11-05-2015, 12:18 PM
Brianna walked silently beside Alan as they walked towards Erica's large house. The manor stood at the edge of Sapphire Park where most of the rich lived in the city. The further in one got the richer the people became and the larger the mansions. She was a bit nervous about visiting the neighborhood as she had never had reason to visit it before. Her hands in front of her, she carried her purse like a suitcase.
"You didn't have to walk me all the way here." Brianna told him.
Alan grinned, "Madison would want me to walk with you. She believes that no one with money can ever have good intentions."
She chuckled, "I know. Sometimes I wonder if she's jealous, but then I remember how they treat her at school. So, I guess she has a valid reason."
"Valid or not, she would have a lot more friends if she smiled more and snapped at everyone less."
"You've suddenly become very anti-Madison. What's the matter?"
Alan put his hands in his jacket pockets and shrugged, "I don't know. I think I'm bothered by this whole mess today."
"What do you mean?"
"She's always telling us to watch out for these people and that we are the only people she can trust. Then today she goes with them and ditches us. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I have no idea who she is."
Brianna had been looking at Alan, but turned her eyes to the sidewalk under her. "I think about that to. She never talks about herself, expect what is happening to her presently. Says she is an orphan and doesn't add anything more."
"I fear pushing the issue. I think I'm afraid that she has a really tragic past and I'll never be able to look at her the same again."
She nodded, "There will always be that pity, I know. Me too." Brianna suddenly smiled and looked up at him, "You know what? When she is ready to tell us, she will. Does it really matter what happened to her before? She's our friend now and a good one at that. So, let's not stir things up."
Alan grinned, "I suppose you are right."
"Here it is!" Brianna squealed as they came to a large gate.
"Smaller then I imagined." Alan mumbled.
"Yeah, looks like a big Victorian house with a large yard." She shrugged, "Oh well, doesn't really matter. My house is like a fourth this size, who am I to complain?"
He smiled as Brianna pushed the intercom button at the front gate.
"Yes?" A male voice said softly through the system.
"Hi, I'm Brianna Sweyne. Erica Sumpter is expecting me."
There was a long pause, "Who is the gentleman with you?"
Brianna pushed the button again as she spoke, "Alan, he's a friend of mine."
"Miss Sumpter thought you would be alone." The voice replied.
She rose her eyebrow curiously at Alan as she remembered Madison's paranoia about these people always being up to something. "He walked me here to ensure my safety."
"Bria," Erica's voice came through the intercom, "sorry, Martin is a little anal about these things. You and your friend come right in."
"Oh, Alan was just dropping me off." Brianna told her.
"Nonsense, he can come in for a quick drink, can't he?"
Brianna looked at Alan to see if it was alright with him, he gave a nod. "Alright."
There was a loud buzzing noise and the gate opened for them to make their way up to the manor. Erica was at the door when they approached, she wore a short pink summer dress with blue flowers, and her red hair was tied up into a neat bun. When Brianna got close enough Erica threw her arms around Brianna's shoulders for a hug. Brianna returned the hug with just as much energy and enthusiasm.
"I'm so happy that you could come!" She stepped back but kept a firm grip of Brianna's hands. "Oh, good news! I changed it to a casual dinner, so you don't have to worry about getting all dressed up." She winked, "But I can still loan you a nice dress and do your hair if you want to."
Brianna's smiled widened, "That would be so much fun!"
Erica squealed, "I was hoping you would say that!" Her eyes turned to Alan, "And who is this handsome man that you brought along?"
"Oh, this is Alan Mendoza, he and I were suppose to meet with Madison today, but she stood us up."
"Oh, a friend of Madison's." Erica shook his hand, "Nice to meet you. Any friend of Bria's is a friend of mine… and the whole group inside too." She stepped into the house, "Come in, come in. I'm sorry, I was so excited that you came that I lost all my manners."
The two stepped inside the manor and were surprised to find that it seemed so dark and gloomy. Dark furniture and dark wood furnishings, it didn't match Erica's happy demeanor at all.
"Everyone!" Erica announced as they entered into what appeared to be a recreation room. Two televisions were present one for watching shows and the other which was connected to video game devices. A pool table and a bar were in the back corner from the window the backyard pool could be seen. "Brianna is here and she brought a friend!"
The first to stand up was a tall, thin blonde male named Charles. He had been the first to approach Brianna during school; she had thought he wanted to ask her out. Instead, he asked her over to his group for lunch. She had never seen them around lunchtime before, but they informed her later that they had their lunch times switched due to issues with some other students.
"Brianna, it's great to see you again." Charles smiled and turned his attention to Alan. "I don't believe we've met."
Erica jumped into the conversation at that point, "This is Alan. He's friends with Brianna and Madison."
"Oh, it's great to meet you." Charles shook his hand.
Brianna could tell that Alan was out of his element, as the rest of the group came over to make their greetings.
"Where is the big one?" Brianna asked, even though she already knew the answer. "The one that has a twin. He was with you guys the other day."
