~ Jase Charlton ~
I'd never seen her in a dress before.
She looked radiant, her blonde hair spilling across her shoulders like Rumpelstiltskin himself had spun the strands from thread. Of course, her hair wasn't golden, but it was the thought that counted, right? She was appeared to be rather uncomfortable, which I think was because of the dress and the heels she wore. Kriss was obviously a jeans and sneakers kind of girl.
Still, she was the most beautiful creature I could see tonight. I was probably biased, since I'm in love with her, but it's the truth. I couldn't look away from her. She drew me in, and I wanted nothing more than to leave this place right now and kiss the hell out of her.
Especially since she kept teasing me.
Though that's probably because I kept stepping on her feet.
I'm horrible at waltzing.
"Sorry!" I exclaimed, seeing her wince. "I'm terrible at this!"
To my relief, she let out a long laugh. "How? It's not a very complicated dance!"
She's making fun of me.
I stepped on her foot again. This time it was on purpose - kind of. I had meant to nudge her toes, but my aim was off. "I beg to differ."
"It's a simple box step."
I refrained from rolling my eyes. Says the one who took dance lessons. "It's not simple."
"Jase."
I loved it when she said my name like that. A mixture of humor, exasperation, and adoration. Only Kriss Darcy could seamlessly throw those emotions together into a mesmerizing harmony. I grinned, purposefully worsening my dancing and stomping on her poor feet with every movement.
"Just wait until there's a slow dance," I said. "I'm fantastic at slow dancing."
She rolled her eyes, smiling up at me. "Isn't that just a lot of swaying?"
"Don't rain on my parade," unable to resist, I leaned forward and kissed her gently on the lips - a small taste of what I really wanted to do. She pursed her lips, flushing. "Is slow dancing something I'll have to teach you in Paris?" at the mention of Paris, her eyes glowed through her mask. I flicked the bottom up. "You look beautiful, by the way."
She glanced down at her dress and bit her lip - whether she was thinking about her own appearance or about my compliment was a mystery to me.
"You look beautiful too," she said, her shoulders moving back as she took command over the dance. Which was a good thing, since I had no idea what I was doing. I relinquished control and let her lead.
"I look handsome," I corrected. "And yes, I agree. I do look stunningly attractive in a tux, don't I?"
"Beautifully handsome," she said. "You sound like Megan, by the way."
I managed to take three steps before my foot landed on hers again. "There are worse people to sound like," I pointed out. "My brother, for one," I lowered my voice, adding an accent. "Oh, dear rabbit, won't you go on a promenade in the gardens with me? We must free ourselves from our chaperones to give us a chance to be alone together!"
"Last I checked," Kriss said, her face twitching as she tried not to break into hysterical laughter. I know the symptoms. "Your brother was not born in nineteenth-century London."
"Close enough," I dropped the accent before she began complaining about it. To be fair, my terrible attempt at an accent hurt my ears. I could only imagine what it did to others.
I watched her closely as we moved about the dance floor, noticing the slight indent between her eyebrows as she suddenly frowned thoughtfully. In the span of less than a minute, Kriss's mind had vanished from the grand hall and had traveled to who-knows-where.
Actually, I had a guess. A guess that included a crazy harasser-slash-murderer who lived beneath the manor and was supposedly at the masquerade right at this moment. Though my eyes did occasionally wander around the room, looking for anything out of the ordinary, I saw nothing of interest. Just a bunch of well-dressed people who wanted to flaunt how rich they were, nothing more.
The dance ended, and Kriss hesitantly broke away from me. I immediately missed her closeness.
"I'm never waltzing with you again," she teased. "You killed my feet."
Though I'd take any opportunity to spend time with Kriss, I had to admit that the prospect of never waltzing again was tempting. "Aw, do you want me to kiss it and make it better?" to punctuate my point, my gaze slyly drifted down to her lips.
She noticed where my attention had drifted to and her brown eyes sparkled with mischief. "Come to think of it, there is a slight ache right here," she pointed to her lips, grinning.
I rolled my eyes, but echoed her smile, leaning closer to her. It's too bad we're in the middle of a crowded party, I thought ruefully.
"Hello, Kristina."
At the sound of my father's voice, I jerked away from Kriss, giving her a sheepish look. Kissing somebody in front of my father has always been an awkward experience. He can just be so judgmental.
"Hi, Ryan," Kriss said, giving my father a small smile, though she looked as disappointed as I felt that we'd been interrupted.
"Jayson," he said to me. Jase. "Do you mind if I steal her for a dance?"
As a matter of fact, I do mind. Of course, I'd never actually say that to my father, but I did promise Kriss I'd never leave her side. She flashed me a look, telling me that she'd be fine for a bit. I nodded. "Perhaps Jamie's managed to escape my brother," I said, then ducked away with the intention of finding the odd couple.
