Chapter 9

 

  I was shopping around for a dress with Lena at the mall. The party was in 2 days, and I still didn’t know what kind of party it was. Honestly, it was something that could take my mind off other things for now so I was excited for it. 

Yea well, I was excited until I actually got there. I had gotten a tight knee length off shoulder purple and pink dress and dark purple heels. Robin held my hand the moment we got out of the car and we squeezed our way through the crowd of partiers.

Once we actually got inside the villa I noticed it was a birthday party. A girl stood at the entrance greeting everyone coming in and accepting presents. She had on a short over the knee white dress and matching white heels.

Once we got closer I noticed her. Maya… It was Maya’s birthday party. She was beautiful…I couldn’t deny her that, but she was evil too. Once we got to her she hugged Robin and whispered something to him.

“Come over when you’re free. I got something for you,” he told her, amusement flickering in his eyes.

When she saw me she also gave me a hug which surprised me, but I was sure she was up to something. “I like your dress, but hey…don’t think you can keep him for long.”

I just stared at her blankly until Robin pulled me away. “Do we have to stay here for long?” I asked him. He shrugged. “An hour or two. Why? Bored already?”

“Well, Maya isn’t really my friend. She doesn’t like me,” I said.

He squeezed my hand and took me over to group of people standing at a table. I recognized the long blue dress immediately…

“Lena!” she turned and gave me a huge smile. “You didn’t tell me you were coming.”

“Oh well, I wasn’t. I only came because…”

“She didn’t want you to feel bored. She’s your best friend after all,” Robin interrupted. Lena shook her head and was about to say something when I saw Gabriel walk towards me.

“In fact, your fiancé made us come…saying that you would feel lonely. He knows that he doesn’t have the ability to make you happy,” he wasn’t really looking at me when he said that. His eyes were piercing into Robin’s. There was an intense moment of hostility between the two until Gabriel turned to me with a smile.

“You look beautiful,” he remarked. It put a smile on my face. He’s being himself again. The silly, sweet Gabriel I knew. Robin put an arm around my shoulder and pulled me towards him. I gave him a questioning look but he kept his eyes on Gabriel…he looked angry.

Someone else joined us. Sophia. We spent some time together last year when she was just new and had no friends, but after a while she got in with the popular girls. She’s a very sweet bubbly girl and thinks of me as a friend although I barely hang out with her anymore.

She gave me a tight hug and asked how I was doing. She apparently was one of those girls who didn’t know about my upcoming marriage in a month or so. Graduation was only 2 weeks away after all.

She dragged me and Lena away from the boys and we walked out to the swimming pool were everyone was playing around. It was crazy. People were throwing each other into the pool, some were drunk, and others were playing around.

I was determined to stay out of the crowd. Did Maya even know all these people? I doubt it.

“So tell me, how did you manage to get him?” Sophia asked. I gave her a puzzled look. “I mean Robin, silly. He barely goes to any girl. How did you get him to be your boyfriend?”

It was forced. I mean, it’s not like he really has any feelings. We’re the same as two people who are doing something out of duty. He wasn’t even my boyfriend…he was just my fiancé, but I couldn’t say that.

“Well, he fell for her. Clare is beautiful and she has a good heart,” Lena said.

Oh yes, very. I wasn’t as beautiful as Sophia who had short shoulder length jet black hair and big beautiful brown eyes. She wasn’t pale, but just right and she was tall and sweet. Popular as well. Also, I was not pretty and cute as her friends, or gorgeous but royalty like Maya.

“Now that I think about it, he did always look at her when we were in PE, and he seemed to bully her and challenge her a lot. The thing is, he never let anyone else bully her or even make her sad. Isn’t that saying a lot?” Lena exclaimed. Her eyes shone as if she had just made an amazing discovery.

Oh I knew what she was thinking, but no. So what if he always sneaked glances at me during class? He might have just been contemplating on what to do with me next.

“Didn’t you say he also asked you out to the dance back in 8^th grade, but you refused? Didn’t all the bullying start from then?!”

“Yea…revenge is what you call it. He must have had a big ego, because he had me under his clutches for too long. He made my life hell,” I snorted. Sophia looked confused but didn’t say a word.

“You moron!” she hit my arm playfully. “He loves you!! I knew it!! Why didn’t I think of it from the beginning?!”

“Now Lena, that is just childish,” I sighed.

“But I think so too. He’s also jealous of Gabriel. Did you see how he looked like he would have killed him right then?” Sophia giggled.

We walked by the pool and I tried not to think about it. UGH! This is what happens when your friends are so good at relationships. Lena reads too many romance books, and she’d already had 3 boyfriends before, and Sophia? God knows how many she’d had. She isn’t really as innocent as she looks.

Someone behind me screamed and I flinched, and turned. I blinked, and for a moment I thought I was going to fall into the pool with her, but strong hands pulled me back. For a moment I thought everyone went silent, but that was just me. It wasn’t entirely wrong to say that some people stood by and watched.

I looked into ocean blue eyes that pulled me forward into his arms. Robin sighed before taking me back inside. He said goodbye to Maya who was busy chit chatting with some of her friends and then took me back to the car.

“What? Why are you so angry?” I snapped. I was glad he was there to catch me really, so I avoided the embarrassment of falling into the pool with my new dress, but why is he suddenly leaving? We were only there for half an hour. What happened? I needed to know.

“You’re lucky I was there. I heard you can’t swim, and I’m not angry. I just feel tired.”

I stopped, refusing to get into the car. “Already? Fine, but at least let me say goodbye to the girls.” I had a feeling all this had something to do with Gabriel.

“I’ll wait for you here.”

I walked back to the party were I found Lena and Sophia taking drinks. Lena took an extra drink when she saw me coming. “What happened?”

I grabbed the drink from her hand and shrugged. “Robin wants to go home.”

“That was close. Are you ok?! I would have hated it if something happened to that beautiful dress,” Sophia exclaimed. Oh yes, I wasn’t important…the dress was. I gulped down the drink and gave it back to Lena.

“Sorry guys. I got to go, and yea good thing nothing happened to the dress,” I hugged them both before walking back to the car. I was still contemplating whether to go back and check on Gabriel before leaving but seeing Robin, I decided not to.

All the way back home he remained silent. We didn’t talk or say anything. It was pretty awkward but looking at him reminded me of the conversation back at the party. Not that my mind was working too well now. The drink must have been strong since it got me feeling dizzy.

“What?” I quickly turned away from him, unaware of the fact that I was staring at him like an idiot.

“N-never mind…”