Alex
Half of the words is all I understand.
Heirs. Richest. Elite. Elzina.
Our image from last night plastered across the newspaper. Glossy and savage in texture. Our fake smiles and the eyes shining with the flashes. The trouble and darkness behind them concealed.
The rest of the sentence that I read barely registered inside me.
I look up. My displeased gaze lands on the man in the head seat. The dining hall hosting no one else but Leonard White and i.
"You want me to read this? Why?" gently dropping the tabloid flat on the table I wait.
The resting nothingness in his face almost crumbles, but he manages to iron those creases as he meets my gaze in oblique manner. The fork and knife slices his food on plate. Clean and neat.
He holds the utensil in a vice grip, I award myself a glimpse at his act of nervousness. The ticking jaws in a while, the diluted blue eyes, the speeded up way as he tried to finish his breakfast.
Those actions were soothing to say the least. It was satisfying.
"You don't have any questions?" He asks.
So many.
"Should i?"
He better not provoke it.
"You escorted Elzi- Miss Winston yesterday. Were you aware of who she was by then?" he asks, the voice dropping darkly as it tested me.
"Yes" pushing back in chair, I lean. Casually I stared at my share of edible that was served a while ago by some help.
When my glance intersected as I looked up, I saw the numerous stirring question in his eyes. Yet he kept his enquiry at bay, acquainted by the fact that he won't be getting much out of me anytime soon. Not until I undo his sealed lips.
But not today.
"What are you wearing?" I found him staring at my clothing.
"Tux" I say looking down with pursed lip "from last night" I add for the effect.
"Where were you last night?"
At the park.
"Some cheap bar" I sniff the air around me tauntingly "Ah! It must be the beer"
His eyes hardens as he looks away. I wait for him to lash out, a punch to the table, a rattle of his roaring wrath. But hauntingly, a vase to my head.
My heart rate quickens, the palm dampening with sweat. He picks up a glass as I fix my eyes unforgivingly on it.
He brings them to his lips.
I close my eyes breathing in.
Old fears don't die.
Neither do the hostility. It was this morning when I was too busy stalling the night off in a bench at central park. Without a wink of sleep, a breath of relief. The seducing lights began to dominate the sky into early blue hue's as I laid there with my arm tucked beneath my head as I slept, watching the patterns in sky intently. Finding out figures like a kid.
Wishing I was a kid.
But then, my life was worse as one. So I gave up on that temporary longing too.
It was then my phone rang, it was father.
Not profusely confused I ignored it, similar to the calls from Edmund. I had bargained this time and moment alone to think, but substantially I had been doing every other thing than just that. Think.
But when my mobile lit up again. With just a ting. I subconsciously found myself scrolling the received text.
This is to inform you of a scheduled breakfast on Le Berdinas at 9.00 am with Mr. Leonard White. Your presence will be most awaited. Hope your day fares in your favor.
Daniel Wanders. Asst. Elite
Chuckling darkly I look up again. The assistant of course.
Skip. I convinced in a jiffy to let him hang in there. But then, he was the last straw. I had no choice. But I had a plan.
The long night prepared me for a madness. It was selfish, but it was the lone hope that held me by the seams.
When the chatters foamed the grassy land, a few early joggers and walkers throwing wary glances at my direction. Finally when the sun beamed right over my face I got up. The restaurant was just a walkable distance, that I managed to misguide more than a couple of times absentmindedly.
In the glass reflection of a shop across the noisy street I witnessed a bird's nest atop my head, wrinkled shirt and the blazer loosely thrown upon my shoulder.
Smirking I whistled my way inside the restaurant.
I represented everything Leonard White would love in his son.
And that was sarcasm at its best.
The staffs were appalled to have me in, but did nothing of it. Their delusional paranoia screamed from their orbs, but their lips sealed.
I guess my face still dazzled with dollars. Should've smeared some road slush or garage smoke while I was on it.
The manager directed me to the private room, not before his judgmental eyes racked me in. and then there he was.
A person I look the least forward to see or meet in my never ending list of such people. But he, he had to top the charts. He was my father after all.
If I was to ignore someone with every single cell within my body, I'll ignore myself the most.
"What's been troubling you?" stirring the smoothie I watch as cream danced around In circles lazily "Is it about that girl?" I don't look up, but I know his stare was hot on me, but his eyes cold. Like me.
