I slowly strolled up the stairs to meet Holden, secretly praying that he had become frustrated with my late arrival and had stormed out of the lobby: classic Holden. I already anticipated this to be a fake out[1]. To my dismay, he caught sight of me and proceeded to walk in my direction. I wore a black coat and a black beret that I found lying in the bottom of my armoire; Holden was simply not the type of boy to get all dolled up for. “Holden!” I said in the shrill, high pitched, whiny, overly feminine voice I know embarrasses him in public, “It’s...marvelous to see you…” I lied through my teeth. “It’s been ages…” (and wasn’t that the truth). Holden gave me a nauseous feeling in the pit of my stomach. Just the sight of him automatically set off sirens in my head. He has always been the type of boy who can be a perfect gentleman, but can flip as easily as a light switch into a madman. I avoided him at every cost and was overjoyed when he moved to yet another boarding school. “Swell to see you. How are you anyways?” he asked in the tone of voice that he uses to sound like an adult. He was always doing that thing again- speaking as if he was older, and it was one of the most hypocritical things I’ve seen. He was always going on about “phonies” and the entire time I’ve known him; he’s always pretended to be someone he’s not. So a while ago, I decided to give him a little taste of his own medicine, by being just as much of a phony as he is. Ever since then, I act like a ditsy blonde idiot just to get him riled up; it’s actually quite entertaining. “[I’m] absolutely marvelous! Am I late?” I liked to rub in the fact that he wasn’t important enough to show up on time for. He told me I wasn’t late, which was obviously a lie: classic chronic liar. He then proceeded to say we needed to hurry in order to make it to the show on time. After telling me we were going to see The Lunts, felt compelled to annoy him once more with my loud, obnoxious, fake girly voice. “The LUNTS? Oh MARVELOUS!” That really got him frosted.[2] I could tell he practically thought I was the one going mad; how ironic. He tried to pull some moves on me while we were in the cab but I blamed my hesitation on the fact that I didn’t want to smear my lipstick. He still attempted to kiss me, and he just seemed like a sick puppy in my eyes so I let him try a little bit, but he was utterly terrible and clearly inexperienced. At one point when we were getting out of the cab he actually professed his love for me, which I shrugged off and replied with “oh…darling…” as I awkwardly paused “I love you too?” The truth was, I never thought of Holden as anything more than a distant cousin that you dread seeing on holidays and family reunions. That got him a little antsy at first but he ran with whatever he could get and accepted my halfhearted fake love for him. We walked into the show and I was overjoyed that I no longer had to chew the fat with Holden. The show was actually phenomenal but it was evident that Holden, yet again, thought he was too good for it and everyone was a phony. When there was a short intermission, we all went to the lobby for a smoke break, and of course, Holden propped himself up against the wall and attempted to look like a greaser I suppose, but ended up acting like a hubcap.[3] Out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of George, a scooch[4] I knew, and I immediately jumped on the opportunity to talk to him. The Ivy leaguer was more interesting than babysitting Holden, and I also knew that it would make Holden go ape.[5] We proceeded to talk and I could feel Holden's animosity building up; Holden was always such an oddball to me. After the second half of the show, we got back into the cab, and I figured if I was going to be so kind as to waste my night on being with Holden, I might as well make it pleasurable myself, plus I knew he was loaded. One thing I was sure bent on in my mind was not playing back seat bingo[6] again with Holden. “Let’s go ice-skating at Radio City” I proposed, I merely just wanted to waste his money like he was wasting my time; I never really cared about Holden a lick[7]. He looked slightly hesitant, and I knew what would seal the deal. “We can rent those darling little skating skirts.” You could see his eyes widen with the excitement of a teenage boy; so simple minded. Once we got to the ice rink, they gave me a blue skating skirt and our skates. Holden kept walking behind just to look at my butt, his amount of immaturity astounds me in comparison to his “adult” persona he attempts to project. We were both rotten skaters, but I didn’t really care about skating, I simply wanted to embarrass him and waste his money. “Do you want to get a table inside and have a drink or something?” he said to me after a while. “That’s the most marvelous idea you’ve had all day,” I lied through my teeth. Honestly, in my mind, Holden was a wet rag [8]who wouldn't know fun if it bit him on the butt. Once we got our table, I ordered a coke. Without missing an opportunity, Holden attempted to act like a hot shot and ordered a scotch, obviously getting denied the alcoholic beverage. He started lighting matches and watching them burn, which greatly disturbed me. I read in a book once that a fascination with pyromania was an early sign of mental issues. Eventually, he started rattling off about some insignificant dream he had in which he fantasized about moving away and starting a new life. He had the audacity to say that he wanted me as his companion; as if I should have been grateful that he chose me. I bluntly told him it wasn’t going to happen, which then caused a mass brouhaha. He insisted on cursing at me, and at that point I was simply fed up with his nonsense. "You can't just do something like that, Holden." I began to panic a little. I can deal with big shots who want to chew the fat, but I can't deal with a madman. "You give me a royal pain in the ass, if you want to know the truth." He looked at me with his sly, cold eyes. He couldn't tell but my hands were shaking, my palms were sweating, and my mouth was getting dry. I was getting so worried that he'd do something terrible to me that I started crying. Finally, I gathered up enough confidence to mutter "I can go home by myself, thank you. If you think I'm going to let you take me home, you're mad." After that he kept apologizing and fumbling over his words while saying "no kidding. I'm real sorry." That wasn't going to cut it; I was sick and tired of being his little rag doll he thought he could throw around. I sat there in protest and wouldn't budge no matter how much he begged. Honestly, it calmed me down that he was now groveling for forgiveness. It eased my nerves that were shot through the roof. Eventually, he got up and I watched him walk out of the skating rink. I swear I don't care if I ever see Holden again, good riddance.
[1] A bad date
[2] Irritated
[3] A boy who tries to act cool but fails
[4] A friend
[5] To get very angry
[6] Kissing while in a car
[7] A small amount
[8] Someone who is not fun
[1] A bad date
[2] Irritated
[3] A boy who tries to act cool but fails
[4] A friend
[5] To get very angry
[6] Kissing while in a car
[7] A small amount
[8] Someone who is not fun