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“To see if you wake up once and for all from this absurd relationship!” she shouts at me, her hands on my arms as she shakes me back and forth. “It’s so fucked up, don’t you see it? You, Andries Van Den Bosch, marrying a former prostitute? This is beyond humiliating for us all.”
I’d never seen my sister behaving like this before, and I’m beyond disappointed at her. “What’s humiliating is your attitude, Elise,” I tell her once she has regained her composure. “You’re becoming just like our parents––which isn’t a compliment.”
She shakes her head for a moment, descending into a brief routine of huffing and puffing.
“Andries, in a few years, you’re going to be broke. Roxanne expects a certain lifestyle. If the money isn’t coming in, you’re going to be in big trouble and no one in our family is going to help you out, believe me. They were dead serious when they suggested cutting you off,” she warns, sticking to the position she has taken throughout our conversation. It’s clear this discussion isn’t going anywhere.
“You know what? I think I’m better off without you all,” I say, storming away from the room.
“Andries! You have to listen to me!” I hear her shouting behind me when I’m already in the hallway, heading to the exit of the building.
After stepping outside, my eyes lay on none other than Dan himself, which is weird since he doesn’t have class in this building from what I can remember. I brush the thought just as fast when he approaches me.
“Hey!” he greets, his face beaming at me. Unfortunately, I’m unable to reciprocate. “Is everything okay?”
“Fine, just some shitty stuff going on with Elise and my parents,” I growl, not wanting to dwell further into it. “How was London?”
“It was good, I had a birthday I had to attend to,” he replies, his eyes observing me attentively. “Do you want to talk about what happened?”
“Nope,” I tell him. “That’s alright.”
“Alright, then…” He pauses, looks at me with a frown and drops one arm around my shoulder, before asking, “I’m going to a fencing class. You want to join me?”
I shrug. “I don’t have my equipment with me.”
“We can go to your place to grab it first if you want.”
Well, I haven’t gone to a fencing class for a long time, so why not?
Since we are the last ones arriving for the class, Dan is slated to be my adversary. With everything going on in my mind, I don’t trust my fencing abilities one tiny bit. Coach Edgar is going to be greatly disappointed if he expects to see my usual performance. But I do notice something strange today, as I walk through the gym, it seems like the rest of the lads are particularly interested in me. Is it because I didn’t show up since last year? I don’t know, and I’m not supposed to care about the whispers that begin to spread through the studio room, but my ears perk up when I hear someone mumbling my name out loud.
Dan looks at me, his shoulders slumped. It’s obvious he heard it too. I see a group of three guys, standing not far from us, where the voices are coming from, and I can hear bits oftheir conversations––all of them about me. When they burst out laughing, I turn toward one of the lads, who seems to be the main bull-thrower.
“Excuse me,” I say, poking on his shoulder. Laughter instantly vanishes when everyone lays their eyes on me. “Any interesting stories to share?”
The group suddenly goes quiet, turning their attention between me and the big-eyed guy who was jovially making everyone laugh just seconds ago.
“Well, since you insist,” he snorts, feigning confidence.
I cross my arms, waiting for him to finish but strangely he hesitates for a moment. “So?”
“Is it true that your girlfriend was a prostitute?” someone else behind him asks.
Everyone starts snorting at the question, and before I can take care of that motherfucker, Dan steps in.
“Alright, that’s enough,” he says, curling an arm around my shoulder to drag me away from them before I lose my temper. “Let’s go over there to practice.”
We might go to the other side of the gym to start the class, but with everyone knowing about my personal life, I can’t concentrate anymore on the practice.
Heck, now I can’t stop thinking about the question that guy asked me. He reminds me of what Elise said just an hour ago.It’s so fucked up, don’t you see it? You, Andries Van Den Bosch, marrying a former prostitute? This is beyond humiliating for all of us.
“You aren’t paying attention to your opponent,” Coach Edgar yells.
He’s talking to me, but I barely hear him. I can’t seem to focus at all. The question still hovers around my head. It’s like that bull-thrower has reminded me of how people now perceive me. Do they think I suffer from low self-esteem which is whyI’m with her? And somehow, I continue to think about Elise and everything else she said.When money stops, your relationship is going to stop just as fast!
Fuck.Would Roxanne really leave me if everything turns sour and I go broke? Would that really happen? I mean, she’s well-off and lives in a superb penthouse. Plus, she’ll become even wealthier once she sells the agency. Surely, she won’t behave like that if I face financial difficulty. Would she?
My mind is a ticking time bomb waiting to explode as I replay Elise’s remarks in my head. As much as they hurt, I try to ignore them. I love Roxanne, and nothing can change that. Since I can’t focus at all, I stop the practice, give a word to Dan, and leave for the locker rooms.
