Love Sucks

Party Traditions - Chapter Nineteen

Nathaniel could feel Abigail's eyes on his back as Mercy drug him away and into the edges of the party.

Mercy would glance back at him every few seconds, and if it weren't for her jubilant smile, he would've felt annoyed. Instead, curiosity held most of his interest, but Nate did have a feeling of what she was going to say. His cousin wanted to warn him about Abigail, again.

"Listen, Mercy ... I already know what you're going to say, and let me just beat you to it - I don't need anymore-" his words were stopped when the realization of where they were hit him.

Mercy had led him into one of the darkly lit corridors with old paintings of family and long paneled wood floors. He could still see her, mainly because of the florescent looking shimmer her bird feathered dress took to in the darkness. She smiled.

"Nate ... I'm not here to tell you anything you don't already know." Mercy drawled.

He raised an eyebrow. Typically, only the closest people in his life referred to him as Nate. Nathaniel didn't really consider his cousin that close; she rarely ever visited, and when she did, it was always extremely strange.

"I ... don't know what you mean, Cousin." He said slowly, making sure to step back a few feet. The lighting was too dim for him to read the girl's expression.

"Please, Nathaniel, I think we can last one conversation without calling each other by titles." Her voice was admittedly angry, and Nate was confused by it.

"But that's what you are." He mentioned quietly.

There was a pause, and suddenly, all he could breath was Mercy's perfume. She had stepped so close, and there was no room for him to back up anymore.

" ... That's what you keep telling yourself, Nate." She argued, putting slender hand on his chest.

"What's gotten into you, Mercy?" Nate pushed himself to the side, dodging her hand as he gave her a look of utter confusion. "I don't understand ..."

"Did you know I love you?" She asked.

"Um, yes. We're family; I love you too." Nate contemplated ditching his cousin in this hallway and returning to Abigail.

"No!" Mercy suddenly screeched. "I mean, I'm in love with you, Nathaniel Drake. And I know you feel the same ... you don't have to keep pretending otherwise." She rushed him then, pressing her thin figure against his own.

Nate blinked, and it took him a moment to register what she was proposing.

He had never, even vaguely (or at least, in Nate's eyes), ever hit or harmed a lady, physically, that was. And Mercy knew this too, because the surprise shone in her eyes as he pushed her away, roughly. Along with a rather nasty exclamation that followed.

"What's the matter?" Mercy had her hands on her hips, as if the face of being rejected wasn't quite looking at her, yet.

"The matter? The matter is that your my cousin, and any relationship beyond that is disgusting." Nathaniel threw at her, his voice flustered.

"Like your relationship with dinner? You can't stop love, Nathaniel, you just can't."

He raised his eyebrows, unconvincingly. "Then you understand why I won't stop my feeling for her." He said softer this time, desperate for Mercy to see some side of reason. What twisted dream haunted her head?

"What is that supposed to mean?" She hissed.

"Mercy ... I don't know what deluded thoughts you had, but-"

"I asked what it meant, Nathaniel. Do you love that-that thing? Is that what it is?"

Nate froze; this accusation was completely and irrevocably true ... but she didn't need to know that. Briefly he could hear his Grandfather start the memorable speech he gave every season of the Black and White Ball. "I think I hear Lucifer-"