“Jeffrey?… I’ve known since like forever. She’s my sister. So it’s no big deal.” He shrugged and she breathed out.
Sometimes, Elva forgot they were twins.
“If you’re VIP, you might wanna follow me back stage. ‘ Cause they’re gonna kick them out when practice starts. Too much noise.” He updated. Elva looked around and nodded in agreement.
Before she could register the speed of the moment, Elva’s right hand was swooped into Ricky’s left as he pulled her somewhere at the other end of the theatre.
The popular hottie, pausing every time to throw greetings around didn’t favour Elva because it gave the female casts a lot of time to stare and glare maliciously.
Teenagers will never change! Became her new theory.
If they could act that way with her, then how’ld they act with Nicky who was gonna pretty much kiss one of their favourite crushes repeatedly in their faces??
Elva suddenly grew grateful for herself and pitiful towards her friend.
FINALLY, they got backstage where multiple legs kept walking, skipping, jogging, sprinting and running around.
“Elva!” A particular one screeched and angrily stomped over. Elva turned to see Nicky.
“You’re two minutes fifty eight, oh no, fifty nine seconds late!” She heatedly accused.
Elva looked her over and almost chuckled.
“What’s so funny?” The strawberry blonde seethed.
“No, no. You just look… look… look-ey?”
Elva was speechless staring at Nicky’s costume. She was putting on some ancient dress and had her hair styled somehow funny.
She looked like a nobleman’s daughter and the scripts she nervously squeezed looked like a hand fan!
Ha!
“Stop that!” She exploded, hitting Ricky with the scripts because he was the first to start laughing. The moment Elva started giggling, Nicky turned to her with a deadly scowl and she choked on it.
“Gosh I’m a nervous freak right now, El! I’ve been trying for hours to memorise some of these thou, art, thoust, thyst or whatever and it’s all because of him! I can’t concen…”
Speaking of concentration, Elva drifted off when Selena sashayed over and connected her lips with Ricky’s. She pulled away and intimately whispered something to his ears with her arms around him.
Elva couldn’t breathe. Oxygen seized in her chest and a hurt spread across her body.
The hurt hit harder when she noticed Ricky’s initial indifference to the kiss and the happy grin he wore later on, obviously enjoying whatever she said.
“Hey, are you alright?? You look pale all of a sudden.” Nicky noticed.
Elva forced a nod and allowed herself to be pulled away from the crowd to Nicky’s dressing room.
They entered a corridor which had several doors on both sides for each character in the play. Judging by how classy they looked, you’ld think superstars were behind each door!
Beverly Hills Academy??
“….”
As they walked past a random door which was slightly closed, Nicky suddenly halted making Elva almost bump into her!
Then Nicky took two steps backwards before facing the door. Elva who was bewildered by her strange behavior glanced at the door tag to see who occupied it.
It belonged to Jeffrey.
Then why was she acting pale instead of being giddy?? She wondered and walked over as well.
Elva looked into the room and saw a shirtless Jeffrey without shoes on, smiling at some girl in an armless dress he was clinging to.
The girl seemed to enjoy the hug because she also had her arms tight around him, hugging him back!
Elva gasped. Nicky shouldn’t be seeing this!
Suddenly, whereas Elva’s hand was warm, Nicky’s became cold and shaky.
Elva looked back to assure her it was probably nothing but stopped when she saw her cheeks already flooded with painful tears…
****
Natalia was done cooking.
She didn’t bother changing her clothes because she was too excited. She took the food basket out and Jake drove to the hospital.
For some reason, she felt butterflies at the pit of her stomach and blushed repeatedly. To recompose herself, the Princess took her gaze to the windshield and stared at the beautiful streets and buildings they passed by.
Beverly Hills…. A place she fell in love with in weeks.
Or the person in it.
As Natalia took her gaze away, she spotted a particular building which had ‘Deluxe creme’ written on it with pictures of chocolates moving on the projecting screen.
