“So you now have a best friend? What’s her name again?” Olivia asked, staring at the ceiling. She was laying on her bed and I just barged in her room to tell her all about what had happened in the morning.
“Heather. Heather Ainsley. Her brother, Robert is Rachael’s husband and she’s my best friend I didn’t know of.”
“This just got a whole lot complicated,” Olivia murmured.
“Tell me about it. This is all because of you. If you wouldn’t have convinced me to act like their brat of a daughter.”
Olivia let out a tired sigh. “Let’s not go over this again.”
“What if this gets even more complicated? What will I do when all of Juliet’s family comes to visit all at once. I wouldn’t be able to keep up! Our lie would be caught. We’d be thrown out of here. Maybe we would even be handed over to the cops!”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Olivia jumped from the bed and ran towards me. “Slow down,” she said, grabbing my shoulders. “Nothing of that sort is going to happen. Do you get that?” She shook me and I pushed her away.
“How can you be so sure?”
“Just tell the mother that you aren’t ready to meet all of the relatives all at once. I’m sure she’ll understand.”
“No, she won’t. She would think I’m acting like a primitive person new to human civilization and afraid to interact with people, and that’s just ridiculous.”
“Fine. Go ahead and meet all of them at once then.” Olivia said, shrugging and walking towards the bed. She plopped herself down on it and closed her eyes.
“Olivia!”
She didn’t answer me. But I knew she didn’t fall asleep either.
“Olivia, I’m freaking out here!”
“Well I told you a simple way out of it but you’re not willing to do it so what can I possibly do?”
I didn’t answer her. There was still a chance to get away from all of this!
“How about we run away?”
“Nope, not happening. At least not so soon.”
“Olivia, we can’t live here forever. Let’s get out of here.”
“I’m not going.”
I stared at her, lying on the bed without a care in the world. I knew she knew for fact that I wouldn’t leave without her and she was taking full advantage of it.
“Olivia, please.”
“Juliet, no,” She mimicked me.
“Argh!” I groaned, running a hand through my hair. I was frustrated with her.
“Why are you doing this to me?”
“I’m sorry.”
Knowing that she wouldn’t give me any productive answers and would just frustrate the hell out of me, I got up from the carpeted floor where I was sitting and started to make my way out of her room.
“I hate you,” I muttered.
“I love you too,” she said before I closed the door behind me.
***
It was a little past six in the evening and no one was in the mansion. It made me feel as if everyone worked hard but Olivia and I wasted the whole day loafing around, which was the truth.
I walked around a bit in the mansion until I felt suffocated in there. The polished walls of the mansion seemed to cave in on me so I moved out of the mansion to get some fresh air.
Adjacent to the mansion was a big garden. I hadn’t been in the garden often but it was very large and beautiful.
There was even a small pond in the middle of it and it was the most beautiful sight I’d ever seen. I decided to come here often because the true beauty didn’t reside in the mansion, but here in mother nature.
There were rows and rows of tall tress of various kinds on one side of the garden and on the other side there was a flower valley with different kinds of flowers in full bloom.
I sat on a bench underneath a cherry blossom tree, just staring at the scenery in front of me. I didn’t allow my mind to think of anything, other than the beauty in front of me.
And I felt peaceful. Even if it was for a mere second, it was precious. In that little time all the things that had happened to me, the situation I was in seemed trivial. Distance really made even the biggest of problems seem small.
I smiled softly at nothing in particular and told myself that everything would turn out fine. And then I felt amazing. This garden seemed to be my personal heaven. I really loved it there.
After sitting like that for what felt like a long time, I heard leaves crunch behind me. I turned towards the sound and found someone right behind me.
“Boo!” They said, grabbing me by my shoulders. I jumped and yelped in fright, placing a hand on my heart as I felt it beat wildly in my chest.
I turned around to look at Keith who was looking at me with a goofy grin.
“You scared me!”
“That was what I intended to do.”
He came forward and sat down on the bench. I took my seat beside him.
“Why are you here?”
“I was looking for you. I didn’t find you anywhere inside so I thought you’d be here and indeed you were.”
“Why would you think I’d be here. I don’t visit this garden often.”
He shrugged and stuffed his hands in his jacket pockets. “You seem kind of a nature girl. I just had a feeling you’d be here.”
I nodded. “Why were you looking for me?”
“I’m going to try out a new recipe for dinner. Mrs. Jenson likes it when I try out new recipes because she loves everything I make and almost always the new recipes I make turn out delicious. So I just wanted to see if you wanted to learn it with me.”
“Oh, sure. I didn’t get to make anything in the kitchen today anyway so yeah, let’s go.”
I got up, waiting for him to do the same. But he just kept sitting while staring up at me curiously.
“What?”
“You know, sometimes I think it’s really not you. That who I’m with right now isn’t the real Juliet. You just seem very different. As if you aren’t really Juliet but a lookalike of her.”
I chuckled nervously, while pushing a strand of hair away from my face.? He? wouldn’t? believe? how? right? on? mark? he? was.
“Why would you think that? I am really me.”
“You were never this bubbly or… willing to befriend the cooks or maids. What happened to you in an year and a half? Before everything happened, you barely even looked my way. I don’t think you even knew my name back then.”
“People change, you know.”
“Guess they do.”
“Now come on,” I said, grabbing his arm and trying to pull him up, eager for a topic change. “Let’s go cook a storm in the kitchen!”