Mia never thought that she'd be jealous of someone. This new feeling has been in Mia's heart ever since she came to New York. When it was not her classmates' perfect lives, it was her nemesis' perfect mansion in the middle of the busiest city in the world.
"Close your mouth, your saliva is all over my carpet." Carys bit his laugh down.
Mia rolls her eyes at the man and walks inside. Lavish is the only word that could have done justice to the interiors of the house that Mia is standing in.
"It's nice." Mia completely overrules the possibility of giving one possible compliment to Carys.
Carys, however, is aware that Mia is in utter shock to see such a house. From where Mia stands, she can see the spiral staircase going to the second floor and on the left, there's an open kitchen.
Carys leads the way towards the kitchen and Mia follows. The huge eight-seater dining table lies right next to the big window, giving a perfect view of the garden outside. Carys walks through the big pathway connecting the kitchen to the living room, and Mia follows.
The living room has a bookshelf on one side and a fireplace on the other. Mia is automatically reclined towards the bookshelf but she stops herself from intruding and judging every piece of literature displayed on it. You can say a lot about someone's personality based on their taste in books and Mia firmly believes in that.
"You can take a seat, we'll catch up on the assignment. I just need to get my laptop." Carys says as he retreats from the room to fetch his books. The house felt like it was vacant with not even a soul inside or outside it. Carys' footsteps make a clear sound and Mia can hear exactly when Carys enters his bedroom which is supposedly on the second floor.
Mia's eyes are still fixated on the bookshelf and now she cannot help but give in so she approaches heaven slowly. The white bookshelf is filled with every book possible. Her eyes have easily scanned the whole bookshelf in just a matter of a few seconds. She slowly moves her fingers past the books decorated beautifully on the white wood and stops them on the book that felt a little too familiar.
Mia is about to take the book out when there's a sound of opening the front door. She is startled and turns around. The footsteps are now pretty close. It feels like she is about to be busted for the crime that she has not even committed yet. She casually pats a hand on her jeans' left pocket and feels the audio tracker there.
"Carys." A heavy voice calls just before a man steps in front of Mia's vision.
The man is tall with a stubble beard and is wearing a suit. He has a BlueTooth device glued to his ear. His vision was fierce.
"Who are you?" The man says. Mia has come across several men in her life whose voices felt like there were daggers hanging in the air but this man could top almost all of them. Mia's throat is dry.
"I'm Mia." She still replies. There should be no suspicion. There should be no panic.
"Mia?" The man narrows his eyes. There's already suspicion in his voice. Mia is internally panicking.
"Carys' friend." She replies. Her legs are frozen in their place. It's not like Mia to be this nervous but she has an audio tracker in her pockets and coming to a friend's house with an audio tracker can definitely lead to some trouble. Also, this man doesn't look like someone who would let it slide.
"What friend?" The man is adamant.
Mia takes a deep breath but before she could start defending herself. There's a rush of footsteps coming towards the living room.
"Ron!" Carys calls from a distance.
Carys' voice is not something that would ever calm Mia down but today it feels like the only thing that Mia wants to hear.
"Carys, who's this?" The man turns around and asks Carys. Carys enters the room with his books and his laptop and sets it all on the coffee table.
"She's a friend," Carys replies. Although, there's no way in hell that Mia will agree to be Carys' friend but today she might just let it be like that.
"Did she go through the security check?" Ron, as Mia recalls the name of the man, says with a questioning face. There is a very slight shiver in Mia's heart but she is quick to cover it when Ron cuts his eyes to her.
"What do you mean? I told you she's a friend." Carys answers laying more emphasis on the word friend.
"Hey Carys' friend. Do you mind going through a security check? I promise it'll be quick." Ron now directs his question towards Mia.
"Sure." She says but she knows that the moment Ron runs her through the security check it'll be game over for her. What will she even say if she is caught with the audio tracker? "Hey, sorry about that. Oops. Never thought I'd get caught. Haha."
The mere possibility of getting caught makes Mia slam her head on the wall.
"Dude, be respectful. She's my friend. What do you think you're doing?" Carys says these words with his teeth clenched together. Mia darts her eyes towards Carys but there's only disappointment and shame which is present on his face.
"Carys, it's alright," Mia says. There's no reason for Mia to say these words. It's better for her that Carys refutes Ron but she doesn't want to seem suspicious.
"No." Mia has never seen Carys this angry before. He has been someone who is easygoing and chill but now he is standing before his own security guard fighting for Mia. Mia feels pinched.
"Let's go to my room," Carys says to Mia specifically and picks up his stuff again. Mia just nods.
"Carys-"
"I'll talk to mum, Ron." Carys doesn't even meet Ron's eyes. Ron puts one hand over his forehead like he's checking his temperature. He then looks over towards Mia and Mia just looks down at her feet.
"Come on," Carys says and walks past Ron to get out of the room.
When Mia walks past Ron, she senses that Ron is definitely someone she should be worried about. She walks behind Carys in swift steps and finally escapes Ron's vision, for now.