New
Neighbours
Chapter
Six: Poor Grandma!
Lilly and I sat on the bathroom floor of Velocity until two girls, Alicia Rodgers and Kayla Norton came in. I adjusted my position, remembering I was wearing a skirt but other then that we didn't move. When they were done looking at themselves in the mirror and hiking they're already thigh-high skirts up they walked over to us. Sighing I stood up and so did Lilly, who I could tell was in the mood for a confrontation.
Jutting out one hip and placing a hand on it, Alicia looked us over and uttered one word, "Pathetic."
Jumping at the challenge Lilly answered back, "You know I was thinking the same thing to!" She was pretending to be astounded. I couldn't help but laugh. You always know what to do to cheer me up Lilly.
"Funny," She turned back to Kayla, the mindless automaton who followed her around everywhere. "Let's go!"
As they walked out the door Lilly spun around a bit. "That sucks I wanted to talk to them!" She whined.
"Talk?" I questioned her.
"Okay so maybe not talk per say, but I wanted them to stay. I love 'chatting' with them," She used air quotes and tried her best innocent look. It failed, completely.
I burst out laughing this time and started to hiccup. "Ahhhhhhh…Thanks a lot Lilly, you gave me the….Hiccups!"
"Well at least I got you laughing again," She said while grabbing my elbow and pulling me out of the door.
All of a sudden everything that had happened that night came back to me.
Dancing…
Tristin…
Talking…
Tristin…
Anger…
…Tristin…
"Where is he!" I seethed.
Looking into my eyes she knew who I was talking about. Just as she was about to answer Nikki and Maddy came up to us. They had worried expressions on their faces but they didn't say anything.
"Hey guys glad you're okay. Why don't we go home now, and talk about what happened," Maddy asked us while shedding momentary look over her shoulder, towards the bar.
"No! I have to talk with a certain blonde bad ass!" My voice was raising and it was drawing attention to us. I turned around and stood on my tip toes, searching the crowd for Tristin.
Gulping Nikki came up to me with an apologetic look on her face. "I'm sorry Ror but we have to do this," Before I could understand what she meant, someone seized my arms and held them behind my back, then Nikki grasped my left shoulder and Lilly took my other one. Between the three of them they dragged me kicking and screaming out of the club.
"Okay so maybe I acted immature last night,"
"Maybe!" They all yelled at me.
"Okay, okay. I was like that annoying little kid that throws temper tantrums in the middle of the grocery store when she doesn't get what she wants!" I let out before falling back onto my bed and hugging my stuffed rooster to my chest.
The girls had dragged me home last night and they had all slept over so that we could talk through what had happened. The four of us had spent most of the night in the basement watching old black and white movies and talking. Finally we made our way into my room and dove head first into what had happened earlier at the club.
"Rory, honey, want to tell us why you felt the need to tell the whole club that he's an asshole?" Nikki asked me from her spot on the spare mattress on the floor.
"He called me a Mary!" I said outraged.
The girls exchanged glances. "Did he pull your hair and tell you you have cooties to?" Maddy asked with a small smile on her face.
"What?" Okay someone please explain this.
Lilly moved a bit closer to me on the bed and explained what Maddy had said. "It's just that when a guy calls a girl a Mary, it means that he likes said girl."
"No, a Mary is a disgusting and degrading term which one uses when they think that a girl is sexually inexperienced!"
Nikki jumps in at this point. "Listen Rory I'm all for standing up for women's rights. You know that! And I know that being called a Mary isn't the most romantic thing a guy could call you but it does signify that he has a thing for you."
"How?" I asked, being the monosyllabic girl.
They all looked at each other again. Maddy was the first to talk. "Sweetie, lets look at this through a different perspective okay?"
"Okay…Who's?"
"Tristin's," She answered.
I groaned at the mention of his name. Okay there are like what…6 billion people on the earth and they had to pick Tristin! That's not fair.
"Okay now Rory just here us out first," Nikki told me.
Taking a deep breath Lilly started. "So you're Tristin right. And you're really popular and you've got lots of money and you can buy almost anything you want. You've also got the pretty boy looks and you know it. Now after moving to this new place all these things were all of a sudden given to you on a silver platter; money, power, control, girls. Being a 16 year old guy though money and girls are the most important…"
"Is this going anywhere?" I knew I was probably grating on their last nerves but I really didn't see the point in what she was saying.
