This is the longest chapter I wrote for this story so far, so I hope this makes it up for my record-breaking long absence. (◯Δ ◯∥)
Song: Beautiful Liar (Beyoncé and Shakira)
The aroma from the DeVille's kitchen filled the living room as Phil prepared the popcorn they would all be munching on during the movie later. After transferring the popcorn to a large bowl, he set it aside and moved on to preparing the ingredients for the nachos.
Lil invited the whole gang for a movie night at her place, just as she promised. It's just a little get-together in the middle of a busy semester. It's practically a tradition ever since they were younger and a way for the whole gang to catch up.
Lil peeked from the kitchen entrance first before slowly walking to her twin brother who was too occupied sautéing some aromatics in the pan.
"Smells good! What are you making?" Lil asked as she stood on Phil's side, watching him cook.
"I'm craving some nachos, so I thought it would be a good snack to prepare for everyone," Phil replied, adding ground beef to the pan.
Lil stayed on his side and watched him mix all the ingredients in the pan. She then crossed her arms upon remembering something she was meaning to ask him when she entered the kitchen.
"I saw how you and Wally act around each other at practice earlier. Is everything okay?" Lil brought up in concern.
Phil stopped moving for a few seconds upon hearing what Lil just said. He glanced at his sister then looked at the pan again and murmured, "I don't want to talk about it."
His relationship with Wally has been on and off over the years. Currently, they're in the "off" phase again, making it difficult to go through soccer practices and talk about her with his sister.
Lil knows from the tone of his response that something wrong is going on, but she decided to back off a little bit as it looks like he's not ready to talk about it. Her brother's relationship with Wally has been honestly complicated over the past few years.
"Oh-kay," Lil replied, not wanting to push the conversation further. "I hope you two resolve that issue soon. Don't hesitate to talk to me if you want to vent out, okay?" she added, patting her brother's shoulder to which Phil smiled in response. She then poked his back and gestured that she was going to the living room.
As she walked to the living room, the phone in her pocket suddenly vibrated. She mindlessly pulled her phone up and saw one unread message.
Lil closed her phone excitedly and turned her attention to the people sitting on the couch. "That was Tommy guys! He's on his way with Dil and Chuckie," Lil said in excitement, which then turned to urgency after remembering that they don't have the DVD near the Television yet.
"You two welcome the rest of the gang here, I'll get that DVD we rented last week," Lil said before rushing upstairs.
Upon hearing Tommy's name, Kimi nervously looked at the floor. They haven't spoken or interacted with each other since the day he took her photos. She is starting to regret coming here, but with her brother also coming, she had no good excuse to stay away.
The sudden feeling of someone's hand patting her shoulders pulled her out of her thoughts. "Are you okay, Kimi?" Nadine asked in concern, noticing how nervous she looks.
Kimi turned to Nadine and smiled. "I'm fine, thank you," she replied, trying to sound calm as possible. It's for the best that no one knows what happened.
Nadine just nodded, believing her. She then slowly stood up from the couch, wondering why Lil was taking so long upstairs. "Hey, Kimi, would it be okay if I follow Lil upstairs? She seems like she needs help up there," she asked politely, waiting for Kimi's response before moving.
Kimi smiled, not minding the request. "Sure."
It started to get silent again until Angelica barged through the door without greeting anyone inside the house. Susie arrived as well, obviously looking tired of dealing with Angelica's behavior today. She waved at Kimi first before following Angelica who was now sitting on the couch.
"Why do we even have to be here, Susie?" Angelica ranted.
"A movie night is the best way to get your mind off things, and then tomorrow I'll help you find a job!" Susie explained, making herself comfortable on one of the couches.
"Hey, Kimi, who are we still waiting for?" Susie asked in curiosity.
Kimi responded, "Chuckie, Dil, and Tommy."
"Okay great, won't be that long," Susie replied before resting her head on the couch padding, releasing a breath of relief.
All the people sitting on the couch brightened up when Phil walked into the living room with bowls of popcorn in his arms. He placed them on the center table and checked if they were in the right position. Angelica couldn't wait any longer and started grabbing handfuls of popcorn.
Phil saw Angelica's hand and immediately slapped it, causing the popcorn to scatter around the table. Angelica gasped and shook her hand in pain.
