Elaine
"Are you ready?" at Edmund's query, gulping in the little moister into my dry throat I glance at the broad, grandiose door way through which the people from a community and society which I could never even dream to have a life like walked in, proud, confident and powerful.
The cameras exploded when each couple or an extremely important figure strides past by.
I lift my Eyes to meet Edmunds, who was already watching me intently. He was someone whose visage stood out even in the hordes of hundreds, appealing, demanding and dynamic. And I was a girl whose mere existence was a silhouette of flawlessly weaved lies.
This place, these people and this life reminded me of everything that is not me.
But after finding my voice that was buried under all the inner commotions, I answer him anyway.
"I am way more prepared for a zombie apocalypse then this" at that his lips parts to reveal a toothy grin.
"Relax" he says grabbing my shoulders and pulling me slightly to his side "It's not like I am going to leave you alone in there. Gotta guard the most beautiful and precious presence of the night" he ends it with a wink but breaths a cough of pain when my elbow hits his waist.
"That's a reflex to cheesyism" I smiled sarcastically at him as he rubbed his side. The others were already inside leaving us both, more like me to gather my senses. I needed to calm my nerves down before stepping in.
"okay my lazy, if you are done meditating can I have the honor of escorting you to this, what I desperately hope to be a phenomenal bash?" rolling my eyes at his over exaggerated pretended British accent, biting my lips I peak a glimpse as the flashes that bursts mercilessly on someone's face, pouting but determined I narrowed my eyes.
I can do this.
On it's own accord my fingers curled over Edmunds arms, feeling the ripple of his muscles at my touch. When we passed the heinous and frenzied reporters and cameramen darted their focus in our direction, I ducked my head, letting the loose strands frame my face as I clutched the fabric of my skirt with the free hand.
It was surreal, the sensation of so many lenses on your face, recording your move, your intentions and with it some way or other what you think or feel. It was worse than eyes.
When the fervent chaos ceased, I felt my feet take the last of step on the grandiose outer stair way. But still my gaze were glued to the ground, as I watched the concreate gamble in to a shimmering mosaic floor. The soft music from the piano fills my ears and the air around me goes ten times less restraining than out side. I look up to see the colossal hall, decorated with the austerely aligned flowers that looked like natures best apparel. On the sides perennially arranged were the tables and seats, the waiters mechanically carried around the savouries apt for the people with such high caliber.
The fountain on the top of a extravagace central stairway with a statue in the middle was high lighted with golden hues. And for a moment I was jealous of the sculpture. It had nothing to do, except to stand and look pretty
"I would hire a personal camera man if you will hold me this way every time someone takes a picture of you" immediately I untangled my grasp on him, blushing furiously I look at Edmund who had a gentle smile on his face.
"I get it, you swallowed a book of pick up lines this morning" I pat his shoulders supportingly, pursing my lips as he laughs.
"At least I am not infatuated with a lobster, I saw you talking to it during breakfast" I frown as he raises a brow, beaming like a man who just landed in Vegas after a successful divorce. But I was worried about his inferior behavior about some one who had become my solace and sanity keeper from past two days here.
"That it has feelings too. And I was just trying to make him feel better before he would've to sacrifice himself for our selfish appetite one day" there was a sheer moment of deliberation. Then he lost it, the loud laugh caused a few disapproving heads to turn in our direction as I tried to shush him off.
And the zenith of breaching the etiquette was when we walked to the table our companions had occupied, he still occasionally cracked.
I took the spare seat beside an empty one in which Edmund settled in.
When I glared at him, he coughed away the brewing chortle.
"That wasn't funny" I muttered. I could feel the confused and amused stares on us. But it sparsely effected Edmund who pinched my cheeks gently. I gasped swatting his hands away.
"I Can't believe I have a crush on a girl who is defending a lobster from me" he chuckled as I groaned. Marking an end to the topic by keeping my mouth in check as I take the break to scan our surroundings.