Pushing my way through the crowd was not the easiest task in the world. Especially when I was considered the rude person walking across the middle of the dance floor. More than once I caught somebody spewing acid at me with their eyes. More than once I sent an annoyed smirk back at them.
"Jase!"
I glanced in the direction Megan's voice came from - and did a double-take when I saw the creature standing next to her. From the neck down, they appeared to be normal, but when you take a look at the cheap rubber horse mask covering their face, you tend to recall all of the life choices you made that brought you to this very moment.
Megan grabbed the horses' wrist and dragged them over to where I stood. "Where's Kriss? I thought you weren't going to leave her alone tonight?"
"She's with my father," I nodded over where Kriss was in what was probably a forced conversation with the most boring and closed-off man on the planet.
"Huh," through her mask, I saw Megan's eyes narrow. "For some reason, I thought he'd be taller. Jase, you remember Carl, right?"
"Yeah, we met at lunch," though I hadn't really talked to the guy; every fiber of my focus had been utterly fixed on Kriss; she'd looked strained and exhausted, and I kept thinking that maybe if I stared long and hard enough, I'd be able to tell what it was she was thinking about. "What's with the mask?"
Carl removed the mask, his inky black hair sticking out in every direction. "What's with your mask?"
Rude. "It's a masquerade," I said. Way to state the obvious, Jase. "A fancy masquerade."
"Congratulations," he said, his voice packed and dripping with the largest amount of sarcasm possible. "You're rich. I, on the other hand, was fired from a minimum-wage job a few weeks ago and this cheap mask was all I could afford."
Oh. "I'm sorry, I didn't - "
"Oh, quiet," Megan interrupted. "Of course you didn't know. I hate it when people say that. How could they possibly know unless they've previously been told? Unless..." she peered at me, narrowing her eyes. "You haven't been stalking my boyfriend, have you?"
"I can assure you that I had no idea he even existed until a few days ago," I said. "I have better things to do with my time."
"You're the one who's dating Kriss, right?" Carl asked.
"Good question," I frowned. "And one that I don't know the answer to." Are we dating? "We never had the conversation."
Megan rubbed her forehead in exasperation. "You're leaving to go gallivanting off into the sunset with her tonight, but you don't even know if you're dating?" she sighed. "Men."
I started to slowly back away. Megan rolled her eyes and turned back to Carl, who put his mask back on. I pursed my lips to refrain from laughing at the sight of a horse head bobbing along, and headed back into the crowd.
Where was my brother?
There. Across the room, standing with Jamie, who looked older and regal in her floor-length gown.
How cocky, egotistical, vain Weston managed to grab the attention and affections of sweet, bubbly, kind Jamie was beyond me.
I suppose stranger things have happened.
I slid over to my brother's side. He glanced at me, raising an eyebrow.
"Why are you alone?" he asked. "Weren't you saying on the drive from Syracuse that I'd be the one standing alone during the masquerade?"
"Father asked to dance with Kriss," I said. "And trying to refuse him is like trying to get a rock to tap dance."
"Thank you for that lovely analogy."
Jamie, on Weston's other side, looked up at me, her eyelashes brushing against her mask. She was humming idly. "Oh, hi Jase!" she stopped to say, before continuing.
"What are you humming?" I asked her, mostly because the tune sounded rather catchy and I might need to look it up later in case it got stuck in my head.
"Masquerade," she said. "It's from a musical. I wouldn't expect you to know it."
Of course it was from a musical. All anybody listened to here was show tunes. You're one to talk, I thought. Your playlist mostly consists of theme songs from sitcoms.
Yeah, I'm not much of a music person.
"Did you come here to be a third-wheel?" Weston asked. "Or did you just want the pleasure of my company?"
"Don't be a butthead," Jamie scolded. "Jase's presence can be nicer than yours."
"That's not what you were saying the other day by the lake," my brother smirked. Jamie let out an outraged gasp, her face reddening.
And that's my cue to leave. I ducked away from the soon-to-be bickering couple, giving up on my attempt to be social and leaning against a wall, directly opposite from the buffet table.
Kriss was still dancing with my father. How long is this song? It was another classical piece, as unfamiliar to me as the first, though from the looks of it, it was different from a waltz. In fact, it looked even more complicated.
What a good time to be a wallflower.
It seems that my father was done talking, for Kriss looked like she'd rather be anywhere else. Still, I had to admire how confident her dancing was. There was no hesitation in her steps as she allowed my father to lead. I think she knew trying to get him to relinquish control was more difficult than teaching a sea slug the macarena.
Her dress swished against the floor as she moved, long enough to hide her feet but short enough that there was almost no tripping hazard. I caught a glimpse of her sparkling silver heels at one point - how do people walk in those without breaking an ankle?
To my right, somebody came up to me. I ignored them. It was probably just another fellow wallflower whose - girlfriend? Friend with benefits? Childhood-friend-to-lovers? - had been snatched away into a dance by their father who was the human version of grey.
"Hello."