"Ouch! It's just a snack. No need to be violent, De Ville!" Angelica said, massaging the back of her hand that he just slapped to ease the pain.
"No one touches the food until we're complete, don't you remember my rules?" Phil reminded, picking up all the scattered popcorn across the table.
Angelica frowned and crossed her arms. "Whatever. Food is meant to be eaten, not to be displayed, duh!"
Phil just rolled his eyes and shook his head, not wanting to deal with Angelica anymore. "I'm going back to the kitchen. Make sure that popcorn is untouched until all the gang is here," he said before walking off to the kitchen.
Angelica stood up and was just about to check if there was any DVD near the Television when someone knocked on the door, prompting her to rush back to the couch so she won't be obligated to respond to those guests.
Kimi watched the other girls on the couch with her and saw that neither of them are in the mood the open the door as one of them was too tired and the other was hesitant to stand up, leaving her no choice but to be the one to respond to the door.
Kimi huffed, standing up from her comfortable position, and walked uninterestedly to the door. She casually opened the door and was totally unprepared to see the person she's been avoiding for days standing right in front of her.
Her mind suddenly became blank. Although she knew Tommy was one of the people waiting behind the door, she still felt surprised to see him in person, as if she had not been imagining this inevitable encounter for days.
They stared at each other for a moment until someone accidentally pushed Tommy from behind, causing him to unintentionally lean on Kimi's body. She responded by holding onto him, preventing him from falling to the floor.
Tommy immediately stood straight and shot Dil a glare who was behind him, thinking he pushed him on purpose. Dil widened his eyes and shook his head in response, mentally telling that it was truly an accident.
Chuckie soon arrived and followed the Pickles brothers inside the house. "Hey Kimi, are we ready yet? Where's Phil and Lil?" he asked while walking to the couch to sit.
Tommy was just about to say something to Kimi when she walked away and followed her brother. It's clear that she's not going to talk to him for the remainder of the night, which is understandable given their unresolved issue. This is also not the right place to talk about it, so it's probably for the best to give her some space tonight.
Everyone in the living room was alerted when a very excited Lil came downstairs, holding a DVD of a film that looks like horror and has gore in it. "Are you guys ready to scream your lungs out?"
"Sweet! I've been wanting to watch that movie when they had it in theaters earlier this year," Susie commented, standing up from the couch and then landing her eyes on an unfamiliar face standing behind Lil.
"You haven't introduced us to this new friend of yours, Lil," Susie said, getting most people on the couches intrigued as well.
Lil turned to Nadine behind her and grabbed her hand before bringing her to the center of the room. "Nadine, this is Susie, Angelica, Dil, and Chuckie, some of my closest friends—" she said casually, pointing her hands to the respective persons one at a time. "—and guys, this is Nadine, my girlfriend," she ended confidently, smiling at everyone.
Almost everyone in the room greeted and happily welcomed Nadine to the group, except for Angelica, who crossed her arms and looked at Susie with a smug expression on her face. "Isn't that great? De Ville finally found her girl, and you still can't find a guy of your own!" she giggled, teasingly.
Susie's eyes bulged and embarrassingly responded, "Hey!"
As everyone else laughed, Susie's eyes landed on Chuckie with him coincidentally looking back at her. They both blushed for a few seconds but then instantly looked away from each other in embarrassment.
All the laughter continued until Chuckie noticed something.
"Why aren't you introducing her to Tommy and Kimi? They already knew her?" Chuckie wondered, noticing that Nadine isn't getting introduced to the two.
"I already met them over a week ago, so this is the second time I'm seeing both of them," Nadine answered, looking at Tommy and Kimi.
"Nice to see you again!" Tommy responded and waved at her.
Everyone in the room turned their attention to Kimi, waiting for her response just like Tommy did, but she looked around and seemed unsure of what to say.
It's not like she didn't like Nadine, she's in fact very nice to her and she appreciates that. It's just her relationship with him was still fine when they first met her but now everything is complicated, so she won't deny that remembering her first encounter with her is making her miss some things.
Kimi smiled, deciding to just say something that would satisfy everyone. "Yeah, me too."
Before everything gets awkward, Phil entered the living room, holding a big plate of nachos with his hands. He carefully placed it in the middle of two popcorn bowls on the center table before comfortably sitting on one of the available seats.
"Where's the movie? Aren't you going to start it yet, Lillian?"
