Chapter 10: Unresolved Revelations

The whole room was silent as Helia stayed put in his position in front of the door, looking directly at Flora. I look back at the front table to see Flora's shocked face and Riven's angered one. Brandon decides to do some damage control by standing up and saying, "Okay, who's getting in line first?"

It took a few moments, but the guests started to line up at the buffet and talk quietly amongst themselves. I'm positive they were gossiping about Helia's unexpected appearance. Riven tries to put on a calm face (and fails miserably) as he walks over to Helia with Flora on his heels. I was expecting her to look angry or frustrated but she only looked… nervous?

"Okay, I'm going to get some food before the fight starts," Bloom says. "It's best to eat while watching a good showdown."

"No one's fighting," Brandon snapped. He was studying the trio that just met at the back of the room. "Why is Helia even here?" I asked Brandon who just shrugged in response.

"Whatever it is, Riven is about to blow his cap off about it." Brandon responds. "Stay here, Stell. I'm going to break this up before it escalates." Good thing he did because Flora looked like she was already pleading with Riven to calm down. Riven wasn't looking at her though; his glare was vicious as he stared down Helia. Helia didn't look fazed, however. He was focused on Flora.

I was sure Riven was about to pounce right before Brandon got there. I stood up and made my way over even with Bloom protesting me not to. Flora looked right about hysterical right now.

"Get the hell out of here!" Riven hissed at Helia. Brandon was slightly holding Riven back.

Helia shook his head. "Not until I speak with Flora. Flora," Helia looked down at her, pleadingly, "please just give me a minute."

"Helia, just leave," Brandon warned, struggling slightly with Riven. "You're upsetting Flora."

Speaking of Flora, she looked absolutely torn at the moment. She seemed to come to a decision as she turn to Riven and put her hands on both sides of his face. "I'll be right back, Riven."

Riven looked like she just slapped her. "What? You're going with him?"

"Stop overreacting. I'll fix this, okay?" She leaned up and quickly pecked him on the lips then she turned around to Helia. He nodded, relieved, and led her to the hallway.

Riven shook Brandon's hands off of him. "This is bullshit," he said before stomping out of the room, probably to get some fresh air. Brandon just shook his head in annoyance. "That guy is such a drama queen."

"I'm sure I know where he got it from," I say looking at him pointedly.

Brandon chose to ignore my comment. "Hey, what are you doing over here? I thought I asked you to stay over there."

"You didn't ask me, you told me." I said with my hands on my hips. "I'm really bad at doing what people order me to do."

He rolled his eyes. "Calm down, gorgeous. I'm going to make sure Riven hasn't busted any windows out of anyone's car."

I tried, unsuccessfully to raise one eyebrow. "Why do you call me that?"

Brandon tried, successfully, and raised one eyebrow. "Because you're gorgeous. Is there a problem with that?"

"No!" I blushed slightly. "It's just…I'm not used to being called that."

"Well then," Brandon quickly wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me close to his chest, "I guess I just found your new nickname, gorgeous." I smiled and pecked his lips with mine once, twice, three times before I pulled away.

"You go check on Riven." I glance back at the doors that led to the hallway Helia and Flora were in. "Maybe I'll check in on Flora." I started to turn when Brandon grabbed my wrist and spun me back around.

"Oh, no you don't."

I scrunch up my forehead. "Why? Shouldn't we check on her?"

"I don't know if you have noticed or not, Stella, but Flora's an adult. She can handle this. We just need to stay out of her business." I was still hesitant so he tried a different tactic. "Why don't you go and have some more fun with your friends?"

I looked over at the buffet line where Roxy was talking it up with a couple of guys. Bloom and Sky looked a little tipsy as they were just dancing around the table. They all seemed to be having an alright time without me. I faced Brandon again and he sighed, seeing the same thing I was.

"Just stay out of it, Stella," Brandon warned. I knew Brandon was a private person so of course he would respect others privacy. I guess I'll respect it too.

I nodded. "Okay." Brandon smiled and kissed my forehead.

"I'll be right back," he said and headed out of the door towards the cold November wind. I started to walk back towards Bloom and Sky when I heard a small bang on the floor. It came from the hallway. Okay, I know that Brandon wanted me to mind my own business but I can't just ignore the bump I heard. Something bad could be happening.

I snuck over to the door and pressed my ear to it. I could hear some things they were saying, but it was kind of muffled. They sounded so far away. I opened the door slightly. There. Much better.

"…believe you're doing this, Helia!" Flora's voice is exasperated as she talks to Helia. Her back is to me so I can only see Helia's face, but I can still read her body language. I look to the right and see that a fake vase was rolling back and forth slowly next to Helia. I guess that was the thump I heard earlier.

"I'm not doing anything that shouldn't be done, Flora. You know how much I love you. There has been no one else and never will be," Helia is desperately trying to get her to understand. Jeez, he must have really screwed up their relationship.

Flora huffed. "Oh, really? I don't remember that pink haired girl not meaning anything to you." Pink haired girl… pink haired girl… Helia's girlfriend! I remember now.

