38
ST. ANNABEL
The last seventy-two hours have been crazy to say the least. My father has been trying to figure out who is responsible for the leak and also doing the damage control he already has prepped for this moment. I have a feeling he thought I did it from the deep glares he’s been throwing my way.
I didn’t.
Though a part of me wishes I did, just to spite him.
However, I would never do that to Harley, the last thing she’ll ever want is that level of attention spotlighted on her.
Now her name and face has been on the cover of every noteworthy magazine and newspaper hassling us on how many different ways they can use the words illegitimate and affair.
The minute the curtains closed on our show, I was on such a high. Maybe I didn’t get the lead but being on stage was better than any drug I’ve ever done. Only to be forced to come down from it at the news of what happened.
And yet, the show must go on. Tonight is the Bass annual charity gold gala, it is our Christmas and New years rolled in one.
It is our biggest event of the year and my mother’s pride and joy, she tends to be fussier about any and everything leading up to it.
Even more so now since the news dropped, doing whatever she can to avoid dealing with the issue at hand.
I wonder where I get my ability to run away from my problems?
The charity event is for the disadvantaged families across the country, one the Bass Foundation put in a dedicated time and effort into, it can’t be cancelled (tax write-off).
Father has decided his plan is to officially introduce Harley to the world tonight, the headlines practically wrote itself.
Especially since today is also her birthday.
My hair is in rollers and I look at the time to see we have a couple hours left to leave the house. We have been at Bishop’s Avenue for the last couple days, under strict orders especially since reporters are practically sleeping in front of our home.
I find our guest of honour sprawled across the floor, utterly undressed. Her expression, empty and vacant.
“The clothes won’t wear themselves,” I drawl playfully, as she turns her head to look at me. A faint barely there smile she directs my way before she stares back up at the ceiling.
“I’m not sure I can do this,” she whispers softly, her hands drawing little circles on the carpet she is laying on in the middle of her room. I notice she does that when she is stressed, likely something she picked up as a kid.
Careful not to mess up the rollers in my hair, I go and lay on the floor right next to her. “The whole night will pass by in a blur. It’s the beginning of the rest of your life.”
“A life I didn’t really ask for.” She turns to me, her voice shakes a little, a vulnerability that I often don’t see coming to light. “I especially want nothing to do with him. To be publicly known as his, it makes my skin crawl.”
Her disgust is palpable and I understand where it comes from. The dinner from last month sits at the forefront of her mind and I can’t blame her. I sit up and bring her along with me, latching her hands with mine. Taking a deep breath before I speak.
“From the day I was born, my life has never been my own. Be it our father trying to mold me in his image or my mother wanting to make me her perfect doll. I had grown disgusted with myself, I didn’t want to live in my own skin hoping like the serpents on our crest I’d be able to shed it and be made into someone who could stomach herself.
Except none of that happened and now I’m twenty years old and it’s fully sinking in how entirely unadjusted I am as a human being.
“Then, you came into my life. Confident and unwilling to make yourself into another clone who moved to the beat of the fucked up standards of our life. Your existence changed everything for me. I had given up on myself and if I’m being entirely honest you were the one to bring me back to the girl I thought was lost. So yes, he has to be your father and I’m grateful for that because it gave me you.
I want the world to know that you’re my sister and even more that I am proud of it.
” Her green eyes are welling up. One blink and they’ll fall.
At the sight, my own set of tears blur my vision. I finish, “I don't know I managed to live twenty years without you but I don’t ever want to do it again.”
Before the rest of my words leave my mouth, she throws herself at me in a hug. I’m so stumped by how out of character it is for half a second that my arms just hang there but I quickly regain consciousness and wrap my arms around her.
“I love you, Annabel,” Harley says softly and the dam breaks.
The tears descend and I hold onto her tighter than ever. “I love you, too.”
When we pull back, I hand her the small box that has been resting in my robe. “Something to fully embrace you into our home. Happy birthday.”
Harley smiles as she takes out the silver chain and the harp pendant on the necklace. Completing the Summer Triangle necklaces that Stassie and I owned, and she now did too. “It’s beautiful. I love it, thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Put it on me,” she says.
We get up and head to the mirror, I gasp at the person I see looking back at me. Streaks of mascara drips down my face, my blush and lipstick is all smudged. “Mother will kill me.”
