"WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY ROOM!?" I yelled with my shirt half off, exposing my chest. I quickly covered my chest. It was too early on a Monday morning for this kind of bullshit. Drake sat on my bed next to my coffee mug, glaring at me as I tried to get ready for the day.
"Oh please, you're a flat chested brat."
I threw a boot at his head. It made a loud BANG!
"Matty, are you okay?" Rose asked from the kitchen.
Good for nothing-
"Sorry, I found an annoying bug!" I said to her.
Drake turned to glare at me. "Are you really calling me an insect?"
"Hell yes," I muttered as I flipped him off.
Drake snorted.
"You're not that interesting to me, you know. I'm only doing this for my queen." He said.
"Then get out of my room."
"I have to stay with you at all times."
I grabbed the matching boot.
"I know that nothing is going to happen to me while I get dressed."
Drake frowned. "You never know what can happen."
"What can happen?"
"With you? A faerie could come crashing through your window, which you have left unguarded by the way-"
I waved the boot at him. "You would know about breaking into my room."
"And come in to kidnap you."
"Not kill me?"
Drake shook his head. "It'd be a waste of your sight. They couldn't sell off your eyes if you were dead. And spells are best with live ingredients." Good to know. "So, you see where I stand."
"You could at least turn around, you perv," I said, "if I hold no interest for you that shouldn't be a problem."
Drake huffed and turned his back to me. I stuck my tongue out at him as I took off my shirt and quickly put on a bra. Out of habit against faeries, I flipped the bra inside out. I found my jacket and slipped it on as I looked back at Drake.
I grabbed my camera bag and threw it over my shoulder. "Come on, pervert."
"I told you, you're a flat chested runt," Drake said. I walked passed Rose and waved at her. I shut the door behind me as Drake flew to my right. "What are you planning for the human girl?"
"Her name is Rose," I said.
I walked into the autumn morning and put on my headphones on so I could pretend to be on the phone if Drake insisted on having a conversation. Some of the leaves were already beginning to change colors even though it was only the beginning of September. My breath turned into fog in the early morning light and frost clung to the windows and grass. I saw some smaller faeries dance in the air. Some of the smaller floral faeries lingered in flowers that were dying due to the morning cold. The pixies had black eyes and different colored skin with only about three fingers. They danced on the branches of the smaller trees that lined the city streets. It was to make the city seem more eco-friendly, I think. A woman dressed in white walked passed me with white wolves pulling her along. Bright pink wings fluttered behind her. She gave me a glance.
"Ser Drake, I do hope to see you soon in the forest," she said. She continued walking and Drake didn't respond.
I looked over to the faerie and said, "Ser Drake? Really?"
"I am a knight after all, the proper title is 'ser'. I did introduce myself as such," Drake told me.
"I'm not going to call you that," I said with my hands in my pockets.
"I didn't expect you to after our first meeting," he said.
"What's going at the forest?" There's a lot of green once you get out of the city. So I wasn't sure what exactly which one she was talking about.
"Probably a party." Drake looked ahead of him. His eye brows scrunched up a little as he thought. He looked as if he was trying to remember her. His eye brows relaxed. "Ah, I used to have relations with her."
"Relations." I said, looking at him to see his wings twitch.
"Yes, relations." Drake said and cleared his throat.
Dork.
"You could just say you fucked her," I said.
Drake bristled at this. "Hasn't anyone taught you better manners? You sound like a low class peasant."
"Or you could say you screwed her." I said, "that works too."
Drake turned to glare at me.
"Would you talk like this with your mother?" Drake asked.
"Yeah, it drives her crazy."
I snorted. I didn't say anything for a moment. Drake wasn't looking at me as I walked.
"According to faeries, humans are low class." Drake sighed. He looked like he wanted to say something, but couldn't find the words to.
"I do not," Drake said after a long awkward silence. "I find humans weak and irritating," I'm not sure if he was helping his case at the moment, "but not low."
"Well, if it makes you feel better, I find faeries irritating too."
"Why? We're immortal, powerful, and can enjoy sex better than humans."
"What? Why do you guys enjoy sex better?"
Drake smirked. "It's because we feel no guilt about it."
He had a point about this. Well, at least for Americans it was true. Or anyone with puritan values in their culture.
"Says the guy who can't say, 'I screwed that girl'."
Drake rolled his eyes at that. "There are so many ways to phrase that to make it sound much more arousing."
"There's a proper way talking about screwing?"
