There's No Price On Love

That’s it, everything looked stunningly perfect.

I turned in my little red cocktail dress, wanting to see it from every angle before deciding on whether or not I was going to buy it. The last thing I wanted was some ugly piece of shit that didn’t flatter me. I don’t mean to be picky but for my 18th birthday, everything had to be perfect: The dress, the cake, the band. Everything.

Today was September 10th, exactly 6 days before my big bash. By now, I already had everything set up.

My mother had planned a party on the 15th and one on the 16th. The party set on the 15th was a fancy, ‘impress our friends Emma’ get-together. Frankly, I wasn’t impressed that I had to be the one to put on a show for all my parent’s fake friends. I may be brought up in the stereotypical rich household, but I didn’t like the fact that I had to play the role of perfect daughter.

Truth was, being perfect was not what I wanted to be.

I had tried playing that role when I was younger and gave up once I hit 15. By then, I was becoming this fake Barbie doll without any idea who she really was. I needed to find the real Emma.

Back to the dress.

My best friend Myranda was on the comfy easy chair across from me, texting on her phone. Myranda had been my best friend since preschool and a hella good one at that. She had this natural tendency to always look bored, her big brown eyes always slightly drooped and she even chewed gum in that ‘What you’re saying doesn’t interest me’ fashion. Myranda was short and skinny, her 5’3” frame looking small compared to my own 5’9” body. It was strange that we even became friends and to be honest, I can’t even remember myself.

I took one last look at the dress and sighed, running a hand through my medium length, dark chocolate brown hair. It looked great, the red color contrasting perfectly with my white skin and the short length made my long legs look endless.

“Myranda, does this look alright?” I asked her, craning my head just as she raised her head. She flickered her eyes over me and smiled.

“You look great Em, that dress is perfect.” She said. Even though she looked bored as hell, Myranda didn’t have the voice to suit it. Instead, she was given the perfect, soft, girly-girl voice that I wished I had.

“As long as I don’t look stupid.”

“You don’t look stupid.” I smiled at her in appreciation before slipping into the change room to get back into my blue skinny jeans and satin tank top. Once I was back in my clothes, I held the dress out in front of me and looked it over one more time before placing it on the cashier’s counter.

The cashier folded up neatly and placed it in the bag. She rang it up and waited for me to pay, while I dug around in my mess of a purse for my credit card.

After what seemed like decades, I found it and handed it to the girl. Her face was calm in that bitchy sort of way, I didn’t like it. So I made sure to leave the place quickly before I let my attitude get the better of me.

Los Angeles was incredibly gorgeous out today, revealing it’s wanna-be actors and models. I have lived here since day 1, a child of the city. I never had any desire to live anywhere else, why would I? This place had everything and everyone I needed right now.

My parents met when they were both 19, my father was currently trying to make his name in acting while my mother began running her family’s real estate with her parents. Ryan Taylor ended up wooing the serious Bethany Coleman and less than two years later; they were married and had my older brother Chad. Chad inherited my father’s good looks: the thick dark hair [which I also had], the tall and lean physique and the piercing blue eyes. I took after my mother’s side, getting her full lips and amber coloured eyes. We were the perfect family until last year.

My father had gone on a business trip for two days and on his way home, his plane crashed. There were no survivors. Basically, our family was torn apart and made to readjust itself. We just didn’t exactly know how and that’s where Charlie came in.

Charlie was like another version of my father, minus the genetics and charisma. Charlie owned a big CEO company that created sports equipment meaning he was loaded beyond what we needed. Our family had always been on the comfortable side but after Charlie’s involvement, we were like Bill Gate’s long lost cousins.

Charlie was shorter than my father was with strawberry blonde hair and sunny blue eyes. Overall, he would be considered cute if he wasn’t older than 40. Johnny Depp may be able to pull it off but Charlie was another story.

Charlie and my mother met after Charlie’s first divorce. He was looking for a simple bachelor pad and since he chose my mother’s real estate listing, the met and ended up falling in love.

At first, Chad and I tried everything we could to remind mom of her betrayal to dad. It wasn’t like we hated Charlie or anything, we just hated what Charlie was about to do to our family, our lives. Things had just started making sense again until Charlie showed up.