"What makes you think so Thomas? A young immature high schooler will disturb my prosperity in anyway?" he says, a hint of rumble in his tone as I smile.
What makes me think? How about the time when Keira sneaked me a glimpse of how the Winstons actually effects you. I may not have had the privilege of rubbing it on your face till now. But trust me, I know.
I alter the burning voices inside my throat as I take a sip from the drink.
"Didn't said anything about a completion here. You are assuming it yourself" this had a reaction from him. But not the one I rooted for.
He crakes a defeated laugh, frosty and ill.
Powerful.
"That was funny?" with thin eyes I tilt my head to side. He shakes his head his features morphing to a faint smile.
"It wasn't. It was terrible, Its pathetic to think that the thinking capacity of my son is next to a lowlife" in a death grip I hold the sleek curve of the glass as I tried hard to not glare.
"So you say that you were not intimidated by the genius child enough to discipline your child with a prohibited vision of future were she would lead the corporation instead of us?" I breath as a flicker of reaction sparked as his eyes widens starkly before it neutralizes. "Elzina Winston just like her father always kept you alert even when she was an innocent child. But now she is your equal. What are the odds?"
He doesn't reply. A bit shocked I watched him fish for words in silence.
"We have scheduled meeting with her. I don't have time for your stupid theories" wiping his hands in the napkin he got up.
Still perplexed at my inconsiderate victory I follow him. His unit of security joins as soon as we step out.
Once in the car, I ask the chauffer to stop as soon as we turn few of the streets. I recognize it as 5th Avenue.
"We are late-" the iceberg beside me begins.
"I don't look decent" I cut him off as I scan his three piece suit with a wolfish smirk. I had learned it from him.
He doesn't speak up again, I hardly believe he ever talks much. Exception to when he's drunk.
A monster created from intoxication.
"Make it fast" stoically he grumbles, looking out of the window in deep thought.
I take my leisure time, finding the right button up and jeans. I even survey the trails. Suddenly loving the concept of shopping.
I wing pass the hair dresser after I got my choice of clothing, with deodorant as substitute for the lack of shower I was done.
Then I began to feel the rise of subtle panic. When the silent ride resumed with no one to tear it off, I know that there was something I was missing regards to the picture my father was painting.
Soft taps on the carpeted corridor floor as we walked, a man appears round the corner. A butler as he directed us. I wanted to stay back, listen to my heart once more. Weigh the intensity of what could happen when we were inside, what I would do when I see her.
Then it happens, I hear her before I could see.
"This sucks. Every single news channel has my face plastered on it, they could be popularizing Billie Eilish instead" I hear the snort as unaware of our presence she stared at the screen, the remote in her hands ticking off channel after channel.
"Better than a local report on street vandalizers sweet message to cops" Mike rounds the corner as he ducks in time as she throws a pillow at his head. It hits him anyway.
"You told Nana and lied it on Mason. She told me" she growls as a smirk curls across Mike's lips.
"I remember her freaking out when I forwarded her the image of you in that godawful purple hair" he gags as her scoff matches his accordingly. And then there was a war of curses until-
"Dear lord I can't believe I have to wake up every single day to two orangutans screaming" I frown when Nathan walks down the stairs lazily mumbling in his sleep pants yawning. He stops scratching his head when he spots us, pausing mid step.
Since the both still had their back to us.
"You have the face of an avocado smashed against the wall, atleast purple monsters are cute"
"Oh yeah. Fine then" he proceeds to remove his socks and throws it at her face as she squeals screaming "smell the freshness of avocados chameleon"
"Uh guys" Nathan tries. His eyes hesitantly trading back and forth from them to us. But-
"Take that you asshole" she holler as a shoe fly pasts. Nothing unusual though. I stifle a laugh as Leonard White watches it in complete daze.
Right then he Ian walks in through the entrance fiddling the cufflinks, but comes to an abrupt halt right beside us once he hears of the commotion. His eyes strains a speck wide before he blinks it off. Next to him an old horrified woman watches her grandchildren's almost go for each others hair with flared nose spitting fire for breath when-
"GUYS" Nathan hollers, inhaling a puff of air when both annoyed snaps their head in his way.
"What?" they bark simultaneously. Nathan purses his lips bored.