She laughs.
“Don’t laugh, this is serious.”
“I’m sure it is, come on I’ll help you. I don’t look the prize myself either right now.”
We are out of the house within the hour; The parents are already in the limo, Anastasia with them. The two of us slid into the silent limo; Stass and my father both busy on their phones while my mother is unwrapping a Weather’s as she stares out the window.
“Took you both long enough,” my father says. “We have been waiting twenty minutes.”
“What happened to no sweets, especially before an event?” I ask my mother instead.
“That’s what I said and she wouldn’t pass me one either,” Anastasia whines.
“Frankly, after the year I’ve had I think I deserve it,” she responds, deadpan, glaring at her husband. She glances up and down at me, and I can tell she is trying her very hardest not to critique. “You look lovely. And you too, Harley.”
My jaw hangs from this, today is truly a day filled with surprises. Maybe my mother feels like she can now break free from the shackles of tradition that confined her to perfectionism.
Harley looks to me skeptically before giving her a smile that actually resembles a grimace. “Thank you, Eleanor.”
“Close your mouth, St. Annabel. It’s unladylike.” Perhaps not too much has changed.
In the nick of time we arrive together, fashionably late. My father speaks before we open the limo to the influx of cameras, “Smiles on, everyone. Today will be a good day.”
And we listen because if there is one thing my father knows it is how to make a bad thing look good. The house of Bass is in shambles, we were dysfunctional but a unit and today everyone will know just how much.
The limo door opens and the cameras blind us until we are behind the large gold door of the venue. A hush falls across the room at the five of us but truly the attention is on Harley. Whispers follow the further we walk in.
“Ignore them. They mean nothing.”
“I know.”
The room is magnificent; two huge chandeliers hang uniformly with candlelight centred around. There are a couple people dancing to a live orchestra playing in the corner.
We separate from mother and father and move to where my friends stand.
My phone has been switched off for days, so I haven’t spoken to any of them, including Arden.
Dan and the others are huddled together, smiling as we head their way.
I can’t help but try to subtly search for Arden.
And I realise MJ isn’t here either. Our relationship has felt strange lately.
I have been avoiding her; using the showcase practice as a reason for our limited contact.
“He’s not here yet,” Nic’s voice cuts into my train of thought, as he pulls me into a hug and whispers in my ears.
“Who?” I narrow my eyes at him but he just laughs.
“You look beautiful, by the way. You too, Harley.”
“Thank you,” she says shyly.
“That’s right, my girl is the most stunning one here,” Scarlett agrees, coming up from behind, wrapping her arms around Harley’s middle. Her gold dress is long, sleeveless and metallic, no doubt expensive so she clearly had to have gotten it from Luke. “Happy birthday, baby.”
“Thank you.” They kiss and begin to whisper to one another.
“Where’s trouble?” Dan asks.
“Loo,” I answer absentmindedly as I have stopped paying attention to him when I notice Luke lounging by himself sipping a bottle of beer and I excuse myself from my friends and walk up to him, “I don’t remember seeing that on the list of drinks tonight.”
He smiles when he sees me, “That’s why I apply BOYB to every situation.”
“If I’d known I would've done the same.”
“Considering this is your gaff you basically have.”
We smile at each other, one that reaches our eyes. But I can’t help but wonder what he is doing here. We were able to get Scarlett in via mother but him…
“I didn’t realise you knew my father,” I question.
“Never said I did.”
“My mother, then?” I raise an eyebrow, the implications clear.
He rolls his lips in humour, “What if I just came to see you?”
“I’d say you were playing a dangerous game, Lucas Carney.”
“I like games. Don’t you?” And there it is again, that smile that makes smart girls do stupid things. He holds out his hand, “Dance with me?”
I look from his hand to his eyes, “I didn’t realise you can dance.”
“There’s a lot of things you don’t know about me, Belle.” I take it and he pulls me to the middle of the room. He’s better than I ever could’ve imagined, maybe just as good as me.
“Who taught you to dance?”
“My mum, before she died. It was her favourite thing to do. She’d hold dance parties in her living room with me and Pose.” There is a distant gaze in his eyes as he talks about her.
“Well, she did an amazing job.”