"Camroon." Came a rather slurred voice, and Ariel recognized it instantly. A second later Natasha practically skipped into the room. "I heard that you were here, I've been down stairs." She said moving over and wrapping herself around a surprised Malachi. She also leaned up welding her mouth to his for a second. He seemed oddly tense, but then relaxed a bit. He told himself to just accept it. He needed to pretend a bit more now that she and her friends were here.
"Who told you I was up here?" Malachi asked looking at the others coming in the room.
The usual suspects that he could see. She also had Nick's scent on her a bit more which said she'd been dancing with him most of all. Cameron just raised an eyebrow and gave Malachi a knowing glance before moving over to Sally and wrapping his arms around her again. His posture protective and telling the rest to fuck off if they came near her.
"Henry Asnil, he saw you come in a while ago." Natasha's gaze moved to the rest of the room. "Ariel? What are you doing here, wearing that?" Natasha said swaying a bit as she let go of Malachi to gesture at her. Natasha's face clearly said her outfit was atrocious.
"She came with me, I wanted to visit Cameron so she had to come with."
"Oh." Natasha said, still giving Ariel a rather nasty glare and turned from her. Natasha pulled Malachi to sit down. He went but really wasn't in the mood to deal with her drunk at the moment. She got all touchy and glommed onto him. It wasn't wanted attention either. But he dealt with it, if they were going to be married for several years he didn't need hell raining down on him.
Ariel sat but felt extremely inadequate all of a sudden. She fought not to pull at her clothes. She wanted to go home now. In one swift statement Natasha had stripped her of the confidence that she had built over the past few hours.
"You should come down and dance with me." Natasha said to Malachi after they had been up here for a while talking and tossing a few back. Sally had a very dark look about her staring at Natasha, and it wasn't much better for Marie. The two clearly did not like Sally and vice versa. Ariel felt bad for her, she understood. Natasha and Marie were good at tearing others down. The rest were drunk and not paying attention. Sam was practically attacking Kyle, the two of them lost in each other. Ariel was kind of disgusted by how it seemed more like they were eating each other's faces. She nearly laughed at the thought.
"Alright." Malachi said though to Natasha who asked him again. Just to get out of this room and not have to be with the rest and pretend to care what they had to say. Natasha was snippy with her comments to Sally whom she didn't care for. Sally didn't hide her dislike either.
"Come on, we are going back down to dance." Natasha said getting up with Malachi. Without Malachi's help she probably would have fallen over.
"You coming?" Malachi asked Cameron and Sally. Cameron shook his head.
"I've got better things to do." He said pulling Sally closer who hit his shoulder but was smiling anyways. Malachi looked over at Ariel who hadn't spoken a word since her sister showed up and demoralized her. The others passed him going out, and he pulled out his keys and tossed them to her.
"I doubt you want to stay. I'll drive back with Natasha." He said and Natasha just gave him a smile holding on to his arm. Ariel gave a nod and they went out the door. Which left the three of them standing there. That was nice of him, at least he thought about her and didn't leave her stranded like Natasha like dto do.
Ariel stood and straightened her shirt. She decided that she wanted to go home now, and hoped that she could make it out of this place without being grabbed. Or made to feel worse than she did right now.
"It was nice talking with you, congratulations again." Ariel told them with a small smile.
"Hey." Cameron said to her in a stern voice. "I'm sorry, but you shouldn't listen to your sister. She's a bitch, there is nothing wrong with what you are wearing. She just likes to make you feel less so she can feel better. She's not as hot as she thinks." Ariel just gave a smile and a nod, but didn't believe his words. He was just being nice because he could see that she was feeling down. Sally moved over by her and stopped her from leaving.
"Just hold on a second, we'll walk out with you." Sally told her. She could see Ariel might be an easy target. She was quiet, plus Sally liked her. She wanted to make sure that she got home safely.
"Yeah, hate for you to get jumped or something." Cameron said moving to grab their items and handed Sally her purse. Out the door they went.
"You know, me and you should do something sometime. Me and my family, we moved here from Alectro's ownership. I don't know a lot of people here. As your sister likes to point out, a nobody who threw herself with someone in power." Natasha hadn't said it exactly like that, but in a roundabout way.
"I would like that." Ariel said.
"Good, put your number in my phone." Sally said handing it to Ariel as they went down the stairs and it was extremely loud. They passed by those down here partying and made it out with no problems. Ariel handed Sally her phone back.
"Good. I'll shoot you a text so you'll have mine. Now I know you do all the work for your sister, but you better have some time to do something with me. I need a friend too." Sally gave her a hug and stepped back. "Deidre will like you." Ariel really liked Sally. She was nice.