"Ari doesn't like these types of parties. He spends his weekends with his brother since they don't see each other much on the weekends." Winnie informed him.
"Breaks my heart." Erica grabbed her chest and giggled. "Come on, Winnie. Bria says we can dress her up, let the guys do what they do."
"You dating Bria?" Drew asked as he sat down next to him. Like Charles, Drew was thin and tall, but with dark brown ear length hair. He looked tired, but Alan decided that was just his facial expression.
"No, we are just friends." Alan answered as Charles offered him a beer before sitting down beside him.
Ian, who was no taller then Brianna, sat down in the large recliner next to the couch. He looked angry, though Alan joked to himself that he would be angry too if he was that short as a guy. Ian ran his fingers through his brown hair and over his face, "You want more though, huh? Why else would you walk her all the way here?"
"Because our mutual friend would kill me if I had let her walk here alone." Alan answered as he took a drink.
"Mutual friend?" Drew asked, "Oh, Madison?"
"Yeah." Alan responded.
"Oh, so you're dating Madison then?" Charles asked.
He shook his head, "No, I'm not dating either of them. I'm just their friend."
All three boys brought their brows together, before Ian asked the question. "Are you gay?"
"I'm not gay. I'm just their friend. You guys have two girls in your group, are you dating any of them?" Alan snapped.
"No, but we aren't friends by choice either." Ian informed him. "We have to hang out together to keep the assholes at school off of us. We are also in a lot of classes together, so it's just a mutual benefit type friendship."
"Not that we don't want to date them," Drew added, "but we all need to be friends in order to make it through school. If two people in the group started dating and things didn't work out, that would cause problems for us all."
Charles nodded, "That's why we made the no dating each other rule, and we all agreed to it."
Alan took another drink of his beer, "Rather mature of you, if not sad."
Ian shrugged, "Winnie has been trying to get Charles to change his mind about it, because she wants to date him."
"Yeah, but I can't do that. It would ruin everything, and her selfishness needs to come second." Charles told him. "That's why she is kind of in a pissy mood today. I told her once and for all that this is the way it is."
"Admirable to put others before yourself, but there is a line. You should make a deal that if it doesn't work out, which one has to leave the group or promise that it won't cause issues." Alan leaned back in the couch.
"We can't risk it. You don't have to deal with the problems we have everyday. Nothing can be risked." Drew said with annoyance in his voice.
Charles could tell that Alan's advice was getting on Drew's nerves. "Are you interested in one of your gal pals?" He asked before Alan could respond to Drew.
"Nope. Just friends." Alan answered quickly. "Why are one of you interested in them?"
"We think Aries might have a thing for Madison, because he watches her at school sometimes." Charles shrugged, "But whenever we ask he says he doesn't like poor girls, and we drop it at that."
"What about Brianna?" Alan looked towards the exit that his friend had left through.
"She's going to be part of the group, even if we wanted to we can't." Drew answered.
"Sounds to me like you guys are putting yourselves in an awkward situation." Alan took another drink of his beer. "You make friends with these girls and then announce they are off limits. How are you ever going to get dates if you don't date the girls that you know? Just walk up to random girls on the street?"
"We just don't date girls that go to our school, it's that easy." Drew hissed.
Alan tossed his free hand up in the air in a shrugging motion, "I was just giving you options, don't get angry with me."
"Ignore, Drew. He has his own issues with this rule." Charles said with a smile.
There was a short pause in their conversation, before Ian jump started the flow. "I can't believe you don't think about getting with Madison."
Alan rolled his eyes, "She's my neighbor and we are more like brother and sister then anything."
"You live next to her?" Drew smacked himself in the face, "I don't know how long I could stand it to have that chick living next door to me and to never make a move."
"You know, I've had enough talk about Madison today. Let's change the subject." Alan tried not to sound upset.
Drew chuckled, "Oh, you tried and got rejected, is that it?"
"I didn't get rejected!" Alan barked. When he realized that he had yelled, he cleared his throat. "I'm sorry, you didn't deserve that."
Charles patted his shoulder, "Don't worry, Drew is known for getting under people's skin like that. Like I said, just ignore him."
Ian looked towards the door, "I wonder how much longer the girls are going to be."
The others shrugged in reply.
"Do you have anything planned other than sitting around for the rest of the day?" Alan asked.
"Yes, we are going to a club." Charles grinned, "Don't worry about money, I'm paying."
"I'm not exactly dressed for clubbing." Alan informed him and looked down at his t-shirt and blue jeans.
"You're wearing pretty much what I am." Ian pointed to his button up shirt and jeans, "You'll be fine."
"Brianna isn't twenty one…" Alan began.
"Don't worry about it. We slip the guy at the front a couple hundreds and he looks the other way. No stamp to inform them we can't have alcohol." Drew waved his hand. "We go there all the time."
"It's like an opening flower." Erica said to describe what the hair style would look like.
"On my head?" Brianna asked.
