C H A P T E R 3 1
?What is coming is better than what is gone.?
Olivia and I had celebrated my win with two buckets of delicious ice cream each and a movie marathon of our favorites till the early hours of the morning. After that we had retired to our respective rooms to get some sleep.
At the breakfast table, things were awkward. It was just the four of us. Apparently, all of us had woken up a little too late and were having lunch instead of breakfast.
I had my reasons for waking up late. I was celebrating with movies and unhealthy food and hence, had gone to bed late. However, I was curious as to why the two businessmen had woken up late. They had nothing to celebrate and yet they had woken up late for probably the first time since my stay here.
From what I knew of them, they were very strict about their schedules and wouldn't 'waste' time sleeping.
Ethan looked handsome and for once he was not in his business attire at the table. The dark circles he had a few days ago had disappeared and he almost looked happy. How could he though? If I had lost, I wouldn't have been able to look him in the eye for probably my whole life.
As the awkward silence between the four of us started to suffocate me, I cleared my throat and glanced at Ethan with a smirk on my face.
"So how does it feel like to lose, you loser?"
Olivia nudged me in the shoulder with her hand. "Don't be mean to him. We meant it when we said that you two should act like civilized people around each other. What happened yesterday wasn't childish enough for you?"
I rolled my eyes at her. "Fine. You're no fun."
Ethan looked up and gave me charming smile. I was taken aback. It almost looked like a real smile.
"You would know better as you've failed your life.
I've achieved so much in my life. I don't mean to brag, but if I start to list off all the things, it might take a while.
Losing this children's game means nothing to me.
It might seem like a big deal to people like you because this is probably the first thing you've actually achieved.
So, sorry but I cannot give you the satisfaction of seeing me upset when actually I'm not.
" He said, getting up. "Excuse me but I have to go and work unlike some good-for-nothing people. "
Yup, that was definitely his go to statement whenever he lost something to me.
I glared at Olivia. "You didn't say anything to him. He was mean to me."
"This was not what we had in mind," Tristan mumbled. "You guys are impossible."
"What happened to you guys?" Keith asked as he chopped vegetables for lunch. It had been four days since want happened and Ethan and I had ignored each other at breakfast, lunch and dinner. We rarely encounter each other in any other place.
This didn't go unnoticed by Tristan and Olivia and the two had been pretty much forcing me to be 'friends' with him. Like that would ever happen.
The other cooks were working on other dishes and I was sat on the kitchen counter, munching on chips as I watched Keith cook. I wasn't in the mood to cook today so I just settled for watching him cook.
I shrugged. "You noticed?"
"Well, yeah. It was pretty much obvious from the first day that something huge had happened."
"Yeah, I mean we were forced to put aside our differences and start anew. Get to know each other and stuff like that. Clearly Olivia and Tristan don't seem to catch up onto our clear disinterest."
"So you're ignoring each other."
"Yeah. I don't want to try to be friends with his stupid face."
Keith chuckled. "Don't say that out loud. If he heard you, you'd be dead."
"Do you really think he's scary?"
"If he's angry, then he's scary."
"He's not scary to me at all. What did he do to you?"
"He never did anything. There are just some people, you know, those who don't actually do anything but still seem scary. He's like that for me." He chuckled.
"I'm so excited for your birthday! Your twentieth birthday!" Charlotte gushed at the dinner table, grinning at me. It made me doubt if she was really a fifty-five year old woman. Alistair nodded and patted my head. Olivia looked up to meet my eyes and Ethan looked as if he hadn't even heard her.
"Yeah..." I trailed off unsurely.
"We were so upset last year at your nineteenth birthday because you still hadn't returned for a whole year and we missed your birthday.
We missed almost two years of your life, Juliet.
Don't think we've forgiven you for that.
But I'm really happy that I can at least celebrate your twentieth one with you.
It would be your best birthday ever. I'll make sure of it," She said and instantly knew I wasn't going to like that one particular day.
It was weird how even my real birthday was in a few days.
All I had to know was when exactly was Juliet's birthday.
"You don't have to make it extravagant, please. I'd like something simple," I told her.
"You're going to love what I've planned," Charlotte promised. I smiled at her reluctantly.
After dinner, I grabbed Olivia and dragged her to the guest room where she was staying.
"I want you to find out when exactly Juliet's birthday is. Just ask Charlotte casually. And also ask what she's planning and if you could help her with it, okay? Just try to prevent her from doing something that would involve me revealing myself to the world."
Olivia nodded. "I wanted to talk to you about the same thing. Should I go and ask her now?"
"No, it's late. She might get suspicions. Ask her tomorrow."
"Okay," Olivia nodded and I left her room to go up to my own.