Maybe this is because the one friend I have is a guy, but I always figured just saying fuck explained everything about sex.
"Well, yes. Hasn't-" Drake stopped mid-sentence.
I walked to the glass building that is my office. I was technically a 'freelance' photographer for Wide Lens Studios, but I basically worked there all the time and was almost to the point where I would be an actually employee. Jorge had been my professor in college and invited me to work with him afterward.
"Are you going to finish that statement?" I asked as Drake looked at me, but the words seemed to refuse to come out of his mouth. "Don't you have something to do?" I asked Drake. "Are you really going to follow me everywhere?"
"Yes, that is my duty as a Knight of the Lunae Lux-"
"You could've just said yes," I said as I went to the elevator. I pulled out my phone and saw that Lowell had texted me last night to let me know he would be studying. Oh good, at least he can't get into any trouble.
"Matty!"
The elevator door opened to reveal Jorge yelling and ordering people about. I flicked Drake off my shoulder and went to setting up for the next scene.
"Where is Rose? Where is Rose?"
. I hoped she at least called her manager, but she seemed so out of it that she probably didn't.
"She's sick as a dog," I said as Jorge turned to me.
Jorge frowned and studied me. A few of the other people around him stopped and looked at me.
"How come she hasn't called?"
Because she has bigger things to deal with.
"No idea," I said.
I grinned politely and realized that some of the models flinched. Oh right, my face. I frowned and Jorge looked at me.
"Fine, get started on the next shoot," Jorge said.
I got the camera ready. Drake flew in front of me with his arms over his chest. His face lacking emotion.
"So what are you planning to do with the human girl?"
"Her name is Rose," I muttered. "Shh, be quiet. I can't-"
"Fine, fine, what are you going to do about Rose?"
I glared. "I can't keep talking to you. No one can see you." Drake just rolled his eyes.
"What are you going to do about Rose?" He repeated.
Looking around, I didn't see anyone looking at me. I pulled out my phone. "That's up to you if you're going to hold up your end of the deal." I said with a smile. He glared at me. "I said as part of the deal to help those around me or nothing at all."
He frowned. "But for something this small? You don't seem to know the human that well."
I shrugged. "Well, I got to help her."
"Why? You don't know her very well and you... oh gods, you're one of those humans?" Drake stood straight in the air and his eyes were wide. He looked like he was caught at the alter cheating on his fiancé.
"Uhm... not sure what you're talking about." I said as I put my camera together.
"Those humans who like to sacrifice everything for everyone else until there's nothing, but a bloody corpse."
"Don't worry, I'm pretty fucking selfish," I said with a smile.
Drake looked at me as Jorge yelled my name.
_____________
"Matty, come on. Come out with me."
Lowell's voice was singing in my ear as I started packing my gear into my bag.
"I really can't," I said.
"How come? What can be more important than coming out with me?"
"Is it that human boy again?" Drake asked. "NeedY little boy, isn't he?"
"Lowell, you don't dance well when you're drunk. Second, you know I don't drink. And three, I thought you were staying in studying."
"I aced a quiz."
I knew medical school was hard, but this was getting a little much.
"I'm a little busy."
"Are you really ignoring me again?" Drake asked, flying in front of my face. I flipped him off. Doesn't he realize I can't talk to him when no one else can see him?
I put the camera away and felt the weight of Drake on the top of my head. I tried to get him off, but he flew in front of my face, staring at me with his arms folded over his chest.
"What are you doing? Can I help? Is it legal?"
"Do you do a lot of questionable things?" Drake asked.
"Technically," I said, "and no, you can't help me. Why do you assume everything I do is illegal?"
"Considering how many times I had to give you stitches, yeah," Lowell said. "I'm going to assume the worst."
"Should I start assuming that every time you go to a doctor that you have STDs?"
"STIs and no." I could hear the irritation in his voice.
"You see how I feel then." I said. "I'll be fine," I walked out. The rain started again and the world turned into that hazy water painting. The cold reached through my clothes and made me pull my jacket closer to me. Drake sat on my head again.
"Alright, but call me if you need anything."
"Will do," I said as I hung up. I checked the address that Rose sent me.
"What are you planning?" Drake asked, looking down from the top of my head.
Jesus, these apartments are super duper nice.
"Put glamour on me." I said, "If I slip in and throw things around, she'll think it's a ghost and get freaked out."
"This sounds like a poorly thought out plan," Drake said as I waved a hand at him.
