James Pierce
I can't believe Collette didn't tell Thalia, about the whole shady street incident. I'm so glad I went behind her though. I would have called out her name, and told her she was walking the wrong way but for some reason I just kept staring at her and following her. Her hair was bouncing with every step she took and her shrug was flying in the wind and she looked so beautiful. It took me a while to snap out of it and then I rushed towards her when I saw her taking another turn.
She looked so terrified when we bumped into each other, her eyes were closed and it was honestly just adorable but I shouldn't be thinking about all this because she's not the sweet, innocent girl I used to think she was, that's just her facade, so I had to snap myself out of it. I was going to be cold to her, but then when she realised, the man in front of her was me, she hugged me so tight and I tried not to hug her back but I couldn't help but wrap my hands around her. When she let go, I really didn't want to, but I had to so I took my hands off of her. I even told her, I wouldn't ever leave her alone again, she was just so afraid and I felt very protective of her but then I snapped myself out of it again. Basically, I was snapping myself out of it, every two seconds. After that I was extra mean to her, mostly to remind myself that I'm supposed to hate her and then everything went back to normal.I thought she would for sure make use of the opportunity and get extra attention from my sister who already worships her by telling her about it and all, but she didn't. Maybe she didn't tell her because I was standing there. Yup, that's probably why. Anyway that's not important right now, the only important thing, is my reunion, which is this weekend and I can't wait.
I love our reunions, Jack really knows how to organise these things. Jack is one of my good friends from University, and he's the one incharge of the event this time, we made him organise again because he did such a great job last time. This time we are going to Chipping Campden, Cotswold for an entire weekend, starting from Friday evening, and we'll be back on Sunday night. My friends invited Thalia too, because they know her and think she's fun, but Thalia is bringing along Collette which I'm really not thrilled about. Why can't she just stay at home? The lesser we interact, the better.
"Everyone ready?" Thalia asks.
"Mm hmm , but you know I really don't think Collette should come, she would feel out of place, and they didn't even invite her" I say
"I AGREE" Collette screams, "I'll totally feel out of place, you guys should go without me"
I didn't know she would agree with me so quickly, I guess she doesn't want to go either.
"Letty, you. Are. Comingggg. I'll be there so she wont feel left out, and they said I could bring a plus one, Collette is my plus one!" Thalia says and drags her out of the house.
I love my class, I think ours was one of the best batches. In those two years of university, I made the best memories, the only bad memory and a painfully long one, was probably Davina Ruth, we dated for a whole year, and it took me that long to realise she was a stone cold biotch who only dated me because of my looks, my grades and my popularity. She just wanted the attention and then dumped me, the moment she found someone better. Thankfully, she isn't showing up to the reunion. We reach Cotswold, around 3pm and today's party, well sort of party, cuz 'get together' makes us sound old, anyway it starts at 5, so I go get changed. I'm rooming with Will, my best friend who is also a professor in Lia's university, teaching design, so he knows my sister pretty well too.
We wear suits cuz apparently that's the dress code and head to the party. The party goes on great until someone decides to give a surprise, which really felt more like a nightmare. I couldn't tell who it was, when they said "Surprise!", but when the lights turned on, I saw Davina!"I'm here!" She exclaims. Of course she does a grand entrance, she has literally always wanted attention.Her friends scream and run towards her. I take that as my cue to get as away from her as possible. I go up to the roof terrace to get my thoughts sorted. I really don't care much about her, but she somehow managed to get everyone on her side after our break up, even though she's the one who broke up with me. And people just acted weirdly when she was around, everyone just wanted to be in her good books. But at least, that break up showed me who my real friends were.I just stay put in the terrace, feeling the cold breeze there. Not even 10 minutes later I hear the lift's ding, Davina gets up here too, she definitely followed me. I turn to face her, and she smiles.
