"He looked at her like he just realized what love is."
Arabella Karve
"You look gorgeous Ara! But stop freaking out, you haven't even walked into the party yet." Tara laughs while grabbing my pale hand and trying to drag me through the tall doors, where the muffled sounds of music and conversation sound from.
My heart feels as if it is going to leap out of my chest as I pace around the stone front porch.
"I've never celebrated my birthday before. I feel like I am going to have a panic attack" I laugh nervously while taking a step back from the door. I tuck a piece of my hair behind my ear while a giddy feeling dances in my stomach.
"Come on Ara! Sixteen is a big age, your entire life is changing in the best possible way!" She smiles while dragging me to the door.
It's my birthday, and I am going to have the best birthday and best year ever.
"Your right" I giggle while opening the heavy door and immediately almost everyone's heads turn towards me.
Oops.
I smile while giving an awkward wave. An embarrassed flush covers my face, but I just laugh happily while turning my head towards Tara who is just smiling.
"Honey you look absolutely lovely" I laugh as I am pulled into the familiar, warm arms of my grandma. Her scent that smells like home greets my nose, and I immediately melt into her arms.
"Let's go! We are all ready late, they are cutting cake soon!" Tara smiles while wrapping her hand in mine.
"But Grandma-" I say turning my head, "Go have fun honey I'll talk to you later" My grandma lays a soft kiss on my forehead that warms my body.
"I love you!" I yell to her as Tara begins hurriedly pulling me down the entry steps.
Tara begins dragging me through the endless crowd that all seems to blend together. I feel my body suddenly collide with another, "I am so sorry" I say with a smile. I finally look up at the person, and the second my eyes meet the green orbs, I feel my stomach curl in a bad feeling.
"Your alright, my rose" The man says with a smirk before disappearing into the smothering and messy crowd. My rose?
Who the hell was that?
I feel almost frozen in place as I watch the man with gorgeous platinum blond hair and a heavy Russian accent disappear.
"Come on!" Tara laughs again and pulls at my hand, snapping me out of my trance.
"I am you pain in the ass!" I laugh while following her the rest of the way to the front of the room where a flawless four layer cake sits on a gorgeous white table.
"Nice of you to show the fuck up" I feel a cold hand wrap around my forearm and begin to pull me roughly towards the table. I glance up and am met with my mother looking as angry as she always is when I am around.
"Go blow out the fucking candles, no one wants to be here any longer to celebrate someone not worth of such" My mother sneers. I look up at her and can't help but admire her beauty, even as much as she hates me I can't help but love her in every possible way.
I get roughly shoved in front of my cake and smile softly while trying to push away the tears that are brewing in my eyes.
Don't let her ruin your day.
The room quiets down and I feel everyone's eyes on me, waiting for me to blow out the candles.
My eyes flutter shut as I think of a wish worthy of using on my sweet sixteenth birthday.
I wish the darkness that lurks in me would disappear, I wish it wasn't there and that it was not part of me.
I blissfully blow out my candles and hear a soft applause break out across the room.
I open my eyes and smile as people continue clapping, but the moment I open my eyes I am met with the piercing green ones of the man I ran into earlier.
He doesn't clap. He doesn't move.
His hands are pushed into his pants pockets as he stares at me with malicious intentions in those, beautiful, green eyes.
I feel my breath hitch and my stomach begin to curl with a feeling of dread.
I stare at the man and he stares back, after a moment he gives me one simple wink accompanied by a smirk that made me feel physically sick.
The only thing that pulls my eyes away from the man is when I feel a weird warm splatter across my face as a rain of murderous gunshots ring out amongst the applause of the crowd.
Screams of pure terror break out across the room and echo in my ears as I stand in shock, barley breathing.
"Get down Ara!" Someone shrieks and I don't move until I am suddenly tackled to the floor by one of my father's bodyguards.
I hit the cold floor and feel a heavy weight land on top of me.
Ringing sounds in my ears as my entire body aches from hitting the ruthless tile. I glance up in fear as the bodyguard yells in pain, unable to move off of me.
After a moment he finally rolls of as he holds onto his side desperately. Blood begins to coat his hands and I realize that he was shot right in the kidney. I immediately take the bottom of my dress and press it onto his wound, trying to maintain pressure.