And instantly regretted when my eyes met the lethargically hooked pair of Alex. He brought the rim of a fancy crystal wine glass to his lips, tipping it as he watched me. But I noticed the subtle twitch of his fingers as he gripped the neck of its slender holder when he eyed Edmund beside me. As if he mentally pictured snapping his neck.
Shaking away such thoughts or the reality of how hot he looked under the soft bright luminous I turn to Clarissa, who unconsciously played with the silver bracelet on her wrist, the charms glittered as she tugged at them.
Lee was no were to be seen. Since it was his birthday he was bound to be busy, attending his guest.
But Clarissa gave no heed to his absence, contrary to it the lone time for herself should help her cope up with the wishes she had, alternate to if Ian Blakewall had made it here. Putting both of our misery to an end.
"So Clarissa, enlighten me. Do girls usually gets ready while yelling out profanities?" squirming enough to make myself smaller than I am I throw why Edmund? plead at a curious boy by the same name who just had his enthusiastic question voiced out.
But since embaressment had been an old friend of mine, Clarissa's interest sparks up as she goes onto a little detailed voyage.
"Not usually." She smirks at me as I grunt some non sensible words as she blinks back at every one in a semi circle. "But apparently Elaine here has a phobia of compulsory beauty rite. We mere convinced her to do it"
I look at her in disbelief.
"you call that convincing?" she pouts as Riley snorts, but sniffs as she reverts her interest to the red slacks of an old man when I glared at her. Beside her Mike frowns slightly, probably feeling out of loop. But the grand downfall dawned over me when Clarissa decided to add on her defense.
"It wasn't my fault that you turned out to be screamer" from the direction directly straight to mine, someone choked on their drink as I looked at a coughing Alex scowling, Hailey blinked away looking at her elbow, that is until my wit cleared up the confusion towards Clarissa's innuendo.
My eyes widened as Alex wiped his lips with the back of his hand. For the initial time looking anywere but me as his ears turned red. And I don't even want to see what Edmund was up to.
But one thing was for sure, Alex's head was in need of radically deep cleansing.
With a deadly strength my arms tingled to hug Lee and a covet to eternally not let him out of my sight launched inside me as he came back, dissolving the thick Elainebaressment in air.
Edmund cleared his throat as he raised a toast.
"For Lee, to the boy who is legally eighteen today to do things that he has been doing since years ago" Lee grinned raising his and everyone followed, even Alex shifted to join in. Me, since I wasn't eighteen yet, worked it with a glass of orange juice.
Followed by a toast a massive cake was sacrificed and devoured, there were girls of our age who belonged to high society who giggled in a polished manner which made giggling sound like the work of a lead vocalist in band. And boys of our age who even being from a high standard acted lowly while the girls giggled as they checked them out in a poised manner. If that was even possible.
But mostly their eyes were set on our territory. Like a starving animals trained to act polite as they held themselves back.
Suddenly the lights dimmed. The low murmurs of gossips and chats ceased. As if grasping on my cluelessness Edmund stretched out his hands in front of me.
"May I've the honor of being your first dance" I would've laughed at his face if I wasn't so engrossed to see Lee guiding clarissa to the centre and on the onset of music they moved in sync, it was like a fairy tale, it was like two people who know what they were doing.
But me?
The highest I've ever came to dancing was the tribal jungle jump that Nathan and I perfected during Halloween. But Edmund wasn't aware of it and neither did I realized it till he had dragged me swiftly to the dance floor.
"I can't dance, we should go back. Right. Now" I hissed at his comfortingly smiling face, from the corner I saw more couple join into the song which I recognized as A new day has come by celine Dion.
"Relax, just follow me" he whispers taking my hands and placing it on his shoulder, but when he gently grabs my waist I giggle weirdly, as if a sandpaper is stuck across the walls of my throat.
"What happened?" he asks confused as I arch my back a little from his hold, smiling.
"It tickles" squeaking I giggle again as he shakes his head slowly making me move along with him as he smirks.
"Does it now?" he asks huskily as he pulls me closer, the onset of tickles pauses as his hold on me goes rigid. My breathing hitches as his pupils dilates into a shade darker. But his eyes were on something or rather someone particular behind me.
