Did you miss me?
Chapter One: The Boy Who Had Everything and Nothing at the Same Time
Snob.
Trust fund baby.
Fat cat.
Steven threw a dart for every insult that had been thrown at him that week, tossing a small piece of his anger away with each one.
The billiards room was dark. It had become evening without his noticing. He didn't care. Day or night, he'd practiced enough with his darts that he was a perfect shot, though he didn't care much about that either at that moment.
He took another swig of whiskey from a bottle he'd taken from his father's liquor cabinet. His father's. Everything was his father's.
He threw another dart.
Granted, Steven had been able to lead a more than comfortable life with the money made by his father's- he threw another dart- company the Devon Corporation, but these advantages came with a heavy price.
Steven sighed, wincing that the burn from another sip from the tall bottle and stared at the wall. He couldn't quite make out all of the darts using only the moonlight as his guide, but their silhouettes were in a clump around the bull's eye. That is, all but one, the last one, that had hit the wall. He'd become too drunk to throw straight.
He cursed and thought about checking the time. Did he dare? He didn't want to, but he knew it was a necessary evil at this point. He knew it was late. Shaking and slapping himself into what he hoped would be a greater consciousness, he peered at his wrist. It was fifteen minutes until nine.
Blast! He was almost late for his nine o'clock appointment! He hated these meetings, but they weren't an option. Besides, Selenium, or worse his father would come and try to find him if he was late and find that he was drinking again and that would not go well. The only thing to do was to go to the meeting room and wait for the incoming tornado that was Selenium.
Like many of the other rooms, the conference room was all dark wood with many windows draped in mulberry silk. Steven sat in a tall burgundy and gold brocade chair and drummed the tips of his fingers on the large, round table. Every so often the large steel cuffs from his work suit (the one he was made to wear in all official meetings and other goings-on) would hit the table with a clink.
8:58.
8:59.
9:00 exactly and Selenium burst through the door with briefcase in hand. She was never early and never late.
Her tall, tanned, slim figure and burgundy dress went nicely with the room, Steven thought. But he also thought she should leave him alone for all eternity, so there were contrasting ideas, though the latter was the most appealing to him.
"Mr. Stone you were twenty-one years old as of October sixth and a full-blown adult..." she started.
Oh joy.
He cut in and out of her lecture, half listening, a quarter thinking about what he was going to have for dinner, and a quarter wondering if he'd be able to hold his lunch until the end of the meeting. He gave perfunctory one or two worded answers to assure her that he was still listening every once and awhile in between.
"You're in charge while your father is gone on the business trip to Petalburg, you know!"
"Of course." Please stop speaking.
"If you want to go back to your hovel in Mossdeep you're going to have to behave... I don't even understand why you like that place at all!"
"I will." Is it over yet?
"You're the heir to the Devon throne, so to speak, so you need to start acting like it!"
"Okay." Kill me.
"When are you going to fire that maid of yours? She's been stealing from you for months!" At this, she reached over the table and snapped in Steven's face. "Hello? Mr. Stone, you must take this seriously!"
The snapping was much too loud for his already throbbing headache from a mixture of too much alcohol and Selenium's grating voice. "Morgan doesn't take more than a hundred dollars worth of things a week. Besides, she's a good maid and I wouldn't know where to get a better one," he said irritably.
She puffed, fixing her already immaculately done almond brown hair. "Do you even know what your father is doing in Petalburg?"
"Do I look like I care in the slightest?"
Selenium looked greatly offended, her mouth hanging open, speechless. This slowly transformed into a seething anger. Her mouth snapped closed and her jaw clenched. "Mr. Stone- Wait." She sniffed the air. "Steven Stone! Are you drunk again?"
"Woo hoo, someone's perceptive. Look Selenium, let's just reschedule this whole this whole thing, alright?" He got up to leave a little wobbly.
"No, Mr. Stone, we cannot. We will sit down and talk about these issues or I will tell your father about your," she snorted in disgust," alcoholic relapse and you will get who knows how long of a suspension from rock collecting."
Steven drummed his fingers on the table once and cracked his neck. "Silph and Devon will be having a meeting to discuss copyright infringements later next week, Doctor Paisley and I will speak about the Running Shoes 2.0 tomorrow morning when I go down to the lab for my yearly check-up, you will make the arrangements for Morgan's twenty-day eviction notice and the moving company to help her with her things, you will absolutely not schedule me another appointment with Briannica because I know that's what you were thinking, I will make arrangements for the new maid that was implied that father is bringing from Petalburg though that is sort of a long way to go for only a maid, and yes I will take father's pets for a walk. Any questions?" He never broke his steely gaze into her deep black eyes once, not even to blink.
Selenium blinked. "Yes, sir. I will take care of everything. Except maybe Briannica. I think it would do you well to see her."
"It would not." He sauntered toward the door.
She made a sort of irritated growling noise, but dropped the anger from her tone. "One more thing, Mr. Stone."
He was close to the doorway now. He spun, clasped his hands together under his chin, and blinked twice, putting on a perfect angel smile. "Yes, Selenium dearest?" his voice practically dripped with sarcasm.
She narrowed her eyes. "She's not a maid."
"Then get me one." And with that he spun back, waltzed to the doorway, barfed into the wastebasket, and marched out.
Steven did not feel well enough nor did he have the energy to eat dinner, so he decided it was best to just go to bed.
Steven's room was, to say the least, lovely. His calamander wood king sized four poster bed stood draped in fine deep violet silk. At the end of the room there was a set of tall, glass double doors that led to a balcony filled with flowers- mostly sweet violets (his mother's favorite)- that the maid watered everyday with a little, green, slightly rusted watering can.
On one side of the doors was an armoire with mermaids carved in it. On the other side was a gigantic display cabinet that kept his most precious stones he'd found along his journeys.
He would have traded every last one to be a real person with a real life.
Steven walked to the calamander wood desk beside his bed pulling off his purple and black shoes as he went. He pulled open an intricately handled drawer and took a little blue velvet box out of it. Inside it was his mother's wedding ring of Unovan crystallized moonblossom dew. His mother would not have been proud of how he acted today. He felt really... well, bad for how he treated Selenium. Though in his defense she could be nicer and less nagging, but that was really no way to treat a person who was only trying to help him. He wasn't really angry with Selenium, anyways. He was angry with the Devon Corporation for taking his childhood, his father, and his future away from him.
Selenium would be gone by now, so it was too late to apologize. It wasn't like she'd talk to him anyway. He'd just have to do it during the next meeting, maybe get her something nice. No, he'd find her a nice stone. That was it. Something he hadn't bought, but had worked for.
He flung himself onto his bed. He tried so hard to be a good person to everyone that he didn't know and sometimes didn't even like that he forgot his own personal adviser, someone who was actually trying to help him.
"Tomorrow will be better," he said to himself. "Tomorrow will be better." He clutched the ring box close to his heart and drifted into sleep.