"G-get out Arabella" The man gasps while placing a bloody hand on my shoulder, "the- the Bratva-," He vigorously coughs and blood seeps out of his mouth, "they're here."
I watch in shock as the life slowly fades out of the man.
That would have been me.
I remove my trembling hands and look down at my dress to see the blood soaking it that doesn't even belong to me. Warm tears begin to pour out of my eyes as my body shakes in fear.
"Ara! Get up! Get up please!" Tara is pulling on my arm, suddenly in front of me and I have no idea how long she has been there.
I stand up, but I can't feel my legs, I feel as if everything is frozen as gunshots still ring in the air and guests fall dead around me.
I am suddenly at the back exit, and I can't even remember getting there. I look back at the bloody crowd one last time.
My breathing stops as I see my grandma laying in the middle of the crowd with blood flowing out from under her.
"Grandma!" I let out a broken scream before running back into the crowd. I immediately fall to my knees in front of her and wrap my body around hers.
"Wake up! Wake up!" I scream. "Please say something!" I sob while pulling back and looking down at her. Her wrinkled eyelids that are painted with vibrant blue eyeshadow are softly closed and I realize in that moment that my grandma isn't waking up.
I look down at her hands and notice they are crossed over her chest with a deep crimson rose laying under them.
Sobs rack my body as I unsteadily pull the positioned red rose out from under hands and notice a small note with beguiling writing is attached to the bloodied stem.
This is just the beginning my rose. Happy birthday, I hope your wish comes true.
~Yours truly, Dominik Voklov
The leaders of the Russian mafia's son.
***********************
"This is gorgeous, thank you guys so much" I smile softly while holding up the simple charm bracelet.
The dark red charms softly cling together as I slide the dainty bracelet onto my wrist.
"Of course, happy birthday." Briar smiles.
"This is pretty sexy" I laugh while shaking my wrist.
Briar laughs while shaking her head, I glance over at Atlas who is staring at Briar with a small smile.
Hazel begins to squeal loudly and I immediately laugh at her excitement. "Cake time! I made it myself so I know it's delicious!" She yells with a giddy smile as she runs into Briar's kitchen.
"She's going to light something on fire" Atlas says nervously while quickly following Hazel into the kitchen.
Me and Briar are left in a comfortable silence as I lean back against the soft sofa.
"So how's your birthday been so far?" Briar asks while intertwining her hands together.
"It's been actually really nice, other then convincing my stiff dicked parents to let me come to your house" I say with a laugh.
"Well I am glad you could come" Briar smiles softly, "how have you and Eros been?"
I feel my face warm up as I think about the weird moment me and Eros had a couple days ago. "you can't tell anyone but... there was a weird moment we had the other day after the library." I whisper, glancing out of her front window where Eros is leaning against the porch pillar with a cigarette in his hand.
He looks so fucking attractive.
Briar smiles excitedly while quietly getting out of her chair and sitting next to me on the sofa, "what happened?"
She grabs my hands and looks at me with a curious smile.
I grin, "it wasn't a big deal, but I was leaning over him trying to grab my book and then there was a weird tension. And there was this weird moment where I-, I don't know" I say with slight embarrassment.
"Oh my god Arabella!" She giggles excitedly.
"I um, I think I wanted to-" I am about to say before I am cut off by the lights turning off.
"Happy birthday to you" Hazel and Atlas begin, while walking into the room with a chocolate cake that is illuminated by a large twenty candle.
Thank god I didn't just admit something that I couldn't have taken back.
They begin to finish the off-key song and I laugh hysterically.
"Make a wish loser!" Hazel waves the cake up in front of my face. I shriek in fear as a flame comes a little too close to my loose hair.
"If you light my hair on fire I swear I will kick your fucking as-!" I begin to yell at Hazel, "I am going to burn off those long locks if you don't make a fucking wish!" She yells back at me.
I softly close my eyes with a smile and take a deep breath,
I wish I could tell someone about all the darkness inside of me and they would still love me and look at me as if I was their sun.
************************
"How tall are you?" I ask Eros while walking across the foyer, and up the golden stairs.
"6'4" He answers deep in thought,
walking up the steps behind me.