"Turn around and receive your guests. Try not to welcome them with shoe to their head"
Nobody moved, except for Nathan who dragged his body upstairs ,the sleep on due in his system. His footsteps and the creek of his shutting door the only sound that echoed.
Once the above distraction ceases our gaze returned back to the still physiques.
With the look of freezing soft wince and deep irritation they took their time to adjust their realization to our presence.
Ian cleared his throat.
I freed a couple of mild cough to ease the tension. Curiosity looked qualified enough to impersonate a tomato in near future.
"I think we should get inside first?" Ian breaks the tension as I nod frantically at such great idea.
"Should've informed the children in prior. Absolutely my fault" Mrs. Stuart turns to my father as the old widow completely ignores my existence. Or should I precise it as her academies delinquent.
And to know that I was head over heels for her grand daughter. I delight in the idea that I have a long way to go with her.
Leonard white acknowledges her with a nod and measured smile, they never reached his eyes. The joy or smile. Deprived and barren, like a lone person of his own.
I was in the edge, to become the kind he was. Until she came in.
"Alex" she smiles, similarly ignoring my father as her nana did with me. Wasn't able to fetch a second to catch my breath I found myself leaning as she railed her arms around my neck as she hugged me.
I rest my chin on her shoulder, my eyes pointedly fixated at the shadow of quick bewilderment that passed my father's features.
"How are you?" I ask my voice peppered with pulse and care. It was the contrast to who I was, this was the part of me to which only she possessed the key to.
She moves back, the shine of her eyes more stark and clear. "Good. Now that you are here"
Shifting under my embrace she stood by my side as I let my hand fall to her waist. The blue shirt dress and black stocking clad legs with high boots was anything but formal. Contrast to the effort my father had on to meet her.
The thought of the belittlement she had up as her steely gaze on Him made me smile.
"Dad_"I force out the word, the alienated taste on my mouth as I try to recall the last time I had called him that. I couldn't. But today I do "my girlfriend Elzina. Elzina, my father"
That introduction stilled both of them, with surprise, with anger.
Begrudgingly I sense her finger curl and loosen. As if it itched for a shoe or punch.
"Pleasure to meet you Miss Winston" he takes a step forward extending his hand, in reflex my hold on her goes stubborn. But she sparsely reacts, accepting the greeting she meets him in the eyes. Strong and unwavering.
"Likewise Mr. White. I hope my first impression won't be misinterpreted by you, I am really looking forward to learn a lot from you" He smiles, she does too.
Both fake. Both equals.
Hidden intentions.
And I was a tattered tread. A selfish coward between his credence of hate and love.
In swift movements the scattered crew of us all assemble by the study that Ian had us follow. Mike was no where to be seen, neither was he required.
But when Elzina stopped by the frame, not moving an inch inside with a barely conscious look. A mulling seriousness creeps the air around us, the sudden respite in her actions, the trouble and fatigue In her eyes.
"Elzina-"
"Its okay sweetie" the warm voice was of her Nana. The one who walked back and now had her hand upon her shoulder as Elzina gulped blinking. "Show Thomas around. We'll call you once you are required"
She lets out a breath in relief as the old woman smiles, her glassy green orbs dilating in sadness.
It was then it hits me. She was hesitant, scared to hear her own story, it was the same look that she had when she told me.
Pain and coldness.
It was eerily funny that how one night and some secrets undone could alter the perspective you analyze a person to differ in so many ways.
It was funny how it changes everything.
It was funny that even though I wasn't able to wrap my head around what was happening and yet I went with the flow.
Peculiarly funny. A sad reality. A destructive truth.
She grabs the opportunity with open arms as she whirls, she leaves not bothering to wait for me. cemented I watch her leave with heavy heart. To see her run away while I had the exact route to give her hope. But today wasn't the day.
I had to make it happen. To be the one she could blindly trust, to be the one she won't be able to live without. To close all the other doors of pain, and to be the one place for her solace.
"Thomas"
Mrs. Stuart was here still. I look at her.
"I-I'll go" stuttering I was about to take a step when she pauses me with her hand in arm.
"I have a fair idea as to why Mr. White had called upon this meeting Thomas" a shiver of fear roots through me, but I held them inside as she continues "and remember this loud and clear young man. My child has went through enough, and if I find even a slit of crack in your masks. It won't be long till I take her away from all this. Far away"
Smoothly smiling with at the end of the threat she leaves me alone.
