Opposite Worlds Read online

  Opposite Worlds

  First title in the “Inseparable” Series

  By Sasha Pop

  Copyright © 2014 by Sasha Pop

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  Chapter I

  The gleaming Miami sun was gently falling on Jessica, who remained sitting near the window and was staring into the distance long after Organic Chemistry class was done. Two weeks after her first semester of junior year had started, life had fallen into a predictable routine - studying for the MCAT with her best friend Philipp, hanging out with her girlfriends and discussing the latest gossip, and dating Bob – the football team quarterback, a popular jock, who with his blonde trimmed hair, blue eyes and muscular frame was a catch according to Jessica´s friends.

  Never mind that he didn’t have any actual interests outside of beer pong and his weights. What started as a casual summer hook-up, when Jessica in a moment of weakness and boredom succumbed to his advances at a beach party they both attended, had developed into a casual college relationship where they would get together to release stress, and call each other boyfriend/girlfriend more for appearances’ sake than out of real feelings. Life was passing by and nobody that really got her going came along, so Jessica rationalized to herself “why not?” After all, they really did look good together, Jessica thought, looking at her IPhone 5s wallpaper with her and Bob smooching, her own golden hair and light aqua eyes perfectly complementing his own. And in comparison with her exes, even though they had been the same type of assholes, at least Bob had the looks to make up for it.

  Yet he was so…predictable. He would always invite her after her Tuesday afternoon class to ‘’warmup’’ before his football practice as he liked (cleverly in his mind) to joke. What he did during the other days of the week at this time of the day was a mystery to Jessica, but she eventually stopped caring too much to find out. Today was Tuesday she realized, briefly having forgotten about their appointment while daydreaming about a better life. It was time to go meet Bob, and her legs subconsciously started shaking at the thought of another jackhammer session with the 280 lbs. Frat guy, which although brief, since endurance wasn’t his strong point, would still leave her sore for days due to his brutality, even though he was not particularly well endowed.

  She often tried to tell him that she would prefer it if he was a little more gentle, and paid more attention to her, if not with romantic gestures, then at least to her body and her pleasure, rather than just selfishly fulfilling his needs. The first time they had this conversation he just laughed her off, saying ¨Look baby, this is just how real men are¨. Jessica had never been before with somebody she would have considered to be a real man, but she sure hoped that Bob’s assertion was not true. The second time she brought this up in a conversation with him, Bob quickly got angry and told her that if she didn’t like it, “the door was right behind them for her to leave”, although by the tone of his voice it seemed like he was more ready to throw her out himself.

  Jessica remembered all the times she felt tempted to take up on his offer, and wondered what made her back out every time. Sometimes it were her girlfriends, who kept nagging her about how lucky she was for landing the team captain, and how tough it would be for her to snatch another guy like this among all the hungry cheerleaders that kept eyeing him. Other times it were her studies; she was so busy and focused on preparing for med school that the thought of the effects of a dramatic break-up (she was sure Bob wouldn’t let her go so easily!) on her grades made her cringe with fear. She was not prepared for letting all the previous years of hard work to go in vain. But most of all, it was probably the pressure of her family always to be the perfect role-model daughter. Her dad, a renowned plastic surgeon in the elite clinics of Miami, among whose clients were aging politicians and CEOs who desperately wanted to cling to their youth, always wanted her to follow in his footsteps, since plastic surgery was near the top of the list of most well-paid occupations.

  While she had nothing against becoming a doctor, she wanted to pursue her dream of helping people and actually making an impact in their lives, since in her mind plastic surgery was mostly a superficial thing that people could do without. This had been a source of conflict with her father since her teenage years, when she had been very outspoken. Ever since, Jessica and her dad had eventually reached a sort of an unofficial agreement that she would go to med school but that she would be free to choose whichever specialization that she wanted. This concession, however, had come at a cost, and Jessica could never get rid of the lingering feeling that she was a disappointment in her father’s eyes.

  The real issue was with her mother though. Joanne, raised in a very traditional, rich Puritan family, where reputation was the highest value to be preserved, could not stand the thought of her daughter jumping from one boyfriend to the next. After all, Jessica was already 21, and a woman this age had to find a serious suitor according to Joanne. Her mother’s draconian ways had first shown three years earlier, when she forbade Jessica from going to the school prom, because Drake, her first crush/boyfriend was on the very lower end of the middle-class, having only been accepted at the elite French School of Miami due to academic merit, and not by being of worthy origins. After graduation, Drake went to college in another state, their relationship slowly dissipating, even though Jessica tried to stay in touch. The young scholar remained bitter at Jessica for her not showing up at the prom, eventually sending her a whiny letter about how she had ruined his high school experience, and how he was moving on to better things in life, describing in thorough detail just how much fun he was having at college parties with his new “acquaintances”.

  As a result, not only did Jessica distance herself from her mom and started trying to keep her personal life, well, personal, she also instinctively began avoiding nice guys, the pain of betrayal from reading Drake’s letter still lingering in her heart. At the time, her only close friend, Marta, a flashy red-head whom she had known since high-school and who had always secretly been jealous of Jessica for getting the most attention from the guys, both because of her pure, stunning beauty and reserved, unavailable persona, had insisted that they go all out the upcoming Friday at the sorority initiation party to forget all about that asshole Drake.