"Hm pretty tall, I'm officially 5'6" I say with a proud grin. Eros glances down at me with alluring eyes before he looks back up.
Eros just hums deeply in response as a stressed expression sits on his handsome face.
"Are you good, or just constipated?" I say rolling my eyes at his mood that seems more bitchy then usual.
"Bella I'm fine" He mumbles as we walk down the hallway towards my bedroom.
"Is this about whatever happened the other day? Because it was literally nothing so-" I ramble out my word vomit before I am cut off, "Bella, please stop, I am fine."
I immediately shut up at his words and I silently walk back to my room. As I reach my bedroom door I feel Eros's hand softly brush against my lower back, sending soft chills up my spin.
I love the feeling of his touch. And I hate that I do.
I push open my bedroom door and am disappointed feeling Eros's handle remove itself from my back. I immediately furrow my eyebrows seeing a simple wooden basket sitting on my bed with a dark red ribbon tied on the top of the handle.
What?
I slowly walk closer and see the most beautiful bouquet of white roses positioned in it, with a brown paper wrapped around them.
White roses.
I am about to reach out and grab them before a soft noise from the bottom of the basket draws my attention. I look down into it and immediately gasp seeing a small black kitten curled up on top of a small blanket.
Tears rush to my eyes as I reach down and softly brush my fingers across the kitten's dark fur. It softly meows while repositioning itself in a ball.
A tear falls down my pale cheek as I look down at a card next to the kitten that is wrote in beautiful cursive,
Happy birthday mia Bella.
-Eros Vandare
I slowly turn around and see Eros standing there, staring directly at me with alluring eyes that instantly take my breath away.
My heart beats quickly as he continues staring at me with desire glossed in his cold eyes.
"Eros I-" I begin, but don't even know what to say. Another tear falls from my cheek and Eros glances down at it with a slightly worried expression. His mouth slightly parts open as he sees the tear. He slowly advances closer to me, keeping his eyes fixed on mine.
"I named him Montague, he was a rescue cat. You don't have to keep it or anything." Eros says calmly while tightening his jaw. He reaches me and a weird excitement curls in my stomach at his proximity. He slowly lifts up his hand and brushes away my tear with a single finger. His hand stays close to my face, softly touching my jaw.
"Like the Montagues from Romeo and Juliet?" I say softly, looking up at him with glossy eyes.
"Don't read into it" He grumbles back but I can see the way his lips slightly turn upwards.
"Thank you Eros" I whisper quietly with sincerity ringing in my words.
This is one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me.
"Your welcome Bella."
***********************
"How was dinner with those people?" Eros asks as he sits down next to me on my rug.
I softly run my hands down Montague as he sleeps peacefully in my lap and purrs loudly.
"Your tone makes it sound like you don't like them" I say with a grin while turning my head and looking up at Eros.
"I don't" He mumbles.
"What did they do to your ass?"
"Exist" He answers simply.
"Your like a ray of sunshine" I say sarcastically while glancing back down at Montague.
"Mhm" He mumbles. I glance back up at him and it suddenly feels like I am looking at someone other then then the man who I hated every minute of every day.
I feel like I am actually seeing Eros.
"Dio Bella non guardarmi con quei fottuti occhi" Eros grumbles while tilting his head back and closing he eyes. His Adam's apple bobs as he looks like he is in physical pain.
"I'm going to throw my shoe at your head if you keep saying things in a language I don't understand"
"You don't want to hear all I have to say about you" He says deeply, keeping his head tilted back.
"Your an asshole."
"Sei un idiota."
"See now, I can translate that one" I say while narrowing my eyes at him, trying to hide my smile.
He slowly opens his eyes and looks down towards me with a small smirk plastered on his perfect face. Holy shit.
"I- um, whats your middle name?" I randomly ask, feeling a little flustered by the look in his eyes.
I reluctantly pull my eyes away from him and look down at the purring Montague in my lap.
"Raven"
I immediately laugh and shake my head, "like your favorite animal?"
"Shut up" He grumbles while rolling his eyes.
"So yes?" I try to suppress my smile.
"Go to hell"
************************
HAPPY NEW YEARS EVE EVE:D
I hope you enjoyed this chapter!!!
More updates are coming!!<3
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Word count:2723!!!