I blinked as the man spoke, his voice a soft, melodic sound that probably would have sent several people swooning. I knew instantly that I'd never hear it before - though, for some reason, I felt like I had.
Still, my conversational mood had dissipated. I wanted to stand in silence and wait for this stupid dance to be over so I could go back to Kriss. And then, after, we'd be out of here. My hand shifted into my pocket, idly thumbing the plane tickets that I'd purchased earlier today. Paris.
"It's Jase, isn't it?" the man continued, obviously not getting the hint. I planned on ignoring him until he left... wait - how does he know my name?
Somebody probably mentioned it to him, went the rational part of my head. It was a likely event; Father and Weston weren't exactly unpopular, and I'm sure Jamie or Megan would have done some name-dropping.
"Yes," I said, turning to face him. "And who - " my voice cut off abruptly, finally resting my eyes on the man.
He was about average height, around the same as me, maybe an inch or two taller - which, weirdly, my mind decided was an important piece of information to know. His frame, however, was nothing like mine; he was narrow and lithe, the way an acrobat or a dancer might be. He was pale, too, and for some reason, a quote from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves ran through my hair. Skin as white as snow, hair as black as ebony...
His mask was black and plain, with no special details or anything to give it some pizzazz, but it still drew you in like it was the most interesting thing on the planet. Only his mouth showed - and the two silver beams of light that were his eyes.
I recoiled. Silver eyes, black hair like a starless night... he was beautiful, dangerously beautiful, like the edge of a dagger. He told me his name was...
"Ash," I snarled.
He had the audacity to bow. "It seems that my dear Kristina has spoken of me," his eyes flashed. "Just as I've heard about you, Jayson Charlton. Though most of what she said were complete and utter lies..." he leaned forward conspiratorially. "Did it hurt you, for her to lie about her feelings? That she insisted on keeping you merely as a friend?"
"Does it hurt you to know that she hates you?" I countered. Not your best, Jase.
He, however, chuckled darkly. "She doesn't," he said simply. "It seems lying about her own emotions is a fault of hers. Such a shame, though I suppose that even angels can't be perfect," he blinked. "I've come to warn you, Jase."
"I don't have time for your threats," I snapped. "Stay away from me, and stay away from Kriss. Neither of us wants you anywhere near us."
"If that was true," he murmured. "Then why has neither of you spoken of my existence to others? Why keep it a secret? Everybody else thinks I'm an unstoppable ghost - after all, you can't kill something that's already dead. Why haven't you told them that I'm a man, alive and mortal?"
Good question. I searched for the words, but he was already plowing ahead.
"It's because," he continued. "You're afraid of what I'd to. And you're absolutely correct. You should be afraid," his silver eyes hardened into a dark glare, and his voice lost the pleasant, conversational tone. "Stay away from Kristina. This is your one and only warning. Or else..." he glanced up, away from me, for a split second. I had no idea what he could possibly find interesting up there. "Well, the realization that you should have listened to me will come crashing down upon you."
My hands balled into fists. He noticed the action and glanced down, tsking.
"I wouldn't, if I were you," he said. "You might live to regret it," he leaned back, crossing his arms. "Or not live, which is preferable for me. After all, who would Kristina turn to for comfort if you got into a sudden, unexpected accident?"
Megan, I thought. Jamie. Sophie. Her mother. My brother. Literally anybody but you. I didn't name the names, though. I'd be putting an even larger target on their backs otherwise.
Ash turned to face across the room. I followed his gaze, my jaw clenching when I saw what it was he was looking at - Kriss. She'd finished dancing with my father and was hovering over the buffet table, eating something that probably had chocolate in it.
"Shall I go pay her a visit?" he said, smirking. "Shall I show you how much you have to lose?"
He didn't wait for me to reply. He drifted away, vanishing into the crowd. As much as I tried, I couldn't see him.
There was only one thing left for me to do.
I glanced back across the room at her - and caught her eye immediately. Come here, I wanted to shout. Move.
She frowned, obviously bewildered. She took a step away from the table, tossing her food into the trash.
She began to move towards me.
He suddenly manifested from behind her. My eyes widened. Behind you, Kriss!
It was too late. He grabbed her wrist, and, for a split second, I caught a glimpse of the surprise and dread that had flown onto her face. He spun her around, away from me.
No.
I think I've been secretly shipping Jase and Ash since I started planning this book out.
What do you think? Would it make a good enemies-to-lovers arc?
Hmmm... maybe I'll just write a fanfiction of this for my own book. I've done stranger things.
Anyways... NEXT CHAPTER IS OUR GRAND FINALE!!!!
What do you think will happen?
Are my characters actually going to be smart for once and listen to Ash, or will they continue on their stupidity streak and make the absolute worst decision possible for the sake of the plot?
I'M SO EXCITED, I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT WE'RE ALMOST THERE!
And I'm almost there... I'm almost there... people down here think I'm crazy... but I don't care.
Don't forget to vote and comment!
Love you all!
~ Evie