After awhile, the gifts became typical and the awkwardness at outings were unbearable. Right when we thought it was going to be over between Charlie and our mother, Charlie surprised everyone by proposing.

What was even more shocking was that our mother said yes.

So there was a wedding and then something else shocking had to happen.

My mother had my youngest sibling, Brett.

So not only was Charlie intruding in the Taylor lifestyle but so did Brett. Now when I look back at it, I feel silly for even wishing Brett and Charlie never came into it. Brett was a half brother of mine, but if I didn’t know any better, he would be the real thing. Charlie wasn’t my actual dad but he truly did try.

He was the one who was paying for my 18th birthday.

My mother had tried to talk him out of it because they’ve been trying to get me a ‘proper’ job for weeks, saying that I needed to learn responsibility. It wasn’t that I wasn’t responsible, but why get a job when I can get back at Charlie by draining his bank account?

Myranda and I were now waiting on the sidewalk, watching the traffic creep by slowly. Finding a cab in this place is ridiculous, the streets were flooded with cars and motorcycles, bumper to bumper as drivers waited impatiently for the next green light. Myranda pulled a cigarette out of her purse and lit it, inhaling a lungful of smoke before exhaling, sticking her thumb out for a cab.

I watched as the familiar yellow car rounded the corner, slowing to a stop beside us while avoiding the traffic. I stepped back slightly, not wanting the driver to splatter the puddle beside the curb onto my clothes. I couldn’t help but crinkle my nose as we piled into the cab, the smell of sweat and cigarettes hitting me instantly. Myranda didn’t seem to notice and gave the cab driver directions to my house. I raised an eyebrow at her and she smiled brilliantly.

“I hope you don’t mind but I invited Derek to come over.” Right, Derek. . . Her horny, asshole boyfriend who just so happens to be friends with my boyfriend.

I had been dating Sam for almost 2 years now after meeting him at a Volleyball game. He was senior boys captain while I was simply there just to watch them play. I had seen Sam around before and thought he was gorgeous. He was tall and muscular with black hair and beautiful grey eyes with full lips and a killer smile. Sam was the boy that every girl wanted to date and the guy that all the boys in our school wanted to be. Somehow, Sam and I ended up together after brief introductions at a party one night.

It wasn’t like Sam wasn’t great. He really was, but after two years of dating, things were getting boring and Sam’s attitude grew more and more arrogant by the second after he found out that he got a volleyball scholarship.

“That’s fine.” I said simply and Myranda glanced back down at her phone.

“Do you want him to bring Sam?” I contemplated that one a bit. Last time Sam ended up at my house, we ended up toppled in my closet, completely wasted but he was my boyfriend. I should want to spend time with him . . . Right?

I shrugged my shoulders at Myranda, dropping the Dior sunglasses from the top of my head to over my eyes.

“Sam’s a big boy; if he wants to see me, he’ll show up himself.” I replied and reached for my cell phone. Unlike my best friend, mine wasn’t glued to my hand. Sure enough, a hefty amount of texts from Sam.

Hey, want to hang out?

Are you coming to watch my game tonight? J

I miss you xo ;)

Hello? Em, are you there?

Okay fine, I’ll talk to myself about what an awesome girlfriend I have :P

Talent scouts are here again, trying to get another scholarship!

Instead of replying, I deleted them all and shoved my phone back in my purse. I could reply to Sam later and if it got bad enough, he’d just write back anyway.

I stared out the window as we drove outside of L.A. Charlie didn’t believe it was healthy to live in the city, so he chose a mansion just 10 minutes outside of the big city, picking the most beautiful Victorian-style place he could find.

Just as we were about to leave, something in one of the alley ways caught my eye. A boy, to be exact who didn’t look a day older than twenty. He turned back, looking over his shoulder and stared right into my eyes. He was wearing an old coat over a blue t-shirt with a torn pair of jeans, looking more like a model than a guy to be walking in the alleyway. His perfect green eyes seemed to look through me, like he could see my soul. Before I knew it, the golden blonde head turned away and he disappeared out of my site.

I clasped my hands firmly in my lap and swallowed hard.

It was just then that I realized I hadn’t been breathing.