Chapter Nine | Stay Away From Romeo
I lived on the upper east side of town, only a fifteen minute drive from my school. There's only a handful of kids from school that live in the same neighborhood as me, most of them I'm quite acquainted with, but some are a little too strange for my liking. Everyone in this neighborhood was a little weird to me, honestly. Always so happy and smiley like drones being controlled. Even with everyone house lined up only a few yards apart, same design from rooftop to garden, everyone seemed to be so happy and content. It makes me nauseous.
As I drove through the gates that leads into my driveway, I noted that no one was home —no surprise there. My father has been working a lot of late with the recent investment put into his company, and with my mother recently becoming a senate she's been out in the city meeting with people. The house is always quiet during the afternoon when everyone is gone handling business, that's why I'm grateful I have Mimi to keep me company. I like quiet - but to an extent- the quietness of this gigantic house when I'm here by myself always gives me an eerie feeling. It doesn't sit right with me, which is why I try to keep myself occupied at all times so I won't notice.
Immediately once I walk into the house I was greeted with the smooth voice of Mimi.
"Bonne soirée mon amour," Good evening my love. She greeted me with a pleasant smile and I mirrored with one of my own, before handing her my belongings. "I made some lemonade. Would you like a glass?" She asked.
"Yes please." I nodded, and Mimi brightly smiled before hanging my belonging up by the door, before making her way towards the kitchen.
I stood in the foyer and waited for her to return. Looking around I could easily spot the pool boy and the gardener tending to their responsibilities outside from the large glass windows that lined the house. I watched with squinted eyes as the gardener stared with a confused expression as he examined the smushed roses and dented bushes.
Dammit Asher, you fat ass.
It seems like everywhere I go I'm being reminded of that night. Even today Imani tried to confront me about one of the markings Asher left on my collarbone. I lied and told her it was bug bite but then she flipped out on me in front of everyone. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little embarrassed from the scene, but not solely because Imani found a hickey on me but because she felt the need to call me out in front of everyone. She's knows I hate causing a scene in front of people and yet she did it anyway.
That girl will be the death of me, I swear.
"Ta limonade." Your lemonade, Mimi sung as she made her way back into the foyer with a fresh poured glass of lemonade.
I took the glass from Mimi's hand and thanked her, before taking a sip from the cool glass. Drinking Mimi's freshly squeezed lemonade after a long day of school feels like the greatest luxury on earth. The ice falls against the glass, my fingers sliding on the condensation before my fingers regain their grip. I feel the chill run down my esophagus and my head makes an involuntary shake. A numbness creeps into my brain the way it did when I was a kid drinking too much slurpee too fast.
I pulled the glass from my lips and smiled. "This is amazing." I had downed the glass in one gulp and I handed it back to Mimi.
"Merci!" Thank you.
I wiped the residue from my mouth and was about make my way upstairs when Mimi stopped me again. "Your father is upstairs. He wants to speak with you." She told.
"He's upstairs?" I repeated, my brow raising at her. "But his car isn't outside. I thought he wasn't home."
Mimi shook her head no. "He let one of the yard workers take his car to go get it polished. He's upstairs waiting for you."
I exhaled a heavy sigh, before nodding and beginning to make my way upstairs to my father's office. My steps seemed to echo throughout the house as I made my way up the marble staircase. My feet seemed to drag against the flooring as I made my way towards the double doors that led to my father's office at the end of the hall.
I inhaled a breath before I knocked on the white doors. "You wanted to see me?" I speak as I enter the office. My father was behind his desk as usual his eyes glued to the computer screen in front of him, papers and folders cluttered around his desk.
"Take a seat." He gestured towards the two empty seats in front of his desk and I place myself down in the left one.
My father remove his gaze from the computer and turns to me with his hands clasped together on his desk. "So, how was the party?" He asked, his voice monotone and lacking anything to tell where the direction of this conversation could be headed.
"It was fun. The same as usual." I told him.
He nodded at me, before his eyes seemed to roam around the room as if thinking on how he would structure his next sentence. When his eyes finally returned to met my gaze I felt myself shiver from his stare alone. "I had a few of my men come to the party to see how well you'd deliver your speech about the company," I never know if my father's stare is intentionally cold, his face somehow lacked the mobility others had. His eyes would rest on a point, even a person, and he'd stay like longer than the average person would.
"When they told me you didn't give the speech or even say anything at the party I was confused. I grew even more confused when they told me no one could even find you that night."
I blinked at him. My brain short circuited for a moment. I was so drunk I completely forgot about having to deliver that stupid speech about the company. That was the last thing on my mind during the party, plus I had bigger issues to worry about that night. Asher Montgomery being one of them.