"It'll be fine and she'll be too scared to go anywhere near Rose again."
"You could just use my glamour and then execute her."
I stopped. "Is death the only way you handle things?"
Drake shook his head. "Of course not, but what good can a drunk, wife beater do in society?"
"I don't kill."
He snorted. "With that ideology, I'm surprised you're still alive among humans."
I ignored him as I went around the corner. "Now," I said as I felt a humid weight on my skin. Rose's apartments were block off by black gate. There were guards standing outside of the gate. I walked in front of them and they didn't seem to register me. I waved a hand in front of their faces.
"What are you doing?" Drake asked.
"I'm double checking." I said as I gripped a hold of the top of the fence. I pulled and jumped over it and landed with a thud. The impact went up the heels of my feet and made me stay still.
"Ow."
"Are you alright?"
I nodded.
I found the building and went up the glass building. Balconies jutted out of the building where lives hung out in the open. The lobby was nice and reminded me more of a hotel with roses everywhere and people dressed in suits or outfits that looked about as expensive as my rent. Drake flew off my head and looked around.
"Jesus, how much does this woman make?" I asked out loud.
"I was about to say the same thing. She can afford servants?"
"I guess so," I said. I always heard that society preferred the beautiful, but this is kind of ridiculous. I looked down at my phone and found Rose lived on the top floor (no surprise). "We could take the elevator..." Drake grimaced. "What?"
"It's so...toxic in there."
"I think you can hold your breath or something," I said as the faerie glared at me. The elevator opened and I decided to go in before anyone could stop me or notice that the doors opened for no visible reason. I pressed myself to the corner as Drake sat on my head.
Drake let out a groan at the fifteenth floor.
"You going to make it there, Drake?"
"I'm still adjusting to this poisoned world," he said.
"Why did your queen send you if you hated it so much?"
"I'm obviously the strongest."
I'm not sure if 'obviously' is the word I would use. The doors opened on the thirteenth floor and Jordan came into it. I tensed and pressed myself to the wall opposite of hers. She smelled like a cheap bar and cigarettes. She leaned on the wall, laughing into her phone about something in Russian I think. Why the hell did Rose find this woman so appealing?
"Drake."
"What?"
"You like women?"
"Matty, I'm flattered, but-"
"I'm asking what's your type is," I said.
"Why?"
"Well, I've seen faeries screw a tree before so I don't assume on what people are into," I said.
Drake frowned. "She may have been a faerie-"
"Trying to explain why a faerie screwed a tree is not helping," I said as I looked at him. "The point is you like women."
"Yes, I like women." Drake said. "The occasional man as well. It depends."
I rolled my eyes.
"Do you see the appeal of Jordan? Because I don't. Do you have insight?"
Drake thought for a moment and then said, "I'm afraid I don't have any, but everyone has a low period when finding a good bedmate."
Maybe I shouldn't feel so bad about being a virgin.
The elevator doors dings open and we're on the top floor. Jordan stumbled out of the elevator. She waved her arms around to keep her balance and I dodged. Well, the whole drunk thing made my job a whole lot easier. She walked down the hall and opened the door before falling in. She tried to shut the door, but I stopped it with my foot.
The black walls in her apartment made the white on the counter and the window looking out over the city stand out. The window looked over the city with a ocean view and it should've stopped people in their tracks when they first walked in, but beer bottles and empty food bags laid everywhere. The place smelled like piss and vodka. Dead roses sat in a vase on the kitchen counter.
"Ah this..." Drake tried to say something, but failed.
I picked up a wine bottle from the coffee table and dropped it. Jordan stopped and looked around. She found the door open and laughed to herself before stumbling over my foot and falling on her face. She got up and looked around the room. Her lip busted. Blood dripped onto the carpet and her face turned red.
Drake swayed as he flew away from me.
"Drake how are you feeling there?" I asked as I watched him fly to the coffee table. He looked a little green as I picked up one of the containers of food. Jordan's eyes widen and glared at it. I dropped it and she looked around the room, yelping.
I saw the bookcase and went over to it. I started tossing books at her. My aim was a little off, but she was an idiotic drunk, not a slow one. She dodged and I was trying not to laugh. She screamed and looked around the room.
"Please tell me you're almost done," Drake said. He sat down with one hand holding his forehead.
I couldn't help, but smile. "This is way too much fun. I never knew you guys could have so much fun with glamour." I could almost see why the pixie enjoy tripping over the models back at the studio. I went up to Jordan and poked her on the shoulder. She tensed and looked around the room. I poked her again and she gasped. Her eyes grew watery.
