Chapter 10
Deal
The huge rows of ivy hung around the windows, tying it together. The bricks looked like they were crippling yet still held the entire mansion together. It was fancy and ancient-looking yet still had the hint of modern around me. The thing that stood in front of me was the Horowitz house. Kai's house.
In front of the house was an antique fountain sitting alone, only a few pieces of flowers accompanying it. The water looked clear as it flowed freely out of its spout and into its realm. I could feel the peacefulness radiating off of it.
It was either that or richness—
The area was quiet, only the dripping water and chirping birds to be heard. It was actually calming to stand there in the midst of all the rich area.
Kai hadn't been lying when he said he'd find my number. He texted me on Thursday night, just as I was getting into my bed. All he wrote was the address. Nothing else.
I didn't question it at all. Perhaps that was because he was always weird. To be perfectly honest, I wouldn't have went if it wasn't for school.
Friday morning, I didn't see an inch of Kai which I felt was odd. I was wondering whether or not to actually go to his house. What if he was lying? What if he had changed his mind?
Hesitantly, my feet edged against the wide steps of the entrance of his grand house until I reached the front door. In the corner of my eye, there was a gold plated doorbell on the right hand side.
God, even their doorbell is fancy.
I pressed it and waited as I pulled my lip into my mouth.
If Kai gave me a fake address, I'm going to kill him.
I pushed my weight onto my heels of my feet as I played with the end of my top, panic building up inside of me. I was wearing a cropped white turtle neck top paired with baggy cream jeans with a black belt and white sneakers. I was regretting my decision of wearing a cropped top when no one was opening to the door.
What felt like an hour later and after a lot of anticipation of the murder of Kai, the door opened and revealed an average sized man with greying hair in a black and white suit.
"Hi, I'm looking for Kai Horowitz. My name is Hayley Campbell." I tried to put on a friendly smile.
"Ah, Ms Campbell. Come in, come in," He greeted me and stepped aside so the rest of the house could come in view.
The sight was...well a sight.
It was absolutely beautiful. The floors looked like they were stone and the walls were high, an assortment of paintings hung on the walls. They were intricate and looked like they all had a meaning behind them. I wanted to know more but alas, I was here for studying. My eyes wandered over to the staircase. It was grand and in the middle of the 'room' under the enormous chandelier.
"You may wait in the lounge for Mr Horowitz," The man advised me and I nodded. He led me to the room and I peered inside.
There was three couches in the room, all humongous and looked incredibly comfy looking. There was two armchairs in opposite sides of the room, facing a huge flat screen tv.
I looked back. "Thank you...."
"Edgar."
"Thank you, Ed," I smiled genuinely at his slightly shocked face which he tried to conceal. Ed looked like he didn't receive many nicknames so it was all the more reason.
"You are very welcome, Ms Campbell."
"Hayley," I corrected him.
They even had servants! How rich were they?
He bowed his head a little before he walked away from the room.
Slowly, I stepped into the lounge and decided to sit on the nearest couch, right at the edge. I really hoped Kai was coming soon.
I was admiring all the little details in the lounge. The walls were covered with paintings and decor. They were so intriguing, I couldn't stop myself from making my way to it. I traced my finger on the small inscribed designs on the frames. The one I was touching was gold and quite frankly calling out to me.
Before I could move onto the next painting, I was jolted by a voice behind me.
"I'm guessing you're here for Roman," said a very beautiful girl. She had long, wavy platinum blonde hair and the most strong grey eyes. She was roughly my height, from what I could tell and held herself with amazing posture— like she was powerful.
Once she saw my confused face she added, "Carlos? Oh no, don't say Charlie!"
She had a serious face for a second which worried me. I was about to say something before she burst out laughing.
Inside joke?
"If you're here for Jack, then I'm guessing I'm missing something," at this she practically fell on the floor, her hair flung around her back.
Why was this so funny?
"Oh God, let the poor girl breathe," Another girl had arrived but she had curly brownish, reddish hair and blue eyes. She was a little taller yet her facial features suggested she was younger.
