There's No Price On Love

“You’re mother truly is a prude, isn’t she?” Myranda whispered, swirling the champagne in her glass a few times before taking a dainty sip. She pressed her lips together, checking the gloss before giving me a smug smile.

My mother was arm and arm with Charlie, her fake smile lighting up the room around the people she was talking to. Sharah and her beau were beside them, hanging onto every word my mother had to say. It was pathetic really, watching these sheep eye my mother like members of some cult.

I snorted and slammed my champagne glass on the table behind me, half angry at my mother and half angry at Sam. It lead Myranda to raise a perfectly plucked eyebrow.

“I don’t get what people see in her anyway.” I muttered and regained my composure immediately, plastering a false grin.

“You know what I don’t get?” She began, placing her empty glass on the passing waiter’s tray before getting another. “Is why your boyfriend didn’t even bother to show up tonight. Better yet, I don’t get why either of our guys didn’t show up.”

I tapped my black heels against the linoleum, feeling slightly ticked. She had a point; they could have both shown up together. I doubted that Sam would get into any trouble, like cheating or anything, but after today’s fight it was entirely possible. He looked truly pissed off AND I threw his phone out the window. I was a horrible girlfriend.

But Sam was being a horrible boyfriend so we could call it even.

I’ll bet that blonde boy was a great boyfriend compared to Sam.

I smiled to myself in stupidity. I needed to smarten up and be realistic; he was living in an alley way for goodness sake.

“Hello? Lost in your thoughts much?” Myranda was waving her manicured hand in my face, her lips put in a bored pout. I wished I could look so laid-back.

“Yeah, actually. Sorry, what were you saying?” I pushed thoughts of blonde boy out of my head and tried to focus on what Myranda was saying. My eyes trailed across the numerous faces in the room, names scanning quickly through my brain. Myranda was the only real friend I had in this room, the rest of the people my age were children of Charlie and my mother’s friends.

“So while we were driving by that little designer boutique on the corner, I saw the hottest guy sitting on the ground in the grubby alleyway. He had the golden blonde hair and the perfect body, but then I realized something, he’s like, homeless.”

My head shot up and I stared at her.

“I saw that guy before too.” I whispered to her fiercely. “The day we were heading back from shopping for my birthday dress.” I haven’t been able to stop thinking about him; I added silently and resisted the urge to slap myself.

Myranda beamed a grin and downed the rest of her champagne.

“Really? Well it’s too bad that he’s like, poor and everything. We’re out of his league.” My lips tugged into a frown and I crossed my arms.

Something in the way he looked at me that day told me that it might just be the other way around.

My mother stood up on the stage where the classical band was playing [thank you mom, for my 18th birthday I WANTED a classical band to play at my party. Damn you.] and tapped her wine glass in front of the microphone, commanding our attention. I wanted to keep on talking to everyone, just to piss her off but instead, I clenched my jaw and looked up at the lady who betrayed my father.

“Evening everyone!” My mother called and gave a smile. I moved toward the front, knowing that she would call me up there anyway. “Emma and the family are so incredibly happy that all of you could be here tonight to celebrate her 18th birthday.”

I nearly choked with laughter.

“Everyone knows that it’s been a rough couple of years for Emma, we all know what I’m talking about. But she truly showed that she can handle life and what it throws at her with a beaming smile and a great attitude. Emma, I’m proud to have you as my daughter and I hope that you have the best birthday ever.” I had to look away from her gaze, the whole speech made me angry. “To Emma!”

“To Emma” The crowd chorused and began clapping as my mother pulled me up onto the stage. I smiled and gave a quick wave at everyone before taking my mother’s spot as speaker. I let out a quick sigh and then smoothed out the front of my dress.

“Hi guys,” I began, getting a nice round of applause. “I think my mother pretty much covered it all for me here, I mean, it’s great to see all of you here tonight just because of me.” Lies. “My mother is right, it was a tough year for me and in a way, it was also a learning experience. It challenged us physically and emotionally, bringing issues to the surface and new people into our lives. It changed us as people and as a family, especially the family part because now we’re closer than we’ve ever been before.” More lies. “So thank you so much for being here and I hope you all have a wonderful evening.”

I stepped down off the stage and went back to stand with Myranda, who now had a glass of something other than champagne in her hand. It looked like rum but I wasn’t sure.