"On your head." Erica giggled. "Don't worry, you'll look stunning."
Brianna wasn't facing a mirror as the girls didn't want her to see what she looked like until they were finished. Erica's room wasn't as gloomy as the rest of the house. It was instead all pink with yellow ducks and teddy bears both painted on the wall and in stuffed animal form. It looked like a room for an elementary student not the college student that she had just met.
"Is this really your room?" Brianna inquired as she looked around.
Erica laughed, "Everyone asks me that. It's weird, I know. I always wanted a room like this growing up, but we were never able to buy anything nice."
"How did your family come into money?"
Erica's smile left her face, "It's a sad tale, you don't want to hear it."
Brianna rose an eyebrow.
Winnie was the one who answered, "Erica's family owned a large farm that was divided up between her father and his brother. The brother was in a car accident and didn't make it."
"Oh, what about his family? Didn't he have children?" Brianna asked.
Erica walked over to her bed and sat down, "My grandfather asked that the land remain only to his sons and their children. My uncle was married, but he never had any children. So the land went back to my father."
"Her father wanted his sister-in-law to stay and live on the land, but she was so angry that nothing of her husband's was hers after he died. So, she moved out." Winnie told her. "Her father was so upset about it and angry with his father and with the loss of his brother that he sold the farm for several million dollars."
"I'm sorry to hear that." Brianna looked down, but Winnie forced her head back up.
"We own a few businesses now and our money is growing, but my aunt wouldn't accept any money that my father has offered her. She said that we were never family in my grandfather's eyes, so she didn't want anything to do with us now." Erica had a comb in her hand and she picked out the hair.
"It makes Erica upset, because she really loved her. She took care of Erica after her mother's death, and now she won't even talk to her."
Brianna tried not to cry when she saw the pain on Erica's face, "That's so terrible. To go through all that and to continue to lose people that you loved."
Erica sat quietly on her bed, while Winnie continued to fix her hair by putting in hairpins to keep the curls up. Suddenly, Erica jumped from her bed with a smile. "This is going to be so much fun. I'm going to dance with Charles all night!"
"We are dancing?" Brianna asked.
"Yes. Didn't we tell you? We are going to a club that Ian's family owns, the doormen let us in if we slip them a couple hundreds."
"Oh, I don't know if I should go to…"
"It'll be fun, Bria. You don't have to do anything but dance and have fun." Erica smiled. "Hey, did you invite Madison? I guess she said no."
"I was going to invite her today while we were at the movies, but she had plans and had to cancel with us." Brianna grinned back. "She normally keeps her word, but I think this was something beyond her control."
"Oh, so she's trustworthy, huh?" Winnie was the one who asked.
"Yeah, if she says she'll do something, she always does. Only person in my life who I can rely on a hundred percent." Brianna told her.
"Except today, right?" Winnie spoke the words with some venom.
"She had a good reason and it was not within her control." She began to twiddle with her fingers.
"Like a date with Ari?" Erica giggled.
Winnie grinned at her friend.
"Huh?" Brianna looked between them.
"Ari was bragging all day yesterday that she had agreed to go on a date with him today. He was also saying how jealous his brother was." Winnie told her.
"Well, she was with them when she called."
"Them?" Erica questioned.
"Well, I talked to Arion on the phone. He said that he needed her to pick out a gift."
Winnie and Erica looked over at each other and giggled.
"Sounds like Aries was pretending to be his brother to make up an excuse for Madison, so you wouldn't think she ditched you for a guy." Winnie gently tapped her shoulder.
"No, Madison would never do that. She's very honest, sometimes painfully honest." Brianna sounded offended.
"We didn't mean to upset you, Bria." Erica patted her hand. "I'm sure that she was honest. It must have been Ari who was lying to us all day yesterday."
The two girls went back to fixing Brianna up for their night out. However, in Brianna's mind a seed of doubt had been planted. She knew that Madison was not deceitful and that she would have told her if she had a date. Yet, Madison always told her that she wasn't interested in dating, but perhaps a guy had come along that made her interested. Madison wouldn't want to seem like a liar, so she hide her dates with him. Was that why the four guys had been showing up at the café? No, because that was Arion not Aries, and it was Darick who liked her in that group. Was Darick making such moves to steal Madison away from Aries?
After talking with Alan about Madison, and how much she was obviously not telling them. She realized there was a great deal that she didn't know about her best friend. Perhaps there were things that she was hiding and didn't want her to know. Could she not trust her? Brianna trusted her with everything. There was nothing that she hid from Madison. Could Madison not be as good as a friend as she thought? Of course, Brianna was her only friend. Maybe she was just hanging around with her because she was her only option. The two were like polar opposites. Did Madison even like her?
She realized after a moment that someone was holding an ice pack to the left side of her face. She turned her head to see Darick sitting in a chair beside the bed. "How are you feeling?"
She didn't say anything, but instead tried to sit up.
"Stay down for a little while longer. They are bringing your tests back soon." Darick pushed against her shoulder to keep her down, and Madison didn't fight him.