"Where are you parked?"
"Right over here." She said pointing an aisle over from where they were. Cameron gave a nod and watched her as she went to her car and got in. Ariel drove out of the parking lot and made her way back home. When she got there the place was dark, it was late now and as she looked up she saw a flash of lightning in the sky.
"Looks like rain." She said to no one and went in the house to change and get ready for bed. However she couldn't sleep. So she went downstairs and into a smaller sitting room and curled up on the window bench to watch the rain that was starting to pour down. She always kind of liked rain. She heard Natasha and Malachi come in a short while later. Natasha sounded rather upset. She didn't like how wet she must have gotten on the walk in.
"Heaven forbid she get a little wet." Ariel said to herself.
The sound of them faded as they moved upstairs toward their rooms. Natasha and Malachi had their own rooms, but from time to time they would share. Normally it was Natasha who Ariel saw coming from Malachi's room rather than the other way around.
Ariel sighed and moved from the window and the cascade of water coming down. She left the room. She thought that she heard a door close down here. It sounded like someone in the kitchen and they went out the door that led outside. Judging by the soft sound and the use of that door, she figured it was Malachi. She moved going up the stairs and nearly ran into Natasha who was coming out of the bathroom looking glassy eyed and tired. Still clearly half drunk.
"Oh good. I wanted to talk to you." Natasha said sounded like she was rather upset with Ariel. That and clearly three sheets to the wind.
"You did?"
"Yeah, you can be so embarrassing sometimes." Natasha started putting a hand on her hip. She wore a tank top and pink pajama bottoms. "If you're going to go out, you need to look your best. Not sloppy and whatever you feel like, you are representing both of us."
"We were just getting food. He said it was okay."
"Of course he would! Malachi doesn't care what you are wearing. You don't matter, so why would he bother? But you are my sister. Those that know, I don't want them knowing that I have an incompetent and subpar sister."
"Why do you always have to be so cruel to me?" Ariel snapped, feeling upset now.
"I'm doing it for your own good. Mom and Dad tired so hard to make you into something more, something better. Still you can't do that, I just ask that you be a sister I need, but that seems impossible. God how embarrassing to see you as you were. Like our name means nothing and you can walk around like trash."
"I'm not trash." Ariel said clenching her fists. Natasha made a clicking sound with her tongue and shook her head. Ariel felt the hot tears threaten and nearly wanted to strike out. What was she so cruel to her?
"You're only redeeming quality is that you can manage to run the computers well and all the book keeping." Natasha moved past her toward her room. "I think it would be better if you just stayed out of the public eye for now. Better that way, less pain to yourself and to me. You can't be a failure if others don't know you exist Ariel. Try and do that." With that Natasha went into her room and left Ariel standing there.
Ariel stared at the room that Natasha had turned into and closed the door. She felt the burning in her eyes. She knew she shouldn't have gone out. It would figure that Natasha had seen her. Why didn't she just stay home when he'd told her to come along?
She knew why, because he was nice to her. Now she was reaping what she'd sewed. Nice wasn't real, and her only family member liked to keep reminding her that she was a complete and utter failure. She was surprised that Natasha hadn't disowned her. But then who would she have do her book keeping? Ariel felt very used and abused at the moment. She turned to go back down the stairs as hot tears burned her cheeks and she wiped at them.
Ariel found herself standing in the kitchen after a bit and then moved to a sliding door by the kitchen table and opened it. It was cold out, and the rain was just as cold. She walked out into it and then into the garden area and sat down on the bench there. She wrapped her arms around her middle and hunched over there. She still felt the hot tears and she wasn't sure if she was angry or sad. She sobbed anyway. She came out here hoping the cold would clear out her head. That it would clear out the sorrow.
The rain came down hard, and it was making her body go kind of numb. Maybe if she sat here long enough she'd just melt right into the ground. She kept thinking about all the things in her life that made her upset. What was worse, she didn't know why she could never please her family. Everything she did was wrong even when she did exactly what they said.
She touched a couple scars on her arm, and then her lip. She also had more bloody noses in her life than she could remember. Like they had tried to beat the failure out of her when words and commands didn't work. Ariel pulled up her legs and hugged her knees to her. Her hair was plastered to her as were her clothes and she just sat there. Her face staring off into the trees. The green far duller than it should be. The vibrant shade gone with the depression starting to set in. Her body wasn't shivering really anymore, and that was okay. It was a blissful numb. If she just stopped being, Natasha would have nothing to worry about then. Maybe she could just sit out here and let the rain wash her away.