When we turn I find Alex's cold eyes on us, or rather me.Hailey half heartedly moved along with him, her back to us.
When the music acquires a high pitch Edmund twirls me around, but his grazing touch on my fingers becomes a thing of the past as Some one grabs me by my free hand and before I know I was in the arms of the boy who somehow consistently gets his way dangerously around what he wants.
And right now it was my sanity.
I plant my palms on his chest to maintain some distance between us, but he had rather contrasting strategy as he circled his arms around my back pulling our bodies closer, igniting an unmentionable emotion of self loathing as I melt into them while his other hand trails over the bare skin of my arms till it reaches my wrist, interlacing my fingers in his long one's he turns me so that my back was against his chest.
Unlike Edmund none of his moves were innocent. They were dominant, needy and powerful.
And I was enchanted by them.
A soft gasp left from me as he twirled me back to face him. They had never been so promising, his eyes held the depth of something which can only be defined as desire and a fathomable consciousness of who he was and in this case what he wants.
Without a warning he lifted me from the ground and when bringing me back to my feet I felt his lips on the crook of my neck. When I closed my eyes I felt those exact lips curve into a smile over my skin before he stepped back.
My breathing hitched as I watched him stare at me with the coldness once again, the applause of the viewers drowned back as I turned to walk back to our table once the light's glowed back to it's original luster.
In my quest to leave I ran into the person who was rushing past me.
"sorry" I mumbled looking up, but went dumb once my eyes took over the knowledge of the celebrity I had knocked into.
"It's fine. It's not every day such pretty girl as you stumbles over me" Joe River grins at me as I blink, but inside the squeals of a girl who was a budding fan bloomed into a mode of frenziness.
"Joe Rivers" I breathed grinning, not giving a thought if there was a broccoli or spinach stuck between my teeth.
"In flesh" he tips his head before nodding at someone behind me. the person who decided to follow me back after the dance was really a tough nut to guess. Feel the sarcasm.
But even Alex's presence went futile to demotivate the fan within me.
"Can I have your autograph, oh god I love your music and your sister. In a straight way" I chirp ignoring the prominent frown that Alex darted towards our exchange.
"My sister? You mean Riley?" I nod giddily as I peel off a tissue from it's slot by the cake stand and look for a pen.
Biting my lips I turn to Alex as he raises a brow in question. Not a least bit sharing my enthusiasm.
"You got a pen?" Pleading with my puppy face I motion him with a scribbling action in air. To which he stoically shoves his hands inside the inner blazer pocket, producing out a sleek silver pen.
Snatching it from him I present them to Joe. As he gracefully with a boyish smile gives them back to me once he was done signing.
"I must say, Riley has remarkable choice in making friends. I hope we meet again -?"
"Elaine" I provide him with my name as he leans down grabbing my hand and to my surprise places a soft kiss at the back of it. My mouth hurt with all the contortions of facial muscles that it was enduring. But I was on cloud nine and I was too high to come back.
"Elaine" he nods, before more of the girls notices his presence and his silhouette disappears around in a minute when he gets surrounded by the hordes.
I sigh merrily bringing the hand he kissed to my chest, holding it by my wrist.
"What is so special about this dude?" Alex mumbles shooting icicles over the floor which Joe once occupied.
"Everything" I breath as he looks up, his lips twitching at the corner as he eyes the hand he kissed me in as if it were a sight of a mosquito taking it's last breath.
"Like what?"
"He can sing"
"I can shoot"
I gave him a blank look which silently teleported the message of really? Now?
"Okay, go on"
"He is cute"
"Men are suppose to be handsome, not cute"
When I growled he motioned me to continue with deep creases forming on his forehead. Like his full concentration was to prove himself better then Joe.
"He has got abs" I signed dreamily until I felt a grip on my wrist tugging it till he laid it flat across his stomach. My eyes widened at his abrupt actions, but my palms did enjoyed the feel of strong muscles underneath the black fabric.
