Chapter 23 #2
“Oh good, you’re…ready. Or at least your version of ready. Let’s go,” she said, grabbing my arm.
She led me down the stairs, past a massive chef’s kitchen, and through the living room into the most beautiful outdoor deck, different from the one where I’d participated in the dinner from hell last year.
We were so high up, I could see the tops of the trees.
It was so serene. Beyond the trees, one could see the entire landscape of rolling hills and mountains studded with houses.
It went on forever. It was easy to picture myself coming out here in my pajamas with a cup of coffee, sitting and watching the sunrise and taking in this view.
Arax, I caught myself. There you go again.
The layout was tastefully done. Vines and bougainvillea flowed down the rocky walls of the castle that anchored the deck, giving it a gardenlike feel.
There was a long table with carafes of what I assumed were wine, along with pitchers of water.
A tea station was set up in the corner, and past that was a lounge area with wooden couches and chairs, with many comfortable-looking cushions and a fire pit in the middle.
“Relaxing, isn’t it?” Penelope said.
“The view alone, damn,” I replied.
She smiled a mysterious smile but quickly collected herself. “Come on, it’s buffet style. You must be hungry.”
I hadn’t counted the hours since my last meal, but I was famished.
She handed me a plate. “You have to eat a lot, or else my mom is going to find out and think we’re trying to starve you.”
I laughed. My mom had been the same way, feeding guests ad nauseam as a way to make sure they felt welcomed into her home.
The theme was Greek, and I obliged her by piling mine high with a bit of every offering. Pretty satisfied, I turned and burst out laughing at the amount of food Penelope had on hers. It looked like it weighed as much as she did.
“What? I like to eat, okay?” she cried.
“I see that.”
Vallon bounded in, smiling at me and inspecting Penelope’s mound which was leaning, yogurt escaping over the rim. “You leave anything for us, Pen?”
Penelope was distracted from answering as three guys joined the group.
Cyrus, I knew. He came forward and gave Penelope an extended, impassioned kiss, and his concurrent response to seeing me was to simply behave as though I weren’t there.
The other two, I hadn’t met yet. I had just put my plate down when I felt someone grab me from behind and toss me across the back of their shoulders.
“Rox! Damn, I forgot how nicely you clean up!” Drake took a whiff of me, and I got a hint of his cologne too.
I’d never smelled it before. It wasn’t soothing like Konstantine’s.
If anything, it was the opposite, rich and robust and lively, but I couldn’t quite place the scent or why it suddenly appealed to me.
“Thanks, Drake. Yeah, I do shower from time to time,” I said wryly while he set me back down.
He looked me over, frowning at my diminutive waistline, then grabbed a lock of my hair and ran his hands through the ends, grinning at me in admiration.
“You do this for me?” he asked softly, letting the hair ripple between his fingers, his eyes taking on a darker tint, which was reflected in his tone.
Maybe. “No,” I replied.
Penelope came to my rescue. “Drake, why are you sniffing her like a hound in heat? Let Rox be.”
“Is there any food left?” Drake laughed at her like a hyena as he went in search of a plate.
“Where’s Stan?” Penelope asked Cyrus when he came back with his dinner.
Cyrus turned his head and went still, but a second later, he replied, “He’s coming.”
We all took our seats, and I found myself in the middle of Vallon and Drake. She introduced the guy sitting next to her as her boyfriend, Jason. He was also very handsome, Viking-esque, with deep-coffee-colored hair and hazel eyes.
“There he is!” Cyrus’s voice broke into my thoughts when he announced Konstantine’s arrival.
“Bro, hurry up, before Pen goes for seconds!” Drake boomed, since Penelope had started eating.
She chucked a roll at him, and he caught it and took a bite while still laughing, elbowing my side and winking at me.
Everyone besides Penelope waited for Konstantine to sit and start before digging in themselves. He was seated directly across from me, and his presence truly eclipsed everyone around him.
Dinner was a wonderful time. The wine flowed freely, as did the conversation. Though I wasn’t necessarily a shy person, I was quiet by nature. I usually preferred to hang back and observe everyone instead of being a social butterfly.
“Hey, so, Arax, Vallon tells me you’re staying for the party?” Jason asked.
“Yeah, Penelope was nice enough to invite me,” I answered.
I heard a grunt come from Cyrus’s direction, and all heads went his way, except for the mountain of a man in front of me who kept his down, taking no part in any of the banter.
“You got a chunk of moussaka stuck in your throat, Cy?” Drake joked.
“Nope.” Cyrus fixed his stare onto me, acknowledging my presence with steadfast disdain. “I read all about your school, Roxie. I see you’re doing well. Congratulations.”
“Thank you,” I replied, knowing exactly what his motives were for bringing it up. The article’s bullshit hounded me wherever I went.