"Oh yeah, wait!" Lil replied, pulling the DVD out of its case, then inserting it into the DVD player. She then grabbed the remote nearby and pressed play from the displayed options.
Dil rushed to the light switch and turned all the lights off, making the television the only light source in the whole room. The film was horror themed though, so it won't really give them a lot of light either.
Everyone began to dig into the nachos and popcorn as the movie started. The ladies were all sitting on the couches while some guys were on the floor, offering all the seats to the ladies.
They all seem to be enjoying all the snacks that Phil made, and Susie didn't hesitate to say something about it.
"As usual, Phil, this is really good. You never fail," Susie complimented before taking another nacho chip in her mouth.
"No need for compliments ladies, I won't be able to make another batch," Phil sarcastically responded, trying his best to minimize his inflating ego.
Susie and some of the gang quietly laughed at his response but were immediately cut off when a terrifying scene was flashed on the screen.
"Lil, who's that behind you?!" Phil exclaimed, feigning terror. Lil screeched momentarily, then turned around and saw nothing. She glared at her brother and threw some popcorn at him.
"Fuck you, Phillip!" Lil responded, making everyone else laugh.
While everyone watches the movie, Kimi's hands subconsciously landed on someone's shoulder below her. She was certain it was her brother, so she didn't hesitate to massage it a little bit. Her light grip on that shoulder then became tight when another jump scare was shown in the film. Everything is going fine, and everyone is invested in the plot.
But the shoulders she's holding aren't her brother's.
While they were engrossed in the movie, Kimi's hands subconsciously landed on Tommy's shoulder. He felt a slight shock at first but soon felt relaxed when her touch turned into a massage. Tommy knew it was her because she's the only person in the gang who loves doing subconscious gestures like that. He is so comfortable with it he can't focus on the movie anymore.
Kimi's soft and relaxing caresses sent shivers down his spine. It felt exactly like the touch he felt on his cheeks when they kissed, something that has been unable to escape from his mind.
Another jump scare startled everyone again. Tommy now felt her hugging him from behind, making him freeze in his position. He was surprised that she was holding him like that but then thought that she probably didn't know it was him. Regardless, he didn't dare to move as he didn't want to lose her tight hug.
Kimi was so confident it was Chuckie sitting below her until she saw some raven hair strands from the person she was hugging.
Her eyes widened and immediately released the hug. Tommy smirked, thinking that she probably figured out it was him. They both didn't look at each other and just turned their focus on the movie again, pretending that nothing happened.
They're finally reaching the halfway point of the film at this moment. On the screen, the main character discovers that his best friend and sister are having a relationship without his knowledge. The character became furious from the discovery while a piece of intense music played in the background. It was then followed by a truly horrifying scene of the main character killing his best friend in front of his sister, which made everyone in the room gasp.
"Whoa, that's harsh," Lil commented before munching on some popcorn.
"What do you mean harsh? That guy deserved it after betraying his best friend," Chuckie argued, crossing his arms.
"It's not like he's a terrible person to his sister for him to get crazy like that!" Susie butted in, agreeing with Lil.
"Exactly. It's not like he can control whom she falls in love with," Angelica echoed, defending Lil's argument.
Chuckie frowned and turned to face the girls who were agreeing with Lil's comment. "If a person truly respects their best friend, they wouldn't dare date any of their close family members. Do you have any idea what it would do to their friendship?" Chuckie defended, resolute in his opinion regardless of what anyone else in the room will say.
Kimi glanced fearfully at her brother before turning her attention back to the television, hoping to avoid any involvement in the conversation.
Tommy also glanced nervously at Chuckie and gulped upon hearing his strong opinion on the subject.
Phil decided to chime in to hopefully end the conversation as it was getting in the way of their enjoyment of the film. "Chill Chuck, it's just a movie. It's not like it'll happen to you," he commented.
Dil closed his mouth tightly, trying not to comment on their argument. He discreetly glanced at his brother sitting beside him and saw that he looked tense despite the dim room
"I'm just saying," Chuckie replied then turned his attention to Lil. "I'm actually surprised you're saying that, aren't you the one who got mad that Phil got into a relationship with Wally back in middle school?"
Phil looked down upon hearing her name and was surprised that Chuckie even brought her up, considering their relationship is currently struggling, but he decided to just not say anything as Chuckie doesn't know that they're not on good terms lately.