Jordan's eyes flickered around the room before stopping to meet mine. My stomach dropped. "What the hell are you doing here?"
Oh shit.
"Drake!" I yelped as I dodged her fist. I looked over at him on the coffee table. Drake leaned over and started gagging. I kicked Jordan, but she threw a punch to my chin. I fell down, my head ringing.
"I can't believe you came here!" She sat on my chest and started throwing more punches. I used my arms to protect my face
"Get out of Rose's apartment!" I yelled and blood dripped down my nose.
"It's your fault!"
Her punches weren't strong, but I wasn't sure if I could reach for the broken wine bottle near me.
"How is your crappy behavior my fault!" I said and tried bucking her off my chest, but she was too freaking heavy.
"She talked about you all the freaking time. Matty this and Matty that." This woman was clearly insane. If she had been sober she would've realized that Rose was bitching about work.
"It's your-" Jordan stopped and looked above my head. Jordan yelped and got off me. She shivered and started sweating. I sat up and looked at her, wiping blood off of my eye brow and nose.
"I'd suggest you leave now. I don't think Matty would want me to slit your throat." Drake's voice sounded louder and deeper. "I'd also suggest you leave Rose alone as well." I kept my eyes on Jordan. She stepped back before breaking out into a run.
I sat up and looked at Drake on the coffee table. He held his head between his hands. "Uhm, you okay?" I asked.
"I'm not the one bleeding."
"And how did you scare her?"
"She only heard my voice. I apologize, my glamour doesn't hold up well when I get that sick." I almost felt guilty at that. Drake looked up at me and I could see the red in his eyes.
"You should've told me that." I said as I got up. Drake shook his head at me.
"You should have your eye looked at."
"I will."
I helped him to get on my shoulder. "Think you can hold on?"
"Hmph."
______
"MATTY!"
Rose gasped as she put a hand over her mouth. She looked worse than me with her bruise face. The color drained from her face and for a moment, I thought she might faint at the sight.
Lowell stood beside her as he sighed. He rubbed the back of his neck and he looked gorgeous in the low lighting of my apartment.
"Lowell, what are you doing here?" I asked. He pulled me down to the sofa and looked at the cut above my eye brow and then looked at my nose.
"I got bored," Lowell said, "and thought I'd check in on you. Well, good news, your nose isn't broken." He said.
"Gee, thanks, can you stop poking at me?" I said.
"Rose, can you get a wash cloth?"
Rose rushed to the sink. She dabbed my eyebrow, pushing Lowell out of the way. "Oh my god, did Jordan do that to you?"
"No." I lied.
Rose glared. "I thought you said you had a plan."
"She won't be going anywhere near you now." I said. "But the apartment is kind of a mess. It's not all my faul-OW!" Lowell pulled on the skin to get a better look between the blood and skin.
"Yeah, you need stitches. Rose, there's a box under the kitchen sink. Can you grab that?" Lowell asked as Rose went to the kitchen. She gave him a box of bandages, thread, and a needle.
"Lowell, can you not practice your stitches on me? I have enough scars on that side of my face. I really don't need-"
"Here's the stuff that will numb it out you big baby," he said as Drake sighed and sat on the coffee table. He looked a little less green.
"Does this happen often?" Rose asked as she sat next to me.
"In high school it was every few weeks," Lowell said, "now it happens a few times a year. So it's not as bad."
"Lowell, stop making me sound cooler than I actually am," I said. "I'll be fine." Lowell pulled out the needle. "Oh god, why are you using that needle? It's huge!"
"It's not huge, you just hate needles." Lowell said.
No shit, Sherlock!
"Lowell, just go home."
"You need stitches."
"Do you want someone to hold your hand?" Rose asked as we looked at her. Rose's shoulders raised. "It always helped me. So..."
"Go for it!" Lowell said as I glared at him.
Rose sat next to me and grabbed my hand as I shut my eyes.
I opened my eye suddenly when I felt a weight on my shoulder.
"Relax, it won't help if you're so tense," Drake said as I groaned.
___________________________________________________________________________
Author's Note:
Hey guys! Happy Friday!
There's actually going to be a lot of Panic at the Disco in my novels. I don't know why, I find the energy works well with Matty and with fight scenes. So heads up, that might be a repeat.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter. White Roses will be updated on Wednesday next week!