"Why did you push me?" Madison mumbled the question before thinking it through.
"I didn't push you!" Darick growled, the anger quickly drained from his face. "Sorry, I didn't push you. My dog knocked you over and you hit your head. The doctor said you should be fine, but they did a few tests to be certain." Darick spun around and patted the bed, "Sinclair come."
The large dog was sitting on the ground next to Darick. Madison didn't want to know how he had convinced them to let the dog into the hospital. The large mastiff sat on its back feet and placed its paws on the bed near her knees.
"He's sorry." Darick said and put his arm over his nose.
The dog mimicked him by putting its head on the bed before placing its paws over its own nose. Madison giggled at the sight.
"So, very sorry. So, ashamed." Darick said and the dog kept reapplying his paws to his nose after every sentence. "Good looking girls are the bane of his existence. He just can't stay off them." Darick patted the dog's head.
"Like his owner." Aries said, he was sitting on the window sill. Madison hadn't noticed him until then. He stood up and leaned against the wall, then put his right arm over his nose. "He's sorry, though. So, very sorry. So, ashamed." Aries looked at Darick and chuckled.
"Shut up, I don't need your damn help to apologize." Darick snapped, then turned his eyes back to Madison. "I'm sorry."
She nodded her head and threw the covers off her legs, "I need to get home. I've missed a lot of valuable study time."
Both Darick and Aries came at her and pushed her back down on the bed. "Wait until the doctor comes back with your tests!" Darick snapped. "You could have a serious concussion or be bleeding into your brain, stupid!"
The look on Madison's face showed her uneasiness with the entire situation.
"I'll take you home after the tests come back." Aries sat down on the bed beside her, "We have your book bag; you want to study while we wait?" He grabbed the backpack that was laying on the ground next to the bed.
Madison went to take the backpack from him, but he pulled it away.
"What book do you want? I'll pull it out for you."
"I can take books out of my own backpack." She growled.
Aries gave a wide grin, "Maybe you shouldn't be lifting such heavy things right now. Now which book?"
"It's a small blue book for psychology." She watched him unzip her backpack and pull the small book out, before he returned his hand inside to pull out one of her notebooks. "I don't need that."
"I want to draw." He frowned and opened the notebook to the inner cover. "It'll be my gift to you for taking you to Darick's house to be assaulted by both dogs that live there."
"Hey!" Darick snapped.
Madison giggled as Aries took one of her pencils and returned to his post at the window sill.
"The doctors were trying to call your family, but no one with the last name of Knox had ever heard of you." Darick told her as she opened up her book.
"I'm an orphan. There is no family." She cleared her throat and began to read.
Both men looked up at her as she spoke, but had no idea what to say to her on the matter. "What happened to your parents?" Darick asked as Aries went back to his drawing.
"They're gone." Was her only explanation.
"You don't have any siblings or aunts and uncles?"
Madison turned her eyes from her book to Darick, "I said I have no family. Leave it alone."
"Alright." Darick laid his hands on the bed next to her.
"Do you have to watch me?" Madison asked him.
He diverted his eyes towards her feet. With a roll of her eyes, she returned to her studies. She wasn't in the mood to argue with him about how uncomfortable it was for him to watch her.
The curtain drew back some and Arion stuck his head in with a wide smile, "Hey, you're awake!"
"Yeah."
"I have to steal Aries for a moment." Arion looked towards his brother, "Come here."
"I'm doing something." He mumbled as he continued to draw.
"Come here, you'll be glad you did."
He jumped down from his perch and left the room with his brother. Madison was nervous that the two had left her alone with Darick again. She didn't want him to notice her uneasiness and returned to reading her book. After a moment, her hand felt somewhat moist from sweat which she decided was caused by her nervousness. She ran it over her leg on top of the blanket and before she was able to pull it back, Darick took her hand in his.
She looked up to see that he had laid his head on the bed with his face turning towards the end of the bed. Both his hands laid over her own and for a brief moment, she wanted to rip her hand out of his. She wanted to tell him never to touch her again.
"I'm glad you are alright." Darick mumbled. "You were acting strange on the way here. Trying to stand up in the car, and you weren't making any sense when you talked. I thought there was something seriously wrong with you."
The tenseness in her had dissipated, and she felt touched. "I'm not going to sue you or anything, so…"
"I wasn't concerned with that. I was worried that you were seriously injured and would never be the same again."
Madison ignored his comment and returned to her book, after a moment she needed to turn the page. She yanked gently on her hand and Darick released it, but looked up at her as he did. "I need to turn the page."
"Oh, right." He sat back in the chair.
After she turned the page, she returned her hand to the position on her leg, but Darick didn't take her hand again.
"You didn't have to walk me all the way here." Brianna told him.
Alan grinned, "Madison would want me to walk with you. She believes that no one with money can ever have good intentions."
She chuckled, "I know. Sometimes I wonder if she's jealous, but then I remember how they treat her at school. So, I guess she has a valid reason."
