Chapter 32
I can't think of anything to say here... other than ENJOY :D
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"Come on, Alyssa, can we finish up here?" Kayla whined, wiping her forehead and smudging pink icing on her face as she did so.
The two of them, along with Aiden, had been in Alyssa’s huge kitchen since four and outside was now flooded with darkness. On the counter in front of them stood at least one hundred identical dark pink cupcakes, daintily iced with the words ‘Vote Alyssa’ all laid out in neat rows.
Alyssa had originally asked their personal chef, Luigi, to make them, but he had been whisked away at the last minute to provide catering at one of her father’s big business events after the original company had cancelled at short notice. It was good of him to help, but it did mean that Alyssa, Kayla and Aiden had been left with endless batches of half-baked cupcakes that they had to finish themselves.
"Yeah, babe," Aiden chipped in, adding the latest cupcake to the collection and sighing. "Haven’t we got enough?"
Alyssa placed her hands on her hips, narrowing her eyes at the pair. She was beginning to get irritated at both of them – if they wanted her to win the election, they were going to need to be a lot more determined. At the moment, Courtney was coming up dangerously close behind her, and Alyssa was all too aware of this. "Are you really going to give up? We need way more than this if we’re going to beat Courtney–"
"Come on, beautiful," Aiden said sweetly, coming up behind Alyssa and wrapping his arms around her waist. "We’re going to win anyway. Who’s going to vote for that skank over you?"
Alyssa couldn’t help but let a smile creep over her face as Aiden planted a tender kiss on her cheek. She supposed he was right. They had made tonnes of cupcakes, and she had plenty of other freebie ideas to win the students at Serenity Falls over. Once her campaign was finished, Courtney would be lucky to get a single vote.
"You need to stop worrying," Aiden said, his voice a mere whisper in her ear. "Just relax..."
She could feel his hands sliding smoothly upwards, gently fingering the front buttons on her shirt. "No," she said firmly, swatting him away, but she had a smile on her face. "We’ve still got to finish up here."
"That’s okay," he said, smirking, as Alyssa stepped forward and placed the last few iced cupcakes on the counter. "I’ll get you later."
"Oh, you’ll be lucky," answered Alyssa cheerfully, tossing her blonde curls over her shoulder and grinning at her boyfriend.
After they had finished the last batch of cupcakes and iced them identically to the other hundred, they decided to call it a night. It had been a tiring afternoon and, with all the dirty cooking equipment left in the kitchen for Luigi to take care of when he returned in the morning, Alyssa was just glad they had finished.
"Bye!" she called to her friends as they walked down the front path towards the triple garage where they had left their cars. Closing the door behind her, she glanced into the kitchen and smiled as her eyes caught on the mass of bright pink cupcakes.
Courtney’s shitty ones won’t be able to compete with these, Alyssa thought to herself as she ascended the stairs to her room and collapsed onto her bed. She sighed contently, before she suddenly noticed the silence. It was quiet, too quiet, and there was no one else in the house – apart from various housekeeping staff who resided in a small building just a few yards off the main house.
She couldn’t help but feel slightly lonely as she slipped into her nightwear and ran a brush through her honey coloured hair. Even Tiffani wasn’t home tonight – she was off somewhere with her father, and she couldn’t help but feel a pang of jealousy as she thought of them two together. They hadn’t long returned from Hawaii, and her father had only been home once since then – and even then, she had only seen his face for about ten minutes before he had to go out of the house again.
Then, at that moment, her cell phone buzzed to life on her bedside cabinet. Rolling over on her bed, she glanced at the caller ID quickly before pressing it to her ear.
"Aiden? What’s up? Did you forget your keys or something?" She stood up, ready to go downstairs to fetch whatever he had forgotten to pick up. Well, why else would he be calling when he had left her front door just five minutes ago?
"Guess where I am," he said.
"Uh, home?" Alyssa frowned. "Why? Where else would you be? Are you okay? Aiden?" she said, her heart starting to beat faster when she didn’t hear his reply. "Aiden, what’s going on?" Panic was rising inside her. What was he doing? Was he in trouble or something?
Then, at that moment, there was a small clunk as something collided with the French doors which lead out to her balcony. Frowning, she stepped towards them cautiously before throwing them open and stepping outside.
She shivered in the sudden coldness of the night, still majorly confused. The phone was still pressed to her ear but she couldn’t hear anything from Aiden’s line.
"Down here!" a voice called from the ground below.
"Aiden? What the fuck are you doing?" Alyssa said, cutting the call and placing her hands on her hips, frowning down at her boyfriend who was standing in the garden below her balcony.
"Way to spoil the romance," he said, but there was a smile on his face.
"What romance?" Alyssa rolled her eyes. "What are you doing down there? You scared me, Aiden. I thought something had happened to you."
There was a small creak from the balcony supports and suddenly Aiden was scaling the side of them, hoisting himself up with such ease that he made it look like he did something like that every day.
"I’d ask you to let down your hair or something, but I wouldn’t want to damage your extensions," he said with a smirk, as he reached the top and swung himself over the railing.
"Shut up! These aren’t extensions!" Alyssa pouted, touching a strand of her hair.
