1Chapter Two
"You know, that one guy reminded me a lot of Kyouya Ootori," I murmur, gazing out the back window.
We've been back on the road for five minutes, each one of us keeping a close eye out for the two boys. Well, me and my friends are. Henley has taken it upon herself to sit in the back and promptly fall back asleep. She's clearly still angry at us for how we'd treated them, but I can't bring myself to care too much. This is why I've been left in charge.
Phoebe whips around to face me, her dark eyes wide. "Please don't tell me you're going to fall in love with him just because he reminds you of an anime character. Remember, he's a creep who somehow managed to find where we were staring at."
"Just like Kyouya," I smirk over at her before rolling my eyes. "And don't worry. I didn't say I was going to fall in love with him. But while we're on the subject, it isn't just some anime character. It's Kyouya Ootori. Arguably one of the best anime characters ever."
"I would agree with you," Phoebe chuckles, seemingly pleased enough with my answer, as she turns back to the front. "If it weren't for the fact that Sebastian Michaelis exists."
"But who voices Sebastian?" I shoot back, sliding off my seat so that I can wrap my arms around her shoulders. "I believe it was J. Michael Tatum. And who else did he voice?"
"France." Sophia pipes in, an innocent smile gracing her lips.
"Shut up, Sophie," I chuckle, elbowing her lightly in the side, careful to make sure that it isn't so harsh that it disrupts her concentration on the road. "No, I mean, a certain character named... oh... hmm... Kyouya Ootori?"
"That doesn't mean you can just go and fall in love with him." Phoebe reiterates, her dark eyes narrowing dangerously at me.
"I just told you I have no plans!" I laugh, shoving her over. "I was just saying-"
"Besides, I thought you were over Kyouya and into Nolan from Love Tangle." she cuts me off.
I let out an obnoxiously large gasp and put a hand to my chest, "How dare you say that? Kyouya Ootori is life! He's-yeah, okay. I'm sorta over him. But he's still bae."
"You're lucky Seth isn't here to hear you say that." Sophia snorts. "He'd beat you senseless."
"I know," I smirk, not even bothering to wonder how she would know about how much my elder brother hates the use of the word 'bae.' It's something he makes fairly well known. "But that doesn't mean I'm going to stop using it. Especially when referring to Kyouya."
"Or Nolan." Phoebe cuts in with a smile. "Or Elias. Or Kija. Or Elliot. Or Hikaru. Or Yuki. Or-"
"I get it. I get it!" I throw my hands over her mouth, before being thrown back into my seat as Sophia does a conviently placed brake check.
"Okay," Sophia laughs, waving her hand behind her. "Now stop distracting the driver. Go play your stupid Shall We Date games."
"They're not stupid!" Phoebe and I cry at the same time, before laughing. Following the brunette's orders, I pull out my iPhone and load up Wizardess Heart.
ATJRAWTG
"Finally," Phoebe groans, hitting her head on the back of her seat. "I thought we'd never get here."
I sigh and drop my face into my hands. Sophia's GPS had lost its signal just a handful of miles away from the house, so we'd had to convert back to the paper map, only to find out that it didn't make things much more clearer. Before even a minute had passed, we'd found ourselves horribly lost. For an entire hour, the four of us wandered around aimlessly, to the point where the car had almost ran out of gas.
But now we're here, even if insanely late into the night. The sun has long since set, but we're not too worried about lack of time to frolick. We have a week and a half at this place, so it isn't like a couple hours is actually going to cut in that much, even if we're all grumpy from the extra time in the car.
"Let's just go," I whine, arching my aching back. "I need to stretch."
With a groan of approval from the other three, the four of us slowly hop out of the car and limp towards the trunk. Together, Phoebe and I don't have half the amount of luggage that Henley or Sophia have alone. The both of us only have one duffle bag and one backpack, whereas Sophia has two dufflebags, a backpack, three stuffed lemurs, a sleeping bag ("Just in case" she'd said when we'd-stupidly-asked), and her makeup bag. Henley isn't falling too far behind, either.
We shuffle our way to the house, and as we do so, I can't help but gawk at it. The house must be at least three or four stories tall, and wide enough to take up at least a quarter of a block. I can't make our too much more thanks to the dark, but damn. I knew that Henley's friend was rich as fuck, but I still can't help but be amazed.
Phoebe reaches out and gives a heavy, loud knock on the door. I can't imagine that it's locked thanks to everyone who's probably staying there, but it still somehow feels rude to just walk in.