I hadn't checked my old phone for a while so I carefully took it out from under all the makeup products that were piled up in one of the drawers. I switched it on to see that I had over three recent missed calls from Mrs. Odin.
Deciding to give her a quick call, I checked to see if I had properly shut my room door and walked out towards the balcony just to be on the safe side.
She picked up after four rings.
"Julie?" Her fragile voice sounded from the other end and I smiled.
"Hi, Mrs. Odin. How are you?"
"I'm fine but where are you girls?"
"I can't tell you."
"Okay, but I hope you two are safe. It has been too long since you two went off to God knows where."
"Did we lose our jobs?" I asked worriedly. I didn't want to lose the one job which had supported me till now.
"No, honey. Never. Well actually just temporarily.
I've hired three workers to look after the café for a few days until you return.
I just thought you'd be back before your college starts again after summer break.
Aren't you going to come back by then? There are hardly ten days left for your college to start. "
Shit. I had totally forgotten about college. There were less then ten days more of summer break and I couldn't afford to be absent for too many days.
"I don't know yet. I'll let you know when we're coming."
"Okay, take care."
"You too, Mrs. Odin. You don't sound too well."
"Nothing to worry about. I'm just feeling a little weak these days and have a little fever."
"Okay. Take your medicines timely and say hi to Mr. Odin for me please."
"Sure, dear."
I hung up, my mind was whirring with many thoughts.
On one hand I was worried about my real identity being revealed and on the other I had my normal life to worry about.
What about college? What about the rent I was supposed to give by the end of the month?
What about my old and small apartment? What about my belongings there?
Thinking about my old life, I realized I wasn't so sure about going back.
That was not good, at all. I was getting more and more comfortable here which would make it harder for me to adjust to my old life when I'd finally be able to go back.
More than me, Olivia would be the one who would find it the hardest when we'll suddenly be back to our old selves.
I had no idea what I was going to do next. There was no way out of this mess. So I did the only thing one can do when there was no way out. I slept.
The next morning, I had holed myself up in my room after shower and breakfast. I was waiting for Olivia. She had gone to casually extract information about Charlotte's plans for my birthday.
She had been gone for too long and I was almost close to starting to chew off my skin when my nails were done so I moved on to play some video game on the laptop.
But after four rounds, I got bored of it too.
So I searched up all of these rich people and learned a lot about them.
I even googled Ethan because I was merely curious about him.
Most of the articles were of his successful career and how he was a perfect dream man for every woman.
Then there were many articles about his serious relationship with Heather with headlines as ridiculous as "Billionaire hunk changed the bad girl," referring to Heather's past controversial activities.
"Juliet," Olivia said, opening the door and I jumped and quickly closed the tabs. I didn't want her to know I was searching up Ethan and looking at his photos with and without Heather like a creep.
"W-what?" I asked, pushing the laptop away from me. She looked at me strangely before shaking her head.
"We are in deep crap."
"I know and we have even more crap to deal with. What happened?"
"Juliet's birthday is on May 27 and-"
"Wait, that day is my birthday."
"Oh my God, I almost forgot your birth date."
"Come again. Did you really say that Juliet's birthday is on May 27?"
"Yes, I did."
"How can it be possible? We were born on the same day? And we look almost similar. We're both going to turn twenty on May 27." Oh my God.
Olivia gasped. "Does that mean that you two are tw-"
"No! Don't say anything. It can't be possible. It might just be a coincidence," I said, shaking my head to stop thinking about such a ridiculous possibility.
"Right," Olivia snorted. "You two look like twins. You two share the same birth date. You both are going to turn twenty on the same day. She's Juliet Katie and you're Julie Kate. Just a coincidence."
"Look, there's a lot going on here right now. I don't want to think about anything else. So please shut up."
I ran a hand through my hair. It felt as if my head was going to burst from the amount of thinking I was doing.
"What else did Charlotte say?"
"She said that she's planning on throwing a grand birthday party for you.
She'll be inviting every known personality and all of your three hundred something friends.
She has even placed an order for a two ten-tier birthday cake because you're turning twenty.
She's going to fly us all and the guests off to their private island. "
"Oh my God. There's no way that Juliet wouldn't know about me then."
"Obviously."
"What are we going to do?" I didn't know I was panting by then.
"Calm down first, maybe? Uh, why are you breathing like that? Julie, are you okay?"
"I-I'm fine," I waved her off but my laborious breathing suggested otherwise.
Olivia shushed me and made me sit down on my bed. "We'll figure this out, okay? We'll talk to Heather about this. She'll surely help us. Till then, we'll try to drop subtle hints at Charlotte that you'll absolutely hate that."