"Yes it is, now let me finish," She berated me. I nodded and motioned for her to continue. "Thank you. Okay, being a 16 year old guy again… Now, he walks the halls of North Brook, well actually he doesn't walk he kinda struts. And you know why? It's because he knows that every girl in that school wants him. Now being this over confident, player type, that you are, what is you're reaction when you meet a girl you actually have real feelings for?" She looked at me. I didn't say anything so she continued. "You think, 'What the hell is different about this girl?' You won't know what hit you at first. But then you'll start to realize that you want to be near her and you want to get her attention. So what happens when this girl you like doesn't fall for your charm and good looks? You revert back to grade three tactics; tease the girl you like."
I looked at her skeptically, "So you're saying that Tristin really likes me and that he's teasing me and calling me a Mary because I'm the first girl who doesn't bow down and kiss his feet?"
"Exactly!" They all said together, happy I had finally gotten it.
Nodding my head I got of the bed and walked to the door, "Yeah right! And next you'll tell me that the Beatles are all alive, well and are coming to play here in Hartford!" I laughed some more as I thought about their absurd notion of Tristin liking me. I had completely forgotten about what I had told Lilly in the bathroom last night.
"Crap!" Nikki stated as she to came to stand and make her way to the door also.
Lilly and Maddy just exchanged looks as they followed Nikki out the door, both of them thinking the same thing.
She can't stay oblivious forever…
REGULAR P.O.V.
They crept up the stairs silently, not wanting to alert the occupants of the house to their presence. They made their way to one of the many doors lining the hallway. It was covered with bumper stickers, band logo's and pictures cut from magazines or printed of the internet. Turning the knob one of the guys pushed open the door and motioned for the two people behind him to wait outside. Creeping towards the bed in the centre of the room the man leaned forward a bit. Gauging the expression on the girls face he turned in the direction of the door. "She's asleep, you can come in," It was said in a quiet voice as the man sank down into a red bean bag chair. "So why'd you wanna come in here anyway?" Billy Hayden asked as an after thought.
"Well it's because of his dad," The darker one answered as he went over to the huge bookcase that took up almost one whole wall.
"Your dad?" Billy tore his gaze from Blake and looked over at the other guy.
"Yeah my dad's doing business with your dad," The blonde replied. He walked further into the room, coming to stand in front of another door which had a 'Fashion Avenue' street sign nailed on it.
"So what's that have to do with going through Rory's room?"
"His dad decided that since your dad doesn't really trust him completely that Tristin should date one of his daughters. Then the daughter will put in a good word and your dad will continue doing business with him," Blake told the older guy before taking a seat in a purple bean bag chair next to him.
He wasn't next to Billy for long because only seconds after he had heard the plan he was out of his seat and dragging Tristin by the elbow out of the room. He yanked the blonde boy down the hall and pushed him roughly into his old room. "So let me get this straight, you're going to pretend to date my baby sister! You're going to pretend that you have feelings for her! You're going to mess with her heart just so daddy can make a business deal! You're sick!"
"It's not like I want to do this to her! It's not like I have a choice!"
"Of course you have that choice! You either do it or you don't, it's called free will!"
"No, I don't have that choice right now. All I can do is go along with my dad's plan and hope that Rory will forgive me!"
"Why can't you say no? What have you got to loose!"
"I don't know! It's just that Rory is this amazing girl and she's different from every other girl at school and it's like I can't be around her without making her want to kill me!" Tristin let out as he started to pace in front of Billy.
"What do you mean you can't be around her without making her want to kill you?" He asked confused as hell.
"She's the only girl that hasn't fallen for me because of what I look like or how popular I am. She doesn't care about appearances because to her it's what's on the inside that counts."
"And you're scared because you think you might actually feel something other then a physical attraction to her, right?"
"Yeah, how'd you know?" He asked as he sat himself on the bed.
"I was in your exact same position when I was in high school too," Billy told the younger teen as he to came to sit on the bed.
"You were? What'd you do?"
"Well I was raised mostly by my grandparents who are major socialites. They brought me up to be polite and charming but they also taught to never show real emotion. So I always wore a mask, and I never felt any genuine emotion until a certain person came into the picture. She was beautiful, naïve and so pure. Her name was Michelle Connery," He had a far off look in his eyes, like he was remembering everything about her.
"You loved her didn't you?" Tristin asked even though he already knew the answer.
"Oh yah, I loved her so much it hurt, probably because the only feelings she had for me were disgust and hatred. Which is why I'm gonna help you," His face was determined.
