tricks of time ― grayson hawthorne [the inheritance games]

007. SHARING BEDS LIKE LITTLE KIDS

Alisa looks at me like I'm a lost puppy. "Oh, that reminds me...we've got a problem. Look outside." She nods to the rooms window.

Me and Grayson's vision both moves to the window, which is too high up for me to reach. Grayson looked outside first, looked down, and swore. I pushed past him and went out on the balcony to see what was going on. Down below, outside the house's entrance,  security guards were struggling with what appeared to be a mob. It wasn't until a flash went off that I realized what that mob was. Paparazzi.

And just like that, every camera was pointed up at the balcony. At me.

"You can't go outside, hear me?" she said, and I whip my head back to her as Grayson closes the window hurriedly.

"There is a mob outside. Oren's team is trying their best to handle it, but it's not proving very successful. And..." she pauses, her face going grim. "With all the people out there, he's warned us that we may have some intruders sometime this night."

I thought you said your firm had this locked down." Grayson gave Alisa a look. She scowled back at him, made three phone calls in quick succession—two of them in Spanish—and then turned back to us both.

"The leak didn't come from us." Her eyes darted towards the door. "It came from your sisters boyfriend."

My answer was barely more than a whisper. "Her ex."

A horde exclaimed on us as I opened the window for a minute again.

"There she is!" a voice yelled.

"Leah!"

"Leah, over here!"

"Leah, how does it feel to be the richest teenager in America?"

"How does it feel to be the world's youngest billionaire?"

"How did you know Tobias Hawthorne?"

"Is it true that you're Tobias Hawthorne's illegitimate daughter?"

Grayson shuffled to close the window, dulling  the roar of the reporters' questions. Exactly at that moment, I got a text from an unknown number. I opened it and saw a screenshot of a news headline.

Leah Adler: Who Is the Hawthorne Heiress?

A short message accompanied the picture.

Hey, Mystery Girl. You're officially famous.

My head whips up when Alisa pats me on the shoulder, as if she didn't just tell me I could be dead by nightfall. Grayson had his everlasting poker face on and she leaves me alone with Grayson momentarily, and I avoid his eye-contact.

"You should stay with your sister," he says curtly.

I sneer at him. "What did you think?"

___

I spend some time in the bowling alley, knowing it was the best, and only way to certainly avoid Grayson. I thought about him way too often now, and I was horrified with myself for it.

I go up to Alisa. "Who do I share a room with?"

She looks up from her work. "Well, I was thinking you'd prefer your sister—"

"Right," I say breathlessly. "Thanks."

I head upstairs, just for two boys to grab me by the arms and haul me into a room.

I immediately start screaming. Oren was right. I am getting kidnapped. Someone must've broken their way in.

"Shh, Heiress," a voice whispers in my ear. Jameson.

They throw me on the bed and before I can reach them, run away and out of the room. The lock I hear must signify they have locked me in this room.

"Let me out!" I scream, pounding on the door.

"I'm sorry, Leah," Xanders voice says. "But we want you to be absolutely best friends with Grayson, considering you're here for a year now! Isn't that an absolutely splendid plan?"

My heart stops. They can't be serious. "No, not really, actually," I say. "Let me out!"

Quiet giggling erupts from behind the door. "Oh my God, Leslie!" I scream, betrayed. "There's no way you were up to this too!"

"Sorry, Leah," she says, taunting me by jangling the key loudly. "Just till morning. I promise!"

I can hear their footsteps receding, and I slump back on the bed. I blow hair away from my face. I'm not even dressed to sleep.

"That's my bed," a voice from the corner says.

I snap back around. "Oh," I say. "You."

"Who else would it be?"

"We're sharing a room now, you know that, right?" I ask him disinterestedly.

A muscle in his jaw twitches and he nods slowly.

"This is all your fault, you know."

"No, it's not. It's your fault for being so loud about everything. It's like the whole world must know what happened to Leah."

I smirk. "You broke into my room," I say as I mock his tone.

I truly don't know how he hasn't lost his cool with me yet.

authors note

this is a huge progression, ahh! i'm so excited to see how the night's events will play out to be :). i might have them enjoy each others' company for a night, but then go back to enemies.

i'm still kinda worried that they're not very cold to each other. is that actually the case? comment -- just to let me know, because i might change it if there are a bunch of comments telling me that.

please vote and comment, like i say, after writing so much it feels really nice. thank you so much!!

word count: 1571 words