Getting out of his car, James looked up at the Carter's house. "For what reason did I have to meet Adrian here?" he wondered, shutting his door and walking to the entrance where Adrian was already waiting for him.
"Took you long enough," Adrian said as James approached him. He turned his back to James and eyed him. "Follow me."
Without saying a word, James did as he was told and walked a few corridors until they reached an office. He stopped in front of a desk Adrian was leaning against and wondered if he'll do the same bad habit he has when he's angry. And right when he thought about that, Adrian started throwing everything around, not caring about James or anything else in the room. Every time Adrian let out a frustrated scream, James just kept thinking how he could've avoided this if he never took that job for Richard a few years ago.
When Adrian finished his tantrum and got his breathing under control, he turned to James. "As you can see, I'm a little upset," he said and started picking up the important papers he threw.
"You don't say," James replied, looking around at the mess he made in less than five minutes. "Is there something wrong?"
Adrian sat down on the desk chair and rubbed his temples. "Florence had been ignoring me for a few days and he won't even answer my basic questions until a third party asks him for me." He looked at the papers he put back and wiped them off the desk again. "This is all fucking Raymond's fault. If he wasn't such a weirdo, I would've still been Florence's favorite brother," he whispered angrily.
"Do you two have another brother I don't know of?" James asked as Adrian glared at him.
"You know what I mean," he hissed and let out a sigh. He looked straight into James's eyes. "I need to deal with Raymond before this goes too far and I need your help."
James stared back with a cold expression. "Before I say anything, how far are you willing to go with this?" he asked as Adrian caught up with what he was saying.
"Do you already have something planned?" A smirk came on Adrian's face when James didn't respond. He gestured for James to get closer. "Show me what you have right now."
On the second floor, Florence was lying on his bed out of boredom, not knowing what else there was to do. He got up and went to his bookshelf to see if there was something else he could read. He then saw a light novel he hadn't read for a few years and decided to skim through it.
He let out a groan and put the book back. "What else can I do?" Florence complained as he walked to his desk for entertainment. He sat behind his PC and booted it up to see if he could find a good game on Steam. He scrolled through his Steam wishlist mindlessly and his eyes landed on a game he hasn't played in a while.
While it was downloading, Florence opened Discord and stared at his screen. "I never noticed how boring my life was until I met Claude," he thought, the progression bar filling up by the second. He chuckled when he remembered how and where they met for the first time. "Kind of crazy to think that this all happened because of Henshin. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to immediately ask him to play as my pretend boyfriend after the second meeting, but I'm glad it played out well." Florence had a light blush on his cheeks and it got redder when he remembered some of the things they said to each other. "Maybe too well..."
A Discord notification popped up and he saw that Claude messaged him to ask if he could call for a few minutes. "Let's see what he wants," Florence thought and clicked on the call button after he put on his headset. After a few rings, Claude picked up.
"Flory! Guess what?" Claude said excitedly.
"What?" he asked, fighting the urge to smile when he heard Claude's voice.
"So there may be a chance that you'll come home next week if everything goes well," Claude said.
Florence furrowed his eyebrows. "How exactly?" he asked, wondering how they'll go through Adrian. "Do you have a death wish?"
Raoul snickered when he heard that and Claude shot a glare at him. "No. I planned something with James and Wyatt and it actually sounds solid," Claude explained as Florence and Raoul had their doubts.
"What is the plan exactly?" Florence asked.
"Can't say yet until next week," Claude replied as Florence rolled his eyes. "Just trust me on this one."
"Didn't Adrian mention that he has a meeting with James today? Was it to expose Claude or something else?" Florence shook his head, hoping that it didn't have any correlation. "Don't do anything stupid, please. I can keep giving Adrian the silent treatment until he lets me do whatever I want."
Claude glanced at Raoul who matched his face. "...And how long would that take?" he asked as Florence thought about how much it would take to break him.
"A few more weeks I think?" he answered, but it wasn't clear enough to him how long exactly it would take. Florence let out a frustrated groan and shook his head. "That plan of yours better not be impractical. I'm going crazy in this house."
"In your house? Isn't there a lot to do in that big house?" Claude asked as Raoul got curious about it.
"Wait, how big is it then?" Raoul asked Claude who had a very serious look on his face.
"Bro, you know those fancy ass houses where only very rich people live? With like 6 huge bedrooms and fucking swimming pool where people can compete in with a big backyard? Those kinds of houses," Claude explained and Raoul's jaw was floored.
Raoul scratched his head as Claude closed Raoul's mouth. "Damn how rich is he?" he mumbled, making Claude snort.
"Raoul, don't believe him. He's lying," Florence sighed, even though the villa wasn't that far from his description.
He looked at Claude who put his hand on his heart. "I swear on my life. I didn't even know we had these houses in New York. I'll show you when I visit Flory's parents again," Claude said.
"Make videos too. I need to see all of it," Raoul said as he remembered something Claude mentioned. "By the way, you didn't tell me how that meeting with Noah and Raymond went." Claude's eyes widened at Raoul as he looked at his phone. "What?"
"Claude," Florence called. "Do I even want to know what happened?" Claude didn't respond and thought back to what happened that day when he and Soraya met Raymond and Noah.
"Well..." Claude trailed off as he and Raoul met eyes. "Listen, it isn't anything bad okay? I was just hanging out with Sora and we bumped into them back to back. And for some reason, she invited them to eat with us to hear about the drama."
"Of course she did that," Raoul said, rolling his eyes as Florence stared at his screen with a puzzled expression.
"How do you meet those two at random places?" Florence asked as he wondered if it was a coincidence or not with Raymond.
Claude scratched the back of his neck while wondering the same thing as Florence. "I really don't know. Maybe he became my stalker," he joked but realized that it could be true with Raymond's shenanigans. "Forget what I said. I don't want to jinx it."
Florence nodded. "Yeah, you never know with him." They fell into an awkward silence after that conversation. Florence cleared his throat and tried to change the topic. "So what are you making for dinner today?"
"You sound so awkward," Claude chucked, making Florence's face red out of embarrassment. "So cute."
The day after, Luke was ordering something to drink during his two-hour break from his photoshoot.
"Thank you," Luke smiled at the barista who gave him his iced americano. As he went inside he bumped into someone but he was quick enough to avoid spilling his drink on them.
"Ah, sorry," the person said as Luke furrowed his eyebrows when his voice sounded familiar.
"Claude?"
A/N I lied when I said that I'd post another chapter. Sorry that that happened but this last month has been very hard with my writer's block and depression. Wattpad also came for my ass but at least they understood that every month isn't as great as the last. But I survived after many breakdowns and cheering up from friends. And now it's already the 31st of December. This year was so shit, to be honest. With all the events that happened during this year, the vacations I went to, almost getting kicked out twice, nasty rumors being spread about me, and being very depressed made me into the person I am right now. I just hope that next year will be better like 2021 or something. But that was enough for this year, have this slightly longer chapter in return. Happy new year and don't kill mice
-Rey