"You know why I had to pretend with her. She means nothing to me compared to how I feel about you."

"Whatever, Helia. You didn't have to be with her."

"I know that. I have nothing with her, trust me."

Flora shook her head and glanced away from him. "It doesn't matter anymore. I'm with Riven."

Helia narrowed his eyes. "Flora, you can't be serious with that guy. He cares about you; I can see that, but I know that he isn't the right guy for you."

Flora placed her hands on her hips. "And how do you figure that?"

Helia stepped forward causing her to step back. He hesitantly crept forward some more until Flora backed herself against the opposite wall. He stood in front of her and said, "Because I am."

Flora turned her head to the side and for the first time I can see her face full on. Her eyes are squeezed shut and I think I see a tear falling down her cheek. "Helia…don't. I love Riven. Why are you making this so hard for me?" She whispered the last part of her sentence.

Helia reached out and stopped the tear from falling off her face with his fingertips. "I'm not trying to hurt you, Flora. I just can't let you make the mistake of marrying him. Can you honestly look me in the face and tell me you aren't still in love with me?"

Flora pushed his hand away from her face. "Get out of here Helia," she demanded in a shaky voice, not looking at him as he spoke.

"No. Not until you can look me in the eye and tell me you don't love me anymore."

It was silent for so long that even I was getting anxious for the answer. I knew this was a mega private moment for these two, but I couldn't bring myself to look away. Finally, Flora looked up at Helia.

"I… I love Riven. Please just let me be…happy," She said breathlessly. Helia shut his eyes before slowly shaking his head.

"You and I both know you're not in love with him and as long as that's true… I'm not letting you get away from me for good Flora. I can't." He softly kissed her forehead and walked out the door opposite to the one he walked in through.

Once the door closes with a small thud, Flora slides to the floor and starts to sob quietly. I opened that door fully and quickly made my way over to her. She looked startled at first to see me, but didn't seem to care when I pulled her into my arms. She cried gently on my shoulder.

"I hate this so much, Stella," she whispered. "Why can't I just have some sort of emotional stability for once? Is that too much to ask?"

I stroked her hair. "No one is always emotionally stable, no matter what." I pull back and sit on the ground beside her. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"I probably should. I haven't told anyone the reason Helia and I really broke up and it's been like a huge weight on my chest." She sighed. "A little over two years ago, before he started working at Alfea Corp, Helia and I started dating. He totally swept me off my feet you know?" Yeah, I knew. Kind of like how Brandon did the same to me. "He was so sweet and loving and kind and gentle and… good. I never met a man like him."

She sniffled. "It didn't take long for me to fall for him. You should have seen me, Stella. I was crazy about him. He was crazy about me too, though. Heck, even Brandon liked him and he doesn't like any of my boyfriends. He's just overprotective like that. Still is. Anyway, everything was great except for one little thing. He is the son of one of my family's rivals."

My eyes widened slightly. "Did Brandon know?"

Flora shook her head. "We never told him. There was no point to me. Helia despised his parents because he didn't believe in what they stood for. They were constantly pressuring him into joining the family business, but he just resented them for it. Helia loves his parents, though and didn't want to disappoint them any further then he already has. They all kept their distance from one another, but not when his parents found out he was dating me." I swallowed the lump in my throat, already having a feeling about how they ended the relationship.

"At first," Flora continued, "Helia didn't care what they thought. Well, that's what he told me. It was about two or so weeks later when he started acting fishy. He didn't have as much time to spend with me anymore and sometimes we would even go days without talking to each other, let alone seeing one another. It was horrible on me because he usually made it a must to call or text me every day just to tell me he loved me." Her breath caught as she said that.

"I decided to go to his house one day when he didn't return my calls. I pulled up right when he was walking out. With that woman." I'm guessing she's talking about Krystal, the pink haired girl. "He kissed her cheek and smiled at her… like he used to smile at me. They got in the car and I decided to do some detective work and follow him. They went to a restaurant and met up with Helia's parents. I had never seen Helia happy to see his parents. They weren't chummy like that!

"I had enough of it by then. Just when they got seated, I went up to Helia and faced him head-on. He looked shocked and so guilty. I just yelled some stuff I don't remember at him and ran back out of the restaurant crying." Some more tears fell as she explained. I fished around in my purse for some tissues and handed them to her. She smiled her thanks and continued. "He caught up to me and tried to explain. Apparently his parents forced him to go out with the girl. They didn't want me dating the enemy and he wanted to at least placate them with the idea a while longer. But I wasn't going to be a secret. He either stood up to his parents or we were through. You can obviously see what he decided."

We sat there in silence. Poor Flora. She out of all people didn't deserve that. She wiped her face some more. "I mean, I get that he wanted to please his parents because I do too, but I love him enough to disobey my parents. That probably sounded so childish, but oh well." I smiled and bumped my shoulder against hers.

"I'd totally disobey my parents too," I told her which was true. I wouldn't let them even try to tell me I couldn't be with Brandon.