Lil wanted to respond but decided not to say it out of respect for Phil who's currently not on good terms with Wally. She's not involved in their issue or anything, but she always feels like his brother's struggles are also hers.
Angelica was getting irritated by the argument overshadowing the film and decided to intrude. "Enough!" she shouted. "Are we going to watch this film or are you guys just gonna argue for the rest of the night?"
The rest of the gang leaned back in their seats and resumed watching the film, which is now a scene where the sister is stabbing herself to death beside her boyfriend's dead body.
After watching the film, they all gathered in the dining room to have a little catch-up, but Angelica and Susie already went home as the former wanted to rest home and the latter was complying with her curfew. The gang would've loved to have them both for the rest of the night but respected their choices regardless.
Phil asked his sister to make some coffee for the gang to drink, as he didn't want anyone to get sleepy while he washed the dishes. Lil didn't mind and went to the kitchen to start brewing.
Chuckie looked at Lil and felt guilty about their little argument earlier, so he decided to stand up from his seat and walk to her.
"Hey!" Chuckie mumbled.
Lil nonchalantly turned to him, looking as if nothing happened between them earlier.
"Hello," Lil said with a smile.
Chuckie nervously tapped his fingers and spoke, "Sorry about what happened earlier. It's just that friendship is really important to me."
"Oh? I thought we already moved on from that," Lil responded honestly. "Don't worry, it's not a big deal. I respect your opinion even though I don't agree with it."
"Yeah, we can always agree to disagree, right?" Chuckie said nervously.
Lil is honestly still uncomfortable about his view on that subject but figured that he has a point about having different opinions on things and still being friends.
"Of course," Lil smiled.
Chuckie didn't go back to the table after their misunderstanding got resolved. He watched Lil pour the brewed coffee into several cups, and when she was about to lift all the cups by herself, he offered help by holding some cups and bringing them to the gang with her.
"So, Tommy, when will we start filming for your competition entry?" Lil asked, sitting on an empty chair, and starting a conversation.
Tommy sighed. "I haven't decided yet. I still need an actor for my male main character," he replied. "I already asked every potential good actor at school but all of them have full schedules for the next two months."
"I'm not exactly free all the time but I would be happy to complete your cast," Chuckie said, suggesting himself.
Tommy won't deny that he's surprised by the offer. "Are you sure, Chuckie? I mean I would love to have you in my film, but I don't want you to feel forced into this just because we're friends."
Chuckie chuckled. "Nah, I really want to do it," he replied genuinely. "You know, I spent most of my life being afraid and for once I want to try something out of my comfort zone."
"Woah, that's really inspirational, C-Man," Dil commented in amazement.
"That's what evening conversations do, my man," Chuckie giggled. "But I understand if I don't fit the role you're going for, I'll just help you find someone else."
"Are you kidding? You're absolutely the perfect actor to play the part I was looking for!" Tommy said in excitement. "So, it's settled, you and Lil are gonna be the stars of my film."
"Nice! This is gonna be your best film, Tommy!" Lil said, doing a high-five with Chuckie. "When will we start now? I need to clear my schedule for the shoot."
"Next Saturday? You two free that day?" Tommy suggested.
"Yes," Chuckie and Lil replied in unison, making the room laugh. Tommy stared at the two and already sensed their potential acting chemistry. This upcoming film indeed has the potential to be his best.
Lil noticed that Kimi had been unusually quiet since they started watching the movie earlier. She initially dismissed her silence and assumed that she might just be tired. However, as the gang continued to laugh together, she began to feel concerned about Kimi's prolonged silence.
"Kimi. Are you okay girl?" Lil asked in concern.
Kimi was immediately awakened from her silence and forced a smile on her face. "Y-yeah, I'm fine," she responded. She then shared a glance with Tommy, who was also feeling concerned for her. "It's just that I haven't talked to anyone here but my brother for days, so I just want to listen to what everyone has been up to," she nervously added.
"Yeah, Kimi's been busy with a lot of requirements in the press, so let's give her some space," Chuckie said, validating her sister's response.
It wasn't a lie that Kimi had been busy with press requirements lately, but there was definitely a bigger reason why she hadn't been talking much with the gang tonight.
"I understand, but don't hesitate to share something if you want, okay?" Lil said in encouragement.
