HAPPY FAMOUX FRIDAY!!! IF IT'S STILL FRIDAY FOR YOU!
I know today's post is a little (a lot) later than usual. Hopefully you follow me on here and got my profile update message thing letting you know the situation. If not: I'm on vacation! My time in the hotel room has been sparse, so my time for writing has been even sparser. I had initially planned on getting my writing done at night, but lately I've been so exhausted that I've fallen right asleep the moment I manage to get my makeup off and take a seat.
So anyway, I'm so sorry to keep you waiting for this one! I know it's been quite a wait for this dinner already, and I've felt SO guilty about this chapter being late. Since, as you'll quickly see, the dinner is not complete at the end of this chapter, I hereby promise you that THIS SUNDAY WILL BE A FAMOUX SUNDAY where part 2 will drop!
Just a heads up: Not all of you will *love* what happens today, as I've seen by your comments already on other posts. Please remember that this will NOT be a repeat of previous drafts, so anything that feels similar that pops up here is going on a completely different course than what you saw of it last time. This is all important for what's coming up, I PROMISE YOU!
Okay, let's go onward, shall we??
PREVIOUSLY ON THE CLASSIX: Emeray and Cartney are going to dinner. We're about to get to see our Scooby Doo gang again! How long can I drag out this dinner? As long as I'd like, bb!
LET'S GO!
emeray
Much to my surprise, Cartney and I appear to be early. When we step into the dining room, we are greeted not by a full table of Famoux members, but by only Norax, Till Amaris, andââof all peopleââKaytee McKarrington. At the sight of her, Cartney recoils toward the door we've just come from, nearly stepping on my foot in the process.
"Welcome, you two!" Norax says, ever chipper. "Come on in! The others are bound to be here any minute!"
It's as if we're so both nervous to be in this room, we've forgotten how to properly move. Cartney keeps stumbling into me as we approach the two chairs furthest from Kaytee, letting the metal scraaaape against the floor as we push them back. I cringe at the noise, chastising myself for causing such a disturbance. Once we're seated, Cartney almost immediately knocks over his glass of water. He looks to me with panic, his voice dropping low.
"Unnecessary?" he whispers.
"Is what unnecessary?"
"Is it unnecessary for me to be here?"
Meanwhile, Norax addresses the others. "I came with them from the Metropolix," she explains. "They thought dinner was going to be there! Isn't that a hoot?"
Kaytee moves her dagger eyes over to Norax. Beside me, Cartney audibly exhales a sigh of relief, as if she's just removed her foot from his throat. However, the moment she speaks, he tenses right back up on impact.
"You didn't tell me he was going to be joining us," she states.
"Was I supposed to tell you?"
"Well, if I knew he'd be here, I wouldn't have come."
Norax looks to Cartney, then looks back to Kaytee. She shrugs. "I'm not too sure what the problem is."
Kaytee crinkles her nose. "Must I spell it out for you?"
"You're in a happy relationship. He's in a happy relationship. As far as I'm concerned, there is no reason for there to be bad blood between you two."
Frustration piquing, Kaytee gears up to say more, but Till holds her arm out as if to stop her. "It's not worth it," she tells her. "We're all here now. It's not worth it."
"Thank you for that, Till," Norax says. She glances between Kaytee and I. "Some of the other members have gotten so unruly as of late. However, you are consistently good. Don't think I don't acknowledge this."
Till looks away and winces, obviously uncomfortable by how the moment shifted to praise on her behalf. She takes a long sip of her water, saying nothing more.
"Well, I should check up on the others," Norax announces. She rises from her seat. "I trust you'll all get along in my absence?"
We all stare in reply. She rakes in a breath.
"All right, then." Just before she reaches the door, she nods to a waiter stationed in one of the room's corners. "Fill up Mr. Kirk's water, will you?"
The moment she leaves, the silence quickly engulfs us. As the waiter rushes over to refill Cartney's water, we all watch him pour, too tense to look at anythingââor anyoneââelse. The way my heart strains in my chest, it feels like I've just joined the Famoux all over again. I'm suddenly so nervous to do or say something that might even slightly disrupt Kaytee and Till.
Forcing myself to stay brave, I take in a deep breath and feign optimism. I speak. "Um, do you guys know what's going on?" I ask, painfully maladroit. Here I am again, stumbling on my words, speaking the way did when I first joined. Where's all that Emeray-Essence-confidence gone when I need it?
Till shakes her head. "Norax just told us to be here."
"Me too," I say.
As I say this last bit, a smirk stretches across Kaytee's face. I can feel my stomach drop almost immediately.