She raised a hand out to me. "Hi, I'm Jackie, also known as Jack to her."
Oh, that's why she was laughing.
I gladly accepted her hand. "Hayley."
"That's Iris." Jackie pointed at her sister who had sat on the couch, now calming herself down. She turned her voice down to a whisper, "Iris is quite eccentric."
I nodded, slowly.
As I was about to ask where Kai was, a loud bang erupted near the door and we all turned our heads.
"Have you seen my headpho—woah!" It was a guy who was quite tall and built. He was stopped short when he arrived in the room and his eyes landed on me.
It didn't take him long to arrive to me with a couple of strides. He took my hand and reached it up to his lips, placing a small kiss on it. "Hi, I'm Roman. Pleasure to meet you"
My hand jolted away from his touch. "Hey, I'm Hayley." I didn't really know what to say. A guy randomly comes up to you and kisses your hand. This wasn't the Victorian times.
Sweet gesture but weird.
After attempting to ask where Kai was again, a small boy waltzed into the room followed by another guy who looked roughly Jackie's age.
"Charlie's being annoying, you gotta look after him," the guy demanded with a huff, shoving the small boy in front of all of the Horowitz kids.
Jeez, there were a lot of people in this family.
His eyes scanned the room and then he looked a bit shocked when he saw me.
Do they not usually have guests around in this family?
"Hey, I'm Carlos and this is Charlie," he nodded to the small blonde boy with headphones wrapped around his neck and looking very giddy.
"Why'd you give him my headphones?!" Roman yelled suddenly, his angered brown eyes focused on the device on the kid.
"Charlie found it- not me!"
It seemed these words were the instigator for an argument. It started off with the headphones and then claiming Iris had taken them and left them with Jackie and said she gave it to Carlos who denied it.
"Get it off of him!" Roman commanded, threateningly at Carlos.
Carlos took a step back and pointed at Charlie. "No way in hell. Remember last time when we tried to take that piece of candy from him...," He reminded the rest of them and they all followed with a shudder, only to start arguing again.
I didn't really know what to do when the Horowitz kids were fighting about who was going to look after the little boy and who was going to get the headphones off of him so I decided to walk over to him. I crouched down on my knees to reach eye level.
"Hi," I greeted Charlie with a welcoming smile and he gave me a shy one. "My name is Hayley."
"Charlie," a small mumble left his lips. I could barely hear him as his small hands covered his mouth and that brought a little chuckle to me.
An idea popped into my head. "Do you like candy?" I asked.
Slowly and warily, he nodded.
Inside of my bag was a small toy and piece of candy that I had eaten the other day with Vic. We loved to eat candy on the weekends a 'cheat snack'. I didn't think it was really considered a cheat snack if we did it all the time but Vic was convinced. I always kept spare candy in my bag because I was always hungry.
I reached for it and handed it to him. He looked at it and then back at me, mentally wondering if he should. Charlie decided on the latter and took it, enjoying it instantly.
As he was indulging in it, hesitantly, my fingers moved over to the Charlie's neck so I could pull off the headphones from him. I was mentally thanking the life of me when he didn't cry.
Charlie looked extremely excited about the candy and immediately forgot about the headphones which where now sat on the edge of the couch.
He skipped over into another room, completely satisfied, and waved me goodbye. That's when I realised the noise had died down.
I turned my head to see they were all looking at me funny, like I had done something never completed before.
"Wha-What?" I stammered, suddenly self conscious as I stood up. The Horowitz siblings were standing beside each other shocked. Then, in the corner of my eye, I saw Kai leaning against the wall near the door with his arms crossed. Expressionless.
"No one has been able to do that for the entire week!" Carlos exclaimed, eyes wide.
My eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "I just gave him candy and a toy," I said like it was the most obvious thing.
"Bloody brilliant!" Iris shouted in glee as she leaped onto the couch, staring at me wide-eyes. "Who would've thought."
"Anyone who has experience with children which I assume you all do, considering he's your brother," I blurted. The words had just slipped out of my mouth. It was times like this when I wanted to staple my own tongue.
Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!
"Wow, she's got a mouth, doesn't she?" Roman announced whilst nudging Carlos who stumbled sidewards at the contact. If I wasn't so worried about what I said, I would've laughed at that.
I'm going to be kicked out of the house aren't I?
Just when I thought I was going to be thrown on the front door step, Jackie squealed, "I love her!"
I was completely shocked to say the least. A grin tugged at my lips before I was pulled into a hug by Jackie. "No one speaks to us like that. Amazing."
I was frozen for a second before I wrapped my arms around her, awkwardly.
Iris punched my arm playfully before she too have me a hug.
Wow, they sure were huggers.
She quickly pulled away and stared at me like she was a robot giving me an identification check. From the house, I could tell she was very rich so she could easily get an identification check if she really wanted too.
"So, Kai?" she rhetorically questioned with a disgusted look on her face which made me laugh a little.
"School work. Trust me, I wouldn't be here for any other reason," I informed her and she winked before strolling over to the couch.
Kai has been awfully quiet since he saw my meeting with Charlie.
Did that upset him or something?
Kai abruptly walked out of the room, not a word out of his mouth and left me with his siblings still staring at me.
I looked around and started walking in the same direction. "I'm gonna— yeah," I pointed at the door and they all nodded.
"Third door on your left," Jackie gave me a comforting smile and I returned one.
I left the room and found myself walking to the staircase and up to the hallway. The walls were covered with art and as I moved, they all became more and more bright and intricate.
How rich can you be to get all this stuff? I thought as I was trudging through the lengthy, well-lit halls.
I remembered what Jackie said and walked to the third door and stood in front of it. I rose my fist in the air, trying to build up the courage to knock.
This is Kai, why should I be worried?
Because he looked mad before.
What if that's just his resting bitch face? I did make some very good points.
After having a mental argument with my self I knocked on the door but I didn't get an answer. I knocked again and still, no answer.
Was this the right door?
Hesitantly, I pressed my hand against the door knob and it was unlocked so I stepped inside, against my better judgment. I didn't know what I thought would be in here, but it sure wasn't this.
At first, the room seemed mildly normal— for a rich person that is.
A king sized bed in the middle of the room, pushed up against a wall which was plastered with posters of old bands. A desk was sat in the opposite side and was rather large than an average one— say mine. A huge chandelier was placed at the ceiling at a dim lighting. On the opposite side of his room was a huge wall with three windows and each had a vermillion red curtain on either side.
What shocked me was the second floor in this room. Rows and rows of shelves stood there, filled with books. Colourful and different sizes, all perfectly placed in them.
It itched at me to go there and I heeded.
I almost ran to the staircase which led it. It was spiral and wooden. The modern wood. As quietly as I could, I made my way to the top and there in my glory was a personal library.
It wasn't mine.
But a girl could dream.
My finger trailed along the spines of the books. I walked as I kept my finger on them and it made this rhythmic sound. It was music to my ears. I stopped against one book which had an intriguing exterior and picked it up.
My interest peaked at its ripping cover and I flipped it open.
"Nosy, are we?" came a voice beside me.
I stumbled forward and placed a hand on the bookshelf to steady myself before looking at Kai's irritated expression.
"I-I'm sorry i couldn't find you—" I attempted to make an excuse.
"—So you decided to go to my room," He finished for me, his eyes not leaving mine with a hard expression.
A sheepish look was drawn on my face as I rubbed my arm. He ignored it and walked down the stairs and I followed him. He lied into his bed while I awkwardly stood near it.
"I thought you don't do libraries?" I queried, remembering his very bold statement the other day.
Kai looked up at me with his eyes. "I don't do school libraries," He addressed like it was the most obvious thing.
Rich kids.
I rolled my eyes and did nothing else but I was starting to feel very anxious about his incessant staring.
"Why are you just standing there?" he gave me a weird look and I shrugged my shoulders before sitting on the edge of his bed.
Kai whipped out his phone and began to text.
Rude. I'm here and he's texting.
