After the awkward and stressful elevator ride Hayden Whitehall had put me through, we were finally back in Hayden's gigantic bachelor pad, or, should I say, his entire goddamn floor? The elevator ride was one of the most uncomfortable three minutes I've ever experienced in my life. My wrists were hurting more than ever due to him not wanting to let go of me, the air was dry which made it harder to breathe, and he was giving off some major bad vibes through the whole ride.
"Can you at least not grab onto my wrists so tightly? I think I'm already bruising and it's starting to hurt, a lot," I emphasized.
But Hayden did not reply and neither did I speak after that. His hand was still gripped onto my wrists, but it was definitely not as firm as before, but nonetheless, it was still a restraint I couldn't get rid of. I tried to take back my hands by shaking and twisting my arms multiple times, but his hands wouldn't budge.
"Can you just-"
"Whatever you're trying to ask for, the answer is no," Hayden cuts me off annoyingly.
"I just want some personal space, geez Louise," I exhaled.
"Look around, there's not much space for you and I is there?" He turned to me with an unbelievable look on his face, definitely questioning my intelligence.
"Why bother holding onto me when I literally have nowhere to go? I'm exhausted and I'm stuck with you right now whether I like it or not, smart ass."
"Well at least you got the stuck part right," Hayden laughed mildly as the elevator proceeded to take us to the top couple floors before his place.
But I was right, I really couldn't go anywhere even if I wanted to, as there were only a couple of meters between us. There was no more fight left in me, I was exhausted from both my day and the physical struggle. I began to start worrying about how the rest of my night was supposed to go compared to how it was going to end up now. The thought of Margaret and Scarlet wondering where I had been had weighed heavily on my shoulder.
But I wasn't in a position to bargain, this boy really wants something, I thought.
"Ahh, we're here," he announced as the elevator door opened, "welcome again to my house."
Hayden proceeded to drag me out of the elevator and across the grand bachelor pad he owned, he pointed at the giant bed placed right beside the ceiling-to-floor glass windows that framed the entire floor and gestured for me to sit.
I looked at him weirdly in response and raised an eyebrow.
"What?" He asked, confused at my response.
"Why would I sit on your bed?"
"Why wouldn't you sit on my luxurious king-sized bed?"
"I-I don't even know how to begin answering that question," I said flabbergasted.
"Get off your high horse and sit down, Jesus," Hayden complained.
"Fine," I said as I sat down on his bed.
Not to my surprise, it was memory foam. I could feel the mattress sinking down slightly as soon as I had sat down on it comfortably. He was still hovering over me, his eyes piercing through mine as he watched me like a hawk. I gave him a bored look in response, clearly not enjoying any bit of this madness.
"Okay, I'm gonna grab a chair because you want personal space or whatever," he said.
"Oh so now you care?" I muttered sarcastically under my breath as he jogged across the room.
"I heard that!" Hayden said as he carried a chair in the kitchen and proceeded to jog back to the bed. As he settled down and sat on the chair seated directly across from me, I gave him the most unamused look.
"You can lay down if you want, you know."
"And why would I want to do that?"
"You said you were tired, no?" He asked.
"Yeah but this isn't my bed, who knows what kind of germs you have in this bed?" I joked.
"Ha-ha, funny," Hayden responded blankly.
"So, how's life?" I asked rhetorically.
"You don't get to ask questions," Hayden said almost immediately, ignoring my previous question, "What's your name and who are you, seriously?"
"Jane Doe and I want to sleep, in my own bed," I emphasized, clearly not taking him seriously.
"Not happening, you're staying here until I figure out this whole situation," he sneered and pointed at the ground as if he wasn't clear that he forcefully brought me here in the first place for a reason.
A stupid reason I bet, I thought.
He took out my student card from his pockets and examined it carefully while looking back and forth between the card and me. He let out a few hmms and ahhs, like he was reading a book that was all about me. Frankly, it was kind of creepy knowing that someone was studying you right in front of your own face.
I rolled my eyes and said sarcastically, "Or, you know, you can just ask me since you've made it pretty clear I'm not leaving tonight."
"Okay fine," Hayden responded, "introduce yourself then?"
"What am I, auditioning to be an extra of The Vampire Journals?" I laughed.
"Yeah whatever makes you comfortable," he dismissed the joke and focused on the card again, expecting me to be spilling out my guts to him.
"Sienna Hayes," I said and continued, "I'm a third-year Science major, but you should already know that from my student card."
"Just need to confirm from you personally, gives me extra insurance."
"Right," I rolled my eyes," I'm also a scholarship student, a newly hired janitor for the top four floors, and most importantly, I have a younger sister who currently needs me, by the way."
"I'm sure she can sleep by herself for one night," Hayden answered, "I take it you're poor?"