"Feel it. I have abs too" there was a hint of mockery and relief. But the funny part was how serious he has taken the subject of my celebrity crush upon his ego.
Wrinkling my nose I stepped back.
"He kissed my hand. And I am not washing them any time soon" just to rile him up I smirked blinking comically. But when did my idea of irking Alexander White ever went as planned. My statement was defeated the next moment when his fingers dips on the icing from a piece of cake as he leans down smearing it over the back of my hands.
"Now you'll wash it" he bats his eyes imitating me as I stomp down my feet in anger.
My nose flares up but I once again keep my troublesome mouth in check as I grunt in undignified languages unknown to man kind in a search of washroom. It wasn't that hard though, soon I found myself Placing my hands under the running tap of foamy water, I let them wash away the slick texture of cream. Wiping away the wetness with a paper towel, I check my reflection after discarding them in the bin.
I don't even want to pry on the amount the girls paid for this kind of transformation. There was not a tiniest of blot undone or smudge of any make up they had enamelled me with.
But even I can't credit them with that something that shone from inside me. That made me glow the shade of contentment. The relaxation to know that you are here for someone, a friend. That made me realize that I am someone too. That I am wanted, by people as who I am. They like me for who I am.
But then I feel it. The roar of a conscience who knows me better than anyone else. No matter what I convince this distorted heart of mine. It knows that there's a part of me that can ruin it all.
And I am ready to give it all up with the blink of an eye. For a selfish trade of a decisive justification. I take my leisure time pacing for sometime before I decided that it was time I go back.
Sighing I open the door and step out. When I turn back to the main hall, it was as if the time has lapsed into a perforation of turmoil.
Officers scrambled around barking orders, while a meager but rather important looking crowd was gathered in the middle table with more officer's with badges on them which my vision picked up as I walked closer. They had no uniforms like others, but since I have had an bilateral experience with their kind in past, I could safely conclude them for what they were. FBI's.
As I closed the distance between the nearest table to them, I found an extremely distraught looking Lee seated, the blazer he wore for the night was carelessly thrown across the table, he had loosened few of his neck buttons as Edmund leaned towards him, his words seem to have a robust effect on him as Lee closed his eyes for a second before nodding. I was taken aback when he wiped a tear with a flick of his thumb.
Beside him Alex was in phone with his jaws clenched, nodding to who ever it was on the other side.
Clarissa, Hailey, Riley and Jared were no were to be seen, as I felt the hall turn emptier by the second.
What the hell happened in those fifteen minutes when I was gone?
"Lee's father got kidnapped" startled I take in the presence of Mike who unknown to my senses has taken the space next to me as he stood with a glass of wine.
"What?" I whispered shocked as he nods taking a sip from it and making an icy sound from his throat after gulping. For many rational reasons his indifference irked me as I frowned.
"By the parking. The guards got attacked by people who took the senator" he says taking an another sip, his eyes sharp on the officers who sat there with a laptop open, and a bulky man with shaved head talked on his earpieces. Pacing back and forth as he did so.
"But how? How are they going to find him?" I take a glimpse at the boy I never expected to see with the shadow of dejection in. He looked hopeless. And who can understand his condition of grievance better than the one who had been through it.
"You see that?" With three fingers griping the tail of his wine glass and the index as a pointer he diverted my attetion towards the laptop that I had seen earlier. "It is connected to the tracker that links to the senators watch."
I breath in with a much required relief to know that there was indeed a way to save him.
"But" my body goes still with that one term. There has always been a but invovled at a time of crucial distress. It was the nature of it.
"But?"
"It has a high field coded numerical lock that could only be opened by the guard who is, for the time being knocked out cold. Hard survival chance included" my mouth opens and closes like a fish.
"Why aren't they getting help? To crack the code" my voice trails away as I look back right when a woman in uniform frustratedly growls loud enough for our ears to pick up.
"What do you mean by tech expert is stuck in traffic? Clear the coast and bring him here at the earliest. We don't have the damned time"
"And that's our answer" Mike adds in the tone that one uses while broadcasting whether. I lick my dry lips as my heart pounds inside the rib cage. But it intensifies when Mike opens his mouth to speak again.