"James!", she comes close to hug me but I back off
"I don't think we are close enough for that" I say"Oh come on, after all of our history, you won't even hug me? Did I really hurt you that much?" She replies
"Just stay away from me" I say coldly
"I guess I broke you, I even heard that you haven't dated since we broke up, why sweetheart? Are you still not over me?" She says pouting
Who does she think she is? I'm not over her? She really is so unbelievably obsessed with herself."Wherever did you hear all that? I was over you in a week, And I've had at least 5 girlfriends after you, not including my current one, who is gorgeous." I half lie, I did date a lot of girls but I don't have a girlfriend presently.
"Really? Did you bring her? I brought my boyfriend too, maybe we all should hang out" she says
"No, thank you" I say and step away trying to head to the lift.
"Or did you not bring her?" She snickers " do you even have a girlfriend or are you just making one up?" She provokes.
I turn back and glare at her and right when I'm about to say something, the lift dings again and Collette steps out, "There you are, Thalia has been looking all over for" she says to me. I just stare at her for a while, she looks absolutely beautiful, she's wearing a light purple dress that stretches up to her heels and has a slit right through her thigh, one of the sleeves keeps falling off her shoulders and she keeps pulling it up. She looks so beautiful but keeps adjusting her dress and looks so conscious of her body showing. I had never seen her wear something like this before. She keeps wearing oversized clothes in the house and to uni, I didn't know she was this hot under those clothes.
"Hello?" She waves her hand in front of me, "I said Thalia's looking for you" she repeats."Huh?" I say, and then immediately think of the perfect solution to my problem. I go closer to her and grab her waist and say,
"Hey babe!".
Collette gasps and her eyes widen out of surprise, "wh- what?" She says looking confused.
I lean in and whisper in her ear, "please just play along".
"With what?" She says, I Ignore her question and drag her towards Davina.
"There, here's the living, breathing proof of my girlfriend" I say to Davina placing Collette in front of me.She looks intimidated, and that look on her face is totally worth going through all this trouble with Collette."Meet Collette, my .... girlfriend" I say
Collette smiles to Davina and then turns back to me and mumbles "watr you doing"
I pull her close, fix her sleeve that fell off again and hug her with my hands around her waist and my head over her neck, I'm facing Davina, then I look at her and say, "she's a little shy" and smile.
Collette isn't hugging me back she's just frozen, and doesn't understand what's happening which is pretty understandable, so I drag her back to the lift pulling her from the waist, and get into the lift before Davina comes along.
Once the lift door closes, I give out a sigh of relief and realise I'm still holding Colette's waist so I let go."Are you gonna explain what just happened?" She says flustered, "have you lost your mind?"
"I'll explain, let's just get out of this place first" I say
"I'm not going anywhere with you, after what you just did, I don't trust you, god knows what your going to do to me" she says
"How many times do I have to tell you that I have zero interest in you, don't flatter yourself too much" I reply
Thalia spots us bickering and comes closer, "Are you two fighting again?" She asks
"Oh, I wish it was just fighting" Collette replies "You have no idea what your brother just did".
"Alright the two of you, out with me, now" I say
We go outside the party to a quiet place and Collette is already telling Thalia everything on our way there."Wow that is messed up, you called her, your girlfriend, why?" Thalia asks me."Well if you let me explain, you would understand"
"Explain please explain. I've been waiting for an explanation for such a long time".Collette yellsI tell them about my encounter with Davina and everything she said .
"Oh That's why-" Thalia says
"What do you mean, Oh that's why? " Collette says looking at Thalia, then she looks at me and says " she's your ex girlfriend right? Why do you care what she thinks? and why would you lie about having a girlfriend? and why would you bring me into it?"
"I just didn't want her to think that she was the reason I didn't have a girlfriend"
"Are you still not over her?"
"Seriously you too?, I couldn't care any less about her."
"then why would you do all of that?" Collette asks
"Because she thinks she's Queen bee and everything revolves around her and she was trying to undermine me. The only reason I'm single is because, I want to be"
"Perfect, you should've told her that"
"Well it's too late for that, you're just gonna have to pretend to be my girlfriend"
"Why would I do that?, I am so not doing that. Did you forget that you hate me?"
