Smile

19.
Jonathan felt his body freeze after the words ‘I killed my family’ left the plump lips of his girlfriend. He thought there was just like a fire or maybe she got pregnant but nothing heavy as that. Jonathan decided that it would be best for her to finish before he would go over there and comfort her. But it killed him that she was now sobbing and he wasn’t there making everything better.

flashback...
“Do you need anything?” Arabella asked going to each one of her family members. It was a Friday the 12th of April and they were currently staying at their newly bought apartment in London, England. Since the family travels to England so much they finally decided to get an apartment in London instead of staying in a hotel.

“Be careful, princesse.” Pierre warned his daughter as she stood in front of him dressed in her favorite trench coat. Arabella was his eldest daughter and secretly his most favorite. As a parent the whole line ‘I don’t have favorites’ isn’t really true every parent has their favorite. But some parents hid it better than others, Pierre was one of those parents who hid it extremely well.

Pierre and Lillian had three wonderful healthy children and a fairly young age. At the young age of 25 Lillian gave birth to her eldest child, Laurent who was the spitting image of his father. Laurent had the jet black hair, emerald eyes, and the french charm. Three years later Lillian gave birth to their second child Arabella. She was the blonde bombshell, deep blue eyes, and built like a ballerina just like her mother. The next year Lillian gave birth to their third and final child Sophia. Sophia had the jet black hair, ocean blue eyes, but was towards the loner type.

“Always am, papa.” Arabella said as she walked out of his office and headed to the foyer. They bought the entire floor so Arabella didn’t lock the door as she left the apartment. The apartment wasn’t a huge skyscrapers in New York but like the couple floor ones in France. It was a fairly old building but brand new interior.

“Oh here.” Arabella said holding the door open for a pair of burly guys. They were heavily built and as they walked past Arabella she felt a shiver down her spine, this shiver wasn’t a good one. The guys didn’t say anything but grunt and walk in the building.

Arabella needed to clear her head before she performed tomorrow. She had a ballet recital on Saturday night and with landing the lead role there has been a lot of drama. This Russian girl desperately wanted the spot thinking she was the best out of everyone at the audition. When it was announced that Arabella had gotten the role this girl threw a fit. Started drama, rumors, and had threaten Arabella countless times. As the date approached the threats had gotten worse; the last words that the russian girl uttered to Arabella was “You’ll never perform”

After walking around for about half an hour Arabella finally decided to head back to the apartment. With her coffee in hand and a few treats for her family she headed back. As the apartment came into a view a few blocks away she saw police speeding off to the apartment. This didn’t settle with Arabella so she started to run to the apartment.

The front was covered with yellow caution tape and the other people living in the apartment standing outside. Their faces were laced with concern as they saw the blonde girl running to where they were. The concerned faces turned to hurt as they saw the distraught in the blonde girls face as the police held her back. “Let me go.” Arabella sobbed into the police officers chest.

Four body bags were taken out of the apartment and were loaded into the awaiting ambulances. Arabella was escorted into a police car and headed off to the hospital where she would make a call to Martin. Arabella was into much shock to give any details than get your ass in London now to Martin. Martin skipped the rest of his classes that day and sped his way to the airport where a private jet was waiting for him.

“I’m sorry ma’m we did everything to revive them but it was to late.” The doctor said breaking the girls heart. Arabella lost all will power to stand and collapsed on the ground not before Martin could catch her. He was sweating and breathing heavy but thats what happens when the cab is stuck in traffic so you run to the hospital. Martin didn’t know the story of anything that happened but all he knew was that Arabella needed him.

“What happened?” Martin asked the police officer that stayed with Arabella until the doctors told her about the condition of her parents. The police officer explained to Martin that two Russian assassins stormed into the apartment demanding Arabella to drop out of the performance. When her parents told them never the men went ahead and shot each family member.

Arabella was pulled into questioning, not because they thought she killed her parents but because they wanted to catch these guys. The detectives started to ask question after question and after each question Arabella got the idea that this was her fault. That her parents wouldn’t have died if she just dropped out. Halfway through a question the a police officer came in telling the detective that Arabella had a voicemail.

