Chapter 24
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Rider was more quiet than usual, especially after he met Arlene again. She was happy, he looked shocked. She smiled, he had a blank face. She talked a lot, he only nodded. Everyone had the same reaction so I'm not surprised at all.
Arlene tried to talk to Taylor at one point too, but Taylor just had a quick conversation and walked away. She told me she felt really awkward being around her. And I did too.
Seeing her at home was way worse than seeing her at school. She has to sleep in my room, and I have to give her my bed so I'm forced to sleep on my couch. She falls asleep a quickly instead of using her phone all night like me. And not only that but she wakes up really early on the weekends with her dad so they could go on a jog. Right when they come back, I'm barely brushing my teeth. Plus....Tony scolds me for waking a up late like he was my dad.
I'm not liking this new environment any more.
Lots of people at school were already spreading rumors about Arlene, and by lots of people it was loud mouth Cassie. She kept on going on and on about how Rider and Arlene are going out, blah blah blah. And oddly enough, Cassie and Arlene are great friends for some weird reason. I asked Arlene why and she just smiled and replied, "Even though she's spreading rumors about me, it's a good thing to have someone who has majority rule over a lot of people, so I could tell her to do whatever I want."
So basically, she is using her. She put that in better terms than I would actually, but she seemed kinda.....devious when she said that. I need to be careful of her innocent self, or else I'll accidentally fall for her future evil plans or whatever because she's really suspicious.
I was at Rider's house, cleaning like usual. Sebastian was preparing dinner, Blake was playing with his car toys. And Rider, he was sitting on the couch reading a book. I pass by him while I was sweeping the floor and he glances at me. I look away immediately and started to go towards the kitchen.
"Amelia."
I freeze in place and look over my shoulder. "Yeah?"
Rider sighs heavily and runs his dark hair with his hands. "So....you know about Arlene, right? I'm pretty sure you've heard what people have been talking about."
I grip on the broom stick and bite my lip. Maybe I should tell him about how Arlene may possibly be my.....
I was too afraid to tell him. It might be really awkward telling him that. But yet again, I really want to know how he will react to it. Rider stands up from the couch and starts walking towards me.
"S-so..." I stutter. "...are the rumors true?" I look down because I couldn't even look at him right in the eyes. Everything about him made me nervous now. I can't approach him like before, something's in the way now and I don't know what it is.
"No," he mutters.
I sigh in relief, and Rider looks at me oddly. My eyes widen realizing that I was relieved to hear that those rumors weren't true. Why do I feel....happy?
Rider clears his throat and walks towards the kitchen. "Finish cleaning up here, Arlene is coming over for dinner." I turn around and look at Rider, "W-what?! She coming here? But I thought--"
"I know, I know," he replied quickly, "but I just wanted to welcome her back."
I curse under my breath. As I quickly head upstairs.
No, no, no! I can't let Arlene see me here. Who knows what she'll do if she finds out I'm a maid, Rider's maid.
Once I made my way inside my room, I lock the door and scramble out of my maid uniform. I put on my sweatshirt and sweatpants and grabbed my phone from the counter.
The door bell rings.
I rush downstairs and used another way around the kitchen while Rider went towards the door. Sebastian sees me panicking and stops me. "What's the matter, Miss Sage?"
"Sebastian, I can't be here right now," I quickly say, "I'll tell you why tomorrow, but can I go out through the back?"
Sebastian stares at me for a second, and hears Arlene talking with Rider at the front. "Alright.....but have an explanation for this tomorrow."
Sebastian opens the door to the backyard and I thank him and run off. It was too dark to see where I was going, so I used my phone to find my way out. A gate entrance to the driveway was only a few steps away. I stop as I still see Arlene outside of the house talking to Rider.
"Be a gentleman and invite her in idiot, it's cold out here." I mutter.
Rider finally lets her in, and I catch a quick glance at Arlene, who has her hair up in ponytail while wearing a cute little green dress. I frown and jump over gate because if was locked. When I jumped over, a sharp pain spread through my leg and I wimped in pain.
I start to walk home while my leg started to hurt.
The lights made me feel a little safe walking home in the dark, but I shouldn't be too relieved. I wonder what they're talking about, I thought.
My head keeps on making scenarios where Rider mentions how I'm his maid, and Arlene---Well I don't know how she'll reply to that since she's so mysterious.
I hear talking ahead of me. My hands reach for my hoodie and put it over my head. I looked down so they wouldn't see me. My phone starts to vibrate, and I checked who it was. Rider keeps on calling me. That made me feel a little happy to see that he actually cares about me. My phone vibrates again and see that Rider texted me this time.
Rider: hey, where r u? U ok?
I was afraid to text back, but I had to say something or else he'll keep on texting me.
Yeah, I'm fine. There was just a family emergency. But I'll be back tomorrow
The people who were ahead of me were now coming closer. I immediately walk past them until I felt something on my left shoulder. "Amelia?"
I turn around and see it's Nathan and Natalie holding hands. "What are doing walking alone at night?"
"W-well I should ask you the same thing." I replied back.
"Amelia--"
"I'm just heading home Nathan, something came up."
Nathan lets go of my shoulder and grabs my hand.
"Cmon, I'm driving you home."
"What? No, it's ok. My house isn't far from here."
