Kristal Anderson
My face scrunched up in complete and utterly confusion, I don't think my face had ever looked so expressive, "Who's we?"
He motioned between us with his index finger, "You and I,"
"Whoâ Iâ a ball? What is this the 1800s"
"It's a charity ball that people attend every year, this year I was chosen to attend it and I thought why not bring the only person who would make being in a room full of stuck up people bearable?" He explained.
"That person being me?"
"Precisely," He said with a nod.
I slid the bags higher up in my bed and took a seat at the edge of my bed, "Why would you spend your hard earned money on all this without asking me first? What if I say no,"
His lips quirked into a cocky smirk, "Because I know you won't,"
I narrowed my eyes at him, "You know what? Now I might just say no out of spite for your cockiness," I said only half joking, "When is it?"
"I'll pick you up at around six on Sunday,"
"There you go again assuming that I'm gonna say yes,"
"What can I say, I'm an optimistic guy," He said with a shrug.
"Well, Mr optimistic I would highly suggest lowering your optimism because the chances of me saying yes are at a solid 30%,"
"Why? Is it the dress? Cause we can do this all over again tomorrow, darlin,"
I shook my head, "The dress is fine, it's gorgeous in fact. It's me, I just need to think. . . about this," Now I was the one motioning her index finger between us, "if I should even be doing this is the first, sneaking around like a teenager. If we told anyone about this, they would definitely something's wrong with us,"
A laugh rumbled through his chest, "Probably, but it will make for a fun story someday," That earned a smile from me, "Do you wanna do it?"
I stared at him for a moment longer than I needed to, "I just don't want to be a bad person, I don't want to be ungrateful to the woman who took me in when I needed it most, I'm too scared to even imagine her reaction if she found out about this,"
He nodded after listening to my ramble, "Okay, Now I wanna know what you want, do you wanna do this?"
Even in my head I was too ashamed to admit that I wanted this, that him being here on my window sill would be the highlight of my week.
Him being here made me feel things, the thrill of possibly getting caught was intoxicating, addictive even. And that scared me. How alive I felt around him scared me.
I shook my head, "I don't- I don't know what I want," I lied through my teeth.
"That's a lie so I'm gonna ask you again; what do you want?"
Now that I knew that he saw right through my bullshit, maintaining eye contact became a difficult task so I had to pull my eyes away from his intense gaze. With my eyes glued to my carpeted floor, I forced my brain to come up with a way to make my lie more believable.
The faint sound of footsteps getting closer broke me from my thoughts and pure panic settled it's way deep into bones. I shot up from my bed so fast I was surprised that my legs didn't snap in half, "It's my aunt, you need to go, now,"
The panic that I expected to set in him never came, "You never answered my question,"
The footsteps only got louder, "Aiden, you need to go. Now,"
"Answer me first,"
My heart was at my throat and threatening to explode right out of me and run laps around my room from how fast it was beating, "Yes, okay? I want this I want to go with you," I whisper shouted, "now go before I get a heart attack,"
A satisfied smirk spread across his face, "I'll see you on Sunday, darlin," If I had blinked just a millisecond later, I would have missed the moment he jumped off.
A scream left my lips before I had time to stop it but I quickly brought my hands up to my mouth, my eyes glued to my now empty window sill. Almost as if on cue, Aunt Jenna's hand knocked at my door.
"Kris? You okay?" Her voice came sounding frantic and my door handle shifted. There was too much going on, too much for me to handle in my state of panic.
There were bags with expensive attire that I did not buy, my Aunt was just outside my door probably having a heart attack because of the scream I let out and a dead and or seriously injured man was possibly laying on my driveway.
I peeled my hands off my mouth before asking, "Y-yeah I'm fine just give me a minute!" I started moving, rushing to shove all the bags under my bed before unlocking and opening my door, putting on the most genuine smile I could muster while the image of Aiden with blood oozing out of his head played and replayed in my head.
"What was that scream? Are you okay?" Her hands were on me examining me the moment the door opened.
"I'm okay I promise, I just saw a huge spider on my ceiling but it's fine I got it," Please let that be believable.
"Why was the door locked?"
"O-oh I just-," Two lies in a row was asking a little too much from my brain so I just froze.
"I don't want you locking it anymore, what if something were to happen and I didn't make it to you in time,"
The image that her words brought me felt like a punch in the gut, the smile that I had managed to stick onto my face suddenly felt like it weighed a thousand pounds and began to drop slowly, "Okay. . . I won't," That was another lie.
