LOVEJOY ━━ outer banks¹

xvi. daydreaming

"Hey, girls," she greeted them, looking absolutely beautiful in her yellow Summer dress. "Haven, you look gorgeous."

She did a spin to showcase the flowy knee-length skirt, beaming happily as Mrs Carrera clapped. "Thank you, thank you."

Kie chuckled at her friend before raising an eyebrow at her mother. "Was there something you wanted?"

She shrugged, though both girls could see there was more to it. "Just to have a chat with my favourite daughter."

"I'm your only daughter," Kie deadpanned while Haven excused herself to the bathroom.

Through the door, she only heard bits and pieces of the conversation, but it was safe to say that her friend was left thoroughly unimpressed. She stormed into the bathroom once her mother left, almost startling Haven as she carefully inserted her contacts into her eyes.

"That sounded like it went well," she drawled as she glanced at the girl through the mirror.

Kie just huffed to herself, nudging Haven over gently so she could put on some mascara and call it a day. "Don't even get me started."

Soon enough, they were both ready and making their way to the event. Of course, it was being held at the Country Club, the place of Haven's nightmares. She didn't say anything, though, not wanting to raise Mr and Mrs Carrera's suspicions any more than she already had. Instead, she followed the family around as they greeted both familiar and unfamiliar faces, bemusedly accepting half-hearted condolences for her father when people eventually remembered her name.

It was going to be a long fucking night.

"Hey, look who it is," Kie cooed as her parents finally left them to entertain themselves. "It's your boyfriend."

Haven frowned before following her gaze over to Pope. Her face dropped into a glare as the girl cackled proudly. "Very funny, Kie."

"I know, right?" she simpered as they excused themselves from a group of people around them to approach the boy in question. "I'm a real comedian. Just watch and see." As they stepped up to the table of food that Mr Heyward had set up as the caterer for the evening, Kie cleared her throat and put on what was possibly the worst posh accent Haven had ever heard. "Excuse me, sir. Do we have to shuck these ourselves? 'Cause it might mess up our costumes."

Pope hadn't realised it was them yet (how, Haven wasn't sure, but she knew it fuelled Kie's ego) and he turned to face them with a sour look on his face. "I don't — Oh."

"Now, Mr Heyward, is that any way to look at your superiors?" Haven huffed, over-accentuating her words as Kie giggled.

"Never call me that again," Pope groaned and playfully glared at her. "I'm not my dad."

"Really?" she gasped in mock surprise. "I could've sworn you two were twins."

"My worst nightmare," he shuddered. "Those accents were awful, by the way."

Kie sighed to herself. "Yeah, we know."

Haven, on the other hand, shrugged nonchalantly. "I don't know, it's kind of growing on me."

The mood was quick to dampen though, as the three just watched people flaunting their money in each other's faces. Haven didn't notice the problem when she was younger. She used to love it when her parents took her to their fancy dinners. It gave her a chance to put on some of her mother's makeup and pretend to be a princess on her way to the royal ball. But the older she got, the more in tune she came with the real world, and the fairy-tale magic that once shrouded her ideologies was quick to fade into dust.