I thought he would have known manners since he's rich and had a butler.
I clicked my fingers in front of his face and he looked up at me slowly and glared at me.
"What? I'm on my phone."
I gritted my teeth as I put on a fake smile.
It seemed like I had been doing that a lot.
"You invited me here for our project. Are we going to do that or not?"
At last, Kai threw his phone beside him and stared at me once more. His green eyes were so alluring but I was agitated so I looked away before he could persuade me to do all the work by myself. Suddenly, he stood up and walked up the stairs to the library, leaving me behind.
How gentlemen of him.
~
"No, obviously it means he so eluded by her presence that he thinks it's love at first sight," I leaned back into my chair, proud of myself. My smug smile was plastered on my face.
It has been an hour in to this studying session and I was feeling drained. We had been arguing for the past ten minutes about the meaning of the poem. It was getting intense but it was quite thrilling. Of course, it was because I was winning.
He scoffed and edged closer to my face for emphasis. "He just thought she was hot. It's not like that."
My eyebrows rose up at this as I leaned in even closer to his face so I could feel hear his soft breathing. "It's love," I declared.
Kai filled in our gap even more until I could feel his breath against my face, the mint scent flowing around me. "Love isn't real," said Kai.
This was surprising. A wave of shock floated on my face. "How can you not believe in love?!" It was more of a rhetorical question.
All my life I wanted to find the perfect person. A person who I could love them, flaws and all and then loving me back equally. Due to my obsession with romance movies and classic Disney movies, it's pretty much always been something that I wanted.
Books, too. The romance books were practically my life as I vicariously lived my life through them. There was nothing like a good romance novel and feeling like I was right there with the characters.
However, happiness was more important than love to me. If I was happy with myself, that's all I needed.
"Easy. I just don't." He stated as if it was nothing.
"Well, one day— mark my words— you're gonna fall in love one day and I'm gonna say I told you so," I folded my arms triumphantly as I pursed my lips.
"Wanna bet?"
I scoffed. "I'd win that bet," I proclaimed, rolling my eyes.
Smirking, Kai held out his hand, asking me to shake it.
Oh, he was being for real.
I glanced at his hand. "What terms?" I quizzed.
Kai paused for a second. "By the end of the year if I don't fall in love, I get to...." he stopped and began to think.
I stopped him right there. " That's not fair! A year isn't long enough," I argued before he could come up with anything.
"You're the one who believes so deeply in love!" He held his hands up in defence and I huffed whilst looking away from him.
"If I win," he started and moved closer to my so our faces were only inches apart, once again. "I get to give you a dare," Kai challenged, arrogance laced in his tone.
A dare?
Please, I was the queen of dares. Even if I lost— which I was sure I wouldn't, this was gonna be a piece of cake.
He moved his hand closer to me as I kept my eyes on it.
"Fine. If I win then I get to give you a dare, too," I insisted.
"Deal." I put my hand in his and shook it before snatching it out and rubbing my hand on my shirt with a playful disgusted look. Kai rolled his eyes.
I could get him someone. If he doesn't resort to his player ways, that is. This was gonna be a job.
"Although, I feel bad for anyone who has to date you. The ugliness is too overpowering," I gagged as I covered my mouth before winking.
"Please, I'm too hot. I thought you were supposed to be good at English but here you are mixing up words," Kai remarked and grinned as he looked himself up.
I tapped his shoulder. "You shouldn't lie like that, it's bad for your ego."
Kai rolled his eyes and I sat back, feeling quite good about myself.
I really hoped I knew what I was doing and what I was getting myself into.
AN When I started this book, I'm not going to lie, I had no idea I was going to do a bet between them but I like where this is going so far.
I have so many ideas for this bet and I already have the SCENE planned so stay tuned ;)
Also you met the Horowitz family! I am loving them. I want it crazy but in the end wholesome. Who's your favourite Horowitz— besides Kai?
Also, this was such a long chapter haha, I didn't even realise.
Keep reading, my Loves!! :) Thank you for 150 views<3
Love Z~
14/1/2021