A smile was now lifted her expression, "I just came here to say goodnight,"
I nodded, "Okay, I was just about to head to bed as well,"
"Goodnight darling,"
"Goodnight," I said with a smile before shutting my door.
The door clicked shut and I was on my nook, poking my head out my window to look down at my driveway, and to my surprise he wasn't there. Neither was his ladder pressed against my window.
My eyes scanned for him on his driveway, nothing. My eyes ran up the length of his house to find him already watching me from his bedroom window, laughing in pure enjoyment of my misery and panic. He fucking did that on purpose.
I lifted my right hand and flipped him off which only made him laugh harder, but an inevitable smile spread across my face.
⢠° ⢠° ⢠° ⢠° ⢠° ⢠° â¢
Sunday came around in the blink of an eye and that both thrilled and terrified me.
I looked at my reflection in the full length mirror and I hardly recognized myself. I hadn't looked this fancy in. . . well, ever. And for that I had Thea to thank.
Thea had always been the most fashionable one between us so her opinion was more than necessary. She helped me figure out what to do with my hair. We ended up deciding on a low bun with a few strands strategically hanging out giving the bun a messy look but in an elegant way.
It turned out. . . decent for a girl with no hair styling experience. I was already dreading getting home and having to take out my entire collection of pins that I used to hold up the bun.
We decided to keep the eye makeup simple because I was going to be in a mask the entire night so it felt like a waste of energy. Although, she did convince me to wear my red lipstick of the darkest shade to try and match the outfit. Gold hoop earrings and a matching gold bracelet were the only fancy jewelry I had.
After trying on the dresses on Thursday I had found one that fit me perfectly and later that day, Aiden climbed to retrieve the other two dresses that I forced him to return. I had been forcing myself to put aside the fact that I was only able to squeeze myself into the largest dress he bought, another reminder of the weight I'd gained over the past few months.
Today standing in front of my laptop, fully dressed showing Thea my outfit and having her reassure me that I loved good was a much needed confidence boost.
The universe seemed to have been on my side because earlier today Aunt Jenna came to my room and told me that she would be out late today. Because of that Thea and I were able to be as loud as we wanted while she helped me get ready. But most importantly; I could use the front door like a regular person. No ladder for me tonight.
Aunt Jenna went on her mysterious outtings every once in a while and she wouldn't be back till the late hours of the night. I would be lying if I said I wasn't curious about what she was doing that could possibly last all day. But if the way she reacted to me simply holding her ringing phone was any indication then me asking about it wasn't an option.
My phone dinged, interrupting my thoughts.
Aiden: Hey I'm outside.
Giving myself one last look-over in the mirror, I picked my bejeweled mask up and slid it in place and grabbed my black clutch that matched my shoes. I made sure to unlock my window because the probability of me having to climb up my window on the way back was very high. After locking my bedroom window and sliding the keys in my clutch I was on my way.
The click of my heels sounded so foreign down the hallway. My nerves spiked more and more with each step down the stairs, there was still a small part of me that was convinced that she would be in the living room like she always was at this time watching tv. That thought plagued my mind even though I checked about a thousand times and even took photos from my window of her car leaving to avoid having my brain convince me that I was crazy. Yet here I was.
But as expected, there was no one in the living room nor was there anyone in any part of the house.
I made Aiden aware of the fact that she was gone for the day so this time he was parked right on my driveway. But it wasn't the car that was usually parked on his driveway, instead it was a red vintage convertible with the roof up.
There he was leaned up against the car with what looked like a booklet in his hand. He was in a black suit with a maroon dress shirt and a matching handkerchief peeking from his pocket, his hair was gelled back to perfection completely contrasting the messy look that I was going for.
Only when the door clicked shut behind me did he peel his eyes away from the booklet in his hand, his dimpled smile spread across his face as I made my way toward him.
"That's a really nice dress you got on," He said shutting the booklet, "the person who picked it out must have really good taste,"
I rolled my eyes as my lips lifted into a smile that seemed to have been permanently sewed onto my face whenever I was around him, "You don't look too bad yourself either," He looked hot. Beyond hot even. But that was something I was only willing to admit to myself.
He let out a chuckle as he opened the passenger side door for me, after throwing a thank you his way I slid my way inside. The interior was slick, white and elegant, I felt a million dollars richer just by being in here. He slid into his seat and tossed the booklet in the backseat, putting on his seatbelt.