"Well, that comes as a surprise to me," she mutters. It's an unconvincing mutterââone she oh so blatantly wants the whole room to hear. "I thought Norax would've at least clued in her favorite child."
Cartney shifts in his seat, coughs. "Hey, you don't have toââ"
The rest of his sentence is sliced off completely as she looks to him. "I don't have to what? What was it you were going to say?"
But he's still speechless. Finally, Till finishes for him. "You don't have to be so rude to Emeray, Kaytee. She's not 'Norax's favorite' or whatever you wanna call her."
"Why? Because you are?" She gestures to the door. "She obviously is loving the fact that you don't speak unless you're spoken to."
Till narrows her eyes, shocked by this. For a moment my chest constricts as I remember a time when things were so much simpler; when Kaytee was the first person to accept me as a member. She never seemed to have such a sourness inside her as she does today.
"I'm going to . . ." My sentence fades off when I get up and dart to the door. I grip the knob with ferocity, not even bothering to finish. At this point I'll stand outside with the guards in that eery lightââanything but stay here.
While I shove open the door, someone from the outside pulls. I run right into Calsifer Race before I can stop myself.
"Whoa," he says. "In a hurry?"
I throw out the first excuse I can think off. "Bathroom."
Unlike his girlfriend, Race doesn't seem to despise every part of me at the moment. As the doors click shut, I hear him say with amusement, "Sounds urgent."
I feel bad to leave Cartney out there now that Race has arrived, but it's too much of a relief to finally be alone. I pace around the waiting room for a few minutes, collecting my breath, letting my senses catch up to me. I knew Kaytee didn't quite favor me as of late, but I had no idea she harbored such anger towards a relationship she, of all people, knows is absolutely fake. Why torture me like this, after everything we've been through?
The other door opens again. My nerves tense up, then soften when I turn toward the entrance and realize it's Chapter.
He smiles. "Sticks."
In the privacy of this room, I rush up to him and kiss him. When we pull back, he gestures to the other door. "Is everyone else in there already?"
"Yes."
"And you're out here still?"
"Yes."
"I'm guessing they're not the most welcoming bunch this evening?"
"Till and Race are fine enough," I say. "But Kaytee . . ."
"Is Cartney with you?"
When I nod, he nods in return. "I think that's more than half of where her anger is coming from, Sticks. You remember he tried to derail her entire career by telling the world about Race? Your presence is collateral damage."
"Still, it doesn't seem fair," I tell him. "I don't know how I can go back in there."
"We'll get through this dinner, I promise you." He gives my hand a squeeze. "We should probably go inââyou know, before Norax comes in here and makes a big scene about us being in a room together."
I take a deep breath when we walk back in, hoping that Till and Kaytee have moved on to a new topic other than me. But they don't seem to have.
"ââbecause you're being unnecessarily rude," Till whispers to Kaytee, answering a question I didn't hear.
She hums a laugh. "I am hardly being unnecessary."
When she says this, I look to Cartney. Lately, he's always responded to me in a similar fashion: Unnecessary, I say, and Hardly, he replies. Just hearing the words coming out of Kaytee's mouth seems to fuse them together in a way that feels oddly harmonious for a couple that always seemed to clash with dissonance.
When Kaytee turns back to me, her eyes fall instantly on my hand in Chapter's before looking away entirely. As we take two of the last three chairs at the metal table, I watch her as she mindlessly fidgets with her nails. Even though it's pretty warm in here, she's still wearing her bright blue coat, all buttoned up like she has somewhere else to be. I recall how she lent that coat to me once, when I didn't have one. So little and so long ago.
With Chapter on one side of me, and Cartney on the other, we take up one side of the table. Kaytee, Race, and Till make up the other end. While there's already a filled wine glass in the place where Norax will sit, it's hard to ignore the other end of the table's emptiness. The space where a chair and a person should've been is potent. I feel my stomach turn just looking at it, even for a moment.
"It's been a while since we've all been together like this," comments Race. Just as he says it, however, he coughs, leaning back in his chair like he wants to take it back.
The silence after his statement stretches over us, and the empty space at the end of the table seems to grow exponentially within it. Race is right: We haven't been all together like this in a whileâânot since the last Darkening. Our places at this table may be different, but there is no denying how eerily similar this gathering feels. For a while, we just float in itââin the thickness of the presence filling up every inch of the room. It isn't until the door opens once more that we all jump back into our skin.
"Sorry I'm late," Norax says. "Had to pick something up on my way here." She smirks at us like we should know what that means, but we don't.
Norax takes her seat at the head of the table. She grabs her wine glass, then nods to the waiters. Instantly, they spring into action, bringing forth pitchers of drinks and trays of hors d'oeuvres. They work near robotically. It makes me shiver.
