3. Lia
Chapter three
Lia
Aurelia Raines Aged 24
I sit in my ivory tower and waste away, year by year, month by month. This mansion is beautiful, but it may as well be a grey brick prison. Mama’s blocked all my ways out. I can’t work, I can’t take the town car and go to the shops like a normal person. I’m trapped in this very expensive mansion, and there’s no white knight on horseback coming to save me.
The roar of bikes has me up and snarling. I rush across the room, moving to the window to watch them. I lean so close my nose is almost pressed up against the cold glass.
“Those heathens,” I hiss.
Valen gets off his bike first, swinging a long, lean leg over his matte black beast. He pulls his helmet off, and I wonder if he’s practiced this. How to look like a demigod when dismounting one’s ride. Is it an art form? Does it come naturally? Did he practice the moves until he became prolific?
He laughs and turns towards someone else. I don’t know a lot of the others, it’s hard to work out who is who, but I know my five. I’ve never forgotten that night in their study.
“Who makes him laugh like that?” I whisper to myself.
Ranger kissed me. Valen with all the tatts. Ianto was the dangerous one. Mills with the cakes, and Zaden is the president. My ears perk up whenever I hear their names, or their laughs, or their voices. Those five reside in the mansion next door all year round, while everyone else is transient. Torture. It’s agony to exist so close to them. Which means, I get to constantly study them and be as big a pain in ass as I can.
They are who I am having this silent war with. This silent, infuriating war that has slowly grown into an all-encompassing beast. I live for the moments I see them. If we catch each other’s eyes, I’m happy for a week. Exchange a few words? I’m all a-flutter.
Obsessed would be an appropriate description. I’m a silent voyeur watching their lives through this tiny window on the second floor of my mansion. Wanting, yearning, dreaming.
They go inside, and the music turns on. I humph and collapse on the couch, sprawled on my back. I slide a hand up to my chest and feel my heart beating hard. Idly, I wonder why it doesn’t make a sound every time it breaks.
I get up and wander away, knowing they won’t come out for a while. It’s always like this on Friday nights. Sometimes I’m so jealous of the fact that they have people and they aren’t alone that it feels like poison. It’s ridiculous.
I bound down the stairs and put on my music. Derision’s latest hit comes on, and I turn and narrow my eyes at the bluetooth speaker.
“Nope. That is forbidden!”
After the song is changed to some crooning ballad, I dance my way to the fridge and open it. I need to do some shopping.
With a grumble, I lean on the island and send the online order.
I’ve worked out a way to sneak through some purchases that my mother would not approve of. I need to buy a whole heap of Lia-approved crap and sneak in the desired item.
All my purchases are supposed to be checked by Francine’s replacement, but I suspect they feel sorry for the rigorous control my mother has over my life and let a couple of items slip through.
I grab a yogurt and peel off the top, licking it before I fling it in the bin. I pause, the sudden emptiness of the house weighing on me. It’s a big place to be alone in.
I grab my phone and check it. Nothing from Ryn. No word from Locke since we went to Twin Rivers to find him, not a single word from Kelly since his sudden reemergence, and Raider has slunk back to his hole to lick his wounds on the ice. Bethany at least has the excuse of her pack, they are screwing like bunnies last I heard.
I wonder if I broke this phone, if I slipped it down the garbage disposal, would anyone notice I wasn’t answering?
I consider doing that, and then imagine that I fall down the stairs. The thought leaves me trembling. Intrusive thoughts are a bitch. I looked it up after a few days of anxious meltdowns when I was seventeen. Everyone gets them. But still, sometimes they grab me by the throat and hold me hostage.
What if I died here or slipped and was paralyzed? No one would know. No one would come to check on me.
I’m struck seeing an image of me blinking on the floor as day after day passes and I grow weaker and weaker. I’d call, but no one would come. Help so close, but no one would know I’m dying alone.
Bang.
I jerk my head towards the front door, frowning in confusion. But clarity blooms and I beam, bouncing towards the entranceway! I edge towards the door, dropping the tub of yogurt on a small table. I’m almost at the solid wood door when something hits it on the other side.
I yelp, and then shove a hand over my mouth to muffle the sounds of my laughter. However, I’m not deterred. If anything, I’m hiding a smile, and my heart is leaping.
I pull open the front door and scream as jello hits me in the chest.
I stagger back as I look down at my top. My clothes are covered with green goo, but I almost immediately dismiss it and look instead for the culprit.
“You shot me!” I say in fascination and outrage.
This has Ranger written all over it, playful, funny, designed to tease and get me laughing. He’s free-spirited and wild.
They have different attack patterns and styles. Valen is extreme. He’s the guy who will remove all the furniture from my house and have it set on the front lawn.
Ianto is a romantic. He leaves roses on my bed and takes photos of me sleeping. Often I will find deliberate signs he’s been in the house, but I will never see him.
Mills painted an entire wall of my house. He snuck in and painted a beautiful mural. His pranks often end up on the sweet side and have me in awe of his big heart.
Zaden has only pranked me three times in the last four years. The first one scared me half to death. He turned my mansion into a spooky house while I was sleeping. I had so much fun and then, at the end, I found him standing there, leaning against a wall, watching me. He always stays, so I know it’s him.
While the others are intense, Zaden takes it to a whole next level.
I lunge through the front door, just missing a big blob of raspberry-coloured jelly that flies into my house.
I hear Ranger’s laugh ring out, and I climb up onto the porch rail, trying to spot him.
“Ranger!” I shout. “You’re dead!”
“Bring it, babe!”
I snarl and grab the water gun I keep hidden .
Ranger lets out a wicked-sounding laugh, and I spot him rolling away. Another blob slams into my house, and I realise he’s got it set up on some kind of automaton.
I aim and fire, hitting him in the face with the fish sauce.
Ranger howls. “I’m hit. I’m hit!” There’s a pause. “What the actual fuck, Lia!”
I giggle hysterically, jump down off the rail, and run around my mansion, dodging and diving through bushes and my manicured gardens.
“You’re in so much trouble now!” Ranger snarls.
I let out another hysterical laugh and get behind a big tree. I turn to face him but keep the tree between us, firing whenever he tries to get around.
Ranger howls with every hit, dramatically letting loose a series of exaggerated roars that have me crying in laughter.
These are the high moments of my life.
So many long stretches where the seconds turn into forevers, those painfully lonely moments where I stare at walls and fall slowly and irrevocably into a maze of dark thoughts. And then these. Light. Laughter. Fun. They blaze into my world like comets of starlight.
How could I possibly not fall in love with them?
Ianto calls Ranger, and the laughing alpha stops, glancing at me. My laughter fades away, and I’m swept into the black hold of my thoughts once more.
Don’t go, I want to plead.
Stay with me a while longer.
I don’t say any of those thoughts; instead, I watch as Ranger lifts a hand and then turns and jogs back the way he came.
A young man with a leather jacket jogs onto my property a few minutes later, bobbing his head in a polite greeting as he picks up the jello throwing machine. I stand there with my water gun hanging by the tips of my fingers and watch as they disappear back from where they came.
Alone in my tower once more.