“I hope Spencer appreciates what a hard-working, dedicated girlfriend he has,” he said, trolling.
I saw Drake get ready to explain, but I put a hand on his knee. “Is there something on your mind, Cyrus?” I smiled, defying him to say more.
He took a long drink from his glass. “Did you tell your boyfriend where you spent your time last year?”
“I was asked not to say anything,” I replied slowly, letting my gaze drift from Cyrus to Konstantine. “So I didn’t, to anyone.”
Cyrus remained unimpressed. “How convenient.”
“Cy.” Penelope glared at him.
“She and Spencer broke up. Okay, dude? Way before all that stuff with her accident. He’s a prick,” Drake said irritably, my hand on his knee ineffectual with regard to Cyrus’s badgering.
“A likely story.” Cyrus rolled his eyes.
“It’s the truth,” I snapped. My patience had bled dry, having been subjected once already to Drake’s inquisition. At least with Drake it’d been private, but Cyrus had an audience.
Cyrus shrugged. “I don’t believe you.”
I leaned forward for emphasis. “And I couldn’t give two fucks what you believe, Mr. ‘Second-in-Command.’”
His eyes widened, but whatever he was going to say was swallowed by a wince. Penelope must have kicked him under the table.
A small part of me wished the bickering had induced Konstantine to come to my defense, or at the very least tell Cyrus to shut up as he’d done in the past. After all, I’d abided by the promise and given him my silence.
He sat there, unmoving, a statue with his head bowed, saying nothing.
Did he think he was above such petty squabbles?
Or was there a far-off chance that he, too, was angry with the alleged dishonesty about my relationship status?
His posture was rigid, which was nothing new, but as my eyes lowered, I saw he had his napkin grasped in a death grip, his fingers curling and uncurling around the white linen.
I glanced up and found his eyes on me and breathed in a gasp.
They had gone completely black. The whites had disappeared, leaving the totality of them shrouded in darkness.
I blinked once, and when my eyes reopened, his head was lowered, but the grip on his napkin remained ever strong.
Feeling foolish at being caught staring, I sank in my seat and played with the food on my plate, my appetite lost. I was too full of resentment toward Cyrus and his needless haranguing.
“Eat, Rox,” Drake said. “Or I’m going to take your fork and feed you.”
I pushed away my plate. “I’m not hungry anymore.”
“Do you think I’m kidding?” he asked, and my fork was out of my hand in less than a second.
“Get bent,” I said angrily and popped an olive in my mouth.
“Ooh, an olive,” he teased.
Drake stabbed a piece of meat and held it to my lips. “Too small?” he asked when I vigorously shook my head, which caused me to break out into embarrassed giggles.
“Drake, stop!”
“One bite,” he said. “You’re nearly invisible.”
“I know,” I said quietly, my laughter ceasing immediately.
He laid down the fork and lightly nudged me. “Hey, you good?”
“I’m good.” I smiled at him.
He gave me a “but are you really?” look.
“I am, I swear. It’s just been a weird year.”
He grinned and unexpectedly crossed my forearm with his and held my hand. He brought it to his lips and kissed it.
Before I could react, an abrupt commotion happened so quickly, it was mostly a blur.
I heard the sound of glass breaking, and in an instant, Drake went flying backward in his chair.
My hand was still clasped in his, so he took me with him, the pair of us falling over, hard.
My shoulder slammed into his chest, and my body bounced off of him and onto the ground.
I looked up and saw that Konstantine had stood to full height, fury visible in every angle of his face.
From where I’d landed, shadows mantled his eyes in a grey hue, lighter than mine, and they were staring at Drake with murderous intent.
I was frozen to where I was, trying to figure out what could have possibly happened to set him off.
“Stan, what the fuck!” screamed Penelope as she rose and faced her brother.
Drake got up and dusted himself off, shaking with anger. He helped me to my feet and put himself between Konstantine and me.
“Yeah, what the hell, man!” he spat at his friend, who turned his back toward us.
Cyrus was keeping brother and sister apart as I stared at the scene, trying to fully take in what had transpired.
“Rox, are you okay? You’re soaked.” Vallon grabbed a napkin and gently tossed it at me.
She was right. I hadn’t noticed that the glass breaking was a carafe that had been forcefully knocked over, splattering wine all over me, drenching my hair and clothes.
We were two for two on disastrous dinners.
I gritted my teeth and rubbed my shoulder.
There would definitely be a bruise on it tomorrow.
“Dinner’s over,” Penelope stated. “Everyone, my room, now. Jesse, take Arax upstairs and make sure she’s all right. Go.”
I finished wiping my face and hesitantly followed Jesse, muttering a low good night to the table. Clearly I wasn’t invited to witness the tongue-lashing Penelope had in store for her brother when they got to her room.