I nodded. "Okay. Why didn't you at least tell Charlotte that it'll be a bad idea?"
"I did. But she was adamant on her plans. She told me that a mother knows her daughter the best and she was sure you'd like her surprise. Little does she know that you aren't her daughter at all."
I told her about my call to Mrs. Odin and how our colleges would be starting soon.
"I don't know what to do, Julie. Should we go back or should we stay?"
"We have to go back obviously. It's not a choice."
"I know. But would Heather allow us to leave?"
That left me speechless. Of course Heather wouldn't want us to leave. At leat not till the real Juliet decided to come out of hiding. She wouldn't care about our problems abs academics.
I rubbed my face with my hands. "She wouldn't allow."
Olivia shook her head sadly. "You're right. We really have no choice but to stay."
Olivia left for her room shortly afterwards because we weren't able to come up with a good plan.
I opened the laptop and googled Juliet Jenson. Her pictures appeared first and I stared at her for a long time. I wasn't trying to find the similarities between us, but rather the differences. There weren't many.
I read the articles about her. She really was a bad, bad girl and how I was acting was nowhere near how she was. How could her parents believe my act?
The most recent articles were about the Jenson'sactivities and events and how they think that a mysterious lady who they suspect is their runaway daughter was reported to be hanging around them lately.
Great. The people were alarmed of the smoke.
I was sure it wouldn't be long until they see the fire.
The possibility that Juliet and I might be related was another thing that was worrying me. Why did things always take a turn for the worst in the best way?
It was evening now. I was sat on the bench in the garden, just admiring nature and the silence.
The sun was on the verge of setting and the lights in the garden would turn on anytime now. A pretty orange hue adorned the evening sky with birds chirping and flying off to their nests. The blossom trees looked even more pretty than they did during the day.
I was so lost in thought that I didn't even notice someone's presence behind me until the person had sat beside me.
"God, Keith-" I stopped short when I noticed that it wasn't Keith but someone who I wasn't expecting to see. Ethan.
"Sorry, I'm not your little boyfriend, Keith," he said.
"Keith is not my boyfriend."
He didn't say anything and neither did I. The silence between us was awkward and I knew this was the last place he wanted to be at, especially with me. So why was he here?
"Why are you here?" I asked, voicing my thoughts.
"I was forced by our best friends to be here."
"Why?"
"They want me to be on talking terms with you because it's your birthday in a few days."
I was surprised. "And you agreed with them just like that?"
"I decided to be a bigger person and try to-" he paused, searching for the right word.
"Get to know the real me?" I suggested.
"Don't flatter yourself but yeah, something along those lines."
I turned my head away from him to hide the smile. I didn't even want to smile.
I pressed my lips into a thin line and stared straight ahead. It was weird talking to him without any jibes or insults thrown at each other.
"Why are you here anyways? You rarely used to visit the garden before," He said, relaxing his stiff shoulders and leaning back.
"It's just peaceful here. It gives me a proper environment to think and get away from things. Sometimes I just simply love being here for no reason at all."
He nodded. "Yeah, it isn't that bad here."
"Have you never visited this garden?" I asked curiously, looking at him from the corner of my eyes.
He shook his head. "I mostly don't have time to."
"Oh."
I looked around, thinking of something more to say. "Don't you ever get tired of doing so much work? The only time I see you not working is when you're eating or sleeping."
"Are you implying that you watch me sleep?"
I rolled my eyes. "In your dreams."
"I didn't know I had a peeping tom who watches me sleep," he said, a slight smirk on the corner of his lips.
"Answer me."
"Well, it sometimes gets overwhelming seeing the amount of work. Sometimes I just wish I could run away from all of this." He sighed wistfully.
"Then why don't you?"
"It's not easy."
I raised an eyebrow in question but he just shook his head. He shifted his gaze from the scenery to me and stared at me for longer than needed.
"What?" I asked.
"You know, I actually felt as if I wasn't talking to you. It was as if I was talking to a different person."
My breath caught in my throat. Just then the lights in the garden switched on, dimly lighting it up. I hadn't realized that it had gotten dark and that I should head inside.
"We should go," I said, standing up and brushing the dirt off of my pants.
The entrance of the garden was a beautiful pebbled pathway lined with small lamps which lighted up the path. We walked back inside together to find Olivia and Tristan with shell shocked expressions on their faces.
I rolled my eyes at them.
"How? When? Damn it Juliet, you just lost me my imaginary Mercedes to Tristan." Olivia tittered.
I shook my head and laughed at their ridiculous behavior. Maybe Ethan and I could try to be friends.
S
o there's a lot going on all at once.
And there's more to come!
So brace yourselves.