"Thalia , can you please help me out here" I ask Thalia
"Okay well think of it in this way, if you dated James, I'm sorry, pretend to date James, then you could make him do whatever you want, in return, cuz he needs you now, use it" Thalia says. How is that helping, she just threw me under the bus, my sister is evil.
"Hmm, well, that's kind of interesting" Collette says"What are you trying to do? I told you to help me" I say to Thalia
"I'm just being diplomatic, you both are really close to me so I'm helping both of you out" she smiles wickedly.
Ugh I hadn't thought this through, But I was willing to do anything, anything for revenge against Davina.
"Fine, ill do whatever you ask me too, so please just play along for the weekend" i beg to Collette.
"Hmm, lets see, what can i make you do?" she asks herself, "first off, you need to be nice to me, and not just normal nice, really nice." She says and Thalia gives her a thumbs up
"Then um you need to get me whatever i want, whenever i want and compliment me, all the time" she exclaimsWow these are her conditions? These sound like a toddler's conditions. But if this is all she wants, it's better for me I guess, there's supposed to be a catch in situations like these and i really thought she would be sly enough to take advantage of it but apparently not.
"Fine i'll do all of that, and since you're setting conditions, I'm assuming you're accepting to be my girlfriend?" I say
"Fake girlfriend" she corrects
"Uh huh" I say and grab her waist "let's go back in"
She removes my hand and says "and no touching"
"Nobody's going to think you're my girlfriend if I don't touch you" I say and put my hands back on her waist. She frowns but doesn't protest.We enter the the party, right in time for the slow dance,
"Come on, we are dancing" I say as I pull her in for the slow dance. She pulls me back and says "No way am I dancing, I can't dance, really, I suck at it""Is there anything you're good at?" I ask mockingly."Umm, did I hear that wrong, or were you just being NOT nice to me?"
"You definitely heard it wrong, what i meant was-", I pull her closer to me, "just trust me, do whatever I tell you to do and you'll be fine"
"But there's so many people watching" she mumbles. I just ignore her and drag her to the dancing floor.I keep giving her instructions while we dance, and she's quite light, so when she missteps I just pick her up and improvise a move. Everyone seems to love our dance, but Collette is so nervous, it's kind of adorable. I realise that I was focusing on her so much that I forgot about Davina, and then search for her among the crowd. I find her staring at us, and she looks like she's going to burst out of anger. I guess her boyfriend can't dance.
"Oh I'm sorry" Collette says after stepping on my foot. I loose focus for two seconds and she's already stumbling, but really I felt nothing. I shift my focus back to her, her eyes are glued to my feet and she's trying so hard not to mess up and do what I am doing, and that makes me smile.After the dance gets over, Collette and I head out to drop Thalia to the room, because she says she's a little sick. Collette tries to use that as an excuse "you know I think I'm going to go with Thalia and take care of her" she says, but I know it's just so that she doesn't have to pretend to be my girlfriend for longer.
"No way, you can't escape, besides she's not that sick, she'll be fine, you are coming with me." I say and pull her out. We enter the party again, and I didn't notice it last time, but Collette literally snatches everyone's attention and she doesn't even do it intentionally, she looks like she hates all the eyes on her, but how is someone not supposed to look at her when she looks like that. Will comes up to me and asks, "Would you care to introduce me, to your lady friend, milord?"
"Will, meet my girlfriend, Collette. Collette this is Will, my best friend" she nods and will's jaw falls open."Girlfriend? Dude when did this happen, and why am I getting to know this only now?"
"How about I tell you the details later" I reply
"You better" he says.My other friends start huddling up, and Collette gets quite uncomfortable, "I'm gonna get some air in the terrace" she says and leaves, letting go of my hand, which for some reason felt cold now. I chat with my friends for a while, but then feel bad that Collette is all alone, and since I'm supposed to be nice to her and all, I go up to the terrace too.When I go up, I see her talking to her mom on video call, she sees me, and gestures me to come closer. I go and say hi to Aunt Rachel, it's been a while since I've spoken to her, but I love her, she is like my real aunt, or maybe even a second mom, being my mom's best friend and all. "Jamieee" Aunt Ray screams in excitement,"When did you get so handsomeee!"