"Yeah, of course," Kimi replied, smiling genuinely this time.
Angelica walked behind Savannah, Brianna, and Paris as she held all their books in her arms. It was very heavy, but she tried her best to walk comfortably while the other girls chatted with each other, completely ignoring her presence. She is starting to get frustrated about why she still has to follow orders to fit in with them when they've been hanging out together for years.
Angelica tiredly followed the girls as they entered a conference room. There she let out a sigh of relief upon seeing a table to put the books down for a while to let her arm breathe. She quietly left and abandoned the books there when the girls weren't looking.
Savannah took a seat at the nearby table before she and her friends approached one of the girls in the room. The girl looked up at them and was surprised to see their presence.
Angelica was surprised when she saw the face of the girl who greeted Savannah and her friends back. It was Tommy's hot ex-girlfriend she had seen at Savannah's party several weeks ago, and she still looked as beautiful as she did that night. Two other ladies were sitting beside her, but Angelica couldn't see their appearance entirely, as Rachel's figure was blocking the view to them.
Angelica personally doesn't have a problem with Rachel but it's really unfair that the girls can easily accept her in their group without asking her to do any favors while she was here just after holding their heavy books moments ago.
Rachel's eyebrows furrowed as she looked at the girls who had just barged into the room unannounced. "What are you girls doing here?" she asked in a sharp tone, glancing over to the other people in the room. She then turned to Savannah, noticing how she was seated on the table, and added sternly, "It's not allowed to sit on the table in this room, you know."
"Come on Rachel, we're friends. You can easily talk them out for me if I got caught," Savannah responded, keeping her position on the table.
Rachel just smiled and shook her head in response.
"We came here to ask you to come and join us at the mall tonight," Brianna said, answering her question.
"I would love to but there's a lot of things I need to finish here, so I won't have a lot of time for that today," Rachel replied, trying to sound sad.
"You're so responsible!" Brianna commented in sarcasm. "But be careful! We wouldn't want you ending up as a goody-goody like Susie!" she added, getting her friends to laugh with her.
Angelica felt peeved that they are still backstabbing Susie with the phrase they used for her during middle school. She thought that the phrase was so outdated and shouldn't be used to mock someone in the first place.
"It's not like the mall is closing permanently. We have plenty of time to go there, so calm down with the name-calling," Rachel pointed out, looking like she won't be convinced otherwise. The girls realized it and sighed in defeat.
Savannah sighed. "Fine. If that's what you want."
"Let's just hang out again after you finished all your work, is that good?" Paris suggested.
Rachel nodded and replied, "Sure, I'll text you."
Angelica hurriedly grabbed the books she left on a nearby table upon hearing that Savannah and her friends are about to leave. She just stood in the corner of the room, waiting for the girls to walk to her and ask her to be an alternative to go with them to the mall.
The girls were about to head straight outside the room when Brianna accidentally landed her eyes on Angelica. The three girls looked at her with surprise, wondering why she's still following them.
Savannah crossed her arms and uninterestedly remarked, "Oh, you're still here."
"Can you please put those books into our respective lockers? Thank you," Brianna requested, forcing a smile before she and her friends left the room.
The forced smile on Angelica's face fell as she carelessly let the books slip from her arms. She felt so insulted she didn't care that the books are now all scattered on the floor. The other girls in the room glanced at her, following the sharp noise, but then quickly resumed their recording work and pretended like they hadn't seen anything.
Angelica released an exasperated sigh and began picking up the books so she can finally get out of this place.
She was about to head outside when she saw one of the girls in the room holding straps of cash. She realized from there that they are some of the members of the film committee, and Rachel's presence further confirmed that. She couldn't help but stare at the money and watched the girl hand it over to Rachel.
"Thank you again, Miss Alcroft," Katie said, one of the representatives in the room, prompting all of them to stand up. Upon looking closely at those girls, Angelica realized that they are older and surely don't go to school here. Their professional attire tells her that they're the representatives from NYU.
"We're leaving you that money for all things needed for the competition event. You must allocate it well," The other representative explained.
Katie nodded. "We'll definitely meet you again next month to check the progress of your committee, so please take notes of all the things your committee would do at that point."
"Definitely ma'am. Thank you so much," Rachel replied politely and watched the representatives leave the room.