"Well, are you going to answer? Where were you Parris?" I flinched when he used my first name. It's been a while since I heard that name mumbled from his thin lips.
I don't think there was a word invented yet that could describe the look on my father's face. He was red in the face, face the color of an over-ripe tomato, red as a brick, eyes squinting meanly. The way his eyes squinted when he glared at me reminded me of a pit viper's slit-like pupils. It was fascinating, actually. I never knew someone with skin as olive as his could burn a bright red.
When I only looked at him and shrugged my shoulders the look of anger on his face even worsened.
"What do you mean you don't know where you were? That doesn't make any sense." His voice boomed through me, all deep and loud like thunder. I hated thunder. Usually whenever he yells at me, I always found myself humming symphonies in my head, but after a while I ran out of songs because I don't know that many to being with.
"Something happened that night and I had to go fix things on my own," I tried to explain, but like always my father wasn't listening. He never listens to me. Sometimes I question why God even gave him those big ears if he never puts them to any use.
"Oh yeah? What was so important that it had to drive your attention away from the future of the company?"
"A few people had managed to bypass security and had snuck in." I blurted the first thing to came to my mind. It wasn't a lie considering Asher and his friends did in fact sneak their way in here, but the stuff that happened afterwards is none of his business and is something I'm willing to take to the grave.
My father's mustache above his top lip twitched as his bushy brows raised at me slightly. "Who was it?" He asked.
"Asher Montgomery, you remember him? It was him and his friends."
My father's face fell faster than a corpse in cement boots. In that instant his skin became pale, his mouth hung with lips slightly parted and his eyes were as wide as they could stretch. Something flashed beneath the surface of his hardened expression and I hurried to investigate the sudden shift. It was too late, the emotion disappeared before I could identify it.
"Yes, I remember the little punk that broke your nose. The little brat that's been getting you in trouble since you could count." My fathers fist clutched on his desk and I tried my best not to stare at his reddening hands. "I thought he got sent off somewhere? What is he doing back here? At my house?"
Sleeping with your son.
"He did but I guess he's back, and felt the need to make his presence known at my party." I shrugged.
My father shook his head leaning back in seat with a narrowed brow look. "Those Montgomery just never change do they? Hoodlums since the beginning of time." He cursed under his breath and I only blinked at him.
"You stay away from that Montgomery boy, you hear me? I don't need him tarnishing your reputation and bringing you down to his level. You're not kids anymore, if he comes missing with you just let me know and I'll handle him."
I nodded at his words, and my father exhaled a heavy breath before slouching in his desk chair. The room grew silent for a moment, the silence sticking to me like humidity and I hated it. I started to fidget with my fingers to distract me from the eerie silence but it didn't seem to help as much as I thought it would.
"You need to go freshen up. We're having dinner with some investors in a couple of hours." My father told, his gaze finally leaving me and returning to his computer.
I nodded before finally getting up from my seat and making my way out the eerie office, but before I could even open the door my father called me again.
"Stay away from Asher Montgomery. I mean it Parris." His face was stern, even a little melancholy, in repose, which was transfigured when he smiled a little. Here was the same long-boned face, the same closed spaced eyes with the droop of the left eyelid, the same steady but slightly ironic gaze.
"Yes sir." I replied, before making my way out the office.
Stay away from Asher, as if that'll be hard on my part. If anything Asher will have a hard time staying away from me since he seems to follow me wherever I go. It seemed like everywhere I looked today at school he was there staring at me. It's like he's obsessed with me, and honestly I wouldn't be too surprise if that was the case.
I made my way into my room and instantly fell onto my bed letting the covers and pillows suffocate me. I couldn't find it in me to care if they did and truthfully I'd actually prefer it, but when a familiar smell creeps in my nostrils my face instantly turned sour. I instantly lifted my head up inching my nose a little nearer to his the pillows. I breathed in the scent which was nothing at all like my own. I always had a hint of something sweet about my signature smell. In fact, this scent was so much more exotic; I could recognise the brand of cologne used – Tom Ford, one of my favorites actually – intermingling with the outlandish aroma of cinnamon.
Asher Montgomery smelt of cinnamon and Tom Ford. An unusual combination, but it wasn't pleasant to my nostrils and brought a warm feeling over me. I sniff it again and I brought back to the harsh reality that this the pillow Asher slept on from that unspeakable night. I felt my reflexes kick it and I quickly tossed the pillow across the room, disgusted.
"Daddy! I need some new bed sheets!"
••••
Excuse any mistakes or errors
Everyone hating Parris makes me so happy because that's literally how I wanted you guys to interpret him. He's supposed to be that stuck up brat you hated in school. I'm glad I could convey that in this story.
Also I imagine Parris's father as young Alain Delon.