Facade [h.s]

twenty-three

All of sudden Callie came around, a cup of something in her hand, her blonde hair tied softly behind her head, slowing the long diamond earrings on either side of her slim neck.

Indigo and I watched as she put her hand on Joel's shoulder, her black nails a strong contrast to the white of the button up he was wearing, leaning towards him and whispering something into his ear, too quietly for me to understand.

Joel turned to look at her and then seemed to look away, glancing at something on the opposite side of the room, before looking at her again and giving her a little nod. "I'll be back soon" he told us, walking away as soon as he was done speaking.

I frowned and sent a confused glance in Callie's direction, that was still standing in front of us, impossible not to notice in the bright red dress she was wearing, that hugged her slim hips perfectly and went down to half of her thigh.

"Where's Joel going?" I asked her, talking to her for the first time in a week, sure that she perfectly knew all his plans.

She gave me a little shrug. "Oh, don't worry. He's just fixing an issue that came up" she said, calmly but somewhat cheerfully, and for some reason her words sent a shiver down my spine.

She looked down at her cup, checking if it was empty, allowing me to glance up and quickly scan the room to see where he'd disappeared to, my breath freezing in my throat in the second I saw him disappear into the kitchen, followed by none other than Harry, hard to spot because of the dimmed lights of the room and the black shirt he was wearing.

I turned my head towards Indigo quickly, understanding that I wasn't overreacting in the second I noticed that she seemed to be just as panicked as I was by what Callie had said.

"I'll get something to drink" I muttered, walking away and towards the kitchen without waiting for anyone to say anything in reply. I couldn't tell if Callie had only made an unfortunate choice of words or if she truly meant what she said, but I knew for a fact that I wasn't going to take any chances.

As soon as I stepped into the entrance to the house I closed the door that brought to the living room, isolating the noise of the party in there and regaining some of the quietness of the house, not waiting a second before moving towards the kitchen as silently as possible, pressing myself towards the wall and listening for any sounds that would've told me what was going on.

The door was almost closed, a little shard of the room peeking through the side, but that didn't show me anything but the right side of the table and the fridge. For a second, I wondered if they'd gone somewhere else in the house without me noticing, but then I heard something.

It was a voice speaking quietly, way too silently for me to understand who it was, or what they were saying.

I heard the low sound of something being put down on the table harshly, but not harshly enough for whatever it was to break. "You can't do whatever the hell you want, Joel" Harry spat, clearly annoyed by whatever had been said before. "They wouldn't fucking believe you anyway."

I heard an ironical laugh, that I was able to recognise as coming from Joel. "Do you really think that's true?" He replied. "Do you think they'd really believe the word of an underprivileged man that only managed to get into uni because the rich people felt bad about him after his failure of a brother died, over mine?"

I widened my eyes at his words, holding my breath in order not to make a sound despite the surprise. Harry's brother had passed away? I hadn't even known he had a brother at all. My momentary shock was quickly put aside, though, when I heard Harry reply.

"How fucking dare you say that" he said, his voice louder and irate, suddenly sounding way closer to me as he moved towards the door.

"Can't handle the truth, can you?" Joel said, scoffing at him almost teasingly.