"A girl shouldn't walk alone at night."
Nathan pulls me ahead as Natalie smiles at me and pushes me forward as well. We walk right past Rider's house and I could see them right through the window, just talking and laughing. My leg wasn't hurting as much as my chest now.
Nathan opens the car door for me as Natalie heads inside the house and says "goodbye" to us. I wave at her but then stopped as she smiles deviously at me. Nathan finally gets in his car and starts the engine to drive.
"You know where I live, right?"
"Nope." He responds back.
I sigh as I start showing him where I lived as the car moved.
We stayed in silence throughout the car ride which was pretty awkward. Being inside a car with the guy I used to work for and now working for his best friend again is just plain weird.
"So.....why were you out at night with Natalie?" I asked.
"Surprisingly, we both like night walks." He says.
"We first went out to get some ice cream, went to the park, then walked home at night and finally happened to see you walking home."
I nod my head to his response, and he speaks up again. "Why were you walking alone?"
An image of Rider and Arlene popped in my head, which made me frown. Nathan already knows that I'm not really comfortable with Arlene so I guess it was alright to tell him.
"Rider invited Arlene over for dinner.....a-and I guess I was too embarrassed to let Arlene see me work as a maid, especially for Rider."
Nathan doesn't budge one bit after I told him, he keeps on staring onto the road. "Understandable." He says back. "Have you told Rider that she lives with you?"
I look out the window and see that I'm close to home, "No...." I muttered.
We finally make it to my house, and I notice that all the lights were still on. Nathan drops me off at my driveway, but I didn't feel like going inside my house. "What are you waiting for?" He eyes shifts to my house, waiting for me to leave. "I mean, if you want spend the night at my house I'm really fine with that. Though, we would have to share my bed."
I furrow my eyebrows at him which makes him laugh. A small smile appeared on my face, but I decided to go inside the house. "Hey Amelia."
Nathan rolls down his window as I look over my shoulder. "You're gonna have to tell him someday ya' know. Or else he's going to find out on his own."
I look away shamefully as Nathan drives away. He's right. I'm too afraid to tell him even though it's not really a big deal. He'd probably be surprised, or even confused. Or something else......which I'm afraid to figure out if I tell him.
I reach the front door, and open it with my keys. I peek inside and see Tony's arm around my mom as they watch t.v together. "Oh---Amelia!" My mom jumps up form the couch and hugs me tightly. "Oh, uh, h-hi mom."
I look over my mom's shoulder and see Tony smiling at me while putting his hand up. "Amelia." "Tony."
My mom pulls me towards the couch so I could sit next to her. I raise head and see that they were watching pitch perfect. "Seriously mom? Pitch perfect?" She shrugs with a smile on her face while leaning back on Tony.
"Well....I'm just gonna leave you guys here for now. I'm just gonna go to my room for a bit."
Both of them wave at me as I leave the living room. I walked across the hallway and walked inside my room. The room looked cleaner than usual, and a bit empty. My closet door was open, and I didn't see any of Arlene's clothes there. Arlene's book bag wasn't in my room anymore either. Or her makeup box. I got out of my room immediately and started to head back to the living room to ask my mom where her things were but then I stopped in front of my dad's office.
There wasn't any desk there. Or the piles of papers I nearly cleared up. Or his bookcase. Or any of his trophies that he won when he was a kid. The room was painted pink instead of green. There was a queen sized bed in the room, with trophies there that wasn't my dad's. I noticed there were pictures on the wall, mostly of Arlene and her friends.
Arlene.
I breathe in heavily and shake my head.
All my dad's belongings were gone, they were all replaced with Arlene's things now. I was glad she was out of my room, but still upset with the fact that she now lives in my dad's office. "Oh.....so you saw...." My mom stands behind me with her hands behind her back, looking at me with worried eyes. I face her, with a frown on my face.
"Where are dad's things?"
"In the garage honey, but--"
I make my way towards the garage as my mom calls my name from behind. The door was open so I peeked inside, and there was boxes there with dad's name there. I sigh in relief, good, they're still here.
My mom stands next to me once again while looking down. "You're not upset.....are you?"
"About what? The fact that dad's room now looks like a nine year old's bedroom? Of course not mom, how could I?"
My mom tilts her head to the side while biting her lip.
"Sorry...." I mutter. "I'm not upset. I'm just a little.....shocked that you actually moved dad's things here ya' know. That must've took a lot of courage to do that."
"It did." She responded back. "But.....that's in the past now. I found someone else now---well technically Renee did but you get the point."
I smile slightly as my mom grabs me and hugs me tightly. "I left a little present under your bed, Amelia."
She lets go of me while telling me to go find it which I did. I shut my door with lock as I scramble to look under my bed. My shoes were cluttered everywhere under there, until I spotted my picture book. I grabbed it, and pulled it over to me. An unfamiliar bookmark stopped a page, so I flipped to it and I almost faint.
Happy early birthday to the greatest daughter in the world. Use these wisely young one.
Love, mom.
I grab the closest pillow by me and squealed in excitement as I hold three tickets of Pierce The Veil and never letting it go.
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Yes, I like bands too hehe.
But anyways soooo I started on this chapter awhile ago, forgot to save it, so I had to re-type it all over again which was just tiring, UGH.
But! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! :3