Whispers

Trystan chewed on her lip, scanning through the various articles of clothing in her closet. It was extremely difficult to chose anything that looked right. She had to look classy, but not like she was pretending. She had to look nice, but still look like herself. Which was a whole bunch of confliction fashion ideas, in her eyes.

Louis had informed Trystan three days prior that his parents requested he bring his newest girlfriend to dinner. They wanted to meet her and they did not want him to ‘hide her from them, for Christ’s sake.’ Louis had transferred his mother’s words verbatim.

Though she lived with Rae in a very large house with very nice things, Trystan’s closet was not extensive or near as nice looking as that of her flat mate’s. In fact, most of the pieces of clothing that had come with expensive tags had been Rae’s gift to her for various occasions and Holidays.

Coming from a divorced family with normal income, Trystan had not been spoiled. She had always had just what she needed and not an ounce more, and that was fine. But it made her nervous, when she was going to a home that was extremely grand in size and décor.

Having seen Louis’ home at many of times, Trystan knew he had money. His father was the CEO of British Petroleum, a steadfast business man who his son worked for, and who was following his footsteps happily. So with that being said, Trystan could only imagine what his parents house looked like. They seemed like the stately type.

A soft rap on her door made her peek her head out of her closet. Standing in running shorts and a sports bra, Rae waved her hand. Harry walked pass, just in track shorts and shoes, going towards Rae’s shower. “Hey, just letting you know I’m home. You picking out something to wear?”

“Attempting.” Trystan turned back to her closet, sighing and crossing her arms over her chest. Again, she went up and down the colorful rows of dresses, trying to find one that even remotely looked appropriate. “Tell me, why is it so difficult to pick a dress?”

“Hmm, probably because you should just borrow one of mine.”

“I’m taller than you.”

Rae’s voice was down the hall when she answered, “So borrow a long one. Come on, Trys.”

Hesitating a few minutes, Trystan shut off the light to the walk-in closet, shutting folding door shut and crossing out of the carpeted room to Rae’s down the hall, in which Rae already flicked the light on, opening the closet door and gesturing to it.

The sound of the shower turning on in the bathroom signaled that Harry was already going for a shower. “Don’t come out here," Trystan called loudly over the sound of the running behind the closed door. “I don’t want to get Lasik.”

She heard his laugh on the other side. “With my amazing body, it’ll be the same as Lasik.”

“Yuck.”

Rae’s closet even smelled nice as Trystan walked in, flicking through the dresses that went on for days. Rae was a pretty simple person and rarely had crazy expensive clothes- she just had a lot more to chose from than most people, which came in handy more than once.

“Wear something with blue,” Rae called from her room. Her voice sounded strained so Trystan glanced over her shoulder to find Rae doing pushups. She wasn’t even looking at Trystan and she was guiding her around the closet like a proper know-it-all. It made Trys smile. “Blue looks good on you- oh my god, I feel the burn.”

“Why are you working out so intensely.”

“So I look sexy naked.”

“You do!” Harry shouted from the shower. Apparently the lad had the hearing of a bat, because there was no way Trystan would have ever heard that over the running shower. “Promise!”

Turning her back, she knew Rae was rolling her eyes. Because Rae color-coded her closet, it was easy to find the section of blue. Trystan’s eyes landed on a particular dressed, pulling it out by the hanger and looking at it with appreciation.

“Knew you’d pick that one.” Rae was leaning against the frame of the door, covered in a light layer of sweat and breathing hard. Trystan grinned at her, shrugging and shooing Rae out of the way. The shorter girl complied, gesturing with her hands as if to signify that Trystan were royalty. “Let me know if you need jewelry, hair stuff, vodka, condoms.”

“You’re impossible.”

“Nothing’s impossible.”

Back in her room, Trystan got dressed, pulling her hair into a sleek, elegant pony-tail and working hard to get her makeup to look clean and nice, with thick liner on her eyes and blushed cheeks. It was obvious she was trying, and she hoped it came off as a compliment and not as desperate.

When she was done, she stuck her head in to talk to Rae, but found that she was not in her room, and that the shower was running still. Making a face Trystan hurried from the room, shutting the door behind her before she could see or hear something that she did not want to hear.

Making her way down the steps, she checked her watch. But it didn’t matter, because when she got down the steps Louis knocked on her door, ahead of time, which was unusual. It just made her more nervous, especially when she opened her door to see him doing an anxious bounce as he waited.