"Valid or not, she would have a lot more friends if she smiled more and snapped at everyone less."
"You've suddenly become very anti-Madison. What's the matter?"
Alan put his hands in his jacket pockets and shrugged, "I don't know. I think I'm bothered by this whole mess today."
"What do you mean?"
"She's always telling us to watch out for these people and that we are the only people she can trust. Then today she goes with them and ditches us. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I have no idea who she is."
Brianna had been looking at Alan, but turned her eyes to the sidewalk under her. "I think about that to. She never talks about herself, expect what is happening to her presently. Says she is an orphan and doesn't add anything more."
"I fear pushing the issue. I think I'm afraid that she has a really tragic past and I'll never be able to look at her the same again."
She nodded, "There will always be that pity, I know. Me too." Brianna suddenly smiled and looked up at him, "You know what? When she is ready to tell us, she will. Does it really matter what happened to her before? She's our friend now and a good one at that. So, let's not stir things up."
Alan grinned, "I suppose you are right."
"Here it is!" Brianna squealed as they came to a large gate.
"Smaller then I imagined." Alan mumbled.
"Yeah, looks like a big Victorian house with a large yard." She shrugged, "Oh well, doesn't really matter. My house is like a fourth this size, who am I to complain?"
He smiled as Brianna pushed the intercom button at the front gate.
"Yes?" A male voice said softly through the system.
"Hi, I'm Brianna Sweyne. Erica Sumpter is expecting me."
There was a long pause, "Who is the gentleman with you?"
Brianna pushed the button again as she spoke, "Alan, he's a friend of mine."
"Miss Sumpter thought you would be alone." The voice replied.
She rose her eyebrow curiously at Alan as she remembered Madison's paranoia about these people always being up to something. "He walked me here to ensure my safety."
"Bria," Erica's voice came through the intercom, "sorry, Martin is a little anal about these things. You and your friend come right in."
"Oh, Alan was just dropping me off." Brianna told her.
"Nonsense, he can come in for a quick drink, can't he?"
Brianna looked at Alan to see if it was alright with him, he gave a nod. "Alright."
There was a loud buzzing noise and the gate opened for them to make their way up to the manor. Erica was at the door when they approached, she wore a short pink summer dress with blue flowers, and her red hair was tied up into a neat bun. When Brianna got close enough Erica threw her arms around Brianna's shoulders for a hug. Brianna returned the hug with just as much energy and enthusiasm.
"I'm so happy that you could come!" She stepped back but kept a firm grip of Brianna's hands. "Oh, good news! I changed it to a casual dinner, so you don't have to worry about getting all dressed up." She winked, "But I can still loan you a nice dress and do your hair if you want to."
Brianna's smiled widened, "That would be so much fun!"
Erica squealed, "I was hoping you would say that!" Her eyes turned to Alan, "And who is this handsome man that you brought along?"
"Oh, this is Alan Mendoza, he and I were suppose to meet with Madison today, but she stood us up."
"Oh, a friend of Madison's." Erica shook his hand, "Nice to meet you. Any friend of Bria's is a friend of mine… and the whole group inside too." She stepped into the house, "Come in, come in. I'm sorry, I was so excited that you came that I lost all my manners."
The two stepped inside the manor and were surprised to find that it seemed so dark and gloomy. Dark furniture and dark wood furnishings, it didn't match Erica's happy demeanor at all.
"Everyone!" Erica announced as they entered into what appeared to be a recreation room. Two televisions were present one for watching shows and the other which was connected to video game devices. A pool table and a bar were in the back corner from the window the backyard pool could be seen. "Brianna is here and she brought a friend!"
The first to stand up was a tall, thin blonde male named Charles. He had been the first to approach Brianna during school; she had thought he wanted to ask her out. Instead, he asked her over to his group for lunch. She had never seen them around lunchtime before, but they informed her later that they had their lunch times switched due to issues with some other students.
"Brianna, it's great to see you again." Charles smiled and turned his attention to Alan. "I don't believe we've met."
Erica jumped into the conversation at that point, "This is Alan. He's friends with Brianna and Madison."
"Oh, it's great to meet you." Charles shook his hand.
Brianna could tell that Alan was out of his element, as the rest of the group came over to make their greetings.
"Where is the big one?" Brianna asked, even though she already knew the answer. "The one that has a twin. He was with you guys the other day."
"Ari doesn't like these types of parties. He spends his weekends with his brother since they don't see each other much on the weekends." Winnie informed him.
"Breaks my heart." Erica grabbed her chest and giggled. "Come on, Winnie. Bria says we can dress her up, let the guys do what they do."
---***---
Alan watched as Brianna was taken out of the room by the two girls, he was left with the males who had introduced themselves as Drew, Ian, and Charles. They offered him a seat on the couch, and even though Alan was almost certain they weren't of drinking age, they were all drinking beer from a bottle. He didn't mention their ages, as he didn't want to ruin anything for Brianna."You dating Bria?" Drew asked as he sat down next to him. Like Charles, Drew was thin and tall, but with dark brown ear length hair. He looked tired, but Alan decided that was just his facial expression.
