Page 25 of Lumi

CHAPTER 5

Virginity

Damian

We stopped to buy salads, and with the warm and sunny weather, we decided to eat outside at the café tables on the sidewalk.

“People are staring,” Lumi muttered and stabbed her fork down at her salad.

“Ignore them.”

“They think we’re perverts playing some type of role play.”

I looked up when three men passed us laughing. “That’s one way to keep your woman in line,” one of them joked.

“You got it wrong,” I called back. “I cheated, and now she’s keepin’ me on a short leash.”

“Stop it! Did you see the looks of sympathy they gave you?” Lumi whispered in an offended tone after the men walked on. “Why would you make me sound like a jealous hag?”

I dipped my eyebrow. “You prefer for them to think that you married an asshole of a possessive husband?”

“I prefer for people to mind their own business.” Lumi closed her lips over a forkful of salad.

“Fair enough.” When a group of older teenagers walked by, pointing at us and giggling, I called out to them. “Stop gawkin’. Handcuffs come with adulthood; you’ll get there one day.”

Lumi didn’t look amused but pulled our hands under the table to make it less visible that we were chained together.

“You think it’s funny,” she whispered in an accusing tone.

“Itisfunny. Ye’d see that if ye weren’t so busy stabbin’ yer fork into yer salad as if yer were pokin’ out eyes of the people passin’ by.”

“You didn’t think it was so funny when I was their age and called you when I wanted to play adult games.”

I knew exactly what she was referring to, and her words twisted my insides, but I tried not to show how the memory of that night still haunted me.

“Forget I said it,” Lumi muttered.

We ate the rest of our food in silence while I thought back to the night where Lumi called me from a party.

February – Ten and a Half Years Ago

The music from the house and the people standing outside drinking and smoking told me I’d come to the right place.

Walking past a group sitting on the staircase to the house, I pretended that I didn’t smell or see the joint they were passing around. I wasn’t on duty tonight, and with Megan pissed at me at home, I wanted to get this over with as fast as possible.

Entering the house, I searched through the kitchen and living room to find Lumi, who had called me thirty minutes ago crying because of some clown who wouldn’t take no for an answer.

“Have you seen Lumi?” I asked a girl who was standing by the wall watching couples dancing.

“Who?” She lifted her shoulder to her chin, motioning that she didn’t recognize the name. It was no surprise, as Lumi didn’t go out much.

Back in the entranceway, I took the stairs up two at a time and edged my way past a couple making out against the wall. With the music almost as loud up here as downstairs, I didn’t bother calling for Lumi. Instead, I opened the first door and turned on the light. A drunk guy lay across the bed, fully dressed but sleeping. I moved on to open the next door, finding a naked girl on all fours with a skinny lad behind her.

It wasn’t Lumi, so I closed the door and ignored the curse words that the guy threw at me.

The third door was locked. I knocked hard. “Lumi. Are you in there?”

It only took a few seconds before the door was flung open, and Lumi threw herself into my arms.