I stood there counting and contemplating in daze. Confused as to what my father's intentions were.
Then I hear her call my name, without much protest inside my own head I walk in the direction it came from. The door shuts airily as I strutted in, to see her as she sat on the tiled empty portion of the beige floor with legs cross, her hands held on to her knees as with craned neck she stared at the wall.
And it were the wall that captivated the moment I had stepped in.
Swirls of ink, paint, and art dominated every inch and corner of it. Monochrome to realist. It was a symphony of colours.
I sigh in amazement as she turns to look at me through her shoulder.
"You like it?" she asks.
I watch her, for more than few legal seconds in silence. Shaking my head I look down with a small smile as I walk to her. Ditching the round couches I sit close to her, our arms brushed as i mimic her posture
"Sometimes I really wonder why you chose me" at that she snorts, her hair falls, brushing it back with her fingers she pinches my cheeks.
"I would've hunted for someone better if you had given me some space" she shrugs sliding a few inch apart.
I raise an intimidating brow with squinted eyes I do the same with her cheek.
"You would've done the same if you were me. You make me narcisstic-" I admit letting my eyes sinks in the art in this room, the world she creates every where she goes "-you make me conceited, I want to make you mine and I don't think twice about how"
"Oh god" with wide eyes she closes her face with both hands "you should stop saying those stuffs. You over exaggerate Alex" she squeaks as I laugh candidly. Removing her hands as she swats mine away once it uncovers her face.
"What's the story behind these?" I ask crossing her arms to her chest, holding it as she glowed over jumping with a chance to pinch my facial tissues again. Huffing in dramatically she blows the hair from her face.
"I was bored, okay. I was home arrested by my witch of a cousin and I had nothing to do" she informs horrified, as if doing nothing was a punishment for her. "_So there's no story behind why there is a Chinese dragon in the middle of this room" her face goes blank for a second before it lit's up with a smile, "at times of shortage with canvas and wall I used Street and Mike's face instead" a mishchevious glint. The naughty look that I hadn't seen in her till the date. It did stirred something in me. It wasn't appropriate at a time like this to think of such stuff, but I did.
The sudden thirst to run my fingers across those soft pink lips. The virtuous distance between us a nuisance, the sweet curve of her neck, even that teased me mercilessly.
It was a torture to look away from her eyes, and I let myself be tortured as I will my eyes to explore her.
"You are beautiful" I whisper not making any effort to get near her. She squirmed uneasily enough at the way I watched her.
"Thanks?" her lips twitches questioningly as I shake my head laughing airily.
I don't continue. Instead I stare ahead In silence. Feeling the moment, the righteousness of it. But when I thought about what I was going to do, like a glowing spark bursting into flames I recall the pattern of Mrs. Stuarts omen. It burned my insides as to what it could be.
There was just one way. How could've I not seen this coming. Him being the levelheaded jerk to me, the meet, the links.
It was all there.
It was the rule of the world I live in.
I sigh at the lunacy of the moment, a lack of humorless laugh resonates from my conscience. Inside my head. All chaos, all sense.
For the first time him and I had the same intention in mind. Yet so different routes and vision for it.
"Alex?" with parted lips I shift my stare at her. "You want to say something? You look like you do"
Biting my lips blithely I nod.
It's the only way.
Still I don't make the words spill out. The weight of it pulled itself down on its own.
"You can tell me anything Alex. I won't judge" her small supportive tone was a kick to my gut.
"Not tell. Ask. I want to ask something" quizzical she blinks at me. Then takes my hand on her own, her were warm, cold were mine.
"Then Ask Alex"
I keep myself from speaking again. Then I realize that there is no miracle that can make her aware of what I was rooting for. Then two terms made me break through the gates that held me.
Screw this.
Cupping her face as it stumbles out-
"I don't know how it's done and neither do I care. What I am sure of is I want to ask and can't bear hearing no for an answer"
Her gaze stares at me through her long lashes, a cloud of astonishment present in them. It doesn't stays that way for long.
Muddled her quivering lips parts. I don't spare her the time to enquire because i had the exact terms to stir off her doubts.
And they were
"Marry me"
***
Lol. Look at this little kids playing aroundð