Rachel was supposed to be alone now if it wasn't for Angelica who is still standing there in deep thought. Rachel looked at her in the corner of her eyes while stacking the straps of money that were left to her.
"You're Tommy's cousin, right?" Rachel asked, breaking the silence between them.
Angelica smiled and was glad that she initiated the conversation. "Correct! But I'm not just Tommy's cousin though, I'm much more than that," she replied in confidence. "I am Angelica," she said, holding out her hand for a shake.
"And? What was that supposed to mean?" Rachel asked in genuine wonder. She then started to move around the room as she organized all the notebooks and papers in their proper storage.
"Sorry, but Tommy never really brought you up a lot in our conversations when we were together. All I can remember from him is that you're nasty," Rachel said in all honesty.
Angelica frowned and crossed her arms.
"I didn't know a passionate Jewish person like you can be this harsh. I thought people like you were all about getting every power and dominance you can get." Angelica scoffed, not genuinely meaning what she said. She just wants to piss her off since she's not liking the way this conversation is going.
Rachel was quite offended by the mention of a stereotype. "Got no respect for my heritage? I mean Tommy and his family are also part of my heritage. Don't you respect them?"
Angelica laughed hysterically and shook her head, now finding this conversation amusingly dumb. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean all that. I just wanted to see your reaction!" she replied, still unable to control her laughter.
Rachel narrowly stared at her and is now starting to get confused as to why this conversation is happening in the first place.
"Okay, why are you still here? Aren't you supposed to go out and put those books where the girls asked you to put them?" Rachel asked genuinely.
Angelica looked at the strap of cash on her hand and then at her. "Listen, is that all yours?" she asked seriously.
"Oh, this?" Rachel asked, cluelessly bringing up one strap of money.
"Obviously, duh!"
"No. Didn't you hear those people who just left? All of this is for the film contest, but everyone in our committee will probably get small portions of this after we finish all the preparations," Rachel explained and wondered, "Why are you asking about the money?"
Angelica took a deep breath and felt really ashamed that she has to say this to a person she was not very close with.
"I desperately need to have some of those!" Angelica confronted, feeling completely embarrassed. She tried not to look at her eyes and dreaded her response.
"What?" Rachel asked in utter confusion.
"You heard that right sister! I need some of that cash right now," Angelica asserted. Rachel crossed her arms and was unconvinced, prompting her to explain her situation further as she began nervously walking back and forth.
"My mother has been financially punishing me just because I found the love of my life, so I won't get any allowance any time soon," Angelica explained, hoping to convince her.
Rachel recognized that it was a harsh punishment but also thought that there are still a lot of other ways for her to get some money. "So? you can easily get a job for that!"
"I can't do that! I can't let everyone see me doing menial jobs. It is simply not on par with my image," Angelica refuted, definitely not liking the idea of ruining her reputation just because of a punishment.
"You don't have to look down on those jobs like that! At least they're working with integrity and not pretending to be something they're not," Rachel contended.
Angelica rolled her eyes and sighed in frustration.
"Fine! If you don't want to help me, I'll ask somebody else," Angelica said in defeat and turned her back on her, seeing that there's no point in staying there any longer.
As Angelica walked closer to the door, Rachel suddenly remembered something.
"Wait!" Rachel shouted as her mind slowly brought her back to that night.
She was walking around the café, looking for him and hoping to spend the rest of the night alone with him. She knows it's a bit impossible as his friends are also here but that didn't stop her from thinking that there might be some chance.
She eventually got to the shop's fire exit and saw that no one was there, pushing her to look further. She turned around and was about to walk away when she heard a voice coming from outside.
"I wanted to talk to you," The voice from outside said.
It sounded exactly like Tommy which triggered her curiosity. She slightly opened the fire exit and peeked through it.
"I spotted you here, so I went here," the voice added. Her eyes widened at the fact that it's indeed Tommy, talking to a woman engulfed in darkness.
"I thought it was someone else," The woman replied. "So, what do you want to talk about?" the woman added, finally getting her to recognize her name.
It was that Japanese friend of Tommy, Kimi, the celebrant of the party.
She was perplexed at the sight. Why are they alone and not with their other friends? She continued to peek into their conversation as curiosity slowly ate her.
"I just wanted to give something to you. I couldn't do it earlier since you're busy with the party and your guests," Tommy responded, pulling out a velvet box from his pocket. She saw him grab one of her hands and placed the box in her palm.