While slices of bread and cheese are portioned onto our plates, Norax goes on. "I thought this meeting we're about to have was going to happen later, but with the new scheduling I just worked out, we'll have to move a little faster now. You see, I have some really, really cool news for you guys . . . for the five of you."
I glance at Chapter, who's got the same look on his face as me. I squeeze his hand for what feels like the millionth time since sitting down. Luckily, Norax hasn't noticed or pointed out how we're sitting next to each other yet. It feels strangely like I'm getting away with some kind of crime.
"Um." Till's voice seems to share our slight worry. "So, what might this really cool news you're talking about be, boss?"
"Oh, me explaining it won't do any of it justice," she insists.
"Then . . . who will?"
Norax takes a sip of her drink, then stops to look at us, one by one down the table. All the while, she wears a smile so wide that I already fear its causeââbecause whatever it is, I know we won't like it. I squeeze Chapter's hand again. From beneath the table, Cartney reaches over, topping his hand on mine and Chapter's. He squeezes the both of them at once, giving us a look of both worry and smugness. Ever trying to break the tension, make a joke. Unfortunate for him, we remain tense all the same.
"I brought us some new perspective," Norax tells us.
The table goes even stiller than it was, if that's even possible.
New perspective..
"Lately, we've been lacking our unity," she continues. "Foster unified the five of you. He was able to bring everyone together no matter how terrible a situation. That, we believe, is why our terrible threat, DEFED, decided to take him out next. They knew we would struggle internally without him, and look at us. We are."
Kaytee shifts. "I don't really thinkââ"
"My dear, please." Norax clicks her tongue. "You are a part of the issue. Perhaps the greatest part of the issue. Do not pretend you aren't aware of your part in the decreasing morale of this group."
Her eyes wrinkle to slits. "How about your part? I haven't seen anybody in this room for months. What chance have I actually had to 'decrease the morale' when you have me in the studio all day long?"
"Your snide remarks when we are all gathered together are unappreciated. Your snide remarks when we are all apart, even less so. Unity does not directly correlate with being present together, sweet Kaytee. Unity means sticking together no matter where in the world we all are. When you have nothing good to say about your fellow members, who are working so hard, how do you think I feel, knowing you resent them so?"
Norax turns from Kaytee, now addressing the whole group. "You should be proud of one another! You should be each other's greatest supporters, and loudly! The entire world should know how excited you are about everybody's new films and projects! And yet, when asked about one another, so often the public gets radio silence."
She looks to the guard beside her, giving him a nod. He nods in return, moving back to the door. As he turns the knob, Norax says one last thing.
"In short, we desperately need someone who's going to bring us the changesââand the unityâânecessary for the Famoux. And I know just the person." She holds out her arm with dramatic gusto. "Your new advisor."
And just when I thought I couldn't get any more shocked or unpreparedââ
The door opens.
And I come close to breaking Chapter's hand, I grip it so tightly.
It's like some kind of cavern is openedââlike there's a port connecting Clarus Creek to this room, and the water's flooding in. Every single part of me feels as if it's been submerged into pure ice.
Our new advisor has brown hair and brown eyes. While they might seem gentle enough tonightââperhaps even light and excited, I know better than to believe their tones of copper and grey have anything other than sinister intentions.
From all the way across the room, over the empty space where Foster should've been sitting, those brown eyes choose to settle right on me. And they do not look light and excited. They look exactly how I expect them to be. Exactly how I've seen them, day after day, year after year, as they brought forth pain like a wrath of some god.
"Hey," he says. Carstan van Horne says. "I'm so excited to join the team."
xxx
I know I know I KNOW y'all don't want Carstan as a new Famoux member and I'm here to assure you, the boy will not be one! But that doesn't mean I'm quite done with him yet...
TELL ME YOUR THOUGHTS! Any questions? Predictions? *Concerns*?
Now that we've seen the members again, I'd love to here your thoughts about them:
How do you feel about our girl Kaytee?
How do you feel about our girl Till?
How do you feel about Race?
How do you feel about Chapter? (You've already seen him, but still.)
How do you feel about...Emeray? Idk lol.
Get pumped for Sunday's post. Part two is COMING RIGHT UP! Your questions will be answered!!!! In the meantime, I will be packing my bags to come back home tomorrow. This was a nice vacation, but I can't wait to be in my routine again, writing regularly. I feel so so guilty about today, thank you for understanding!!
Have a wonderful weekend, Wattpad. See you soon! Remember:
Sticks and Stones may break your bones, but haters make you famoux. Stay classy, stay classix.