“Nice speech Shakespeare.” She joked and I gave her a glare. I leaned against the table behind us and shrugged.

“Bitch covered it all for me.” I said with a mean smile and watched the crowd again. All fake people with lives that involve nothing but money.

“I liked your little speech there Emma,” I turned my head around to see an old and not very good friend of mine, William Theoret.

William was one of those uber-perfect guys that liked to believe they owned the world when in reality; it was more like their parents who did. He was arrogant, conceited, and self-absorbed, all the more reason to hate him. I met him when I was 6 and had never liked him after he tried to cut off my Barbie’s hair. Since then, William had been an acquaintance, nothing more.

There had been a time in my life where William had shown interest in me, it just so happened to be around the time that my dad had died. I should have felt flattered that one of the “hottest” and richest boys in L.A. wanted to become involved with me but instead, all I felt was disgust.

“Thank you,” I replied politely and turned away from him, I ignored the hand he was on my waist. This is one of the reasons why I wished that Sam was here, at least when he’s around, William doesn’t try to pull any of this.

Myranda raised a questioning eyebrow but didn’t say anything.

“William get your hand off of me.” I hissed at him, still trying to maintain my charming smile. Myranda made mention that she was going to the washroom and left, shoving her drink in my hand. I swatted William’s hand away and turned to face him, a look of disbelief and anger on my face.

“Well your boyfriend isn’t here to protect you now, is he?” William whispered seductively in my ear. I bit down on my lip and ignored him, taking a large sip of Myranda’s drink, hoping she’d return quickly.

“I think you should go find someone else to bother, I’m busy right now.” I replied coldly and merged in with the crowd. I could still feel William’s presence behind me and at one point; I left the house to go outside.

William followed and I stopped in front of the pool, brushing a loose strand of my dark hair out of my eyes. I sat down in one of the lawn chairs and pretended not to notice that he was there, which is hard because William hates being ignored.

He came up behind me and began massaging my shoulders rhythmically, making me relax beneath his touch. It was like that was taking all my frustrations away, my anger at Sam and my mother, the guilt of not being closer with my father when he was alive, the fact that I can’t stop thinking about a boy I never met.

A boy that I’ve only seen once.

I felt William’s hands roam from my shoulders, down my arms and back up before he rested his chin on my head. I could feel the smile on his lips, smug and warm.

I didn’t even bother pushing him away when he decided to kiss me, even though I hated him almost more than I hated my mother. Instead, I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him back, letting everything go.

*

When I woke up the next day, Myranda was poking my arm with her perfect gel nail, her eyes tired and still wearing mascara from last night. She had a cigarette in her mouth and took a heavy drag of it before sticking it in the ashtray next to her with a silly grin.

I rubbed my eyes and yawned, my face and hair feeling grubby because I hadn’t showered last night. I squinted at Myranda and smiled.

“Morning,” I mumbled in a tired voice, ignoring Myranda’s questioning stare. She moved beside me into the empty space on my king sized bed and dropped her head onto a pillow.

“So, seems you were a bit busy last night.” I gave her a questioning stare and then flashbacks of William flooded in my mind, making me groan and roll over onto my side.

“I don’t even know how it happened.” I replied, smacking a hand to my forehead. My head was throbbing and my mouth was dry. I felt like a bag of shit.

“Well, I come back to get my drink and what do I find? You and Mr. Prissy Man getting it on with each other and a bottle of hard liquor.” She lightly smacked my head. “You’re a bad girlfriend Emma, what’s Sam gonna think of all this?”

I reached for the bottle of water by my bed with a scowl and guzzled it down.

“Sam isn’t going to find out.” I snapped at her and chucked the bottle over my shoulder, narrowly missing her head and Myranda laughed.

“That’ta girl.” I got out of my bed and mumbled a few mean words; I was still pretty ticked off at Sam for ditching out on my ‘formal’ birthday. The boy had better show up for tonight’s party or he could consider himself dumped. I was forgiving once, but twice wasn’t as easy.

Come to think of it, I probably owe Sam an apology for cheating on his pathetic ass last night. Knowing me, I wouldn’t though; I was an ‘angry teenager’, rebelling against life. Whatever, Sam would get over it if he did find out. I’m pretty sure he hasn’t been Mr. Perfect either.

I finally realized that I was still in my dress from last night, it was a good thing the fabric was already made to look slightly crumpled so people didn’t actually notice that well, it got a little more than crumpled last night.