"What's this?" Kimi wondered, looking at the box.
She saw Kimi lift the top of the box in astonishment, revealing the shine of a topaz necklace lying inside.
"A family member gave that to me. I just thought it will fit you perfectly," She saw him smile as he watched Kimi's reaction to his gift. "Do you like it?"
"Definitely. It's so beautiful!" She saw Kimi nod while staring astonishingly at the jewelry Tommy just gave her.
She watched how Tommy gently grabbed the necklace from Kimi's hand before carefully placing it on her neck and locking it in place.
Every romantic gesture that Tommy has been doing to that girl at the moment is on the verge of making her cry. She saw his eyes filled with romantic admiration and happiness as he looked at Kimi. It's something she never saw in his eyes when they were together. He looked at her in admiration before, but it never looked that intense.
She felt jealous at the sight of him being romantic with another girl because that was supposed to be her. She's the one that should be having a moment with him there and not with some irrelevant woman.
She only noticed her violent grip on the doorknob when she felt some tears landing on her hand. It definitely felt heart-wrenching for her that she has to see all of that, making her realize that going to this party is a big mistake.
She angrily released her grip from the doorknob, causing it to produce a sound due to the movement of the door. She walked farther away from everyone at the party, intending to get out of the place and not wanting to see something like that again.
"I think I might be able to grant your request," Rachel said in determination, stopping Angelica from walking out of the room. "But you have to do me a favor in return," she added.
Angelica was confused and asked, "And what would that be?"
"I want you to find some dirt on Kimi Finster," Rachel demanded.
Angelica's eyes widened at her request.
"Uh, what does Kimi have to do with all of this?" Angelica wondered, thinking that she seems to have some unexplained anger towards Kimi.
Rachel looked away from her and walked near the closed window in the room. "She's getting too close to someone I like, and I'm not gonna let her steal that person from me," she responded, looking out the window as far as possible.
Angelica smirked, immediately recognizing the person Rachel was referring to. "Let me guess, this someone is Tommy, right?"
Rachel glanced at her before looking through the window again.
"I mean I can't blame you. If I were you and I like Tommy, I would be really threatened by Finster's existence," Angelica remarked while walking around, intending to intimidate her. "I mean do you see the way he looks at her? It's pure love, I tell you."
Rachel couldn't deny feeling intimidated by everything Angelica just said, but she tried her best not to show it. She quickly steered the conversation back to the deal, sensing that her tears were about to fall.
"So, are you up with the deal or not?" Rachel asked seriously.
"I'm in!" Angelica responded with no hesitation. If she was able to defame Kimi back in middle school when they fought about a petition, she can easily do that again. Admittedly, she doesn't like that Kimi has to be involved, but if this is the only way, there was no other choice but to use their closeness as an advantage.
Angelica desperately needs that money and she's ready to do anything, even if it's against the people she cares about.
Rachel took a deep breath before handing a strap of cash to Angelica, who eagerly grabbed the money from her hand. She watched Angelica excitedly count the cash before gently storing it in her bag.
"Okay, I think we're done here," Angelica said confidently, tapping her bag with the money in it. She then began fixing her clothes and prepares to move out. "I'll let you know when I finally find something you can use against her."
Rachel nodded in response, feeling a mix of relief and guilt. She knew what she was doing was wrong, but she also couldn't deny the rush of excitement that came with the plan.
"Just make sure you're not going to bail out of this deal because I can easily tell the school officials how you initiated this whole thing," Rachel warned.
"Don't worry, I always keep my promises," Angelica responded with a slight smirk playing at the corners of her lips. "I guess I'll just see you again soon," she said one last time before finally strutting out of the room.
Rachel just stood there dumbfounded, still unsure about the whole thing. She doesn't want to have to do this, but she knew that she had to work hard this time to keep the man of her dreams within her grasp.
…and the plot thickens.
Let me tell you, this chapter was very fun to write. This has been sitting in my drafts for months and I'm very excited for you all to see where this will be going.
I'm again, reminding you all that if you want to see updates about the progress of this story, follow my Tumblr (venteusielle). I'll follow back as long as your account isn't anything creepy or suspicious. However, please note that my account is a sub-blog, so the name of the parent blog that I'm too shy to reveal yet will show up as the one that followed you back instead. (´∀｀)