"Then there was Riven. He always kind of had a crush on me so it was fitting that he was there for me through the whole breakup ordeal. After a while, he made his true feelings more known and I thought 'why not', you know? Everything was starting to look up until we got a new employee. I didn't expect Helia to get a job at Alfea, especially since Brandon knows we had that bad breakup. I was so mad at Brandon too."

"Well, did Brandon say why he did it?" I was highly confused as to why he would hire him.

"He said it was a good business venture. Apparently, my family and Helia's family were both making some kind of peace treaty or whatever. He said he would get rid of him if I told him what he did that was so terrible, but I just wasn't ready for that. This just turned out to be such a big mess."

I leaned my head against hers. "What do you think you're going to do?"

"I don't even know. I love Riven, I really do but… I don't think…" She couldn't seem to get the words out. I rubbed her arm.

"I get it, it get it." Flora shook her head.

"No, I don't think you do." She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. I tilted my head to the side to look at her.

"I know I might be stepping out of bounds here but… are you still… in love with Helia?"

Flora's eyes watered once again. "Yes," she got out before burying her face in her hands. "What am I going to do?" She asked into her hands.

I wished I could give her an answer.

Brandon stopped the car in front of my apartment complex. He turned to me with a smile. "Well that was an interesting night." I nodded silently.

"Are you okay? Something else happen?" Brandon asked with a concerned expression. I couldn't tell him about what happened with Flora for two reasons. 1) He asked me not to get involved with all of this in the first place and 2) Flora begged me not to tell anyone else, especially Brandon. She said that if I told him then he would definitely fire Helia and she didn't want Helia to lose his job. Flora was too nice for her own good sometimes.

I smile, hoping it looked convincing. "Everything's fine. I just hope that Flora's okay."

"I think she'll be fine. She knows I would kick Helia's ass if he did something too terrible." He got out of the car.

"That's what she's afraid of," I mumble as he walked over to my side and opened the door. I step out and he holds out his arm for me to take. I giggle at his silly act of chivalry but play along. "Why, thank you kind sir." I place my hand on the crook of his arm and he smiles charmingly at me.

"No problem at all, ma'am. Always nice to help a beautiful woman." I blushed and looked down as he led me up the stairs and to the door of my apartment.

"You know, I'm starting to think that you don't believe me," Brandon observed, leaning on the wall with his shoulder and looking at me.

"What do you mean?" I ask copy his actions against my door.

"When I compliment you, you seem shocked or something. Like you don't believe it."

"Oh," I shrug, "I just don't really see myself like that. Compared to all the beautiful woman in the world, I just see myself as a speck, really. I mean, I don't think I'm ugly, but not all the things you've said." I say honestly. I've never told anyone that before. I didn't even know that was exactly how I felt before the words came spilling out of my mouth.

Brandon looked at me intensely. "You should never feel like that, Stella. You are honestly the most beautiful woman I have ever known."

My face felt all hot again and I turned it away from him. "Brandon…"

He held up his hands in a surrendering motion. "Okay, Okay. I can tell you're uncomfortable with it." He came closer to me until we were only a heartbeat apart. "But you have to know now that I have to make you believe it now."

"What?" I ask, slightly dizzy from him being so close. His scent is wonderfully shocking to my senses. It drives me crazy.

"You'll see." He grinned and I was once again dazzled by his smile. I couldn't help myself as I reached up and brought his lips down to mine. He smiled against my lips, but responded back with equal exuberance. When we finally broke apart, Brandon leaned his forehead against mine.

"I should go now."

I nodded. "You should." We say this but don't let go of one another. Brandon leaned in for another kiss when Bloom came banging up the stairs.

"Hey, cut it out you two. I need to get inside and you're blocking the door." She pushed in between us and opened the apartment door, rushing to the bathroom. I guess her late night drinking got to her.

"I really hope she didn't drive here," I say as an afterthought. Brandon shook his head.

"Sky probably got her a cab or something. I guess this is my signal to go." Bloom totally broke our romantic mood. I was going to smack her later.

"Okay," I sighed. He chuckled and kissed my lips longingly.

"I'll see you later, gorgeous," he whispered before turning and walking down the stairs. He gave me a smile before he was out of sight completely. I grinned to myself and went inside of the apartment. I knocked on the bathroom door and said, "Bloom, you better not throw up in the sink. That's just nasty."

"Too late," she said miserably. I sighed angrily, but went inside to help my friend out.

A/N: Thanks so much for all the support! I had to update because you guys are just that awesome. We're almost at 100 reviews already! Spectacular!

Okay, so you discovered Flora and Helia's past relationship. Was it what you were thinking? Poor Flora. What should she do?

Next chapter I'm laying off the drama. It's going to be a nice Stella and Brandon chapter that will give you a break from the drama. But don't get too used to it. I've got so many more ideas for this story...

Wait, I'm getting ahead of myself. You have to tell me if you even liked this chapter to begin with...

So...Review!