Hi Princesse, your mother, brother and sister just wanted you to know that never give up in life. That we are so proud of you bebe and that you should never ever forget that. You should also never ever forget how much we love you. These men are going to do something bad to us Arabella but I don’t want you doing anything rash to yourself over this. I have to go princesse, I love you. BANG. BANG. Two gun shots were shot then the phone went silent.

The next two weeks was crazy for Arabella and her grandparents. They had to plan the funeral arrangements, go to court and on top of all of this Arabella still had to go to school. It was one of the hardest thing ever for Arabella was to receive the pity looks from her fellow classmates. But the hardest thing for Arabella was definitely going to court.

In court the lawyer for the Russian pinned the whole murder on Arabella. Saying things like if it wasn’t for her the guys would have never made it up to the apartment. Arabella let the guys into the apartment building, and on top of it she left the apartment door open. Meaning it could have been anyone to go into the apartment and kill her family. Arabella also didn’t take the death threats seriously by reporting them to the police putting her family in more harms way. “I hope you understand the pain you’ve caused.” Arabella spit out at the Russian guys as they were found guilty and given life-time sentence in jail.

“Why did you guys leave me?” Arabella whispered as she watched her family being lowered into the vault. The funeral just ended and now she was watching her family along with about a dozen other people. Martin was standing next to Arabella, he was like a son to the Clare family.

After Arabella graduated school, she declined the offer from Juilliard, packed her bags, and headed off to the house in Nice. Arabella shut her phone off, left her computer and didn’t want anything to do with the world. The media was hounding Arabella after they found out that her family passed away. It was all over Europe that the famous wine family lost the important members.

A whole year passed and Arabella didn’t take one step out of the Nice house. She didn’t want to go back to the real world, the world with pain. Arabella just wanted to stay in the bedroom of her parents. It was the room she always ran to when something was wrong, when she had a nightmare, maybe thats why Arabella slept in her parents bed. She wanted to wake up from the nightmare she called life.

“I had enough of this, you left the world because you didn’t want pity. But you doing exactly that, you’re pitying yourself. It’s time to move on.” Martin said walking into the room of his best friend’s parents. He was tired of not hearing from Arabella, he was tired of worrying about her. Martin knew that staying in a house for an entire year couldn’t be good for someone. He knew that she thought about killing herself but knew that she wouldn’t do anything stupid.

“Leave me alone.” A tear stained face girl said waving Martin away. He sighed picked her up swinging her on his shoulder and went out back of the house. Martin noticed that Ara felt lighter than usual, her being a vegetarian made her skinny, her being a ballerina made her skinner but she had muscle. Now it just felt like she had skin and bones.

Martin dropped her off in the middle of the yard jogged back to the water system and turned on the sprinklers. Arabella immediately sat up as she felt the sprinklers hit her dry skin. Standing up as she tried to make a get away didn’t work, Martin just tackled her to the ground. Hovering over her, he started his speech.

“You’re being ridiculous Ara, what you are doing is unhealthy for you. What would your family say if they could tell you right now, huh? I can tell you this, they wouldn’t be happy. Ara stop hurting yourself, you need to be here for your grandparents, you need to be here for me. You aren’t the only one hurting here, I lost the people like my parents, I lost my best friends, and I lost you. Your grandparents lost their eldest son, their favorite daughter in-law, their grandson and granddaughter. Stop it Arabella, please come back to Paris for the summer, come back to your family, come back to me.” Martin pleaded with Arabella. After he finished Arabella noticed that the water falling down Martin’s face wasn’t the water from the sprinklers, it was tears. Martin was crying.

That moment changed the lives of Arabella and Martin forever. It brought them closer than before. Now instead of Martin just being her brothers best friend he was the one going through pain just like Arabella.
end of flashback...

Jonathan stood in shock again. If Arabella told him anything else he was sure that he would have a heart attack. He couldn’t fathom what it would be like to have your family taken away from you like that. Jonathan slowly walked over to where Arabella was now sobbing her forehead touching the cool glass widow wall in Jonathan’s living room.

Now that moment when Arabella opened up to Jonathan closer than before. She opened up, something she never thought she could have done. Now Jonathan wasn’t just her boyfriend. Instantly Jonathan became the boyfriend Arabella fell in love with.