"No, we are just friends." Alan answered as Charles offered him a beer before sitting down beside him.
Ian, who was no taller then Brianna, sat down in the large recliner next to the couch. He looked angry, though Alan joked to himself that he would be angry too if he was that short as a guy. Ian ran his fingers through his brown hair and over his face, "You want more though, huh? Why else would you walk her all the way here?"
"Because our mutual friend would kill me if I had let her walk here alone." Alan answered as he took a drink.
"Mutual friend?" Drew asked, "Oh, Madison?"
"Yeah." Alan responded.
"Oh, so you're dating Madison then?" Charles asked.
He shook his head, "No, I'm not dating either of them. I'm just their friend."
All three boys brought their brows together, before Ian asked the question. "Are you gay?"
"I'm not gay. I'm just their friend. You guys have two girls in your group, are you dating any of them?" Alan snapped.
"No, but we aren't friends by choice either." Ian informed him. "We have to hang out together to keep the assholes at school off of us. We are also in a lot of classes together, so it's just a mutual benefit type friendship."
"Not that we don't want to date them," Drew added, "but we all need to be friends in order to make it through school. If two people in the group started dating and things didn't work out, that would cause problems for us all."
Charles nodded, "That's why we made the no dating each other rule, and we all agreed to it."
Alan took another drink of his beer, "Rather mature of you, if not sad."
Ian shrugged, "Winnie has been trying to get Charles to change his mind about it, because she wants to date him."
"Yeah, but I can't do that. It would ruin everything, and her selfishness needs to come second." Charles told him. "That's why she is kind of in a pissy mood today. I told her once and for all that this is the way it is."
"Admirable to put others before yourself, but there is a line. You should make a deal that if it doesn't work out, which one has to leave the group or promise that it won't cause issues." Alan leaned back in the couch.
"We can't risk it. You don't have to deal with the problems we have everyday. Nothing can be risked." Drew said with annoyance in his voice.
Charles could tell that Alan's advice was getting on Drew's nerves. "Are you interested in one of your gal pals?" He asked before Alan could respond to Drew.
"Nope. Just friends." Alan answered quickly. "Why are one of you interested in them?"
"We think Aries might have a thing for Madison, because he watches her at school sometimes." Charles shrugged, "But whenever we ask he says he doesn't like poor girls, and we drop it at that."
"What about Brianna?" Alan looked towards the exit that his friend had left through.
"She's going to be part of the group, even if we wanted to we can't." Drew answered.
"Sounds to me like you guys are putting yourselves in an awkward situation." Alan took another drink of his beer. "You make friends with these girls and then announce they are off limits. How are you ever going to get dates if you don't date the girls that you know? Just walk up to random girls on the street?"
"We just don't date girls that go to our school, it's that easy." Drew hissed.
Alan tossed his free hand up in the air in a shrugging motion, "I was just giving you options, don't get angry with me."
"Ignore, Drew. He has his own issues with this rule." Charles said with a smile.
There was a short pause in their conversation, before Ian jump started the flow. "I can't believe you don't think about getting with Madison."
Alan rolled his eyes, "She's my neighbor and we are more like brother and sister then anything."
"You live next to her?" Drew smacked himself in the face, "I don't know how long I could stand it to have that chick living next door to me and to never make a move."
"You know, I've had enough talk about Madison today. Let's change the subject." Alan tried not to sound upset.
Drew chuckled, "Oh, you tried and got rejected, is that it?"
"I didn't get rejected!" Alan barked. When he realized that he had yelled, he cleared his throat. "I'm sorry, you didn't deserve that."
Charles patted his shoulder, "Don't worry, Drew is known for getting under people's skin like that. Like I said, just ignore him."
Ian looked towards the door, "I wonder how much longer the girls are going to be."
The others shrugged in reply.
"Do you have anything planned other than sitting around for the rest of the day?" Alan asked.
"Yes, we are going to a club." Charles grinned, "Don't worry about money, I'm paying."
"I'm not exactly dressed for clubbing." Alan informed him and looked down at his t-shirt and blue jeans.
"You're wearing pretty much what I am." Ian pointed to his button up shirt and jeans, "You'll be fine."
"Brianna isn't twenty one…" Alan began.
"Don't worry about it. We slip the guy at the front a couple hundreds and he looks the other way. No stamp to inform them we can't have alcohol." Drew waved his hand. "We go there all the time."
---***---
Brianna slipped on the dark red dress with spaghetti straps. It fell just above her knees and was loose enough to walk around comfortably. Erica had said it was the perfect dancing dress, but Brianna didn't know why she had mentioned dancing. Winnie giggled as she helped curl some of Brianna's straight hair, before they piled it on her head."It's like an opening flower." Erica said to describe what the hair style would look like.
"On my head?" Brianna asked.
"On your head." Erica giggled. "Don't worry, you'll look stunning."