I slipped the dress off, ignoring Myranda’s presence and tossed on my nightgown, feeling completely stupid. I mean, it was William of all people. It could have been a 30 year old bank manager and I wouldn’t have cared as much [okay, I still would have cared but at least it wouldn’t have been William!]

“You’re making sure to show up tonight right? You’re not planning on ditching?” I called back at Myranda as I strolled toward the bathroom. My makeup was a mess and my hair looked like a mop on my head. I grimaced and began scrubbing my face, just barely being able to hear Myranda over the running water.

“Duh, like I’d miss the best party of the year!” Myranda shouted and I wiped the water from my face with a towel, leaving the bathroom. I beamed her a smile.

“Thanks, at least I know where someone’s loyalties are.” I replied and left my room, trotting down the spiral staircase and nearly ramming right into Brett. He jumped put of the way, his latest book in hand and glared at me.

“Way to almost run me over!” He snapped and crossed his arms over his chest. That’s what I loved about my little half-brother; his attitude was about as bad as mine.

“Good morning to you too.” I mumbled and glared at him. “What’s got you acting like a ray of sunshine today?”

Brett stared down at his feet and sighed heavily before brushing his strawberry blonde bangs out of his eyes.

“I asked Millie out last night, we’re supposed to go to the movies tomorrow.” He said and crinkled his freckled nose.

“But…?”

“But . . . Mom just grounded me for drinking at the formal party last night so now I can’t go.” He scuffed the toe of his Circa shoe against the marble stair and looked back up at me. I actually felt bad for the twerp.

“How about. . . You invite her to my party tonight?” I said with a smile before ruffling my brother’s hair. He scowled at me then smiled, shoving his book in his back pocket.

“Yeah, uh, that’d be awesome!” Brett gave me a quick hug and bounced off, nearly tripping on the stairs. Myranda finally followed after me and was busily texting on her cell phone. She glanced up when we entered the kitchen, looking over the plates of freshly made food by our chef, Hubert.

“So Sam just texted me.” She announced while grabbing a strawberry. She popped it into her mouth and waited for a reaction. When she didn’t get one, she continued. “He’s wondering why you aren’t answering your cell.” Dammit. I frowned and placed a pancake on my empty plate. I didn’t even know where my phone was in the first place.

“If he wants to talk to me then he can call my house phone or come here. Don’t let him know that I lost my phone, I want him to actually put an effort into this.” I replied tensely and watched my mother and Charlie enter the dining room. My mother, of course, looked perfect with her make-up and hair stylishly done.

I jammed a bite of pancake in my mouth as she came over to kiss the top of my head, making my blood boil. I hated how she tried to play the perfect mother act whenever my friends were around; we all know it was fake.

“So did you girls enjoy the party last night?” My mother asked while reaching for the smoothie the maid was holding out for her. She gave her a fake smile and sat down beside me, Charlie sitting across from her.

Myranda dropped a pancake on her own plate and drenched it in syrup before giving my mother an imitation smile.

“It was nice, I doubt that it’ll be half as good as the party Emma’s having tonight though.” Myranda gave me a wink. I knew there was a reason why I was friends with her.

My mother frowned. She didn’t really approve of my friendship with Myranda, she never has. I don’t exactly know why but she made mention of the words ‘Rude’ and ‘a bad influence’. The whole thing just made me want to be friends with her that much more.

“Oh, well I’m sure that Emma’s party will be more your style.” My mom said in that kind voice, even if her intention was snarky. Myranda scowled and chewed on her bite of pancake, glaring at my mother. Mind you, I was glaring at her too.

Chad entered the dining room, his dark hair looking as awful as mine does. He sat down next to Myranda and gave everyone a sleepy smile before reaching for food.

“I hope you don’t mind Emma but John Fox is bringing his family tonight.”

“John Fox?” I asked after swallowing a mouthful of food. “Who’s that?”

Another name, another person I really didn’t give a fuck about.

“Charlie’s co-worker.”

“You know, the one who kicked his son to the curb 2 years ago?” Myranda butted in, getting a look from my mother. She smiled, her mouth still filled with pancake. So much for Myranda’s angelic image.

Nothing rang a bell in my mind.

“Nope, don’t know him.”

Too bad I didn’t find out later on that I should have.