"What's that?" I couldn't help but ask.
"A list," He said before the engine roared to life and we were pulling out of my driveway.
"A list?"
"Of the ball attendees," He clarified.
I furrowed my eyebrows under the mask, "Why do you have that?"
"To memorize it." I let out a sigh in frustration of his vagueness, "This is my first ever ball, the point of these balls is to network and what better way to network than by making it seem like you already know them,"
I nodded, "Can I see the list?"
"Go for it,"
Reaching towards the backseat, I blindly felt around for the booklet. When I had it under my grasp, I brought it forward and started flipping through the countless pages, "Holy fuck, how did you memorize all this?" Inside the booklet were pictures of the people, their name and bullet points for things like occupation, age, marital status etc.
He let out a chuckle, "I haven't, or at least not yet. I've only had time to skim through about half of it,"
I flipped through to the last page, there were in total sixty-four guests in the booklet, "What number were you on?"
"Thirty-six, why?"
"I'm gonna help you or at least try to, I'll read you through the rest of the guests and you just have to try and retain as much of it as you can,"
That was how we spent the entire 25 minute drive to the venue. I would occasionally slip up and butcher a name which would break us out of our state of concentration and force laughs out of us.
"Thanks darlin, what would I do without you," He had told me after I finished
Was it helpful? Probably not. I wouldn't be able to tell you the names of five of the people and I was the one reading. But I wanted to be helpful in any way I could, plus it was a great way to distract myself the entire ride.
The venue was already packed, finding a parking space amongst the expensive and luxurious cars was a nightmare but we eventually managed to get one. With our arms linked together, we walked towards the entrance to the ballroom along with a few other people that had arrived.
Everything about the venue and the people screamed wealth. I was convinced that if you sold the gowns and suits of everyone in the ballroom, you could easily solve world hunger.
"Aiden Vasilakis and Olivia Connor," He told the man with a bejeweled golden mask at the entrance. My eyes snapped up to look at him in complete and utter confusion.
"Welcome, Mr Vasilakis," The man said with a smile and without any additional questions, the massive double doors to the ballroom opened letting us in.
We walked inside and everything was just as grand as it was on the outside. The room was massive. White and gold dominated the room; it was nearly blinding, the only other color came from the light pink flowers that were littered amongst the white flowers throughout the room.
"Olivia Connor?"
He glanced at me and nodded, "The list of attendees is publicized after the event, so it probably wouldn't be a good idea to have your real name out there for your Aunt to see,"
Before I could respond, an older man with a white suit that fit way too tightly around his beer belly approached us, "Aiden Vasilakis?" A black eye mask covered half of his face.
Aiden put on a smile, "Lorenzo Marino," He extended his hand.
The man looked pleased with the fact that Aiden knew his name, "You know me?" He shook Aiden's hand, his thick Italian accent coming through.
"My father told me a lot about you," He explained, pulling his hand away.
"Good things, I hope," A laugh rolled out of him.
"Of course," He forced a chuckle that went away as soon as it came, "This is Olivia Connor," That was my cue to put on my biggest smile as Lorenzo's eyes drifted onto you.
"Nice to meet you, Mr Marino," I extended my hand to him.
"It's just Enzo to pretty ladies like you," He grinned putting his blindingly white veneers on full display, he took my hand in his sweaty ones and halted my movements when I began to shake his. Instead he brought it up to his lips and planted a kiss.
I watched in complete and utter shock. Aiden's arm that was linked around mine tugged me closer to his side and I took that as an opportunity to slip my hand away.
The conversation with Lorenzo lasted for much longer than either of us wanted. He wouldn't stop going on and on about how good of a friend Aiden's Dad is, even after Aiden tried to countlessly end the conversation. Now I could see why this would be unbearable.
The ballroom continued to fill with people in gowns and suits of every color and masks of different lengths and styles. I watched as some people made their way to the curved broad staircase that led them to the second level. This brought my attention to the second level and made me wonder what was up there.
The handrail turned into a balcony on the second floor from where a few people were overlooking the entire ballroom.
Everything was going fine until my eyes met his and my heart dropped to the balls of my feet. His eyes were the only visible thing under the cheap looking white facemask that he had on.
He was standing by the handrail like the others but he wasn't overlooking the ballroom like everyone else, instead his eyes were on me.
He was watching me.
Who could it be?? Heheheheð
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