Brianna wasn't facing a mirror as the girls didn't want her to see what she looked like until they were finished. Erica's room wasn't as gloomy as the rest of the house. It was instead all pink with yellow ducks and teddy bears both painted on the wall and in stuffed animal form. It looked like a room for an elementary student not the college student that she had just met.
"Is this really your room?" Brianna inquired as she looked around.
Erica laughed, "Everyone asks me that. It's weird, I know. I always wanted a room like this growing up, but we were never able to buy anything nice."
"How did your family come into money?"
Erica's smile left her face, "It's a sad tale, you don't want to hear it."
Brianna rose an eyebrow.
Winnie was the one who answered, "Erica's family owned a large farm that was divided up between her father and his brother. The brother was in a car accident and didn't make it."
"Oh, what about his family? Didn't he have children?" Brianna asked.
Erica walked over to her bed and sat down, "My grandfather asked that the land remain only to his sons and their children. My uncle was married, but he never had any children. So the land went back to my father."
"Her father wanted his sister-in-law to stay and live on the land, but she was so angry that nothing of her husband's was hers after he died. So, she moved out." Winnie told her. "Her father was so upset about it and angry with his father and with the loss of his brother that he sold the farm for several million dollars."
"I'm sorry to hear that." Brianna looked down, but Winnie forced her head back up.
"We own a few businesses now and our money is growing, but my aunt wouldn't accept any money that my father has offered her. She said that we were never family in my grandfather's eyes, so she didn't want anything to do with us now." Erica had a comb in her hand and she picked out the hair.
"It makes Erica upset, because she really loved her. She took care of Erica after her mother's death, and now she won't even talk to her."
Brianna tried not to cry when she saw the pain on Erica's face, "That's so terrible. To go through all that and to continue to lose people that you loved."
Erica sat quietly on her bed, while Winnie continued to fix her hair by putting in hairpins to keep the curls up. Suddenly, Erica jumped from her bed with a smile. "This is going to be so much fun. I'm going to dance with Charles all night!"
"We are dancing?" Brianna asked.
"Yes. Didn't we tell you? We are going to a club that Ian's family owns, the doormen let us in if we slip them a couple hundreds."
"Oh, I don't know if I should go to…"
"It'll be fun, Bria. You don't have to do anything but dance and have fun." Erica smiled. "Hey, did you invite Madison? I guess she said no."
"I was going to invite her today while we were at the movies, but she had plans and had to cancel with us." Brianna grinned back. "She normally keeps her word, but I think this was something beyond her control."
"Oh, so she's trustworthy, huh?" Winnie was the one who asked.
"Yeah, if she says she'll do something, she always does. Only person in my life who I can rely on a hundred percent." Brianna told her.
"Except today, right?" Winnie spoke the words with some venom.
"She had a good reason and it was not within her control." She began to twiddle with her fingers.
"Like a date with Ari?" Erica giggled.
Winnie grinned at her friend.
"Huh?" Brianna looked between them.
"Ari was bragging all day yesterday that she had agreed to go on a date with him today. He was also saying how jealous his brother was." Winnie told her.
"Well, she was with them when she called."
"Them?" Erica questioned.
"Well, I talked to Arion on the phone. He said that he needed her to pick out a gift."
Winnie and Erica looked over at each other and giggled.
"Sounds like Aries was pretending to be his brother to make up an excuse for Madison, so you wouldn't think she ditched you for a guy." Winnie gently tapped her shoulder.
"No, Madison would never do that. She's very honest, sometimes painfully honest." Brianna sounded offended.
"We didn't mean to upset you, Bria." Erica patted her hand. "I'm sure that she was honest. It must have been Ari who was lying to us all day yesterday."
The two girls went back to fixing Brianna up for their night out. However, in Brianna's mind a seed of doubt had been planted. She knew that Madison was not deceitful and that she would have told her if she had a date. Yet, Madison always told her that she wasn't interested in dating, but perhaps a guy had come along that made her interested. Madison wouldn't want to seem like a liar, so she hide her dates with him. Was that why the four guys had been showing up at the café? No, because that was Arion not Aries, and it was Darick who liked her in that group. Was Darick making such moves to steal Madison away from Aries?
After talking with Alan about Madison, and how much she was obviously not telling them. She realized there was a great deal that she didn't know about her best friend. Perhaps there were things that she was hiding and didn't want her to know. Could she not trust her? Brianna trusted her with everything. There was nothing that she hid from Madison. Could Madison not be as good as a friend as she thought? Of course, Brianna was her only friend. Maybe she was just hanging around with her because she was her only option. The two were like polar opposites. Did Madison even like her?
---***---
Madison opened her eyes to see the curtain drawn around her bed. The familiar sounds of a hospital entered her ears and there was little doubt of where she was. Though the reasons behind why she was there were a mystery to her. All she could remember was being pushed over. Her eyes narrowed as she questioned if that selfish horse's ass had pushed her over.She realized after a moment that someone was holding an ice pack to the left side of her face. She turned her head to see Darick sitting in a chair beside the bed. "How are you feeling?"