I almost cringed at the way he said poor. It carried such a degrading nature, I wasn't happy with it at all. Poor people are still people and the rich aren't any better than us from a moral perspective.
"Yeah, I'm definitely 'poor' to anyone's standards," I said and gestured quotation marks, "But that's really none of your business, and no matter how poor I am, I'm still in the same damn school like all of you rich bastards. So who's really winning?" I laughed.
"You're right," he laughed slightly as well.
"Well I'm done my introduction, so I'd appreciate it if you also introduced yourself or something."
"That's fair, well you already know my name, what else do you need to know?"
"Literally anything else, like who are you?" I laughed.
"Well, I'm the direct heir of the Whitehalls, as for what they do, look it up online I guess," he said casually.
"Why bother looking it up when you're right here in front of me?"
"Because what's online is probably more accurate than what I can tell you, to be honest, my parents haven't given me the time to help with the family business."
"Okay, what do you study here then?" I asked curiously.
"Fourth-year business administration," he said nonchalantly, "something along the lines of that."
"Something along the lines? Do you even know what you're studying?" I gasped.
"Yeah, but none of that stuff applies to real life anyway, I don't really retain anything that's not useful after I study it though."
"You rich people are hopeless, seriously," I said, completely shocked.
"It doesn't even really matter, but I'm surprised you don't know me from before," Hayden exhaled, "you actually sound like you really don't know me."
"Well do you know me prior to this?" I asked rhetorically, "If you haven't noticed most rich people tend to stick to rich people, not with poor people like me. I don't really have friends in this school other than the staff who work here."
"That's not what I mean, I'm just trying to piece all of this together, I've seen horrible acting with people sending random girls to places I hang out hoping to get my attention and what not. But it's starting to really feel like all of this might have just been a shitty misunderstanding," he continued to explain.
"Finally talked some sense in you," I responded, "I'm sure if you asked Robert about this tomorrow he can confirm that I seriously just work here. You can even ask Geneva Hamilton, she lives a couple of floors under you."
"You know Geneva?" Hayden asked curiously.
"I met her just today actually, today was my first day on the job and I am assigned to clean her apartment first, but she claimed she already had personal cleaners. So instead she introduced me to her fashion playground and dressed me in a maid outfit for the occasion since my jumpsuit wasn't very presentable," I explained.
"Why are you even working anyways?"
"Because I'm poor, or did you forget that already" I joked.
"Aren't all poor students on scholarship? There's no need to make money," Hayden said, confused at the situation.
"They don't cover a lot of the living expenses, and my younger sister's tuition is also not included. You rich folks might be able to afford all of that at any given time but people like me need to actually make ends meet and work to pay bills," I sighed.
"So, you don't know about the program?" He asked plainly.
The program? Could that be what Theo was referring to earlier when Hayden was heated up in that Dean's discussion and mentioned a specific program?
"Nope, this is the first time I've heard of this, what is that exactly? You fought with Theo over it earlier so I would like to know what's so interesting about this program that you have to physically threaten him over," I asked curiously.
"Nothing that concerns you if you're not part of it, it's the cool kids' club," he smiled devilishly. I was caught by surprise - it was the first time I've seen Hayden break a legitimate smile and it wasn't all that bad.
"Okay, so if it doesn't concern me, why even bring it up?" I asked.
"It's just something that I thought you would be in since you need money and all that, okay?" Hayden reassured, "If you don't know it then it's not a big deal."
"Okay, then why am I still here if I'm in the clear?" I argued.
"Who said you were in the clear?"
"I proved I'm not here to seduce you or anything, I'm just the janitor in some fancy maid clothes."
"Yeah, but you still slapped me? Or did you forget about that already?" Hayden reminded, slightly aggressive in his tone of voice.
I was breaking a cold sweat, I had completely forgotten about what had happened. My stomach dropped instantly - I was going to get fired, my scholarship would be revoked, I would be kicked out of school, and most importantly sued, and I'd have to pay him damages with the money I clearly didn't have. Scarlet would be kicked out of school as well, and we would have nowhere to go in this giant city.
All because I pissed off a Whitehall, was it worth it Sienna? I asked myself.
"So I cleared my trespassing charge but I'm still guilty of assault. Okay, what do you want from me? An apology, something in return, what?" I asked back, slightly in fear of what he might say.
"I don't have money if that's what you want," I added.
"Yeah, I fucking figured," he answered, rolling his eyes, "I want you to pay for it by other means, otherwise I will sue you and well, I'm not sure if you can ever repay that amount of debt in your entire life if I did."
It almost seemed like he was amused at the situation as he had said the consequences of not obey his demands. There was a sense of disgust inside the pit of my stomach as I watched him spit out such ugly and demeaning words describing my future life with his intervention. It was a neverending cycle of rich people exploiting the poor for their own form of entertainment and pleasure.
It was sick, and I was sick of it.