To say he was surprised was an understatement. "You are? I thought you would pound me or something…" He trailed off not wanting to give the older guy any ideas.
Laughing wryly Billy put his arm around Tristin's shoulders, "You're okay you know that." He got up and made his way to the door. "But if you hurt her, you're a dead man Dugrey…I swear to God!"
The rest of the morning at the Hayden house passed by without problems that is until quarter to twelve when the twins decided to make their appearance. They walked into the living room, hair messed up, eyes not fully open yet and pajama's still present. Not they were real pajamas anyway. The girls had on music shirts and plaid pants. A horrifies gasp was heard when the girls straightened up showing off their midriffs.
(RORY P.O.V.)
"You let them pierce their navels!" Was the outraged cry from their grandmother, Janet Hayden.
We exchanged amused looks not yet noticing the other people in the room. "Well grandma I didn't get my navel pierced," I told her smiling sweetly.
"Well thank God you've got at least some sense," She replied still looking at the piercing adorning Lilly's stomach.
Smirking I turned to Lilly and asked innocently if we had any good cereal. She tipped her head to the side, placed her pointer finger to her chin and tapped it a few times before answering that I should check in the kitchen. "Good idea!" I said biting my lip to keep from laughing. I turned around fully and lifted my arms up. As expected my shirt rose a few inches exposing a tattooed barcode just above the waistband of my pants. On cue I heard my grandmother my grandmother draw in her breath before muttering 'Oh dear Lord!' and exiting the room in a frenzy.
Spinning around on my heel I caught sight of my mom practically choking on her bacon in the corner. At the same times Lilly and I broke into hysterics.
"Now even as amusing as that was," Dad paused as he cracked a smile, "It wasn't appropriate in front of our company."
"Company? I hardly think grandma and…" She looked over at our grandfather who was reading a newspaper and probably didn't even know we were here, "Grandpa are company."
"Yeah Dad I mean…" My sentence was never finished because three boys walked into the room right then. My eyes darkened when I saw Tristin was one of them; I still hadn't resolved the whole Tristin issue. Swallowing I looked over at Lilly who I could tell was as shocked to see the boys as I was.
"Ah…Now Billy did you show the boys around? Give them a good tour?" Dad asked.
"Sure did pop."
"Well that's good then, now Tristin and Blake will know how to get to around. I can't have them bothering you with directions on how to get tot heir rooms," The voice was cold and strict; not a voice I recognized.
Letting my gaze leave the blonde teen, I turned in the direction of the voice. My blue orbs came to rest on a man who looked to be about early 40's. He was wearing a tailored suit; Armani I wouldn't doubt. His hair was combed, his shoes were polished and he held himself with confidence and great poise. He came across slimy, fake and detached. He was a business man, a man of the elite. And I hated him instantly.
"Wait a minute…Their rooms?" Not to self, 'Thank Lilly for paying attention.'
"Yeah, they don't live here," It came out rudely and impolite, like I was reminding them of something they didn't forget.
"Well, Miss. Hayden, they will be staying her for a while, along with myself," The strange man replied as if he was mocking me, baiting me.
And I grabbed on hard, ready for the ride. "Oh joy!"
His eyes narrowed before he advanced towards me. Coming to stand directly in front of me he practically growled, "You should learn to respect your elder, Miss. Hayden!"
I knew I was pushing my luck but I couldn't help it. "Why?"
"Because if you don't you might find yourself in a situation where no matter what, you loose. Perhaps boarding school?"
"Well I already go to a military school, so I'm guessing they wouldn't be that different."
"Your daughter is very disrespectful, you might want to look into further discipline for her," His off-handed comment was directed at my father even though he was still staring me in the eye.
I looked over my shoulder and saw my dad scrunch up his eyebrows before nodding his head and mouthing, 'Sure'.
Mom decided to jump in, probably wanting to distract me from making this man even angrier. "Girls I have the perfect idea! Why don't you two take the boys out with you today? I mean they've only been here for a week they couldn't have seen everything."
"Why can't Billy?" I asked, not wanting to be stuck with Tristin all day long.
"Sorry kiddo, I gotta work," Billy said before planting a kiss on my forehead and patting Lilly on the head. "Later Chris, Lorelai!" Billy yelled by the front door. He had found a liking by calling dad and mom by their real names. I didn't get it…
I closed my eyes and shook my head a couple times but answered my mom none the less, "Sure they can come, why not?"
-Ella