"So..." Aiden said slowly, as he stepped in closer and pulled Alyssa towards him. "How’d you like my attempt at romance? It was practically a Romeo and Juliet balcony scene, wasn’t it?"
Alyssa rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. "You are an idiot, you know that?"
"And you love it," he whispered in her ear, his hands sliding further down her back and onto her toned butt. She giggled as his fingers tightened, her eyes meeting his gaze.
And then she was pushing him backwards, the two of them stumbling into the warmth of her bedroom and collapsing onto her soft bed, barely able to keep herself from smiling as her lips moved against Aiden’s.
***
"Are you okay, Olivia?" Her father frowned at her as she pushed another piece of food around her plate without bringing it to her mouth. "You’ve hardly eaten a thing."
He had spent the best part of the evening standing over the stove, putting all his effort into producing a tasty, home-cooked meal. Especially since they had been living off of takeaways and ready-meals since they had moved, he had decided to make the effort and start cooking properly. He had thought Olivia would be grateful at least, as Brad was still in a constant negative mood, but she had barely eaten two forkfuls since they had sat down. He should’ve been disappointed, but this out-of-character behaviour was somewhat worrying.
"Yeah, fine," Olivia looked up, putting on a smile. "I guess I’m just not that hungry."
It was the truth, after all. Her appetite had disappeared completely, especially when a moment barely passed when thoughts of Ethan didn’t creep into her mind. It was beginning to drive her crazy, and yet she could not stop thinking about the situation.
"Everything okay at school?" he asked, gently prompting her for more than a simple ‘yes’ answer.
"I should damn well hope it is, since you practically ruined our life just to go there," Brad said spitefully, his eyes narrowing at Olivia. He still hadn’t gotten over the fact that they were staying for good, and had spent the last few weeks mooching around the house sulking about how his band were crap without him.
"Brad!" their father warned, his tone harsh. "Don’t be so selfish. There are other people in this family but you."
"And there’s other people besides nerdy little Olivia," he responded, his voice raised. "You made out she was going to have a perfect little life there, and guess what? She hasn’t. So you’ve ruined our lives for nothing."
"Brad! Don’t be so rude! Go to your room!"
"It’s true, though, isn’t it?" Brad said, standing up from his chair and folding his arms. He shot a look at his father, challenging him. "You know it’s true, Dad. You thought that things would get better if we moved here, but they haven’t."
"Get to your room." His father’s voice was quiet yet stern. It was a warning, but this made no difference to Brad. He was all fired up and he wasn’t about to back down. Not now.
This was the first real confrontation they had had – before, it had been mere snide comments and sarcastic remarks wherever possible. But now Brad’s anger was fuelled by Olivia’s attention and his father’s retaliation.
"Why? Because you can’t take the truth?" he said, almost smirking. "It was a waste of fucking time moving here, and you know it."
"No, it wasn’t," Olivia interrupted, although her voice was still relatively calm in comparison to Brad’s. "Please, Brad..."
"Shut the hell up, Olivia!" Brad screamed suddenly, startling all of them. He slammed his fist down on the wooden table in temper, which, as a result, sent all the cutlery flying a couple of centimetres into the air. "This is all your fault – just because you had to go to some nerd school!"
"It’s not some nerd school!" Olivia protested, her eyes glinting with a hint of panic. She’d never seen Brad like this before, and the whole experience was somewhat scaring her. "I’ve told you before! It’s–"
"I don’t give a fuck, Olivia!" he shouted. His face was flaming and his eyes were glazed with fury. "Just because you wanted something, we all had to get up and ruin our lives so you could have it. You’re a spoilt bitch, Olivia, and you know it."
"The scholarship–"
"Who gives a damn about the fucking scholarship? What about what I wanted? What about my band? You never even gave me a thought, did you? Because you were too concerned with your precious life to care about how you were fucking up mine!"
"Brad!" Their dad’s voice was much louder now, sending the words echoing throughout the room as they bounced off the near empty walls. Silence fell over the table. No one dared to look at one another – the atmosphere was too tense.
Then, Brad pulled his chair back with such force that it fell backwards onto the floor, shattering the silence with its loud crash. Olivia stared down at her lap, not daring to meet her brother’s eyes. She was the sole reason why he was so unhappy, and she couldn’t forget it. Maybe she had ruined this family. Maybe it was all her fault. Maybe Brad was right. Was he?
"Soon," Brad said quietly, as he stepped back from the table. He looked up, his eyes narrowed menacingly at his father. "I’m gonna be out of here. I swear to God, I am. And you better not stop me."
And with another threatening look at the two of them, he marched angrily out of the room and slammed the door behind him with such force that the noise made Olivia wince.
Even though she knew Brad was just angry – angry to be moved to a place away from his band and his friends – she couldn’t help but wonder if he was right. She wasn’t enjoying being at Serenity Falls anywhere near as much as she thought she would’ve when she first laid eyes on the school brochure. It wasn’t a place where the students wanted to learn. It wasn’t a place full of people like her, so grateful to be at such a prestigious school. It was far from it.
Had she made the right decision?
Now the thought was stuck in her mind, she doubted that it would ever go away.
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