Louis was dressed in dark jeans, a button up shirt and a warm jacket pulled over to fight the growing cold. In that split second that he stood there in the dying grey light of day, he looked like some sort of arch angle, his hair wind blown, bowed down slightly with his hands in his pocket. His eyes looked up at her, bluer than the Aegean sea, crinkling when he smiled.

“Hi.”

“Hello,” she said shyly. She cringed at her own tone. Shyness did not suit her voice well, so she cleared it, gesturing inside. “I’ll just get my coat.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Trystan grabbed a coat and walked back out the door, shutting it behind her as she joined Louis on the porch. He kissed her cheek lightly, his stubble tickling her face as they walked down the steps. “You look amazing,” he murmured, bumping her with his shoulder. “It’s nice to see you in a dress.”

“As opposed to what? Being naked?”

He laughed. “On the contrary, your birthday suit is my favorite.”

Any fears that Trystan had about Louis acting different washed away as they got into his car, hands linking with his. Louis was still Louis, and that wasn’t going to change. It put her racing heart at ease as they drove to his parents home, the lights of the city passing them by.

The farther they went into living communities, the larger the houses seemed to get. It was a subtle change at first, but then Trystan’s eyes snatched the trend, the houses become increasingly large in scale and off the charts in grandeur.

Sitting a little straighter, she looked out the window at the three and four story building homes that were on the further parts of the city, the houses too large to fit in the heart of the city. The mansions looked a lot like the houses she used to dream about when she was little, when all little kids wanted to live in a castle sized home.

Louis pulled into a three story home, the entire yard lit up with twinkling garden lights. The drive way was circular and looked like marble, a huge fountain with Pegasus in the middle. It was strange, but beautifully strange.

Parking in the round about, Trystan glanced up the steps that were ornately cut, leading to two large wooden doors, two birds intricately carved into the doors. Two old fashion iron door-knockers were set into the heavy wood. When Trystan got out and walked up the steps, she saw they were of fine craftsman ship. Or what she assumed to be.

“Don’t you have those birds tattooed on you?” Louis glanced at the door and grinned. “On your wrist?”

“Yep, it’s a Tomlinson thing.”

“Ah.”

For a moment Trystan thought they were going to use one of the huge, heavy looking knockers, but Louis opened the door, letting himself and her in and out of the cold, right into the grand foyer which was more than grand. In fact, Trystan instantly felt like she should turn around and walk right back outside and roll around in the mud.

The tiled floor shown like a diamond, reflecting the huge, ornate chandelier that hung from a very high, arched ceiling. A huge, white staircase was set in the side of the wall, winding to the second floor and then to the third as well. The entire rail was carved wood, depicting vines and birds.

Eyes wide, Trystan looked at Louis. It was the nicest foyer she had ever stepped foot in, and it was make her feel tiny, like a mouse trapped in the lions den. Or more specifically, the birds cage. Either way, the blonde girl was the prey, and his parents were clearly going to be the predators.

Out of the hall on the left hand side, Trystan spotted Louis’ mother instantly. She had seen her once before when Louis and his parents came to the place she worked at. She was the same statuesque woman with dark hair and very blue eyes, smiling at them.

Opening her arms to Louis, his mother kissed him on the cheek and hugged him fondly. “Louis, dear, good to see you.” She turned to Trystan, smiling amiably. Trystan saw no hint of arrogance or elite-attitude. It made her grin in relief. “And you must be Trystan?”

“Yes ma’am,” she answered smoothly, holding out her hand and shaking her hand. Louis’ mother was gorgeous, and up close she could see that Louis had her eyes and her cheekbones. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. You’re home is absolutely gorgeous.”

She smiled, smoothing her dress. “Thank you, it’s wonderful to meet you.”

“Come, dinner has just been set out, your father is in the dining room already.”

As Mrs. Tomlinson moved through the door way, leading them, Trystan couldn’t help but cock her head to the side, glancing the woman up and down. She wondered where her matching bird tattoo with her son was. As if he knew what she was thinking, Louis leaned over and whispered, “It’s very small, on her shoulder blade. She covers it, mostly.”

Trystan nodded in understanding.

Brightly lit and in a white room with blue and crème accents, Trystan was no disappointed by the dining room. The table was beautiful and you could tell that it was one of those tables that could be extended to fit a much larger crowd. At the moment, beautiful glass plates were set out, food of many variations all in the middle.

From the way that it smelled, Trystan guessed that it was Mediterranean, and it looked splendid to go with a splendid room. It was intimidating, but not as much as Louis father was. Tall, dark and handsome, like his son, he stood to shake hands with Louis and with Trystan.

“Good to meet you, Trystan.”

