FLAWLESS EXCUSES

Chapter 1

Zoe let out an offensive laugh, "You think you can get him?"

I glared at her, "You think I can't?"

We were at Zoe's boyfriend's party, and thank Goodness she decided to stay with me while he went about accepting wishes and gifts from the other people. I stood on my toes to steal a glance at James. He wore an expensive tuxedo, twirling the ice cubes gracefully in his glass of wine. A sigh escaped my lips. I just wanted his attention-- just for at least a couple of minutes?

Suddenly an idea struck me and I was too reckless to care if it was silly. Taking a deep breath, I looked at my own glass of cocktail and started towards at me. "What are you doing?" Zoe demanded, but I pretended to not hear her.

My nerves were wrecking. And thank goodness, he didn't notice me. Inhaling sharply, I bumped onto him, watching my beloved cocktail ruin his tuxedo. Here it went, my deliberately planned accident won his full attention. He was glaring daggers down at me.

"Oops," I apologized, afraid to look at him. Afraid to tear my gaze off his tuxedo. "That was indeed a fatal accident."

"You're paying for it," he said, simply.

My eyes widened in shock. "But it was an accident!" I protested. At the moment, I was so stunned, I almost forgot I was standing in front of my long time crush.

"You're paying for it," he repeated, with no emotion in his voice.

I looked desperately at his tuxedo. I obviously didn't have a million dollars with me right now. "I don't have the money," I admitted.

"Then by actions," he shrugged. When I didn't respond, he put a hand on my shoulder and asked, "What's your name?"

He really wanted to know my name?

"Jeanne," I answered, looking at those intimidating dark blue eyes.

"Jeanne what?"

"Jeanne Savior."

"Okay, Jeanne Savior. I don't want incidents like this happen again, yes?" He removed his hands from my shoulders. But the ghost of his touch still played with my skin. "But you still have to pay for it anyway," he continued, "if you want this."

He raised his hand. He was clasping something that meant the world to me. My locket chain. It was the only reminder I had of my parents, so seeing it in an unreachable distance, made my face pale.

How did he get that so fast without my notice? I immediately checked my neck, and sure enough, it was absent.

"Not t-that," I stuttered, my heart beating faster. "Please, anything except that," I begged.

He shrugged. "I'm sorry. If you want it back, meet me in Starbucks tomorrow at...uh," he turned to look at one of his father's secretaries. "At what time will dad's car be free tomorrow? Mine is in repair."

The secretary checked something that seemed like a schedule. "Four," he answered.

"Right," James said, and turned to me. "Four," he repeated and turned away, walking towards the opposite direction.

I watched him remove his coat and hand it to someone else, asking to clean the mess. My chain was still in his hand and I was so upset. People were crowded around me, some of them snickering and some of them staring at me in awe. Plucking my courage, I set my face to look as if I didn't care, and just shrugged. Making him happy was the last thing I wanted to do right now.

I turned around, whilst feeling all the wild emotions hit me at once; sad, angry and merely disappointed.

Zoe snickered at me, constantly bursting into fits of laughter. I rolled my eyes. "At least I got his attention for at least three minutes," I said. And at least now he knows that someone called Jeanne exists.