Her dreamy eyes popped out as she told Jake to pull up. Jake obeyed and like a bee drawn towards honey, Natalia walked into the large store where rows and rows of hundreds of different types of chocolates were professionally displayed!
An attendant warmly welcomed the duo and gave them a tour. She showed them some of the chocolates, their meanings, what special ingredient they were made of and gave them a tasting of each!
After the tour, she left them to decide which to buy and joined her fellow colleagues in welcoming more customers.
Natalia felt like VIP!
A lot of people crowded the store so she concluded they were really good. Still clueless about the perfect thank you for saving my life at your expense gift for Arian, Natalia kept walking around while Jake tried to help as usual.
“How about this one? It looks really nice.” He pointed at a random box of chocolate in a show glass.
“Nah, I dunno. It looks so cliché.” She murmured disagreeably.
“Well, aren’t they all.” He teased.
“Hey!” She laughed and playfully scowled at him, making him smile too.
“Natalia?” A vague, elegant voice called. Natalia turned and her grin increased.
“Mom Rose! How are you?” She beamed as she was pulled into a motherly hug.
“Tommy!” She squeaked again as little Tommy De’ argent gingerly rushed into her arms. Jake politely smiled at them before resuming the ‘non-cliché’ chocolate hunt.
If that was possible.
“Honey, I’m fine and you?” Mom Rose smiled. Natalia positively nodded.
“You came for some chocolates?”
The Princess nodded again, not knowing how to explain how lost she was all because of her son!
“I was on my way to the hospital and dropped by to get a box of mine. But I really don’t know which to pick. They’re all so good!” She helplessly looked around.
Mom Rose gave a knowing smile before leading her somewhere. Natalia excused herself from Jake and merrily tagged along.
The little fox held her hand as Mom Rose elegantly led them to a special, obscure room which had different boxes of chocolates. Natalia swallowed a gasp seeing how exquisite and delicate they all looked!
A part of her suddenly wondered how Mom Rose had access in there.
Mrs De’Argent stopped at a particular display stand which held only a single box. The box had all the flavours of chocolates and even some alien combinations!
“….” The Princess gawked in wonder.
“So… He’s your friend?” Mom Rose casually asked, fumbling with the delicate lid of the show glass.
Somehow, Natalia could feel the importance of the answer.
“Jake? Yeah, we’re friends.” She innocently smiled it off.
Natalia didn’t see any of her workers as just her employees. In order to be free with each other, she considered everyone of them as friends.
But surprisingly, the smile Mom Rose returned was brighter than hers.
She clicked her fingers and an attendant subserviently appeared by her side in an instant. Mom Rose ordered her to package the multi-flavored box. The lady quickly did as instructed and respectfully handed it to Natalia.
Mom Rose stopped the Princess from paying when she wanted to. She hugged her and quickly walked away before Natalia could politely decline judging from how expensive it looked.
Tommy held the classy little bag and insisted on following Natalia to the hospital. So they left.
When they got to Arian’s ward, Tommy immediately rushed to a couch and owned it, before continuing the video game he was playing on her phone.
Natalia looked around and puckered her brows in confusion. No one else was in.
And so was Arian!
****
Nicky drew her knees to her chest, hugging herself while Elva was crouched near her, pulling her closer.
Since the past ten minutes, Elva had been hugging her trying to justify Jeffrey.
But Nicky was more broken than ever.
After the scene at the corridor, she’d run away and flung her scripts the moment she got into her dressing room. Her delicate dress was rumpled and her face was red from too much crying but she didn’t care.
Suddenly, the door bursted open and a smiley Ricky walked in. Elva groaned in fear and slightly panicked.
“Yo, Nick! Ready for…. what the hell’s going on here?!” He yelled and rushed over.
Nicky looked up after hearing his voice and waited for his hug.
“R.. Rick.. Ricky.” She choked out more tears. Ricky hugged her tightly and placed a soothing kiss on her head.
“Hey, Shhh. It’s okay.” He softly cooed then turned to Elva.
“Who did this to her?” He snarled as a cold killing intent flashed across his eyes…
Chapter 44