“And you as well, Mr. Tomlinson.”

He smiled, clearly liking the formality in which she spoke with. Speaking formally was alien to her and it felt like she was forming and shaping words that she did not know how to get out. But she did it all the same, trying not to cringe at how stupid she thought that she sounded.

Sitting down across from Louis with both his parents at the head of the table, she smiled, trying to quiet her fluttering heart. Quiet quickly they asked Louis how he was and things about his life before the moved onto the topic of Trystan, what her likes were, how she was raised.

“What are you studying?”

“Communications,” she informed, neatly cutting a piece of chicken. Louis was suddenly watching her very carefully, and if all eyes had not been on her, she would have cocked an eyebrow in question at him. His gaze made her uneasy. “I’m not sure what I would like to do with it, but I think that I may want to go into public relations. I don’t know.”

His father raised his brows. “You don’t know what you want to do?”

Trystan, who had been chewing, slowly started to slow her chewing. It was the way in which he asked the question that began to set off alarms and warnings in Trystan’s brain. Less was more. She needed to say less, because it was obvious that she had just said something that did not fit. Louis looked away. “I mean, I do,” she corrected, trying to sound confident. “I just want to make sure that it’s a correct fit for my personality.”

“I understand,” his mother said, nodding and looking at her. Her smile suddenly didn’t seem friendly anymore. It seemed loaded, and that scared Trystan. “You wouldn’t want to work above your field- or below it, of course. Are you employed now?”

“Yes,” Trystan said mildly, nodding and smiling. She was starting to panic, and Louis wasn’t looking at her. It was beginning to worry her that she was saying the wrong things. “I work to pay for my classes, though my parents pay a portion as well. I believe in supporting myself.”

Everyone was quiet as they ate their food. Trystan glanced at Louis again, who threw a glance at her. She wasn’t sure how, but it looked like an apology. That was when she knew that this was about to go down hill, just when she thought she had said the right thing. “Are you interning?”

She looked at Mrs. Tomlinson and almost lied. Right there and then, she almost said yes, and almost made up a company that she was interning at. But then she remembered a long time ago, when Rae had told Trystan she needed to be herself, and things would fall into place. “No,” she said quietly, smiling down at her plate. It wasn’t a happy smile. It was a complacent, but not happy. “I work at Virgilio’s to pay for classes, as a hostess. I have for about a year. It’s good money, and I learn to talk to people.”

“Ah.” Mrs. Tomlinson suddenly did not seem so impressed as she had when Trystan walked in the door. She looked at Trystan almost sympathetically, as if to say that Trystan cleaned up nice, but she was still a common girl in a high class world. “Working at a restaurant is nothing to be ashamed of.”

“Who said I was ashamed?”

Awkward silence filled the room and Trystan shot Louis a glance, begging for help. She avidly waited for him to speak up, to say something. But Louis had fixed himself into silence, not saying a thing. Trystan was at a loss of what to do.

And she was continually in a loss of what to do the rest of the dinner. It was obvious in the way they talked to her and the way that they ignored her at some points of the conversation that they thought less of Trystan, that she had done the wrong thing by talking about herself.

In life, Trystan had learned that sometimes giving too much information on yourself got you in trouble, whether because someone was crazy and wanted to use the information to hurt you. Other’s laughed at it and used it to talk about you.

It was obvious to Trystan now that she had spoken too often and dug herself in a whole. What had she actually thought? Of course they weren’t going to like a girl who worked as a hostess for a living with no clear and cut direction of what she wanted to do with her life.

When the dinner was over, Trystan could not escape fast enough. The pointed looks and the words spoken down on her made her feel like she used to, like she was nothing. And Louis had never spoken a word in her defense, had not spoken a word about the way that they talked to her.

Dating, Trystan had never felt good enough for any of her boyfriends. They had always made it clear that she was not worth the time and strain of relationship. Something about Trystan just threw everyone off. She just wanted to matter to someone enough that they loved her.

“Trystan.” It was the first thing Louis said when they got in the car, but she was glaring out the window. He hadn’t even cared enough to tell them that she wasn’t as worthless and under class as they had made her out to be.

“Just take me home.”

“Trys-"

“The funny thing is,” she said loudly, as if she were talking to herself. “Is that as a person, you think good things about yourself, and then you walk into a situation, and everything wipes that out. You walk in head high and come out being told to keep your head down.”

“I’m sorry-"
“You didn’t say a word! Not a word, Louis!”

“I know.”

“Well I don’t! Take me home and shut up. I don’t want to feel any less about myself than I already do.”

So he drove.