  Marta, whom Jessica respected and regarded as an already experienced woman, told her that she just needed to learn to relax and to have some fun, as the painful memories would quickly go away, and that they had to enjoy this unique time in their lives, since “they would only be freshmen once”. A little reluctant at first, Jessica had tasted alcohol for the first time that night, and not just one kind. Starting the night with Keystone Light beer, which to her sensitive, unprepared body felt about the same as what vodka would be like to a grown man, the poor blonde soon found herself dancing in the arms of some random basketball player, who quickly let his hands wander all through her body on the dance floor, while sloppily kissing her. That evening, Jessica remained in control of herself enough to tell him no, after the tall, clumsy guy tried to drag her to the bathroom.

  Not feeling any better the next day, with the added headache of a hangover paining her and with the dim memories (What was I doing last night?!) troubling her, Jessica just wanted to rest and spend a quiet day reading at home. Soon though, Marta started distracting her with her incessant texts, reminding her about just how much fun the party was and announced how she wanted to go shopping for a new outfit to go out again tonig
ht. That was the one thing that she seriously disliked about Marta – the redhead was really hyper, and as a result her texts seemed to come out straight from a Rebecca Black song (“We we we so much fun we so excited”). Declining her invitation to accompany her to the party that some random frat was hosting under the guise of being sick, Jessica reopened the book, putting the phone away.

  A couple hours later as it was getting dark, she heard the doorbell ring. Her parents were away with Mickey, her little brother at their beach house In Fort Lauderdale, so the only reaction to the bell sound was the bark of her Golden Retriever Tara. “Who could it be at this time,” Jessica wondered, already suspecting she knew the answer. Sure enough, she saw Marta, wearing lacquered red heels, dressed up in tight black leather mini-shorts with a transparent silk blouse, leaving little to the imagination at her doorstep. Although Jessica herself was no angel, this was way too much in her mind – her high school friend looked more like a worker of the night than a college student.

  “Hey, how are you Jess?” Marta excitedly asked, and without giving the girl with aquamarine eyes a chance to answer jumped to hug her. ” You don’t look so bad….come on, we can’t miss the party tonight, I heard the basketball team is going to be there,” Marta mischievously whispered in her ear, as if that was supposed to have some magic effect on her blonde friend. Having finally remembered most of the events from last night, Jessica cringed at the thought of going to a party where a single basketball player would be present, let alone an entire team.

  “I saw how you were dancing with Chris last night… he looked like he would love to see you again,” Marta added.

  “I am sure he would,” Jessica thought with disgust, remembering the sensation of his long hands burning through her body. “Umm… he wasn’t really my type,” she said out loud.

  “You can’t be so frigid. If you keep acting like this, then you will end up being an old virgin at a monastery someday,” Marta said with disgust, as if the mere fact of being a virgin implied that there had to be something wrong with you. Jessica couldn’t see the exact problem with being a virgin - she had felt just fine during the previous eighteen years of her life, without getting particularly involved with any man. Marta’s accusatory voice however made her feel as if she should somehow feel guilty for her choices.

  “Are you alone at home tonight?” Marta suddenly hit right on Jessica’s weak point; staying alone at the massive two-story house of her parents had terrified the blonde since childhood, when her grandfather would torture her with ghost stories whenever she misbehaved. Plus, the house could get creepily somber and dark at night time.

  “I will be alright,” Jessica tried to assure her in a weak tone, not even able to convince herself.

  “Come on, what are you going to do instead? Are you just going to stay here and cry yourself to sleep over Drake again, while he is having the time of his life with some bimbo in California?” Marta added fuel to the fire. The fear of staying alone at home combined with the unpleasant pictures of Drake’s adventures that her wild imagination had created finally pushed Jessica over the limit.

  “All right, all right, but I won’t be staying until as late as last night,” the premed conceded. One hour later, with a ton of make-up on from the most expensive cosmetics, and wearing an outfit that easily gave Marta’s a run for her money (the redhead had advised her that they should go to the party matching if they want to have all the guys to be at their mercy on the dance floor), Jessica was ready to go.

  The two girls hopped into Jessica’s shiny convertible BMW X5 that her dad had gifted her on her sixteenth birthday after she finally promised him that she would work to go to med school. Driving in the dark, Jess had a gloomy, unexplainable feeling that she would be better off staying at home that evening, as she sensed that in her vulnerable state she might do something that she would later regret. However, when she got really close to telling Marta that she wanted to turn around and go back, Jessica could not bring herself to ruin her childhood friend’s night, who was happily singing “Tonight we are going hard” along with the radio.

  Chapter II

  “Wake up…hey wake up,” a male voice ordered.

  Jessica felt that somebody was shaking her from side to side, but could not bring herself to open her eyes. Her body felt like she had been run over by a truck or two, and her head was about to burst with a headache that made her previous hangover seem like a pleasant tingling sensation in comparison. Still half-asleep, Jessica was struggling to understand what was going on and where she was. She had drunk too much last night; of that the blonde girl was for sure. Maybe she had been brought to the hospital, just like those freshmen whom she had often assisted as part of the EMS crew at University of Miami?