A second later, the door opens to reveal a girl who looks to be about our age with shoulder length orange curls and bright violet eyes. I can't help but get the feeling that it's all fake, but she stays just far enough away to make it impossible for me to do a close enough inspection.
"Hi," I work up the courage to speak in spite of my general social awkwardness. It's my cousin who was invited, which probably makes it my job to do the talking.
"Oh, hi," the orange haired girl beams at us, her gaze flickering for the briefest of seconds behind me to where Henley is standing, blissfully silent for once in her life. "You must be Henley's cousin."
"Yes," I nod, "I appologize for being so late, but we got lost a while back because we'd lost service until we got close."
"Yeah," the girl's smile turns slightly guilty. "That happens out here, and it can get pretty confusing if you don't know your way. I'd sent Landon and Fred out to you today to help guide you, but they said you'd sent them away."
My friends and I blink and glace around at one another. That would certainly explain their looking for us, but why hadn't they told us?
"Oh," Sophia quietly says, "Uh, we didn't know. We'd just thought they were some creeps or something."
The girl frowns at that. "Wendy had texted Henley to tell her of our plans and to get the hotel you were staying at and room number."
At this, I whirl around to glare at my cousin who's suddenly grown interested in her nails. She didn't tell us on purpose, I realize. Probably just to be a bitch and watch us freak out over being lost. I want to yell at her so bad, but I hold myself back, reminding myself that it's not worth risking my free vacation.
Besides, from the look in the girl's eye, it's clear she understands what went on. Instead of mention it, though, she merely gives another smile before introducing herself as the bride. Liana Rheingold, soon to be Liana Young. Following her, I introduce both myself and my two friends.
"I hate to inconvience you even more," Liana's smile turns apologietic again. "But I'm afraid we really don't have room for all four of you in this house. I was kinda planning on having Henley room with Wendy and Richelle."
Panic begins to course through my veins. Fuck. What does this mean for us? Are we gonna be left with no where to stay? Because that might've been nice to know before we drove hundreds of miles.
"So," Liana continues before we have the chance to respond. "Would it be alright if the three of you stayed in my friend's house? It's just right next door." she juts her chin toward the north where another impressive house sits a little over a hundred yards away.
"Oh, um, sure." I say, more out of sheer awkwardness than anything else. It's clear that Liana feels guilty about this, but there's really nothing we can do. The nearest town is over twenty minutes away, and on the other side of the place where we got lost. Having to make the trek twice a day for an entire week is not an option.
"Don't worry," Liana laughs, waving a hand dismissevely, "I promise they aren't crazy or anything. It's actually my fiance and his guests staying there, and I promise none of them will try anything unless they want to get on my bad side."
I don't bother telling her that I wouldn't have been worried, anyway. People usually think twice before messing with us, on account of Phoebe. Something about her gypsy looks, tall stature, the fact that she literally plays with fire, and sleeps with a fucking meat mallot by her bedside at all times, generally scare most people off. In fact, I can't even count how many times I've been asked if I was blackmailed into being her friend or if I was just using her because I was afraid of people and she kept them away, simply because of my apparently innocent look.
So instead, we all say our farewells to Henley and make her promise to be good, despite knowing that it probably won't do any good. I then proceed to give Liana my number as well as my permission to pass it on to anyone she feels necessary in case she needs me to rush over and take control over my cousin.
"Y'know," Phoebe sighs as the three of us pack our luggage back into the car, having decided that driving will be so much easier with the amount of stuff we'd have to carry if we walked. "I can't decide if I'm suspicious or relieved."
"A bit of both?" Sophia suggests with a raise of one of her eyebrows.
Phoebe nods. "That works."
We make the short drive to the other house in relative silence. Pheobe and I are both busy texting our parents, telling them we've arrived. It's sort of an unspoken agreement that we're not going to tell them about the new living arrangements. They had already been nervous enough with us staying with people we've met maybe once or twice before. There's no telling how they'd react if they knew we were actually staying with complete strangers.
Once we've reached the other house, we grab our luggage a second time and make another trek up a short gravel walkway toward the front door. There's six boys waiting outside for us already, presumably having had been forwarned by the bride of our impending arrival, all haloed by a bright light coming from the porch.
All five are about our age, three with brown hair, one with blonde, one black, and the other one a bright aquamarine. From the seemingly empty house that sits behind them, I have a sinking realization.
These are our only room mates.
A part of me is excited at this revelation, but a bigger portion is horrified. Although it's a not so secret dream almost every teenage girl in exsistance has dreamed of, I can't help but be afraid.
Me and my friends are staying in a house where we are officially outnumbered by a group of hot guys.
Please review!