, but I was pretty much out the second I finished talking.
I CREPT down the bunk bed ladder when the room was still dark. It didn’t matter if I set an alarm; more often than not, my body just knew it was time to get up. As quietly as I could, I fumbled around for my clothes, barely able to see. I pulled my nightshirt up over my head…
Then the fan light came on.
I froze. I froze there in my underwear, wearing nothing else. “What are you doing?” Kulti’s sleep-thick voice asked.
Well then. I could freak out and make a big deal out of standing there mostly naked, or I could take it like a champ and make it seem like it wasn’t a big deal that I was topless and in one of my oldest pairs of value-pack panties.
“I’m going for a run,” I said slowly in a whisper, still not moving an inch. “Go back to sleep.”
There was a pause and then the mattress started creaking. I knew beforehand what he was going to say. “I’ll come.”
Oh dear God.
I went to my knees as fast as possible, and now that I was able to see, pulled my sports bra on as fast as lightning just as the shrill squeak of what had to be Kulti getting off the bed warned me my time was up.
I didn’t even let myself think that he’d probably caught a glimpse of side boob.
It wasn’t like he hadn’t seen hundreds of boobs before, but these were mine.
Wearing a sports bra was one thing, boobs flopping freely was another.
I yanked a racer-back tank on before standing up, already holding my running shorts in one hand, ready to pull them on as soon as possible. But I sure as shit wasn’t going to bend over and put them on with my butt facing him.