She didn't say anything, but instead tried to sit up.
"Stay down for a little while longer. They are bringing your tests back soon." Darick pushed against her shoulder to keep her down, and Madison didn't fight him.
"Why did you push me?" Madison mumbled the question before thinking it through.
"I didn't push you!" Darick growled, the anger quickly drained from his face. "Sorry, I didn't push you. My dog knocked you over and you hit your head. The doctor said you should be fine, but they did a few tests to be certain." Darick spun around and patted the bed, "Sinclair come."
The large dog was sitting on the ground next to Darick. Madison didn't want to know how he had convinced them to let the dog into the hospital. The large mastiff sat on its back feet and placed its paws on the bed near her knees.
"He's sorry." Darick said and put his arm over his nose.
The dog mimicked him by putting its head on the bed before placing its paws over its own nose. Madison giggled at the sight.
"So, very sorry. So, ashamed." Darick said and the dog kept reapplying his paws to his nose after every sentence. "Good looking girls are the bane of his existence. He just can't stay off them." Darick patted the dog's head.
"Like his owner." Aries said, he was sitting on the window sill. Madison hadn't noticed him until then. He stood up and leaned against the wall, then put his right arm over his nose. "He's sorry, though. So, very sorry. So, ashamed." Aries looked at Darick and chuckled.
"Shut up, I don't need your damn help to apologize." Darick snapped, then turned his eyes back to Madison. "I'm sorry."
She nodded her head and threw the covers off her legs, "I need to get home. I've missed a lot of valuable study time."
Both Darick and Aries came at her and pushed her back down on the bed. "Wait until the doctor comes back with your tests!" Darick snapped. "You could have a serious concussion or be bleeding into your brain, stupid!"
The look on Madison's face showed her uneasiness with the entire situation.
"I'll take you home after the tests come back." Aries sat down on the bed beside her, "We have your book bag; you want to study while we wait?" He grabbed the backpack that was laying on the ground next to the bed.
Madison went to take the backpack from him, but he pulled it away.
"What book do you want? I'll pull it out for you."
"I can take books out of my own backpack." She growled.
Aries gave a wide grin, "Maybe you shouldn't be lifting such heavy things right now. Now which book?"
"It's a small blue book for psychology." She watched him unzip her backpack and pull the small book out, before he returned his hand inside to pull out one of her notebooks. "I don't need that."
"I want to draw." He frowned and opened the notebook to the inner cover. "It'll be my gift to you for taking you to Darick's house to be assaulted by both dogs that live there."
"Hey!" Darick snapped.
Madison giggled as Aries took one of her pencils and returned to his post at the window sill.
"The doctors were trying to call your family, but no one with the last name of Knox had ever heard of you." Darick told her as she opened up her book.
"I'm an orphan. There is no family." She cleared her throat and began to read.
Both men looked up at her as she spoke, but had no idea what to say to her on the matter. "What happened to your parents?" Darick asked as Aries went back to his drawing.
"They're gone." Was her only explanation.
"You don't have any siblings or aunts and uncles?"
Madison turned her eyes from her book to Darick, "I said I have no family. Leave it alone."
"Alright." Darick laid his hands on the bed next to her.
"Do you have to watch me?" Madison asked him.
He diverted his eyes towards her feet. With a roll of her eyes, she returned to her studies. She wasn't in the mood to argue with him about how uncomfortable it was for him to watch her.
The curtain drew back some and Arion stuck his head in with a wide smile, "Hey, you're awake!"
"Yeah."
"I have to steal Aries for a moment." Arion looked towards his brother, "Come here."
"I'm doing something." He mumbled as he continued to draw.
"Come here, you'll be glad you did."
He jumped down from his perch and left the room with his brother. Madison was nervous that the two had left her alone with Darick again. She didn't want him to notice her uneasiness and returned to reading her book. After a moment, her hand felt somewhat moist from sweat which she decided was caused by her nervousness. She ran it over her leg on top of the blanket and before she was able to pull it back, Darick took her hand in his.
She looked up to see that he had laid his head on the bed with his face turning towards the end of the bed. Both his hands laid over her own and for a brief moment, she wanted to rip her hand out of his. She wanted to tell him never to touch her again.
"I'm glad you are alright." Darick mumbled. "You were acting strange on the way here. Trying to stand up in the car, and you weren't making any sense when you talked. I thought there was something seriously wrong with you."
The tenseness in her had dissipated, and she felt touched. "I'm not going to sue you or anything, so…"
"I wasn't concerned with that. I was worried that you were seriously injured and would never be the same again."
Madison ignored his comment and returned to her book, after a moment she needed to turn the page. She yanked gently on her hand and Darick released it, but looked up at her as he did. "I need to turn the page."
"Oh, right." He sat back in the chair.
After she turned the page, she returned her hand to the position on her leg, but Darick didn't take her hand again.