Taken and Misused.

I was back on the plane, how? I had no clue. As it flew through the sky it started to shake, people screamed as the plane took a nose dive.

“Elisabeth?”

Vaughn was here?

“Elisabeth, we’re here” Vaughn said.

Here? Was he talking about them dying? I felt the plane shake again and my eyes popped open.

A dream, a very traumatic dream that was definitely not going to help my aviophobia, I thought curtly.

My bright blue eyes focused on Vaughn as I rubbed the sleep from their corners.

“Good morning” he said with a wry grin on his lips.

“Morning” I murmured, earning another chuckle from Vaughn. I looked out the window to see a large, high class looking building. Of course, my parents never left me or my brother unspoiled. It was blasphemy in their eyes. The grand entrance didn’t impress me though, I’d seen so many of these upscale places to know that inside the rooms they were cold and lonely. The furniture that took up the space was always alien to me, I hadn’t bought it or grown up seeing it, to me these apartments were like hotel rooms. At least for the first month. When I’d first moved into one in France I had made my friend from dance class stay with me because every time I went to sleep I freaked out.

“Nice place” he observed, bringing me back from my memories.

“I guess” I said with obvious displeasure coating my tone as I smoothed my hair out. I noticed from the corner of my eyes that he was giving me a funny look.

“Were you expecting something more grand?” he asked, his previous happy demeanor gone and replaced with this condescending one.

“Excuse me?” I questioned, unsure of whether I had gotten the right meaning of what he had said.

He turned to look at me with a sigh, “you’re one of those spoiled brats that come here to have fun and do whatever you want” he said, “I’ve seen so many of you it’s easy to figure out who is and isn’t spoiled” he added, looking away from me. “I mean look at how you’re dressed, I bet that outfit could’ve fed a poor family for two months” he commented, gesturing at the expensive designer clothing I was wearing. All things my mother had given me and insisted I wear.

One of the valet men was waiting by my door; another was behind him to gather my bags. Vaughn popped the trunk of his car and the two men went to get the bags. I opened my door and a gust of cold air rushed in making me shiver. “Well, I’ll have you know that I am not a spoiled brat, but I’ll make an assumption of you..” I said, pausing when he snorted in amusement and shook his head.

“Lets hear it” he provoked.

“You’re a judgmental person who thinks he knows everything” I said, stepping out of the car and shutting the door firmly behind me, cutting of his retort. Once the valet had finished getting my bags they shut the trunk and Vaughn sped off.

“Umm, hello miss, welcome to the Shafto Malore” one of them said, his confused frown at the speeding off Vaughn had just done changing to a warm smile.

“Thank you” I said, pulling myself together, no need to be snappy at the nice valet men. They led me into the hotel where they gave my bags to a man with a luggage cart. He followed me to the front desk.

“Hello miss, how can I help you?” the lady standing behind the front desk asked with a warm smile. More fake smiles, I thought bitterly.

“Yes, I’m here to retrieve my key, my name is Elisabeth Jezeste De Maur” I said, she asked me to spell it. No surprise there. I smiled and spelled the whole thing out for her. My mother had baught this apartment for me very last minute, dishing out all of the money had been no problem even though I had said it didn’t have to be so fancy. It had been arranged that I would just pick up my key when I arrived.

“ Here you are Miss De Maur” the woman said, mispronouncing my last name slightly but it was hard to without knowing French. Just like trying to speak German was troublesome unless you had the accent and knew how to pronounce each letter. That had been a lesson I had learned while learning how to speak English.

I thanked her and the man with my luggage led me to the elevators, he made small talk with me and I just nodded, adding in a yes or no when it was needed. My thoughts, however, were not on this conversation. They were on the conversation, or rather, argument I had had with Vaughn in the car. I couldn’t believe how he had assumed that so quickly, just because I wasn’t so thrilled about living in a giant, empty apartment. Of course he couldn’t have known I didn’t like big fancy things, most people would be ecstatic to be living here. But still, I was mad at him, him and his stupid mustang and stupid perfectly messy hair.

I brought myself out of my thoughts when we stopped at my door, there was another door far down the hallway so I could already guess this place was huge. I pulled my wallet out of my purse and gave the man a large tip, hopefully making up for the horrible company I had been to him in the elevator. He smiled and left with a warm "thank you miss."

Turning back to my door I pulled out my key and pulled my luggage cart into my new apartment, closing the door behind me. It was magnificent of course, but it wasn’t warm and cozy. It was extremely modern and cold, my heels clicked on the marble tile as I walked to the wall with a large window spanning the entire wall, it overlooked the busy city and all of the lights. That was probably the only thing she liked about this new home of hers, the view.

A beep sounded from a black phone setting on the counter in the kitchen, I went over to it, dropping my bag onto the white leather sofa. When I got to the phone I saw it had one new voicemail. I picked up the phone and pressed the button to let me listen to it.

“How do you like your new apartment?” Jacueline gushed. “We’re sending a few more things over but don’t worry, the decorators will take care of it. We’re missing you already, please call me so I know you got back from the airport in one piece, you haven’t answered you phone”

I leaned against the counter as someone else took the phone from Jacqueline, it was my father this time.

“Hey honey, I hope you’re in one piece, I’m sure you’re going to like what we’re sending you, well, what I’m sending you” this was followed with a small chuckle, nothing like the ones he’d had before my mom died. “Anyways, don’t get into any trouble, not everyone is nice Elisabeth” he warned, that had been something he had worked hard on implanting into my head. In France I had only been exposed to nice people, nice nannies, doctors, private tutors, dance instructors (although in their case they were strict, borderline mean). In New York he had said, people aren’t going to baby you. What I registered is that only the people we paid could be considered as nice, only because they were getting money from us. You don’t bite the hand that feeds you.

The message continued after a short pause, this time my step-mom was speaking. “Well, call us when you can, and don’t forget you have your first class tomorrow at 2:30 in the afternoon, and this time I’ve made sure to arrange a car to pick you up” I heard my father mumble something that sounded like “hopefully” before Jacqueline’s voice rushed back into the phone. “So get some sleep honey, bye!”

I put the phone back down when the message beeped to an end. Now annoyed and sad. I was annoyed with Vaughn and sad at the realization I missed France and my dad, no matter how little attention he gave me.

I walked down a hallway that led away from the main room, it led to a large bathroom with a huge Victorian tub and a shower with a whole wall devoted to a mirror. There was also a room that looked like it was supposed to be a large open office but the only thing that occupied it was a ceiling to floor, wall to wall mirror and the hard wood floors were polished to a shine. It was my own dance studio, I actually liked this. I kept walking though, I was tired and wanted to find my bedroom.

Across the hall I found it and I knew immediately my dad had designed it. A large four poster canopy bed occupied the middle, with sheer curtains of vintage lace hanging down over the sides. A large vanity sat on one side of the room and another door led to a walk in closet that could have doubled as a spare bedroom. All of it was warm browns and deep reds. I smiled as I felt more at home.

I went back to my bags by the front door and brought them to my room, unzipping the duffle bag and grabbing my toiletries bag and my pajamas before returning to the bathroom for a shower and to brush my teeth. I shuffled back into my room, clad in a silk button up shirt and underwear, and crawled into my satin sheets, falling asleep immediately.