"Tech expert huh?" He sighs, exasperated. But then looks down at me "I know someone here who could help with that" he murmurs detachedly.
"Who?" I curl my lower lip in, digging the teeth within in anticipation.
"You" he barely whispers as I wrinkle my nose frowning. My palms sweating as I take a ragged breath.
"What do you mean? You know nothing about me" I croak, the tremors in me would've been visible if I had not cloaked my trembling palms under the ruffles of my skirt.
He makes a clicking noise of amusemest with his tongue as he smiles. It was the one of distinctness, like he knows something that I don't. When he speaks again, I realize why.
"Elaine Winters from a small town in North Carolina. Attended summers high for three consecutive years. Lives with the guardian who goes by the name Diana Williams. Has merit in numerous fields and quite a negative person at times inspite of your blood group that says B positive."
Exposed. That's what I felt when each word escaped his lips. There were a whirlwind of questions that scared me shitless as I blinked at him with my lips parted. But I summed them all in a syllable that rolled off my tongue leaving behind a taste of shudder.
"Who are you?" Faint, thats how it came out. I sounded so vulnerable and paranoid that it was pathetically shameful.
He chuckles finishing his glass before angling his attention to me.
"Michael Lucas Stuart at your service" he bows his head slantly as he continues "My surname should explain quite the part. And as to resolve your deeper confusion, Nathan Ross is a friend and I owned him big time from past. So when he called me to get help him admit a girl inside the school in the mid year, I couldn't say no. But even I needed a background check before taking the next step, since we don't want a glitch in the reputation of the academy that my family has been oh so religiously running on for years."
By now my who body trembled as it absorbed the information. I kept my mouth clamped shut because worridly I had nothing to say. Since my silence answered him with the validity of his terms he continued.
"But the confusing part was when I found no such existence of Elaine Winters until surprisingly you settled in a town few years back" he paused to meet my gaze, the glass green orbs radiated curiosity more than accusation. "I never pitied you Elaine. Not when the students bullied you or anyother time because there was this knack about you that screamed more than what you revealed yourself to the world as. You can be a spy or a freaking illuminati for all I care. But tonight Lee needs you. And the choice is yours" by the end his nonchalance was a story of past. He narrowed his eyes, with an edge of what felt like persuading encouragement.
I took a deep breath as I whriled back. I had no idea what I was doing and was suppose to do.
I take quick stride towards the group of sophisticated looking mens and a woman ignoring the calls of Edmund who seem to have noticed that I was here and sensing that I was about to do something really stupid.
There will be questions, there will be consequences after this. But I was not going to let Lee face the same fate as I did, aware that I could be of some help.
"Excuse me miss. I would have to ask you to step away from here. We are in -" I look at the female officer who with her out stretched arm barricaded me from going any further until I randomly blurted out.
"I can help" I nod to which she frowns, an impeccable curve of her lips were evident as if she heard some joke.
"Sorry, I know you youngsters these day would like to get heroically invo_" I shake my head at her ridiculous assumptions as I look back at the bald officer who irritatedly peered at the hassle we were making through the stacks of people as I took the chance to make the one who looked like the most important man among their circle, hear me out.
"I can help. I am a hacker" with that said my shoulder slouches as I watch his posture perk up. From his seat he gets up to his complete gigantic height as he shuffles to where I stood.
"How good?"With a deep throaty vocal he asks, the jaw tensed but consideration in his eyes.
"As good as one could be with an IQ of one fifty eight" I shrug biting my lips as the woman retreats a step. Probably scared to intrude the conversation of her elder.
He looks back at the empty seat behind the monitor with a loitering screen saver of neon, red and yellow through his shoulder and then at me. And then with an intimidating clap he turns to the officer.
"Stop wasting time and show the girl what we have got" he frantically looks back at me as I gulped visibly feeling as meager as a bunny in front of an elephant as he lowly declares.
"I am counting on you kid" and thats when i realized as deep as his voice was, more deeper the shit I was in.
***