She is amazing and so cool, every time I needed an escape from my mother I would run over to the Archers' house, where I would also see Collette, and feel instantly better. Collette just hands me the phone and then I talk to Aunt Ray for like 30 minutes straight and then the phone chimes indicating low battery so I tell a Aunt Ray that I'll talk to her later, and hang up.I give Collette her phone back and hear the lift, Davina steps out and I immediately grab Collette, "let's do some PDA and make her jealous" I say
"I'll pass" Collette replies
"Well I already told you touching is necessary for this" and then I just lean in and kiss her. Her lips were soft and tasted like brownies, which she probably just had. She was pretty much frozen, but she kept her eyes closed and didn't try to push me off or do anything so I just keep going. I forget about Davina, and just get really invested in Collette. But then I realise that I'm probably crossing a line and pull back.
"I guess she's gone" I say coldly, not acknowledging the kiss.
"I can't believe you did that" she says with a very serious look on her face.
"Oh come on, it's not like you think of it as a big deal, you're the kind of person, who'll just go on kissing anybody, so don't act like that was a big deal" I say to her and then immediately regret it.
She doesn't say anything and just quietly takes my hands off her waist and walks into the lift.It's not like I care about what she thinks of me, and it's not like that was her first kiss or anything, I still remember her intensely kissing Thalia's boyfriend and she's probably dated many guys after that too. So it's fine, she's just making a big deal of it for no reason. But she didn't make a big deal, she didn't even say anything.
I go back into the party but just have this knawing feeling inside of me, what if I forced her? She didn't push me off or anything but she did freeze, what if that was out of fear? That would make me such a terrible person. I can't be that terrible, even to her, especially to her.It's been one hour since I last saw Collette, but I really should apologise to her so I call up Thalia and ask her if Collette came back to the room, but Thalia says that she didn't. So I search the party hall more. And then I finally think of something that I should have thought of in the very beginning. Find my friends, it works really well on enemies too. I locate her phone, and follow the directions. The place that we are staying in, is sort of like a camp, so there are a bunch of rooms which are like mini houses which are just one storey and our rooms are adjacent to a garden which opens into a forest sort of area that is restricted at night, only an idiot would walk into the forest, especially in this darkness, but of course, Collette is an idiot, so she did exactly that.
I go inside using the torchlight of my phone, and follow the map, but when I reach the location, I don't see her. This is probably where her phone died, it barely had any battery that time too, she should be close. I call out her name, three times, and mid way through the fourth someone runs and hugs me from behind. I look down, see her hands and know that it's Collette."Thank god you're here" she cries, "I really thought I was lost and bears were gonna eat me" she continues sobbing. I try not to laugh, I mean I know it's dangerous but bears? She's really like a child sometimes.
She lets go of me and I turn, and she immediately hugs me again with her hands wrapped around my neck, I hug her back, "Don't cry, I'm here now, nothing will happen to you" I say, but she continues to cry.
"You said you wouldn't leave me alone again" she says remembering what I told her last time."Technically I never did, you're the one who keeps walking away, and I always come and get you too" I reply. This is the second time I'm saving her this week. She doesn't reply and just buries her face deeper between my shoulder and my neck. It's so dark I can barely see her face, but I think it's dusty, like she fell somewhere. When we start walking, my suspicions are confirmed, cuz she's limping."Are you hurt?" I ask worried
"No, it's nothing" she replies."If it's nothing, why are you limping?" I ask
"I kind of fell" she says "but it's fine"She says its fine, but she's limping and walking awfully slow, so she's definitely in pain.I stop her, tell her to hold my phone which is the only torchlight and map we have, and lift her in my arms. She gasps, but doesn't say anything and keeps quiet, it's dark, so I can't tell what face she's making, so I just keep walking.