  “Hurry up, I have to get ready for practice,” the voice was getting impatient.

  Jessica sensed a small slap hit her cheeks back and forth. This was no hospital. Slowly, with a titanic effort, she opened her eyelids, cringing because of the bright light that was coming from the outside of the window. The place appeared to be a messy bedroom, with clothes and trash lying all over the floor. She finally noticed a tall guy, who looked strangely familiar, just in his boxers, towering over her. Realizing she was naked herself, Jessica’s first instinctive reaction was to cover her body with the comforter, shortly followed by a reflex to push the guy away from her with a kick to his stomach. “Just what had happened here?” her mind frantically wondered. Not willing to see the obvious, she desperately looked for a logical explanation.

  “This guy brought me here because I passed out, and I must have puked so he took off my clothes,” Jessica rationalized in denial, as her stare suddenly fell on the mattress, which had a suspicious red stain. As a tear began appearing from her eye, in realization that this night had changed her life forever, her trance was interrupted by this “familiar” guy, whose name she did not know and who now appeared to be increasingly pissed at her, apparently not happy at all by being kicked out from his own bed.

  “What the hell do you think you are doing, you crazy b*tch!?” the basketball player shouted. Grabbing her shorts from the floor, he threw them in her direction, adding “Hurry up and get out of here”. In absolute dismay, Jessica remained motionless, her shorts hanging from the top of her head.

  “Are you deaf or something? Not only did you ruin my bed sheets, you are now trying to ruin my day as well?” he asked, demonstratively opening the door, not caring they were both naked.

  Slowly and mechanically, almost like a robot, Jessica got up, and started picking up the rest of her clothes from the ground, not daring to look up. She did not feel any fury or anger at the guy, even though she logically felt like she should. She only felt a creeping, dark emptiness slowly filling every depth of her once colorful soul. “No shower will ever be able to clean out these scars,” she thought at that moment, storming out of the dorm room as soon as she got dressed, just wanting to get away from him, get away as far away as possible…

  *****Three Years later*****

  “Oh it looks like I am late,” Jessica suddenly looked at her watch, awakening from another daydream, this time of a very unpleasant period in her life. It was almost as if some mysterious force was conspiring to prevent her from seeing Bob today by making her super sleepy and annoyed. Sighing, Jess headed outside the classroom building in the direction of the football team dorm room, not bothering to hasten her pace despite her tardiness.

  The University of Miami truly had a beautiful campus she thought, walking the trail between the Butterfly Garden and Lake Osceola, a favorite of the local joggers. At first, she had been reluctant to go to a college so close to her home, having wanted to move far away after high school was over, preferably out of state to escape the reach of her overbearing parents. Also, going to a snobby “rich kids” university, which Jess expected to be like a continuation of the elitist foreign high school she attended, was far from being the future she once dreamed for herself, where she would be helping the
poor and making a difference. Over time however this place had grown on her, and she slowly began accepting that she was a “rich kid” herself and that she was going to be surrounded by such people for the rest of her life. However the mere thought of becoming superficial just like them still scared her.

  Recognizing many of the familiar faces jogging by, Jess frowned. It was a large school, but she knew a disproportionate number of the runners – many of them had been admirers of hers, some secret, others quite blunt. “What is with me attracting this jock type?” She wondered. Secretly, she had hoped that dating the captain of the football team would have put a stop to the ever-annoying “catcalling” and other unwelcome sexual advances that she was constantly a victim of. Quite the opposite happened however. It was as if these guys either loved competition or just had a fetish of trying to get the “forbidden fruit”.

  “Hey Jess! I haven’t seen you this week yet!” Marta’s distinctive pitch sounded behind her. “Um, maybe because the week just started” the blonde sarcastically thought. Jessica never really told Marta about what happened on that distant night three years ago, but ever since that incident, things had never been the same between them. Although Jessica recognized that she was the one to blame, first of all, the guilt and shame of it all was too much for her to bear alone, so she started to secretly resent Marta ever since for pressuring her that night. Moreover, as Jessica became older, wiser and less naïve she started seeing that Marta often tried to drag her into all sorts of improper activities and dangerous situations, not because she wanted to do everything together with her BFF, but rather to tarnish her once spotless reputation. What at first seemed like a foolish thought, over time became crystal clear to the blonde: Marta was envious of her, enough to either purposefully or unconsciously try to lead her astray. Despite coming from an equally rich family that had long been part of the same circles with her parents, Marta had always remained in her shadow, no matter how much she tried to stand out. Somehow, all the crushes she ever had ended up falling for Jess first, only giving the redhead a second look after Jess politely rejected them to protect her friend’s feelings. The same problem happened with her parents, who treated Jess like a “second daughter” that they wish they had, always lecturing Marta on how she should be more proper like the role-model, straight A student Jess. Ever since Marta was first caught smoking back in ninth grade, her parents started viewing her as the black sheep in the family.