593AU: Well, it's the second chapter! Have fun, guys. This one's hectic.
Also, it's a little all over the place, and I know that for sure. But bear with me, alright? Still trying to establish Rhys and Amélie, grown up. And can you believe that I accidentally typed 'Eric' a few times throughout the writing? Sheesh.
Music:
Hot n Cold - Katy Perry
Around You - Ingrid Michaelson (love her!)
Après Moi - Regina Spektor (love her too!)
Because - Olivia Lufkin
Byul - Kim Ah-Joong
Please do...
ENJOY!
Just For A Thrill
Chapter 2
If we had met under different situations, I probably would've gone for him. This Rhys, I mean.
Like his brother, he had dark highlighted blond hair, and angular features. His skin was fair, not quite as tanned as his brother's, but not sickly pale either. While his brother's build was slightly more muscular, his was lanky and slightly awkward, in a charming sort of way. He was just a little bit shorter than his brother, but it was still a fair amount taller than me.
After glancing around the room awkwardly, I finally looked straight into his eyes. What? What's the use of being afraid?
My own large brown eyes stared into his cold light-blue-grey ones. Wow, light-blue-grey. Seriously?
Were those contacts?
I made a mental note to ask later on.
But he had been glaring at me, so that would probably be why I felt the coldness.
Yay.
"What were you doing in my room?!" he said, with a low and thunderous voice. Sheesh, this guy has problems.
Although I would've probably been just as angry if I'd found someone snooping around in my room.
But, as all of you know, I was in his room because of Ariella's dare. Whatever, I take the blame for my own actions.
"Nothing." I said instead of the truth. It was more amusing to say that, anyway, since it made him even more irked.
He took a menacing step towards me, but I didn't flinch. (At least, on the outside. On the inside, I was starting to quake just a little bit.)
Rhys' long strides carried him across the room, straight to my face, where he'd wasted no time in bursting my personal bubble.
Again. Yay.
"I'm going to ask you again, nicely." He should stop with the italics. Seriously. "What were you doing in my room?"
"I'd appreciate it if you respected my personal space."
"And vice versa."
"It won't happen again."
"It'd better not, but I still want to know why."
"And I don't quite plan on telling you, so I see no reason in your further questioning."
"Stop trying to act like you're mature or more sophisticated than you actually are. We all know that you're probably some scum from the bottom of the society."
"You talk as if you've already had me all figured out. But do you even know who I am?"
"It doesn't take a genius to figure it out. Judging from your obvious body language and scrounging around in my room, probably to steal something to pawn off, you must be some beggar from the streets whose been gifted with normal clothes from my idiotic and spacey sister-in-law."
"Don't call Ariella that. She's better than you'll ever be. And I will have you know, I am not someone you can look down on and not regret it. When I stated that I would not tell you what I was doing in your room, I meant it, and I think it doesn't take a genius to know that when I say something, I stick to it. I am no beggar, nor am I 'scum from the bottom of the society', my name is Amélie Byron, and if I really must say more from this point, I doubt you are anything but the spit of the scum from the bottom of the society."
When people speak about my friends or family in a way I do not find pleasing, I find myself bursting out of my usually timid and shy persona, and firing back with more audacity than I'd ever thought I'd had. That moment had been one of those moments.
Normally, I was not like this. People rubbed with me in the right ways, and there had been nobody I'd met who couldn't say at least one thing amiable about me, whether it was my easy-going personality or stubborn and optimistic outlook on life.
But for the first time in my entire life, I found myself hating someone more than I had ever before. What was this strong surge of adrenaline, rushing through me? Why was I feeling so fired up by this guy?
Maybe it was just his haughty behaviour that provoked me, since I'd never approved of celebrities utilizing their statuses as excuses. But I had a feeling that there was something else. Maybe just a general annoyance, but even so, it was one I had to get rid of. Fast.
"You… You…"
"If you're going to stand there, flapping your mouth like a fish, all day, I'd advise you to go back up to your friend, since I'm sure that it will be more entertaining than arguing with 'scum'."
Imitating him, I smirked and raised my head just slightly.
Rhys promptly turned on his heel, and stalked his way back up the stairs, slamming the door quite hard.
The rest of the party looked at me in awe.
"… what?" As I had said before, I was not usually so bursting with energy and fire. Sure, I was stubborn, and energetic, but it was a calm sort of energetic, and I'm sure that I've just made an oxymoron. But when that source of fuel was taken away, well.
You were left with plain Amélie, timid and slightly shy, but truthful and gentle.
Yes. They had no idea of the person who had appeared when I had been arguing with Rhys, and truthfully, I'd had no idea that person existed either.
But hey, there are some things you never know, right?
"That… was… amazing!" Audrey said, breaking into fits of laughter. "I've never seen him so worked up!"
"Me too! Wow, geez, sis. You're good." Darien said, giving me a thumbs up. Tenebrae laughed along as well, and commented on my sudden eloquence.
"Amélie." I turned to Ariella, who was giving me a gentle smile. "You did good. I've taught you well."
But while the rest of the party congratulated me on what seemed like defeating a monster, Eric seemed to go into an even deeper line of thought.
"What's up, Eric?" I said. I had always been good friends with him, even though he was the cause of Ariella's not-being-with-Darien. Though Darien did, in fact, have the most insanely huge and apparent crush on Ariella, he had learned to let go of it. She was more like his catapult, more like a person who had knocked him back into his senses.
So, I respected that. And plus, Eric really did love her.
"I… Well. He's my brother, right? But I've never seen him act like that before."
"Oh please, Eric. He's acted like that in front of all of us forever, you've just been too stubborn to notice it. No, not your little brother, he could never do anything bad!" Ariella said sarcastically. I detected a slight tone of jealousy, and could sense that something in regards to Rhys had probably caused a rift between the two of them beforehand.
He looked at Ariella, while the rest of the party chatted, but I watched them.
"I'm sorry." He said, with a regretful tone.
Ariella looked at him, and her hard gaze seemed to disappear. From her sitting position beside him, she hugged him. "It's okay. Let's just hope that this girl over here," Ariella gestured to me, "can bring back the real Rhys."
The real Rhys?
Suddenly, I was confused again. If that hadn't been the real him, then why had I gotten that surge of hate for him? Could it be that I actually did sense that façade?
If you're wondering, yes, I do always think deeply about things. I suppose it's more of a downfall, since I do end up thinking things instead of saying or doing things, but oh well.
"Psst. She's in her own world again." Ariella said sarcastically to the rest of the party, successfully knocking me out of my own world.
As the chatter moved forward, and I turned up the stereo downstairs cause the happy bunnies upstairs were being quite… loud, I began to feel slightly uneasy and guilty. Call it an easily fooled conscience, but it was true.
Maybe I was a little bit harsh.
And then, I heard a few more… suggestive bangs from upstairs, and I heard a faint scream too, that no one else seemed to hear.
Nope. Not feeling guilty anymore.
Not at all.
God, that girl infuriated him, though he had only known her for a few sparse and insufferable moments.
In truth, if they had met under other circumstances, she probably would've been the victim of his many… adventures, perhaps was the right term. She wasn't his type, really. He preferred fiery redheads, or even illustrious blonds. Brunettes never really did it for him, nor did black haired beauties, even if they were stunning. He just never liked their mysterious airs. He hated not being able to figure things, or people for that matter, out.
But this girl, she was somehow attractive. Her black hair was carelessly styled; ending somewhere between her jaw-line and her shoulders, and it was obvious that she wasn't the type of person to spend ages in front of a mirror. Her bangs slid down her face, and with a flick, they were pushed back, but falling once more. Her eyes were naturally intense, grave even. They were not read easily either, and that irked him slightly, but intrigued him at the same time. She was tanned too, not pale, and obviously not frail, from the way she carried herself.
However, what annoyed him the most was that she didn't seem to care about who he was. Well, she knew who he was, obviously. Everyone knew who he was.
Eric Williams' little brother, and budding actor, obviously.
But she didn't quite react to it, and Rhys cursed at himself for not realizing that it meant something. It meant that she was used to being around people like that.
Which meant no, she was not scum.
Okay, he realized that now. Rhys was slightly angry now, knowing that he had made a foolish mistake.
But he continued on with his little analyzation.
Yes, she was physically appealing. Yes, she was wealthy, that was quite obvious as well.
But there was still something about her that made him seethe.
"What are you thinking about?" The girl of the week, what was her name? Miranda? Maria? Whatever her name was, she was leaning on his chest, and it was annoying.
"Nothing." The tone of his voice immediately reminded him of the defiant one that Amélie had given, when she was replying to his questioning.
What day was it? Was he supposed to drop her yet?
"You always do this, Rhys! What's wrong with you?" the girl said. She was on the brink of tears, he could obviously hear.
"Nothing. But surely, there's something wrong with you." He retorted, nonchalantly. It meant nothing to him. Nothing ever did.
Nothing, nothing, nothing.
The girl began to cry, and he felt her wet tears, hot on his chest.
"Go away. You know the way out."
She wasted no time in doing it. While sobbing her little heart out, that blond girl (Rhys really could not remember her name) put her clothes back on and opened the door to his room, only to slam it closed a few moments later.
Rhys turned on his side, and listened to the footsteps down the stairs, and more hysterics. He could hear yelling, and even louder sobbing from that blonde girl.
Rhys rolled his eyes.
The image of that girl from before, Amélie, popped up in his head again, but he quickly grabbed his mp3 off the desk and plugged in the earphones, eager to drown the rest of the world out.
They were all the same. Every last one of them. Amélie was no exception to Rhys' statement.
Or so he thought.
The music began to drown out his thoughts, but when he fell asleep, who else did he dream of then Amélie?
"He's probably already asleep." Eric muttered.
"He always does this." Ariella says with vigour. "It's happened before to other girls. And I know, they're kind of deserving of it, and they're kind of stupid for believing that they could warm the Ice Prince, but really? Are they that thick?"
"Sadly, yes. That's hormone driven teenage girls for you."
"I really hope Ariana won't be like that during her teen years." Ariella whined.
"She's smart. Well, smarter than that girl." Tenebrae said, smiling and referring to the mess that sobbed her way out the door and back into reality.
"She is too." Eric said, this time, referring to me.
Except, I didn't really hear that very clearly.
Why?
Because I had been plotting my revenge on, who other than, Rhys?
He had done this to other girls? And so many times? I had not been living under a rock, I knew of his many escapades, but I didn't think it was this bad. Nor did I think that I would have to end up doing something about it.
In my mind, a very scary plan began to form.
"I… have to go to the washroom." I said, the gears in my mind turning rapidly.
"Sure. It's upstairs, to the right. But don't worry about making any noise, when Rhys is asleep, nothing wakes him up."
"Got it." I said, turning around. I walked up the stairs quickly, with a smile that screamed cynicism the whole way up.
I'll make him regret ever hurting any of those girls.
"You think she's up to something?" Ariella whispered to Eric.
"Let's just say I'm scared for my brother right now." Eric replied.
R&R and you get to pick a song that might go on my chapter-playlist!
Llama. Don't you guys just love that word? Srsly.
-chewyyyyyyyyyy.